I ain’t said much
Well i ain’t said much recently. Sorry bout that. Will take some photos of the new house and stuff. Just feel like i’ve been really really busy!
Well i ain’t said much recently. Sorry bout that. Will take some photos of the new house and stuff. Just feel like i’ve been really really busy!
I haven’t given much in the way of updates recently - I think it’s been quite a busy time.
We had a lovely Christmas up in the North with Mum and Matt and a fun time for New Year down in Bristol at Becky and Dave’s house.
Since then, we have been really busy looking at houses to buy in and around Exeter. We have viewed so many but we have now finally found somewhere lovely in the hilly bit of St Thomas. We’ve been so busy because the whole process is going quite quickly. Obviously there is no chain our end due to being first time buyers, and there is no chain their end either because it is a second property for them. It’s a 3-bed semi with garden around 3 sides. It has a parking space and a garage so perfect for us with two cars now. The kitchen is the biggest we have seen in a house so it was perfect.
So far, we have arranged the mortgage and we’ve had the survey. I’ve yet to see the full survey but our mortgage company have and think that it’s ok to continue with the money lending so that is good. Our solicitor should now be continuing with searches and wot not so we’ll have to see how long that takes. Generally when I was at SWW we used to get them done within 48 hrs of receiving them but if there was any sort of problem, we had some kind of deadline of about 28 days or something so it could be longer. Let’s hope not!
Last night I dreampt that I was training to be in the Chinese Mafia. Lots of kung fu was involved but not only that - animal taming.
Many animals were involved and my animal was a penguin. I don’t remember his name. I don’t remember much about my penguin except that the task of the day was to get your penguin to come to you from a few metres away. Eventually I trained my penguin to come to me and gave him lots of cuddles and strokings. I went to the other side of the training area so that he could come back to me, but he didn’t like waddling that way and wouldn’t come to me. I went to get him and he pecked me :(
At the end of the training, our leader / trainer took us inside for dinner. For some reason we had to sneak inside - maybe part of our training. It was all dark but you could see in the corner some spare ribs and some chicken frying. We managed to sneak past the people we had to avoid and later we ate some fried chicken and it was lovely.
Then I woke up.
Weigh-in today: 2.5lbs off!
YES! Finally. Let’s hope I can keep it going.
On Thursday, James and I went to the cinema with Mum and Matthew to see the new Will Smith movie, I Am Legend. I am quite fond of large-scale disaster movies such as The Day After Tomorrow, 28 Days Later and Independence Day and I Am Legend did quite well.
I quite like Will Smith. He’s a good actor and is quite versatile, doing action, comedy and serious drama all equally as well. I do hope he doesn’t go down the Tom Hanks route and get all serious for every movie though. I Am Legend would be a seriously challenging film for any actor because for the majority of the film, Will Smith is the only person in it! The down-side seems to be that not a great deal happens. Most of the film is just that - this one character going about his business. The movie’s sub-title could just have been “Will Smith does Acting“.
If you are really sensitive about spoilers, don’t continue reading this post but to be honest, there isn’t much to ‘give away’ because not much happens. Will Smith’s character is living alone in New York because he is immune to a terrible air-born disease that has either killed, or infected the rest of the world. The disease came about due to a doctor trying to harness the power of an existing virus (the measles), to enhance the immune system and therefore cure serious afflications such as cancer. This virus however, mutated and sent people’s metabolisms into hyper-drive to a point where their bodies could not sustain themselves without getting more blood. It spread massively due to also mutating to an air-born strain. Everyone who was infected became a bit crazy due to their body’s changes and thirst for the blood of others therefore even though there were quite a few survivors who were immune, they were all killed by the infected. All the senses of the infected were hightened, breathing became faster and skin became far more sensitive to UV rays forcing them to stay in the shelter during the day. Sounds all a bit vampire-like doesn’t it. Apparently in the book they are vampires however this isn’t expressly mentioned in the movie I Am Legend.
Anyway that explanation of what the hell is going on is all skirted over very quickly in the movie and you don’t really get enough explanation of what’s going on. I always think part of the true scariness of these types of movies is seeing the fall of the human race. In this film though, it is relegated to a few very short flash-back scenes. The scenes of the deserted city are very impressive though and are understandably used as much as possible.
