Wednesday 25 March 2009

I am taking action

My biggest thing this year is to get rid of my weight..there is alot of it.
In line with this, I today, joined a slimming club - which shall remain nameless.
It was fun. At the start they introduce new members (me) and ask why are we joining - what other answer can one come up with other than...I'm fat and want to loose weight??
This didn't go down to well, I think she was expecting some sort of explanation like i am loosing baby weight (5 years of baby weight, I think not), or I have a big wedding to attend (already done that this year), but no, I sat there and told the truth like my mamma taught me!

Anyway, I have a 4 different diet, or lifestyle chooses as they call it, to follow. I'm confused as to what I can eat with what and when and how much and of what colour...taking a breath now.

Apparently, on one of the "lifestyle choose plans2 on woman lost 10 pounds in one week - bring it on!! Although I really don't think 10 pounds in 1 week is healthy though do you??

In total I want to get rid of about 28 pounds / 2 stone worth of extra blubber..I know I can do it if I apply myself as I have done it before...something tells me it will be very different this time round though!!
But in saying that I feel good already. I feel good because it means I am taking control of this area of my life...empowered.

So here I go...get rid of 10 pounds first and then go from there is the plan, but if that goes OK then I will go for the 2 stone weight loss.

So my thought / question for this entry is...we are nearly 4 months in to the new year and how is your new years resolutions going???

Tuesday 24 March 2009

ooooh ebay

I love ebay, I have bought so much on it and I have to have a laugh at some of the stuff that people list on there!!

The prices vary for similar items wildly but I do, I love it!!

I recently spent about £40 and bought about 3 pairs of shoes and about 3 tops...where else can you go to get such cheap items??

i have rules about it though..If I can wear it it either has to be vintage or brand new, so shoes and tops are included in that. Bags and things have to look semi new and I never ever buy things that I think I can cheaper elsewhere. As some of you know my car was recently raped and murdered and so I am looking for a new one that I can love and cherish - and this is where ebay is crap...cars are soooo out priced on there, having a look in the local rag and on auto trader and so ebay is not good value for money here.

TODAY, my dear friends, I am now selling on ebay!!! laughing as I say this. I never normally sell my cast offs, I tend to take them down to the charity shop, but if I have worn the boots once, why shouldn't I sell em!?!?!
I thought it would need more effort than it did. It only asked for the minimal amount of information on my goods, which is really good news as I tend to get really bored with that sort of thing - being blonde and all.

So I will let you know how my goods sell, I have to admit that it is rather addictive and I now looking around for other things that I can flog - its all rather exciting!!

So my thought / question for this entry is what have you done recently that you have never done before and can see yourself getting addicted to???

Friday 20 March 2009

factual Friday

I thought that I would create factual Friday. This will either be a single item while the facts about it or a list of facts that I thought you might find interesting. I like what I call crap fact, things that you can just come out with at dinner parties and such!

So here is the first factual Friday!!

SALT

why is salt so bad for us? we are told by the new food labels on packets how much salt is on the products and if its in the green zone or red zone - but do you actually know why it's so bad for us???

so here goes.............

Salt is a commonly occurring mineral, the technical name of which is sodium chloride. It is the sodium part of salt that is important. The body needs a certain amount of sodium to function properly.

Sodium helps to maintain the concentration of body fluids at correct levels. It also plays a central role in the transmission of electrical impulses in the nerves, and helps cells to take up nutrients.

In adults, when levels of sodium are too high, the body retains too much water and the volume of bodily fluids increases.

With high levels of fluid circulating through the brain there is a greater chance that weaknesses in the brain's blood vessels are exposed, and that they may burst, causing a stroke.

Similarly, a greater volume of fluid passing through the heart can place additional strain on the organ, increasing the possibility of coronary disease.

An adult will be able to remove salt from the body through the kidneys into the urine.

Experts estimate that if average consumption was cut to 6g a day it would prevent 70,000 heart attacks and strokes a year.

Reading food labels can be confusing as they often give the sodium, rather than the salt content of food. To calculate the amount of salt in a product, multiply the sodium content by two-and-a-half times.

So there we go - salt in a nutshell - happy eating!!

My question for this entry is what crap fact do you often tell???

Tuesday 17 March 2009

happy st patricks day

Not being of Irish descent, I don't celebrate St Patricks day but St Georges day instead.
My husband has some sort of Irish thread to his genealogy somewhere along the way, something about priests coming over - unsure, can't confirm!!
But if you do celebrate, happy st Patricks day.

here's some facts for my Irish friends:

St. Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17 because that is the feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he died on March 17 in the year 461 AD. It is also a worldwide celebration of Irish culture and history. St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland, and a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Blue, not green, was originally the colour associated.

