I weighed myself last night. Worse than that, I weighed myself on a set of scales that had an 'ideal weight for your height' thing on it. I am not overweight. But it is a close run thing. So instead of a reasonably half-hearted effort at going to the gym I am going to actually properly pay attention to what I eat and actually put myself through my paces a bit at the gym instead of just being chuffed with myself for making it into the room. A habit of eating maple and pecan slices mid-day has to go. So does lots of cheese. Clearly I am going to fail a lot but a better attempt has to better than what is going on now.
This weekend (apart from weighing myself for the first time in ten years shock) has been rather nice. We stayed with some friends in Kent for the weekend and played badminton and enjoyed a lovely Indian meal. All very pleasant. The woman kept threatening to propose (anyone know any women who proposed today?) but the bloke was slow and kept on missing the joke which was quite amusing....
I went around the world in my dream last night, visiting various people from my past. It is so very weird when this happens - it seems to happen to me all the time. I spend a lot of my night-times in NZ, worrying in my dream about how I am going to get back to London for work the next day. Last night was not much of an exception (except the country was different!). All very odd. Some people dont seem to remember their dreams at all ever, but I remember mine almost every night. Perhaps it is because I spent the evening back at home with my parents and brother (who told us last night he has got a new job!). I am not going to try and analyse it because it is too weird!
I am interested to hear who had pancakes yesterday. Which countries go with that tradition? I know UK, Canada do but not sure about NZ, USA, Australia etc. I assume Japan doesnt?! And of those who have pancakes, who made them themselves and who ate them from packets? Simon and I made our own scotch pancakes last night which were just lovely! Really good fun to make as well- tossing them seemed to work and everything....
And do people give things up for Lent any more? I used to give up chocolate as a child but dont really do anything any more. I went through a phase of trying to do something positive instead of something negative but havent managed to do that in recent years.
I went out for a drink with my friend from the bank last night. We planned to meet up at Waterloo and she suggested this place I had never heard of (Auberge) which is right next door to the pub I usually meet friends at Waterloo in. It is so lovely- rustic and French and lots of atmosphere and character. I really enjoyed it there and cant believe I have missed it for so long! I am thinking of having my 30th birthday party there later in the year. It was also really good to catch up with my friend, although she wasnt feeling brilliant so we parted company at 8.30pm.....
Today is sunny and cold. Just the sort of winter's day I love. The weekend was just horrible- cold and dull and grey. But at least I had fun anyway! I eschewed the gym yesterday and sat in the pub with the papers instead. Much more enjoyable (although clearly I am regretting it now!).
Simon has the day off today and was still in bed when I left for work. Lucky person. (Though I did have friday off I suppose!).
Tonight I am meeting up with a friend I havent seen in ages who is recently loved up so it will be very cheering indeed- I am really looking forward to it.
And lots of work to do in the meantime so I had better be getting on with it!
Would someone please leave me a comment? I am feeling very rejected... Thanks!
I had yesterday off work- hence the lack of posting. I spent it going to an outlet village near Oxford with two of my closest friends Alex and Rachel (friends from university). I admit to being a little suspicious about it and went along purely to spend time with them. But I ended up spending over £100! I bought a new winter casual coat which I am very pleased with (Quicksilver no less). And a new rucksack to use when walking (Timberland!). So all in all I was very impressed with the whole thing and had a lovely day. Then in the evening Simon and I went round to a friend from the bank's in Wimbledon (his wife works at the FSA with me!) and some other friends were there too. It was all very congenial and lots of fun indeed.
That is about all the news I think. Thursday evening was spent doing domesticities to get us up to date (of course we are totally behind all over again now!). But these things have to be done. I am enjoying watching episodes of the The Office on DVD as I do the ironing so there are worse things in life!
Someone coming round for dinner tonight so need to get the flat clean and tidy (and perhaps go and buy some food!). So better leave this here. Also have to get Simon something to wear on the slopes when we go skiing in three weeks!
Thanks for logging on- promise to not be so crap next week....
I have been in Derby with work for the past two days. It was an IT visit so I was expecting it to be terrible. Actually it was quite interesting. The people I went with were nice and we got upgraded in the hotel we stayed in (Risley Hall) to executive suites which was very nice indeed! The meal was lovely and it is good to be out of the office to make the week speed by sometimes. And it was very nice to come home to Simon again! (We went out to a pub and played pool. He is clearly far better than me but with a bit of coaching I managed to come close to beating him twice!).
