Day off???

More pics from my sunny and snowy walk on Friday.

Minty takes in the view.

Shelagh - Action Dog!

The Hope Valley with Mam Tor and Lose Hill in the background.

Is it a bird? is it a plane? No, it's Super Minty! Shelagh looks on, unmoved.

The sun beginning to set as we turn for home.

I can't say I applied my Beck learnings in any meaningful manner yesterday. Just accidentally on purpose (as we used to say at school) "forgot". So what was the damage?

• Muesli with blueberries for breakfast. Good.
  
• Meat pie, chips and Bovril for lunch (at the game). Should not have had the chips. The pie would have been ok. The bovril good and better than the beer on offer.
  
• Toast on my return, with butter and jam. Not good. Not necessary, between-meal snacking and I wasn't that hungry. Grr
  
• Pasta with tomato sauce and a few slices of chorito with parmesan. Fine.
  
• Several too many satsumas. Well, I was snacking on them which I haven't been doing and it's bad habit to get into but, in the scheme of things, not the worst thing in the world.
  
• Another slice of toast with butter. Grrr - totally wilfully ignored the voice saying that I shouldn't have this. Well, not totally, as I was intending to have 2 pieces!!
  
• I also drank 2 halves of lager and a glass of red wine and am NOT going to feel bad about that as it's just about my only drink of the week.
  

And, thankfully, that was that. Actually looking back, it wasn't too terrible. A small portion of chips, and 3 slices of toast were the unauthorised naughties that I failed to prevent myself eating. It was just that it felt more out of control than I have since last Saturday.... Aaaaah.....Ping! Saturdays are probably a trigger; a relaxing of the rules; the weekend and a day of football and going out. Definitely a day to focus on methinks. Next Saturday, Wednesday are playing away and I'm not going and D is home, so hopefully that will break this mini cycle of excess.

Not only that, I'm going to read my book and cards and make sure that I don't carry on in the same vein today. What else? Oh, I'm going to say "well done" to myself for acknowledging what I did do right yesterday and for stopping the rot, because, in the mood I was in yesterday, it could have been a lot worse!

That was a good mood by the way... It was a great day!! I went to Hillsborough to see the "beamback" of the local derby game between Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday. Because United only gave us 3000 tickets and the game wasn't televised, Wednesday set up a big screen at our gound and the match was played back live with Radio Sheffield commentary. It was very strange being in a huge stadium with no players and no opposing fans, just 9000 Wednesdayites in the South Stand, singing our heads off and having a great time. We scored after only 50 seconds, then they equalised within 4 minutes and after that it was a hard fought and fast paced local derby - just as it should be. And we won!! With an awesome goal from Marcus Tudgay. Legend.

What made it really special is that Wednesday haven't won away at Bramall Lane since 1967....that's before I was born. And we haven't done the league double (ie. winning both home and away games in the season) over them in 95 years!! It was fantastic. Everyone was on a high and the grins and songs carried on outside the ground and all the way down the Penistone Road. Brilliant stuff. I was assaulted by an old fellow, somewhat the worst for wear, who kept telling me to remember the day as he'd not seen it in his lifetime, etc etc all good humoured and the Blades were also pretty fair about it too.

So a good day for a football fan like me. Sorry for going into detail but it was a seriously special day to be an Owl. In the pub last night, there were loads of blue and white shirts and whole families gathered swapping Wednesday stories about the best games and the greatest players etc. Really old fashioned, heartwarming stuff. The Blades who live in the village kept pretty quiet to be fair, apart from the traditional banter, and let us enjoy our moment in the sun. Which is what villages are about too. It's a good job Diarmuid was on the rig - he would have hated every minute - he loathes football with a passion....sigh....