Sunny Sunday Walk Part 1

We've done this walk a couple of times before.  You park at the Cutthroat Bridge  layby off the A57 heading towards Sheffield and then strike off up onto Derwent Moor.  The last couple of times we've walked it have been icy and snowy but today it was glorious sunshine if a little chilly and somewhat muddy underfoot in places.

But well worth it for the views.

I loved the big, blue sky and open country.  Although there were loads of people about, you never felt crowded, just happy to be out.

It was so clear - usually this view towards Bamford Edge in the distance is hazy but on Sunday it was clear as a bell.

At the end of the moor section you hit the reservoirs and have a choice of routes.  We chose to walk along the low path below Derwent Edge overlooking the north section of Ladybower reservoir to our left.

It felt as though you could see for miles and miles, far further than usual.  This is looking back towards the omnipresent Win Hill.

Now we are descending to the footpath around the reservoirs.

I'll do the rest next time - I took 99 photos on this one walk and think even the edited selection of that lot would be too much for one post!!

So, what have we been up to?? 

Well, I mentioned a big day out to Nottingham over the weekend.  It was my birthday away trip and it was a good 'un - 4,300 Wednesday fans hit the city, the majority sporting some Portugueuse paraphernalia!!  How bizarre.  (Which reminds me, I must download my photos from Saturday.)

I'll explain - Wednesday have a very popular Portugueuse player called Jose Semedo.  He is not our best player but he has endeared himself to the fans with his work rate, honesty and sheer effort.  He is built like a brick, erm, wall and gives everything.  We have a great song for him  "Oh, oh oh he's magic, you know; you'll never get past Semedo" to the tune of the eighties(?) pop song Magic.  It goes on a bit but he absolutely loves it.

Anyway, before the Forest game, knowing it would be a sellout for us and despite Wednesday struggling in the league, various fans' forums decided to designate that match as "Jose Semedo Day".  It really took off.  Flags were purchased, faces painted (not blacked up - just Portugal flags!!) and 3000 Jose Semedo face masks were sourced and distributed free.  As a minor player from Portugal who had never really been a big hit at any other club he is bursting with pride, nearly crying on the various interviews when asked for his reaction to the "honour".  Sweet.

On the day, our flags had not arrived from Amazon (they arrived on Saturday morning after we had left typically!) but I found red long sleeved and green short sleeved t-shirts for the necessary effect.  I painted our cheeks with the Portugal flag (lipliner and green eyeliner!) and we joined the throng. 

It was amazing.  You would have thought that the Portugal national side was playing in Nottingham that day.  Flags, shirts, green and red balloons, masks everywhere.  A brilliant party.

It was, therefore, a bit of a shame we lost but the team played well and could have nicked it.  In fact it took our defender (not Semedo thankfully) to score their goal for them - that's how close it was!

So, that was Saturday and much fun it was too.

Sunday was a slightly hungover sunny walk as you've seen above and Monday was my lovely birthday. 

You might be wondering how my diet is faring in the face of all this activity??  And the answer is, not too bad. 

After the excesses of Saturday, I got straight back to it on Sunday and even on my birthday, although we had a curry, I only had 2 v small glasses of wine and stuck to the plan all day apart from the curry.

Tuesday brought another temptation in the form of a seminar in Leeds, travelling there on the train!!  Seminars and train travel are normally big triggers for me. But I was BRILLIANT!  I batted both aside, nothing but black coffee on the train and only green tea at the seminar despite the groaning table of bacon, sausage and egg sandwiches and gorgeous looking pastries.  I even managed to meet up with a pal in Leeds for lunch and still stick to the straight and narrow (it was only a short lunch break as she was at work and I had a train to catch).

This morning I should be golfing but the rain is siling down and we cancelled.  Unfortunately, I had already had breakfast in readiness for golf before we cancelled. (I put aside the 'no eating for 3 hours' rule when I'm playing golf as I found my concentration went to pot when I didn't eat!) It feels very weird having food in my stomach in the morning.  I don't like it.  It was only bacon and eggs (no toast) so in the great scheme of things will not have a detrimental effect but I still don't like the feeling.

Anyway, I'm going to do a bonus half day of work now and then we're off Christmas shopping to Meadowhall later.  I'll fit in a run or training at some point too, hopefully when the rain has eased off!!


So, this morning, when all the madness has come to an end, the scales have rewarded me with a 1 lb drop to 14.8.0.  Can I hold onto that for the rest of the week??  I hope so.  I like seeing new low numbers on the scales, it's very encouraging! I hope you're all doing well too peeps!