The World Cup....of crisps :D

The launch of a new series of crisp flavours by Walkers (the "Walkers Flavour Cup") is not good news for anyone trying to shift a few pounds, but as I'm going through a 'phase' at the moment when all my good work has completely gone to waste, I just had to try them in the interests of blog research :)

If you remember, Walkers previously tried this kind of new flavour thing a while back (which I also blogged about on here). Looking back, the flavours were all pretty vile really and none of them caught on. At least the new batch are much more agreeable, the ones I've tasted anyway, although some of them are hard to distinguish from each other. I may be a non beef eater but I do like beefy crisps though, so the Argentinian and English flavours are probably doing it for me.

But being EuropeCrazy after all, I'm also partial to a bit of German Sausage - "ooh er missus!!"

Haven't plucked up the courage to try Aussie BBQ Kangaroo yet though :)))

Bigger.

I finally plucked up the courage to weigh myself after four weeks of off-the-rails eating-rubbish-for-Britain.

Three pounds on. It doesn't sound that much, but I've ballooned.

In the immortal words of those philosophers The Divine Comedy, "it's hard to get by, when your a*se is the size of a small countreeeeeeee".

Mine is the size of Outer Mongolia :( diet starts again next Tuesday...

Saturday.

Which meant some long-overdue retail therapy in the big city, with faithful travelling companion. (And I wondered....why do you run out of all your cosmetics/toiletries at the same time??)

Nice Italian lunch, very agreeable vegetarian lasagne :) however on the down side, one of our favourite branches of Caffe Nero is closing. Really sad about this as it was one of the few coffee shops you could be guaranteed a seat in....maybe that's why it's closing I guess??

Tonight just chilled out with a mixture of "Who Dares Wins" and my weekly revisiting of "Phoenix Nights" - now onto series 2. Classic stuff.

And finally, all hail Morrisons Cheese & Onion Potato Skins, for they are truly wonderful ;)

Bratislava bound!!

Yes we are going to Bratislava in three and a bit weeks :))

Holiday Update!

I'm no longer going away on 3rd May and have decided to change my spring-break week to w/c 17th May, thus avoiding post-volcanic chaos for a little while....

Feeling quite happy today

You can tell how thrilling my life is at the moment, when I actually get excited about moving to a bigger desk at work! First day in the new (old) office and I just loved everything about it. Sitting right beside the window, with the blinds open - which is just perfect conditions for a long-time SAD sufferer :) and yes, that big desk is an ergonomic, spacious joy,with no more risk of smashing your knee to pieces every time you swivel round (unlike the last desk!!)

The work may not have changed, but after day 1, the verdict is: it's good to be home.

Volcanic ash cloud continues to spread :(

After last week's eruption in Iceland, the volcanic ash cloud continues to spread across Europe with no sign of abating : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8627720.stm

With the closure of airspace all over Europe, and the uncertainty of when things will be back to normal, we decided not to book our spring break (due to depart two weeks from tomorrow) until we know what's happening.

Watch this space...

Needless to say the havoc created by the closure of airspace all over Europe has caused tempers to rise, and of course it has also created an unlikely internet celebrity - the "I Hate Iceland" guy from Edinburgh Airport :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34mHZgP9vkc

A significant day tomorrow

Some things which will make tomorrow just slightly more significant than the usual Friday...

At work, it's our section's last day in our current office within the building....for we are moving to another office along the corridor, which takes us full circle as we're going back into what was our original room when we moved into our current premises 11 years ago. I am the only original member left from that "class of 1999" and in a way it feels like going back home again...fingers crossed it will all go smoothly.

16th April is also a very special date for me and faithful travelling companion: it's the anniversary of when he asked me out for the first time. I won't tell you how long ago it was :) but of course this marked the beginning of a long, happy and very successful (if highly unconventional!) relationship which continues to this day.

However, there will be no fancy celebratory dinners tomorrow night because we've got work to do. Booking a spring break to be precise: we've reached our decision, just a couple of little things to clarify and hopefully it should be done and dusted tomorrow night!

Got a new obsession...!

