Week #15 & #16 Update

Why would you live in Sydney? Seriously. 

Another couple of days in ole Sydney town this week and it was full of hi-lights. Torrential rain... again. Went the closest I've ever gone to missing a flight because of traffic. At 8pm. I wonder what the comments section of Hertz's computer system says against my name now? A screeching halt in their carpark, keys in the ignition and the door still open with an "Over to you" yelled over my shoulder as I sprinted for the Qantas check-in. I am also feeling a little left out that I haven't either shot at someone's house or had my house shot at. I must be the only one. 

The company is always sensational though. A huge thank you to Paola and Nick for putting on a great dinner spread. Ironic in the first fortnight of my most restrictive diet yet that I add two new foods to my never tried this, thus chipping away at Bucket List Item #5. Entrees of Gazpacho (a tomato based chilled vegetable soup) which was refreshing and tasty and Jamon Iberico (a cured ham) which I wanted to wrap around myself like a delicious cocoon now take up positions on the "newly tried" list.

Another great squash week this week takes the game total to 741-0 (Bucket List Item #3). I suspect I was assisted by the 3kg weight loss in the first week of my detox, and interested to see how I go tomorrow night having lost another 1.5kg this week. Also interested to see my weight loss at the end of the 12 weeks period - if I keep up at the current weight loss rate, at the end of the 12 weeks I'll weigh less than I did in Grade 9. Which would be remarkable as I wasn't drinking as much beer back then. 

And it's official - I'm halfway through Bucket List Item #7 - with Beverly Hills Cop ticked off the "Top 20 Comedy Movies of all time" list last night. Seems fair that Eddie Murphy featured in at least one of the Top 20. The hairstyles were funny. The fashion was funny. The plot was funny. Eddie Murphy's laugh was annoying, but overall the movie was entertaining. However, humerousnessesness ranked behind sound track and truck chase in the hi-lights.

A few busy work weeks ahead are likely to inhibit the progress of my list. But slow and steady wins the race. Except if you drive Forumla One cars. 

Until next fortnight...

Week #13 & #14 Update

Ah Easter. A time to take a breath from the hustle bustle of the treadmill of life and re-focus on what is important. Religiously and spiritually if that floats your boat, or just generally if that's how you roll. I'm not fussed. The funny thing about the Bucket List Project is that it was originally designed to supplement the standard New Years resolutions that are oh so boring... be more financially sensible, achieve greater work-life balance, get healthy yawn stretch yawn. Trouble is that the Bucket List has taken the sole focus in the New Years resolutions stakes thusfar.

Mind you, it's not all bad news. Despite the best efforts of the Australian Tax Office (from this point forward referred to as the dirty filthy hoebags - DFHs), there has certainly been much more attention around financial responsibility. Work-life balance has also been brilliant. Nights at home. Weekends at home. Public Holidays at home. The ability to maintain a conversation without having one hand on a Blackberry. Seeing my kids both before and after work rather than neither. Can't complain. The "get healthier" goal is going splendidly if you believe (a) the old adage of "a fat baby is a healthy one" and (b) that I am a baby. Otherwise, it needs some work. As such, tomorrow begins a detox diet that will pit my enormous appetite against my tiny willpower in a David and Goliath battle. If you can no longer mistake my credit card statement for a list of drive-thrus and bottle shops in my area, David's got a chance. This is unfortaunately at odds with Bucket List Item #12 - Complete the Ribs and Rumps Meat Your Match Challenge, but I can only assume that the challenge will be all the more rewarding when completed by someone having just completed a diet of small portions of tasteless food.

Another great squash week. 727-0 is coincidentally both my squash tally at the end of this week and the number of litres of alcohol consumed vs water. David's got his work cut out for him. Some temptations are unavoidable (as Whitney Houston's autopsy this week proved), but in this case I'm referring to the sampling program that I had to undertake for work as part of finalising our imminent beverage list change. This photo probably tells the story, but with more to follow in coming weeks, who knows what will happen.

It's hard to believe on the same Sydney trip that this sampling was undertaken, I finished a book. The really hard, lots of words, no pictures marketing book. I think I'm about half way through the books on my bedside table now (Bucket List Item #1), but to be sure I'll have to remove the dust from the region of my bedside tables where books are currently stored.

In a move that Timmy Kenward would describe as "devestating for my cause," IMDB decided to break the link to Bucket List Item #7. This has forced me to sit down and actively try and remember a group of movies that so far I have been actively trying to forget! But in summary, the so-called "20 Funniest Comedy Movies Of All Time" that I am working my way through are (in no particular order):
(1) Watched so far - Shaun of the Dead, Tommy Boy, Blazing Saddles, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Animal House, National Lampoon's Vacation, Napolean Dynamite, The Ref, Caddyshack
(2) Still to watch - The Breakfast Club, Fast Times at Ridgemount High, The Hangover, Flying High, Superbad, Bad News Bears, The Benchwarmers, The Blues Brothers, Beverley Hills Cop, Young Frankenstein and Ace Ventura, Pet Detective

I can't believe that I have managed to remember them all which is so fortunate cos' otherwise I might have accidentally had to watch something starring Steve Martin (using the term "starring" more loosely than Matthew Newton uses the term "on the wagon"). To use Timmy's other favourite expression "High five for Jesus." I guess it's seasonally appropriate.

Until next week...