St Patrick is patron of fishermen in the Loire, where a legend associates him with a blackthorn bush. The saint is said to have slept beneath it, and when he awoke the next day, Christmas, the bush flowered, and was said to have continued to do so every Christmas until its destruction during the First World War.

According to legend, on the day of Judgement, while Christ judges all other nations, St Patrick will be the judge of the Irish.

Friday 13 March 2009

comic relief

so my son's school sent a memo round last week saying that the kids could wear something funny for money - so he went to school in his favourite PJ's and dressing gown. He does have slippers but they are old and rather manky so I hunted (and I do mean hunted) the shops yesterday for new slippers for him - where do we go now that adams and woolworths has gone???
so I ended up getting him some very plain black plimsolls - remember them from your school years.

anyways. so today is comic relief and out of all the evening long charity campaigns that are on TV, this one has to be the one that hits me the hardest.

I was watching celebrities doing stuff for charity like climbing mountains and doing a bit with Sir Alan sugar and couldn't help but laugh along - my kind of watching. In amongst this fun was the serious side of why they were doing it. There was this one where a baby was dying of malaria and it hurt to watch it. The child was about 5 months old and was just lifeless in its mothers arms and all they need is mosquito nets and some drugs - how hard can that be??

I like the way that comic relief works - they have set up loans where people can apply and then pay them back - instead of waiting for free handouts. A woman in Uganda has 5 kids and had nothing - NOTHING. then she got a loan for just £10 and started to grow coffee. She would take it to market but there was sooo much competition she would often walk 10K with bags of coffee on her back to return home (another 10k back) with all of her coffee.
She then set up a coffee house and now sells it worldwide along with it being fairtrade. She is doing really well and she says that she uses all of her money to put her 5 kids through school so that they can become accountants to help out...how fantastic is that...this woman still does back breaking work but is very happy.

The things that we moan and groan about are relevant to the lives that we lead and especially in todays current climates with people loosing their houses and jobs and having to go to refuge centres. I think, we should look to those people who haven't much but are happy. yes they are living hand to mouth, but aren't we all in our own little way, the difference there is the the distance they have ti travel to get medical help or are sooo reliant upon the weather for their food and they have to pay for education...it all seems a little more than here.
The thing that upsets me most is the medical side of things.
Recently I have been in hospital and got instant test and results - I felt truly humble to the NHS. Over in places with no NHS they still have to pay for their drugs and the god damn government is sitting in their nice houses with food on the table whilst their people are missing meals so that their kids don't die....it makes me sooo friggin made.
I will be an avid watcher and will donate as much as I can afford. If I could drop everything and go ut to help, I would like to say I would but I think I would be become tooo emotionally involved and would need some serious counselling when I got back. I appreciate that sounds selfish but they need someone supportive and not a liability!

So donate and give everything you can for these people and for people here...dig deep and then deeper. It costs just £5 to but a mosquito net - how many nets will you buy tonight - how many lives will you save by picking up the phone and donating your money too???
watch the show, laugh and cry on be on an emotional rollercaoster.
Do it - save a life.

my thought for this blog is how many lives ar you intending to save?

Monday 9 March 2009

the power of music

I have started to increase my music genre of late and have incorporated some interesting music into my CD collection.

My most recent purchase was the "elbow" album which has some pretty good sounds on it.

This got me thinking....the power of music.

As many people's moods change with the weather or with situations they listen to different kinds of music. Some songs evoke memories, for me "summertime" by Will Smith is a good couple of years old now but always reminds me of when I was at school, forced to wear a black skirt and blazer with a tie and white shirt...I have a memory, much like a photograph of it being boiling hot, I'm at school chatting away with my dearest friend and setting the world to rights - sitting on the grass and thinking all I wanted to do was go home and have a shower and put on something less hot!!!

I am a massive Beatles fan and when I think of the collection of albums I have, I am again transported back to school, its my 16th birthday and another friend of mine has taped (remember the tape??) all of her dad's collection of Beatles albums for me...this was the best present ever!!

So for me and music we have our history...when I am in foul mood I put on something like Mika or Duffy that I can have a good old sing along to or if I am in a lovy dovy mood I'll put on something like Nina Simone - good lord I love that woman.
If I am studying I tend to put on classic - I know nothing of classical music by I have a National Trust CD with some nice flowing tunes of it. Oaisis kicks ass when house cleaning!!

