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

We’ve bin robbed again

I don’t know what it is with our neighbours but for some reason they seem to like both our wheelie bin and our recycle black box.

Our brand new recycle box got swiped two weeks after we got a replacement for the one that was stolen. We didn’t dare phone the council to ask for another replacement in case they thought we were stock piling them.

So for several weeks we just used an old wine box then gave a new home to an abandoned battered box that had been left unused and unwanted in the back lane for several weeks.

This morning when I went to go to my mams I found that our bin had been swiped.

I can understand people taking in the wrong bin by mistake as they all look alike, but ours had our address on the front and back painted in large letters and numbers.

Come bin out night next Thursday we’ll be kidnapping it back ! ! !

Marie

No your eyes don’t deceive you

Yes, I have put fingers to keyboard…

The problem with the BOGOF household is we’re really rubbish at keeping a diary. Plus there hasn’t been anything exciting to report.

I’ve been spending most of my time making shirts for our cruise – 5 weeks and counting ! ! !

Last Friday while I was at my mam’s I had to borrow her new sewing machine (the one we bought her for Christmas) to sew the button holes as my machine is having a temper tantrum and won’t let me stitch them.

My mam then decided she liked one of shirts and asked if I could make her one as I had some spare fabric. Four shirts done, only two more to make.

Last weekend we were in Scunthorpe for a conference team meeting. In the next couple of weeks we’re off on our travels again (and I don’t mean on our cruise. Did I tell you it was 5 weeks and counting…) This coming bank holiday weekend we’re off to Swindon and then Maidstone to have a look at two hotels for spring 2010 conference. Then the weekend after that we’re up in Glasgow to look at two hotels for spring 2011.

While I was on the BA website this morning filling in the required passenger information report for our cruise, I checked our flight details and we’ll be using the dreaded terminal 5 ! ! ! Thankfully it’s only to and from Newcastle and from Rome. Our Barcelona flight is from terminal 1.

Five weeks and counting :-)

Marie

Sorry part 3

My third ‘sorry’ was to the two bus spotters* in the Cliff Pub.

As I mentioned Thursday I like my coke really cold so get a separate glass of ice to pour the coke over the ice.

One Saturday night when we were in the Cliff, my glass of ice had quite a bit of water in it. As I didn’t want to dilute my coke I needed somewhere to get rid of the excess water.

One of the bus spotters finished his pint then said to the other one, who had about a third of a pint left, “are you ready”. The other one nodded and they both left the lounge.

So I went over to the table were the bus spotters had been sitting and poured the excess ice water into the glass which had the lager in it.

About five minutes later they returned ! ! !

The one who’s lager I had watered down picked up his glass and stared at it. He then said to his friend that his glass was fuller than he had remembered, to which his friend told him not to be so stupid…

Marie

* they were two men who talked of nothing but buses all night. Ask Chris as he’s been in the Cliff when they were there - and experienced them in bus spotting mode ! ! !

Sorry part 2

My second ‘sorry’ was to two members of Radio Sunderland for leaving an empty bottle of Champagne outside of their room at the Plymouth hospital radio conference.

John had been given a bottle of fizzy for his 40th birthday and up until that time hadn’t had a chance to drink it.

Plymouth is quite a distance away from Sunderland so we decided to break the journey by staying a couple of nights each side of the conference in Stratford upon Avon.

As it was our first ‘dirty weekend’ away together we thought it would be an ideal time to drink the fizzy so took the bottle with us to Stratford.

We couldn’t find anywhere to dispose of the empty bottle so had no option but to take it with us to Plymouth.

I like to drink my coke extremely cold so whenever we were out anywhere I would always ask for a separate glass of ice so I could pour the coke onto the ice.

The hotel in Plymouth had an ice making machine so it was perfect for the cans of coke we brought with us. However there was one small problem, we didn’t have anything to up the ice into. That was until we spied the barman put a wine bucket on the bar. As soon as his back was turned we swiped it…

Not only did we have a fizzy bottle to get rid of but a wine bucket as well. No problem. We decided to put it outside the room of the two females members from Radio Sunderland who luck would have it had the room opposite us.

