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It was my mother in laws 71^st birthday last week so the family went out to Sizzler's for lunch on Saturday afternoon to celebrate. It was a most pleasant luncheon except for the fact that we ate too much and walked away with bulging stomachs. The kids went back to the in laws after lunch and Brigitte and I went home for an afternoon power nap before joining the kids back at the in laws house.

We took a birthday cake with us and sang happy birthday to Daphne then Hal and I sat down in the lounge to watch and talk sport for the remainder of the day. This is a relaxing time and usually we have a couple of beers but Hal is on rather strong medication for his Parkinsons disease and is unable to drink as much as he would like to so out of courtesy, I refrained.

With no football, Sunday morning was very relaxing even though I automatically woke up a 6.30am. I retrieved the newspaper from the front yard and went back to bed to watch more Olympics and read the paper. Brigitte kindly offered to make me breakfast in bed and this is where I remained until almost 10.00am.

After lunch, Brigitte wanted to go down to the beach to take some photos for her Mermaid book and greeting cards so we all hopped into the car and went for a drive to Triggs Beach.  Gemma and Joshua wore their bathers and brought towels just in case they decided to go for a swim. One touch of the water was all it took for them to decide it was too cold for swimming so they collected shells and fossicked on the beach while Brigitte and I walked along the beach taking photos. It was a very relaxing and pleasant way to spend a sunny winters afternoon.

We returned home at about 3.00pm just in time to watch the football on TV and relaxed before the start of another week at work.

With the football season at an end, I figure it’s about time to start up on the cross-trainer again.  I have always had a love-hate relationship with my cross-trainer as it is difficult to get motivated to get on it but once I am on it, I quite enjoy the workout while I watch TV or a movie on my PC.

Not too long ago, I would spend an hour on the cross-trainer every other day and after a while, my knees would start to ache to the extent that I would have to stop using the cross-trainer thus undoing all the hard work. This time around, I will try to do only a half hour a day and see if I am able to nurse my knee a little so that I can preserve and maintain all the hard work and associated weight loss.

I first jumped back on the cross-trainer on Tuesday this week and managed to cover 6.9kms in the half hour. The distance I covered continued to slowly increase each evening to the point where I managed to cover 7.3kms this evening.  I hope that my knees can handle the pressure and that I can continue to work out on the cross-trainer and gain some much needed weight loss.

If my knees start to play up again, I will have to make a decision to have them seen to.

Today was the last game of the season for the under 10’s Dolphins and we finished off with a home game in bright sunny conditions. We played against the Carine Cougars, a team that we struggled to beat by 4 points early on in the season. With our current form being nowhere near our best, we were always going to struggle again today.

We were held scoreless in a quarter for the very first time this season and we took a long time to get going. In the second quarter we were slightly better and in the third quarter, there was only another slight improvement. By three quarter time, we were five goals down thanks largely to Carine’s inaccuracy in front of goals.

I asked the boys how much they wanted to win the game and challenged them to go out and take the game away from Carine and to show their parents and spectators just how well we can play football. We did manage to outscore them in the final quarter but we ran out of time and ended up losing by 20 points. All of the boys put in a fantastic effort in the final term putting Carine under enormous pressure which forced them to make numerous errors.

After the game, we had our trophy presentations as well as a sausage sizzle. All of the boys received a trophy and a team photo to add to their trophy cabinets and hopefully, they will look back on the 2008 season and remember how much fun they had and how well they play throughout the season.

I advised in two previous posts that our investment property in Melbourne had been leased to tenants and that I was grateful the financial burden of carrying 100% of the mortgage costs had now been shared with the new tenants. What I haven’t advised you of, is that in both occasions, the tenants have pulled out leaving us to once again carry the burden.

Finally, after nearly three months of advertising, we appear to have secured a new tenant who will be taking possession of our investment property from tomorrow morning. I am not going to get too carried away until I hear from the managing agents that the bond has been paid and the first month’s rent has been received as it is extremely annoying pinning your hopes on tenants just to have them back out.

The initial research on the property indicated that we would be able to rent our new property for about $350 per week and we based our costing on the anticipated annual income of about $18,200. Slowly but surely, we have had to reduce our asking price as competition for tenants in the area grew and grew to the point where there is now a surplus of properties available due to the high number of properties under construction in the area. We have finally attracted a quality tenant for $295 per week which represents an annual income short fall of $2860 which we will now have to fund to cover the mortgage until such a time as we can increase the rent to $350 or more per week.

I guess if it was easy, we'd all be multi-millionaire property tycoons! 

At a recent medical examination, I was told that I have a ventral hernia which meant that I failed my medical for a mining industry job. This concerned me quite considerably and upon questioning the doctor, I was told in a rather blunt fashion to go and ask my own GP. Although it was a little rude, it was fair enough.

I saw my GP a few weeks ago and he referred me to a gastro surgeon and my appointment was this morning. The surgeon poked and prodded my abdomen, asked plenty of questions and told me that I had absolutely no herniation at all, let alone a ventral hernia. He went on to explain that the two abdominal muscles from the rib cage to the groin are joined in the middle by a fibrous ligament that stretches over time and when it has stretched, causes a ‘peak’ to appear when  you are lying down and either lift your head or sit up. The surgeon said that this is a very normal part of the aging process and that it should have absolutely no bearing in obtaining a job in the mining industry.

The surgeon did say that corporate medical services that perform these medical examinations may very well have minimum health standards set by their head GP and that any anomalies might automatically disqualify candidates from passing the medical. Because of this, my surgeon has offered to write a letter to prospective employers stating that he has examined my abdomen and that there is no sign of any herniation and that the stretching of the ligament that joins the two abdominal muscles is a normal part of the aging process.

I can only hope that this will now assist me further in getting a new job in the mining industry.