Hearts, parties and curly courgettes

Last weekend The Programmer and I ditched all adult responsibilities and took off to be 'the kids' for a couple of days - as always happens in the company of relatives that have (in my case) known me since the day the stork dropped me on this spinning ball of earth and water.

Driving up the coast to Picton is a fantastic way to appreciate that the stork chose a great planet. The road to Kaikoura runs alongside the ocean and there are plenty of places to stop and see such things as artistically arranged kelp and colonies of cute New Zealand fur seals (kekeno).

This guy was a complete poseur.

The seals are not too alarmed by the presence of humans, although I have in the past been alarmed by the too-close presence of an enormous male. They are surprisingly fast and have sharp teeth. Recently this colony was attacked and a number of seals were clubbed to death. I have no idea what sort of loser human would find this a fun activity. I hope karma comes along and tears them a new one, although if you ask me, karma can be too slow about dishing out the immediate justice that I'd prefer.

In Picton we had about an hour to eat, get unstinky from the hot car ride, change and then ready ourselves for some serious partying. It was my Uncle Mike's 60th. He has always been mad keen on boats.

It was a bit like being in Monaco, if you drop the average yacht value by about half a million dollars each. The food was fabulous, the wines were free flowing and there was (bad) dancing to 70's classics. Yes, you can Salsa to Fleetwood Mac, if the moment is right.

Parties are always a bit difficult in terms of keeping weightloss on track. My strategy is to avoid pre and post partying. That is, knowing I have a party to go to, and was travelling all day, it would have been all too easy to decide that the indulgences would start at lunchtime Saturday and finish when I got home, late Sunday. It's mindset that counts here. I let myself have whatever I wanted at the party and then ate in my usual manner the rest of the time, with a few compromises. After driving down the winding coast road I was feeling really queasy and in immediate danger of losing my Lara Bar, so we stopped for snackage and I ate scallops with quite a bit of rice and smothered in butter sauce. Usually I'd avoid that kind of carb-fest if I was planning on buttoning off the discipline in the evening, but my stomach needed something made of stodge to settle it. This worked. I did not hurl.

Weight was 57.6 on Saturday morning and 58.1 this morning, which is pretty much equilibrium. You can't get upset by a few ups and downs, in fact, it's best to expect the ups as well as the downs, especially when you've been eating salty party food, mostly made of wheat. It doesn't mean much, just a water fluctuation. The trick is to not panic about it. In people that are prone to emotional eating, panic can actually trigger more eating, which can turn a three-day bloat into actual fatgain. If I need a dose of logic I think about the calories, probably the only time I DO think about calories these days. If I gained a kg, did I eat 7000 more calories than usual? No? Ok, I didn't gain a kg of fat then.

On Sunday we drove all the way home - it's about 5 hours - and checked the vege patch which had, of course, gone completely feral being unattended for one day. You know.. anyone can grow a straight courgette... It takes a special type of green thumb to grow a lucky, horseshoe one.

Then, yesterday, along came VALENTINES DAY *insert hearts, baby fur seals and flowers here*. We went out for lunch at the chocolate shop Theobroma, which seemed to be the most romantic lunching place at Westfield, which is near The Programmer's work.

Later, I opened the door to a massive flower arrangement.

And then my super clever man even fixed my email, though there was swearing involved and much Programmerish mumbling about other peoples poxy software. It must be love. :D

I hope your weekend and Valentines day were equally as wonderful. I'd also love to hear about your techniques for handling parties without suffering waistline-related regret. Please feel free to Comment Me your strategies.