Weigh in: 86/189 (kg/lbs)

GOOOOOOAL!

[Tree runs around with her arms outstretched in triumph, stops in the middle of the field to do the "Damn I'm Good" mambo and then runs around a bit more.]

I've hit my first goal, just over five kilos. It's taken a little longer than I had planned, but twelve pounds in seven weeks is not too shabby.

Just a little exercise for those of you at home, next time you go grocery shopping, put 48 sticks of butter (for my US audience--my Aussie viewers need twenty packs) into your basket and have a look at that.

Feel the weight of it.

That used to be under my skin.

I used to be carrying that around every day with me.

That's a nasty little visual, isn't it?

Here's to never carrying it around again.

Sorry I didn't update last week, but as we get closer to the end of the year, things get more and more frantic. I was rehearsing for a belly dance performance, attending Christmas parties and preparing for my own Christmas celebrations as well as finishing up my latest project.

No wonder I'm feeling a little like I've been hit by a bus.

Although dancing with La Fée Verte last weekend probably didn't help matters.

I belly danced at a local club last Friday night. I always get a bit of a performance buzz from being onstage, so I was rather looking forward to going to a friend's party afterwards. I headed on over (in full stage get-up, I might add) to join in the fun.

The party was in full swing when I arrived, including a knot of people in the kitchen oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over a slender bottle of green liquid. Turns out a friend had recently returned from a trip to Prague with a bottle of absinthe.

Now, the most I know about absinthe is what I've seen in movies, so I don't pretend to know whether this was the real deal or whether how we drank it was correct. What we did was pour shots into wine glasses, take a teaspoon of sugar, pour a little more absinthe over the sugar, set it alight and, once it had caramelised a little, quickly stir it into the absinthe and drink it.

I watched a couple of others shoot theirs first. Most of them looked at it for a bit before drinking it, which let the sugar sink to the bottom. This meant the first mouthful was bitter as hell and most of the sugar was left in the bottom of the glass. The faces people pulled were most amusing.

I decided that I didn't want to have that sort of experience, so once the master of ceremonies stirred in the sugar, I kept swirling the glass so the sugar was mixed through as I drank it. It was still bitter as all hell, but there was a faint liquorice taste as well.

Going down, it felt like fire. It was mostly a good glowy feeling, sometimes just this side of heartburn. And while I didn't see any little green Kylie Minogues flittering about and singing, it did enhance my post-dancing buzz. Mind you, had I seen little green Kylie Minogues, I would not have been too surprised. My friend's roommate is gay and his friends kept playing Kylie all night. Imagine a roomful of absinthe-buzzed gay men grooving to "Your Disco Needs You" and you'll have a fair idea of what I mean.

Although, perhaps I DID see a roomful of fairies after all...