The wander returns

I am SO sorry for not blogging these past – coughs – months.

Regular readers – if we have any left !! – will be sick of us sounding like a broken record (for those too young to know what a ‘record’ was, it was something we geriatrics – well not strictly me as I used to listen to cassettes instead – used to listen to music. It was large, round, had groves and made of plastic) by keeping saying ‘we’re going to blog more often’ etc, etc.

In our defence, we’ve never really led exciting lives, and it would seem that since John took early retirement from work, we’re like little hermits.

Back in January (or two postings ago.....) I blogged my wish/want list (I don’t do new year resolutions) and as we’re nearly half way through the year I thought I’d give an update on how things have progressed.

• Win the Euro lottery. £10m would be nice but anything over £50m would be preferable.... Still waiting.
• Make a start on reading through the massive collection of books I’ve accumulated both in hard copy and on my kindle. My kindle library is a couple of books lighter
• Loose some more weight. 10lb lost since July but probably put that back on over Christmas!!! Whilst I don’t know the exact figure in lbs & oz’s, I’ve lost a good couple of inches from my waist and gone down nearly two jeans sizes.
• Get back to playing the piano and the clarinet. Sadly not yet.
• Spend less time on my computer. I can easily loose an hour just flitting through blogs and pinterest. That mission accomplished.
• Get back to my writing. Novel two and the second draft of novel one needs finishing. Whilst I haven’t done any actual writing I’ve been familiarising myself with the plot and characters again in readiness to start writing again.
• Finish off the two cross stitch patterns as there’s another nine still to do.  Still not finished but I have been doing some work on them. In my defence they are both large projects and one of them is on black fabric so I can only sew it in good day light....
• Stop neglecting my blogs. I think you can guess this one !!!!
• Finish off my knitted cable jumper before I start on yet more knitting projects. Although I haven’t finished it, I have nearly completed the back.
• Finish reading the gigantic stack of magazines that’s been piling up for months. Only two magazines to go !!!!!
• Spend less time in my sewing room – other rooms in the house are available... Done.
• Finish off building the four foot model of the Queen Mary II cruise ship. Sadly the ship is still in dry dock...

Four out of 12 isn’t too bad. Plus one of those, the Euro lottery, is really out of my hands.

I have as well been quite busy this year with something else which I will tell you later. Watch this space....

Marie

It’s gym Jim but not as we know it

This morning I did something which I never thought I’d ever do – I joined a gym !!!!!

A couple of months ago when I went to see my GP I explained that I was having problems with my weight. Because I’m not moving around as much I’m not burning off calories, so the excess weight was giving me a rather large spare tyre…..

“I know just the thing”, said Dr Blake, “I’ll arrange some neuo-physio for you and I’ll refer you onto the Sunderland Exercise Referral Programme”.

Twice a week I attend a hourly neuo-physio session with Christina at the Royal Hospital (full details will appear in the Joint Journal in the coming weeks) where she gives my abs, my cardio-vascular system and everything from the waist up a good workout.

The Referral Programme consists of fifteen weeks – with a personal trainer at a gym….

This morning ‘Scott’ my personal trainer handed me my gym membership card (again full details will appear in the Joint Journal in the coming weeks).

I can’t believe it – me a member of a gym !!!!!!

Marie

Dieting in reverse

On Friday my mam and I when shopping to the Metro Centre. I needed a couple of things for our cruise (four weeks and three days…) and also some new bras.

I know M&S sometimes gets a bad press when it comes to measuring for bras but I’ve always found them to ok.

While I was waiting my turn to be measured (they were busy) we had a look at the various non wired bras (can’t stand wired…) and I found some styles that I liked and that came in the size that I was expecting to be, given that I had lost 12 lbs in weight.

‘Pauline’ shouted out my name and the first thing she said was ‘I’ve had you before and if I remember, I had problems finding you a bra….’ She was right. See ‘What no blog - March 11 2006’.

She took the first measurement.
Pauline: What were you previously.
Me: 34DD.
Pauline: You’re still a 34.

She took the second measurement.
Pauline: You’re in-between a cup size.
Me: Excellent so I’m back to a 34D.
Pauline: No, you’re in-between a 34E and a 34F.
Me: But I’ve lost 12 lbs ! ! ! I was 34DD before I went on a diet.

As the bra’s I’d been looking at earlier didn’t come in industrial strength sizes, I had to go to the bullet proof, passion killer range.

I think Pauline must have felt sorry for me as she came back with the least offensive ones they had, which to be fair, were rather nice.

Given that I’d like to lose some more weight, I wonder what size I’ll be then – 34G…

Marie

Busy, busy, busy

Sadly there hasn’t been any blogs for several days as we’ve been pretty busy with Leeds conference.

