Happy New Year

Just a quick post to wish you a Happy New Year.

I hope you are all seeing the New Year in with the ones you love and I wish you all the very best for 2009.

Here's to a happy, healthy, skinny New Year!!!

Christmas is officially over!

Bertie's band amnesty is over, he hasn't let me eat much today! All I've managed is a chicken lasagne and I struggled with that. I appear to have lost another pound of my excess weight so am now only a pound over what I was before Christmas - I haven't really done anything specific to do it so I'll have to give the credit to Bertie!

I'm back to work tomorrow, I don't expect it will be too busy. Well, lets hope not as I am the only one in on my team! I'm going in for 8.30 and plan to get away by 3.30 if possible so shouldn't be too bad.

I'll come home to collect my stuff and the dog and then I'm off to my boyfriends. We're going to see the New Year in with some friends but it won't be a wild night as my boyfriend has to be in work early on New Year's Day. We're meeting up with some of his friends on New Year's night.

The mortgage company have acknowledged receipt of our application and say it will take 10-12 weeks to process!! I think I will be annoying them a lot!!

Another step closer ...

The mortgage application is finally off my dining table and is winging it's way to the mortgage company as I speak. I am feeling very excited as we have now done everything we can to move things forward and we just have to wait for the bank to do their thing - I will be hassling them until it's done!!

Bertie has drawn the line today and said enough is enough - I haven't been able to eat much at all. I haven't felt hungry either so that is fine. Might get some of those extra pounds off - one had already gone this morning so only two to go!

Tomorrow is my last day of holiday, I'm back in work on Wednesday - that time has really flown! It will be quite nice to get back in to routine (if I keep saying that, I might start to believe it!!!).

I'm back!!!

Well, all the presents have been opened, the turkey has been eaten and the wine has been drunk!!! I've had a lovely Christmas, although it has all gone by in a flash!

We had a really nice meal with my boyfriend's parents on Christmas Eve. We left in time to get home for Gavin and Stacey. Christmas Day was a bit frantic! I'd promised to do the roast potatoes for dinner and also to steam the Christmas pudding. I know it doesn't sound like much but the problem was getting the timing right. I think I did the potatoes too early and they had to hang around while we ate our starters so they weren't as crispy as I normally get them but everyone else said they were fine. The rest of the time has been spent just chilling out.

Bertie has been very good to me over the festive period - he's allowed my to enjoy my Christmas without going too mad. I think I have put on a few pounds but I have enjoyed myself and I will work on those in January. The idea of the band is that I eat like a 'normal' person and 'normal' people will put on a few pounds over Christmas, the difference for me now is that once I go back to reality (ie not eating crap) it will work off which is what happens for 'normal' people - well, that's my theory anyway!! I have quite a lot of chocolates in the house at the moment, which I am going to give to my mum to take in to the nursing home where she does voluntary work. They can either give them to the residents or save them for a raffle.

The good news is that I found my P60 on Christmas Eve - when I was looking for something else! I will be posting off the mortgage application tomorrow - whohoo, things are moving on!!

Time to relax!

Not being too smug but I have now wrapped all my presents (although I still have one or two to wrap on behalf of my dad and boyfriend - MEN!!!) and I am ready for Christmas! Tomorrow I need to go and get petrol as the light has come on and I want to pop over and see a couple of friends. Then we are going to see my boyfriends parents for tea - I've agreed to drive so I'll be glad to get home and have a glass of Christmas cheer!! I love it on a Christmas Eve night when everything is done and you can relax and look forward to Christmas Day!

We've had a really busy day today, the mortgage application form finally arrived. So it has been completed and is ready to be posted on Monday. I got massively frustrated with banks today ... we are getting our mortgage with my boyfriend's current bank. As I am new to the bank, I have to produce certain documentation for the mortgage, one piece of which is my last P60 which I cannot for the life of me find. I have been stressing about this so I made him ring them today to let them know. He did the security check and told them the problem, he then handed the phone to me and I talked to her as I had a few slight problems with the other documents which we sorted out. I then mentioned the P60 and she said she had given the advice to my boyfriend and because I wasn't the customer she couldn't tell me! There was no way she was going to tell me so I handed the phone back to my boyfriend who put it on speakerphone and asked her to repeat the advice which was they don't need the P60!!! I mean - why couldn't she tell me that, it would hardly have broken the Data Protection Act!!!

