Thoughts from my day off

I have been off work today, as per my current working pattern where I work the same hours per fortnight, only over 9 longer days which therefore entitles me to a day off every fortnight.  It is a most wonderful thing, I have to say, and here's hoping that it becomes a more permanent arrangement, all being well.  I have now been doing this for 4 months and at times I have felt that my day off's been all work and no play, so I made sure that today would be a more leisurely one, where I stayed at home, took it easy, chilled out, listened to music, and put some research into future holiday destinations.  So it's been a big success!

May usually means spring holiday time, which means that exciting things are imminent....of course I will be writing about our spring holiday over at EuropeCrazy.  Although there was initially a plan for our spring holiday, alternatives are also being considered therefore at this point I really can't say where we are going, because I genuinely don't know... It could be somewhere old, or somewhere new, or the combination of an old country with a new destination.  It could be anywhere.....more to follow!

Over the past 24 hours I've been coming to terms with the possibility of another Scottish independence referendum, as proposed yesterday by Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. I have already heard many negative thoughts about it, but in my own view I think it's worth another try.  The outcome of the 'Brexit' referendum revealed very distinctive differences across the UK and I think that many of us in this part of the world do not relate to the rather negative views which emerged from much of that referendum campaign.  Before you ask, I am not a 'Scottish Nationalist' but in the last referendum I clearly examined every argument in detail and formed my own opinion, going from a definite no to yes, for the reason that I felt that we could build a very different, progressive, compassionate and inclusive nation.   However I also respect and acknowledge the views of those who chose to remain in the UK; for there were many unresolved questions/issues which will no doubt raise their ugly head again in the referendum campaign and will still need answered.  My own view, however, has not changed; I will vote yes again, because I think it's time for self-determination.  I know many other people who voted 'no' in 2014 but who would definitely vote 'yes' this time round....but I know many, many others who are much more determined to vote 'no' so it's going to be a bumpy road ahead....

Staying the same, and shopping till I drop

Not much to report on this week's Slimming World update.  I decided to take a week out of counting and tracking for a couple of reasons, I've been feeling a bit stressed and low lately, so I thought I'd take a little break from the dieting over the past week.

On Friday when I did my weigh-in, I expected to have gained weight but in fact I had stayed the same this week.  Very happy about this as I did have a few treats including a delicious Indian meal at the weekend with faithful travelling companion, my yummy home-made macaroni cheese and 'real' chips on my day off on Tuesday, and also a lunchtime trip to the local chippy for fritters on Thursday!!

However it is time to get back on the plan from today onwards, I have a couple of mini-goals I'd like to reach in over the next couple of months and the way things are going, these would seem to be achievable.

In other news, it had been a long, long time since I had a 'retail therapy day'.  Clothes shopping used to be fun, but as the weight piled on, stone by stone, it became a depressing chore.  Having lost 6lbs in recent weeks though, I decided to have a clothes shopping day yesterday.  It turned out to be a very pleasant experience and I bought some nice new clothes for the first time in ages, including this nice blouse from Peacocks.

All in all, a very good day, and more motivation to keep on going with the weight loss plan.

Still no news to report on our spring holiday: despite having a definite plan in place, there are still a number of uncertainties around and it may well be that we go for something different after all. Which gives me the perfect excuse for more holiday research!

The passport photo

Yesterday I submitted to the 10-yearly ritual of having my passport photo taken, with predictably depressing results.  The 2006 photo at least still had something remotely youthful about it, although in retrospect the impulsive black hair maybe wasn't such a good idea as I spent the subsequent 10 years on every shade of the hair colour spectrum with everything from bright orange to my current toned down mix of auburn/mid-brown hair.

Looking at my new photo which will represent me on my passport for the next 10 years, I can't help but feel more than a little bit depressed.  For I have puffy lines on my cheeks which weren't there before, and I just look....well, I just look old, and tired.  Now despite being fortunate enough to have inherited those fabulous genes from my mum and my gran which means that I can get away with looking, well, at least a few years younger than my real age, the passport photo completely overturns that theory.

As if that wasn't bad enough, I had to push up my trademark long fringe, as per passport photo guidelines, so that didn't please me either.  But rules are rules, so I'll just have to live with that.

