Mother's Day

I never listen to those who complain about Mother's Day .. if it means breakfast in bed then I'm all up for it.
This morning , the boys brought me a fruit platter on a tray with a cute cupcake napkin and their homemade presents - the best gifts ever. Theo had made a cup and plate decorated with the most wonderful image of a tree in full leaf - it was so lovely . And Max had made me not one but two cards and written a poem...

You are the kindest mum ever
You are the most supportive mum ever
You are the nicest mum ever
You are the funniest mum ever
You are the coolest mum ever
You are the best mum in the world

Well, you can't ask for anything lovelier than that. So for all you lovely mums out there ... Happy Mother's Day.

And just to round off the perfect day , I've just tried on my wedding dress ( size 10 no less) ... not only did it fit but I think it looked better than it did on the day all those years ago - 16th September 1989. Think I scrubbed up OK for an oldie.

So here I am , sat at my computer wearing several yards of ivory silk, drinking a cuppa and uploading photos of me and my boys. Bliss !

The Year of the Tiger

We've just got back from China Town where the Chinese New Year celebrations are in full swing. There's something fantastically vibrant about the sights , sounds and smells of the place - a sensory overload almost. Around every street corner came the cacophony of clashing cymbals that heralded the arrival of another Chinese dragon. I was rather wishing that the boys would immerse themselves in the rich culture of it all but they were hankering instead for the mile high displays of neon packaged saccharine and sour chewing gum in the corner shop.

Cosseted away in the warmth of the boys' favourite Chinese eatery - the Top of the Town - we laughed our way through the culinary delights on offer, choosing the crispy duck,  squid and chilli beef in favour of the marinated pig's knuckles and jellyfish in sesame oil. Better the devil you know.

The Chinese supermarkets were heaving but we managed to elbow our way round the crowded aisles to buy assorted New Year tat such as a tin joss stick shrine, some gloriously glossy red and gold money envelopes, dragon candles, fortune cookies and something that looks as if you could either eat it or set light to it.

I couldn't resist a bag of something red fashioned out of tissue paper - not sure whether I should be blowing my nose on them or laying them on the table but they're very pretty nonetheless.

Onto the market where the ever popular £3 challenge wielded a black and red checkered belt for Max, a mobile phone pink dangly Teddy for me and ... well something unsavoury for Theo that looks remarkably like a knuckle duster but I'm pretending is a silver necklace in the shape of a cat's paw.

To the retreating sounds of the cymbals and drums we made our escape through the crowds and back to Waterloo with a bag full of booty and some happy snaps.

Who'd have thought that ...

... at the age of 51 I'd be prancing around in a miniskirt. I know , I know ... mutton dressed as lamb and all that , but what the hell , can't be many more years when I'll get away with it,  so better late than never as they say. I rather daftly chose one of the coldest days in the year to wear it - BIG mistake and it felt as if I'd gone out in just my pants and forgotten to wear anything on my bottom half, or as if I'd tucked my skirt into my pants by mistake ... there was sort of nothing there. Still , it put a smile on my face and I enjoyed it . So thank you Sarah for persuading me to buy it ... and the boots which I could happily live in they're so comfy.

Here I am with Nic, Bridget and Lorraine, my fellow UK Scrappers and Lighter Lifers. Between us and including Karen who's not in the picture but taking it , we've lost a collective 20 stone !

Sneak Peek for the Cheam crop class

See you all on Saturday !

It's Official

I am wearing a size 10 pair of jeans. Never thought I'd make it but the zip is all the way up and I'm still breathing . If this were the Oscars I'd be thanking the manufacturers of control pants or whatever they're called and whoever invented Lycra.

My 'shopping for clothes' addiction was getting out of control but I've found a way of keeping the bank happy and enjoying the experience. I just try a lot on , prance around the changing room making silent whooping noises, then pop them back on the hangers - job done. I think I just needed to know I could get into a size 12 regularly and that it wasn't just a fluke. I can now boast 2 size 10's in my wardrobe too which is a bonus.

And every day brings  a new bonus. Yesterday it was finding out that my shoe size had gone down too which was an unexpected but pleasant surprise ... hence the bronze satin Converse pumps in my wardrobe today . Must try very hard to avoid the mutton dressed as lamb dilemma . I'll be drawing the line at crop tops, mini skirts and halter necks you'll be pleased to hear.