For anyone looking at this who lives in/ near London I really recommend the Quentin Blake Exhibition at Somerset House. It is brilliant! Perhaps it is particularly cool for people of my generation who grew up on Roald Dahl (remember The Twits and Revolting Rhymes?!). Anyway he is a very talented man and the exhibition is great. Plus Somerset House is one of my favourite places in London (go to the Courthald Gallery too- v good).
We also met some friends and went for drinks/ dinner on the south bank (Gabriel's Wharf and County Hall) which was great. The live jazz in County hall was brilliant (they seemed to be making it up as they go along but apparently that is the essence of jazz - v cool anyway!). But the service was sooo bad (rude and slow) that we decided not to pay the service charge and they came chasing after us as we left asking for it! Clearly they get away with the extortionate 15% most of the time...
And I drove home from Waterloo (only a 10 minute drive) which has always been my idea of a total nightmare so I have avoided doing it. V proud of myself.
The worst thing about living in England are these dreadful grey days. They just arent particularly anything. They arent cold or wet or warm or sunny or anything at all. Except incredibly depressing. Trying to get on with the weekend anyway but it does mean one has to work harder to gain the weekend feeling!
I received two Valentine's cards! One through the post with no mark on it and one from my husband on the morning of Valentine's. It is nice to be loved! We dont really go in for V-day in a big way so a card is all that was necessary. We did entertain some friends last night which was lovely- nothing better than catching up with friends over a nice meal (cooked by Simon and me- we get to choose what to eat then!). They stayed over and we all went to church this morning. Followed by the Quentin Blake exhibition on at Somerset House this afternoon and meeting some more friends for drinks...
The bikes are still stolen though.
And we went to see the house yesterday. I am pleased to say neither of us fell in love with it - so we wont be buying it. Phew. We can stick to our original plan and wait a year before we up sticks and move out of London...Wont stop me looking in the meantime though!
Someone somewhere has stolen our bikes! I am most upset about this. They were presents from our parents the Christmas before last and I really enjoyed spending time on them. Admittedly, we didnt do this terribly often but I was looking forward to the summer and taking them out a bit more. But we cant because some low-life has stolen them ! I only found out on my way into work this morning and I am most put out. I havent been able to concentrate on my work at all !
I am looking forward to our weekend- spending an evening with a school friend of mine and her husband tomorrow and they are staying over so we can see a bit of them on Sunday. Then the rest of Sunday with the papers or a good book or something I hope. We certainly wont be going for a bike ride!
We were supposed to be going greyhound dog racing tonight but I dont feel totally tip top so we are leaving that for another time.
Happy Valentines everyone! (Why are people so obsessed with celebrating it? We deliberately arranged to see friends because it is so overengineered etc. I would rather Simon bought me flowers any other time than at Valentines (and indeed he does). And I remember how when I was single it made me feel a thousand times worse about the whole thing than I did on a normal day. All round not a good time I reckon. (Shops clearly only push it so much because it is their only way of making money between Christmas and Easter....)
I am off on a course in a mo so wont have much time to write much today. But didnt want to neglect it for a whole day!
I drank two glasses of red wine last night which I would have thought would be fine. But I feel much more tired this morning than I usually do so i suspect it might be the wine! Perhaps I will stick to one in future.
I now have to do a link to Lisa's other site to prove that I am not a complete idiot! Well here it is. Her other site is called babyblue and is well worth a read.
The first week back after Christmas dragged like anything. But since then the weeks have been gradually speeding up and it seems that Wednesday has arrived already this week! And I am not sure i have done everything that I should have. Having said that I have been to the gym twice in the last three days so I am feeling quite virtuous! Also visited my local pub which has been feeling a little neglected of late. It really is totally gorgeous and we must go in there quite a bit because the bar staff have started to be a bit cheeky! (Never known this kind of lack of anonymity in a pub before!). I even know what some of the other locals drink (although clearly we never actually speak to them- it is London after all!). There is a real mix of people in there which is quite refreshing- it is all to easy to just go to places where people who work in the City (financial district) go- our local has people who work all over the place and is therefore not just full of suits. Janine knows that the pub quiz is a bit on the tricky side - but Time Out says it is the best in London so clearly we just need to keep on practising!
