USA Anaheim holiday Day #2 - Pre-registration and parties

In the morning we went down to go look at the registration by daylight - to get a better look at the layout and get a pic when people weren't filling the place.

A few people were sitting around, clearly Blizzcon goers - some wearing Blizz related T-shirts, others talking about WoW stuff.  Grabbed a Starbucks - the Christmas drinks are out, so I could have a gingerbread latte - and then headed back to the hotel and decided to go shopping at South Coast Plaza for the day. Spent the ENTIRE afternoon shopping and eating.  We had lunch at Seasons 52, which prides themselves on serving seasonal fresh produce (and no dish is over 475 Calories - I wondered, is that so any meal would be ok for anyone doing the 5:2 diet?).

Grilled Garlic Pesto Chicken Flatbread

Dungeness Crab, Roasted Shrimp and Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms under Parmesan Panko crust

Cedar-plank roasted Pacific King Salmon and vegetables

Maple Glazed All Natural roasted half Chicken, autumn harvest vegetables, zesty chicken jus

Blackened Mahi Mahi, mashed Sweet potatoes, green vegies, red pepper salso

I spent a lot of time at Victoria's Secret and at the Lego shop.  I bought myself the Lego Red Five X-Wing and because I spent that much money we got to fill 2 boxes full of Lego bricks from the back wall.  HK got Tower of Orthanc and he got THREE boxes to fill for free.  That was fun!  Aunty S and her daughter B made it to the bus on time but B lost her purse so they had to go back and look for it, so the bus had to leave without them.  That meant that we had to line up for our tickets with the children.

By the time we got there, about 615pm, the queue was really long.  It stretched all the way out past the signs that told you where to line up and doubled back to the side of the Marriott, almost to the doors where you go into the convention centre to get your stuff.

Once you get past the doors and into the convention centre there was more lining up, but the line here went quite quickly.

We picked up our goody bags and our registration passes and were out of there! The poor kids had been lining up with us and were starving.  My son was very friendly with the people standing behind us, but they took it rather well.  It's actually really cool listening to people around you talking, and EVERYONE is talking about World of Warcraft.  My inner nerd was squealing! Then came the hard part.  There were two things I wanted to attend - the World of Podcasts thing, and the WoWInsider/Wowhead party.  I dropped into the World of Podcasts discussion panel just after 8pm (while we were waiting for a table at IHOP), missing out on my ticket and the prize draw, but I was happy to be there.  I said hi to Rho but couldn't get to Hasteur - you can see him there on the right side!

So after dinner with the kids, I headed out to the Annabella for the WoWinsider/WoWhead party, and it was packed to the rafters.   In the queue there was a guy in front of us who turned around and asked me and Lush if we were Aussies and we said we were.  He said he used to be in an Aussie guild - on Saurfang, no less!  How funny that he was from out server!  He said he now plays his tauren elemental shammy on Thrall. I should have asked him his toon name LOL.

We didn't stay long at the party, as I had some minor concerns with people drinking around a pool - I didn't really want to be a witness to any tragic drunken accidents, and Pel and Xar had already left the party and were having dinner.  I wanted to go back and see Hasteur, but by the time I got back to my hotel, the World of Podcasts thing was over, and Hasteur and Rho were gone.  I was a bit disappointed in myself for not committing myself fully to one thing or the other, as it felt like I had missed out on both things!  I didn't actually enjoy the WowInsider party - it wasn't particularly friendly and people seemed to be in their little groups - probably more fun for celebrities than for someone like myself.

USA Anaheim Holiday Day #1 - Welcome to the United States of America!

So exciting! I was planning to stay up all night to make my body clock switch to US times but that plan was foiled - I put the kids to bed at a really late time but I ended up falling asleep with them!  So I dragged them out of bed early hoping to make them tired so they would sleep on the plane - with mixed success!

I was pleased to be flying over an an A380 - much comfier and excellent inflight entertainment than a standard Boeing 747 - and I was pleased the kids were really well behaved.  My son slept for most of the flight, and was well behaved, watching TV or playing iPad the other times, and my daughter was very good watching TV quietly, and eating her airplane food politely without much fuss. 13 hours was going slow at first but by the end it was quick.  Apparently I managed to snatch some zzz's on the plane even though I felt like I didn't!  The plane wasn't very full, and we could spread out across 9 seats instead of just 7.  I was worried about long queues at LAX to but it wasn't that bad - we got fast tracked because we had children, which was pretty cool.  Not so cool for Lush and my friend and her daughter who had come to look after the kids for me whilst we're at Blizzcon - they got stuck in the long queue and we had to wait for them.

