I’m happy to say that the “85-kilo monkey” is off my back at last; and in fact, I think the little bastard might be dead. Official weight tonight: 84.1 kg. That’s a drop of 1.5 kg from last week, and it brings my total loss to 16 even. I’m ecstatic. Here’s the thing though: I KNEW it was going to be a good week. I KNEW I was going to have a loss. I’ve been faithfully tracking everything (using the online eTools) and I knew exactly how much more output than input I had every day. I’ve been feeling POWERFUL. I don’t even feel like I’ve done a ton of exercise, but I know I’ve done something every single day. I even had two social engagements last week: trivia on Wednesday and the symphony on Saturday. Normally that would have been excuse enough to wreck the whole week. I feel like I can handle anything now.

Joanne asked me at work today whether I thought the hypnotherapy had done me any lasting good. It’s an issue I’ve been thinking about lately. I mean, I don’t feel “cured” or anything. I’m still hungry ALL THE TIME and I’m still worried that my progress could stall if I lose focus. What I don’t have, though, is that crushing feeling of depression and futility I had a few months ago. I feel more capable and confident. I don’t know if hypnosis was the key to that, or whether it was simply trying something different to shake me out of the doldrums. (Or whether I’d have had the same result with any sort of counselor.) So I don’t know if I’d wholeheartedly recommend it as a bona fide proven weight-loss treatment just yet. It was exactly what I needed at that time, but that doesn’t mean it would have the same effect for everyone.

I think I may be facing a new hurdle though. Now that I can finally look past the 85 kg barrier, I can actually see the end in sight. Folks, I AM SEVEN KILOS FROM GOAL. That means I’m seven kilos away from NOT BEING A FAT PERSON ANYMORE. I mean, I know I’m not magically going to turn into an Olsen twin once I hit 77 kg, but I mean that mentally, I won’t have to think of myself as overweight anymore. That is utterly inconceivable to me. It would be like changing gender or race or something. Being “big” has been an intrinsic part of my self-image since college. If you take that away, what’s left? It’s like staring into an abyss. I won’t have it as a crutch anymore. It’s going to take some serious getting used to.

Quiddity pointed me to a fascinating little eassy on sex and comics. I’ve sorta been thinking about these issues myself as I’ve started exploring the world of comics. Fortunately none of the books I’ve been reading – Astonishing X-Men, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and The Sandman – fall into the heavy T&A category. (Although I have to admit, when I got to the sex scenes in Volume 2 of LoEG my jaw dropped. I wouldn’t say they were exploitative – or even explicit, in the case of Mr Hyde and, um, Mr Griffin – but I found them pretty shocking, nonetheless.) To be honest, I feel that the “soft-core exploitation” issue is the same one that dogs the video game industry. You’ve got an art form that traditionally appeals to guys, so the guys who make it put in the chicks that the guys who consume it want to see. Then they all get together and bitch about how no real girls are into games or comic books. The fact is, we tell them over and over exactly why we don’t like participating in that vicious little circle. They just don’t want to hear it. I don’t mind if a chick is sexy while she kicks ass; I own all seven season of Buffy. I just don’t think her boobs should be the only thing that makes her interesting. (I’m looking at you, Lara Croft.)

Kenya has just discovered his grandfather’s cricket player stats. How cool is that? I like the bit about how, in his one first-class match, he opened the batting for Dublin University with the playwright Samuel Beckett. He was out there batting with the guy who’d go on to write Waiting for Godot. That blows my mind. (Also cool that he went on to be the Secretary-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Good on ya, Grandpa Deverell.)

Turns out there have been some fresh sightings of the murderer around Dubbo lately… (I’ve come to think of him as “our” murderer.) In case I forgot to mention, the Zoofari people have been wonderful in dealing with the whole debacle. Our money got refunded right away and they’ve even offered us a complimentary visit if we ever get back there.

My good mate Nick (aka “Kenya”) has officially launched his Kenya Cricket weblog. An admittedly narrow subject area, to be sure, but please consider giving him a link so he can build up some Google goodwill…

In a rather last-minute display of civic involvement and an earnest desire to get some “cultcha” for once on a Saturday night, Amy, Snookums, and I headed into the city for tonight’s big free Sydney Festival event: Symphony in the Domain. Unfortunately 20,000 other people had gotten there before us, so we were sitting way, way off behind a tree in probably the only acoustically-poor section of the park. It was still fun though. We nibbled and munched our way through an assortment of healthy snacks and even knocked back a couple glasses of wine. (Ooh, contraband!) Given that the theme was Gershwin and the conductor knew how sophisticated Sydney summer concertgoers are (i.e. not very), he began with the obvious but still impressive “Rhapsody in Blue.” They even trotted out singers for a few numbers including one of my favorites, Caroline O’Connor. It was a beautiful night and most people seemed content to just treat it as a big communal picnic with some lovely background music, which suited us just fine. Next year we’ll know to get there earlier!

Steve has posted the Martini Club‘s first review from our night at Kuleto’s in Newtown a few weeks ago. My comments regarding the non-gin-based cocktails are in the comments.

Friday Accomplishments

1. I resisted the urge to sleep in and instead met Albie at the university squash courts for an hour-long workout. Good way to start the day.
2. The Snook and I signed paperwork at the bank to create our first official joint bank account together, which we got so that we can open a savings maximiser and start socking away cash to buy a house. (And so that I can steal all his money.)
3. Deposited my last two checks from Google, which I forgot I had. Cashing foreign checks is such a hassle.
4. Spent half the Google money on a 1GB iPod Shuffle. 🙂
5. Cashed in my “buy-ten-massages-and-get-one-free” card.
6. Got six months’ worth of new contact lenses.
7. Hit the grocery store and the fish monger to pick up supplies for my first ever paella tonight. (Needless to say, this will be the first time I’ve ever cooked seafood in my life.)

And what did you do?

I’m being all schmoopy over at Tara D’s site.

Scandal! Titsiana the THIEF was just in the shop! It was a tense fifteen minutes as the staff tailed her around the knitting department while the rest of us watched on the cameras in the office. She didn’t steal anything this time, but she did put some stuff on hold and we think she’s going to try to “return” the kit she stole and try to exchange it for other stuff. She was also behaving very oddly with her credit card – asking us what her limit was, etc – so we rang AmEx to alert them that it might have been stolen. It’s like Dragnet in here!