Going with the Flow on a Monday

Back to work today at one of the major Telecommunications service providers in NZ - I gotta say - I'm really grateful for my job and the people I work with - I started working there in 2018 with no direction or intention of staying very long.  Over 12 years later, after seeing so many changes to the organisation and the industry, I'm still here, still enjoying what I do which has grown more to helping and supporting those around me as well as our end customers.

Today was supposed to be a pretty straightforward day - go to work, leave around lunchtime for dentist appointment and back to work again.  Turned out that the dentist appointment went longer than expected, and my usual call up for some prescription repeats ended up in a doctors visit.  $250 later and a sore tooth later, I'm home - having also travelled 30 mins out to Rolleston with the kids to visit their Nan and raid her food pantry :-) At the doctors, I got a clean bill of health, thanks in part (I believe) to the intermittent fasting programme I'm now on.  As you may recall, when i started a week ago, I weighed 110.5kg.  My doctor - awesome Catherine Xu from Burnside Medical Centre - weighed me today at 106.5kg - 4kg lost in a week! Woohoo! Talk about some fast results :-)  So yeah, definitely a good push for me to keep on with my eating habits - also got some encouraging comments today from my wife and mum which always help, although I admit I was wearing black which as we all know helps us look slimmer.  Anyways, onwards and upwards, my goal weight of 100kg is definitely within sight.

Over the weekend, we visited the Waikuku Beach General Store for fish n chips - the reviews at the time of writing were really positive and it was my cheat meal for last week.  It also helps when my son wants to go to the local river (Waimakariri River) to skim stones...so in the car we went - 30 min drive out to Waikuku from where we live.  Got there and the wait time was 35-40 mins - shows how big the demand is for their food!  Decided to wait and was not disappointed - definitely worth the wait and the kids were happy too.

Anyways thats it from me for now - some more sounds from NZ for your playlist:

Happy Friyay from CHCH, NZ!!

Happy Friyay from Christchurch (CHCH, chur-chur) NZ!

Great end to the working week today - people less stressed at work after time off over the Xmas holidays, intermittent fasting still going strong and have managed to start up my gym routine this week - after missing Monday morning, I managed to get there Tues, Wed and this morning for a workout :-)

Another one of my goals this year is to develop my relationship with God, YHWH, Jehovah - the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.  This is something that I've always felt I've wanted to do but have neglected over the past 5-10 years.  To develop my relationship, I have set a goal to read the Bible and pray on a consistent basis (daily).  What I'm actually doing is listening to YouTube sermons and praying in my quiet times.  One person I've found helpful listening to is Gary Hamrick - pastor of Cornerstone Chapel in the US - who share some interesting interpretations of parts of the word.  For example, the talk I listened to this morning on Revelation 13:

Being focussed on my walk with God has been more and more challenging over the years for a lot of reasons but largely the main one would be distractions to my time - eg. work/kids/phone/video games etc.  Its amazing what we fill our lives with when we get bored instead of intentionally setting aside time to invest in ourselves and those around us.

Anyways, listening to YouTube videos like this has started to make me curious again about reading His Word and renewing my faith again.  Its been almost 30 years since I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour.  About time I start walking the walk and talking the talk...

Much love to you and yours (alofa atu)

Mu

Teaching Vocals NZ

One of my hobbies that I've been lucky enough to develop over the years is Music - writings songs, creating music, performing music and lately teaching music, specifically teaching vocals.  At the moment, I have the privilege of teaching a couple of young girls not really how to sing (coz everyone knows how to sing, even if you aren't particularly good at it) but how to be more a more confident performer.

My main goal as a singing tutor is to help develop my students' confidence and self esteem, so that they are able to sing in a public and personal setting.  Its been an interesting journey - I've been a part of choirs, singing groups, bands and the like in the past but teaching & developing others has been a real challenge - trying to understand what motivates my students (which changes over time) and also developing a relationship of trust so that students feel comfortable being pushed to their limits without fear of being made fun of when (not if) they fail.

One of the songs that I'm listening to this summer that I wanted to share - add to your playlist to for that summer BBQ, whenever that comes around - 'In The Air' by NZ band L.A.B:

Much love to you and yours

Mu

Intermittent Fasting NZ

OK so I put on a few pounds/kgs over Christmas & New Year period - kind of normal if you know me - I tend to make the most of the good food and good company that comes with the holiday season :-)

Xmas 2020 brought a bit of drizzle and cloud in Christchurch - now that would be ok if you only had your immediate family of four to celebrate with.  Fortunately for me (or unfortunately depending on your point of view) 4 is the number of kids I have.  Add my parents, brother's family, aunties, their kids and the grandkiddies well.. you can see the numbers start to add up and well lets just say, I didn't fancy the idea of hosting 50 odd people in my humble 3 bedroom, 1 toilet house :-)  The plan for Xmas was to have a family BBQ and games at The Groynes - a beautiful local park in Belfast, Christchurch that has free gas BBQs that you can use to cook food on and nice green scenery, river walks, dog park and space for the family to run around.  The rain that day meant we had to cancel the BBQ at the park, however, we were lucky enough to have BBQ at a local college and the kids enjoyed themselves playing games in the school gym.

Anyways....add on a few weeks of leisurely eating, sleeping and watching TV later...it seems I've put on some weight (wow, no kidding I hear you say).  Hence New Year resolution (one of them anyways): Lose weight to get under 100kg.  I went to the gym yesterday to weigh myself, because working out seemed to stress my brain out - I am currently at 110.5kg.  Now the method of losing the weight I've chosen to use, which many people will be aware of, is intermittent fasting.  What is intermittent fasting?

Well, put basically, its intentionally not eating food for a certain period of time.  For me, I've chosen to intentionally not eat (ie. fasting) for 16 hours (not eating food from 8pm at night, until 12pm the next day).  That means I can eat food during an 8 hour period, in my case, between 12pm-8pm.  During my fasting period, I can still drink black coffee and water (aim to drink at least 2 litres of water per day).  I'm also aiming to exercise first thing in the mornings (lets see how long that lasts) for at least 30 mins, even if its just a walk around the block.  When it comes to eating - just eating smaller portions of healthier foods - I'm a terrible junk food eater normally so this will be the hardest part of the plan as it is not unusual for me to go out and buy takeaways or a packet of large chips every day...so yeah, looking forward to not only losing weight but feeling healthier inside and out :-) Looking forward to posting updates here about how the journey goes this year

Thats enough from me for now - but a pic of me and my ratbags to finish with..

Mu

Welcome to Vaemus World

Okey dokey - start of a new year and start of a new blog :-)

First of all - Talofa Lava & Kia Ora from Christchurch, New Zealand where I currently live.  Thought I'd use this blog as a way to reflect on life, things going on in my world at present, stories from the past, hopes for the future etc.  The other reason for starting up this blog is to share what I learn on this journey of life to hopefully connect with others out there in the world, regardless of whether you may be family, a friend or someone I've never met before :-)  Hopefully, you find the content here informative, educational, inspirational (will be happy with 1 out of 3).

So welcome one and all to the world of Vaemu Fidow.

And a photo too to start things off taking it back to the old school - my grandparents (mums parents) from the village of Tuana'i in the country of Samoa: