Our rennovations have officially begun. And of course, day one and the gravel delivery truck gets stuck in the mud in our garden and has to be towed out. It's been raining a little lately. Poor mom, I was at work, she had to bear all the stress! The pic I show here is the before pic. Next pic will hopefully show a brand new carport in the same spot!

My mom coined a beautiful word a few days ago when she was trying to explain that she had had enough of people for the day - the phrase - ausgepeopled. We thought it very funny, so now the ausge has become part of our lives. I find myself designing kitchens and drawing plans in my sleep and so every morning when I wake up, I feel I am ausgedesigned! Ahh we think its funny. Today, I am ausgeworked as well. The trick is to say it with a heavy German accent.

Since we last chatted, we've seen the Grammy Awards, I thought just about everybody dressed shockingly - I prefer the glamour of Hollywood - as opposed to the antiglamour of the music biz but my band U2 did fantastically well and I thought they were the best dressed of the lot! Five awards - yeah, way to go boys! Amazingly my colleagues and friends asked me if I'd heard that U2 got so many awards - felt like I had personally received them.

Then the winter olympics started. Missed the opening ceremony and I'm so sorry I did - it looked spectacular. Don't know how I did that, and I thought I knew what was happening in the world. So well, my mom is addicted to the figure skating and I think if I see one more death spiral I will throw up. Watching these olympics is very interesting - some of the events they show I have never ever heard of before. These games and this sport is not for sissies! No way - anyone who is prepared to hurl themselves over the side of a steep mountain with slippery long things strapped to their feet, or lie on a fibreglass contraption and go down an ice pipe thingy at 120km per hour is not well. Either that or they have huge huge kahunas. Still it is wonderful eye candy. I would love to know how the competitors prepare and train for these events, I mean do they live in a winter/snow climate all year round?

Progress on my extreme (ly slow) makeover. Weighed myself at gym two weeks ago and I have gained 3kg. I am devastated and have decided I shall never ever weigh myself again. I felt sooo low. I don't think I look 3kg heavier, in fact my clothes fit me better than ever. I simply can't live like this where I become all depressed and morose because a scale tells me that I've gained or lost weight. So this is it. I shall continue to exercise, I shall continue to eat properly, with a few indulges every now and again, and judge my progress by my dress size and not by the might of a scale. This hasn't proven easy though, I'm very tempted to hop on the scale everytime I go to gym. So send me good vibes everyone and pray that I keep of that flipping scale!