Arse Biscuits

1. Arse

The Pocket Oxford Dictionary (with RP pronunciation guide):

arse /a:s/[1] n. (US ass /æs/ [2])
coarse slang buttocks [old English]

In other words, yes you do pronounce the 'r' in arse - that's what makes it 'arse' not 'ass'.

Once you have mastered the use of 'arse', you might want to refer to this page to expand your knowledge of English as she is spoken in the modern vernacular.

[1] a: = arm
[2] æ = cat [3]
[3] spot the person who lives with a nearly-phd in linguistics

2. Biscuits

What do Americans mean when you talk about 'biscuits'? Proper biscuits (ie good old fashioned stiff upper lip spirit of the blitz British ones) are sweet and come in packets and form an ideal accompaniment to a nice cup of tea and a sit down. Biscuits for breakfast, biscuits with gravy on - what's that all about?

3. Arse Biscuits not work-friendly ;-)

more Fr Ted sounds here, including Mrs Doyle on swearing.

My sis and I have decided to train R and her boyf to say "That would be an ecumencial matter" should any questions of a religious nature arise. Two (very lapsed) Catholics in the bosom of our Scots Presybterian family. My uncle is a Church elder and best friends with the minister. My mother has a model of John Knox's house on display in the living room. Eeeep.

Latest Dr Gill news

Poor Dr Gill. That bad man at the gruaniad's "Bad Science" column is being mean to her again.

Tee Hee.

testing testing

testing this new-fangled 'post-via-email' thingy

....

Spinning

I go through phases where things in my life are relatively under control. House not too messy, work not too behind, laundry not piling up, etc. When life's going like that, my eating goes good too, mostly. But when life gets like now, things wobble and spin out of control. The house is a mess, work's all to pot, hardly any clean clothes and eating habits a mess. Aaargh. Neither R nor I have had the time to keep on top of things lately. Poor R has been working flat out finishing off his PhD, late nights and early mornings, culminating in him not sleeping at all for 2 nights running. He finally got it all finished and ready to go the printers yesterday , so he got a proper night's sleep at last. With a bit of luck (* touches wood, avoids magpies, crosses fingers, wears lucky socks, waves to that nice Dr Wiseman off the telly *) the printer will get it bound in time for him to hand in tomorrow. Eeep.


in other news: I'd just like to say a quick Drink! Feck! Girls! to Marla

Sunday Log

I wish I didn't leave things to the last minute and then have to rush at them in a carb-fueled panic.

Food

Breakfast: shreddies w. f-f milk (all out of any other kind)

Lunch: big pile of crap

Snack: biscuits

Drinks: too much coffee, 1 x 750ml water

Exercise

bike: 20 mins bike ride to try and clear head

Daily Review
food ~ ; fruit ~ ; exercise ~ ; water ~ ; booze ~

and now, the end is near

R is going to be finishing his PhD this week! After 4 years of hard work, he has to get it to the printers at the beginning of next week for it to be ready in time for his submission deadline. So, I will have even less puter time than usual this weekend (and I'm away all day on Monday). But from next week, the computer is all mine again bwahahaahahahahahahahahah.

Saturday Log

Food

Breakfast: shreddies w. s-s milk, banana

Snack: Fruit & Fibre w. s-s milk

Lunch: Feta & Melon

Snack: soz sarnie (granary bread)

Evening: curry with all bad things (poppadoms, naan bread, pilau rice - tho no lassi and no pudding and not too much booze), 1 bottle beer, 1 glass wine

Exercise

walking: morning mile

cycling: 30 mins or so (emergency trip for extra paper and printer ink); 30 mins (round trip to curry house)

we're going to cycle to the curry house tonight, does that earn me a poppadom?

Daily Review
food ~ ; fruit ~ ; exercise ~ ; water ~ ; booze ~

Super Star

O got reception class Star of the Week award at school today, for always listening to the teachers, being helpful and getting on with his work. Spot the proud mum.

I told him that as Star of the Week, he could choose what we had for tea and offered to make his favourite lasagne. But he chose salad, with fruit salad for pudding. Oh and ice-cream with the fruit, just in case anyone was thinking he was Peter Perfect the Perfect Child. So that's what we had, salad (with some cheese) then fruit salad. And yes I had ice-cream which is Bad, but I still end the day in a much better way than I started it. Thanks to Star of the Week.

best laid plans

Buggrit. I've just got an email reminding me of long-standing arrangement to meet friends tomorrow night. For a curry. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. I can't cry off, it's to say bye-bye to a friend who is emigrating to Canada next month and will be our last chance to see her before she goes. I love curry but it means approx 373, 000 extra calories. OK well I suppose I can economise some by not having lassi, and passing on the popaddoms. I could even not have naan bread ... or have plain rice instead of pilau [1].... no, that's thinking the unthinkable. As is forgoing paneer if tis on the menu. Oh lordy, why I am so weak ... ?


handy curry glossary for the uninitiated

[1] not that I have 1 whole naan and 1 whole serving of rice to myself, I wish to make clear - R and I usually share them between us

Restless Legs

I read this article in the Gruaniad earlier this week, and it reminded me to blog about this. About 6 months ago I was having a lot of trouble sleeping. Not the usual kind of sleep problems I've had with my depression, but a whole new problem. I would be feeling really tired and wanting to sleep, but my legs were wide awake and feeling all kind of 'buzzy', and often I had to get up instead of keep lying there tossing and turning and twitching.

It seems to come and go, so it happens for 3 or 4 nights in a row (leaving me completely knackered) and then not for a while. It's very weird and uncomfortable when it does happen. Very annoyingly, it has come on during a time in my life when I'm doing healthy things - stopped smoking, eating better, drinking plenty of water and not much booze, regular exercise. Not fair! I tried cutting my caffeine intake right down (no coffee after lunch, no tea after 6 pm) but it made no difference.

So I went to see the doctor "I can't sleep, my legs are all restless". "Aha!" says Dr "you have Restless Legs Syndrome." Oh. Ok. Can't find a reason for it happening to me (it's a possible side effect of anti-depressants but I've been on these particular ones for a while and it hasn't caused any problems before, so we don't think it's that). I've got some pills to take when it does come on.

It sounds like a minor problem but when your legs feel weird as feck and you haven't slept for 3 nights running, it's not so minor.

Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation

Moment of Truth

Weighed myself this morning and I've gained 4 lb. Ick. Which means I've un-acheived my milestones. Ack. I know I said I wouldn't mind but I do. So entirely logically I go and eat a pile of crap instead of a proper breakfast. That makes sense dur. Looking on the bright side ...

... ummm ....

.... I am going to do my best to keep on going, and not beat myself up when things don't go entirely right. I'm going to try not to lose it completely, and to try to keep on doing things mostly right most of the time. As my doctor says, "it is better to be inadequate than totally bloody useless".

update: I now feel like crap as a result of all the crap I ate. Headache, bloated, funny tummy. Happens every time and I don't seem to learn. Dur.

Friday Log

Food

Breakfast: huge pile of fat'n'carb crap

Lunck: breakfast (shreddies, banana)

Tea: salad w. feta cheese, fruit salad w. ice-cream

Snack: soz sarnie (should've been a piece of fruit oh well)

Drinks: 2 ltr diet irn-bru; 2 mugs coffee (no milk); 1 x 750 ml water; 1 options; 2 glasses red wine

Exercise

walking: morning mile

Daily Review
food ~ no comment; fruit ~ 3; exercise ~ walking; water ~ 0.75 l; booze ~ 2 glasses wine

Another reason

Further to my rant about the evils of bottled water, I read this article in the gruaniad about what happens to plastic bottles sent for 'recycling'. Another reason to say n'eau to bottled water.

