We woke up around 5am, I guess our body clocks are in tune with 7am Adelaide time. I watched some telly and went to the Gym at 6am downstairs on the 9th floor (ground floor was the 7th). This was a habbit I was determined to stick to.

I met kylie back in the room at 7am and we went for breakfast, it was a very relaxed traditional western breaky, with a chef cooking fresh golden eggs the way you liked them. I had about 10 rashers of bacon, 3 slices of toast, some hash browns, 2 small round waffles, a small croisant and finished off with some fruit (geez I was wondering how I put on so much weight!), I think I hit my high score of 90kgs!!!

After Breakfast we met with the hotel provided tailor, he had some really nice fabrics and I later found out that he did a really good job. Unfortunately the slumping Aussie dollar didn’t justify a purchase.

We scuttled onto the hotel shuttle bus to head into Nathan street (a main shopping district for Kowloon), we tagged along with Tim and Renata Elliott (we didn’t know anyone!) to have a browse and check out prices of a few electrical items, I really wanted a video camera, and they wanted a new camera.

There were heaps of shifty retailers that scam the tourists, loads of the other retailers told us about them and even showed us newspaper clippings to prove what they were saying, it was very reassuring once we knew what to look for, as the Hong Kong tourism bizo gave stickers with registered numbers to those that sold legit goods.

It was daunting to come across so many Indian hawkers on each corner and everywhere inbetween following us (mostly Timmy, I guess they thought he needed to scrub-up a little) and trying to get us to come and check out their copy watches, copy handbags, or tailored suits. After getting harassed for a couple of hours we found the shuttle bus and made it back to the hotel before lunch.

NEXT STOP THE PEAK TRAM -

Peak Tram Shield

By now we were tired and somewhat sleepy just from Nathan Street. I was nearly asleep from my workout.

We made it to the Peak Tram on Hong Kong Island, it was amazing! - sometimes it felt as if we were going up the mountain on a 45degree angle. The view when we made it to the top was amazing.

From the top

We all piled back into the bus to head onto the Stanley Markets, we weren’t impressed, there were hundreds of of people down a tiny little alleyway of no more than 1.5m wide. It was really hot, silly us forgot to get some money changed, so we couldn’t even buy a bottle of water.

Stanley Markets

The guides finally found us and threw us back on the bus and headed for Repulse Bay & Deep Water Bay, then to Aberdeen - the floating village for fisherman. We jumped onto a Sampan and cruised the harbour, it was amazing the way the fishermen lived on their boats or a tiny little niche that they cut into the bank and created a dock/house for themselves.

Fisherman Docks

OMG this day was packed, we went to a factory/sweatshop to view how they created fine gold and Jade jewellery. It was ridicuously priced and the salespeople were obviously on commission, they kept following us around pulling everything that our eyes paused on for more than 2 seconds - it was really hard to not be rude, when they are so nice, it really gives another word to ‘hard-sell’.

We finally got back to the Hotel & died on the rock hard bed that felt like heaven, before waking a half hour later to jump back on the bus and head back down to Aberdeen to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant, where we had a welcome dinner on the top deck - with drinks, and dragon/tigerman thing, and heaps of drinks to keep us awake! - I’m pretty sure I fell asleep and somehow drifted back to my rock hard heaven bed. 

Jumbo as we were approaching

Tiger Dragon Man

Welcome to Hong Kong

That was the most excited I felt in a long time.

We woke up nice and early ready for the long day of travel ahead of us, Kylie was up around 4:30am with excitement dripping from her pores, her repetitive “are you ready Regan?” didn’t rip me out of bed until after 5ish. We got to the Airport at 6:30am. We were standing in line for about 10mins until I realised I left my ID at home - I called Heidi (Kylie’s sister) to find it and bring it to me - until Heidi said “can’t you use your passport?”, the stupidity eventually left me and I got on the plane a little embarrassed.

We didn’t get seats next to each other on our way to Sydney, but we were together for the rest of the trip.

We were smack in the middle of the plane going to Hong Kong, Kylie on one side and someone else on the other… we were fairly early onto the plane at the Sydney airport watching people fill the seats around us. I was dreding the person I had to sit next to - out of all the people it could have been, it just had to be a cute Asian! Kylie just laughed at me.

This girl next to me changed her clothing and re-applied her makeup about 3 times during the flight, I felt a little weird that maybe I should be getting changed too! I managed to get into a very comfy position and watched some movies before falling asleep and snoring/snorting for an hour or so, before my seat entertainment system broke and none of the manginas could fix it.

