Shhhhhh!

Keep the noise down, my head is a little fragile!

Why do I do it? I went out last night with my parents and some friends of theirs. We went to Keynsham, which is near where I live, for their Victorian evening. They close off the high street and have street stalls and attractions - it is really lovely and last night was very wintry as it was cold and a bit foggy. When we got there I realised that I wasn't going to be up to walking too much, so I stayed with the men (who had the very sensible idea of going to the pub!) while the ladies braved the high street. The pub was jam packed but we managed to get a table by the fire, I was two glasses of red down by the time the ladies caught up with us! We then ate at the pub, the food was lovely but I only managed one course before I was totally stuffed. I did, however, manage a third glass of red!

When we got home, I fell into bed and slept almost through. However, I am convinced I felt an earth tremor during the night - it was just like when we were in Kefalonia in October. There is nothing mentioned on the news so maybe I didn't and it was just my imagination, I'm really not sure.

Yay!!!

Another pound off - not sure how that happened mind you!! I'm not sure if it is psychological but my clothes feel much looser today!

Did I mention I LOVE MY BAND!!!!

Vicious!!!

I am learning (the hard way!) that my band is downright vicious when it wants to be.

If anyone reading this is thinking about having a band, please don't think that it is an easy solution. It isn't!!! Don't get me wrong, I love my band and the freedom it is giving me, but believe me, the band is in control! Anyone reading this who has a band themselves will know exactly what I mean!

Today I have, for no apparent reason, had a day where I can hardly eat anything because Bertie (band!) is not letting anything through without a fight! I couldn't even manage a full bowl of soup at lunchtime. I have eaten a small packet of cheddars (I was working away from the office and hadn't taken any breakfast) which I ate in three goes throughout the day! At lunchtime, I couldn't face a jacket potato so I had the soup and a bowl of about 12 chips (of which, I managed 3/4 of the soup and ate probably 8 chips). I am now heating up some pasta but I don't anticipate getting much of it down - guess what I'm having for lunch tomorrow! I honestly worried that my lunch was going to make a reappearance at one point which would have been horrific as I was with a colleague running two training sessions.

It is so weird because I have days when I think there is nothing doing with Bertie and I need a fill and then I have a day like today when, for no obvious reason, I have very forceful restriction. He really does have a mind of his own but at least I know he is doing his job and I do love him!!

Life is just so busy!!

I honestly don't know where the time is going at the moment! I have been chasing around like a mad thing.

I am feeling all smug because I have practically finished my Christmas shopping, only got to get something for my boyfriend - just the important one, eh?!! I have bought him some aftershave and a jumper but not his main present. He keeps saying he doesn't know what he wants which doesn't really help! I am very relieved, particularly that I have got all the presents for my family in Australia because the last posting date will be sometime next week. I love buying presents when I know that what I have found will be exactly what the person wants and some of the things I've bought have made me very excited - I sound soooo sad!!! I confess, I love Christmas - I always have, I turn into a little girl again (except I now have a credit card - yikes!!).

Anyway, I promised to tell you how our weekend went, so here goes.

We got to the hotel by 4.15 which was good going and were in our room by half past. The room was lovely. The bed was HUGE!!!! My boyfriend is 5' 10", he laid across the bed and it was exactly the same size, plus it had a wooden frame around it which added another 8 inches. It had lovely linen and lots of pillows and cushions - it was divine! We had a flat screen telly with DVD player and a CD player as well. The bathroom was massive with a walk through shower across the back wall. The monsoon shower had a massive shower head which totally drenched you as soon as you turned it on. Let's just say we made the most of the facilities!!!

We were ready by 6.30 and our taxi wasn't coming until 7.30 so we went down to the hotel bar for a drink. There was a function on and it was very busy, which was a bit of a shame. I saw a guy who I recognised from the telly but I couldn't place who he was.