I grew up on the Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Ozzy Osborne, The Who - to name but a few. My dad had a whole heap of original records, some limited editions, and my brother and I would always argue about who dad was going to leave them to in his will. Anyway, a couple of years ago we were round my parents house and the fairly light hearted row started again...my dad looked at both of us and said in a laughy sort of way "you two can keep going if you want but all of the records went in a skip about 2 years ago"....you do not know how much my brother and I were mortified for or how long we just sat there looking at dad waiting for the comprehension to come....gone, in a skip, just like that, none left, to be replaced with frinkin CD's - what in the name of god was he thinking.
If you were to stack all of the records up they would have towered to about 3 foot high - all in mint condition (we were never allowed to go near them as kids), not a scratch on them or a dog ear on the sleeve - GONE....imagine how much they would have been worth?? the memory or my dad sitting of the floor very carfully taking out a vinyl from its sleve and as though it were made of the most precious metal sit it onto the record player and with the steadiest hands put the pin onto the record - and he threw them into a skip....mental

So for me music is a welcome relationship but one that I explore with trepidation - ever bought an alum on the back of hearing one song, got the thing home and after listening to it thought this is a pile of poo??? hmmm done it many times!!!

With the weather being as sunny as it is today, I have to play (and please have it in mind that I never remember song titles) "got my hands, got my arms etc I got my freedoooooommmmmm - I got liifffeeeee" my the wonderful Nina Simone.

A song that would best describe me is by the Beatles and its "Don't pass me by" on the white album sung by Ringo - told you I was a fan!!

So my thought for this entry is - whats you song for the day and is there a song that sums you up??
(right now I am listening to T-Rex, best of)

Wednesday 4 March 2009

what super hero??

I am really into a programme called "hero's" - anyone else watching this?

Within the show are people who have powers, some use them for good, others not so good. Above it all is one person trying to control them all with the "agency".
It strikes me, no matter what your job is there is always some power hungry little person trying to make others jump to their beat.

Anyway, it got me thinking....what power would I have if I had the choice??
On the one hand I would like to control machinery so whenever I went to the cash machine it would just give me money no matter what my account said!! But then again, I would like to be able to time travel and put right all the mistakes that I have made, and I have made some whoooppppeeeerrrsss!! and re-live the good memories. But then I would also like to be able to go invisible so I can watch what my child actually gets up to at school...or be able to fly like a bird soaring across the skies.
I would like to be able to have the power to stamp out the bad emotions that I have affiliated with some memories or have the power so that my child and my family never hurts or cries in pain.

But I really think that my special power would have to be something like being able to turn into what ever object or person that I wanted, but also have the knowledge and memories of the person I have just morphed into!! - now that would be cool. Like some politicians..did they or didn't they? Or some really bloody intelligent person and get some of their brain cells into mine!!

Even if it was just for a day, I would need notice that this would happen so I could make a list of all the objects / people that I would morph into!!!

So my thought for this blog is - what super power would you have and please tell me why!!!!

Monday 2 March 2009

so hmmm how are you

it seems that all is not well in my head.

About 5 months ago I had to take time off from work to "rest". This was due to the fact that I kept passing out. It was diagnosed at the time as being labrynthitis which is basically an inner ear problem which stopps your brain knowing which was is up. But it went and I had (almost) forgotten about it.
That was until Thursday when I passed out again. I have to say that it did scare me. So I went to go and see my GP on Thursday who sent me straight up to the hospital to get it checked out once and for all, lucky me.
I was a complete drain on the resources of the NHS and had every test done. I am trying to view this as a good thing, if there was anything else wrong with me they would have found it. I had a CT scan of my head,a chest x-ray, a full nerve check, an ECG for 5 minutes and various blood tests - all coming back nice and healthy.
So the final doctor came along and said that I have to go and get an EEG of my brain done....good luck on that one! At the moment they are unsure as to whether it is an inner ear problem or maybe - and this is where it gets a bit scary - epilepsy.
On the upside of things, I am having a really productive week, the results of my very exciting week shall be made available to you all in August.

I am on the verge of a very exciting time in my life, and I simply refuse to take my fainting attacks seriously at the moment. I know some of you will tell me to listen to my body and to take heed, but right now I am having whey to much fun. And if I stop and think about what is happening I may get very upset...and who wants that eh?
A friend asked me the other day about my funny turns and not only did I think that this was a really nice of putting it but I suddenly realised that I am now of the age where I can have funny turns...I think I am getting old.

When I was in hospital, I said to my husband "we vowed to be together is sickness and in health, we also said to each other that we would grow old together, well my darling, we are...we are getting older". It was almost like a revelation and I became all nice and warm inside. The new wrinkle, a few new grey hairs, gravity has taken over and we still love each other.

So my thought for this entry is not how are you, but more along the lines of - what are you now of an age to get away with...a bit like the poem when I am old I shall wear purple???

But I do hope that you are all fighting fit.