Snapshots from our Christmas

Hope you like these . They sort of sum up our Christmas this year ...

...and it's only January 2nd

In just the same way that Christmas always creeps up on me and frightens the living daylights out of me , New Year's Day has done the same. I keep forgetting that feeling that seeps in by the second day of the New Year , the one that reminds you that there's a list of things I was supposed to have finished but haven't even started. The shine has worn off the resolutions made yesterday and the 'word' for 2010 is beginning to pall. This year's word is TENACITY - come hell or high water I'm going to see things through this year. No more abandoned projects, false starts of half baked plans. having said that I reckon I displayed a fair degree of the stuff last year what with losing 5 stone in weight and undertaking a career change.
Real food tasted great over Christmas and now the packet soup/ shake regime has returned and it's worse than ever. I'm hoping that this feeling is temporary and that the goal, that is so in sight now, will begin to knock any feelings of deprivation on the head.
Having gone down 5 clothing sizes in 4 short months , nothing beats that feeling of standing in a changing room and trying on something that says 12 on the hanger . In fact last week I even bought a size 10 skirt which is nothing short of miraculous.
So onwards and downwards . New scales arriving in the post any day now which should help.

Best Christmas Ever

I know I must say this every year but this year's Christmas really was the best ever.
For a start , when you haven't eaten real food for 4 months, a roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings is sheer heaven and as for the taste of a warm mince pie oozing with brandy butter ... don't start me.
My real downfall though was the Quality Street tin in which I've left a large dent. Thought I'd be gagging for chocolate but no it was the toffees that caught me out. You can't beat a toffee penny with a cuppa in the afternoon of Christmas Day.
The boys have been angelic , in no small way down to the fact that I decided to not care if they ate the entire contents of their selection boxes by 8am and ate no veggies with their Christmas lunch whatsoever.
They were delighted with all of their presents and I re-discovered the joys of shopping early for their gifts - I'd forgotten half the contents.
DH surprised me with some glorious Jo Malone cologne and bath oil and the boys bought me some Mac make up to go with my new glam look. One happy bunny.
Best fun of all though was taking a photo of us by the tree on Christmas Eve with the self timer and printing it out onto a card for the boys to open on Christmas morning. Youngest son was so bowled over by our story that Santa had taken the photo - bless him. And even more alarming yet delightful was the fact that I looked so skinny in the photo - one BIG change from last year when I would have filled the frame.

Is that really me ?

I went to have my photo taken the other day at a posh studio in Richmond - not a posh price though - this was something I'd treated myself to at the very start of my Lighter Life journey - a voucher from Argos in their Bank Holiday sale for the bargain price of a fiver.

It was one of those makeover deals - you go in looking ghastly and come out looking like a supermodel, or so you're led to believe. I seem to remember these being all the rage back in the unforgiving 80's where ugly ducklings could go for the 'Cover Girl' experience and have their photos taken through a heavily vaselined lens with a feather boa draped seductively over a naked shoulder.

So the prints came back  today and even if I do say so myself , the girl scrubbed up OK ! So that's husband's Christmas prezzie sorted.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas ...

... not in the festive / baking mince pies / hanging holly from the rafters / writing fond sentiments in Christmas cards by the fireside kind of way .... more like the .....' for goodness sake do I have to do everything round here ' kind of way.

I'd forgotten that when men get home from work they clock off . Whereas when women get home from work , their night shift is just beginning - cooking dinner, helping with homework, fitting rugby studs to football boots , washing sports kit ... you get the picture. Add Christmas into the picture and it all turns ugly.

My husband is downstairs fiddling around with some  classic sports car website whilst I'm upstairs emailing my son's teacher about some crisis, writing up today's teaching assignment notes, arranging cover for eldest son who'll get home to an empty house tomorrow evening because I'll be on the M3 ( again) in the rain schlepping down to youngest son's carol concert, ordering groceries online as the fridge is empty and the fridge fairy hasn't visited in a long while, sorting out his Dad's Christmas present and making a list of what to hunt for in the lost property box at school , having just climbed down from the loft with armfuls of lights and decorations because it doesn't look like anyone else is going to bother.  Usual stuff .

