Excuses excuses.....

Below are my final pictures of the football season (although, never fear, the season will start again in August!!).  It was our big finale against Wycombe Wanderers which we HAD to win in order to gain automatic promotion.  I hope that you will by now know that WE DID IT!!!!  

The ground was packed - normally, if you arrive 30 minutes before kick-off there are a few people milling around - last Saturday it was rammed.

My pal Kerry looking somewhat nervous as we make it up the long steps to the Kop.

Inflatables bouncing around - it was a proper party atmosphere.

Who would bring a full-sized paddling pool to a football match??!

Richard and his sister.

Me and Rich looking excited rather than nervous.  Makes a change for a Wednesday fan I can tell you.

The variety of inflatables was impressive...

The attendance was 38,082 (bigger than any other gate this season outside of the Premiership!) of which 478 were Wycombe fans.  You can see them in the blue corner section to the far right. The rest of the ground was packed out with 4 sides of Wednesday fans. Awesome.

The Wycombe fans were brilliant too.  478 is a good away support considering they had already been relegated.  There were loads in fancy dress and they joined in with our party, even staying behind to watch the celebrations.  Proper fans.  We clapped them and even applauded their players onto the pitch after half time which is something I have never seen before.

The giant flag making its way around the Kop.

During the game. 

The obligatory pitch invasion after the fulltime whistle. 

 Break out the Champagne!!

Me, Rich and Kerry and a few pints in the pub afterwards.  What a day.

So, it was alwasy going to be tricky to maintain momentum with my diet while also celebrating the biggest weekend in Wednesday history since 2005 (actually it was better than 2005 when we went up through the play-off final at Cardiff). 

But, I managed it, just.  I had my weigh-in last night and managed a 0.5lb off.  I think it was because, although I had a couple of days involving lots of beer and burgers, I also had several good days and did a fair bit of exercise.  I'm pleased.  It means I can cope with real life and still lose, albeit slowly.

So, so far I have crawled slowly to a drop of 5lbs over 3 (count them, 3!) months.  It's not impressive but it's my new reality.  That is 3 months during which I have not GAINED any weight and have not gone off the rails diet and exercise wise.  I may not have been stellar but I have been "trending" in the right direction.  The last few weeks have been better with an average of 1lb a week.  If I can keep that up, I'll have lost a couple of stone by the end of the year which I can more than live with.

I suppose my point is that I'm NOT dieting which has always been my aim.  I'm living in such a way as to gradually reduce my weight and improve my fitness.

We have, out of nowhere, booked a holiday too!  We looked at our diaries and the only week we could manage before the school holidays was at the end of May which didn't leave much time.  So we've booked a cottage in St Davids, Pembrokeshire at the end of May.  I have only 2 more weigh-ins before we go and want to get to my half stone off before we go.  Presuming that's the case, I will then replace my planned reward from dinner in Castleton to a smart dinner while on holiday instead.  I can then use the Castleton dinner for my stone reward.

I'm so excited about Pembrokeshire.  The countryside loks gorgeous, all pretty beaches and rugged cliffs and headlands.  We will play a couple of rounds of golf; do a boat trip out to the the islands to see the birds, dolphins and maybe even whales if we're lucky; lots of walking, a castle or 2 and lots of lovely, lovely time together with the dogs.  I cannot wait.

It's just occurred to me that we couldn't have gone if Wednesday hadn't managed second position as we would have had the play-off final that weekend.  So that is another reason why last weekend was just heavenly.  Now our rivals, Sheffield United, have that headache to cope with.  I hope they make it, to be honest as I like being in the same division but I am laughing my head off that they mucked it up in our favour!