We had arranged to all meet up for breakfast so they were coming out of their room at the same time as us, so too was another member from Radio Sunderland who had his room just along the corridor.

He took one look at the fizzy bottle and bucket and demanded to know what they had been up to that night.

They pleaded their innocence several times over but he was having none of it and kept going on, and on and on about it all weekend…

Marie

Sorry

A couple of years ago Ken Bruce on his Radio 2 programme had a slot called ‘sorry’ where people wrote in and ask for forgiveness for something they had done. I had three ‘sorry’s’ read out. Here’s the first one.

It was to say sorry to the owner of Castle Howard as I had vomited all over his marble floor. Before anyone says anything I wasn’t suffering from a hangover ! ! !

I’d just had bought my first car so my mam, dad and me decided to go away for a couple of days to Scarborough. On our last night there mam thought it would be a good idea if we got some fish and chips and ate them over looking the beach.

Unfortunately both me and my dad ended up with food poisoning from the take-away so we were not feeling in the best of health the next morning.

My mam decided that a visit to Castle Howard on our way home would take our minds off feeling ill. We must have only been in the building ten minutes when I really didn’t feel well at all. I explained this to my mam and her reply was ‘of course you’re not feeling sick…’.

I pleaded with her that I really wasn’t feeling very well so reluctantly she found a guide and said to her, ‘my daughter is feeling… no make that, my daughter has been sick’.

Yep, I was re-enacting the scene from the Exorcist all over the marble floor and became a tourist attraction as visitors stopped and watched ! ! !

We were quickly taken to a private loo where I could continued my throwing up.

Thankfully I think my ‘sorry’ worked as we’ve been back since it was read out and weren’t banned from entering…

Marie

Pinkies

21:02 From : Emma To : Don
R u having fun?

21:05 From : Don To : Emma
Hot food. Where are you

21:13 From : Emma To : Don
A nice quiet gay bar, good food. mikes a bit worried about some of the crumpet, eyeing him up! lucky him! hows June and Diane doing? em x

21:18 From : Don To : Emma
Really - fancy that :-) Diane really enjoying it - food v good. And June ok too ! Cu soon. Dx.

21:20 From : Marie To : Don
Need to talk with Emma or Mike. Are they with you

21:27 From : Don To : Marie
No – they together elsewhere have you E’s phone number

21:29 From : Marie To : Don
Yes but she’s not answering. Do you know where they are

21:32 From : Don To : Marie
Sorry – no. we’re all going to Yates at 10. I’ll tell her

21:36 From : Emma To : Don
Having great fun here at pinkys bar, might not make yates's, soz. em x

21:40 From : Don To : Emma
Mrs H is looking you or Mike. I said nothing ! We'll maybe catch up with you there :-)

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

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible

Apologies for the lack if blogging (bloggage ? bloggery ?) this past week. I’m afraid that it’s all the fault of conference and the calendar.

If we’re to have any time to ourselves over Easter we must get stuff sorted now.

As I write this the printer by my side is turning out conference brochures and Marie is grappling with the table plan for the Gala Dinner. On the bench are menus, place cards, badges, general meeting minutes and goodness knows what. And we’ve had to answer a sudden rush of e-mails too.

The good news is that it’s looking like we’ll get done and still have time for chocolate at Easter.

Must away now to put some badges in their holders.

See (most) of you in Leeds

John

Only Three Weeks To Leeds

First of all the important bit. Marie’s mouth is much better and she’s back on solid food.

Other than that it’s been a week of getting conference sorted. We had our final meeting with the Queens (Hotel) two weeks ago and had out meeting with the rest of the team last week-end.

Bookings have gone as well as you might expect, and we’ve had to turn people away because we’ve run out of rooms.

Seminars have been finalised and trips & visits are almost there.

Menu’s are sorted and ready to be printed. So too are place cards and badges. The brochure is almost complete, as is the booking form for Solihull. I think the latter may surprise a few people.