Back to Normal

Back home after my mini-break. It was a nice break, even tho I had to work while I was there. It was so lovely to meet up with Trin and have nice long chats with her. Abby and Danz are lovely, and so are her cats (except when they bite your toes in the middle of the night).

I did eat lots of 'bad' things and drank lotsa booze, and didn't do any exercise. I know the scales will be up on Friday. But I don't mind (too much). It was a break and I needed a break and some fun more than I needed to stick to my healthy eating programme for a few days. What I have to do now is remind myself that was the exception, not the rule, and get back to on track with normal eating and exercise regime. Made a start by going to aquarobics last night, and will start food logging again today.

Other news: in the 3 days I was away, O has learnt to read! He can recognise all the words in his 'my first reading book' book from school. "I can help" "We can help". Gosh. He knew his alphabet and his letter sounds before, could recognise his own name and signs like 'Post Office' and was thoroughly drilled in Jolly Phonics in nursery. But still, I'm amazed and impressed (with him and with school) that he can read words less than 2 weeks into starting Big School.

Thursday Log

Food

breakfast: asda shreddies w. s-s milk, banana

lunch: 2 pitta breads - 1 w. veggi sausage, 1 w. feta & cucumber; pistachio nuts

snack: banana, raisins

tea: veggi-burger, sweetcorn

snack: sausage sarnie

drinks: 1 mug coffee (no milk); 1 options; 2 x 750 ml water; 1 mug tea; 2 glasses red wine

Exercise

Belly Dancing

Daily Review
food ~ not bad, could've done without the pistachios tho; fruit ~ 3 (bananas, raisins - we've run out of all other fruit, must go to greengrocer tomorrow); exercise ~ belly dancing; water ~ 1.5 l; booze ~ 2 glasses wine

Socksuality

safe socks doesn't mean no socks
it just means use your imagination
we talked about all that stuff and about socks, too.



The h2g2 guide to the Joy of Socks

right, I'll just have another vodka, then I'm off to email Trin's stalker bwahahahhahahhah :feck off perv:

which reminds me :sings: :quiffs:

I'm a Leningrad Cowgirl,
Raising Cattle on the Steppes
Won't you pour me another Vodka
'Cause I'm drinking to forget



:spills wodka on keyboard: :goes to bed:

normal is as normal does

Still here in the deepest south at Trin's, and she's taking good care of me. Last Friday, she told me she'd got some chocolate pringles in for me coming. My first thought was "yay!cow!yay!cow!" all mixed up together. My next thought was "hang on, shurely shome mishtake. Today is Friday and I'm not getting there till Tuesday and she's bought the treats already? what's the point of that, she'll just have to go out and buy some more on Monday when she eats them as is bound to happen". But no. Two packets choccie pringles all present and correct on Tuesday evening. Weirdos, I thought, that's not normal surely?

But I'm beginning to suspect maybe it is. I think maybe normal people can have 'bad' foods in their cupboards without hearing it always whispering to them and knowing that maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but some day the demons will strike and they'll be shovelling every last scrap of badness into their mouth as quickly as possible.

I have never (so far) had to think of how to explain to my child that the Easter Bunny hasn't come without admitting that I ate all the easter eggs in a chocholat frenzy on a miserable Saturday-before-Easter night, but I completely understand how Victoria Wood found herself in that situation. Likewise the knitting needle/jellybaby incident. I've done equally bizarre, desperate things when the need to eat till it stops hurting hits.

Hello, my name's Clarrie and I'm a compulsive eater.

Other news: Trin forgot to mention how when we started watching Toughest Pubs in Britain 3, they were featuring a pub in Manchester, and she was pleased to remark on that fact. Then the Brizzul pub came on and it was at the end of her road [nelsonmuntz] Haw! Haw! [/nelsonmuntz]. Ah, the joy of schadenfreude.

Other other news: Trin's girls are complete sweeties. Danz has given up her Pink Princess canopy bed for me, and they brought me tea and fruit toast in bed this morning. Ta girls :-) There's lots of pink in this house, it's ace. I wanted to paint our kitchen Barbie Pink but I was over-ruled. I am now plotting a Hot Pink bathroom instead.

made it

Arrived chez Trin in one piece. Unlike my diet which is lying on the floor smashed into myriad small pieces. Do I care? No. I don't care that I'm eating 'bad' foods while I'm here - it's only 3 days then back to real life. I do however mind that I ate crap while I was on the train, which was pure boredom eating. I will re-focus on eating right when I get back home.

I'm off ...

... to Trin-ville for a few days. There may or may not be posting.

Red Mist

Instead of walking in a high, beautiful place, today I mostly been having a crappy day. This year we have not been walking much at all, I suppose because R has been spending most weekends working on his PhD. Once he has it submitted, hopefully there will be some good autumn weather for walking in.

Could not wake up this morning - went back to bed after breakfast "just for a lie down while I listen to The Archers omnibus" and woke up after 1. Then had to face shopping hell in Asda. Asda is usually bad on a Sunday afternoon but this afternoon was like Christmas eve and New Year's eve rolled into one. For the Students Have Returned.

I know it is hypocritical of me to get angry about students. I used to be one myself, and R still is one. But Manchester is a much pleasanter place during the university holidays. And we have been over-run by new student accommodation, all of it built as cheaply as possible and hence an architectural eyesore (apparently, the traditional halls of residence don't cut it in the modern student accommodation market place, as they can't provide the en-suite rooms and on-site gyms demanded by today's discerning student). Plus it is an important part of the professional Mancunian persona to 'feckin hate feckin students' (adopts Liam-Gallagher-esque accent).

They completely invaded Asda this afternoon. I'm not sure which was worse - the ones who were in a gaggle of 4 or 5 and had one trolley each (ffs could they not see that there were, as a result, no trolleys to be had anywhere?), and wandered round looking as if they'd never been in a supermarket before in their lives, or the ones who were shopping with mummy, setting them up for the new term 'look Timothy, this is an egg, you like eggs don't you? you remember I showed you how to boil them?' Look missus, the day Little Timmy starts uni is not the best time to start trying to teach him cookery. Particularly not when you're blocking the aisle so I can't get passed and I'm trying to do my weekly shop for my family aargh. Least bad were the ones who had no need of a trolley as they were only buying a new pillow and a six-pack of lager.

The place was stripped bare of the necessities of life (tinned tomatoes, pasta, baked beans, lager) and queues at the checkouts snaked into next week. If it hadn't been for the fact I'm off to Bristol for 3 days tomorrow, and can't leave O and R without food [1], I'd've turned round and walked out. Things got so bad I put 2 packets of pringles in my trolley (2 packets cos there was 2 for £2 deal on). By the time I'd got to the end of the store, I put them back and swapped them for 2 small bags of crisps, which I shared with O later. Still not good, but better than it could've been. We won't mention the cake we had at tea-time. O had a friend round for tea, and he brought chocolate cake he and his mum had made earlier. Yes I ate some. O and his friend made their own starters, Tiger Sushi a la Big Cook, Little Cook. He's not gonna be like Little Timmy oh no.

Tiger Sushi 



[1] yes of course R is perfectly capable of shopping, but he is busy trying to finish the PhD and going shopping is something he could do without right now

Where I should've been today ...

I'm a rambler, I'm a rambler from Manchester way
I get all my pleasure the hard moorland way
I may be a wage slave on Monday
But I am a free man on Sunday

Kinder Scout 

Today is the first day of the Right to Roam. The fight for this right started decades ago, when working class people, slaving week long (often a 6 day week) in factories and mills, demanded access to the beautiful high places during their free time. But most of the beautiful high places were privately owned and access was not permitted to ordinary people. So ordinary people fought for it, and were often beated up or imprisoned for it, most famously on the mass trespass on Kinder Scout in April 1932. Ewan (father of Kirsty) McColl wrote The Manchester Rambler for the occassion.