I then had a run in with my own bank ... one of the other pieces of documentation is my last three bank statements. The problem is, I have gone to paperless banking (after constant pressure from the bank to do so!) and the mortgage bank want originals. I rang my branch to ask them to let me have copies and was told not only will it take 14 working days but will cost me £5. I was livid, I cancelled my paper statements after being constantly badgered to do so by the bank. This obviously saves them time and money in sending them out and now that I need original copies they want to charge me for something I would have got for free!!! So, I asked for the latest statement which they will send for free and advised them that I would be switching back to having paper statements (which I have done!). I've printed off the latest three statements from my online banking page and hope that will be sufficient for the mortgage bank, otherwise I will have to stomach the £5 - but it's the principle of the matter which makes me soooooo mad!!!

Sorry - that turned in to a massive rant, it wasn't intended to be one but banks do drive me mad!!!

We also got to the solicitors to produce our proofs of identity. So,even though I've ranted, I'm very pleased as I feel that things are finally moving forward. It's a shame that everything is going to stop now for Christmas but it is Christmas so I'm going to enjoy it in the knowledge that things are happening and, hopefully, we will have our house very soon in the New Year!!

I'm feeling very tired, I hardly slept last night. I seem to have developed a very irritating cough which seems to come into its own once I lie down. I kept coughing last night which drove my boyfriend mad (not to mention me!!). I'm hoping that it will be better tonight and I can get a decent night's sleep.

I'm not sure if I will get to post again before the big day so I am going to wish you all lots of love and happiness over the next few days. Have fun, whatever you are doing. I will post again as soon as I can.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Just a quick post!

Phew - only just got a few minutes to post a quick post!

It really is the Christmas buzz at the moment! We had a big family meal out yesterday. It is a family tradition of ours that we go out the last Sunday before Christmas. I was a bit nervous as Bertie has been a bit strictly lately but, bless him, he must be going soft for Christmas. He let me eat all my meal without any fight. I didn't go too mad, I didn't eat anything else all day and I haven't managed to eat too much today either but that is fine, it was yesterday that mattered!

Anyway, I'm off to my boyfriend's now, I hope to get a chance to post again tomorrow! Hope you are having fun wherever you are!

Another week over!

It's been a funny week! I finished work on Wednesday and was soooo glad to walk out at 3.30 (I absolutely love flexitime!!). My boyfriend was waiting for me when I got home and we had a nice cosy night in front of the telly.

It was his birthday yesterday, we had a cooked breakfast with my parents - Bertie would only let me have half a sausage, a spoon of baked beans, a rasher of bacon and half an egg (actually that sounds like quite a lot!!). Then we went for another viewing at the house with both our parents (who hadn't met before). We've got lots of ideas on what we want to do with the house - it is really exciting! I then took my dad shopping to get my mum's Christmas present. I'm so excited because we've got her a laptop which I know she is going to absolutely LOVE!!

Then we all went back to my boyfriend's parents as we were going out for an Indian meal. My parents are really not in to curry but they were brilliant and did their best! The meal was lovely and the parents seemed to get on well.

Today, my boyfriend and I spent some time shredding paperwork and clearing my attic room and then took a trip to the tip - it feels so great to de-clutter and good to do it before we move.

He's gone home tonight as he is going out with a mate for a Christmas drink and possibly another curry - glad we're not sharing a bed tonight!! He'll be back over tomorrow and we're out with the family for a Christmas meal on Sunday - PHEW, this Christmas lark is exhausting!!

My weight is a bit wobbly, looks like I've gone up a pound in the last day or so. I'm not worrying, it is Christmas, normally I would have been putting on loads of weight now so I will chill and see how things are afterwards. Bertie is so tight at the moment, I don't think it is likely that I will be able to do a lot of damage with food (the wine might be another matter though!!).

I will post again when I can!

Next few weeks...

It's my last day at work today until New Years Eve.

My boyfriend is coming over tonight and I think we will be together pretty much most of that time as he is off as well. This means that I may not be able to post much over the next week or two. I will post when I can but they will probably be short and sweet!

Where did the weekend go?!!