My major gripe is one that I have with quite a few movies recently - the overuse of CG for characters that could have been played by real people. I am willing to admit that computer graphics are very very good nowadays and can be very successfully integrated into live action sequences. I do however think that some film-makers are deluding themselves into thinking that they can churn out anything in CG and it will look believable. Wikipedia notes that some reviews of the film said that “the infected just aren’t that scary” and they are right. The reason for this is that the depiction of the infected has lost all association with a recognisable human origin. I understand that the affects of the virus are supposed to have changed the body’s abilities etc but what was presented bore no real resemblance to the human it supposedly started as. The movement was very strange and the sounds the infected made didn’t sound anything like what would come from even a mutated human voicebox. There is no way that these characters could be truly scary in the intended manner unless you can look at them and have at least a tiny recognition of something human and be able to say ‘oh my god, look what’s happened to that person as a result of their infection’ rather than ‘what the hell is that? Oh, it’s another gross movie monster.’
The way that CG is executed is not yet good enough to have fully computer generated characters in my view but we see it all the time. It is good enough to add effects, but the characters just aren’t good enough alongside live action characters. The technology may well be there, but the people doing it haven’t got it yet. The close-ups should have been actors and CG used to complement this in wider scenes. In the context of CG, it was fantastic. In the context of trying to look real and scary, the movie bosses are deluding themselves if they think they’ve got it spot on yet. I still think we are years away from that.
Guests at a dinner party held by one of Britain’s most senior admirals needed hospital treatment after a fondue set exploded and showered them in molten cheese.
I read this in The Times this morning. Online story here.
Molten cheese burns…eek! Get well soon Admiral dinner guests. Next time, you’d be better off going to the Ambassador’s reception and having Ferrero Rocher instead.
Fresh new look for 2008. What do you think?
Do you ever get those working weeks where you feel everyone is on your back? “Have you done x, have you done y, why isn’t z done yet?”. I just wanna say “bog right off!”. I really don’t think I’ve been slacking recently either.
Can’t wait for the Christmas holiday!
Yey! 1/2 lb lost this week. Not much, I know, but every little bit counts.
Have decided to stick with Core Plan this week but try and reduce the amount I’m eating somewhat. Because I’m sticking with Core Plan for I think, the 4th or 5th consecutive week, I have boxed up my remaining Weight Watchers chocolate bars and put them in a cupboard. Of course, you are allowed to spend points on them, but I would prefer them to be out of temptation’s way so that I can stick to actual core foods as much as possible.
Here’s hoping this week is another successful weight-loss week.
I think generally I have done very well this week. I have had a few naughty things but hopefully not too much. You can’t be perfect all the time.
On Friday I went out to the pub with Reagan, Dave and Damo. I opted for the usual Wetherspoons zebu sirloin steak (which may have been fried…it was Wetherspoons after all) [mmm zebu] but didn’t eat the fat. I accompanied it with a jacket potato with no butter, which turned out to be helpfully small, and a side salad. Sadly the salad had some dressing on but not too much. I still ate it. I also had one pint of Fosters. Following all of this I quickly felt very ill. I’d had a sore throat from the beginning of the day and I started to feel very cold indeed. I got James to pick me up and when I got home I was freezing, shivering with cold, but James said I had a high temperature. I felt really ill and had to go straight to bed.
I still felt a bit crappy the next day but by the afternoon I was feeling well enough to pop into town and have a coffee (cappuccino with skimmed milk and no chocolate). The rest of the weekend was ok diet-wise.
Then this evening I ate 3 squares of James’s M&S Rocky Road Bites. Bah! I’d done so well to resist buying anything for myself whilst in the shop purchasing them earlier this evening (James had to take a snack to Badminton Club to offer to the visiting team). I started to pick up some delicious looking cookies and then screamed (inwardly) “NOOOOOO!!!!” and ran away. Hopefully this erratic behaviour didn’t attract too much attention. I almost nearly bought a delicious looking peshwari naan but thankfully also resisted that.
We’ll just have to see what the results are tomorrow. Still need to get some exercise although I feel that Rob is probably doing enough exercise for about 10 people so I’ll just try and absorb the healthiness that radiates from him through osmosis.
Going ok so far this week.
Yesterday I went round to Reagan’s for tea. We had lean pork stir fry with bulgar wheat instead of rice. Twas lovely and even Dave B liked the bulgar wheat!
Definitely need to review the exercise situation soon.
Do you think this man was committing a crime? I’m not sure he was to be honest.
Last night I went out after Weight Watchers with the other helpers for dinner. We went to the Beefeater down the road and they are notoriously difficult when it comes to choosing heathy options. Everything is either covered with butter or cheese. Despite this, I think I did really well with sticking to core foods as much as possible.
For starter I had a prawn cocktail. This was very small. Five of us ordered it and they probably didn’t have enough prepared because the portions were tiny. This worked in my favour though because the cocktail sauce was probably high in calories.
For mains I had a lean steak with wild rice and garden salad (instead of chips and fried mushroom). This was very nice although I forgot to ask for no dressing on the garden salad. It wasn’t drenched in it though so I still ate it.