On the positive side, the passport photo is a necessary evil of a new passport, which, fingers crossed, means travel opportunities ahead (health and finances permitting of course) and more holidays to write about over at http://europecrazy.blogspot.com.

Back to the blogs

In addition to my much-increased caring commitments, it's been a mixture of laziness and bloggers' block which has kept me away from blogland over recent weeks. However, a few nice things happened recently, which have helped me turn the corner and get back into a happier place.

• The holiday: Trogir in Croatia was brilliant, and brought me the peace and calm which I'd been searching for, for so long.
• My birthday: I had a fabulous time thanks to the generosity of my loved ones, friends and colleagues.  It just reminded me how lucky I am to have them in my life.
• I quit dieting: I never realised just how much pressure I was putting on myself to lose weight, and totally beat myself up about it when it never happened.  Since that time I have stayed the same and neither gained nor lost, but the main thing is that the pressure is gone.  So I have had to buy some larger clothes, but it's not the end of the world. 
• I got mindful: yes it's a 'thing' at the moment, but I'm trying to practice mindfulness, living in the moment.  It may sound a lot of new-age-gubbins to some, but it seems to be working for me and for some other people I know.  Unfortunately there is no solution in mindfulness for time-managing your backlog of telly programmes/box sets so I'll need to work on that one :)

Finding my way back

After the extreme depression and alienation of recent weeks (and gloomy tweets), it is a relief to write a blog post which isn't soaked in doom and gloom.  Yes, I'm hoping that I have finally turned the corner.  I woke up on Friday morning and for the first time in weeks, the massive cloud had lifted, the fog started to fade and it was as if I had finally got myself back again.  Other little things have happened too, which will probably help me to move onwards and upwards in the coming weeks and months. 

Oh, and we have finally booked our holiday to Croatia in September!  These days of course, we can't really plan too far ahead, but fingers crossed that all is well at that time, and I finally get to fulfil one of my outstanding holiday ambitions at long last.

One thing which never changes is my continuing quest to lose weight, and have started yet again.  I've lost 3lbs in two weeks, a slow but steady start.  The unexpectedly warm weather of the past few weeks - no, I never thought I'd ever see myself writing that sentence either! - has been very nice, but it's been too warm to throw myself back into an ongoing exercise programme.  I have been back on the exercise bike though: it's a great way to exercise, although I'll need to get back to doing my aerobics if I want to get the desired results in the coming weeks. 

Onwards and upwards - now we need a Copenhagen hotel!

4 weeks on, my mum is making slow and steady progress, particularly over the past few days - dare I say she has turned a corner?

Anyway it's looking good for myself and faithful travelling companion for our planned short break to Copenhagen in just over three weeks time.  In an ideal world I would have been there for ESC week but the rip-off hotel prices would have blown our holiday budget for the year (and beyond).  It was a difficult decision to make, but eventually we decided to hit the Danish capital a couple of weeks after ESC.

The flights were booked some time ago, but now we will need to book a hotel.  After some considerable research over the past couple of weeks, I'm none the wiser.  What's the best area to stay in, for a short break to Copenhagen?  All helpful suggestions welcome :))

It's getting better :)

It's been a little while since I posted on here, so let's recap.

I never lost all the weight I wanted to lose - but I lost 7lbs.
I got an exercise bike and went from crippling pain to power-walking fitness again.
Work's still tough, but it's getting easier.
Weeks of insomnia completely stopped me functioning, but I'm finally sleeping again.
I caught another very nasty cold, but I'm now trying to shake off the leftovers.
I'm still a long way from where I want to be,  but I'm getting there.

Best of all: I'm going on holiday in a few days, and that's the best feeling in the world.  Now I need to get on with the packing and preparation for our first ever trip to Cyprus :)

Of course you can expect all the usual gratuitous food photography and travel tales when I eventually publish those holiday diaries...!

I get knocked down, but I get up again.

Recent weeks haven't been great.  I've been experiencing lots of stress and anxiety, or more to the point I've been struggling to deal with it.  Last week was particularly distressing as I was 'nominated' to speak at a work event in front of a very large group of people in a large hall. It was a pretty embarrassing experience all in all, but I'm beginning to laugh about it now.  Which is a big change from last week, when I couldn't laugh about anything.