Getting to the hotel was pretty straightforward - we went to the green sign just under the terminal that was for shuttles and long distance buses and caught the Disneyland resort Express which was $36 return for adults and $28 return for the kids.  Took us about 45 minutes or so to get to our hotel.

A quick freshen up after 24 hours of travelling and we went out to get some lunch.  Around the corner we went to a place called Starburger which looked like it was run by Korean people.  I had a bulgogi burger which was ok, but hubby had a chilli burger which he didn't enjoy.  The place was full of people who were something to do with Blizzcon, wearing ESL lanyards and Blizzcon wristbands.  One of them looked like Corey Stockton to me, but I didn't think he'd be wearingan ESL lanyard! LOL.

What is weird is that the convenience stores sell alcohol!  I found that rather strange as I was trying to get milk, to see rows and rows of booze.  Oh, and the other thing - codeine is prescription in the US but over the counter in Australia, and melatonin is a health supplement here, so you can buy it over the counter, but in Australia it's prescription ($30 for 10) - go figure!

When we walked back to the hotel there was a girl with red hair sitting outside the hotel texting on her phone with a shirt emblazoned with rogue, and carrying a bag with the alliance emblem on it.  I smiled at her and she smiled back, but I was too chicken to start a conversation.  Makes you wonder if it was anyone I would know and would like to say hi to!

We lazed our afternoon away with a nap and then I messaged Arvash to say I was in LA, and so was he!  He was with Chewy, and so we decided to meet up for a quick coffee before dinner, only to find that all the Starbucks were closed.  We were outside the Anaheim Convention centre, and all the Blizzcon stuff was up - it was a bit dark for photos though, and I forgot to bring our new fancy schmancy camera.

They walked with us to our restaurant and then I invited them to stay for dinner. We were at Napa Rose, at the Grand Californian Hotel in Disneyland.  A pretty fancy hotel, and the meal was quite enjoyable though on the higher end side!

Lush and I had the 4 course tasting menu (excuse the poor photos taken from my phone!):

Citrus Seared Skuna Bay Salmon Carpaccio Shaved Radishes, Chives, Black Bread Croutons and Lemon Aioli

Cavatelli Pasta Tossed with Spigarello Broccoli and Fontina Cheese Housemade Lamb Meatballs and Rich Lamb Jus

Grilled "Red Deer' Venison Chop Sauteed Wild Mushrooms, Pumpkin Gnocchi and Huckleberry Essence

Milk Chocolate Creme Puffs Crunch Pumpkin Ice Cream and Vanilla Sugar

The others othered some of the a la carte dishes:

Slowly braised Angus Beef Short Rib Sweet Potato Tots, Orange Gremolata and Pomegranate-Zinfandel Jus

Grilled Black Angus Beef tenderloin Hazelnut Potato Gnocchi, Brussel Sprouts, Smoked Ham and Mustard Essence

Breast of Free Range Chicken stuffed with imported Truffle Butter Golden Chanterelle Mushrooms, Local Apples and Thyme Essence

Dark Chocolate Cake with Ice cream

Pumpkin Sorbet

Even the kids meals looked rather fancy!

Good food, probably a little pricey for what we got, but good service.  Not a fan of that dessert I had - the crunch things were like eating toasted bran - probably would have preferred one of the sorbets!  Even Lush ate his fish and all his vegetables and quite enjoyed the meal.  My son found himself quite attached to Arv and Chewy and they had turns taking pics holding my son who seemed quite content to snuggle up to them or ride on their shoulders. You know what else was cool about the hotel?  They had a bar called hearthstone! Exhausted, we went back to our hotel.  Everyone was falling asleep after the long day and full tummies, looking forward to registering and getting our passes for tomorrow!  I think I shall spend the morning shopping!

Speech progress: Colours and size, and a bit of naughty on the side

I felt like it has been a huge hurdle trying to get my son to get the concept of colour, and he has only JUST got it!  I was so happy when he said RED plane, BLUE plane, GREEN plane, and he's now getting the idea of yellow and orange.  I was so chuffed, I squealed in delight, gave him a huge cheer and a huge hug everytime he got it right.