We finally arrived into HK, I managed to steal a glimse or two out the windows - the skyline was amazing, I was starting to feel excited about the trip for the second time.

We boarded the bus and headed for the Hotel where our group had a brief itinerary review about what was going to happen during the trip. I seriously don’t think anyone listened due to the 11 or so hours of travel that some of us just barely survived through.

Apparently we were told about some markets that weren’t far away that we should head to (Temple St, Markets). I was dead tired, I needed some sleep, We went for a walk through the mall that was attached to our Hotel searching for some dinner - we were really excited when we stumbled across a food court (I think I drooled a little)! That was until we walked around and saw that everything was the same, and written in Chinese. We ended up finding a parknshop (a small supermarket), hit some beer, Doritos, & chips for dinner mmmm, I still remember how hungry we were and being able to see a McDonalds logo from the balcony near the reception, but we were too tired to do anything about it - and a little scared we would get lost.

We got back to our room, I remember I half passed-out with one hand in the chips and the other on my half drank beer. That’s how I stayed for a good few hours until I was too uncomfortable to stay asleep.

I forgot to mention, I made the two week challenge with flying colours!

There is a funny feeling that has been surging through me lately; it’s really hard to explain - I’ll try my best.

I have been edgey… edgey like when I first gave up smoking, only this has been a reserved calm edgeyness that feels like I am waiting for something to happen or I need to do something. I have been trying to go to garage sales on the weekend to find things to sell on ebay, I have been getting into facebook like crazy, increasing my friend count by over 250 in three weeks!

I feel like something really important is about to happen, I’m not sure if it’s good, or a bad thing - I do know it is going to be big.

I have started studying Project Management once again, once again I’m starting from the start as I can’t remember anything I’ve already studied.

I am bored, I’m bored at work, I’m bored at home. What do I need? What do I want? I feel lost.

I need to start something that makes me feel passionate, excited, and absolutely pumped to even think about. I really want the feeling like when I was little and I got a new toy that I had wanted for longer than a week.

I just had a brain wave (literally just then as I was typing!) - Over the next two weeks (MY NEW TWO WEEK CHALLENGE) I am going to listen to as much personal-development that I can, chat to as many people as possible, get ideas, get information, get something, get anything - that will give me that spark back!

I got up (very angry for no reason) and went back to sleep on the lounge with my dog Schnitzel when Kylie went to work at around 5:30am.

I had this strange dream that I was driving along with a heap of family and friends, my step bro in the car in front pointed out the window to a massive airplane taking off in the middle of a field with a house attached to the front of the aircraft. I didn’t see it as being too wierd as that’s the new way they moved houses. I kept watching the plane, it flew all the way into Adelaide Airport. The pilot had some real trouble trying to land it due to the weight at the front of the plane.

Next thing I knew I was watching it crash and blow up, and the shockwaves destroyed the next few suburbs around the airport - including the office where I work, which had most of my workmates inside.

I was feeling quite distraught as I didn’t have my new Nikon D60 to take the photo’s, then I checked my iphone to see if twitter had any news about the crash. I noticed it was actually a workmates client who was the pilot.

I felt really happy I had witnessed something like that, I also felt awful that my workmate lost a sale, although the disappointment that I did not capture it with my camera was the strongest feeling, I don’t think I am a shallow person, but I had to find out to be sure. I told Jacki at work about the dream and she punched the info into the website DreamMoods. This is the information it gave:

Airplane Crash

To dream that a plane crashes, suggests that you have set overly high and unrealistic goals for yourself. Your goals may be too high and are impossible to realize. You are in danger of having it come crashing down. Alternatively, your lack of confidence, self-defeating attitude and self-doubt toward the goals you have set for yourself is represented by the crashing airplane; you do not believe in your ability to attain those goals. Loss of power and uncertainty in achieving your goals are also signified.

Work

To dream that you are at work, indicates that you are experiencing some anxiety about a current project or task. The dream may also be telling you that you need to “get back to work”.? Perhaps you have been slacking and need to pick up the pace.

Happy

To dream that you are happy, may be a compensatory dream and is often a dream of the contrary. You may be trying to compensate for the sadness or stress in your waking life.

Coworker

To see your coworkers in your dream, highlights aspects of your waking relationship with them, including difficulties/support. It signifies your ambition, struggles and competitive nature.

Annoyed

To feel annoyed in your dream, signifies that rivals are at work against you.

Camera

To see a camera in your dream, signifies your desires to cling on and/or live in the past. Alternatively, it may represent you need to focus on a particular situation. Perhaps you need to get a clearer picture or idea.