My mood swings are on the up again, and I'm getting back to my usual upbeat cheery self (although still increasingly grumpy about almost everyone and everything in the world).  I have so much to be thankful for and that keeps me on the bright side.

I'm heading into one of my favourite times of year, the spring holiday.  Although it couldn't be more different this year... Out goes the short break and in comes a week long Eastern Mediterranean cruise!  Just a few hours after the credits roll on the Eurovision final, we'll be heading off on our adventure.  It's a whole new experience for us and of course I'll be writing my travel journal every step of the way and publishing excerpts from the cruise diaries over at EuropeCrazy.

In the meantime, there's lots of planning and preparation to be getting on with, so that's what I'm concentrating on this weekend!

Holiday time, and my big fat weight gain :(

So here we go.  The annual mid-September two weeks off work, which this year will be a mixture of vacation and staycation, all of which I'm looking forward to more than I could ever describe.

Unfortunately things haven't gone so well on the weight watching front.  Comfort-eating my way through spring and summer has meant that I am now 16lbs heavier than when I reached my goal weight (and blogged about it on here) back in April 2011.  Actually putting this down in black and white is pretty shocking, but then again I need to shock myself into taking action.  So after my holiday I'm going to take the same approach which I did from November 2010-April 2011, which involved six months of exercise and very hard work, but which brought rewards = I dropped a dress size, felt fitter, happier and more confident. 

But now my BMI is back up to 29, which means that I am officially overweight but teetering on the edge of the obese category.  So that's it.  Enough is enough.  Time for a fresh start after my holiday.

In the meantime, the "fat clothes" are in the suitcase. It is a holiday after all, so I want to feel comfortable whilst leaving room for all that pasta, pizza and wine consumption in France, where the last time I looked, there were no fat people.  But do you know what?  I'm going to leave the hang-ups at home this time and relax and have fun.

The real challenge will come at home during the staycation-part of the fortnight, however there will be plenty of time to exercise and hopefully the 'holiday weight' won't stick around too long. 

Wacky Woollies!!

If you go to Dublin (and probably anywhere else in Ireland I guess) and go into a gift shop, you won't be able to avoid the various souvenirs featuring a multi-coloured array of mad Irish sheep. They are called Wacky Woollies, and I totally love them! Yes I know I'm probably far too old for what is probably a 21st century Irish update/variation on the Mr Men, but who cares? They're fab. The picture you see above is of a Wacky Woollies shopping bag which I bought whilst in Dublin two weeks ago.

You'll find everything wacky and woolly at Carroll's Irish Gift Stores, there are tons of these shops in Dublin and they're online at http://www.carrollsirishgifts.com/category/COLLECTABLEScollectables/COLLECTABLESWackyWoollies

Back to the rules :(

Those (mainly) rotten, busy and stressful couple of weeks, inevitably led to comfort eating on a big scale. The diet took a hammering and the scales went up. My ear/sinus infection of the past week didn't help either - I'm still trying to shake that off, by the way.

But over the last few days we've had, to use that well-used phrase "closure" in a way. So it's a good time to get a grip and get on with it. Even though it's "summer" and I should really be relaxing. But of course September is my "summer", when faithful travelling companion and I hit sunnier climes for a week. So I need to get in shape!

Our 2011 summer destination is, as yet, unannounced but there are a few ideas kicking around. News to follow in a few weeks....

In other news...

It's been a while since I blogged, so I thought it was about time to dip my toes into the blogging pool once again.

"Summer" has been a non-event so far, weather-wise; whilst people in some parts of Britain were sweltering, we still had the central heating and were reaching for extra clothing layers, and the most essential item in our summer wardrobe was a waterproof jacket. Summer up here is like wintertime, only with lighter nights. It's been a nice surprise then to have two rain-free days, yesterday and today, with nice warm temperatures to match. And some sun.

The past week has been pretty surreal. There has been time off work, leisurely lunches and lovely days out, notably at Ayr (pictured above)which is my favourite Scottish seaside town. It also has some great shops for some much-needed retail therapy and the sales (usually a disappointment) provided some nice bargains.