There’s lots of nice things for conference packs hidden in the bottom of the wardrobe. The Dining room is full of folders and notepads.

And next weekend is the famous “printing party”. We’re holding it a week early so nothing gets in the way of Easter and all that chocolate …

John

Toothache update

What a couple of days I’ve had with my tooth ! ! !

I knew abscesses could be painful but I never expected anything like what I’ve just had.
Thursday night sleep was about three hours.

Friday nights Chinese consisted of rice, four bits of lemon chicken and three prawns, all cut up into tiny bits. Again only about two hours sleep that night.

On Saturday we had to be up at 5.30am to be in Leicester for a conference team meeting. The original plan was to stay the night at the hotel, however having paced the floor that night because of the pain, I thought it best if we just came home.

The painkillers I were taking took half an hour to work, then only lasted 90 minutes. That’s fine if you can take some more straight away but when you’re only allowed four lots in a 24 hour period, it’s not so good…

By now my mouth and gums had swollen quite nicely so I resembled Quasimodo’s sister.
Saturday night was the worst. Having worked out when I could next take some painkillers, I took some at 12.30am. Half an hour later and I was still in agony. An hour later, still nothing. At 2.30am I was crying on the shoulder of John as the pain was unbearable. I now know why people accidentally overdose on painkillers as I would have willingly swallowed the whole packet if it mean getting some pain relief.

I decamped downstairs as I didn't want to disturb John by tossing and turning the rest of the night.

Sunday was pretty much the same as Saturday in that I was counting down the minutes to when I could take some painkillers. I went to bed expecting it to be another bad night but other than having to take some tablets at 2am, I slept right through until 6.30am.

I was to have phoned the dentist this morning to see if I could get an emergency appointment to see Kim, but as the swelling in my face had gone down and the pain was now a dull throbbing, which was manageable without painkillers, I didn't bother. I did have to take some painkillers this afternoon as it flared up again but so far that's been it.

Here's hoping the worst is over....

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

Throbbing

That’s what my mouth is doing at the moment.

I suspect the cause is a mouth ulcer rather than actual toothache. However the symptoms are much the same so if it’s still hurting on Monday I’ll have to go to the dentist.

I was awake this morning, thanks to the throbbing, around the time of the earthquake but didn’t notice or hear anything. Hopefully tonight’s doze of medicinal will help me sleep a bit better.

Busy making my dress for Leeds. Gertie is currently modeling it at the moment and say the pins don’t hurt a bit…

Marie

To Leeds and back

Yesterday we had to get up early. 5.46 to be exact. It was meant to be 5.45 but I went past it while I was setting the alarm… I only recognise one 5.46 and that’s not it ! ! !

We had to be in Leeds for an early morning meeting with the Queens hotel to go through the final bits and pieces for conference. Normally we would have taken the car and had the pleasure of an extra hour in bed. However Trainline were doing really good deals to Leeds so we just had to take them up on their offer.

We had half an hour before our meeting so decided to see how far it was to the Met hotel. We’re having to use it as overspill for our delegates as the Queens can’t give us any more rooms. It took us less than four minutes to walk there and given that it was my slow walk, I think we can call that pretty close to the Queens.

The meeting with the hotel went well. It was really making sure we’re all ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’, sorting out menus, timings etc. Seems like nothing but it still took over an hour and a half.

There was just time for John to take a couple of photographs of the front of the Queens hotel for the conference brochure, then it was off to have an early lunch before we caught our train home. It was after all a long time since we had breakfast…

It was a toss up between a sandwich at Subway’s or a Big Mac and fries from McDonalds. The burger won.

Just checked the calendar and it’s four weeks this Friday – scary ! ! !

Marie

North East divide

We got a letter from the council to say that they were changing the day when our bins would be emptied, from a Thursday to a Friday. They were also changing the day and week when our recycling box would be emptied also.

