strendon

Friday was the first day of Evies half term holiday...

...we decided to go to a trampoline park.

Everything was going well :)

We were jumping on the trampolines (I was exhausted after 10 minutes :)) and Evie was going on the bag too (its like a bouncy castle base that you can jump onto from a trampoline).

We went back onto the trampolines and then 10 minutes from the end Evie was crying saying that she wanted to go now...

...one of the marshalls came over to make sure she was ok, Evie told her that she had hurt the back of her knee.

They then got a first aider to come over to check Evie over (he got her to bend her legs, wriggle her toes and to bend her ankles.

Luckily everything moved ok.

He said that he though that she had stretched a tendon and for her to rest up for the rest of the day and if she was still in pain on Saturday to take her to the doctors to make sure that it was nothing more serious.

I had to sign their accident book too

After we got out shoes on we went upstairs to the cafe (Evie was able to walk upstairs so that was good) and she had a chocolate muffin and a strawberry slushy, and then we headed home.

We had some lunch and she was feeling much better.

I asked her every now and again about her knee and she said that it was better :)

So that was a relief.

We now have the rest of the week to get through...

health check

A couple of weeks ago I went for the blood tests for my health check.

Yesterday I had my appointment with the nurse.

She asked me if I had any concerns and I mentioned my friend Emma and how I was now paranoid about getting breast cancer, and she told me to limit myself to checking once a month and to do it when having a shower.  And that if its caught early then the chances are good.

I had to take a urine sample in with me which was clear ;o)  The only thing that the blood tests bought up was that my cholesterol was slightly high.  Other than that my chances of anything nasty developing is low ;o).  I should cut out sausages, pies and pasties, and I should start eating fish.  I used to eat tuna so will buy a tin of it next when we are out shopping.

I do love my sausages (thank goodness that the sausage lady doesnt do them anymore ;o)).

And that I should try to learn to Swim that Evie doesnt pick up on my fear.

giving in to the elevator

Walking up the stairs at work has gradually been getting harder and harder (with me having to take rest stops)...

...well this morning I decided to just give in and use the elevator ;o)

so that is my daily exercise over & done with now...

he is only fooling himself

As you may know I work on the third floor...

Yesterday I was about to go to the toilet (on the fourth floor) and the elevator opened and two men got out one turned right to go to his office and the other turned left (I thought that he was going to go to the toilet) but no he started walking up the stairs, I was going to the fourth floor anyway and I watched as he walked past the fourth floor and continued upto the fifth floor!

I can just imagine every day he tells his colleagues "yah I walked all the way up again today from the ground floor".

I really dont get why he would get the elevator up halfway...

...why not just walk all of the way up and take some "getting your breath back" breaks when needed.

Some people are just weird!

38 minute workout

Yesterday saw over running engineering works, and it went on all day!

My journey in the morning was ok because I had a seat...

...in the evening however, the train only had 8 carriages as opposed to the usual 12. I couldnt see an empty seat anywhere, so I ended up having to stand.

Luckily the train was only 8 minutes late getting to Chelmsford...

...I was going to use the exercise bike yesterday, but didnt bother after the resistance training that I did on the 17.20!

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

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)).

fitter than I thought

I work on the third floor, and when I go to get the mail I have to go down to the basement. I always take the stairs in a bid to be healthy...

Our floors arent numbered when you walk up (or down) the stairs so I have to count the toilets (they alternate first floor gents and second floor ladies etc), the signs used to be slightly different on each floor, but now they are all the same! You can walk a few more steps and see what floor you are on in the entrance to the lifts. Or you can walk through to the offices and see what floor you are on by the suite numbers (I have done that before too normally seeing I am on the second floor rather than the third).

Yesterday I went downstairs to the basement to get the mail and on my way back up I was too busy thinking about chocolate to keep an eye as to what floor I was upto...

I saw the gents toilets and thought I must be on the first floor (and I wasnt feeling particularly tired either - which is normally another sign as to which floor I am at), so I walk up another flight of stairs see the ladies toilets and a bloke standing outside on his mobile (cell) phone - I couldnt remember which floor I normally see him on (which would have been another indicator). So I carry on walking up and suddenly I dont recognise what floor I am on, I walk past the lift doors and see that I have walked upto the fifth floor.

I walked up an extra two flights of stairs and felt no more tired than usual...

...I am definitely getting fitter ;o)

sucked in...

Yes, I have got sucked in watching The X factor, they are still showing the auditions at the moment. As you would expect some people are really good and others are painfully bad! I am pleased to say its another good show to watch whilst doing the exercise bike. James calls it mindless drivel (one of his more polite terms!), but I likes it ;o).