However something much more unpleasant also happened a week ago; I can't say much as it's still being investigated, but all I will say is that we have been victims of vandalism and all in all it has been a horrible experience which we can only hope was a one-off.

In the totally-crap-year sweepstake, 2011 is galloping past previous winner 2008 and already winning by several lengths. (There has been a lot of personal darkness in this year so far, some things I haven't written about on here out of respect to loved ones).

Yet I am always trying to stay upbeat in spite of everything, trying to keep things moving along and being strong for everyone. "Keep calm and carry on" could be my catchphrase. But even glass half full people like me will inevitably crash and burn eventually, before picking themselves up as we do. I had that moment on Friday night, but having got through the weekend I'm feeling better and ready to move on again.

But what happens if you can't?

Long weekends and holidays

2011 has been pretty rubbish so far, in many many ways, yet I'm feeling some optimism now. Easter always seems to signal a positive turning point, and although it's been a long time coming, it is almost here at last. So there's a nice long weekend to look forward to, followed by a three day working week, followed by another nice long weekend which nicely rolls into a week off. This usually involves a short break in a European city: I guarantee that there will be an announcement this weekend!!

It's been a very stressful time of late as I've been involved in updating my training course at work, which has been very rewarding but which along with other life/work stuff has mentally and physically taken its toll :( I was involved in delivering the first of the new updated courses yesterday and today, which went well, however I'm going through yet another bout of fatigue where I'm tired all the time, even after a good night's sleep. Therefore I'm welcoming this holiday period as an opportunity to unwind. There are so many outstanding household tasks demanding my attention at the moment but I'll have to prioritise them - after all, you know what they say...'all work and no play' etc.

So there will be time for fun, and retail therapy, and pre-holiday planning, and getting out and enjoying this rare spell of dry warm weather too. And maybe even a little bit of blogging over the weekend :))

Holiday.....celebrate!

Finished up at work today and I'm not back in the office till 28th September :)))))))

Random Ramblings is now officially on summer holiday. Check out my post over at EuropeCrazy for more info...the same applies to over here of course.

See you later!

Body = shutdown.

My body now feels as if it's gone into a total shutdown, so giving it a rest until Sunday again.

Will try to eat sensibly this weekend, although I'm going out for dinner with my friends tomorrow and then lunch with faithful travelling companion on Saturday.

I'm quite excited about Saturday, because we're planning a day trip to a part of the country that I've never visited before. Fingers crossed the rain's not too heavy.

(almost) the longest day

Technically I shouldn't really be here, as EuropeCrazy and the Ramblings are "on a break" as they say, but what the heck...

Weather: it's been nice and dry and warm of late. That's all very well, but it means that we are treated to the sight of sunburnt men with bellies the likes of which were last seen in a labour ward.

Weight: I can't really speak about anyone's weight at the moment. The fact remains that I've gained half a stone and become significantly fatter since falling off the wagon at the end of March. So I started another '12 week plan' last week and have lost 1lb so far after a week's hard work and good behaviour.

Travel: the summer holiday 2010 discussions haven't started yet, but will start soon. At the moment I don't know where we'll end up!

Footie: The World Cup's been on for just over a week and I'm still waiting for it to come to life, as it's all been pretty uninspiring so far IMHO. There's been more attention paid to the aural torment of the vuvuzelas, which says a lot about the quality of the football on the pitch. Even the big guns are too inconsistent. And even the eye candy is disappointing :( Still hoping that Argentina win it.

But the worst thing of all = talentless morons masquerading as TV pundits. For everything of course, there's a Facebook group...http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=56636721228

When will it all end?

Volcanic ash from Iceland is (allegedly) back, there's a risk of airports/British airspace (allegedly) closing over the next 3-4 days.

I'm going on holiday to Bratislava (allegedly) this coming Monday, this of course after the rescheduling of my previous holiday (two weeks ago) due to the threat of volcanic ash. So at the moment I am seriously p****d off at the realistic threat of a possible, proper cancellation. My sympathies are with everyone else who's been through the whole mess.

Being totally philosophical though, it's only a holiday, not a matter of life or death or anything. And at least I got over to Sweden a few weeks ago, for the holiday that really mattered :)))

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....

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