Retail therapy

If all else fails...!

Happily, I'm coming back out of that dark tunnel which I seemed to spend most of the past week and a half travelling through. It wasn't all bad though: I had a good meal at a local Indian restaurant which I hadn't been to before, although it still hasn't dethroned my favourite local Indian restaurant; and despite a long-weekend binge and aforementioned Indian meal I managed not to gain weight this week, staying the same, which is pretty positive, considering....oh and now I'm back on stepping terms with the mini stepper and can do 700 steps in one session.

Today, in my continuing quest to try some new things this summer, faithful travelling companion and myself visited a new-ish shopping mall which we hadn't visited before. It is sales time of course, which is ok if you're a size 8. So needless to say I didn't pick up any bargains, but was lucky enough to get a very nice summery dress in H & M which has been earmarked for the forthcoming summer holiday. (Which hasn't been booked yet, are we living life on the edge or what!!).

To be continued...!

Can I have 'me' back please?

Did you ever get that feeling that someone or something had sneaked in during the night whilst you were asleep and removed your brain/ability to think straight/ability to feel good/ability to cope with everything life throws at you, etc etc?

That's been my week. I can't put my finger on it, but it's like some external forces pushing buttons, pushing and pulling me in all directions and I feel like I'm going to explode. It'll pass of course, it always does....but I've gone from this carefree happy person firing on all cylinders to someone who's even struggling to fire up the one.

During my teenage years I borrowed a book about biorhythms from my local library. It described how three cycles - physical, emotional, and intellectual, control your ability to function in these areas, and are worked out according to your date of birth. As usual, there's more info at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biorhythm

I never thought anymore about this until a couple of years back, when thanks to the internet I decided to investigate it all once more. I have the odd glance at my horoscope from time to time, but I don't really go too deeply into astrological matters (Libra btw: apparently I'm compatible with Aquarius - aha! faithful travelling companion! - and my objective is to seek fairness and balance in all things. Yep.)

However, I do check my biorhythm chart every couple of weeks and find it spookily accurate. I use http://sitefoundry.com/biorhythms/ to calculate my chart and unsurprisingly this week, all three cycles are appropriately on a downward slide, although intellectually there should be an improvement in the next week or so. Which may or may not make for better blog posts :))

The biggest swines of all

Forgive me for going all conspiracy-theorist on here tonight, but I just wondered if it was now the media's sole function not to spread news, but only to spread panic. Yes, swine flu is here, there, everywhere (as it has been for the last couple of months) and it is inevitable that it's only a matter of time before I get it, you get it, your husband/wife/children/workmates/neighbours/friends get it. We are aware of the risks, the dangers, we know how to wash our hands and we know how to 'catch it, bin it, kill it' and stop infections spreading. We know, and we try our best, but the fact remains that it's....inevitable.

The NHS in this country is trying to do something about it, even if it's probably too little and too late, but in any case it's probably fighting a losing battle as long as night after night, the TV news bulletins gleefully report the imminent rise of the pandemic. It's as if they are willing us all to catch it, for they are the biggest swines of all.

Scare tactics. It's all about putting the panic into the pandemic, and like every other drama of the last 10 years - the 'war on terror'/SARS/bird flu, I'm sure there are others too numerous to remember - 'they', whoever 'they' may be, are using scare tactics and panic to keep us in a permanent state of anxiety. To increase viewing figures, to sell newspapers, for someone to make money out of it.

I just switch off now. And then go and wash my hands. And catch it, bin it, kill it. Hopefully.

Unwinding and upgrading

Having two days off work purely for relaxation purposes...and enjoying every minute.

Currently celebrating the fact that I have successfully downloaded Internet Explorer 8. The last time I tried to upgrade my Internet Explorer, I completely lost the internet altogether :(

Also still coming to terms with the fact that it now takes me about 20 minutes from switching on the computer to getting everything to work, thanks to upgrading my anti-virus a few weeks ago.

But anyway everything is working, and that's the main thing :)

Charity begins at home?

So when did it become so hard to try and do a good deed? As part of the ongoing 'let's treat EuropeCrazy HQ to some new furniture' exercise, we decided to donate some of our old furniture away to charity. ('Old' as in years, but in very good condition nonetheless).

We live in very strange times: once upon a time charity organisations were happy to accept furniture donations. Now it seems all they want to do is sell them in a shop. Just like any other business. And if your furniture even falls slightly short of their often unreasonably high standards then they don't want it. I think that's pretty sad, as there are many people out there much less fortunate through circumstances beyond their control, but who are missing out on any donations which are being sold in a shop instead.

All's well that ends well though - we managed to find a good old fashioned charity organisation which happily accepted our donation.

Sunday, but not as we know it

Two significant things about today.


1. The normal Sunday practice of making home-made carrot and coriander soup for the Monday and Tuesday lunch was abandoned. As 'creature of habit' is my middle name, I think my workmates might all keel over in shock when I bring in a new flavour of home-made soup, i.e. butternut squash, red pepper and onion soup, adapted from a recipe on the WeightWatchers website. With copious amounts of dried chives on top. Voila!




It looks and smells rather nice I must admit, but it doesn't have to look good, it has to taste good too. Think it will though. I actually made so much of it that it will do me for three days so that should be enough time to get used to it!!

EDIT 06.07.09, 12.14 pm: Yum.........oh yes. I like it. Most tasty.

2. My chilled-out Sunday afternoon surfing was abandoned for a bout of extreme de-cluttering in my bedroom, which resembled less of a bedroom and more of a home for unwanted plastic bags full of magazines, brochures and other paper-type things etc which I should really have binned many moons ago. I also got rid of a few cassette tapes, from the pre-download days when you taped the top 40 off the radio (!) anyway no point in keeping them as they've all been transferred to CD. It was a very therapeutic exercise, although in these days of fortnightly rubbish collections you now have to pace your de-cluttering from one fortnight to another, as there's still a week to go till the bins are emptied....

:(

Gained 1lb this week.
Well, you just can't diet in this weather can you?

Computer-free Thursday (not)

As part of my get-my-life-in-order time management strategy (ha ha) I had decided during my blog-break that I'd take one night a week out of any kind of contact with a computer - no internet/email/typing/scanning...nothing at all. So I came up with computer-free Thursday and it's been working for the last couple of weeks. But obviously not tonight.

I need something to take my mind off this heat, I guess....thankfully it won't be high-20s tomorrow, the forecast is for good old rain and 20 degrees.

I hate the rain but this time I think I might just run outside and dance in it :))))

Good heat gone bad

Wasn't June amazing? It's always one of my favourite months of the year, and this time it finally delivered on the good weather front for the first time in years.

However there's a point when this hot weather crosses the line, and we reached that point today when even the people who love the heat were suffering. Today, 1st July was the day when the good heat went bad.

EDIT 02.07.09: It's not any better today. Already on the verge of passing out. Today temperatures of 29 degrees are forecast :(