And we did his homework with Big and little and he got that down as well!  He said them all right, I applied it to the plants and he got THAT right, I feel like my son is taking really solid footsteps down the path to speaking properly!

The other day though, he was very naughty.  He went to my hobby room and took my scissors and cut my sunflower seedling 3 to 4 times until it was just 1cm of stalk.  He got a huge scolding and a spank from hubby for taking out and playing with scissors and now he knows that you DO NOT CUT PLANTS.  Oh my poor sunflower.  I was so looking forward to seeing my first sunflower grow.

Speech progress for my son

It's been more than 6 months since I started Speech Therapy for my son - how is he now?

In a nutshell - much improved!

He has finally understood the concept of colour.  He can do 3 colours, though probably with about 90% accuracy.  I should start introducing more colours!

His question concepts are better. He says "Where Mama?" and "Where bowl?" and even says "What's that noise?"

He has also learned to say "Mama, may I have X please?" which he is using very appropriately.  From things like chocolate, milk, rice to "open roof" (opening the sunroof in the car), I have found this to be very encouraging.

His speech therapist has said that he talks a lot now, which he does, and he is coherent which is great.  He still can't answer questions well like "What do you want to eat, rice or noodles?" and he will say "Yes". Sometimes he answers it.  But I don't know if he understood it.

He has another year before school so I will continue with the therapy.  I'm happy that I can finally communicate a little with my son, and I am hoping in another 6 months we can have a REAL conversation.

Diet update: 5:2 diet

I have had numerous comments asking if I have lost weight, and I am proud to say that I have.  I wonder how much of it is muscle that I've lost, but if my clothes are not so tight then that's a good thing too I guess!

Trying to explain it to people is hard.  They think it's bad that I'm fasting - but I keep telling them I'm not starving, it's just super calorie controlled for 2 days and I can still eat.  A lot of people say that they couldn't do that, but I find that calorie controlling every day is much harder for me.  I know I wouldn't stick to it.

I have to say that overall I am impressed with this diet.  I have never dieted before, and never thought I was going to because I thought diets were silly - if it was only a temporary thing then you'd go back to what you were before the diet once the diet ended, so what was the point?  However, I can see that I could easily follow this regime for the rest of my working life, as it fits in so easily with it and I don't feel like I'm missing out (except on those 2 days a week) - but there are plenty of other days to eat stuff!  For a busy working professional who doesn't do much exercise, I can see this working.  However, for a heavily exercising person, I can't see this being good for them because their gym or exercise workout would probably burn more calories than they were eating so they would be net starving for the day!  Perhaps they could do NET calories instead of total calories.

Today is my non fast day and I had a hot chocolate and coconut/mango bread and I'm sitting here nibbling on maltesers.  Nope, I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything at all :D

Gardening for the kids turns into gardening for me

This year I thought I would do something cool, fun and hands on with a little bit of nature involved - yes, we decided to plant some seeds and watch them grow!

After the successful crop of cucumber that I had last year, from 2 plants my mother gave me which just grew like crazy, I thought the kids would enjoy doing something like that again!

I'm not much of a gardener though.  I have lemon grass in my backyard which survives because it's pretty hardy but it doesn't look that healthy!  It's a little threadbare but it's been happily growing there for a while. I also had two basil plants last year, also from my mother.  She also gave me a kaffir lime plant ages ago and it was in a pot for some years, but since it went into the ground, it grows in all bizarre directions.  It doesn't fruit but the leaves are all I'm interested in anyway!  I also have a small lemon plant - it's not a tree because it's so tiny but it does bear fruit!

We had someone come and do the lawn maintenance and they made me angry because their version of trimming the plants was to attack them with an edge trimmer or something.  I came home one day to find my lemon grass cut down to the stumps, and I complained bitterly to hubby.  The plant started to grow again after I kept watering it vigorously - only to find the next month when they came they beheaded it again!  AND they also cut my basil plants down to the ground, obviously thinking they were weeds.  I was devastated and angry and I told my husband these gardeners had to go!  Since then I found someone else and he listens to me and knows where all my important plants are so he doesn't go hacking at them.

So I wanted some basil this year, so I went to the shops to investigate and they sell these things.  Apparently you just add the seeds, water and put them in the sun and that's it!