It seems to be a recurring theme lately but I've been so busy, I don't know where the time has gone!

I was exhausted on Friday, I got in to work and I was supposed to be covering until 4.30 but my boss took one look at me and said she would cover it and I could go home earlier if I wanted - which was really nice of her. I managed to get away by 3.45 which was great. My boyfriend caught the train over and met me at work and we had a lovely evening just chilling out with a glass of wine.

On Saturday we saw the financial consultant who was great - he's told us that we will have no problem getting a mortgage. We then took my parents across to see the house from the outside. My dad is a retired builder so it meant a lot to us to have his opinion on the house. He was really impressed with it and couldn't see any obvious problems with it. We also took the dog, who ran around the garden like she owned it already - she even marked a few spots, bless!!

We spent the evening with some friends watching the X Factor final with an Indian take away. I need to get it in to my head that I can't eat the same quantities and that I would be better just having some of someone elses meal - not my boyfriend who likes his curry the hotter the better! He was driving so it was lovely to let my hair down. I only managed about a third of my curry and I was stuffed to the gills!

On Sunday we had my boyfriend's parents over for lunch. Then his brother and his wife and little girl came over. It was very busy but I enjoyed having them all over. The poor dog was quite bewildered by it all in the end - she's not used to lively four year olds! It was nice when they had all gone and we could curl up on the sofa and watch TV. It will be so nice when we live together and one of us hasn't got to drive home on a Sunday night.

I'm really not able to eat much at all at the moment which is good. I'm sure I won't be able to do too much damage over Christmas although all the naughty stuff seems to go down fairly well, so I'll still have to be fairly careful.

Only two more days in work and then I'm finished for Christmas - can't wait!! I'm off until New Year's Eve which is such a treat, last year I was still working at 4.15 on Christmas Eve - that is just one of the reasons why I have a new job this year!!

Stunned!!!

Well, it has been an interesting 48 hours!!!!

Our offer on the house has been accepted and we are proceeding with the purchase! We are both so excited I don't think either of us has slept in the last three days! The house is amazing, it needs some work doing on it but we can take our time and do it properly. Once it is finished we are going to have a wonderful home. We just need to get everything sorted out now. I am such a worrier, I'm sure I won't sleep properly now until it is all signed and sealed! We've now got our solicitor appointed so it somehow seems more serious.

I had a busy day in London yesterday. I managed to get up at 5.30 which was an amazing feat in itself! It was absolutely freezing when I left the house at 6.15. It was still dark when the train left at 7. The meeting went well, I found out at lunchtime that our offer had been accepted and I must confess I don't think my mind was on the meeting for the rest of the day!

I got back to Bristol in time to attend the Avon Obesity Service Christmas drinks do! It was great to meet people who were at varying stages of the process. I must say Hi to Elaine who I met and I know reads this blog - you are a real inspiration Elaine. I hope I'm looking as good as you this time next year!

The other bit of fantastic news is that I managed to lose 3lbs this week, I'm not quite sure how - I'm sticking by my coffee theory - but I'm totally delighted. That is 22lbs altogether. I did say early on that I was hoping for 3 stone by Christmas. I realise now that was totally naive but I can proudly say I got over halfway there and who knows where I might be this time next year - I just hope, wherever it is, I am wearing a pair of skinny jeans!!

It's just non-stop!!!

Had such a busy day today. I had loads of plans for work tomorrow and I got in today to find I have to attend an all day meeting in London instead. So I've been manically trying to rearrange my work plans and get my travel plans organised. Can't believe I have to catch the 7am train tomorrow - gonna have to get up at 5.30 and I am not a morning person!!

I am so excited, my boyfriend and I viewed a house this evening which we are both totally in love with. It is absolutely gorgeous - although it needs a lot of work doing to it, only cosmetic though. We've put an offer in and are now waiting to see if it will be accepted - I am so anxious I can hardly breathe!!

Haven't had time to think about food!!!

My little theory!

My weight seems to have suddenly kick started itself and I'm not sure why.

It isn't earth shattering or anything but it seems to be a steady pound a week at the moment which is fine. I couldn't think of anything I'd done differently until this morning at work. I stopped drinking coffee back in the summer after I felt sick when I'd had two in quick succession. Recently, I've started having a skinny latte in the morning when I haven't managed breakfast and it is since around this time that I've noticed my weight starting to move.

