My 2nd Goal... Almost There

When I started 12WBT at the end of August last year (keep going to say this year, LOL), almost 5 months ago, at over 84kg (185 lbs), my first goal was to get back into the 70's (kg's that is) (154-174 lbs).  I achieved that and then as soon as I was 79kg, my next goal was to get into the 60's (kg's that is) (132 to 152 lbs).

Well I am so excited.  I am almost there.   Today I weighed myself and I'm 70.1 kg (154.54).  I have just 200 grams (0.44 lbs) to go until I reach that goal.  I will do that this week, so for next week's 12WBT Wednesday weigh in I will be there.

Next goal is to get into the 50's (kg's that is) (110-130 lbs).  I actually only want to get to 58kg.  I'll be happy to have my weight at 58-60kg.  My weight fluctuates depending on that time of the month, so to be 58-60 is my goal.

Slowly but surely I'm getting there.  But will be thrilled when I hit the 60's again.  I haven't been there in a long time!

Hamilton Island Buggies

The main mode of transport on Hamilton Island are the very cute golf buggy.  I guess they are not for golf in this instance so they are just buggies.  They are usually four seaters, with two seats at the front and two at the back, that are in the backward direction.

This back seating that points out the back of the buggy rather than facing forward can create a bit of embarassment.  Well I feel they do anyway.  Say you are driving along and there is a buggy in front of you.  And you are reasonably close to them.  Not driving dangerously close, but just following each other along at a safe distance.  As the driver of the buggy you have no option to look forward (although I can tell you from experience, on Hamilton Island, people do not always look ahead whilst driving!!!).

Anyway when there are people in the buggy in front, that are in the back seats, facing you.  It's kind of like you are watching them, they keep looking at you, like "what are you looking at"  LOL.  If it's kids, they will make funny faces or constantly wave (which is fine when you wave back once, but when they continue to wave for the next 5 or so minutes you are following them, it gets a bit old, LOL).   So I find driving the buggy, with people in the buggy in front, who you don't know to be a bit uncomfortable.

The buggy parking is tight, like they are really small spaces.  But that's ok as they are only little vehicles.  Don't let the size fool you though.  They can still be dangerous vehicles and I'm surprised to be honest that there aren't more accidents.

The buggies have seat belts, which is good, makes them a little safer and you do have to be a licensed driver.  Some people do ignore this and you see kids driving, but not often!   It would be a nightmare if there were kids driving everywhere, so at least this is restricted to adults only, which is bad enough!  As you can see from the photos, there are buggies everywhere.

The problem's arise with the drivers.  I do enjoy sitting at the Marina Deli or outside the bakery and observing some of the nightmare drivers first hand.  People seem to be in holiday mode (or vacation mode), they seem to have a false sense of security with this little open air, slow moving vehicle, that it can't be dangerous, cause some damage if they run into someone, or slam on their brakes suddenly and the buggies driving behind run up their behinds.  People seem to just be in their own little world sometimes.

Once afternoon I was sitting at the Deli having a coffee.  It was a really busy day on the island, so there were a lot of people in the street (another danger, people just seem to walk out into the street, maybe forgetting that vehicles do drive down it).  There were buggies, pedestrians, tourist, holiday makers, adults, children everywhere.    I was watching two women in a buggy driving up the road.  They were driving quite slowly and did have about three or four buggies driving along behind them (quite close too).  All of a sudden, outside the deli, they just slammed on the brake and came to a complete stop in about one second.  The poor drivers behind were so very lucky to run into each other.  These two women were completely oblivious to what they had just caused!  Just after they stopped, the first buggy  went to go around them (remember, these women were not in a parking space, they were in the middle of the road, as they simply just stopped), the woman driver jumped out of her buggy and was almost collected by the poor guy who went to drive past (buggies don't have doors, so it's very easy to just jump out).   The woman, getting a bit of a fright and looking back and noticed the line of chaos she had just caused proceeded to step back in the buggy and took off, not caring about the other buggies that were coming along and almost ran into her as she suddenly took off up the road.