Kinder Mass Trespass Memorial Plaque, Hayfield  

Never tell me that direct action does not work. The establishment of Britain's first national park, the Peak District national park created in 1951, was as a direct result of the right to roam movement. The fight for a legal 'right to roam' across the whole country has taken till now to be won. Its establishment follows in a direct line from those men and woman who wouldn't let gamekeepers and landlords keep them from their right to enjoy England's beautiful places. Without them, we wouldn't have that right today.

Sunday Log

Food

Breakfast: 2 bowls muesli w. s-s milk, banana

Lunch: n/a

Snack: crisps (2 pkts shared with O)

Tea: omlette, chips, corn-on-cob, cake

Drinks: 1 mug coffee (no milk); 2 mugs tea (s-s milk)

Exercise

Daily Review
food ~ ; fruit ~ ; exercise ~ ; water ~ ; booze ~

Saturday Log

This weekend is gonna be like last weekend ie not much computer time for me while R beavers away with his Grate Thorts. Plus I have to go shopping this afternoon. I don't like shopping much anyways, even less so when I have smallboy in tow and have to pay large sums of money for shoes for him grrr.

I'm trying to get back on track today, tho I feel like eating my way through everything bad I can find. Went for a walk this morning in spite of the rain. I don't know if this is good (keeping on track) or bad (punishing myself for being 'bad' yesterday). Ah well, just keep putting one foot in front of the other ...

Food

breakfast: 2 weetabix with skimmed milk (it's still ick but I might get used to it), banana

snack: apple & cheese

lunch: chickenless burger, beans, angel delight, plums

tea: tortellini (lots) w. pesto sauce

snack: mueseli with s-s milk

drinks: 1 mug coffee (no milk); 2 mug tea (s-s milk); 1 x 750 ml water; 1 x options; 2 glasses red wine

Exercise

walking: morning mile

Daily Review
food ~ not so good ; fruit ~ 3; exercise ~ walking; water ~ 0.75 l; booze ~ 2 glasses wine

it's all gone horribly wrong

Today I had to leave the safety of my home-office and go into the big bad world of real offices. It was bad and there was Cake. Things didn't get much better when I got home.

Serves me right for tempting fate by mocking the scalegods, over on Yvonne's blog. Scalegod started getting at me this morning. Weigh-in day and no change. No up but no down either. Grrr. Also scalegods in league with the Lady of the TapeMeasure - no cms lost either. So I went and ate cake, came home, ate chips [1] and drank cava. That was so not a good plan. Dur me.



[1] that's chipped potatoes, not potato chips

big girls can play dressing up, too

When I was out yesterday, I saw a skirt that looked good for dancing in. I've been thinking about getting some kind of outfit to dress up in for belly dancing (no, not that kind of costume). Not that you have to dress up, normal clothes are fine, I just thought it might be fun. And a change from the not particularly exciting, mainly utilitarian, clothes I usually wear. So I bought the skirt. And then, when I was at the market, I fell in love with a red and gold and sparkly scarf, so I bought that, too. Looking forward to wearing them tonight.


 

Speaking of the market reminds me to rant about fruit and veg. We mostly buy ours from a stall on the market, but t'other day we'd run out so I bought a punnet of nectarines in the supermarket. They reminded me why we never buy our fruit there. The nectarines were rock hard, and they have managed to stay that way while going off at the same time. Aarrrrgh. Is it any wonder people don't eat much fruit and veg when supermarkets sell us such under-ripe tasteless crap instead of the real stuff.

Thursday Log

Food

breakfast: shreddies & skimmed milk (I finished all the semi last night. Skimmed wasn't completely horrid, maybe I could get used to it ... Jude sez it's what all the kewl kids are having), banana

snack: peanut butter in pitta bread (I think I'm going to have to give up peanut butter, even if it is sugar-free)

lunch: chickpea & feta salad

afternoon: pear

tea: can't remember now ...

drinks: 3 mug coffee (no milk); 1 can diet irn bru; 2 mug tea (w. skimmed milk);2 x 750 ml water; 1 options

Exercise

walking: Morning Mile
Belly Dancing

Daily Review
food ~ ; fruit ~ ; exercise ~ ; water ~ ; booze ~

why real food is better than snack food: reason no. 3876

when it's 1.30 am and you can't sleep and you're mooching thro the cupboards in search of something to eat, you might have a cupboard full of ingredients but you can't actually be arsed to cook anything. It's fruit or shreddies or nowt. Worse luck. It's at time like these you really need those empty fat'n'carbs calories ...

If you're going to invade parliament ...

.... do it with style and for a cause worth fighting for. Abseiling Lesbians Against the Clause [1] yes, 'Real' Countryside Alliance no.

Perhaps the Countryside Alliance should join the unions in campaigning for a higher minimum wage. ... The alliance campaigns to stamp out rural poverty — would its supporters vote for a redistributive tax regime that might go some way towards making good, domestically produced food available to the mass of the population?

In the end, the Conservative Party will be the only beneficiaries of the artificial divide that they seem hell-bent on creating between "townies' and country folk.

read more of Billy Bragg on hunting and rural economies.


[1] I used to have a badge with that on, I'm gutted I lost it. I still have some other 'Stop the Clause' memorablia, tho, as well as my I think I'm heterosexual ... but it might be just a phase badge.

Going back to my roots

In a couple of weeks, my gran will be 90. A surprise-ish celebration is planned (she knows her children are going to be there, but not her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other relatives). So, we'll be spending a few days in the ancestral homelands [1]. R has never been before (tho me and O visited when he was a baby, and I've been a couple of times since for funerals). My sis and her boyf are going to be going, too.

My mum is a bit worried that R and sis-boyf may need a phrase book to understand the local patois. R will be fine, him and all his family speak a similar way (with many of the same dialect words - even O knows what his oxters are, even if his teachers don't). It's sis-boyf I'm really worried about. He speaks fluent Black Country. His chances of understanding, and being understood by, my relatives are virtually nil. Which may actually be a good thing, my uncle's sense of 'humour' being what it is.

I'm more worried about the eating aspects of it. The birthday meal itself is not a prob - it's a posh hotel that will have reasonable choices. It's the rest of the weekend. We'll be eating out all the time, which is never good for diets. Also we'll be visiting relatives and being presented with tea, cakes and biscuits at regular intervals. I will have to come up with a plan ...


[1] where my parents are from, tho I was born and raised in Engerland

tomorrow is another day

Last night's feeling cr*p was equal parts lurgy and feeling-sorry-for-self, I think (and no Stephen, you didn't make it worse). Still feel a bit bleurgh this morning but have done my Morning Mile (tho probably only because we'd run out of coffee so I walked to buy more). On my second mug now and hoping my energy levels will pick up shortly.

Wednesday Log

Food

Breakfast: banana, shreddies w. s-s milk

Snack: peanut butter on toast

Lunch: chickpea & feta salad in pitta bread

Afternoon snack: crisps

Tea: toretellini with pesto sauce, melon

Insomnia induced snack-attack: shreddies w. s-s milk

Drinks: 2 mug coffee (no milk); 2 x 750 ml water; 2 mug tea (s-s milk); 3 options

Exercise

Walking - 25 mins (1 mile) x 2; 0.5 mile; (my pedometer is playing up I think, it says I walked 7 miles today!)
Aquarobics

Daily Review
food ~ errr ... kind of lost it with crips and peanut butter on toast - but not too lost; fruit ~ 2; exercise ~ walking, aquarobics; water ~ 1.5 l; booze ~ 0

excuses, excuses

I didn't exercise at all. Not even my video. I feel like cr*p and I'm going to bed.

Wimping out

I haven't been swimming yet this week and if I don't go tonight, I won't go before Friday. I wimped out Sunday night and last night partly because the weather was foul and partly because I thought I had a bad throat coming on. Sounds pathetic, I know, but I am very 'prone' to sore throats and can get them really bad.

