I wanted to buy a Christmas party dress

I wanted to buy a Christmas party dress for the cruise, so I e-mailed Marks & Spencer to find out when the party dresses would be on sale?

I got an e-mail back from them last night saying that they wont be in store until November! I thought that they were normally on sale from the end of September onwards...

So now I am forcing James to go with me at the weekend to either Lakeside or Bluewater ;o)

mmmmmmarmite chocolate

If James thought that this was a spoof, the what on earth will he think of this?.

You can be sure of sure can be that I will be buying some when it comes out in the shops ;o)

booked a taste of Christmas

A few weeks ago I had a flier about a Taste of Christmas, we went a couple of years ago and it was really good ;o).

James didnt fancy going again so I am going with my Sister in Law - LOL sorry James but I will probably have a better time ;o).

Being in super efficient mode as I am - (not a good thing before 9am on a Monday morning I know ;o)) I have also booked a hotel to stay the night after our afternoon tea ;o)

the radiators are hot upstairs but cold downstairs...

Those of you who have just read this post (an update for you).

I went to the toilet and touched the radiator and it was warm, I tried the ones in our bedroom and they were warm too...

...yet the ones down stairs are still as cold as anything...

...I guess that I prefer the ones in the bedroom to be warm as there is nothing worse than sleeping in the cold!

and I had some curry too

I hope that you are sitting down?

wait for it...

...we actually did something interesting!

...we went a-visiting ;o)

On Friday night we went to Trowbridge in Wiltshire, it was so unbelievably quiet - James loved it and was sad to come home yesterday...

...the journey up took us five hours because of roadworks and heavy traffic on the M25 - it was supposed to take three and a half hours, luckily the journey home was miles better.

Yesterday we went to Longleat the home of the Marquess of Bath. We didnt go into the house itself, we just did some of the attractions. We had a really fun day ;o)

This morning I decided to bite the bullet and to put the central heating on, as it is now getting chillier...

...we turned the heating on and nada - not a sausage - nothing...

...so we fiddled with the thermostat and it clicked on and nothing...

...we then tried turning the heating off then on again (in the hope that it would miraculously spark back into life) and the beautiful hum of the pilot light lighting didnt come.

James even tried tapping (read bashing) the pipes to see if that would do something...

...but again nowt!

As I am typing away I heard the pilot light come on but realised that it is for the hot water...

Anyhow as we have HomeCare we rang British Gas and an engineer is coming on Tuesday...

...I am so glad that we decided to put the heating on before it got really cold!

I weighed myself this morning and was expecting a massive gain as I had eaten some curry (I was only going to have a little bit but in typical Amber fashion I kept on going back for more as it was so nice and I hadnt eaten any curry in a long time), and I had only put on 100 grammes so was well pleased.

it was raining so hard...

...that we could see the rain through our grimy window!

I have done it again...

You may remember this post, well I have done it again...

...I was in the toilet and realised that I have an item of clothing on the wrong way around...

...and I havent bothered changing it around (because no-one will see it) ;o)

Cant you read minds?

This morning my boss asked me to book a table for 3 people for lunchtime at Balls Brothers in Mincing Lane, which I duly booked...

...I have just 30 seconds ago got a phone call from my boss asking if I had booked Balls Brothers or Davys? So I said that I had booked Balls Brothers...

...he than said that he had meant Davys - and then said cant you read my mind!

Crispwich

I was looking through Metro this morning, and saw this article...

I used to eat crisp sandwiches in my poorer days, and they are quite tasty, my favourite was peanut butter & cheese & onion crisp sandwich...

...damn it I fancy one now ;o)

I was expecting the worst

We were in Poundland yesterday (I was dragged in there kicking & screaming by James), I have to admit I hate that shop (its on the same level as Charity shops if you were wondering) with a passion...

...anyhow I was looking in there (like you do) and in their cookery section I saw some silicone chocolate moulds, I have seen similar ones on sale in Lakeland reduced down to £4.99, so I saved nearly £8 - how good is that? ;o)

My plan (at the moment) is to make some chocolates at Christmas (dont expect me to share them mind ;o)), sometimes (read every time) you have to quality control 100% of what you have made (just to make sure that none of them are poisonous) ;o)

After my lunch on Thursday, I was sure that when I weighed myself this morning that I would have gained some weight...

...so with this in mind I was steeled for a massiveish gain...

...and would you believe that once I had opened my eyes (yes I do weigh myself with my eyes shut in the belief that if I dont see it then it didnt happen), and I had lost two pounds - a whole kilogram ;o).

I was well surprised ;o)

5 quarters of sandwiches

Yesterday was the birthday lunch that I was talking about...

We ended up going to City Flogger, and we had a variety of sandwiches and two bowls of cut up sausages ;o)

I had three quarters of chicken and bacon and two quarters of roast beef, a few (quite a few if the truth be told) of the cut up sausages and three bottles of beer...

I really wasnt intending to eat or drink that much...

Anyway last night I stuck with my plan of just eating veggies for my dinner last night. On Sunday I will be able to see if this worked or not...

to be honest im not hopeful...

pole dancing is dangerous

A while ago Alex did a post about vertical ballet...

...on the front cover of this mornings Metro is an article about a lady who got paralysed from a pole dancing fitness class, I would love to give this a try...

...but am now thinking better of it!

I havent read the article properly yet, and will save it for my journey home tonight

time for soup again

I was walking from the station this morning and have decided that its that time of year again...

I went for a scrummy Italian Meatball soup from Pret a Manger

aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhh

(I think the title says it all).