As expected we were working most of Easter. We did manage to get a couple of hours break from conference on the Saturday. My car had to go into the garage to get its brakes checked out as they’ve been feeling really heavy. They could find nothing wrong with them. I’m not convinced.

Then it was off to my mams so John could replace her kitchen tap.

I’m afraid the diet has gone out of the window. We ate all the chocolate that had been stashed away from Christmas, plus with it being a bank holiday, we always have food that is normally banned (bacon sandwiches, curry with nan bread, spag bol with garlic bread, sausages and chips).

Hopefully we won’t have put on too many pounds as John was only three away from his first treat and me, I was only ½ pound ! ! !

Looks like I’ll have to wait a little longer before I can watch my new Camberwick Green DVD…

Marie

Couldn’t wait

This morning I went to the dentist. Last night the toothache was really bad. Even medicinal didn’t help ! ! !

It turns out that I have an abscess on my tooth. Unlike John’s last year (same tooth as it happens…) Kim, my dentist, didn’t want to remove it so she opened it up and cleaned out the infection.

I’m on antibiotics for seven days. Thankfully not the kind where you can’t have alcohol. It’s bad enough being in pain without having prohibition enforced…

My tooth and the surrounding area are still pretty painful and I’m told will be for a couple of days so I’m on a soft food diet.

Looks like it’ll be yogurt for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Still it’ll do wonders for my diet. Only one more pound till my first treat.

Marie

I’ve just checked…

…when we last blogged and I can’t believe it was over a week ago ! !

So what’s to report. We finished decorating the bathroom and have worked out a date when we’re going to give it a major revamp – Easter next year.

Been busy sewing for the past few days. I ordered some sewing patterns from America (they’re much cheaper than in the UK) so have been making toiles (test garments) of them. Gertie has been looking very fetching modeling the toiles made out of old bits of fabric.

I’m hoping to have made six tops and four dresses before we go on our cruise in May. One of the dresses is needed for Leeds conference so I’ll be starting that one soon.

The diet seems to be going fine. We got on the scales on Saturday and have both lost another couple of pounds. Only four more pounds to go before I’ve earned my first treat.

Sadly the treat can’t be anything food or alcohol related so I think I’ll settle for a DVD. However I can’t decide which one – the complete collection of Mary, Mungo and Midge, Trumpton, Chigley or Camberwick Green…

Marie

The hot chocolate diet

Like most people we put on a pound (or kilogram so I don’t offend the EU….) or two during Christmas and now need to remove them and a few more of their friends.

I decided that we’d start our diet officially on 26th January giving us time to finish off all the Christmas yummys. Unofficially we started it on 5th January to give ourselves a couple of weeks before the official weigh in date so there wouldn’t be any nasty ‘how much’ when we stepped on the scales.

That was the idea anyway. However curiosity got the better of me just after the 5th and I weighed myself. I nearly burst into tears ! ! !

I got on the scales this morning and to my sheer delight found that I’d lost half a stone.

Regular readers will know that the BOGOF household is fond of wine. However it is not the dieters friend so a glass or two a night does over time amount to a lot of calories.

The thought of complete prohibition is a definite no-no so I cut the number of my wine nights down to three a week and have a hot steaming mug of Options hot chocolate on the other four nights.

Ok, a mug of hot chocolate isn’t the same as a glass of wine but it is something to look forward to on the evenings when I can’t have any alcohol.

So here’s to the loss of another half a stone with the help of hot chocolate.

Marie

Windy in Fulwell

As you know we always seem to be on a diet. To be fair the Weightwatchers diet we tried a couple of years ago resulted in both of us successfully losing two stone each. We’ve both however put it back on but that’s another matter…

Like all diets you soon become bored with it so I decided to look for another one which would fit in with our lifestyle (able to each chocolate, crisps, cheese, alcohol etc).

It seemed like a tall order but I’ve found one. It’s the ‘So you want to loose weight… for good’ by the British Heart Foundation. It not only allows you to have a small chocolate bar and a glass of wine a night, it also allows you to have two (or three if you’re a man) portions of dairy so we can nibble on 40g’s worth of cheese a day without worrying about our waistline.

Plus we have to eat seven (or eight if you’re a man) portions of carbohydrate a day so if we fancy our cheese with three crackers, we can.

The down side to being able to eat yummy food on this diet is we have to eat seven (or eight portions if you’re a man) of fruit and/or vegetables a day. Even by a person who loves fruit (but not really vegetables…) that’s a lot to eat in one day. However we’re trying our best.

Consequently our gut is working overtime so the wind we are producing is spectacular ! ! ! ! It’s now got to the point where we can’t go up the stairs together in case the one in front break wind on route….

Hopefully it will settle down shortly. Otherwise there could be some embarrassing moments in Newport ! ! ! !

Marie

Only two more pounds….

And then I’ll have earned my first diet reward. To date I’ve lost 10lbs which is good but not enough.