We got to the restaurant on time and were shown to a lovely table in a quiet corner. The staff were brilliant and very attentive. I was very apprehensive about eating out (after my experience at TGIs the other week!) but I was fine. I had cheese souffle to start, it was served with sliced pear and crushed walnuts. It is not something I would have ordered pre-band, but WOW I am still dreaming about it, it was gorgeous. I don't normally like sweet with savoury but the pear really brought out the flavour of the souffle (get me, I sound like Lloyd Grossman!). My boyfriend had mussels. For our main course, I had a smoked salmon and haddock fishcake on a bed of spinach in a butter sauce with mashed potato, again it was delicious. My boyfriend had Toulouse sausages with mash potato and onion gravy. To finish we shared a flaming baked Alaska. I didn't manage to finish each course but I thoroughly enjoyed what I had. My boyfriend was a little disappointed but he is a bit of a grumpy b*gger and very hard to please! I think he just made poor menu choices. I found my food to be delicious and it was very reasonably priced, certainly not out of place with other good quality restaurants in Bristol.

We went back to the hotel and had another drink, which we took up to our room and we watched a DVD in bed.

We had breakfast at 10am although I really couldn't stomach it! He had a full English and I had scrambled egg with bacon, which I pushed around the plate! We discovered who the mystery celebrity was, he was having breakfast on the next table. His voice gave him away in the end, it was the comedian Dylan Moran.

It was a shame to have to leave but I think we will be trying some of their other hotels soon - the girl on reception recommended their Brighton and their Henley ones as being particularly nice.

I was pretty tired for the rest of the weekend, I didn't go out on Saturday night. I just didn't have the energy so my boyfriend went out for an hour on his own to have a drink with his mate. Which meant I could watch the X Factor in peace!! We had lunch at his parents on Sunday which was lovely. We had beef, which I have tended to avoid since getting my band. It was fine, although I could only manage one slice. His mum says she can see a difference in me, which is great!

I stood on the scales and no apparent damage - so far!!!!

Tired but very happy!!!

This will be a short post as I am very tired but I wanted to stop by and say hi!!

The weekend has been fantastic, Friday night went very well - I will post all about it in the week! It seems to have been a very long weekend, probably because I left work at 3pm on Friday and we had checked in to the hotel by 4.15. I'm going to avoid the scales for at least a week - they are not going to bring good news, I'm sure of that!

I've got a busy week lined up, I'm planning to do some Christmas shopping tomorrow night and Tuesday night, then on Thursday I have some friends coming over for pizza and Mamma Mia and I am going out for dinner on Friday night with my parents - my boyfriend is on lates so he can't come.

I'll try to post tomorrow night when I get home.

Busy, busy!!

I don't know where the week has gone - its just flown by!!

Work has been very busy, for some reason all the naughty people are abusing their internet access at the moment - I had four new cases this week, all with varying degrees of abuse. The worst was someone who has racked up over 26,000 hits in a five week period - to put this in perspective, we normally dismiss someone who averages 3,000 in a month!! No prizes for guessing where that one is heading!

My weight has, again, remained steady, although my work skirt keeps twisting around which it didn't do before so I guess there is a bit more slack there now! I think I will be getting a fill early in the new year!

I am very excited about my weekend - although I should say now that I don't know when I will get to post again!! We are having our big night out tomorrow - I can hardly sit still with excitement (how sad am I?!!). Then on Saturday we are going out for one of my boyfriend's friend's birthday and then going to his parents for lunch on Sunday. I don't think I will be too lively in work next week.

I'll post again as soon as I can but I think the earliest it will be is Sunday night - have a good weekend!!

Lovely weekend!

Well, it was back to work today after a lovely but rather busy weekend!

I managed to cook the roast dinner and we ate at about 7ish which wasn't too bad. It was rather nice, if I do say so myself!! We were quite late going to bed and I had to be up for work this morning - my boyfriend, who works shifts and gets every 5th week off, is on one of his weeks off this week. He tried to start a conversation with me at 1.30am - it started with 'are you awake?' ... 'well, I am now'. I got my own back by making a lot of noise when I got up!

I am noticing that I feel quite a bit of restriction lately - although the scales are not dropping dramatically! I am going to stick to my decision to hold off on another fill until the new year but I think I will need to act quite soon after that.