I'm wondering whether there is any connection ... anyone out there know if this is likely?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

I am now in full-on Christmas mode!

The tree is up, after a lot of huffing and puffing! It fell over twice and did not want to sit in the stand properly at all. We finally got it in there and managed to ease it into the corner and no one is touching it again now! We went to a farm in South Wales to get it and it was so idyllic - there were geese and turkeys in the barn - we agreed that neither of us would mention cranberry sauce when we got out of the car! We bought it yesterday but were too busy/tired to put it up last night so we left it out in the garden over night. This morning it was covered in frost, it was so pretty.

I thought I would surprise my boyfriend on Friday, he was going out for a curry with the lads and then was going to go gliding on Saturday and come over here on Saturday evening. I thought I was seeing my cousin and his family with my parents but I'd got it wrong and ended up with nothing on so I thought I'd drive over to spend the night at my boyfriends. So, I drove over to his, 40 miles and one hour later I got to his house, put the telly on and had a cup of tea. Half an hour later, my mobile went. It was him asking where was I as he'd phoned my house and my mother's and I wasn't there. Anyway, after a few minutes, it turned out that I was at his house and he was at my house - he'd wanted to surprise me too!!

I had a lovely day in Lytham on Thursday - we didn't even see any snow (apart from some on the hills in the distance when we were on the M6). The only problem was the cava was flowing freely but it was too fizzy for me to even think about risking a glass. We didn't get home until 9.30 and I was shattered the next day - which turned out to be a day from hell!

I'm not really looking forward to going in to work tomorrow but this is my last full week before Christmas as I finish on 17th and I can't wait!

The weight seems to be coming off at the moment, although I'm not aware that I'm doing anything different. I stood on the scales this morning and I'd gone down another pound and it was teetering on the next one. I know this could change before my 'official' weigh in but it makes me feel great! My family have commented that my bum is looking smaller which is always nice to hear!

Whohoo!

I am amazed!!!

For some unexplained reason, I have lost another pound this week - I even did a little dance when I got off the scales because I really don't know how that worked but I am really chuffed.

Bertie is the MAN!!!!

I'm off to Lytham for the day, here's hoping we don't get snowed in!!

Macaroni cheese

I am sitting here, next to a plate of cold macaroni cheese.

I was really enjoying it but Bertie decided enough was enough and stopped me half way through - he was quite forceful, he used the slime technique which is a bit mean. For any non-bandits, this is when your mouth starts to fill with slime and you are scared that you will get a PB, which is a productive burp which I probably don't have to explain but it is when you bring it all back up again!

Still, in the current climes it is good to know that a supermarket ready meal actually lasts for two meals now - I shall be taking the remainder to work tomorrow for lunch!

I am now over the present packing stress - the parcels are winging their merry way to Australia which is always a relief. My next test of stamina was to buy the Christmas wine - this is my traditional contribution to the family festivities. If anyone breaks into my garage in the next few weeks they will be able to have a fab party, there are 12 bottles of wine, two tins of M&S biscuits and two tins of Celebrations...ah, but I'm not telling you were the garage is though!!!!

The joy of Christmas!

It is only 1st December and I am already at screaming point!!!

I do love Christmas, I am a real kid at heart but I hate all the faff involved! I had a tough day at work today because I was out of the office for the last three working days either delivering or receiving training so I had a lot of catching up to do. I had to attend a meeting at 4pm and then typed the notes up before I left so didn't leave the office til 5.30 and then had the drive home from hell - having to stop to get petrol in the freeeeezing cold on the way. So how did I relax? I wrapped all the presents for Australia and then spent an hour with my mother packing and repacking boxes to get the optimum weight in each one - on the third time of repacking my patience was wearing thin. Then after we'd taped the boxes up so that no-one was getting in them until 2011, my mum decided that one wasn't packed well enough as things were sliding around inside it so we had to slice the tape open to pack it more securely and then tape it somemore!!!! I think we were both sick to death of Christmas by the time we'd finished!!!

There are times when only a chocolate biscuit will do and I don't care what Bertie thinks, it's going down!!!!! Bah humbug!!

PS - normal service will be resumed, probably tomorrow!!!