Weight-watching update.

Two pounds off this week!!!!!

Yay!!!!

Day 3 in the big diet house

Yay!!

I'm winning my war with the step machine!
I'm making zero-point carrot & coriander soup!!
I'm drinking water!!
No crisps tonight!!
Weighing my food!!

Boring or what?

But it won't be long till the weekend, then normal service will be resumed: well at least for a couple of days and nights ;)

I predict a diet (here we go again zzzzz)

So I started all over again yesterday (yet again) and I'm giving myself a 12 week plan to get my body into shape which will be in nice time for my spring holiday at the beginning of May.

I'm calling this my "Elvis Presley diet" because....'it's now or never' ;)

Day two is over. Well at least the first two days have been ok, although getting re-acquainted with the mini-stepper is a challenge to say the least!!!

Hello Mr President

I got home from work just in time to watch Mr Obama being sworn in at his inauguration tonight. I thought his speech was quite inspirational, bringing a message of strength and defiance but also of equality, peace, freedom and renewal for his country.

I wish him well.

It's beginning to look a lot like...winter.

So the snow came today, golfball-sized snowflakes to be precise.

It's quite reassuring when this happens: getting snow when you should be getting snow. Seasonal weather. I'd rather have this than the wind and rain storms, which are really annoying. For once I'd like winter to be winter, spring to be spring, summer to be summer...you get the picture.

Things are definitely looking up as the bathroom saga is (fingers crossed) almost over, and we have a rather lovely new bathroom at EuropeCrazy HQ to enjoy.

The dieting, however, is another story. My best laid plans have collapsed in a heap, buried under a mountain of chocolate biscuits, sweets, crisps and an addiction to McCain Salt & Black Pepper potato wedges.

I'll start again next week :)))

Time off in loo

Apologies for the atrocious pun !! :-)))

So the bathroom replacement is well underway, with most of EuropeCrazy HQ resembling a building site. Nevertheless I've spent a couple of happy days off work, sitting in the living room watching my Hollyoaks backlog and working my way through my Gilmore Girls boxed sets. Also listened to Radio 1 today for a change, instead of my local radio station. What a nice change too! Didn't hear "Hallelujah" once. Now that is indeed an achievement.

Happily, my (unexplained) back injury is easing off and my (equally unexplained) tummy bug is also now gone, so I'm on the mend at last and ready to dip my toe into the blogging waters once more.

I am also due a long-awaited reunion tomorrow with faithful travelling companion, who's had his own troubles over the past week with a very nasty eye infection.

And to top it all, I found out tonight that Salem Al Fakir's new album is out on 25 March.

Life is good :))))))))))

Carnage and chaos

Taking a bit of a break from the old blogging thing this week as there will be a lot of work going on at home over the next few days. New bathroom is being fitted so expect carnage and chaos but it will all be worth it!

Also I haven't been feeling too well in the last few days - back pain/upset stomach, oh well at least I'm off work for the next three days so that's one less thing to worry about!

What do you want for tea? I want crisps!

So it's Friday night and here I am at EuropeCrazy HQ, minus faithful travelling companion. :(

Tonight's date has been called off due to FTC's nasty bout of conjunctivitis, poor thing. I feel a spot of gratuitous blogging coming on.

I need to share something with you. I am....a crispaholic. Yes, I love potato crisps (or for my North American readers, potato chips) and unfortunately it is an addiction that I just can't cure, and don't particularly want to. Which also goes a long way to explaining my "battle of the bulge" and my WeightWatchers Online membership which has gone on a little bit longer than originally planned..!

So it was with great joy that I discovered this week that Golden Wonder Golden Lights are back. In Poundland. Yay and rejoice, rejoice, rejoice. In these credit-crunching days you've got to grab every bargain you can. At the end of the day, if you are going to eat crisps you might as well be sensible and choose the low-calorie low-fat option, and these fit the bill. Specially the Salt & Vinegar ones, yum. Technically, they are not crisps as we know it, but a more than acceptable substitute for Discos.

I miss Walkers Potato Heads though.

2009: good to go!

I managed to end 2008 on a high - with my now-traditional Cantonese meal with faithful travelling companion, followed by a visit to a local bar. A change of scenery here, as the bar we usually go to has been (presumably) credit-crunched out of existence so it was off to Wetherspoons for Kopparbergs pear cider. Even my drinking habits are Swedish these days although the Kopparbergs is cheaper in Wetherspoons than in Sverige :)))

(NB: Last time I mentioned drinking over at EuropeCrazy, that particular post ended up on some blog-aggregator about alcohol/excessive drinking: I subsequently went ballistic and asked them to remove the post from their listings. Presumably this one will go the same way but I would just like to say that I never drink to excess, only in moderation. Being drunk is soooooo overrated, and hangovers are not a good thing)

Anyway...back home to bring in 2009 with mum, who unfortunately isn't too well at the moment, but we did have a very nice start to the new year and 1st January was very relaxing and most enjoyable for certain reasons: see Planet Salem for more info!!

Today I was off to the big city with faithful travelling companion for lunch and sales-shopping. There is one inevitable thing about sales-shopping: a) it will be a total disappointment, and b) they'll never have it in your size anyway. At least Boots had all their gift sets at half-price so I took advantage. Between these and the sets I received for Christmas, I now have enough bath essence/shower gel/body lotion to see me through 2009 and beyond!!

I've only gained one pound over the festive season, which is cause for great celebration. Needless to say I've renewed my WeightWatchers Online subscription.....this is the year that I finally reach my target weight, blah blah blah. You set your own target weight there, and I am only 9lbs off it. 9 measly pounds. I will put my mind to it. Between the mini-stepper, the increased water consumption and getting the "Pump It Up" DVD out of cold storage, I can do it. No-one else can do it for me: I owe it to myself to get fit, lose weight, and be healthy.

All that being said, I don't believe in making New Year resolutions as they're only made to be broken!! So I'll just mention a few things which are more likely to happen in 2009...

1. Go on holiday. At the moment, Munich is favourite for spring-break in May, but our September 2009 destination is just a big blank page at the moment!!

2. Better blog-management. I've got three blogs all demanding my attention, and hopefully I'll be able to do them all justice this year.

3. Buy more CDs. 2008 was generally very poor for music releases and I didn't purchase too many CDs....but 2009 should be better. There are at least four Swedish male solo singers whose CDs will inevitably find their way into my collection. And I've got a new hi-fi to play them on, so....bring it on!!