I wish I lived in America so I could have a strep throat but instead I am stuck with boring british sore throats of the 'take paracetamol [1] and drink plenty of liquids' variety. So far this approach, combined with lying on the sofa watching tv, has warded off any impending badness. Can I justify it for another night? Put another way, can I justify another night on the sofa? Maybe if I compromise by staying in and not going out in nasty cold wet windy autumnalness, but doing my belly dance video at home?

[1] paracetamol = acetaminophen/tylenol

what she said

Another moment of revalation, when another blogger expresses beautifully what I've been thinking but haven't found the words to say it right. This time, it's Marla @ Someday is Now [1].

You simply cannot lose a significant amount of weight if you hate yourself. ... Losing weight is HARD. ... Because it's so difficult, mentally and physically, you have to love yourself a great deal to believe you're worth the effort, the time, and the cost.

She said alot more than this, it is a wonderful post, go read the rest.


[1] I also love the title of this blog. Too often we talk about 'someday'. Someday I'll stop smoking/lose weight/get fit/write a novel/spend more time with the people I love. We should make 'someday' now.

The birds and the bees and the cats

O has become rather obsessed lately with when 'our baby' is going to be born [1]. He seems to think all mummies have a baby in their tummies at all times. Suddenly it occurs to him to ask 'do you have to eat the baby?' so I decide to take our 'birds and bees' conversation to the next level, and introduced the egg/seed concept. Next day he asks R "When are you going to give mummy a seed? She has an egg in her tummy, the cats gave it to her". Umm no they didn't, the cats don't actually have anything to do with it "Yes they do! the cats gave mummy the egg, they did they did!" Time to see if they've got Mummy Laid An Egg in the library, I think.

Other news: I have become addicted to options hot chocolate drinks. Yummy chocolatey yumminess for 40 cals woo yes please! Seriously, it does really deal with a chocolate craving. I'm loving belgian choc, turkish delight, choc orange and irish cream flavours (not keen on choc mint but that's a flavour I've never liked much). Great excitement, new 'limited edition' choca mocha flavour sighted in asda this morning. I've just tried it, it's vile. I'm off to make a nice mug of irish cream instead.


[1] correct answer:- 9 months+ after daddy gets a proper job

Tuesday Log

Food

Breakfast: sausage sandwich, toast w. peanut butter, banana

Lunch: feta & chickpea salad in pita bread, apple

Tea: (sounds worse than it was) ~ chips (reduced fat oven chips), fried egg (fried with frylight), sausage (veggie frankfurter), beans; custard (lo-fat sugar-free) and stewed fruit (home made, no added sugar)

Snack: apple & peanut butter

Drinks: 1 mug coffee (no milk); 3 x 750 ml water; 2 mug tea (s-s milk); 2 options

Exercise

Walking - 25 mins (1 mile);

Daily Review
food ~ umm, ok-ish; fruit ~ 4; exercise ~ walk - wimped out of doing anything else; water ~ 2.25 l; booze ~ 0 (but need medicinal hot whiskey

Note to self:

Must be Good Gurl (eating- & exercise-wise) this week. Next week I'm visiting la Trin and she's already threatening me with pizza and chocolate and booze. Heh.

Morning Mile

Since I started my walking challenge, I have walked every day. Mostly, I am finding it easiest to fit in walking after dropping O at school in the morning. Walking from school to the park, once round the park and back home is about a mile. This morning I walked a bit further because I had to go to pick up a prescription from the doctors, on the other side of the park. I think, I hope, I will be able to keep up doing a walk every day, and also walking instead of cycling for local errands. At least I will while the weather's nice. When Manchester falls back on to default setting (rainy with more rain), I might not be so keen.

Monday Log

Food

Breakfast: shreddies w. s-s milk, banana, 2 slices w/meal toast w. peanut butter

Lunch: eggs floretine (home-made this time so no cream or butter), tangerine

Tea: pasta with tomato sauce & veggie sausage w. a little cheese, melon

Drinks: 2 mug coffee (no milk); 2 mug tea (w. s-s milk); 2 x 750 ml water; 2 options

Exercise

Walking - 35 mins (1.5 mile);

Daily Review
food ~ ok; fruit ~ 3 (banana, tangerine, melon); exercise ~ walking; water ~ 1.5 l; booze ~ 0

Sunday Log

Sorry for the dull what-i-ate-today posts only this weekend - R is hogging the computer to get his phd finished. Quick 'omg' moment from today's paper: omg, not Wendy Craig!

Food

Breakfast: fruit & fibre w. s-s milk, banana

Lunch: poached egg w. w/meal toast, tangerine

Afternoon snack: apple & peanut butter

Tea: spinach lasagne (featuring low fat white sauce a la Delia), sugar-free butterscotch angel delight w. banana

Drinks: 1 mug coffee (no milk), 1 x 750 ml water; 2 mug tea (w. s-s milk);

Exercise

Walking - 30 mins (1.15 mile) & 20 mins; 20 mins bike ride;

Daily Review
food ~ ok; fruit ~ 3.5 (1.5 banana, apple, tangerine; exercise ~ walking + bike ride; water ~ 0.75 l; booze ~ 0

Saturday Log

Food

Breakfast: asda shreddies w. s-s milk, banana

Lunch: spicy lentil & tomato soup, w/meal bread, banana

Afternoon snack: pkt hula-hoops badness

Tea: Special Fried Rice (rice w. vegetables & eggs)

Evening snack/bingette: 2 bowls shreddies

Drinks: 2 mug coffee (no milk), 1 x 750 ml water; 1 mug tea (w. s-s milk); 1 options

Exercise

Walking - ?? mins (1 mile) & ?? mins (0.5 mile), at small child pace (with frequent stops to commune with slugs, beetles, etc); 4.69 miles walked in total today; 'swimming' with 0

Daily Review
food ~ OK-ish but not brilliant - crisps and mini-binge on cereal - felt hungry all day; fruit ~ 2 banana; exercise ~ walking & swimmming with O; water ~ 0.75 l; booze ~ 0

You know you're getting old when ...

... in the past week you have voluntarily listened to Radio 2 [1], Classic FM [2] and Chorley FM Century FM. Help me, I'm turning into my parents [3].


[1] and not just to Jonathon, Dermot, Mark & Mark
[2] tho I do draw the line at Simon Bates, even if his mum did teach me to horse ride
[3] also I seem to have a compulsion to make footnotes to my posts, I think maybe I have caught some kind of academic annotation bug from R

Friday Log

Food

Breakfast: asda shreddies w. s-s milk, banana

Lunch: feta cheese, apple, banana

Tea: cheese omlette, oven chips, sweetcorn, melon

Evening snack: aside shreddies w. s-s milk, banana


Drinks: 2 mug coffee (no milk), 1 x 750 ml water, 1 x tea (w. s-s milk), 2 x options

Exercise

Walking - 20 mins (1 mile); 2 x 30 mins (2.6 miles in total) with small child in tow; according to the pedometer I have walked 6.47 miles in total today wooo.

Daily Review
food ~ ok; fruit ~ 5 (3 banana, apple, melon); exercise ~ 80 mins (20 mins 'fast' walking and 60 mins ambling); water ~ .75 l; booze ~ 0

Friday weigh-in & weekly review

Lost 2 lb and hit my mini-goal of losing 5% of my starting weight woooo. The week's gone pretty well, I think. Comparing it with the plan:

Food: Eating hasn't got out of control (except for the mini-roll incident), so I seem to not have slid down into that blackhole of eating that was beckoning last week. I've eaten my 3 pieces of fruit a day on 5 days out of 7, and drunk my water target 5 days out of 7.

