Weight Loss to date

Just got back from tonight's weigh in. Chuffed to bits as I've lost 5lbs this week which brings the grand total to just 1 lb away from 3 stone. And in case you'd ever wondered .... this is what that looks like in equivalent books !

Remember these ?

I bought them a couple of weeks ago,  the idea being that I'd be able to get into them within the month , hopefully . Well guess what ? I'm WEARING them , yes actually wearing them and boy does it feel good.
Only trouble is I feel compelled to approach complete strangers in the street to tell them. I've just got back from the supermarket where the cashier asked me how I was . "I'm fine and I'm wearing a pair of size 14 jeans " came my reply. Poor woman, she was probably only being polite and had no desire to know my hip measurements. Still , it feels SO good.

Coming Home

Buy this or download it .... 100% of the proceeds go to the Army Benevolent Fund - that has to be the best thing you can do today and if we all buy it , it should get to No. 1 and then Tony Bleugh can stick that in his pipe and smoke it.

Oh and hats off to the father of the solder killed in action in Afghanistan who spurned Mr Blair at last weeks memorial service at St Paul's in memory of those killed in action in Afghanistan. When proffered his hand to shake , doubtless with that accompanying inane grin he perfected whilst in office, the father roared at him "How dare you offer your hand - it's covered in my son's blood" . What a hero.

I've just lost 4 days of my life....

... in bed with ( at the risk of sounding like a bloke ) flu.

If flu were an animal .... Swine flu would be about a 5 , a hamster would be about 1 , guinea pig 2 etc then this would be a whopping woolly mammoth , weighing in at number 10. Now I am sounding like a bloke. I'm not sure what it was but I never want it again. I'm not going to bore you with the details .

You can tell how delirious with fever I was .... I awoke from a nightmarish sweat on the Sunday night to see the Tin Tin Twins go through to the next round on X Factor - see how deluded I must have been ?

For any men reading this , what women want when they are ill is the following :

1. Occasional room service.... ie. an unsolicited cup of tea on  a tray maybe once or twice during the day.
2. Fresh bedlinen, volunteered with good grace, at some stage following 3 nights of sweating.
3. To have the children taken care of without having to worry about whether they being fed, loved and generally taken care of.

What we DON'T want is :

1. "I didn't bring you up a cup of tea because you didn't drink the last one"
2. " I suppose I'm going to have to change the sheets now you've been sweating in them "
3. To finally emerge after 3 days of fever to find the children still in their PJs in the afternoon having eaten their way through their own body weight in chocolate chip cookies having spent the last 
18 hours glued to the XBox.

X Factor

So who's watching then or rather who isn't ?

I reckon it's a one horse race. By rights Joe should win but knowing what a perverse bunch we Brits are, it'll probably end up being the Tin Tin Twins. Heaven help us.

I watched Cheryl Cole strut her stuff on the Sunday night and felt it somewhat ironic that she should have berated the ex pole dancers last week for coming on stage wanting to be taken seriously as professional singers but wearing scanty, boob revealing, peep show clothing. She appeared to be wanting us to take her new solo career as a Pop Princess seriously and yet ... she appeared to be wearing scanty, boob revealing, peep show clothing. Hmmm ..... people who love in glass houses etc. Still she's way too gorgeous for anyone to be cross with for very long and her closing words about the outrage of the Tin Tin Twins surviving made up for any clothing misdemeanors.

Was I the only one wondering who the balding, orange faced, geriatric 'Frank from Eastenders' lookalike sat next to Whitney was ? And yes I quite like some of Whitney's classic stuff but what's with all the Diva worship thing ? More evidence of our addiction to celebrity I suppose. The pop wannabes just wanna be famous. I wonder if they're born spouting all that drivel about only ever wanting to sing and not wanting to go back , wherever back is and living the dream and wanting it all so badly ? I don't think they really know what they want , they just want it now whatever ' it ' is.

Having said all of that I'm still hopelessly addicted and will be for the next goodness knows how many weeks. And isn't Dermot tiny or is everyone just wearing 8" platforms ?

Spanx

Sounds sort of naughty doesn't it ? It's actually a product that you can wear - the idea being that you gather up all your spare rolls of fat and squeeze them into a kind of body stocking made from industrial strength lycra , possibly re-inforced with iron girders judging by the way it felt when I tried one on today.

I also learnt 3 things today ....

1. Hipster jeans and Bridget Jones style BIG pants are not a good combo.

2. Trying on clothes that are a size too small is a good thing , isn't that why they invented lycra?

3. I am very shallow . I should be celebrating my new found vitality and health now that I've lost 35 lbs but all I can think of is buying new clothes. I'll be reading Hello magazine before you know it .

