The New Improved Me

So, it's school holidays here, life has been busy, and my health has been all over the place.  The girls are currently away at the farm and I actually got to go out a couple of times last week and pretend to be a grown-up.

I'll mention that first.  Wednesday we took off to shoot pool at the Ponsonby Snooker Club, a long time favourite.  It started so well, we were having a blast until a couple of local mums arrived with their over-excitable children and placed them at the table next to us.

Now I have nothing against children playing pool but these kids were left unsupervised and were so loud and disruptive that it really did ruin the whole 'lets go out while the kids are away' theme of the evening for us.

The women sat and chatted while these three 8 year old boys played their own version of the game, complete with arguing over 'the rules' and whacking the ball in a variety of dodgey ways.  I even showed one kid how to hold the cue at first but he was adamant that his underhand style was the winning combination.

The fourth child, a little girl, just sat with the women, occasionally annoyed the boys, and ingested copious amounts of lollies and fizzy drink which then had her doing some very smelly farts all over the place and the women rushed her off to the bathroom at one point.

Now, I've taken my girls to pool halls but I never leave them unsupervised, I don't feed them up on sweets, I teach them the correct way to play the game and play with them, and I definitely do not allow them to scream their excitement at the outing at the top of their lungs for an hour.

These women didn't care how noisy they were, a couple of other couples left, obviously couldn't cope with the racket, and while we stayed longer than the kids, we left a lot earlier than planned because it hadn't been as enjoyable.  Shame on you two ladies where-ever you are.  Show respect to fellow punters, you didn't even try to control these kids.

..and breathe....

We finished that evening with a great thai-laotian meal so the night wasn't a total loss.

The next night however was very cool.  Dinner at Tanuki's Cave, a japanese yakitori bar and always great food and then we tried out the comedy at the Classic for the first time ever and it was very cool.  The first act was down-right strange.  She kept advocating abortion and her jokes included her talking cat and extinct animal impressions - it was just very odd.  But the other guys were very good.

Paul Ego was the host and damn that guy is funny.  Pretty good host too.  We also saw a brit called Mathew Calahan (I think, or was it martin..), he had the whole Frank Spencer look going for him but he didn't go there at all which was surprising.  He was pretty funny though.  Also saw Steve Wrigley who was probably my favourite of the night, I was in fits of laughter while trying to also appear nonchalent so he wouldn't pick on me for his next joke.. and lastly was Jeremy Corbett and Paul Ego doing this radio gag thing.  It was mostly quite amusing but not laugh-out hilarious like the other guys.  But, for my first time at the Classic it was a damn good evening and it has got me hooked to catch some of the shows coming up for the comedy festival soon.

Right then, lastly the new look me.  Not so much a new look on the outside as it is on the inside.  Let me explain.

I'm now in my 11th week of no alcohol and apparently after 8 weeks off you have a brand new liver.  Woohoo!  Didn't cost me a cent either.  Pretty stoked about that one.

Now I'm trialling a dairy-free diet as I've been reading up and figured it has many benefits and my recent health has made me think I should look seriously at my lifestyle.  What has amazed me is how easy it is to not eat any dairy in meals.  I was completely addicted to cheese, still think about it quite a bit, but I have made this commitment to my body and it is a cinch to just say no.

Fantastic.  I also feel healthier for it and I'm only in week 2!  I'll give this a wee while to settle in and then I will look at cutting out gluten as well although most baked items are out already due to the whole no dairy thing.  I just finally got to the point where I didn't like where I was going with my health and I finally found my missing gumption and gave myself the hard word.

Feelin' good, actually went out at night which is a rarity, and planning more good food choices and more outings.  April is a good month so far.