Exercise: I've done exercise on 5 days out of 7, including swim, aquarobics, belly dancing ie exactly to plan wooo. I took O swimming twice.

This month's challenge: O has been back at school 3 days and so far I've walked at least 30 mins each day. Meeting my walking goals has been aid by 2 things: getting my new pedometer and the fact that the pedal fell off my bike on Wednesday.

Mixing pop and politics

Somehow, I haven't listened to Dick Gaughan's music for a long, long time. I don't know how this happened - apart from loving his work, I have so many fond memories bound up with him and his music.

The first time I saw him live was at the Mull of Kintyre Music Festival. He had to fight to be heard above the people at the back of the hall who were chatting amongst themselves, passing time till Capercaillie came on. Me, I was blown away by Dick.

Next up, me and C went to the Isle of Skye on holiday. We got fed up of the tapes we had in the car by the time we got there, so we headed to a music shop in Portree for new ones, and one of ones we bought was Handful of Earth. I have fond memories of listening to this while driving round the beauty of Skye. Somewhile later, he was playing at Band on the Wall, and we had such a brilliant evening. I'd had to talk C into going, she was a bit worried it would be too much like finger-in-the-ear folkiness. She was glad she went (not a finger in the ear or arran jumper to be seen) and after the performance had finished, me and C sat and talked so long, the staff all had their coats on and had to tell us to leave.

My fondest Dick Gaughan memory of all is the next time I saw him at BotW. C couldn't make it, but I arranged to go with an old friend I didn't get to see much. She said she'd bring along her new flat mate. Her new flat mate was R, and that's how me met. His birthday was not long after that, and I gave him a copy of Call It Freedom, which I think remains my favourite Dick Gaughan album (tho I think my favourite song is No Cause for Alarm, on Sail On). Almost exactly a year later, for our 1st anniversary, we saw Dick Gaughan again, at the first Raise Your Banners! festival in Sheffield.

(If you're thinking the name's familiar but you can't remember where from, you might be thinking of his Red Flag duet with Billy Bragg on the Internationale ep. Billy Bragg also covered his song Think Again on the Help Save the Youth of America ep).

Dick Gaughan. Singer, songwriter, Scot, web designer, unreconstructed socialist, and the man responsible for me meeting R. Is it any wonder I love him and his music?

I'm going for a walk

My 'new' (from ebay) pedometer with radio arrived this morning and I'm off to try it out. Expect mind numbingly dull posts about the number of steps I've walked for the next few days, till the novelty wears off.

Thursday Log

Breakfast: asda shreddies [1], banana, 1 slice wholemeal toast with peanut butter

Lunch: pitta bread with chickpea & feta salad & cucumber, tangerine, pear (nasty hard pear boo)

Tea: last of the chickpea etc salad, carrots, peas, potatoes

Evening snack: apple & s-f peanut butter

Drinks: 2 mug coffee (no milk), 3 x 750 ml water, 2 x turkish delight options

Daily Review
food ~ ok; fruit ~ 4 (banana, tangerine, pear, apple); exercise ~ belly dancing + 45 mins walking; water ~ 2.25 l; booze ~ 0

My walking challenge has been kick-started by the fact that the pedal fell of my bike, so I have to walk more till I can get it fixed.


[1] for left-pondish readers, shreddies are like Wheat Chex, I think. 'real' shreddies are made by nestle boo.

Because you're worth it?

Now for the science bit .... gruaniad 'Bad Science' column on cosmetic company claims for their products. Viva Ben Goldacre!

Wednesday Log

At bleedin' last, blogger is letting me publish posts again. And yes I know the code's borkified, this is due to an inept attempt to add blogrolling. I'll fix it later(ish). Right now I have more important things to do ie paint my toe-nails for belly dancing tomorrow. I'm thinking silvery-blue with sparkly bits ...

Breakfast: fruit & fibre w. s-s milk, banana

Lunch: chickpea & feta salad w. cucumber in pitta bread, 3 plums

Snack: dates & nuts

Tea: spinach & ricotta tortellini w. pesto sauce, chocolate mini-roll

Evening snack: more mini-rolls eep

Drinks: 2 mug coffee (no milk); 2 mug tea (w. s-s milk); 2 x 750 ml water; choc-organge options

Daily Review
food ~ bad. bad mini-rolls bad bad bad; fruit ~ 2 (banana, plums); exercise ~ aquarobics + 40 mins walking; water ~ 1.5 l; booze ~ 0

Where did my baby go?

My baby started Big School today. How did that happen? How did this little thing ...


O, 4 days old 

.... get to be going to school already?

He was so excited about wearing his 'uniform' of grey school trousers and polo shirt, and seeing his friends again, and going into a new class. "I go to primary school now, not playgroup" he announced several times at breakfast. I wonder if he'll be so excited when I pick him up this afternoon?

ebay update

as Jude knows, I do tend to come over all Corporal Jones in a crisis. Or even just a mild inconvenience. Email from ebay arrived, reset password, bit, outbid. Ah well.

grrrrr @ ebay

Grrrrrr. I wanna bid on summat on ebay that expires today. I haven't used ebay in so long, I've forgotten my password (curses to making difficult-to-crack passwords for they are also difficult-to-remember). So I go through the ebay 'help me I'm stoopid' questions, ebay says it's sent me an email and all i have to do now is click on the link in the email. NO YOU HAVEN'T SENT ME AN EMAIL. I tried again. STILL NO EMAIL. GRRRRRRRR.


More aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh ggggggggggggrrrrrr. I tried to register again. It says I can't because I'm already registered. YES I KNOW I AM BUT YOU WON'T SEND ME AN EMAIL AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

Yet further grrrrrrrr. Tried to contact ebay customer services using their web based form. It's not working. Feckers.

Tuesday Log

Breakfast: fruit & fibre with s-s milk, banana

Lunch: pear, nectarine & feta cheese, dates & nuts

Afternoon snack: apple & peanut butter

Tea: spicy lentil & tomato soup, w/meal bread, salad, nectarine

Evening snack: popcorn

Drinks: 1 mug coffee (no milk); 2 mug tea (s-s milk); 2 x options; 1 x 750 ml water

Daily Review
food ~ eek, bit treat-heavy again boo, but been in munchy snacky mooching thro the cupboards looking for food mood :( ; fruit ~ 5 pieces (2 nectarines, pear, banana, apple); exercise ~ 0; water ~ 0.75 l; booze ~ 0

sincerest form of flattery ...

Nicole @ Anonymous Fat Woman posted her virtual models and I thought wooo I want one I want one I want one! So I got one and it's here and also on the sidebar. I plan on updating her monthly.

Going Swimmingly

So we went swimming this morning. Again. O's friend N came round to play and said he was going later, O was desperate to go with him so I agreed and we went too. Major breakthrough in O's swimming development - he took his feet off the bottom of the pool! Wooo. First time he's ever done that, first real 'swimming' (even if only for a couple of splashes and with arm-bands on). He has some confidence in water now, and will go under water (holds his nose, closes his eyes, ducks under). Not bad for a boy who was scared of the water for quite a long time (despite having been swimming since he was a baby). For him now to be wanting to go swimming, and starting to learn to swim, is great. I bought him a huge ice-cream sundae in the cafe as a reward, while I ate eggs florentine (ok so I should've had soup but ... ). I don't usually use food as a reward, but I so wanted to treat him today.

Monday Log

The food logging is here to stay, for the time being at least. It seems to really help me stay focused - for example, yesterday after swimming we went to the paper shop. I wanted crisps. Yes I did want them want them want them. Then I thought about having to come home and post that I'd had crisps. Decided it was only worth it for the best crisps in the world. Which I thought that newsagent sold heh. Turns out they don't boo. But rather than settle for inferior potato products, I bought that cocktail of obscure ingredients that is snack-a-jacks. Half the taste but half the calories. It is probably A Good Thing that the best crisps in the world are not as ubiquitous as Walkers.