Emotions

Emotions expressed in dreams is a way for people to act out their feelings which they would not normally express if they were awake. This provides a “safe” outlet for these emotions instead of letting them be pent up.

After another sleepless night Schnitzel woke me up nice and early to see the sunrise again, isn’t he sweet!?

If the grammar is awful - the spelling is illegible, or this post doesn’t make sense it’s because I need some sleep. Today I went to the Pooch park with Schnitzel I also took my Camera and snapped some pics, I’ll post some to my flickr account in the next few days (after I get some sleep).

I’m beginning to notice my face change, although I haven’t lost a great deal of weight, I have noticed my face has gained shape. I heard that you put it on (weight) from top to bottom, then you lose it the same way, I’m not sure about that, but i’ll run with it.

Today was great fun, I started the morning (without a headache I might add!) taking Kylie and Schnitzel for a walk, we went straight up our street to Linear Park where I snapped some photo’s of them both with my new camera (check out my flickr profile).

We went for some shopping at Westfield Marion Shopping Centre - when we got there I felt fantastic, no cravings, no patterns, and best of all no stinky breath. I knew my luck would get me a good park today, I was right - less than 50m from the entrance. In that short distance we managed to walk past six people with cigarettes either in their mouth, about to light one up, or putting one out.

The first two were these little girls bum-puffing on their ciggies just outside the entrance (all the others didn’t really matter), they would have been between 14-18 years old (I’m terrible with age of women and girls!). It looked as though it was their first couple of smokes they’ve ever had and were only there posing, trying to look cool. I just wanted to grab the ciggies out their mouths and say “cigarettes make you look ugly, stink, and ruin your skin - you’re not bloody doin’ it right anyway!”. Instead I walked past and the smell actually made me sick, it was a great sign. This was the first time I’ve given up and I’ve not enjoyed the smell. Kylie was very proud (again).

It was a standard shopping day, the only difference was I was not feeling so self-conscious about how my clothes or breath smelt. We fought our way home to a little peace late in the afternoon. It was only minutes when we walked through the door and Kylie got a call from her friend, Kylie said “do you want to go out?” to me, I did not want to go out to a pub surrounded by ciggies and beer. I explained as nice as I could, trying to let her down softly “I’m too tired, I’ll drive you where ever you’d like”, she had a relieved look about her, something tells me she didn’t want someone bored sitting in the corner asking to go home every five minutes holding her back from having a good time.

Coming home by myself felt weird. I ALWAYS have a all by myself, this time was different - I heard noises - I heard scratching - was that a knock? - what was that? - where were these sounds coming from?… My anxiety was intense, I was starting to sweat, I was screaming like a School girl. The cravings were even more intense, I really feel like a beer and a ciggie. I decided to get my Baseball bat and triple check all the windows and doors - “Sorry Schnitty, you’re going to have to try and hold on tonight” I said. I laid on the lounge with Schnitzel and my bat next to me.

Waking up to the sound of my phone going bananas (literally, I put banana splits as my ringtone). Kylie needed to be picked up, my sleep deprived state was now in delirium. I tried to open my eyes, it didn’t work, Kylie called again to see where I was. I fell asleep. I jumped up about 10 minutes later, oh no I have to get Kylie!!

It was nice being the person relied on rather than the person relying on someone. “One banana two banana three banana four…”

All is still going well, my will power is holding strong - I’ve made it through another week.

This morning I received my new Digital Camera the Nikon D60.

I love it! I’ve realised how hard it is to create gorgeous looking shots in the blink of an eye. I’ve posted a couple to my flickr site (view my side panel flickr profile). I’ve got a lot to learn.

As today is Friday I’m not overly excited that the weekend has happened upon me again. My ritual of going home for a beer is still very much top of mind, I have to get through and prove it to myself that I can do it. I’ve got a camera to pay for now, so the next few weekends will be very quiet.

I’m going to head off to bed early tonight, we’ll see how the weekend unfolds.

This is my new theme, I think I like it more than the old one.

I’ll see how long it takes until I destroy this one.

Title is good isn’t it?! I’ll explain below.

Typical Saturday Starts with a little yard work to around lunch time, usually with a few breaks for a smoke and maybe a coffee. This Saturday varied only slightly; the yard work was the same, the coffee tasted better than great, the slight change was I wasn’t having the smoke - it was my lawn mower! It started blowing this beautiful thick white smoke, I managed to jump up on the fence and watch it ebb and flow through everyone’s homes and yards all the way to the end of the block - very relaxing.

