happy as i am

There was a car show on near my house, but I was unaware it was on until I walked past, in a hurry to some place else. I managed to spend ten minutes with my phone camera but there was so much more that I didn't get to see, and I wished hubby had been with me to point out what's what from what's not.

Oh well, enjoy some bad photos of some beautiful cars... I especially like the one that looks the colour of nailpolish!

Another beautiful day, came home at lunch and sat in the sun, finished work and sat outdoors a wee bit more, before driving lesson number 5. It's been a month already but I've learnt so much. My instructor has a very calming voice.

Today I started learning parallel parking, as well as revisiting 3 point turns. It all went rather well, until I went on the bigger roads with more traffic. Not sure about those, buses, 4x4's and people in a hurry.

Traffic lights worry me, level crossings too, I definitely don't like those big lorries that are 3 times as high as me and scary. I don't know that I'll ever like driving, but I know it'll be lovely to have some freedom - just to be able to up and go somewhere because I can - at present I can do this, as long as it's walking distance and I have bus fare home. But I don't. I stick to what's local. Maybe that's something I could change.

But hey, it's done now, I've spent my first £185 on lessons, given my cheque for the second lot, and at some point soon need to find time to book a theory test. I'm doubtful I'll pass before the festive season begins which is a shame, but there goes. Negative? Realistic I feel. I'm not confident on roads, never have been.

I'm off work tomorrow, hoping to get to the gym and maybe have a swim as well. I was intending to weigh in this Friday, but I don't believe I'll like what I see on the scales. Fitness up/weight up or so it seems. Well I know I've been overindulgent.

Curry friday, BBQ Sunday, Dinner at Pizza Express (where i had 3 courses AND a glass of wine - very nice too) last night. And to top it off, loads of sweet things at work. I sit right infront of the goodies table now!!!

Oh well, my target is some time away and I think just perservering with the exercise will do the trick. Slow and steady wins the race and I've certainly time! Now til May, when I jet off the Caribbean with my bikini body!

Cake is calling. I blame Kevinwilson for talking bout cream and apple pie!

G'night

x

I was surfing the net, and thinking about signing up to somesuperstorediets.com* as lately I am struggling to find healthy eating inspiration, but I have been put off it hugely. I am overweight, I am 5ft 4 (just) and weigh 12st 2, but I have recently lost nearly a stone and am quite pleased with the difference in my body shape and fitness.

According to this website my ideal weight should be 9st 5lbs. Which, to me is ridiculous. The last time I was that light I was 18 years old and had yet to develop my womanly curves. Now, I know this website, and others like it use reputable data from medical statistics and the like, but it still seems crazy that nowadays just about anybody can offer this type of advice.

If I lost another 3 stone I wouldn't look healthy, and I don't think I'd feel to good either. I know that the lowest I would want my weight to drop to is 10st 7, and that over the next year, if not two. But what concerns me, is that there are many impressionable people who believe all this hype about being size zero, or being super skinny, who would actualy work to achieve that degree of weight loss.

To my mind, sites like this one could and will encourage the number of people with eating disorders as people struggle to be a weight set automatically by a computer, rather than speaking to their doctors or someone who has access to their whole lifestyle and health history.

Getting to 9st 5 would invariably result in reducing my portions drastically, I've already reduced them somewhat to get where I am, and doing heinous amounts of exercise. Can you imagine though, if you were my weight, pretty comfy with your size, just wanting to lose a few pounds for the summer or an occasion, what a shock to be told, actually just lose 2 stone or 3...

Weight isn't the be all and end all of being healthy. Surely body fat, fitness levels and energy are equally important. Yes, I'm proud of myself for getting into a pair of size 12 trousers, but I am enjoying the health benefits too, the new found muscles, the extra energy, the trimmer shape. There are so many people out there who only need to work on muscle tone, or even on their posture who are gonna feel compelled to lose a shitload.

I just think it's wrong that companies can cash in on what is already a crazy market, prey on peoples insecurities, yet because they are well known brands they must obviously be right.

Grrrrrrr. Rant over with.

* name changed to protect me from being sued or anything like that

Well, today I was much better than yesterday. The sight of children did not set me off in tears so that was a result! I've had a busy (for me) Sunday. This morning I took my time getting up, and went into town and had a look at clothes in a 12. Sadly that size wasn't my friend today, I think I must try harder to trim my belly down!