Breakfast: banana, grapes

Lunch: eggs florentine, 3 spoons of O's ice-cream sundae

Afternoon snack: dates, brazils, almonds

Dinner: pasta with tomato sauce, veggie sausages and a little cheese, soya chocolate pudding & banana

Evening snack: more dates & nuts

Drinks: 2 mug coffee (no milk); 2 mug tea (s-s milk); 1 x 750 ml water; 1 turkish delight flavour options

Daily Review
food ~ hmm, bit treat-heavy and must watch out for eating too many dates; fruit ~ 3 pieces (2 banana, grapes); exercise ~ swimming with O + belly dance video; water ~ 0.75 l; booze ~ 0

(un)conditional love?

My son starts big school on Wednesday. Today I read this article by psychologist Oliver James in the Observer. I am going to cut it out and pin it up on my notice board and never forget what it says.

parents can easily forget that the point of education is to create fulfilled, creative adults, not exam-fodder. If they make love conditional on performance, it is a recipe for depression.

Took me a lot of hard work with my own psychologist to figure out that that's probably where my depression stems from, at least in part - my parents' love being conditional upon me being a good girl, doing well at school, doing as I should, etc. I'm doing my damnedest to make sure my son knows our love for him is unconditional. A while back I bought him this book, it's what we read on days when things haven't gone right and he's been in trouble and I've been shouty ....

No Matter What by Debi Gliori
 

Small said
"I'm a grim and grumpy little Small
and nobody loves me at all"
"Oh Small" said Large "Grumpy or not,
I'll always love you, no matter what"

OK happier things now: today has been lovely and hot. Took O swimming this morning, spent this afternoon sitting on the balcony reading the papers. This ...
 

... is my lovely balcony vegetable patch, from where we got the runner beans we had for tea tonight. There are loads of green tomatoes, so fingers crossed the weather stays hot through September so they ripen. And more fingers crossed for my 1 pumpkin to ripen (and not fall off on to the head of a passer by).

Sunday Log

Breakfast: asda shreddies w s-s milk, banana

Shivery-bite: 1 pkt snack-a-jacks & can diet coke

Lunch: Chickpea & feta salad with cucumber in pita breads, apple

Tea: Cheese omlette, oven chips (not very many), sweetcorn, runner beans (freshly picked from our balcony woo)

Evening snack: apple & peanut butter

Drinks: 1 mug coffee (no milk), 1 can diet vanilla coke, 2 x 750 ml water, 3 mugs tea (w. s-s milk)

Daily Review
food ~ not bad but could be better (bad snack-a-jacks bad chips tut); fruit ~ 3 pieces (banana, 2 apples); exercise ~ swimming with O + 30 mins swimming; water ~ 1.5 l; booze ~ 0

What I'll be watching on Thursday night

Wooo Hoooo Ray's Back!  


Ray Mears' Bushcraft, BBC2, Thursday, 8pm - 9pm

The return of the Mears-Meister knocks BBC1's Fat Nation into a cocked hat. hah. My ulitmate reward, when I get to my goal weight, is gonna be a Ray Mears Woodlore Weekend.


 

Chocolate Pringles: narrow escape

aaargh they are after me! At the supermarket today they had put up a stand near the main door, and were offering free samples of the dreaded choccie pringles. I ran away very very fast ...

Irie

So there's this article in the paper about how councils are cracking down on the evul of pirate radio. I'm betting Manchester City Council will be in court soon getting asbos against pirates round here, too. Boo. One of my favourite stations is Irie FM, 99.7 FM, a pirate. Here's a handy Guide to North West Pirate Stations.

Back to School Walking Challenge

This is the first Challenge I've set myself. The aim is to build a bit more exercise into my day, without it costing a great deal of time or money. O's school is only across the road so it's not much exercise taking him there every day. But, I could walk a little more after dropping him off/before picking him up. I did this a little bit last term, this term I will commit to doing it regularly.

So the challenge is:

I will walk for 20 - 30 mins every day, either after I have dropped O at school or before I pick him up in the afternoon. I will do this on a minimum of 3 days out of 5 each week, and this will be in addition to my other exercise commitments (1 each of aquarobics, belly dancing, swimming) not instead of.

Saturday Log

Here we go again.

Breakfast: asda shreddies w. s-s milk

Mid-morning while reading the paper: half a mars bar (cut into cubes to make it last longer :angel:)

Lunch: chickpea & feta salad with cucumber in pitta bread, banana

Tea: Pasta with tomato sauce, veggie sausage & a little cheese, banana & grapes with ice-cream

Evening snack: pitta bread with peanut butter & cucumber

Drinks: 2 mugs coffee (no milk), 3 x 750ml water, 2 mug tea (with s-s milk), 1 glass red wine

Today I shall be mostly installing SP2. I've been putting it off (and ignoring the nagging the automatic update thingy is giving me about it) because I've read stuff about problems and conflicts and glitches with it. But Jack says I probably should get it.


Daily Review
food ~ ok (tho need to watch out for evening snack attacks); fruit ~ 2 pieces (1.5 banana, some grapes); exercise ~ 0; water ~ 2.5 l; booze ~ 1 glass red wine

Damaged

I showed Trin my photos of my best friend C's art, and she asked to see more. With what is happening in Beslan today, it seems horribly appropriate.

A bit about C and her work

C is my best friend. She has a huge artistic talent, which was frustrated for years as she slogged away in a souless graphic design job to pay the rent. Last year she gave up her job and freelanced her arse off to raise the fees to follow her dream to study tapestry weaving. This summer she graduate from West Dean with a post-graduate diploma in fine art tapestry weaving, with distinction. These works form part of her final show.

As you'd expect for an artist, C is a visual person and expresses her self with her art, not her words. I'll try my best to explain what I understand was behind these works. (Apologies for the quality of the words and pictures, I'm neither an art critic nor a photographer).


Damaged 

Damaged is in 3 parts, as you can see. I think it's about war and conflict, displacement and refugees, land and freedom. Actually it's in 4 parts as there is also a video. Each piece is an original tapestry woven by C, and the video shows them being shot, burned and slashed.


Shot 
He who saves one life saves the world entire is a Jewish saying, which was said of Oskar Schindler. Shot also commemorates the young men who were shot at dawn during WW1, accused of 'cowardice' and 'desertion'.


Burned 
The writing woven into Burned is a recipe for bread. During the Bosnian conflict, people waiting in a bread queue in Sarajevo were killed when it was bombed.



Slashed 
The numbers on Slashed record people killed in conflicts. The trunk is an army trunk, I think, but also it could be a suitcase for the possessions of a displaced person. At the exhibition, there was a large pile of suitcases near by, speaking of refugees and also of the piles of suitcases the Nazis took off of people entering the death camps. Slashed was literally slashed, with a very large sword, in an ancient wood.

One thing you don't see here, which was for me the most moving part of Damaged, was a picture of the 3 pieces wrapped in white sheets or bags, like body bags, lying lined up in a field.


I also want to show you this, which C thinks is her best work so far, and which has been accepted for an international exhibition. The photos either side are of C's hands, wearing her Nana's wedding ring which she always wears.


Always and Forever 





Whatever your cause, some things are never justified. 

Friday Food Log

Yawn yawn food log again. Yeah but no but right this is my blog and i'll log if I want to so shut up right. This food logging seems to help me keep focussed on what I eat, and I need that at the mo.

