A week in one post (or "I started this days ago and haven't finished it so you're getting it all in one go!")

I have been doing really well exercising and making decent choices and,in the early part of this week, my morning weigh ins were pleasingly positive. Buoyed up by my half stone off on Thursday I went for a run on Friday and then, early Saturday morning, I not only went to personal training but I also ran there and back (just under a mile each way)!! It helped my morning as fitted the dog's walk around training and also meant they had company for an extra hour but the main thing was the extra exercise. The dogs were hilarious at training, barking at themselves in the big mirrors and jumping all over me whenever I was on the dog shelf...(floor).


Despite an unscheduled curry on Friday night I managed to keep a lid on excesses and limited the boozing too.


And what was my reward for this healthiness?? A streaming, stinking cold! It started Sunday so I was pleased not to be going out to the quiz (we had a bye) and enjoyed a night in front of the fire and telly.


Monday I was playing golf in the morning. My golfing partner Sarah and 1 had won through to the regional rounds of the Daily Mail Foursomes and this was an away fixture at a very exclusive 9 hole course near here at Chatsworth. You can't turn up and play there, can only play with a member, so neither of us had played the course and it did not disappoint. It was stunning. Set in the rolling, sculpted Chatsworth Park with beautiful views from every fairway and littered with ancient, massive trees. Pheasants, rabbits and squirrels pootling about and sheep and deer over the fences. Just gorgeous.


And we won! We both played very well and thrashed them 6 and 5! So, we're into the next round and are hopeful of drawing another good local course.


I was fine playing but my cold got worse in the afternoon and Rich was poorly too so we aborted dancing and snuffled away at each other on the sofa  all Monday evening. Tuesday was the football so we had to drag ourselves out despite still feeling like death warmed up.  It didn't matter because Sheffield Wednesday distracted us with an awesome 3-nil win over QPR who are miles above us in the table and have a squad littered with expensive Premiership players.  Despite somehow finding the energy during the match and jumping around singing and shouting, we suffered for our excesses afterwards.

Wednesday I was golfing again in the morning and then had to race into Rotherham for a management meeting.  As an aside, I have been handed a temporary promotion while my boss is on longterm sick. It's good in one way (extra money, recognition for doing what I was doing anyway) but bad in another as I suddenly have a heap of managerial tasks to fit into my already busy workdays.  My boss (on sick with stress) was not really doing these tasks anyway (PDRs, file reviews, client liaison etc) but suddenly I have to do the job AND make up his backlog.  Hmmmm, am I a patsy here??

So an afternoon of management crud then race back to get to the village Panto in Hope.  What a change of pace!  It was good but not as good as our village's panto a few weeks ago....hehehe

So, all in all, I've not had any spare time to relax since Sunday and there's not much to come in the near future either.  Darts and dominoes tonight, meeting a friend for divorce counselling and legal advice early doors tomorrow night (but hopefully getting home in time to watch the last 2 episodes of Line of Duty), football away all day at Doncaster Saturday, Mum and Dad and quiz final Sunday and then it all starts again.

I'm knackered just thinking about it.

In between all the events, the plasterer has been Monday-Wednesday to re-plaster the hallway, stairs and landing so the whole house is full of splodges of plaster, dust and a vaguely dank air.  The plaster dust has been horrible with our colds, really drying and tickley but at least we could get rid of the bulk of it this evening with a good hoovering and dusting session before D&D.

It will look great though.  Sleek walls and white woodwork.  Begone manky, peeling textured wallpaper painted grubby cream and too-thin red-dy burgundy.  Begone, cheap, gloomy pine EVERYWHERE.  Begone dado rail.  Begone stained brown carpet with non-existent underlay so it feels as though you're walking on bare boards.  All this is yet to come but the plastering was the first big job to be done and that is now finished!!  We can start motoring now.  Although I suspect getting Richard off the golf course may be tricky.  We need a few rainy Sundays..... (I can't believe I just said that).

What of diet and exercise you might enquire (if you've stuck it out to here that is)?  Not bad actually. I had my weigh-in this lunchtime and was chuffed to see a 2 lb drop on the scales taking me to a pleasing 9lb total drop.  It feels real now.  A long way to go but I have made a proper start and it is fitting into my life with minimal adjustments.  Long may this continue.