I am going to have a go at trying to link to another website. So here goes. I am going to attach a link to Lisa's site turquoise so you can all see what one of these sites is supposed to look like. She actually has two- one for her and one to report on the progress of her pregnancy which is very clever indeed. I wonder what will happen when her baby is born- will she continue to report on the progress of him/ her in the other website?
Well I can see that it gets increasingly difficult to think of things to write on this diary! The governor's meeting last night was good. It was very short and I felt decidedly unqualified to decide things like staff salaries which are clearly so very important. But I guess it is a legal responsibility so if it wasnt me, it would be someone else and I can learn. Actually it is quite good because one of our key responsibilities is to try to ensure that the headteacher has some kind of work/life balance. The best way for us to contribute to this directly is to keep governors' meetings short! Which meant I was home by 6.30pm last night and able to finish off the ironing, have a decent cooked meal and a chat to my friends before going to pick up Simon from the tube when he got back from drinks with his best mate. (Arent I a good wife?!)
Thanks people for coming to have a look at the site! I'm sorry that I cant yet point you to more sophisticated ones but maybe that will come with time...
It is a gorgeous winter day here today. It is cold and bright and sunny. I wish I wasnt stuck in an office! Still a matter of 7 weeks or so til I am off skiing and can make the very most of the winter fresh air...
I have a School Governor's meeting tonight - feeling a bit nervous as I dont know anything ! Maybe that is something else that will come with time.
Just a quick blog before bed time to show off how busy we have been today! Got up and went to church (was aiming for the evening service so that was a bonus in itself!!). Then went food shopping, made lunch, cleaned the flat from top to bottom whilst Simon did the last coat of paint on the kitchen (looking good!). Then the gym and a roast dinner with ironing and three calls to my best friend and to both sets of parents into the bargain. Now I am impressed with that little lot! Only trouble is- no time for reading the papers and relaxing. I guess that is just tough! Cant do everything...
Does anyone else have people in their office/ company who are just absolutely obsessed with process? There are loads where I work and I am gradually seeing why I want to move jobs every couple of years- they simply drive me bonkers! Why cant they see that the substance is simply so much more interesting and important than the way we do things! Where I am working now is simply process gone mad. These people are also usually so self-important and I am sure that their level of bossiness and self-assuredness is indirectly proportional to their intellectual abilities. Whatsmore they seem to be given so much power within the organisation that they have the potential to cause your career great damage! It is simply so unfair.
I have tried- under the guidance of Lisa (whose blog inspired me to set this up)- to insert a comments and a tracker section on the blog. I dont think I am quite technically competent to be able to do such things. But with a bit of time, who knows, I might get there.
It was clearly far too optimistic to think I was going to get to the gym for the third time in a week (although I did make the pool!). And after a glass of wine the ironing wasnt looking too tempting either. But never mind- I had a pleasant evening talking to my husband instead. Much more worthwhile.
But I am not going to be happy until I have got this page sorted out with all the bells and whistles that one should have in such places!
I am not sure whether I am supposed to introduce myself or just launch in with what I have been doing recently (or other great thoughts or witticisms). Given I have neither no great thoughts nor am I particularly feeling witty today I guess what I have been up to is the place to start.
I think I might have just started something I am going to regret! We (that is, my husband Simon and I) are nicely settled into our docklands flat and enjoying London living. However, we have just spotted a gorgeous house in an area we might like to live in eventually and I have managed to persuade Simon we should go and have a look at it! I guess we possibly could afford it if we really stretched ourselves but I am really fearing that we go and see it and then fall in love with it! Our flat hasnt even had the new kitchen that we have ordered fitted yet, let alone it being on the market! So we arent really in a position to be considering moving. But never mind. I know that we will go and see it and I just hope it isnt as great as it appears to be from the website! If we were to move, I would miss my 20 minute ferry ride to work but it would be wonderful to have a garden and not be completely constrained for storage space....
I managed to resist booking theatre tickets for tonight as there is no guarantee that Simon would be out of work on time. Instead I have a fun evening in the gym and doing ironing lined up. Fantastic.
Well I have finally given in and decided it is time to get a blog up myself- I really enjoy reading those of other people. The only problem is I really like those best that update regularly. I am sure I wont be as good as many other people are. But I can try. This is all for now though as I am at work- will try and write some proper stuff later on !