In our Starbucks on the wall by the drinks station they have up what iced drinks the baristas prefer, being primarily frappuccinos, one of the supervisors put down her favourite as a coffee frappuccino with gingerbread syrup (obviously seasonal). You guessed it, the power of suggestion got the better of me and ever since reading it I have been fantasising about a gingerbread frap...

So, yesterday I was sitting there eating my croissant with strawberry jam drinking my skinny sugarfree vanilla latte, and I see the said supervisor. So I told her that since seeing her favourite frap I NOW WANT that drink! She then whispers to me and James that she has a secret supply of gingerbread syrup, and she will leave a note to say that I can have some of her secret stash ;o). So my next thought was how do I order it? Do I have to ask for it in code such as "Fido will be going with Gretal to Grandmas house"

We went back into town yesterday afternoon as is now part of our Saturday ritual, I was queueing up to get our drinks and one of the girls said to me "so your not having your Special then" so I said no I will have that tomorrow! So I now know how to order my "special" order, phew what a relief ;o).

So today in Starbucks I am finally ready to order my "special drink" so I queue up and ask for a "tall coffee lite Special" and she knows EXACTLY what I would like. So I get my eagerly awaited drink and it was absolutely gorgeous, I had to hold on to it tightly as I feared that James would nick it from me. I reluctantly let him have the tiniest of tastes (I allowed him to sip for half a second - although I think that was way too long!).

No sure what we are going to do tomorrow yet as its a Bank Holiday, but if I want my "special drink" then it will have to involve going back to our Starbucks, what a decision to have to make!

I weighed myself this morning and was pleased that I am exactly the same, so thats pretty good ;o)

evil outlook

Since James has been temping he has needed to complete timesheets showing his hours worked. I have been doing him reminder e-mails to complete them. I did six (one, two, three, four, five, six) of them before getting fed up. The sixth and last one was Thursday.

I then had a tiffany moment (a bit like an epiphany but with bling), that I invite James to a weekly meeting, meaning that he will get weekly reminders and I dont have to keep e-mailing him! The idea then hit me that as long as I can get him to "accept" my invites, I can then manipulate his calender - such as 11am Friday (half an hour before he goes to lunch) "buy Amber a huge bar of nice chocolate" ;o) I wonder if Bill knows of my evil intentions ;o).

Back in January our Sky+ Box had a hissy fit and was saying that there were no programmes in the programme planner. We rebuilt the planner and all was fixed. Last night we were watching something we recorded, and the skybox kept on freezing and would then reboot itself. After several goes of this we then decided to rebuild the planner. The skybox wouldnt let us record anything either, and still wouldnt after rebuilding (this course of action had worked back in January). We then decided that it may work out cheaper to upgrade to Sky+HD as we didnt take out the extended warranty.

So after coming back from town I call Sky to upgrade to HD to be told that there is a six week waiting list (one, two three, four five, six), I was dumbfounded! Six weeks (one, two, three, four, five, six) of not being able to record stuff! We then hit upon the idea of calling an engineer out to get a replacement box, that will cost us £65.00 (around $100.00) and the guy is due Tuesday afternoon between 12 and 5pm! And what would you know, after booking the engineer the skybox is working ok! Aaaargggghhhh If its still ok tomorrow morning I will probably cancel!

So this morning while doing the exercise bike (with the absence of being able to watch something I have recorded) I put on a Sesame Street DVD it really made the 35 minutes whizz by ;o) What surprised me was at the beginning of the DVD they said that this show was for adults only and shouldnt be shown to pre-schoolers! Surely learning is learning. In the episode I saw it didnt show anything that I would call questionable. Did you know that Oscar was originally orange? I was quite shocked! In all honesty I dont think I will ever get over this, and may have psychological repercussions ;o)

The sausage lady came up trumps again yesterday, by having my chili chocolate sausages ;o) How many other people have sausages made especially for them? The Queen may give Royal Warrants to companies but I bet she doesnt have many things made especially for her!

Its been the V festival this weekend, I havent seen too many of the festival goers myself as I guess we have been in Chelmsford before many of them have been bothered to get out of their tents. And thanks to NXEA not allowing off peak tickets to be used between 4.29 pm and 6.34 pm this means all but the more affluent festival goers arent going to be travelling on my train ;o). Typically I was sitting next to one of them!

