Not quite par, but the tea is nice

As I noted last month, there were only 5 cafe nights in July. I got out only one other day during the month, and that was shopping on Sunday, 18th. So, another month on, I'm slightly further behind my goal, with my average having slipped because I got out only 6 times in 31 days. At least August again has 6 cafe nights, so assuming that I make it to all the cafe nights, one extra outing would improve my average. Sadly, other commitments guarantee no weekend outings for the next couple of weeks, and work makes it virtually impossible on weekdays.

The shopping outing was somewhat odd, as I went to 4 different shopping centres and bought something at each, but none were really girly things. The first was Charlestown Square, where I bought a L'Oreal Lash growth serum to replace the one that I've now finished. Having wandered around a bit, I didn't find anything else that I wanted to buy, and continued on to Westfield Kotara. There, I remembered some comments that my friends Christina and Linda had made about a shop that specialises in tea. Hundreds of varieties of tea from all over the world.

Years ago, I used to go to a Turkish restaurant (which has long since closed) and had found the apple tea there very nice. So, when I saw the tea shop in Kotara, I went in and asked about Turkish apple tea. It turns out that they had it in stock. I've been having some almost every day since, and my wife has been having some too, although I'm not certain how often. The only downside is that when I drink the tea, I keep wanting a pidda (turkish pizza) to go with it. :)

On the way home from Kotara, I decided that I'd drop by the new Woolworths at Cardiff and grab some groceries. I got a few things, but one of the main things that I was after was out of stock. When I got home, I was informed that we needed some more stuff from Woolies, so I went out to Woolies Glendale to do yet more shopping.

I was amazed how busy Glendale was at about 5pm Sunday! Woolies there was far busier than the newer one at Cardiff. I got the handful of items that I was after and headed back home.

I had a very nice op shop find in boy mode on Wednesday, 28th. I bought a 3/4 sleeve wrap dress at the local Samaritans store. It's dark brown with thick squiggly lighter brown writing all over it. It was $7, with the original (new) tag being still on it. I expect to wear it to a cafe night within the next week or two. :)

I had hoped to go out again on Saturday, 31st. I even did my nails in a dark chocolate brown polish on Friday night in preparation. My plan was to go to a few of the better stocked local op shops then to Charlestown Square, but the combination of a few things prevented that.

The main problem is that over the past few years, I have developed a sleep pattern problem. At different times in my life, I've managed to operate everywhere between getting to bed by 10pm and getting up at 6am and, mostly during uni holidays, getting to bed after 4am and getting up at noon. Sadly, my current pattern is closer to the latter than I'd like. If I get to bed before 1am I consider it to be an early night. Between 2 and 3 is more typical. Some weekends that even slips to 4am occasionally. During the week, I have to push myself to get up with sufficient time to prepare for work but at weekends I tend to sleep in well into the morning. Getting up at 10am or later doesn't really work for going out shopping when it takes over 2 hours for breakfast, makeup and getting dressed.

The rest of the problems with getting out on Saturday related to my inability to find an outfit that I was entirely happy with that would be convenient for trying other clothes on at op shops, and normal household things that demanded my time, which I would have ignored if I had been actually preparing to go out.

In late June, I began a diet experiment. Having seen my weight gradually climb from about 74kg when I was dieting and exercising conscientiously a few years ago to 86kg in June, I decided that I'd maintain a normal cereal breakfast and usual dinner, but cut out all snacks between meals and replace lunch with a diet drink powder in skim milk. Drinks between meals are either water, skim milk, carbonated fruit juice or the apple tea that I mentioned above. After 5 weeks, I am down to 81kg, an average loss of 1kg per week. This has been achieved without any extra exercise, because I simply don't have time to fit it in.

So, in addition to my goal of averaging getting out once every 5 days, I'm also working on my weight and thinking about how I'm going to reform my sleep pattern. I really should at least aim to be in bed by about 11:30pm, which could be very difficult on cafe nights!