On the Wednesday night we noticed that some people had put out their bins in the back lane and just thought that they had forgotten about the change of day as it often happens. There are some who put their bins out on Christmas eve expecting them to be emptied on Christmas day when it happens to fall on a Thursday…

The next day I happened to be in the main bedroom and saw that the bin men had in fact been. I rang the council to see if there had been a mistake and our bins should have been out that day but no, we were now a Friday collection. Sure enough the next day our bin was emptied.

We’re not sure why the council has decided to use our back lane as the new dividing line. Maybe they thought it was more economical to empty the houses facing north and South on a Thursday and East and West a Friday.

Marie

Getting to know your friends

Gottle emailed me the 2008 edition of Getting To Know Your Friends and instead of emailing it to friends, I thought I’d put it into a blog. Well, the friends I’d be emailing it to will be reading the blog so I’m killing two birds with one stone…

1. What time did you get up this morning? 8.14am

2. Diamonds or pearls? If someone is buying then I’ll have either

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Chicken Run and before that Jurassic Park – can’t you tell I don’t go to the cinema that often…

4. What is your favourite TV show? M*A*S*H

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Frosties, muesli or toast if I’m suffering from a hangover

6. What is your middle name? Don’t have one

7. What food do you dislike? Trifle

8. What is your favourite CD at the moment? I don’t really have a favourite. The one I’m playing whilst cooking is ‘Chess’

9. What kind of car do you drive? A Nissan Note

10. Favourite sandwich? A tuna stottie from the local Deli

11. What characteristic do you despise? Anyone who is arrogant

12. Favourite item of clothing? T-shirts

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on holiday, where would you go? The Mediterranean on board a Silversea cruise ship

14. What colour is your bathroom? Rice pudding and platinum - in English that’s cream and pale blue.

15. Favourite brand of clothing? Marks and Spencer’s

16. Where would you retire to? North Yorkshire

17. What was your most memorable birthday? My 21st as I celebrated it in four different countries

18. Favourite sport to watch? Tennis

19. Favourite saying? I don’t have one but I’m saying ‘no bother’ quite a bit at the moment

20. When is your birthday? September 9th

21. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning unless I’ve had alcohol the night before…

22. What is your shoe size? 3

23. Pets? None – I’m not allowed

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? I’m pregnant – only joking ! ! ! !

25. What did you want to be when you were little? Don’t think I had anything in mind

26. What are you now? A retired civil servant

27. What is your favourite candy? Chocolate and lots of it

28. What is your favourite flower? Poppy

29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? 28th May

30. What church do you attend? I’m afraid I don’t go to church

31 . What is your full name? Marie Harper

32. What are you listening to right now? ‘007 Audio for the 80’s’ on my internet radio

33. What was the last thing you ate? Bendick’s honeycomb mint

34. Do you wish on stars? No

35. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? Blue

36. How is the weather right now? I don’t know because it’s dark….

37. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mam

38. Favourite soft drink? Ribena

39. Favourite restaurant? The Paradise Garden

40. Hair colour? Dark brown with grey bits

41. Favourite day of the year? Christmas day

42. What was your favourite toy as a child? Sindy doll

43. Summer or winter? Summer

44. Hugs or Kisses? Why choose when you can have both...

45. Chocolate or Vanilla? If it’s ice cream then either. However if the chocolate ice cream contains mint then that wins hands downs

46. When was the last time you cried? When the Alien died in last weeks episode of Torchwood – yes I know I’m sad ! ! !

47. What is under your bed? Dust and my dressmaking board

48. What did you do last night? Had a bath

49. Favourite smell? A fruit cake baking in the oven

50. What are you afraid of? Thunder and lightning and loud noises

51. Plain, buttered, or salted Popcorn? Plain or salted. However my favourite is caramel coated popcorn – yum, yum

52. How many keys on your key ring? Six. One of which I have no idea what it’s for

53. How many years at your current job? Been a retired civil servant since July 2002

54. Favourite day of the week? Friday

55. How many towns have you lived in? None. Houghton-le-Spring is a village and Sunderland is a city – sorry for being pedantic…

56. Do you make friends easily? Sometimes. I’m more at ease with my close friends as I’m quite shy – yes I know it’s hard to believe ! ! !