Next I ventured to the travel agents, armed with the details of where, when and how exactly we want to go on holiday next year. I was unfortunate, in that I was at the back of the queue of 3, with only two people serving. More to my dismay, these people didn't know where they wanted to holiday, they just had a date! Aaaaarrrrrrgh. So, patiently I stood and waited, and waited, and waited for them to be done. And eventually my patience was rewarded. a third lady came and sat down.

A nice lady too (i suppose they have to be jolly in that environment?) and I sat down with my list of requirements. We looked through some brochures and finally decided that, for what I want, when I want, my hubby had actually found a pretty good deal, the in-shop price was considerably more expensive, but meant that all the small print was sorted. She matched and (marginally) undercut the online price we'd found. One wonders if I'd lied about the price if I could have got it cheaper, but I'm an honest soul.

So, our holiday next year is all booked, 2 weeks in the Barbados sun, complete with two mothers and one kid sis, lets hope it works out. We got the rooms we need, all inclusive for cheaper than going self catering. How mad is that???

Anyway by the time I got out the estate agents I had been in there a full hour and half. The sun was high, I was due to be picked up at 1.30pm and I still had shopping to do! Times like this I'm glad that I'm only a 15 minute walk from town! Anyway, I speed walked to a couple more clothing shops before giving in, and then raced to Waitrose to pick up some sausages and a cake to take to the BBQ. I also picked up some cashback as I wasn't sure how I was getting home again.

Made it home just in time to get washed and changed to go again. Hubby was in bed - feeling ill - so he decided to stay home. He's not often ill, and never declines a BBQ so I let him off and glumly went without him. But hey, got to where the food was at and the host wasn't prepared for people to arrive on time, but we got stuck in helping out.

I was head BBQ chef for a while, it was a huge Outback gas one, my favourite type, and I cooked my little heart out. Then proceeded to eat far too much. The people I came with were leaving a mere two hours after arriving, so instead of grazing over a littl food over a long time, I pigged out, getting as much down my gullet as I could. I didn't get a chance to dig in to my beautiful chocolate cake as it hadn't even been opened before we left.

Got home and crashed out from the excess food splurge, only been up a short while now, but hubby is squawking about tea as he only had toast for lunch. I'm so bloated it sucks. Now, thinking back to how much I could eat back in time, it makes me wanna laugh. We'd start the fires at 12pm and still be cooking come 5pm back then, or 5pm through til about 9pm. There'd be alcohol flowing and the food would keep coming the whole time. I think I used to eat my way thorough a whole pigs worth of sausages and maybe 1/4 of a cows worth of burgers. No ill effects, no problems, and still have room for a dinner. Hmmm, maybe that's how I put on the waist/weight?

Oh well, live and learn, and remember to eat more veggies. It's been a good day all in, and there's still a good few hours left!

Enjoy,

x

Hi. Can Anyone help? I have this:

growing in abundance in my garden and I can't seem to kill it. It seems to spread by an underground root network and is dotted all across my lawn. Before we put the lawn down 3 years ago it covered the whole mud patch.

Weed & feed type killers seem to shrivel it up a bit, but so far I've just had to keep mowing the lawn to keep it short as poss.

If anyone can tell me how I can eradicate it, without pulling up my whole garden (perferably) then I would be extremely grateful!

Thank you

x

Well, I've been out in the garden today, doing the easy method of gardening, often known as the Groundforce or Charlie Dimmock schools of gardening! Instead of growing plants from seed, bulb or seedling, I've been to the garden centre, bought myself loads of pre-grown plants, and today popped them into the soil.

Now, I hope they grow well, I've no idea if they all like the same earth, need more space or what. Are they annuals, biennials perennials or weeds? I've not a clue. I walked round the garden centre last week, thinking "oh, that's pretty", "that colour is nice" "that's not too expensive" and picked and chose purely on the plants colours and prices.

Nevermind. I now have a corner with plants in, and the bees and whatnot can do their stuff. The roses smell pretty, and all the colours together look pretty fab. You'll have to check out my photo blog coz that's where they are.

Other than that, hubby has (just about) finished re-decorating the bedroom, after the disastrous damp and replastering back in the spring time. We've had to splash out on freestanding bookshelves as we can't attach anything to the walls now, if we don't want future damp problems, so I find we have run outta space. We no longer have books at ceiling height, or space for more (hubby take note and STOP buying more books) and I'm also trying to sell some of my books on Greenmetropolis.com but nobody has bitten yet, probably as I try to sell the same stuff everyone else wants rid of!

I've to cook dinner now, I'm in charge of cutting our portion sizes back down as we had grown greedy.