I thought to myself, this is just a little bit TOO simple - I wanted the kids to get into it, so I thought I would go and use some chinese takeaway containers (the round ones) and put some potting mix in it and plant the seeds.  4 lots would be good - one for Mummy, Daddy, E and J so that we could all be proud of our own pot.

The kids thought it was great digging into the potting mix to put into the containers.  Then I put a few seeds in each.  But there were heaps left inside the packet, so I shook it trying to get it out and a whole heap fell into J's pot.  Oops.  So I went back to E's pot and cut open the packet to get the stragglers out and she ended up with extras too.

We watered it and looked at them every day.  It was a little disappointing when everyday the kids would look and there was nothing there.

However, one day, a shoot came out, and then the next, more shoots!  Before long, there were heaps of seedlings and it was very exciting for everyone.  We could see a difference from morning to night when we came home and we would water them and take them outside to get sun.

Then I tried to move a few seedlings from the takeaway containers into cleaned out paper coffee cups from the coffee shop at work.  They were the same size as that kit in Bunnings so I thought it would be cool!

I killed some in the transfer but a few survived and were doing well.  E's pot was getting so full - I didn't realise those couple of seeds I had dropped in was closer to 25 seeds because now she had a BUSH of basil seedlings.  I bought her a flower pot that she painted herself and I planted all her basil in there.  I tried to transplant some of the seedlings back into the original container but they all died!  I didn't know transplanted seedlings aren't allowed to have sun...

Watching the seedlings grow has rejuvenated my interest in my herbs outside.  I pruned my kaffir lime, and fertilized the lemon tree, and the struggling chives and spring onions that were out in the yard.  I hope that I can keep it up!  My mother also gave me some french beans which I planted in the garden - unfortunately the kids ripped a few leaves off as they tried to brush past the climbing frame I had put there for the beans, and the poor plants look a little sad.  I think the hot days also helped do that to them... the temperatures here in Sydney yoyo'd from the low 20s to the high 30s and back down again, so my poor plants didn't get a break!

Anyway, every day the kids look forward to watering the plants and watching how big they're getting.  I think it's a great family project, and it has been rewarding not just for the kids, but for me as well.

5:2 Diet - 6 weeks in

So how have I gone with my 5:2 diet?

It's been a month now, and I've been sticking to my diet and doing quite well I thought.  To tell you the truth, I didn't know if I had lost any weight, and my clothes didn't seem to be looser.  However, I've decided that I will do the 5:2 diet as part of a lifestyle change, and hubby has decided to do it as well.

We watched Eat Fast and Live Longer, Michael Mosley's documentary on the 5:2 diet, and it was a real eye opener.  Having watched and enjoyed his Pain, Pus and Poison documentaries, I was quite keen to watch this one.

The main thing that convinced me to do 5:2 as a lifestyle choice and not just for a diet was when Mosley started talking about Insulin Like Growth Factor (IGF-1).  According to the researchers in Mosley's documentary, IGF-1 is responsible for the creation of new cells and when levels of IGF-1 levels drop, the body goes into repair mode, repairing damaged cells.  A genetic abnormality which causes low levels of IGF-1 leading to short stature also had the interesting side effect of longevity and a huge reduction in age related diseases such as diabetes, cancer and ischaemic heart disease.  Mosley found that long term caloric reduction (ie every day) was too hard, and so tried an intermittent approach, which was where 5:2 began.  He went from being prediabetic to normal sugars, and lost weight, as well as reduced blood pressure and LDL.

So, from now on, Tuesdays and Fridays are fast days.  It's easier when both of us are fasting.  If we have a dinner planned for Friday then we will move it to Thursday, but it will be interesting to see how that works out.

So far, I have dropped 2kg, though I don't feel any different.  People think I'm crazy when I say I'm on a diet, and I have to tell them "I'm not doing it for weight loss, it's for the health benefits!" so that they don't start on at me about being anorexic.

I've even started a friend on it!  He is prediabetic almost, so hopefully he will do good on it.

I found that it's getting easier to fast.  And I do feel conscious about what I am eating on my other days too. I hope that anyone else who is thinking of doing the diet has found this helpful.  Willpower on those fasting days really is the tough bit - but substituting high calorie foods for low calorie ones is what will really get you through the day (a bit hard if you don't like eating vegetables though!)