Lucy loves water, and loves to swim. She's crazy about it. Last trip home, she did a running dive into the Macintyre river in Inverell and tried to swim out and catch the ducks. I almost fell in trying to fish her out, because every time I'd get close she'd swim out again.

Charlie, not so much. All he needs is a puddle to cool off in and he's happy. 

I took the camera, and these are some of the shots I managed to get. I REALLY wanted one of the dogs shaking the water off, but Charlie does that whole cocker spaniel thing and doesn't shake until he's ran back up the beach to give the ball back. Lucy moves way too fast. 

I've basically summed up the last 3 weeks in the subject. How easy was that.

I'm more excited about my new camera, so I think I will mention that first. I was blessed with the opportunity to upgrade my Canon 500D for a Canon 7D, and of course I jumped for it.

To be honest, it is one of the most expensive things I have ever owned, excluding a car and a house and I hover over it like a protective mother bear. I have to say however, I have fallen in love with photography all over again. The camera almost completely forces me to customise the settings, so no more tricky green mode shots when I am being lazy or I want a quick photo (where I can pretend I'm fabulous but in reality, the camera did most of the work).

Compared to the 500D, the 7D is huge and I can see the 500D sitting in the palms of my (future) 14 year old, when they are able to start taking photography in high school. I feel more like a grown up walking around with it, and feel like money spent on a decent set of lens will be worthwhile. Capable of capturing up to 8 frames per second, with a burst depth up to 94 JPEGs I cannot wait to get out and put it to the test.

About the same time I got the camera, I was starting a process of doctors trips to find out that I have what's called Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease which was passed on to me by my mum (gee, thanks!). The symptoms are nothing to write home about, and I never noticed anything wrong. My mum on the other hand, had been dealing with it for 20+ years, and it seemed hers were getting worse and worse. So once she was successfully diagnosed, she did my blood work out of curiosity. And it turns out I am my mother's daughter.

When talking to the doctor, turns out I'm a classic case. To be honest, I'm really bad and I don't know my body as well as I should. I was asked if I'd put on weight. I hadn't recently, so I said no. He asked my lifestyle, and noted that I was quite healthy. Exercise, fresh foods. Asked again if I found it hard to lose weight. Of course it was (thinking this doctor has rocks in his head), everyone finds it hard to lose weight. But of course, when he probed me and I actually thought about it - I had managed to gain 10kg since September last year, with no changes to my diet or exercise. Oops. Healthy people don't get fatter, and I was getting fatter. To my credit, apparently I'd helped myself by not giving up hope and turning to the unhealthy lifestyle. All that work paid off in some way at least.

Along with the autoimmune disease, I also have a goitre (go on, look up the Seinfeld episode, I dare you) and 8 1cm nodules all over my thyroid. You cannot see them, and at the moment they cannot be felt (by me anyway, my endocrinologist could) but of course lots of little lumps means I have to have cancer ruled out (it's not that big of a deal, it's a 5% chance they could be malignant). What I am not keen on is the bloody biopsy to find this out. The doctor didn't even sugar coat it. It's hurts and I'm not going to like it.

Anyways. This mean my immune system is killing my thyroid. It will die eventually. Good riddance says the endocrinologist, I just take the hormone that the thyroid is meant to produce, every day for the rest of my life and I'll be fine. Uh, yay?

I've also been put on a gluten free diet, because it helps with the hashimoto's symptoms and that there is a strong chance I will develop coeliac disease (another autoimmune) as I'm starting to develop symptoms for an intolerance (bad digestion, easily bruise, bloating, nausea after some meals, etc). On the day he told me this, I was not happy - I love bread. Now, I say good riddance. I feel a million dollars without it. Because I'm GF now as well, I get to bypass the awful biopsy until there comes a time I need to confirm it or not.

So, here's how I see the past two weeks.

1. I got a new camera.
2. I've lost 3kg, without changing anything.
3. I now have a metabolism of someone who finds it easy to stay naturally slim.

Not so bad really. I can't eat mint slice biscuits or flavoured chips (tomato Samboys anyone??) but I guess you take the good with the bad. Will write up when I get the biopsy, and I'll see if I can convince them to let me take photos!!