NIce to be a Student again

I'm really enjoying the feeling of being a student again. Spent the day at the Special Needs show in London collecting resources and literature for my studies. It was rather strange collecting my badge at reception with my new status emblazoned across it.

My original student days were bliss. I don't remember doing any work whatsoever. Lord only knows how I got away with it. The status of mature student however brings with it a need for a slightly more grown up attitude to my studies and course assignments. Now I know why my boys procrastinate over their homework.

I think I may have seriously under-estimated the workload that comes with this course. Still, at least I don't have the distraction of Freshers Week to contend with but I must admit it did make me feel rather young again seeing my name in print alongside the word 'Student' .

That pink little cube

On my wardrobe door , I have hanging a new acquisition . I've just returned from my favourite and exclusive designer boutique ( Sainsbury's) where I purchased a new pair of jeans for a tenner. And the nicest thing about them ? On the hanger they have a little pink plastic cube with the number 14 proudly displayed. Who's have thought it ? In 7 short weeks I've gone down through the sizes from 22 all the way to 14.

Granted I can hardly do the zip up but with a little persuasion and so long as I adopt the 'lying flat on my back on the bed' position,  I reckon they'll be on by the end of next week. of course I won't actually be able to breathe whilst wearing them but I reckon you have to suffer a little in the name of fashion and anyway , breathing is terribly over-rated.

Way to Go ...

I've just had coffee with a friend ( who shall remain nameless as she doesn't want to tempt fate) who told me that when she dies she'd like to be buried in a Fortnum and Mason's hamper.
If the Egyptian Pharaohs could go to the other side with all their worldly treasures buried alongside them why shouldn't we take along a tin of fois gras and a bottle of port to see us on our way. Way to go.

Mobile Phones : Curse or Blessing - Discuss

Today they definitely fell into the curse category . I cycled with my youngest to his tennis club this morning and as I sat and watched him and his tennis buddies cavorting about on court my eye was drawn to a small boy trying to engage his Dad in a game of football on a nearby pitch . The little lad kicked the ball towards his Dad who caught it under his foot and kept it there rather than return it to his son. Why ? Because he was on his mobile phone and that was clearly more important. The little boy kept calling to his Dad to return the ball to no avail. In fact the Dad turned his back on him to continue his phonecall in peace. Eventually the little boy sat down on the grass and sobbed although his father didn't notice. How sad :(

So far ...

... I've lost 2 Delias, 3 Nigellas, 1 Rachel and 5 Jamies in terms of weight loss to date. Sorry guys , I love your cooking, just can't eat so much of it at the moment .

Perfect Weekend

I hate articles like this when I see them in the Weekend papers. There's no such thing as the perfect weekend. All the actress types that describe them in the Saturday telegraph sound very smug . Their typical weekends usually begin with brunch in some Notting Hill Moroccan eatery and end with an implausible dinner party accompanied by several bottle of fine claret, musican friends dropping by and a rustic Tuscan menu . Bah Humbug. My weekends usually begin and end with a squabble over homework or lost PE kit as I'm trying to assemble the boy's kit bags before school on the Monday morning . Throw in a defrost of the fridge, cleaning the toilets and a tottering pile of laundry to iron and you get the picture.

So , at the risk of sounding like one of the 'Smugs' , I think I've just had the perfect weekend, in fact I'm still having it.

Birthday celebrations on Friday found me and the boys up in town en route to Fortnum and Mason's. Ice cream sundaes for them , a mission to find the prefect fine tea for me ( have to drink it black now).

On to Forbidden Planet - boy heaven ( sadly also a mecca for the biggest bunch of geeks and weirdos I've ever encountered in one place ... grown men searcing for rare comic imports ? What's that all about ?). Anyway , they loved every minute and I have to say that by the end of our visit, I found myself feeling awestruck by the sheer volume of extraordinary merchandise.

Next stop, a new found favourite restaurant called Inamo in Wardour Street ( thanks for the recommendation Mary-Anne) . Hi tech tabletop touch screen ordering wizardry combined with possibly the best dish ever invented - cinnamon chicken accompanied by Korean chilli sauce and lime. It was rather lovely stepping out on to the street at 6pm to find it buzzing with the film business bright young things all having a drink in street cafes and bars to celebrate the start of the weekend. Reminded me of my own days in Television when I might find myself there having just been to see the rushes from a new documentary.

Wandering down into Chinatown we found the streets thronging with pretty red lanterns to celebrate their Harvest Festival. A quick trip round the Chinatown market for the £3 challenge. A firm favourite with the boys - we all draw names from a hat and set off to purchase a surprise gift for our chosen recipient. I am now the proud owner of a delightful wallet of delicate Chinese papercuts whist the boys are now sporting assorted bracelets, key fobs and mobile phone dangly things.

Homeward bound , an impossibly beautiful view of the London skyline on the train at sunset. Birthday cake awaiting me on the kitchen table ... not to eat ( for me) but for the unmissable ceremony of blowing out the candles.