I’ve still got at least a stone/stone and a half to lose before I reach my target weights. I say weights. I would like to get down to seven and a half stone whereas my mam thinks I should stop at eight stone.

I’ve been having a few problems with the hem on my gala dinner dress so have had to seek advice from my mam. I’ve had it in/out four times and even though I’ve measured it on Gertie, it still looks wrong.

I tried it on this afternoon and in her opinion it looks ok so I’m leaving it as it is. She even commented that it could be taken in as I seem to have lost the weight in all the right places for once.

Marie

Another round up of the news

Sorry folks for the lack of blogs. Google asked us to update our blog and up until Friday night we couldn’t log in…

So what news is there to report.

As expected my man didn’t buy a new television and yes she did have a good moan about them to the poor assistants.

Bought a pattern and some fabric for my gala dinner dress. As always I made a toile* but I’m not happy with style of the dress. It really emphasises my bust (and I don’t need any extra help in that department ! ! !) and it just doesn’t look right. It’s a shame as I really liked the pattern. However I have plenty of patterns from previous gala dinner dresses so all is not lost.

The diet is going pretty well with only a couple of little slip up, mainly on the alcohol side – hey we’re trying our best you know ! ! ! I’ve set myself little target treats so only six more pounds to lose and I will be rewarded with my first treat – the remainder of my Angel DVD’s.

I’ve decided as my bones and joints are telling me I’m no longer 21, I better start taking care of them (and that includes not falling down the stairs again…). So I’ve ordered some supplements to give them a bit of a boost. I’m not normally a good pill taker (I even keep forgetting to take my IBS tablets) but if they do me some good and keep me from having more surgery, which I definitely don’t want, then I’m prepared to give it a go.

I’m pleased to report following my little escapade on Friday, my bum is still a bit sore and I’m a little stiff but I’m not as bad as it was. However it set my pains off which isn’t so good…

Some medicinal wine and cheese (good for the bones as it contains calcium…) for me tonight.

Marie

* A toile is a dressmaking term for test garment.

Want list

This time last year I did a blog saying I wasn’t a resolutions person, but I did have a ‘want’ list.

Well here is my ‘want’ list for 2007

1: I want to win the lottery. It doesn’t matter if it’s the normal lottery or the Euro. As long as it’s the jackpot and is over £1.5m I’m not bothered.

2: I want to lose two stone in weight.

3: I want to finish my novel.

4: I want to continue my piano lessons.

Yes I’m afraid it is a case of deja vu as that’s what I said last year.

Well that’s not entirely true as last year I wanted to win at least £1m on the lottery and to lose a stone and a half. Think if it as inflation….

Marie


PS It’s only day two of 2007 and I’m already on to my second cold sore. I’m not amused ! ! !

Stuffed

Yes, that’s exactly how we both are following our two Christmas lunches.

Christmas day was lovely. We got up reasonably late, then took our time opening the presents left from Father Christmas.

Yesterday we were entertaining my mam and boy was she looking forward to her ‘Christmas lunch’.

She thought I was only joking when I said we were each only going to have one Brussels sprout – we had four each on Christmas day, what more do you want ! ! !

What with the two lunches, Christmas cake, crisps, mince pies, chocolate and wine, I dread to think how much weight we’ll have put on once the holidays are over.

The diet definitely starts in January…

Marie

A round up of the news

We spent the weekend doing phase two of the kitchen - putting in new worktops and sink. Next weekend (airshow weekend) will be phase three – the new doors.

It’s taking some getting used to the new worktops as they are black. I always said I’d never had dark worktops as I thought they would be unhygienic because you can’t see any dirt. However having seen how well it went with the new doors in B&Q’s showroom I changed my mind. I have a feeling though that I might become obsessive with cleaning them for a while – until the novelty wears off ! ! !

Sadly we had a little blip in our diet on Saturday. As the kitchen was a mess, there was no water and we were both knackered (well John actually. All I did was supervise…), I decided it would be quicker and easier if we had a takeaway. Macdonalds large BigMac meals have never tasted so good…

We also had another blip in the diet today but it was for a very good reason. It’s John’s birthday today. After he finished work this morning - he normally takes the whole day off but had to go in for a couple of hours - we went to the best Chinese restaurant in the entire universe for lunch.

I mentioned a couple of days that even though we live by the seaside we don’t get good weather, well today was one of those rare occasions when the sun does actually shine. The Chinese restaurant is right opposite the seafront and probably for the first time this year, there were people on the beach.

There were even a couple of very brave souls who ventured into the sea...

Marie

No more swaying

I’m pleased to report that I’ve got my dry land legs back so the swaying and feeling sick have gone. It was a rather strange experience suffering from seasickness while on dry land.

In other news. We’ve started our diet again so our nine o’clock glass(s..) of wine have stopped.