I have been trying to be good all week...

...I weighed myself this morning and have put on 100 grammes (not too bad I know), and I wouldnt mind so much if I wasnt trying to be good. Plus the scales that I usually use were out of order so had to use some different ones - so that is an added variant too!

I can only put it down to the lunch I had on Monday not being as calorie conscious as the website said :o(

I have another lunch this week coming to go to too...

I was so disheartened after weighing myself that I almost went for an apple fritter donut in Starbucks but stopped myself...

people like me...

I was getting some food bits in Marks & Spencer and spied a gorgeous looking chocolate Christmas pudding...

...and I have to admit I bought it ;o)

I know its only September and I shouldnt be encouraging the supermarkets to sell Christmas stuff until 1st December at the earliest, but I really couldnt help myself ;o)

I knew she was going to cause problems

I was in Marks & Spencer yesterday lunchtime getting my lunch...

...I was queuing to use the self scan tills and there was a lady in front of me with a basket, and I saw that she was sipping from a 500 mil bottle of diet cola.

My first thought was that if she hasnt paid for it then the till will throw a fit when she scans it because it isnt going to have the proper weight!

Sure enough as I was scanning my bits I heard a voice next to me say "I was drinking from the bottle while queueing"...

...at least I didnt get held up by this ;o)

tube strikes & lightning strikes

Firstly sorry for 2 posts today...

Yesterdays journey home was a blooming nightmare...

...I got to Liverpool Street Station and the concourse was crowded (not so crowded that you couldnt get to your platform but very busy), so I looked up at the departure boards and saw that my train was there, so I pushed my way through walked upto the platform, and the carriages were rammed!

It was like they had only provided an 8 carriage train as opposed to the normal 12 (so I looked up at the board and there was no mention of the train being short), then it struck me that the train was busy because of the tube strike and workers leaving early so they didnt get home too late.

So I walked up the platform and finally found the carriages toward the back werent so busy, so I plonked myself down on a seat ;o) When the train left our carriage was also packed!

So the journey began...

...the train left Liverpool Street but started to go slow from Stratford onwards, when we got to Forest Gate the train stopped, and the driver announced that there was going to be severe delays (they dont usually use the word severe so I knew it was going to be bad) as there had been a lightning strike at Seven Sisters, and the trains were going to be slow up until we get to Shenfield.

The train finally started speeding up when we got to Brentwood, I tried to text James but typically we were in the mobile reception dead spot, so waited until we got to Shenfield so I could let him know that I was 10 minutes away.

I finally got home nearly an hour late...

dining out on a calorie budget

I met friends for lunch yesterday and one of them suggested going to Hamilton Hall, so I had a quick look at the website to decide what to have for my lunch.

I knew that they have a nutrition guide on there, so I was hoping to be able to find something that wasnt too bad and fitted in with my 8 week challenge.

Typically the things that I really fancied were truly calorific, then I spotted the sweet chilli noodles and they were only 296 calories ;o)

What a result, and it also meant that I was able to eat a proper dinner last night too ;o)

I was being irrational

We were in Marks & Spencers yesterday morning, and James suggested that I should buy a new rain coat, so I tried one on in a size 14, and it felt tight! So James said to me why dont you just get a bigger size? I must admit I felt quite upset about the size 14 feeling tight, its like Im losing the battle of trying to stay slimish!

I know that I am not because I can still pull up my size 12 jeans without undoing them!

So I told him that I was going to stick with the rain coat that I have at the moment and will wait until I can comfortably fit into a 14 again... ;o)

He said that he didnt understand why I was being so stubborn!

I weighed myself this morning and have put on 200 grammes (which I know is hardly anything) and I still have 5 weeks to lose some weight...

...I am putting it down to not doing anything on the exercise bike for 3 days and on a couple of days I had some cakes for my mid-morning snack that I didnt know the calories of (so hee hee I have put them on the side for James Mum & Dad to have ;o)).

bouncing pound coin

I was in Sainsburys yesterday lunchtime buying a packet of mango, got to the self service till (as its supposed to be quicker) , scanned my mango put my £5.00 note into the note identifier slot.

I then watched the change shoot into the change tray and promptly watched awestruck as one of the pound coins bounced out of the tray, so I collected the rest of the coins that were still in the tray and moved the carrier bags to pick up the dropped coin but it wasnt there!

What had happened to my coin? My guess was that it had done the "one in a million" chance of falling into the gap between the weight sensitive area where you place your scanned goods and the casing.

I attracted the attention of the member of staff watching the self scanning tills and told her what had happened, and she pulled the weight sensitive paddle out and used her keys to dig out my £1 coin.

Phew that was a relief (I was quite attached to that pound) ;o)

tights over anklet

I was sitting on the train and a lady gets on (must have been in her 20s) and I was glancing around (like you do) and I spotted that she had an anklet on under her tights!

I myself would be worried about my tights getting snagged...

I sat next to coconut man

I was quite happily sitting on the train listening to Justin Timberlake, we get to Shenfield Station and a bloke comes and sits next to me (no big deal), and I get a waft of coconut (I dont think he just bathed in it, he must of marinated himself in it overnight and then ate some for breakfast)...

...as the journey progresses I am thinking more and more about coconut, so much so that my stomach is rumbling. By the time I got to Liverpool Street Station I had an insatiable desire for some chunks of coconut.

So I had a look in Tesco - no coconut, Pret a Manger didnt have any either, and neither did EAT, I was starting to think that there was a conspiracy going on...

...then I remembered that as coconut is so calorific then perhaps this was a good thing ;o)