Breakfast: 2 weetabix with s-s milk, banana

Late morning snack: handful brazil nuts

Lunch: 2 poached eggs on 2 slices wholemeal toast (with sunflower spread)

Afternoon snack: apple and peanut butter

Tea: pizza (home-made by R, sweetcorn & onion topping and not much cheese), nectarine

Drinks: 1.5 x mug coffee (no milk), 2 x mug tea (with s-s milk), 2 x 750 ml water

Daily Review
food ~ ok; fruit ~ 3 pieces (banana, apple, nectarine); exercise ~ 30 mins walking; water ~ 1.5 l; booze ~ 1 glass red wine

Neither up nor down

Weigh-in this morning, and I have lost 0. Also gained 0. Which is not bad considering I lost it for a while earlier in the week. I was off-plan for a few days there but I think I'm back on the wagon now.

Some lessons learnt:

• watch the treats! ice-cream one day is OK but not ice-cream one day followed by chocolate desert the next followed by ... you get the idea
  
• I need to keep working on the 'comfort eating' urges and find other ways to deal with the negative feelings that drive me to fat'n'carbs
  
• Keep on doing exercise, even when I don't feel good or have blown my eating plan sky high. I usually enjoy it, and at least I'm doing myself some good
  
• Just because I lose it for a while, doesn't mean I can't pick myself up, dust myself off and keep on doing the right thing most of the time
  

R is back home hurrah (and says my face looks 'a little slimmer maybe' [1]), it's nearly the weekend, I feel fine, so things are looking up. But that I keep on thinking of the children held hostage in Russia, and what it must be like for their parents. There are now reports that a battle has erupted. Can only hope for them all.




[1] he is pathologically honest and cannot do those 'little white lies' we girlies like to hear

Ooooh Betty

 


Belly dancing annoyances:

• people who've been to Turkey on their holidays and bought the fanciest, noisiest coin belts they can find
  
• people who drench themselves in a vat of cheap perfume (which then cross-infects me when I have to make a pair with them)
  
• tall, lithe Turkish women in tiny tops and short skirts who can shimy and slink in all the right places

OK so the last one's just jealousy talking.

Got v hot and sweating at belly dancing so am now running lovely bath to soak in, featuring Dreamy Candy Bubble Bath Bar. It smells just like Creamola Foam that our granny used to give us when we visit her in Scotland. Memories :sigh:



Daily Review
food ~ ok; fruit ~ 3 pieces (banana, apple, grapes); exercise ~ belly dancing; water ~ 2 l; booze ~ 0

What I'll be watching on TV tonight

Mission Accomplished: Langan in Iraq - BBC2 11.20pm-12.50am tonight.

Sean Langan makes brilliant 'behind the lines' documentaries. His 2001 'Langan Behind the Lines' series include films made in Afghanistan and Iraq. He exposes the repressive nature of regimes, while getting to know people as individuals. He also made 'Travels of a Gringo', looking at the impact of globalisation on the lives of people in south America.

food log again

OK. Today feels a bit better but still I can feel that things could slip and slide, so here's another food log to keep me focused.

Breakfast: 3 weetabix with s-s milk, banana

Mid morning snack: handful brazils, nectarine

Lunch: chopped apple, feta cheese, grapes

Dinner: veggie frankfurters, smashed potato, peas

Drinks: half a cafetiere of coffee (no milk), 3 cups of tea (with s-s milk), 2 x 750 ml water

Evening snack: apple & s-f peanut butter

Another evening snack: popcorn (home popped with a little oil)

Late night snack (curse you insomnia): 2 weetabix with s-s milk

Newsnight

Newsnight.

Every gunshot I hear is like a shot into my heart

It's hard to feel good about a world with Beslan and Darfur in it.


Daily Review
food ~ not bad; fruit ~ 3 pieces (banana, nectarine, apple); exercise ~ aquarobics, short bike ride, playing with O; water ~ 1 l; booze ~ 2 glasses wine

food log

I don't usually do this, but in the interests of keeping myself focused, here's what I've eaten so far today:

Breakfast: 50g asda shreddies with semi-skimmed milk, banana

Shivery-bite (post swimming snack): handful fair trade brazil nuts

Lunch: 2 poached eggs on 2 slices wholemeal toast (with sunflower spread), nectarine

edit...
Tea: green salad, chickpea & feta salad, pitta bread, fruit

Evening Snack: apple & peanut butter

Also killed 3 birds with one stone this morning - took O swimming and we went by trailer bike, so
1) met aim of doing something active with O
2) got some exercise myself, short bike ride plus some playing in pool
3) got out of house instead of sitting round moping
Now just gotta get self together to do some work that I'll get paid for grr.

White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits

It's just what you have to say on the first day of a month. It's supposed to bring luck, who knows why? Anyway, another day another diet. Starting back on track today, fingers crossed touch wood white rabbits.

badness

Daily Review
food ~ bad; fruit ~ bad; exercise ~ bad; water ~ bad; booze ~ bad (going to be)

Just bad all round. Feeling sorry for self and it doesn't help that R's away for a few days (presenting paper at important academic conference wooo) so I can't get one of two things that might help me not stuff my face today (one would be cuddles, the other would be time off from being mummy). Today is totally blown and I am just sinking on down into it. Tomorrow is of course another day, in fact it's another month, so plan A is to be up b&e with a New Month's Resolution to get back on track. Or at least get myself together to get someone to mind O for an hour so I can get to aquarobics, that would be a start.

Bank Holiday Blues

Like Jude sez, it's a Bank Holiday so you can eat whatever you like. Bad day all round. I had some deeply unpleasant finance stuff to sort out today, that's my excuse. Back to eating properly tomorrow, I promise.

One bright point of today: O has this habit of presenting me with things he finds, eg feathers, leaves, stones, flowers. Today he gave me a stone, and said 'I wish I could give you a golden one'. Awww.


Daily Review
food ~ bad, in a chocolate and doughnuts kind of way ie very bad indeed; fruit ~ 1 banana; exercise ~ 0 (yet, but I may do my belly dance vid later); water ~ 0.5 l; booze ~ 0 (yet but there is a bottle of rioja in the kitchen with my name on it)

wine, women and song

Fun afternoon of wine, food and song at local cafe. The music was 'funky latino rock' and it was great. Food was El Salvadoran tapas, including pupusas which are traditional apparently, and very delicious. Wine was cheapo plonk from Asda (yay for Bring Your Own Booze).

Other (Olympic) news: Hungary win the men's water polo final, beating Serbia & Montenegro 8-7. Badman spoiled the men's marathon by running on and pushing the leading runner off the road. The closing ceremony goes on and on and ...

Other (other) news: O told R today that me and R will have to move out of the house because there won't be room for us, when O gets a wife and a baby, they will need more room for all their toys. Admirable forward planning.

Chocolate Pringles Update: they are called Cadbury Snaps


and they're coming to your shops soon. Be afraid, be very afraid.

(It's not that I obsessively stalk the confectionery aisle, you understand. They have erected a massive wall of these things right at the entrance to the supermarket, so I am forced to confront them every time I go in there)

Daily Review
food ~ bad - white bread toast frenzy this morning :-(, sour cream and other calories in Salvadoran tapas; fruit ~ 2 pieces (2 x mandarins), maybe an apple too later; exercise ~ 30 mins cycling; water ~ 0.75 l; booze ~ 3 glasses red wine

Just say n'eau

Perrier Awards no, Tap Water Awards yes.

Why? It's not just because Perrier is a Nestle company. It's also because 1.1bn people live without clean water. 2.4bn have no proper sanitation. Every 15 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease. Yet those of us who have clean, safe water readily available, literally on tap at a neglible cost (so cheap we can afford to use it flush our toilets and wash our clothes and water our lawns) prefer to pay a thousand times more for bottled water. (Which may, in fact, be only bottled tap water). We think even our pets need bottled water.

So we participate in environmental carnage by buying this stuff that has to be moved many, many miles, usually by pollution causing congestion contributing road haulage. Then we throw all those plastic bottles away, to clog up landfills.