I weighed myself this morning and was well chuffed that I have lost the two pounds (one, two) that I put on last week ;o)

This post has been bought to you by the numbers two and six and the letters l b and s ;o)

moody Thursday

On Thursday I was put in a bad mood even before work started...

...why? I hear you ask

Well, I got in and was going to make a cup of tea, while waiting for my PC to boot up etc. I passed someone from another company carrying two cups back to his office. I got around to the kitchen and not only did I have to fill up the kettle, but there wasnt any milk left in the fridge either! (We are in managed offices and they provide tea, coffee and milk) So I went upto the fourth floor and took a pint from their fridge (dont worry they already had an opened pint and two unopened ones so it wasnt like I took the last of their milk). Why oh why didnt he say to me "I have just used the last of the milk" As you can tell those are the ways to wind me up (if you so wish ;o)).

Me and James have been sky+ing Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is since Tuesday the programme has kept on dropping out of the schedule where they must be messing around with the tv guide. So to cambat this for tomorrow Ive set it to record on BBC Scotland so there! Yes, this winds me up too...

On Wednesday evening there was "trouble wit trains" there was a fatality between Shenfield and Ingatestone, now I dont normally mind being stuck on the train especially if its in the morning, but I dont like it when it encroaches on my time. I didnt get to Chelmsford until 7.10! At least the ticket inspectors had the barriers open and were handing out compensation forms! So as I was well tired when I got home I didnt do anything of the exercise bike either! I had a seat which was a good thing, mind you I normally do or I would just get on a later train provided their arent any problems.

I weighed myself this morning and stayed the same in stones and pounds anyway (not too sure about the kilogrammes) so am well chuffed considering the one night that I didnt do any exercise.

Sorry this has been a bit of a whinging post, but its good to get these out of the way ;o)

Cold and grotty

No Im not talking about the weather but I am talking about me...

...yes I had a cold last week. I came down with it Sunday night.

I struggled into work Monday morning being very sniffly, and ended up coming home at 12pm!

Luckily the cold had gone by Friday, so my Easter hasnt been ruined ;o)

Having not been out all week (apart from going to work on Monday) I was feeling stir crazy by Friday, and me and James decided to go to Southend, plus because it was Good Friday there was free parking too ;o).

Everytime I go to the beach I have to have a portion of chips (it stems back to something me, my Mum and Brother would do to keep warm - even on Summer days ;o)).

On Saturday I was pleased to see that the sausage lady had remembered to bring the chocolate & chilli sausages, so I dutifully bought six of them ;o) Apparently the ones she bought to Chelmsford on the Friday had completely sold out! And if they sell well then she will continue doing them whey hey ;o) I will be trying them later in the week and will let you know what they are like. I have a feeling they will be nice (at least I hope they will be ;o)).

I have had a chocolate filled day today...

...I opened up my chocolate tasting club easter egg. I have scanned the menu card for you to see ;o). I have already scoffed the dark half of my egg already (and it was as yummy as I thought it would be). I also bought to Starbucks with me my easter egg sandwich and ate half of that too ;o).

I will probably have the milk chocolate half tomorrow (I mean I might as well be bad in a big way ;o)). I will try and save the little chocolates and chicks to eat during the week (once Ive finished my current box).

James also gave me these lovely little hand decorated eggs...


Not surprisingly I havent weighed myself this week - I already know it will be bad next week as I didnt do much on the exercise bike as I was ill and couldnt be arsed to!

To be philosophical the bad weeks make the good weeks look better ;o)

Happy Easter ;o)

Mmmmm Meatballs...

I know you are extremely interested and are dying to find out if I lost the two pounds that I put on when I weighed myself last week...

...so I shall put you out of your misery and let you know that I lost four pounds (putting my total weight loss one pound shy of five stone ;o)).

When I ride the exercise bike I tend to watch either weight loss shows or cooking shows (yes I know they're either end of the scales ;o)), anyhow I was watching Tyler's Ultimate and have got inspired...

...to make meatballs!

I've just looked at that website and wonder if any channel will show some of the other shows? Lets hope so...

So when we went shopping in Sainsbury's I bought the stuff that I will need...

500 grammes of turkey mince (I will freeze half of it to use for a low calorie chili con carne that I shall attempt next week), one red pepper, a few mushrooms and two cans of chopped tomatoes.

I shall let you know how I got on next week - hopefully I won't be typing the post from the A&E at Broomfield Hospital ;o)

Oh, and an egg to bind the meatballs together.

Well this is the end of my second post and hope it hasn't been too much like number two ;o)

Just remembered I'm also going to use some bread too.