I know I'm probably about 3 years behind everyone else but last night I finally discovered Google Street View. Within about 5 minutes I was obsessed with it. Now my mum's obsessed with it too - we can't wait for our next "virtual tour".

Sunshine! (Part 2)

Two dry, sunny days in a row. We're definitely not used to it :)

Unfortunately this was enough to bring out all the summer-fashion-casualties whom I witnessed whilst out shopping at lunchtime. It was enough to make me bring up my lentil soup, and bearing in mind that I wasn't feeling too great again today, then that wouldn't have taken much!

Not really much to report otherwise...I'm still having a bit of a job adjusting back into reality after my Swedish trip. Reality pretty much sucks actually, it's boring me right now, and I can't be bothered with it. I treasure my nightly escape into blog-land....

Sunshine!

I'd forgotten what a blue sky or sunshine actually looked like after all these months of snow and rain! Yes the sun is shining, the sky is blue and I've been overwhelmed to turn my blog from withered brown to bright green as a celebration of spring. But, like the weather, it's subject to change. I'd actually been experimenting with new, non-Blogger-supplied templates today but it was all too complicated so it was back to something I felt more comfortable with.

It's been a nice weekend and the good news is that it's set to continue.

Holiday-planning is still ongoing, and there should be an announcement by the end of the coming week. The previous front-runner has now been overtaken by another front-runner!

Got lots of other things to do this week so there will be minimal blogging.

See ya!

Woo-freakin'-hoo.

So there's gonna be a general election in 4 weeks time. Which is a good cue to switch off every news programme on TV for the next 4 weeks. Because after just one day's coverage I feel as if I've been beaten senseless by political pundits who would win a gold medal if speculation was ever to become an Olympic sport.

Yet despite my increasing political apathy I have always voted since I was 18 years old, never missed a single election, even those boring council polls where about only 15 people turn up to vote (yes, I was one of that 15, my mum was yet another). So once again I will do my duty, and even if none of them reflect my political views any more, I will still cast my vote regardless :)

Still in search of va-va-voom.

It would appear that my 'get up and go' has 'got up and gone', and it's taking a while for me to get back to feeling ok again - I'm still tired and sleepy, lacking in energy, and completely uninspired by yet another day of torrential rain and high winds.

My mum's still not feeling well either at the moment and that's getting me down too :(

Anyway I managed to summon up enough energy today to do the annual alphabeticising of my CD collection. Which apparently is one of the danger signs of being an obsessive-compulsive control freak. Hmm. Yes I'll admit to being a control freak, which can be my downfall at times. But obsessive-compulsive....nope. I haven't reached that stage yet: I'm far too messy :)

Zzzzzzz....

There is this contrast going on at the moment: the previous post covered my state of mind, this one covers my current state of health.

So here I am, the night before the Easter holiday long-weekend. I'm lucky enough to be off work tomorrow and Monday. I should be feeling full of beans but quite frankly I'm not. Like everyone around me, I fell victim to that viral-infection-thingy-with-no-name at the beginning of last week (severe headaches/high temperatures/persistent cough), thankfully I didn't get the version with the added sickness, which my mum got.

Anyway I recovered in time for Sweden, however since coming back I seem to have been hit with a post-viral bout of fatigue and a general flatness and my face isn't chalk white anymore, it's grey :(

All of this has not been helped by three days of weather misery: torrential rain, snow, sleet and unrelenting cold. However I'm not going to let it get me down and am planning lots of nice retail therapy tomorrow and Saturday, along with copious amounts of blogging, red wine and nibbles over the weekend.

Have a happy Easter y'all !!!!

Trying to re-adjust to reality, but failing miserably

Sorry but can I just stay in my little bubble of happiness for a while yet? I am still on this incredible euphoric high after last weekend, and would be quite happy to feel this way forever. Life is just an irritating little intrusion at the moment and I can't really be bothered with the mundane stuff. Like work, and housework, and...stuff.

Would be very happy to devote my life to flying back and forward to Sweden and taking in every Salem Al Fakir concert ever. I can dream can't I..... :))