Caravan Living

A lot has changed for us over the last few months, we decided over our Christmas break last year to upgrade from our Penguin Camper Trailer to a caravan. This would be a positive step towards living and travelling full-time around Australia eventually.

On our way back from holidays, I was checking out the vans for sale, and found the "perfect" van in Newcastle. Arrived home Wednesday night and Thursday morning drove to Newcastle to check it out. Signed the papers, organised finance etc... and YAY! We had a caravan. Picked up our 2011 model Jayco Discovery Off-Road Pop-Top on the Friday of the Australia Day Weekend and headed straight up to Myall Lakes National Park to try her out. Happy Days!

Had an extremely wet & windy weekend, but we were snug in our little abode, sitting under the awning and watching all the other poor campers in their tents dealing with the torrential downpour. Wow! we were smug. After arriving home to our rental house, we were given the news on the following Wednesday that the owners would not be renewing our lease. We had to move. Serendipitous or what?? We quickly decided to sell up what we could, store the rest and move into the van.


And that's where we are now - and, so far... so good! For our eventual plans to travel, this is probably the best decision we could have made... we have realised that for full-time living, although this van is more than adequate, we would prefer a full-size van (not a pop-top) for extra storage. We would also prefer a full-size ensuite instead of the little shower/toilet setup we have at the moment. So, sometime between now and when we set off, we will be upgrading. We won't bother with the off-road version (if we really want to head "off-road, we'll take a tent and leave the van) and will invest in the other little luxuries (more bench space in the kitchen a larger ensuite). If only we could win the lotto and get going now!

Let's Try This Again

This is probably the 3rd or 4th time I've attempted blogging... Previous attempts did not last! Hopefully this one will at least last for the next 12 weeks. Why 12 weeks? Because I am again (for the 5th time) doing Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation (12WBT).

The first couple of rounds that I did 12WBT, I had pretty good success and lost a total of 15kg, taking me from a size 18/20 to a size 12/14. The 3rd round was a big fizzer for me and I failed to lose any weight (but didn't put any on either). Bring on my 4th round and I was determined to get to my goal weight and went hell for leather with the excercise... and... hurt my back :(  Major disappointment. So of course I did what anyone in this situation would do, and threw my hands in the air and stopped doing ANY excercise at all.






Then of course I just ate whatever I felt like... and DRANK whatever I felt like. Enjoyable, but not exactly sensible... that's what got me to a size 18/20 in the first place!






Didn't bother joining for the next round (what was the point really?) Smart eh? Of course I have put on weight... luckily only a few kilos, but I am very SQUIDGY. Not happy with myself at all.







So, here I am again. Realizing my limitations, sticking to low impact and knowing that if I just stick to the diet and regular excercise I will lose weight and tone up. I'll never be a supermodel (way too short for that)... won't even get back the body of my youth (too many saggy bits nowadays), but I can be fit and healthy for my age and lifestyle. Let's face it if Helen Mirren can look this good... I can give it a good crack too. Definitely a role model for my age group!