And don't even start me on the rest of Christmas . Husband's annual contribution to Christmas day amounts to ... well turning up basically , oh and accepting thanks for the myriad presents he hasn't had to choose / buy / wrap.

Something always happens between my early December mantra of  ' Keep it Simple ' and my mid December panic of  ' OMG - only x days until the children break up from school ' that catches me out every year. Just when I think I've got the minefield of what to get teachers sorted and offloaded the guilt of not sending any cards, someone bowls a curved ball that usually involves an impossible schedule , some kind of pre-Christmas virus and a parking ticket . Combine that with losing my credit card ( hasn't happened yet but it's only a matter of time ) , husband's endless list of Christmas drinks parties ( that invariably involve him having to get up to town by 6pm thereby rendering him permanently unavailable for school concert attendance ) and transforming the house from a tip into Santa's grotto overnight and is it any wonder that most of us are reduced to the odd Bah Humbug ?

No wonder my own Mother's favourite day of the year was Boxing Day . I never understood this as a child but as a parent it now makes perfect sense.

Before and After

Well here they are - my before and afters. 13 weeks later and 54 lbs lighter.

Stir Up Sunday

I know it's supposed to be for making puddings but I reckon Christmas cakes count too. My youngest son and I are making a Christmas cake together. My aged copy of 'Delia's Christmas' was hauled off the bookshelf and fell open at the page I last used when making last year's cake - all sticky fingered and black treacled.

Cooking is a great way to spend time with your children. Of course everything  takes twice as long but what's the rush ? Most of the currents ended up on the floor but then that's what dustpans and brushes are for. We even shelled the almonds from their husks , popping them bullet style into the glass Pyrex bowl just like I would have done with my own Mum forty years ago. Some things never change thankfully and as for the smells , well nothing beats that brandy, nutmeg, raisin combination.

End of Part One

Hard to believe that the first stage of my Lighter Life journey has just reached an end after 13 grueling weeks. Of course now that it's finished I realise that I was just beginning to get the hang of it . So much so in fact that I've decided to continue. Now if I'd heard myself say that a month ago, I never would have believed it.  All I could think of then was the end of the 13 week Foundation stage ... or rather when I could eat real food again. But now I'm there I don't want to eat real food , well not yet anyway.

As a celebration of having lost a grand total of 54 lbs,  just 2 lbs short of a staggering 4 stone,  I treated myself to one glass of champagne. Rather than the fizzing glass of golden loveliness I anticipated , it tasted like a sort of metallic grape juice. And let me tell you , the headache from hell that I felt the following morning was certainly not worth it. What an anti climax. But all good ... I'm certainly not gagging for my next glass.

So I here I go on part 2 of the journey - what they call Developers at Lighter Life. I'm going to take it one week at a time until I lose another stone which would take me up to 5 in total and feel truly comfortable in a size 12. Although I'm wearing a size 12 now I want it to feel loose around the waistband. I reckon I can get there early into the New Year .

I have learnt a great many things about myself in the past 3 months, the most surprising of which was that I have a cast iron determination and can withstand the toughest of temptations. I can be honest now and say that I really didn't think I would last for the whole 13 weeks. Can't tell you how good it feels to know that not only have I succeeded but I have actually surpassed my own targets.

No food can beat how good that feels.

Well, I'm tantalisingly just 1lb away from having lost 50lbs since starting Lighter Life.

And here's me in a pair of size 12 jeans just to prove it. The slightly crazed look on my face is probably due to blood circulation problems as I can't actually breathe or move in them ... but hey , that's a minor inconvenience.

How NOT to have a Perfect Christmas

Easy ... just indulge yourself in every article for the next 6 weeks which include the following 2 words ..... Perfect .....and ..... Christmas. In fact I've just sen the funniest ever Christmas article online entitled ... 'How to Organise Yourself for NEXT Christmas' No kidding.

Magazine editors have reached fever pitch in churning out these travesties. In the weekend's papers I counted no less than 16 articles in one newspaper alone about how to have that elusive Perfect Christmas . The article I want to write is how to have a Good Enough Christmas because good enough is , well, good enough. 