So has the large hunk of cheese and crackers on Wednesday night washed down with a bottle of wine; the packet of crisps on a Thursday night; the free packet of prawn crackers with our Chinese on Friday night.

If you can think of anything else we’ve missed please let us know.

Marie

A tweak here and a tweak there

Last night was the first time since Gertie came to live in the Bogof household that I’ve have time to ‘programme her in’, so to speak.

For those of you who don’t know what a tailors dummy is, it’s an adjustable mannequin which is used to aid dressmaking.

John very kindly helped measure my vital statistics and these were then put into Gertie.

She still wasn’t quite my body double as I don’t have a small bust or a washboard stomach so this morning she became the proud owner of a padded bra and a spare tyre around her middle.

If this is not an incentive to diet I don’t know what is ! ! !

Marie

Just for you Jan

As Jan quite rightly said on Saturday night we are ‘boring old farts’ for not blogging so thought I’d put one together. Well it was either this or do some hospital radio work. The former wins hands down ! ! !

We never did get our early night last night as we stumbled across a programme on Channel 4 about one hit wonders so stayed up to watch that.

John had to take his car in for a service and MOT this morning and as I had to pick him up from the garage and take him to work it meant an earlier than usual alarm call.

After dropping John off at work I had planned to go straight to my mams but a call of nature meant I had to dash home instead. Too much information I hear you cry…

Once back from my mams (it was only a flying visit to drop off some bottled water and a couple of pairs of trousers) I then had to catch up on some three letter word * stuff.

This afternoon was spent in a more pleasurable way – watching more of my new Buffy DVD’s.

Normally at this time I would be looking forward to a glass (or two) of wine but we’re back on our diet so no wine tonight. Grump, grump.

Marie


* HBA

Easter weekend

I’m pleased to report that both banned weekends went splendidly.

Hospital radio wasn’t mentioned all weekend which was wonderful – could get used to this - and our banned food were yummy ! ! !

We spent Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Monday painting. Well isn’t that what Bank Holidays are for…

There’s still a little bit more work to do next weekend so once it’s completed some before and after pictures will be posted.

We had a good try at eating all the Christmas chocolate over the weekend but I’m afraid to report that we failed miserably. There’s still two half bars of Toblerone left plus a hardly touched box of Flake chocolates from my mam (she decided to give us them instead of an Easter egg).

All this chocolate isn’t helping our diet. There’s only 10 weeks to our holiday and we promised ourselves to try and lose a bit of weight before then.

Once the chocolate is all gone we will get back to our diet – honest ! ! !

Marie

Sainsburys have put the price of donuts up ! ! !

I went shopping to Sainsburys with my mam this morning and as usual whenever I go there I always come back with donuts.

They’ve put the price of the ringed ones up by 4 pence ! ! ! ! I could understand if it were the jam ones as the cost of jam could have gone up. But to increase the price of the holes is a bit unfair…..

Marie – who was very good last night and didn’t have any wine. Can’t say that about tonight though. It’s pizza and wine night. Yippee ! ! ! ! ! ! !

An ordinary day - yesterday.

This was meant for yesterday but the internet was so slow last night that I gave up .....


Not a huge amount to report today. Got woken up just after 8 o’clock this morning by the phantom door bell. It was the new neighbours arriving to do more work on their house.

Then the phantom door bell went again half an hour later. This time it was Billy the central heating man. We decided on Sunday that the boiler needs replacing as it’s big, ugly, noisy and well past it’s sell-by-date. We await his estimate…..

The new neighbours are still having fun demolishing their new home. I’m convinced that they are knocking it down from within as they are making an awful lot of noise. John keeps reminding me that we would have made just as much noise when we renovated our house. True, but he doesn't have to listen to it as he’s at work all day…..

So other than a trip to Morrison’s, that’s been my day.

Now do I keep to the diet and have a bottle of diet coke tonight, bearing in mind John will be having his usual Thursday night beers or do I say sod it and have a glass of wine. Answers on a post card to…….

Marie

Sod the diet

I’m or rather we are both on diets. We’ve been trying to lose weight for over a year but not having much luck.

We do well for about a week, or two, then something happens:

We go out for a meal with friends – can’t possibly weightwatch in a restaurant.
We’re on holiday so don’t give a damn ! ! !
It’s Christmas/Easter/our birthday’s/someone else’s birthday.
John has a stressful day at work.
My pains are bad so need medicinal wine.
It’s the run up to conference so out comes the wine, cheese, chocolate – in fact just about anything we can get our hands on that’s fattening and yummy.
It’s the TOTM (time of the month) where only large amount of chocolate and wine will do.

Today it’s the TOTM so I can say goodbye to the diet for this week as I’ve a feeling I’m going to need lots and lots and lots of chocolate and alcohol…...

Ah well, there’s always next week (ha, ha).

Marie