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

Mid life crisis

In this morning’s Daily Mail there was an article by one of their columnists regarding woman and their mid life crisis.

Apparently people are now hitting their so called mid life crisis at the age of 44 and one of the things that women do during their crisis is get a new kitchen.

I wish to reassure everyone that although we’re getting a new kitchen (and yes it was me who suggested the idea) I’m not 44, nor am I going through a crisis.

Our new kitchen is through necessity (more cupboard space, more worktop space and more importantly, a dishwasher….) than a mid life kitchen.

I wonder if wanting a new bathroom counts as a mid life bathroom as I want one of them too ! ! !

Marie

A letter to myself

In anticipation of Jenny tagging me, here is a letter to my younger self.

Dear Marie,

You’re probably wondering why your older self is writing to you. I would tell you but you wouldn’t believe me anyway. You are after all a teenager and you’re not supposed to understand adults…

In my time it’s 27th January 2008 and I’m 39 years old. Yes I hit 40 in September. To your eyes that will be old. In my eyes it is too ! ! !

You’re probably curious to know how your life has turned out so far. I’m pleased to say it’s been ok. However I’d like to give you a couple of bits of advice.

You’ll develop a crush on the Manchester United and England footballer Bryan Robson. Get over it ! ! !

When you have to decide your options don’t drop physics. Even though you don’t particularly like it, following your exams in the third year, you will get the highest marks – yes you even beat Alison ! ! ! Be warned. If you ignore this advice you will feel the wroth of Mr Simpson…

Don’t worry that you’re not much good at Home Economics. You turn out be a pretty good cook.

Don’t believe a word of what any of the teachers say. School is not the best years of your life and that you’ll only get one chance to gain qualifications. One thing I will say though is try and learn how to spell ! ! !

Shortly after your sixteenth birthday you’ll find your first grey hair. It’ll freak you out but it’s not the end of the world. As I write to you aged 39 you won’t be completely grey – unlike Denise….

Don’t lean on the curling tongs, the oven, rest a coffee cup on your leg or sleep on a hot water bottle. If you do you’ll burn yourself.

No matter how much pressure is put on you from family or the careers advice at school, do not join the civil service. You’ll be offered a job there in 1989. Do not under any circumstances take it. Take the teaching course you applied for instead.

When you attend your first training session at Radio Sunderland, don’t take a dislike to one of the people taking it. He’s not a bad as he seems and you do come to like him…

Put your foot down when you are organising your wedding. When it comes to the length of your train, the size of the bow on the back of the dress, who you want invited to the wedding, not having a veil and your wedding flowers, remind mam that it’s your wedding and not hers, so you’ll do what you want. I know that’s unthinkable when you’re aged 13 as she has one of the greatest tempers known to man. However you will be a force to be reckoned with too…

Have a quite word with dad about why he’s going to the loo more than normal and ask him to go to the doctors. That’s all I’ll say.

And finally. I know you’ve tried reading the Hobbit and hated it, however for Christmas ask for every single book written by Tolkien and read them. In the mean time keep up with your creative writing by writing a story about a young boy called Harry Potter who attends a school of witchcraft and wizardry. Once you’ve read all the Tolkien books go back to your story then turn it into a novel…

Lots of love,

Marie
xxx

Decorating again

Sorry for the lack of blogs but things have been pretty quiet in the BOGOF household.

As the title of the blog suggests, we’ve donned our work clothes and got out the paint brushes again. Will all the painting we keep doing you’d think it was one of our hobbies. I can assure you it isn’t ! ! !

This weekend it’s the turn of the bathroom. I want to completely revamp it (new suite, tiles etc) but we don’t have the time to do this year - I want a new kitchen more... So it’s having to make do with a lick of paint, new carpet, wall unit etc, until next year.

Back to the painting before my brush hardens…

Marie