I don't usually do things by halves and I'm not really one for compromise but If there's one thing I have learnt over the years , it is to focus on what counts - people and time. Since having children, our Christmases have changed, for the better by miles.

Christmas lunch is a relaxed affair and one year I even forgot to buy the sprouts but you know what ? .... no-one complained. Presents are fun ( no sets of encyclopedias), walks are compulsory as are Christmas Morning service at church, and large quantities of Quality Street and Baileys.

If I run out of wrapping paper , the present goes unwrapped. I dispensed with Christmas cards years ago - the people that really count know I make time for them during the year. All the fresh food comes from New Lodge Farm and the wine from the local supermarket . Everything chugs along nicely and we still say  "That was the best Christmas EVER " at the end of it all.

So the 'How to Have the Perfect Christmas ' brigade can go take a hike. Ours will be slightly lopsided and I may even dispense with the sprouts agin, if they're very lucky.

If you're hungry ... look away now

Just got back from a day trip to Greenwich ... you wouldn't want to go there if you're hungry and on a diet and here are the pictures to prove it.

It was so lovely to be back on familiar territory . I bought my very first house in Greenwich over 20 years ago . A little brick terraced docker's cottage in Colomb Street, with an outside loo  all original features intact and a jellied eel stall at the end of the street. My very first home and I adored it.

We took the boat from the South Bank to the Naval College and wandered around Greenwich market taking in all the delicious smells, sights and sounds .. a treat for all the senses. The boys found possibly the best sweet shop in the world and spent their entire week's pocket money there. We played the £2 challenge game and I came off rather well with a bar of rose scented heart shaped soap from my husband. Several shops and coffee stops later, after a rustle through the last of the Autumn leaves in Greenwich park we clambered back onto the boat and savoured the views of London at dusk on the ride home - quite magical.

 

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Which can only mean one thing - a trip to Fortnum and Mason's to gorge on all the gourmet eye candy . Hampers galore, mile high piles of chocolate bars, exquisite sweet confections, every conceivable flavour in the world all squeezed into one delicious red carpeted department. Lush.
Of course I can't eat any of it but I can still smell it all which is heaven and torture all rolled into one. Roll on Christmas.

At last ...

.... a proper cappuccino. After 11 weeks of eating no real food whatsoever I'm finally allowed to introduce milk back into my diet ... for one week only. The nutritional gurus have decreed that you can't live on starvation rations for longer than 11 weeks so we have to drink milk this week or else we'll die or something like that.
Anyway , I'm making hay whilst the sun shines and drinking my way through South East England's Cappuccino supplies starting with this one. Boy, did it taste good.

Bonfire Night

It's very quiet out there . I suppose fireworks must be the latest casualty of the recession although I thought we were supposed to be out of that now or was that last week ?

Here's my eldest in the garden this evening ... and no that's not me setting light to tenners , although I might as well be , the rate at which they seem to fly out of my wallet .

I'm off to the Dental Hospital ( again) with my youngest tomorrow and dreading it. There's something rather ironic about those sets of ghoulish false teeth that appear around Halloween time . When my youngest son wears them as part of his trick or treat outfit , they're usually an improvement on his own set.

Poor lamb . We've spent the last 2 years trekking up and down to the wretched hospital being told that his jaw will have to broken at some stage and re-set , that's usually the good news , the bad news is what it's going to cost . Anyway I'm hoping that this won't be the case tomorrow , otherwise we'll be spending the night there. I'm not very good in hospitals . I would usually rather be undergoing the treatment myself than watching my children go through it.

So a little light relief from a few Roman candles, a gigantic set of rockets and a packet of sparklers seemed like a small price to pay in return for the huge grin on their faces when they clapped eyes on the Box of Delights I brought home this evening.

Counting the days

It's 54 days until Christmas, 26 days until my eldest son's birthday, 23 days until I start eating real food again and only 1 day until I have to hand in my assignment .

If I were a sensible grown-up I would stop procrastinating and finding a million other things to do other than my homework and get on with it . But I'm not, so I suppose I'll fiddle away on the computer and fritter away the day then leave myself an impossible deadline to get the darned thing done. And I wonder where the boys get it from .