I'm getting excited because I have a special night lined up for Friday. My boyfriend's birthday is mid-December and as a result it is absolutely pants to try to take him out on the night as everyone is having Christmas parties, the restaurants are packed, the food is mediocre and the service is a bit fraught, so I decided that we would do it a bit early this year. I'm taking him to the new Raymond Blanc restaurant which opened in Bristol last month - it looks amazing on the website. Then, as a special treat, we're booked in to the Hotel Du Vin for the night (my company has a special deal with them - so I'm not splashing the cash too much!) - I'm sooo excited. Apparently, the room has a roll topped bath and a monsoon shower (whatever that is!!!), I think I will come back like a wrinkled prune! I'm on the early at work so I'm hoping to leave at 3pm so that we can get to the hotel as early as possible to make the most of it!!!

Shattered ....

I am soooo tired!! I've just dragged myself out of bed - mainly because the dog was crossing her legs and her tummy was rumbling!!

I've had a brilliant weekend. Friday night was great fun. I was manning the phones from 6.30 until 9.15 when the second shift took over. I took £360 in donations which was okay, some of the others around me took more (one girl had three individual donations of £100!). The atmosphere in the call centre was brilliant, they had a magician coming round to entertain us as well as a face painter and a balloon modeller (or is that modelist - I'm sure you know what I mean!!). The people calling in were lovely and so generous. The running total for our call centre when I left was over £62,000! The time flew by and I didn't really want to go home but I knew I had to because I had such a busy day planned for Saturday.

I was up quite early on Saturday morning to get sorted for my trip to London. My friend and I go twice a year to see a show for each other's birthday. She organises the trip when it's for my birthday and I organise it when it's for hers. It is quite a little ritual now! Whoever organises it doesn't tell the other one what they are going to see until we are on the coach. When we get to London, we take a taxi to the theatre and then find a restaurant as nearby as we can and have a long, leisurely lunch. After the show, if time permits, we have a quick coffee before heading back to get the coach. The coach leaves Bristol at 9.10am and gets us back for 8.45pm which is just long enough. It was my turn to organise this trip!

Yesterday, went very smoothly indeed. We got to our stop in London at 11.30 and were at the theatre by 11.50! Fortunately for us, there was a Garfunkels restaurant just two doors down from the theatre. I love Garfunkels because there is such a variety of choice on the menu. I had an omelette which I knew would be 'band-friendly', followed by an ice cream sundae which I also knew would be 'band-friendly'. I also had a nice large glass of rose!! Am definitely getting some fierce restriction at the moment because that was all I could eat all day!!

The Sound of Music was brilliant!! I was a bit apprehensive because it is such an iconic film and I've felt a little let down when we've seen other shows that have been based on well-loved films. We saw Mary Poppins (one of my all time favourites) and both found it quite dark and very different to the original. We also saw Dirty Dancing (who doesn't love that film?!!) and it kept so closely to the original film script that it just didn't feel right, you were aware that they were following a script - also the guy playing the Patrick Swayze role just couldn't fill his shoes, I spent most of the show thinking 'why on earth would she fancy him?'!!

Anyway, the Sound of Music avoids these pitfalls.

**** The following paragraph contains spoilers for anyone going to see the show****

The show is fresh and vibrant. It sticks fairly closely to the original story but due to time contraints it obviously has to be condensed down a bit. This is done very well. The script is not identical to the film and there are three new songs which kept it fresh. The children were fantastic. My only gripes (and I concede that I'm probably being a bit picky) were, Simon McCorkindale is a bit too old to play the captain, Summer Strallen played it for laughs a bit too much (but that is probably how it has been scripted and once I got past that it didn't annoy me so much) and they changed the reason for the captain's engagement to the baronness being called off and more or less implied it was due to her policital view not being in line with his rather than that he was in love with Maria. Having said that, I really enjoyed the show and it brought a tear to my eye on more than one occasion which, as a hardened Sound of Music viewer, I didn't expect! If you want to see a great show in London, I would thoroughly recommend it.