Can it get any better ? YES. Saturday spent at Ally Pally's Great Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show meeting up with friends for a few laughs , coffee and cake ( peppermint tea and my Lighter Life Peanut bar for me )  and 7 hours of non stop shopping opportunities. Heaven.

And here I am on Sunday morning with the sun splitting the trees, out in the garden harvesting the lavender and enjoying a freshly brewed pot of fresh coffee.

Seems like I have just joined the ranks of the "Smugs' but don't worry , I've still got the laundry and the sports kit squabble to look forward to this evening.

3 more fabulous things that have happened this week ...

1. Friends have started to notice.
2. The pain in my knee has gone ... maybe I can do without an op after all
3. Walking upstairs is a doddle

3 Good Things That Happened Today

I can count 4 actually but I'll save one for tomorrow ...

1. I've found a new way of being able to drink coffee without milk ... if you add one teaspoonful of the vanilla shake mix, close your eyes and hold your nose you can almost believe you're drinking it white .

2. I actually quite like the strawberry flavour shakes... and I didn't have to hold my nose.

3. Saving the best 'til last ... today I walked into the  ( ironically named ) Fat Face  (hitherto forbidden territory being over a size 18) in Farnham and bought a pair of jeans 2 sizes smaller than my normal size. Admittedly I had to lie flat on the bed back home to get them on (reminiscent of the teenage years only then it was a size 8)  but it was worth it and presumably in another month's time, I'll be going back for a size another 2 sizes smaller.

All in all a very good day.

New jeans lying on top of old jeans

Embroidery Heaven

How gorgous is this ?

I bought this embroidery floss chest at an antique fair many many years ago . Don't think I paid an enormous sum for it , probably around a fiver. It's been sat in the back of a cupboard for a couple of decades and now it's come into it's own .

Perfect for storing all of my scrapbooking embroidery bit and pieces . What is the fascination with haberdashery ? Anywhere I've ever been in the world , I've always sought out these shops. A couple of buttons and a length or two of ribbon to add to my collection are enough to fill me with joy.

So , I've found the perfect storage , now all I have to do is get round to using it all.

Autumn

This has to be my favourite season. What's not to like about Autumn ? Mellow evenings, the warmth rather than blaring heat of the sun ,amber light, change in the air, cool misty mornings and colour everywhere . We're very lucky to have this park on our doorstep - feels more like the countryside than London.

Little Wonder...

... that obesity is a national epidemic.

Today I drove my children to school. On the way , I passed no fewer than 18 take-away shops, about a dozen billboards advertising food, 11 trucks with pictures of food on their sides, heard 6 ads on the radio concerning food and noticed 7 garages all of which had been turned into mini supermarkets.

I lost count on the way home and as I opened the front door , there on my doormat were 3 leaflets for pizza take-aways and another for an Indian restaurant. And that was all before 9am.

My New Best Friends

say hello to my new best friends ...

Tabasco, Espresso and Black Pepper.

I don't think I've ever tried Tabasco before but because we're allowed it on Lighter Life I'm now becoming very familiar with it. It doesn't so much enhance or spice up the flavour of what you're eating, it actually obliterates it ... which, if you've ever tried Lighter Life's Tomato soup, you will appreciate, is a good thing. I have drawn the line at adding it to my Lighter Life porridge though.

Black coffee is also allowed and , not known for doing things by halves, I've opted for the double dose. It's small enough as it is , so having a double means 2 thimblefulls rather than one. Still , it gets me through a bad patch or rather floats me through it because by the time it's down the hatch, I'm usually as high as a kite.

And as for black pepper , well it's something to chew on - sad I know.

So if you see me floating towards you with tears in my eyes and steam coming out of the top of my head , you'll know I've just had a Tabasco spiced porridge with coarsely ground black pepper followed by a double espresso.

HHK

Thought it was about time I shopped for new knickers. This is usually a perfunctory annual task - a quick pop to M&S for enough Bridget Jones style BIG pants to see me through another few months - top priority usually maximum stretch capacity.

This was quite a different experience.
First it had to be somewhere other than M&S , bless them but I won't be needing industrial sized undies any more so I can shop around for a change.
Secondly they had to be pink - no more fat black pants.
Thirdly - it would be nice if I could fit more than half a dozen pairs on the washing line at one time.

Job done, one pair of Elle McPherson frilly pink lacy things, 2 sizes smaller than my usual . Nice.

Oh yes ... and HKH stands for Halfway House Knickers . No point in opting for ludicrously small G strings .... yet.

Decision time

Apparently the average person has to make about 200 decisions a day about food.

I, on the other hand , only have to make one - do I stick at this Lighter Life or not ? Makes life simple doesn't it ?