A belated review of 2015

I updated the graph of frequency of outings that I posted last year. The one test run outing in November means that the total for the year wasn't zero, but it can't get much worse!

A year ago, I was upset at having gone over 90kg for the first time in over 20 years. This New Year, I went over 100kg for the first time in my life, peaking at 101.5kg. I also had swollen ankles and feet. It appears likely that the swelling was caused by the fact that I'd gone back to taking ibuprofen on a regular basis, and it's likely to have contributed to the weight gain. Like back in 2012, I've had to stop using ibuprofen completely, but this time it is probably going to have to be permanent. Within 3 days, I dropped 2kg and the swelling virtually disappeared.

Unfortunately, I still haven't got my hunger under control. I'm still eating too much, part of which is comfort eating. Surprisingly, even though I'm depressed, I'm nowhere nearly as depressed as I have been at my worst.

I've also been on holidays since just before Christmas, and will return to work tomorrow (Monday), meaning that I need to spend at least part of today getting the office and yard organised. While I've been on holidays, in spite of intending to get to bed earlier, I've fairly consistently ended up getting to bed far later than intended, and consequently getting up later than planned and getting very little done.

In what I can only describe as a devastating blow, we found out around Christmas that our house plans, that we've been working on with an architect for several years, isn't permitted at all in the zoning of our property. The letter from the council to the architect didn't quite say that he should have known from the outset that it wasn't going to be possible, but came close to it!

Our current property is in an area intended to be re-developed as units, townhouses, etc., and building a large extension of a single house simply isn't going to be allowed by council. Also, the architect used the building envelope allowed for units or townhouses in planning the house extensions, giving us the impression that that would also be acceptable to council. After seeing those plans, I don't think that our next-door neighbours on either side are talking to us any more.

As I did with limited success back in 2014, I now need to look at things that can be done to rearrange the house that we have to be more liveable, while trying to work out what we do next.

More China Red

My favourite nail polish, TBN China Red, is now a discontinued line. :-(

Because of my relatively large nails, I go through a fair quantity of polish every time. I've been buying a bottle or two from time to time, but when I went looking for it at the usual places, they still had the brand but not the colour.

I remembered seeing it at a chemist in Wallsend (across the road from the op shop where my sister-in-law's mother used to work), but I rarely go to Wallsend because it's a bit inconvenient to get to, and parking is almost always difficult. I made an effort to go there yesterday, and the drive was as bad as expected, but I fluked a parking spot right outside that op shop. Since I was in the area, I had a brief look around four op shops along that side of the street before heading across the road to the chemist.

They had a stand with the same brand of nail polish but not the same colour, so I asked the lady at the register, and she asked another woman to check in a cupboard, where they had some old colours of the same brand. She found one of the right colour, and I said that if they had any more, I'd take them too.

She continued looking through and found one that was half full and dried up. I assume that it must have been a tester that had ended up amongst the others. Because it looked like it was no good, the woman at the register decided not to charge me full price for them.

In total, they had seven including the dried up, half empty one. Imagine my surprise when they charged me just $3 for the lot!

When I got home, I checked them closely, and I'm confident that only the half empty one has been opened. The other six appear to be in good condition, full and the liquid moves around in the bottles how it should.

So, it appears that I have at least a couple of years' supply. :-)