Wednesday 20 March 2013

PS...

I had scampi and chips for supper after golf and I've just polished off 3 chocolate digestives with my tea....diet going well then... Hopefully the golf in the cold will have offset some of that retro naughtiness??

Dont tell anyone...

I took the day off and played golf with my lovely man (and a load of other chaps) in the cold!! And very good it was too.

I'm over at Ma  and Pa's now for another day working from their home while dad gets a break.  Feeling a bit more chilled now.

Tuesday 19 March 2013

I miss blogging!!

It's not that I WANT to stop or anything but I'm just up to my eyes with work, selling house stuff and trying to have a life.  The few spare hours I have in the evening I spend just flopped in front of the telly.  The effort of firing up the laptop and thinking of something to say seems beyond me.  I'm only on it now 'cos Richard was chatting to his brother and put the telly on pause!

But now I'm here, it's nice to re-connect again.

Work is HARD at the moment.  I'm doing 2 peoples' jobs and will be, as far as I can see, for the foreseeable.  This is just about do-able when we're in a quiet spell and should  get better as support and IT services improve and my former workload gradually works itself out and diminishes (well, that is the theory but I can't see it happening).  But at the moment, I'm too busy to get the IT up and running and the support staff are all helping other members of the team as we have another junior woman off on long term stress (skiving more like if what she says on Facebook is anything to go on).

So it's all fire-fighting and dealing with the matters which shout the loudest.  Which is fine for a few weeks but this has been months and there's no sign of any let-up.

Add to that clearing my old house and working out where stuff needs to go in advance of moving out of this house (with no firm timescales).  It's not easy.  I'm trying to do an hour here, an hour there a weekend day and I AM making progress.  Just a big stuff to deal with next which will be this weekend. I'm not looking forward to that.  Hey ho - the house is selling and that is what I've been praying for for months so I'm NOT complaining!!

But we're still having a good time in between the work.  A long weekend trip to Leicester and golfing  last weekend - brilliant but COLD.  And then last weekend I had a couple of school pals to visit which was great.  Girly shopping in the afternoon then a Comedy night in the evening.  What a mistake THAT was  - I expected your usual comedians, but got 3 northern 1970's throwbacks!  Racist, sexist, unoriginal and laboured.  Hmmm  You make the best of things but we will NOT be repeating that experience!!  We were all shocked that that sort of act still gets work but there they were, still gigging away.  Aaaaargh!

Weightwise, stable but no progress being made.  I'm still maintaining my stone off but there seems to be no prospect of moving downwards in the near future.  Not surprising perhaps but I had been hoping for nice summer clothes and might not manage that if I don't get going soon.

At least I'm maintaining.  Food wise, I'm okay during the week but loosen too much at weekends.  Exercise is sporadic but I'm keeping a baseline of personal training, dog walking and lugging boxes up and down stairs!

So, back to my sofa now....speak soon peeps!!

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Weirdnesses

I thought it very strange this morning when I stepped on the scales that my body had overnight dropped 2 lbs.  I had been relatively pleased with 14.7.8 on Tuesday so to see 14.5.6 this morning was most heartening.

I'm sure it's just a TOTM bonus but it does mean I'm back to below my pre-Christmas weight and I have a platform to build on.  I would happily write January and February off in the flab-busting stakes if I were to start again in March.  So THAT is what I'm going to do.

I feel a lot chirpier today.  Possibly because I took a day off.  It was time.  I needed to step away from work, clear my head and dive into packing and clearing my old house.  Work hared and feel productive and in control again.  It worked, I have been busy all day and have achieved a satisfying amount.  I cleared and packed up the kitchen, pantry and understairs cupboard.  Not bad for Day 1.

Foodwise, I didn't diet particularly - bacon and egg sarnie for mid-morning breakfast; leftover chicken, leek and ham tangle pie (filo pastry scrunched up to cut down on actual pastry) with fruit and tea for lunch and beef and ale casserole with leek mash for supper (that was delicious!).  But it's been pretty healthy stuff, all cooked without too much fat and lots of fresh veggies.  No exercise as such apart from a modest dog walk but, as I said, I have been up and down stairs, loading up boxes and fetching and carrying all day.  That has got to count, surely?