My habits and patterns were crazy, whenever I walked through my shed, or finished a big patch of lawn, I craved a ciggie. I lasted and finished the yard work in record time.

Me and Kylie went to Le Cornu’s around lunch to pick-up a coffee table that will match the lounges and our TV cabinet, we found one that was perfect; budget, type, colour, even down to the same handles. We told the Salesman ‘John’ that we wanted to buy, he said “sure I’ll just check to see if it’s in stock”.

He told us “it won’t be in until July, do we want to put our name down?”. Kylie was very disappointed, we told him that’s awful! and we’ll have a look around, we may come back. He basically bolted away as fast as he could walk!

We had a look around - nothing suited or looked as good for the money. Kylie went back to put her name down. She got another guy, he took her details and told her “Yep, we’ll give you a call in around six weeks”. Kylie didn’t understand, she asked him to clarify, Kylie explained what the other guy had told her, he laughed and just reiterated “about six weeks”. We turned and glared at each other with a stunned emotionless look on our faces, we both said in unison “what was the other guy on about? do they actually want our business?!”.

We came out the doors of Le Con-u; what’s this familiar gorgeous aroma? The smell was thick, it felt like there was an animated pie on a window sill with the aroma waves breaking toward us, I felt a sensation like I was floating through the air towards it. The smell of BBQ Snags and Kransky’s in bread with tomato sauce and mustard! mmmm it makes my mouth water just thinking about them. Earlier in the morning I told Kylie I was going to take her out for lunch - I think she thought Kransky’s and Bread was my treat for lunch, unfortunately not this time. we were on a mission to try and dodge the on-coming evil (but delicious) Kransky smell.

I didn’t tell Kylie where her lunch was, “a bit of a surprise” I said.

I parked at the Watermark Hotel carpark. First she thought I was taking her there, when we walked past and over Wigley Reserve toward Marina East she got a little angry she had to walk so far!! “Don’t worry, you’ll thank me afterwards” I said.

When we arrived, there were bouncers and security guards all over the Marina. We had no idea what was going on, we walked past a couple of empty market stalls - each one had a sheet of paper pinned to it “$5 Souvenir Glass”… I had a feeling we might have been walking into a Beer and Wine bloody Octoberfest.

We looked further down the Marina, there’s Music, Food, and WINE STALLS EVERYWHERE!! They were layered like beautiful bouquets of flowers on some tables, they were screaming “Drink me!” on others. People were offering tastings, and cheese platters. It was all getting too much for my senses to take.

If this was any other weekend I would have went through those stalls like lambs to the slaughter! They would have been cleaned out.

“I’M ON A MISSION” I heard this little voice say in my head (I know - it’s not good when you start hearing voices). It felt like weeks, but we finally got to where I wanted to take Kylie for lunch.

LIDO Ristorante - Seafood Platter for Two (recommended by Lyn Foong)

It was a perfect day to sit Marina side out in the sun, there was even a Sealion sitting on the mooring down below us. To drink I got a San Pelligrino Chinotto, and Kylie ordered a glass of Champagne (very supportive, she did ask if she could have one). In all seriousness I didn’t feel like a drink or a ciggie, it was a surreal feeling.

The meal took only a few minutes to arrive, Morton Bay Bugs, King George Whiting, Prawns, Octopus, Scollops, Oysters (Natural and Kilpatrick), and a very proportioned sized salad. The entire meal was fantastic, we left only a few slices of Octopus tenticle.

Kylie now understood why I had parked so far away!

I MADE IT! so much temptation, and no sliding back to old normality.

The whole way home I was as proud as a non-alcoholic fruit punch!

Today was a typical Friday, except unusually large amount of work. Unfortunately it was busy work, not productive work.

I’m feeling better everyday! I feel 80-90% today, bit of a headache early on, but that was only due to not enough sleep - AGAIN!

Every night since I’ve been off the Ciggies and Grog; Schnitzel has been coming in to wake me up to tell me he needs to go to the loo. It’s ‘amazing’ that he hasn’t even had an accident since I’ve been able to wake up straight away and take him outside, it’s 100% been my fault previously - poor little bugger.

I worked until around 6:30pm tonight, I really didn’t want to come home - I’m scared the patterns will emerge and grab hold of me so tight that this Two Week Challenge will be just a blur.

The Footy is nearly on, the mighty Bulldogs are playing Essendon. This is when I would usually go and grab a warm-up beer then head out to warm my lungs up with a couple of ciggies.

Tonight’s going to be different! I need a coffee… Go Dogs!