Cheerio,

Happy

Ps- you may find increasingly more of my posts are friends only, not because I will be writing pertinent facts about me, but because I have invited some people to view my health blog and I'm sure some will stray here too.

Huge hugs, and enjoy the rest of the weekend. I have driving lesson number 4 tomorrow, so look out for me!

x

Drink water.
Tidy house.
Drink water.
Bake.
Drink water.
go for a swim.
Drink water.
Buy some lunch.
Drink water.
Meet mother in law.

I'm basically trying to get my body over last nights blow out. Although to be fair, I'd been good all day and most of last week. I'm necking water and OJ by the gallon. My body thinks I should be down the gym, but it doesn't open til 8am. To be fair, by then I'll probably have gone back to bed and be snoring til 9am.

It's just its so lovely out now, I thought if I didn't at least spend some time up, when I wake later, it'll be grey and miserable and I'll be sad I missed the sun.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Loadsa love

Happy

x

Oh my goodness. It's 5.30am, the sun is shining and I am here in blogland ...
and awake! What's that about?
It's probably a combination of a good nights sleep and my insanity. I had a really good night out last night which was cool as I'd been dreading it. Two friends birthdays, except I don't get like the wife of one of them (she really winds me up) but I managed to avoid her for the bulk of the night.

We went to Tootsies Bar & Grill, and I broke the habit of a lifetime by sitting at the opposite end of the table to hubby with one person I knew and lots that I didn't. We ordered a bottle of wine and since I'd last eaten at 1.30pm and it was now nearly 8.30pm I knew I was asking for trouble. But, some friends arrived that I hadn't seen for ages AND i managed to make conversation with the people I didn't really know. Wine is wonderful like that!

Restaurant service was a bit naff, the waitress did her best but just wasnt quick enough for 25 hungry people. Hence a bit of heckling. We all ordered our food and as it started to arrive I felt pleasantly drunk. But my burger failed to arrive. The waitress was aware of it and kept telling me it would be here 'in a minute' but to be honest I wasn't fussed.

Then, the woman I don't like realised I still wasn't eating and went to make a fuss. Some 10 minutes later, almost everyone else had finished eating, and my burger arrived. It was gooood. Medium beef burger, smoky BBQ sauce, cheese and a fried egg. But, because of the delay my burger was taken off the bill! Result! I gave away half my chips, and then left most of the rest, I was actually full, but it was too late to restore the alcohol damage. I think I had a bottle of wine to myself!

We left quite early, trains being rubbish, but it was one of those really good nights where you talked to anybody and everybody, and we could've sat chatting til midnight. It also helped that people were complimenting me on my figure/dress and I felt so good. I currently weigh 12 stone 2 which is the lightest I've been in longer than I care to remember.

I also bumped into an old work colleague who was out drinking straight from work, and she looked rough. I was so glad I was glammed up, as it means Monday morning I'll be the subject of gossip at my old place, and for once to be looking good felt great.

I think I forgot to add that.

Please check it out!

you can buy used books for £3.75 or there abouts, and sell your books too.

I have found a fabulous website, where I can register my books I no longer want, and sell them! Check this out I've so far registered 13 books, bit gutted coz I've not long taken a shed load to the charity shop. But, never mind, I've done my bit.

I figured I'd see if I can make some cash, but I wondered if you lovely people could spread the word of this website to anyone you know who likes books but doesn't re-read them, or who doesn't have space.

Coz, if more people check out the website then more people will buy my books. each book sold they give 5p to a charidee which grows new trees.

I'm just hoping the cash will flow in.

Check it out!

x

5 Albums only on your i-pod/mp3 player
1. Christina Aguilera - Stripped
2. Offspring - American
3. Metallica - S&M (both discs)
4. Bon Jovi - Keep The Faith
5. Not sure bout number 5...

5 Items of clothing
1. Denim shorts
2. Flip flops
3. blue fitted tee
4. hubbys big jumper
5. stuck again

5 Luxury food stuffs (your Island has a fridge/freezer)
How convenient!
1. Ben n Jerry's Baked Alaska
2. Onken Mango & Papaya yogurt
3. Apple crumble & custard
4. Vanilla icecream
5. salt & black pepper crisps

5 Reminders of home
1. Photo album
2. My big duvet.
3. Favourite perfume.
4. Toothbrush & paste
5. Hubby? Can I bring him as a reminder? If not, then a discman with all the compilation CD's he's made me and a never ending battery supply.