Didn’t have a dessert. Just had coffee. They didn’t do skimmed milk so I opted for black coffee and it was actually really nice for a change.
So all in all, I think I did ok there. It was two courses for a tenner as well which is nice! Extra encouragement not to have that 3rd course!
Just a general note to my main blog to say that I have created a new Weight Watching section where I intend to document how I’m doing on my attempted path to thinness. I don’t want the blog to turn into a diet blog only so you have to actively click “Weight Watching” on the links at the side to view those posts, otherwise you won’t see them.
Well I just went and weighed in and was thankfully 1.5lbs lighter. This is very good news, not only because losing is always good news, but because I felt so sure that the Core Plan wasn’t working. For those who don’t know I shall explain the plans.
Most people think of counting up “points” when they think of Weight Watchers. It is true that this is one of the methods of losing weight that they offer, however they now offer an alternative plan called the Core Plan. The Core Plan involves eating only foods from a (very wide) list of healthy foods. You get 12 points per week to spend on things that don’t appear on the list, such as sweets, chocolate and alcohol (so you don’t really feel like you’re always missing out). To be perfectly honest, the Core Plan isn’t a restrictive diet. It’s supposed to be…how normal people eat - mostly healthily in moderate portions and the odd treat now and again.
It’s a course in not being a fat biffa for those of us who seem to have no clue how to manage their eating themselves. This isn’t the same as saying that I didn’t know what I was and wasn’t supposed to eat. I think you’d have to be quite a moron these days to not know what foods are fattening and which are good for you. Somehow, coping with managing this on my own is difficult and I think it’s probably hard for some people to imagine. I can’t understand how people can get addicted to smoking though - I never have. It’s a fact of life that everyone is different. I respect the people who recognise their faults and do something about it.
Core is obviously quite a bit more restrictive, say if you knew you were going to be going out for 3 meals in one week. If you knew you were having an Indian takeaway at the weekend, then you’d do points that week and save up the points to eat what you like for your Indian meal. You can’t do that really with Core because 12 points will never be enough to do that. I have spent 45 saved points on an Indian meal once, and yes, I still lost weight that week. That was pretty sweet. Anyway in theory this is how it works.
I’ve been doing the Core Plan for about 3 weeks now and so far I’ve quite enjoyed being on something different. It has focused my mind a bit more. For a change, it’s also quite nice to be able to actively say “No” when offered things. For a while I had slipped into saying “yes, I’ll have that cake / biscuit / chocolate, and then reduce the points value of my dinner tonight” and guess what, that never happened. You can see from my graph below that for pretty much a year now, I’ve remained at the same general level. I lost 2 stone and stalled.
Today I lost another 1.5lbs. I had said that if I gained or remained the same I was going to go back onto the Points Plan. I’m glad that I did lose, for obvious reasons, but also because I have been enjoying the Core Plan and I’m now going to stick with it. I do think I have been eating portions slightly too large however so this week I intend to reduce the portion sizes that I eat.
I wasn’t perfect all week. I tried my best. We went to Becky and Dave’s at the weekend and Becky and Rosie had cooked a delicious meal as a birthday surprise for me. It wasn’t totally core but Becky is wonderful whenever I visit - buying skimmed milk and thinking about which foods are Weight Watcher friendly. I know I have nothing to worry about whenever I visit her!
Let’s see how I can do this week.
I’ve decided that perhaps documenting my diet trials and tribulations may help me in my quest to lose more weight.
I’m off to Weight Watchers right now, so let’s see how I do!
On November 5th 2007 we marked the completion of my 27th year in existence. We went to the 27th Exeter Round Table St Loyes Fireworks Display with Mum, Reagan and Dave B. It was amazing as usual. I hope they don’t have to stop doing it because of the sale of the college. That would be extremely sad because it’s the best fireworks display I have seen in this country.
Yes, the record is over.
Date: Wednesday 17th October 2007
Time: 12:30pm
Location: The flat, bedroom.
Time since last seizure: 382 days (I think)
Injuries incurred: None.
Notes: Remained conscious. Caused entirely by being confused about time-zones, tired and sleeping in with jetlag resulting in going 18 hrs without taking a tablet. This proved too long.
Damn it. Just shows how close to the edge you are all the time. I guess it proves that the tablets work!
Whilst we were on holiday in America, I got a telephone call from Jed telling me that Rose had given birth to their first child - a beautiful daughter. I later learned that they had named her Anna Catherine Broadley.
She was a whopper and has gone from strength to strength ever since. Congratulations and well done to both Jed and Rose. But, it’s only just begun! There are many years of joy yet to come I’m sure!
Here’s a pic of Rose and Anna enjoying what looks like quite a few congratulatory bunches of flowers!