The dogs were weird too.  They don't really like being back at the old house.  I think they get worried about whether I'm going to leave them there as they spend all the time hanging around the car and jumping in whenever possible.  I found Shelagh squeezed into the boot between a load of bags and boxes when I came out with the last one.  As if to say - don't leave me here Mum!!  But I think they're happier with me than left behind at home...

And then there's Rich.  Now that I'm on more of an even keel, Rich is diving headfirst into a slump.  He is complaining of being at sixes and sevens, not comfy in his skin and restless.  Tricky for chaps when that happens.  You can't help them really, just have to not annoy them as best you can.  It's probably a reaction to my having been low-level down in the dumps for a few days.  Ironic eh?  I just got the love and support I needed from him to get through my slump (although to be fair I was grumpy ABOUT him for at least a day or so) and now he needs it back...

In short - roll on our long weekend off!!!

Tuesday 5 March 2013

Not TOOOO bad

Glorious sunshine blessed us today (forecast to be the last good day for a while) so, while a suveyor poked round my (rented) house, I took the dogs up Bradwell Edge.  It was actually hot - I was cursing my choice of a long-sleeved t-shirt.  In March!

                                                

So, we head though the back lanes and work our way up hill.  Edge Lane - sounds innocuous doesn't it - bloody steep though!



The Edge looms above us but the road is not too bad so far.


Come on Mum!!


Hazy views of Bradwell below us with Hope Cement Works in the background.
 


Shelagh poses for photoes - it's not like her to be so co-operative which might explain why she looks a bit glum in the second pic!!
 




 
The dogs love snow, especially patches of icy snow left behind when the rest has melted.  Shelagh is desperate for me to hack off a lump off ice soshe can take it off and bury it.  Mad girl!


 She also like eating the snow...


What're we doing Mum??
 


Minty puzzled.
 


She thinks snow is for rolling in not eating.
 





 
Bloody litter bugs!!  How can you leave your coke can on the verge out here in such gorgeous surroundings??  I took it home in case you're wondering...
 
 

Then back down the hill to Bradda.  A lovely lunchtime walk before heading back to the grindstone!!


So, how am I doing apart from when I'm on lovely country walks??  Not too bad to be honest.  I have been stepping on the scales most mornings so I'm not hiding from them which is always a good sign.  This morning they showed 14.7.6 so, while I have had a 3 lb gain from my lowest number, it is not a terrible one.  I'm still a stone lighter than I was last September and that is something to hold onto.

Now, I REALLY want to drop another stone this spring.  I have so many nice clothes I could be wearing this summer and I don't want yet another summer to slip by not getting into them.  BUT life is throwing a LOT at me at the moment and a benign equilibrium is more important than heaping more pressure on myself to drop weight.

Work is extremely busy.  There is just too much to do, no budgets to use external solicitors and not enough solicitors within the Council to service its legal needs.  It is a daily struggle but I don't get paid enough to work long hours and get stressed so I've pledged to do my best and that is just going to have to be enough!

Then there is the sale of my house.  It needs to progress fast for one of the buyers down the chain so that means dealing with packing up and clearing the house as soon as possible.  And the prospect of dealing with Diarmuid one last time before our final tie is snapped.  Hopefully it will go smoothly but I'm working on the basis that it will not.

Then there is the house we're living in.  It has been sold so we'll have to move.  The landlord tells us he has another house for us to move into but we haven't been able to see it yet as he has works being done.  Uncertainty.

Then there's my mum and dad.  Going over there to give dad a hand takes a fair bit of time and is worrying really as we don't know how long the status quo can continue.   Poor old dad.

I know I have too much on because a little thing like running a golf club team this summer is stressing me out.  Full on chimplike avoidance is going on and it NEEDS to stop.  Luckily the golf team is the only thing I'm avoiding.  I seem to be able to tackle everything else on my agenda so, if I can just get the team sorted (and asking for help looks like it's on the cards) I'd at least be coping in a healthy manner.  THIS is progress.

To be honest, I'm not on top of the world at the moment but, unlike other times this has happened, I'm not hiding away.  I'm still eating pretty well, exercising and getting on with stuff.  I could be cheerier but I'm not in a bad way.  That probably explains why I've not been blogging much - who wants to be low-level grumpy in writing??

We've got a long weekend off coming up and I really hope that it is a good one and that we can just chill out together and have a GOOD TIME!!