All of this when, in blind trials, even experts can't tell the difference between expensive mineral waters and corporation pop when it's chilled to the same temperature. When we say we prefer the taste of bottled water, what we're really saying is we prefer the taste of well chilled water.

Don't buy bottled water anymore. Instead invest in two water bottles (750ml ones about 4 quid each from bike and sports shops). One chills in the fridge while you're drinking the other. Easy. Save ££ and save dolphins, too. Give some ££ you save to WaterAid

More about water at

Guardian Special Report: Water

BBC News: The Water Debate

WaterAid

Khan he do it?

Yes he Khan! "Kindelan ends Khan dream" but never the less, Amir was amazing for a 17 year old. Amazing.



When asked what he was going to do next, Amir said 'Probably take a couple of months off. And I've got some assignments to finish for college'. We :heart: Amir.

Golden Girl

Golden double for Kelly Holmes
 


She won the 1500m tonight. It was amazing. Fantastic Kelly!

Other news: we spent the day visiting friends over the Pennines. Eating OK-ish, plenty of fruit, not much exercise (short walk with child in tow). Although I wonder how many calories shouting at the telly for 3 minutes 57.90 seconds burns?

More Olympic Stuff: British men sprinters finally learn how to pass the baton to each other and win the 4x100m relay. Also big up Ian Wynne for winning kayak bronze medal in spite of 'freak ankle injury' (I'm not actually sure what's so 'freak' about twisting your ankle getting off the bus, people do it every day).

Chocolate Pringle Update: they have them in America, where they're called 'Swoops'. There is a whole new category of "candy shaped like potato chips". I'm scared.


PS I know the title is an utterly worn out cliche but what else can you say?

Sleep-Over madness Why Why WHY?

Why oh why did we let O invite 2 friends to stay the night and further more, agree that they could all 'sleep' together on one double airbed? Are they likely to be asleep before me? No. I am going in periodically to tell them off for talking and messing about - sleep-overs aren't so much fun if grumpy parents don't tell you off.

Daily Review
food ~ umm - not too brilliant, and I had ice-cream tsk; fruit ~ 3 pieces (2 x banana, fruit salad); exercise ~ 0; water ~ 1 l; booze ~ 0

Amir Khan Yes Yes YES!

Amir Khan hits other bloke more often and gets through to Olympic lightweight boxing final (on Sunday).

 


He might even acheive the ultimate accolate, making it onto the B.E.N.'s "Famous Boltonians" roll of honour, alongside our hero. Go Amir!

Chocolate Pringles No No NO!

Chocolate Pringles. FFS. I saw them in Asda tonight. Made by Cadburys I think, chocolates the same shape as Pringles. Please let this be a bad dream.

I'm bored

Bored but tied to my desk for at least another hour. So I've put all this week's exercise into Calories per Hour and this is what happened

Saturday: Bicycling - 10-11.9 mph (light) = 321 calories in 30 min
Sunday: Swimming - freestyle, moderate = 375 calories in 30 min
Monday: Belly Dancing = 241 calories in 30 min
Tuesday: Bicycling - 10-11.9 mph (light) = 321 calories in 30 min
Wednesday: Water Aerobics = 357 calories in 50 min
Thursday: Bicycling - 10-11.9 mph (light) = 214 calories in 20 min; Belly Dancing = 161 calories in 20 min

Total: 1,990 calories in 3 hr 30 min

fascinating, huh?

Olympic news you probably missed ...

... and probably don't care about anyway

Italy grab water polo gold - Italian women's team beat the Greeks 10-9 after extra time.

Last night I was knackered after v early start and long day paying attention to dull stuff, but the paper said the Beeb's olympic roundup prog would be showing highlights of the women's final. So I stayed up till the bitter end at midnight. Nada. Not a mention. Bad BBC. I wonder if there will be any mention at all of the men's final on Sunday? No, thought not. Bah.

Hey, 'Blog This' button seems to be working now, tho, hurrah.

Weigh-In and Weekly Round-Up

Weight this morning = 16 st 10. I lost 2lb and hit my first mile stone of getting my BMI below 40 hurrah.

How the week went (compared to the plan)

• Weight: lost 2 lb wooo (although I must remember that I am at the early 'easy' stage of weight loss and as time goes on, there will be weeks I don't lose at all)
  
• Exercise: I made my target of exercising 5 times a week for at least 30 mins wooo, with a mix of swimming, cycling, belly dancing and aquarobics
  
• Getting active with O: bike ride to park and swimming trip this week
  
• Food etc: Mostly good. I watched my portion sizes, thought before eating cr@p, and ate 3 pieces of fruit most days. There was a descent into comfort eating and crisps one day, but I didn't let it become the start of a slide so that's good. And yes there was chocolate but that was half a normal sized mars bar shared with R, instead of 1 king-size mars bar each, so I count that as progress too.
  
• Water & other drinks: the crisps day also featured diet (sugar free) irn bru, but apart from that I haven't had any fizzy drinks, and have drunk my water target most days. It's getting harder tho, now that the days aren't so hot. And I know what Melanie @ the 730 Diaries means about peeing all the time! I don't normally notice the effects because I work to my own schedule, but yesterday I was at a conference working on someone else's timetable and there were times I was absolutely bursting by the end of a seminar.
  

All in all, a good week

Other news 1 - I've retired the Stalin book for now, as I wasn't enjoying it and it was pretty hard going. I've started on Fat Land instead. In a rare display of will power, I managed to leave Waterstones with just this one book, without succumbing to the lure of the 3-for-2 offer. (This decision may have been influenced by the fact that I was already staggering under the weight of a bag full of books bought from a 2nd hand book stall at the conference venue. Can't be too rich, too thin or have too many books).

Other news 2: more on Dr Gill at the gruaniad's Bad Science column this week. Snigger.

Gillian McKeith PhD (who describes people who disagree with her as using bad science, no less) also claims to have "worked with Linus Pauling (PhD), world's leading researcher in Vitamin C and Nobel Prize winner (New York, USA)". Her "PhD" course began in 1993. Linus Pauling died in 1994. "He was an incredible inspiration. I was working solidly, but studying for a doctorate is not all sitting in a classroom." Quite so. Although, of course, it didn't really involve sitting in a classroom at all.

(And being one of the towering scientific geniuses of the 20th century and a double nobel prize winner, doesn't mean Pauling got it right about Vitamin C).

Other news 3: why can I never write a short blog entry?

one last thing (proud mum moment)

This afternoon O and I were having a cuddle (after he'd calmed down from an enormous rage). Out of the blue, he said 'do you know mummy, night is the beginning of day and day is the beginning of night. And rain is the beginning of sunshine'. Gosh. He's obviously been reading 'Philosophy for Beginners' when I thought he was playing with his trains.

Just in case I needed a kick up the arse ...

I caught some of the Olympic weighlifting tonight, the men's 'super heavy weight' class. Super Heavy Weight = over 105 kg. That's less than I weigh now. OK I'm getting the message.

Iranian lifter Hossein Rezazadeh won, setting a new world record in the process.
 


I have a soft spot for Iranians, having worked with lots of them, too, in my old job. Note I say Iranians, not Iran.

Also in Olympic news, more cycling medals. Bradley Wiggins and Rob Hayles won bronze in the madison. Don't ask me I have no idea of how it works. But that's Bradley's third medal of the Games woo
 


Tomorrow I have to leave the house and go out and be confronted with chippies and sweet shops. However I shall be strong. I have made my lunch (pitta pockets with feta cheese and salad yum, plus plenty of fruit). I will be good. No more super heavy weight class for me oh no.

Daily Review
food ~ good (plenty of salad); fruit ~ 3 pieces (banana, pineapple, grapes); exercise ~ aquarobics; water ~ 1.5 l; booze ~ 2 glasses red wine (so far)