My boyfriend is coming over later and I've stupidly told him I will cook a roast dinner. I have all the food in but I am too tired at the moment - guess we'll be eating late today!!

Taking things cautiously!

Well, it has been a strange week, I have been careful about how much I have eaten and how I have eaten it. The restriction seems to have kicked back in - either that or I have learned to listen to it more carefully!

We went out to lunch at work today, I didn't realise until it was too late that we were sitting at the opposite end of the bar to the toilets and I was trapped in the corner!! We've just had a restructure at work and my new boss was taking us out so I definitely did not want to throw up on him!!! I ordered a fishcake as I know these tend to go down quite well. I managed to cope without throwing up although I couldn't eat the whole fishcake and I left about half of the chips - better that than chucking up on my new boss!

The scales are down a pound, slowly slowly!!!

I am one of a team manning the South West phone line for Children in Need tomorrow night - my company are providing the lines, then I am in London on Saturday with a friend to see the Sound of Music. I'm really looking forward to the weekend - will tell you more about it in my next post but I'm not sure when that might be yet!

Mortified ...

Well, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. The band has put me firmly in my place and caused me extreme embarrassment to boot!

To be honest, I've been cruising for this for some time. I haven't been feeling much restriction of late and was becoming a bit nonchalant about the whole band business. I was eating pretty much what I wanted and taking normal sized bites at that.

Tonight, my boyfriend and I went to see Quantum of Solace and then for a bite to eat afterwards. We went to TGI Friday's (not sure I can ever show my face there again!) as it was next to the cinema. Now, I was hungry before we got there and we did have to wait ages for our food which may have had an impact on events. I ordered chicken fingers and chips which I knew would probably fill me up quite quickly. When they finally arrived, I tucked in with gay abandon - foolish woman!! I managed one chicken finger before I knew I was in terrible trouble. It got stuck, I thought I would be okay if I could burp - usually that will ease things and I can continue. I was in total agony, I managed a few burps and thought it was going to pass but then the pain came back with a vengance and I became very scared. Unfortunately, we were just about as far from the toilets as you could get and I was scared that if I tried to get up and walk I would throw up everywhere. We were in a fairly quiet corner with not many people around (thank heavens for small mercies!) so I thought I'll just sit here and hope it passes. Fortunately, I had a napkin in my hand (and it was a decent strength one at that!!) because another burp came very quickly and, before I knew what was happening, I had brought up the food and a load of slime. Luckily, it went straight into the napkin and I don't think anyone on the nearby tables was any the wiser. I had a few more smaller napkin fulls before I was finished. I was mortified. Not only did I have to leave a virtually untouched plate of food but I had to leave a massive wad of slime filled napkins. Full marks to TGI's, the waiter was lovely and even took my food off the bill without asking - I was too mortified to admit what had caused it, although I did make it clear that it was me and not the food!

My boyfriend was an angel and didn't blink an eye. In fact, he drove me home - I was supposed to be dropping him off at the train station to go home.

Once again, the band reigns supreme and I have learnt a number of things:

1. Make careful choices from the menu
2. Always have a wad of good quality napkins to hand
   
3. Chew, chew, chew and chew some more
4. Always get a table near the toilets!

I've only just shifted the heavy feeling in my chest and I am beginning to feel hungry (everything I ate ended up in the napkin!) but I daren't touch a thing.

I realise I am going to have to show this band some more respect if I don't want to be banned from every restaurant in Bristol!!!

STRESS!!!!!

Sorry for the lack of posting this week - as you might guess from the title, it has been a stressful week for me!

I work as an HR Consultant for a large company, we give managers advice on how to manage their staff - usually when they have done something wrong! We advise on disciplinaries, grievances, capability issues, ill health - the works! My job, in a nutshell, is to protect the company from tribunal claims by making sure the managers follow the correct process when managing staff. Usually, it isn't particularly stressful but this week it was! I have to add that when it gets stressful it is usually down to the manager not wanting to take my advice because they want to get rid of someone without having to take the time and effort to do it properly.

