Little sojourn to the Southern Highlands

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Geo: -34.4778, 150.418

So I started a diet on Monday and went away for the first weekend in ages on Friday. I love to travel and been all over the world but my weight always goes mental when I am not at home, I once gained a kilo a week in India for 10 weeks, Delhi belly my fat ass!

You know how people say "I always lose weight on holidays" well I'd love to know how unless they go on Retreats, to Health Farms or to the 'Bangkok Hitlon'. Holidays, for me, are about living it up, enjoying some good food, drinking some good wine, embibing the culture and seeing lots of things, oh and shopping. I am a big walker -God knows what size I'd be without that- and seeing the sights on foot is an great way to negate all (well most) of the above but alas still its not always enough. So in short a weekend away is a big test for the likes of me.

At lunch time on a Friday, well technically after lunch time -we are late risers- we set off and the traffic from Sydney to the Southern Highlands was absolutely brutal.
Mistake number 1 rented too small a car - forgot about all the baby gear.
Mistake number 2 set off too late - forgot about weekend traffic.

At 4:40 we had enough and stopped off in what seemed to be a chain restaurant in Piction. So the two dilemmas before me then were:
1. do they have anything vegetarian (yes I am one of those but am lacto-ovo so its not all that difficult)
and
2. do they have anything low fat and vegetarian,
a tall order in a country town.

My (lean) husband had a cheesy nacho affair, obviously that would not be good for me but there was vegetable risotto, fine. No starters, no desserts and a bottle of pure blonde. Quite nice actually.

Finally got to our friends lovely place in Bowral before 6pm, where a selection of lovely cheeses, crackers, fruit & antipasti awaited us. Started with a G&T but took it easy on the cheese. Dinner was gourmet pizzas, for once in my life I had 4 slices instead of the usual 8, there was even pizza left over which never happens in our house.

I read in 'French women don't get fat' that champagne/sparkling wine compliments the melted cheese in pizza magnificently, so luckily I had brought two bottles, or not so lucky really as I find the sparkles extremely intoxicating, and then we started on the red wine..... suffice to say I woke up with a bit of a head on me. And I know I was weak and a had few lindt chocolates too, stupid.

The next day after a lovely healthy breakfast of poached egg, whole grain toast and a tiny bit of avocado I promptly threw up, not in a bulimic way (I'd be too mean to waste my food that way) but in a very hung over way. Double stupid.

We went to Hopewood house to see the beautiful gardns. It was generally garden spring opening season in the highlands this weekend. It was really lovely even if we were unlucky with the weather. The grand house, now a hotel, was once a home for post war mums and bubs who had lost their men.

Lunch was in a beautiful bright tea room, with white French colonial furniture and white linen table cloths. I could only manage a skim latte and a teeny tiny raspberry cheese cake -so much for my maggot visualisations. Bizarrely though the hot drinks were served in paper cups, no fine china for the hoi polloi. Fine china prices though!

After seeing some more gardens and garden art in Bowral we repaired to a hostelery for a blonde beverage and some vitels, again country town :: vegetarian options not abundant, so we had to share some potato wedges, yes, and sour cream and thai chilli sauce. I tried to take it easy but who knows what damage was done.

Final temptation of the day, under the shadow of a Kidman-Urban property no less, in Sutton Park was a piece of chocolate mud pie BUT shared between 3 people, so not too much damage, a flat white but on full cream milk as they had no low fat, damn those country pubs and a low carb beer, hey, at this point why not.

Dinner was a healthy vegetable, noodle and tofu laksa, but with wine, small portion of ice cream and fresh paw paw. I won't tell you what this days calories added up to but you get the idea, diet damage city!

I was a fricking saint on Sunday and weighed in Monday a.m. and had lost, wait for it, 1.2kg. Halleluliah.

Back on the horse, here's to a good week in sunny Sydney. Non je ne regrette rien.

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