First stop Darwin next stop Hong Kong & China

Hi team
We have just returned from a week in Darwin the Northern Territory , http://www.tourismnt.com.au/
It was amazing , it is such a great town and we did the whole national park experience, with termite mounds, swimming in huge natural water falls and enjoying the great clear Sky's and hot weather. We had 30 degrees Celsius everyday . Its the dry season up there and the weather was so nice after all the cold and winter rain we have had here over the past month. We saw crocodiles and went to the wetlands and it was just great . The reason for the trip was Craig had the National Congress of Council conference on so i tagged along, I have to pay my own way, however I scored a cheep jet star ticket $320 return, not bad at all.
We went up a few days early so Craig had a chance to look around before the conference started on the Sunday. It is a 4 ½ hour flight from Sydney. What a vibrant place it has just blossomed, I was last there when I was 16 with two school friends, some 25 years ago, I didn't recognise much of the city at all it has changed so much. Darwin has a real outdoor lifestyle , great pubs and cafes and loads of backpackers and a real mix of outback Australia meets the world.

I hate the cold so this getting away for winter breaks is a bit of me, but wait theres more We are off to Hong Kong & China on a work fact finding/holiday, Friday week. Just call us sun birds following the sun around the world, ohhh it sounds so exotic, hahahaha. I’m already there in my mind , again I cant wait to get away from this winter cold to the warmth of the Hong Kong Asian Summer. I had a taste of the winter warmth in Darwin and the 30 degree + every day. Sunshine, swimming, and great shopping, suites me down to the ground. My girlfriend is the 2 IC of a hotel on Hong Kong Island and we will be staying with her. It will be so great as she will be able to show us around and she is great with the language and knows all the good places to shop and eat and I'm looking forward to hanging out with her. Again we picked up some great airfares back in January on the net and we need a kid free break.

Speaking of kids, they are great, Renee ( 19 year old daughter) is loving Uni in Armidale, a great college town 7 hours drive North-West of here. Law is a challenge but she is doing so well nothing less that a distinction in all her subjects so far. She is a chip off the old step mummy block, hahahahaha.

Ryan ( 16 year old son) is still my challenge, but he is loving his job, they just made him department manager , so for a 16 year old that’s not to shabby, he is certainly a very good looking kid and he still has the first dollar he ever earned so I'm sure money wise he will go far.

Sean ( 22 year old son) and Holly ( 24 year old American girlfriend ) have decided to go their separate ways and Holly is going back home to Arizona in August . Sean has applied to also go back to Uni to do a second degree, and you guessed it he will be also doing Law, he finished his Bachelor of Business last year and has been working full time but has decided he is also wants to be a lawyer and will be joining Renee at UNE (University of New England) in August, Craig is also hanging to go back and do Economic law to add to his economics degree , so before you know it we will be opening The Doyle, Doyle and Doyle legal practice, hahahaha... I will be the marketing and PR side of the firm...

All the puppies went to wonderful homes. The little champagne coloured female went to a great older couple, Gwen and Richard, they live on a magnificent property at Wollombi. We were up there with friends to the public Holiday Monday markets ( they are on every public holiday Monday and have been for over 20 years) on the weekend and we called in to see her , she is so adorable and looks just like Paisley, they are thrilled with her and she has an older mummy dog she lives with Jenny she is a 10 year old pointer and they get on great.
I gave the little dark apricot one to my mum for mother’s day as a surprise, she was thrilled and they called her Petal, she started puppy school last night and mum said she is a star. She is adorable and I get to see her all the time so that is unreal. Then last but not least, the final pup to go was the little white male, he went to a great family just in Terrigal they have two kids they called him Otis, they are also thrilled I had an email last night from them and all is good in puppy land. Cuppy Cake ( the other champagne female) is doing great with her family at saratoga. So I’m a very happy camper and things have settled back down to normal with my two wonderful mum and dad dogs Paisley and Newman. I will let her have more puppies but not for at least another 12 months, she did so well they are all so healthy and so so so cute and happy.

On a more serious subject my weight loss is still so slow, its insane, I’m now seeing a kenisiologist to try and help me unlock the emotional blockers to me losing weight, I lovingly call her Bec my Hokas Pokas chick. I hadn’t lose not a pound for over 2 months then in the past two weeks Ive lost 2kgs ( 5 pound for the yanks who read this blog) In total over the past 6 months I have lost 13.8kgs that's just over 30 pounds, so that’s good, I guess just not as much as I had hoped. Maybe I’m starting to get the key to getting rid of this weight.
My hokas pokas Chicky has taken me off lactose and I have to have organic socked oats for breakfast, eat more pineapples and kiwi fruit and have 1 table spoon of flax seed oil every night, yumo... She also does irradology and looks at my eyes, I even had photos taken of my eyes last week, what a hoot to see my eyes as big as footballs on the computer.
I also got the results from all my blood test , some five pages including an ECG and I'm the healthiest I have been for a long time my cholesterol is down nearly to normal and I'm no long insulin resistant 9 a pre diabetic condition) so that's remarkable , I still have a slightly fatty liver but that is also getting better by the day, all the other 50,000 things tested were all normal, Bec says i have a strong constitution, good genes I say, and for that I'm very lucky, no high blood pressure , no joint issues,no nothing serious. So when I get this weight off I will live to 100.
I’m still slack with the exercise however I have been walking every day , but I haven’t been back to see Matt my personal trainer for over two weeks, slack. The gym I go to, Oxigen Mind and body fitness, has taken me on as a case study and they are giving me a personal trainer twice a week and sending me to the Kenesiologist.
In fairness I have just been bone lazy, Matt has had the flu and I know these are all excuses but to be honest I spoke to another girl from my gym last Friday and she said the whole gym has the flu and as I'm off to Hong Kong in just over a week, I simply cant afford to be sick.
Due to the Swine flu outbreak in Australia they are so paranoid about letting Australians in to Hong Kong and China, in fact many other countries as well. They are scanning people as they get off the plane in Hong Kong if the plane originated in Australia and if your temp is up even slightly they are not letting you in. Those Chinese may have the secret to great skin but they are a little paranoid when it comes to disease ,but then again I guess and out break in a country as populated as China is nothing to sneeze at. Anyway I just seem to find every excuse in the book not to go o the gym, I love the gym, I'm good at the gym , the gym is good for me, I love and accept myself, this is all part of the NLP ( Neural linguistic programing )Bec is also doing with me, change the conscience mind and aline it with the sub conscience mind and everything will fall into place...oommm ooommmm ooommmm think thin....!!!
Talk soon
Tracey