The case that stressed me out the most this week is a very unusual one. For obvious reasons, I can't give much detail, but I will say the manager involved has been putting the employee's interests before the company's in a very misguided manner. This employee is likely to end up taking the company to tribunal and because of the manager's behaviour will have a much stronger case. He is likely to claim discrimination on the grounds of his disability and could cost the company tens of thousands of pounds plus reputational damage. Fortunately, I have been taking advice from our legal department in managing it all along and it has now been handed to them completely to manage, so I am confident that I haven't made the situation worse but it has been horrible case to manage. We have tried to do everything we can to support this employee but he and his manager have played games and twisted everything we've said in an effort to squeeze more and more out of the company - ohhh it makes me mad, particularly as a disabled person myself who doesn't see my disability as a meal-ticket!!!!!

Things got particularly stressful on Thursday and it was so interesting as it was my first really horrible day since getting my band. My natural reaction was to go and buy a bar of chocolate but when I thought about it I knew my band was feeling abnormally tight and it wouldn't go down so I didn't bother. We had a team night out that night as well and I was not able to eat much of my lasagne either.

Weight hasn't been fantastic this week. I stayed the same again although it did vary during the week. Still it is THAT time of the month and my system has been a bit sluggish lately - if you know what I mean - suffice it to say I'm on the Fybogel and prune juice!!!!

Just checking in!

Nothing much to report today. I've had a fairly quiet week at work so far. My cold is clinging on for dear life - I've never had one hang about for so long!

I got a letter yesterday, inviting me to a Christmas drinks party at the Spire hospital on 10th December, from the Avon Obesity Service - should be interesting. My boyfriend can't understand why I'd go! I'm really looking forward to it - I'll get to meet some other bandits!

Nice weekend!

Apologies for the absence - I've had one of those weekends which was meant to be quiet and then turned out anything but!!!

Friday night was fairly quiet but Saturday went by in a bit of a blurr! I had my legs waxed in the morning and the place I go to for that is a 10 mile drive each way - I know that is daft but I feel comfortable with the girl who does it and the salon is in a lovely town which has a great shopping centre. When I got back, my cousin was here and we had arranged to go to lunch. We went to a lovely pub and had a good old natter. Neither of us wanted a huge amount to eat as we both had plans for the evening but we both got more than we bargained for! He ordered a sandwich with chips which turned out to be of doorstop proportions! I knew I couldn't manage a sandwich so I ordered a starter of spicy meatballs. They came on a huge slice of garlic bread and smothered in tomato sauce and cheese. I just ate the meatballs and left the garlic bread - my cousin doesn't know about the band and he would have worried if I'd had to run off to the toilet with my hand over my mouth!

After lunch I drove over to my boyfriend's as we had made arrangements to see some friends for the evening. These are the friends who got us together. They have the most gorgeous daughter who is 15 months old and just so charming! We had a lovely meal with them - we had pumpkin pie for dessert which I've never had before, it was nicer than I expected.

Today we went out for lunch with one of my boyfriend's cousins and her husband. I've only met them a couple of times and never really had much time to chat to them so it was really lovely to get the chance to get to know them better.

So, I've had quite a busy time foodwise. I can seem to eat quite a bit but I am sticking to the decision I made on Thursday regarding bands - I don't want to have a totally miserable Christmas!

It was my nephew's 13th birthday today - where on earth have those years gone?!! They live Oz so I had to phone him to wish him happy returns of the day. What is it with boys of that age - his sister is 11 and chatted away to me 19 to the dozen, he made some effort to talk but was clearly distracted (by his computer game I later heard from his sister - isn't sisterly love great?!!). I guess now he's a teenager I can't expect much more but I miss the chatty little boy he used to be. I know his sister may go that way as well once those hormones kick in but she is such a delight, you can have a totally adult conversation with her. That sounds like my nephew isn't a delight - he is a really lovely boy and wasn't rude in anyway, he just clearly had more important things on his mind! Truth is, I miss them terribly! I haven't seen them for nearly three years and I'm not sure when I will see them next. I also worry that when I do, it will be far too tiresome for them to spend time with their dippy aunt!!