Then, without indication, without stopping, this woman did a Uturn, she did not look for the cars that she almost collected as the did the turn and did not worry about the buggies directly behind her that again almost ran into her due to her sudden turn.

It was unbelievable.  The then went to the side to park, where she tapped the buggy in front of her as she tried to squeeze into a parking space.

There is a run down on the day in the life of a buggy driver on Hamilton Island.  Now I will say that not everyone is like that woman.  Most people are pretty good.  But some, really, makes you wonder what they would be like behind the wheel of a real car!  Scary thought!

Up, Up and Away

This is the first time that I have done a blog post using the Blogger iPad app. I don't seem to have a great handle on it, I can't get the writing off centre (I normally post with the writing to the left) and I can't seem to work out how to add a caption to the photos.

Anyway please excuse me if anything looks a little odd over the next week or so as I blog whist away on holiday, without a computer, using my iPad. Now back to my post.

Very exciting! I am having my first holiday of the year. It is to one of my favourite places Hamilton Island in the Queensland Whitsundays (in Australia for those outside of Australia and don't know where Queensland is)

We arrived a couple of day ago, flying with Jetstar on an unevntful flight. A lot of people don't seem to like Jetstar but to be honest, I've never had a problem with them. You can check in 48 hours before the flight, you can get your boarding pass via SMS, no more paper (unless you want paper). I think this is the handiest thing! How often are you away and check in for your homeward bound flight and you have to somehow find a printer, maybe from the hotel or maybe you just have to line up at the airport (which is fine if you have luggage, but a pain of you don't have checked bags). Anyway, the service I've found at the airport and on board to be fine, planes are nice and clean. So I jut take the cheapest flight, wether that's Virgin Australia or Jetstar, I'm happy with either.

Whilst at the airport, my son had to visit here!

This is a bit of a tradition for us on our trips to Hamilton Island. We always stop at Krispy Kreme at the airport whilst waiting for our flight and pick up a box, yes a whole box of original glazed donuts. This time there was no way I was going to have a box of donuts sitting there and resist. So instead of a box, we purchased one glazed donut for my son in a bag and he was generous enough to let me sniff it! They had some cute Christmas designs too that I would love to have tried. But sniffing was the closest I was going to get to a Krispy Kreme on this trip!

It wasn't long before our flight was boarding and we were on our way.

Continued next post...

Hamilton Island Here We Come

Boarding the plane was different this time. It was the first time I have used the SMS boarding pass. Have to say that I was impressed. It was quick and very easy. You just open the SMS that Jetstar sends to you when you do online check in and at the boarding gate there is a machine. You just place your phone with the text message on the screen into the machine and it spits out a paper boarding pass and off you go on to the plane.

We were sitting in the forth row. Just my son and I. I had the aisle and son had the middle seat. We were hoping for the window to remain empty but were not that fortunate! Just before the doors shut, a rather odd looking man came and sat down. He proceeded to online chat on his mobile almost until the plane took off but before this he picked his nose. Oh my goodness, I almost threw up as he then proceeded to roll it in his fingers for the next 10 minutes! I would look back to my magazine, then glance over and he was still rolling! What is wrong with people and public behavior these days? I had a similar experience at the Dr's recently too. He the proceeded to bite his nails along with pick his teeth for the rest of the flight! I was pleased when the flight was over!

We know we are getting close as the water down below has become a beautiful bright blue colour!

Water from the plane

Flying into Hamilton Island, you come in between two mountains, with water at both ends of the runway. Here is a few photos of coming in to land, with the Yacht Club and Hamilton Island Harbour/Marina on one side and Dent Island on the other. Dent Island is a golf course and golf club, that's all that is on the island and when staying on Hamilton Island you get there by boat. It's a lovely place for lunch, with amazing views.

I am finding updating this blog with the blogger iPad app to be very frustrating! Yesterday, with difficulty I was able to add photos throughout the post. Today the app is not allowing me to do this. So please excuse all the photos being at the end. I will fix this when I get home and move them throughout the post.

Dent Island from the air (golf course)

Another photo of Dent Island from the plane 

Hamilton Island approach from the plane