I finally got round to taking both my wedding and engagement rings in to be re-sized at the jewelers in town and I am over the moon! They both have been re-sized FOUR sizes smaller than their original size. How happy am I?
That’s definitely what I’d call a NSV (Non-scale victory)
Sometimes it’s the small things that remind me how well I am actually doing despite the blips along the way
I have to admit that we haven’t actually done a meal plan for this week. It’s half term (hubby’s off for a week and I’ve got 3 days annual leave) and as we haven’t got much planned we’re kind of taking the week as it comes. We’ve got the essentials in like milk and bread and we still have fruit and yoghurt in supply from last week. We do have a freezer full of food but not necessarily food that goes together. We have things like Warburtons square wraps, fish fingers, frozen veg and frozen fruit for smoothies along with the odd 100g of pork mince and a couple of full fat sausages.
For the first time ever we have taken advantage of the Marks and Spencer’s Dine in for 2 for £20 offer for Valentines night. We’ve treated ourselves to the 3 course meal as it’s a good selection of food we wouldn’t normally eat and cheaper than going to an overpriced restaurant where we don’t feel comfortable. We’ve chosen Gastropub Camembert With Chutney for starters, The Cook Menu Rump Steak with Peppercorn Sauce, Fresh Chips and Green Pea, Bean and Vegetable Layer for our main (we added the veg outside of the offer) and we have 2 Chocolate Melting Middle puddings for dessert. Also included in the offer is a bottle of Prestige Rosado Cava and a small box of chocolates. Sounds good doesn’t it? (Please note this isn’t a sponsored post!)
Depsite the lack of content in the cupboards my ideas for meals this week include:
- Sweet and sour chicken with rice
- Oven baked fish and chips with mushy peas
- Ready meal from freezer with additional vegetables (I’ve got a WW Chicken Casserole & hubby has a Tesco Sunday Roast special)
- Chilli meatballs and rice
- Turkey, pepper and pasta bake (WW recipe)
Breakfasts will be Alpen Porridge and fruit or 30g granola with yoghurt and fruit.
Lunches will include ham salad pittas, Zero Propoint vegetable soup or vegetable risotto.
For more interesting meal plans head on over to Mrs M’s blog as our meal plans are quite boring this week. Normal service will resume next week as we’re back to normal and back to work! Hoorah!
Hello 5 whole days off work, no early morning wrestles with the alarm clock, no battling with other cars on the hard shoulder on the M6 , it’s the weekend and the start of half term!
I’ve got a few things planned but mostly I want to relax, chill out and enjoy my time off. I’d like to do some baking, a bit of sewing and I really want to do some cross stitch. I’ve seen a few patterns I’d like to stitch so I might have a look into those. I’d like to try and get to the gym at some point as well. I’ve deserted the gym of late and really need to get back into exercise. I’ve got my Zumbathon coming up and I think it’s going to be tough! Best get my bum into gear this weekend and get the wii out.
Enjoy your weekend
I can now come clean and let you all know where I’ve been for the past two weeks…Yep, Jury Service. I’d have been in contempt of court if I’d mentioned anything about my service so it was best to keep schtum until it was all over. I’m so relieved that today I’ve now finished my service and I’m ‘free’ to get back to normal.
I’d originally been summoned in June of last year but was able to defer it due to a pre-booked holiday and my employer wrote a letter to say it was inconvenient timing (mid Summer in schools is quite possibly the busiest time of year!) and asked for my service to be deferred. They gave me the all clear and would contact me within 12 months to let me know when I would be called up again.
Well the summons arrived late September and I was to appear for service at the end of January in the new year. I was gutted. I’m not so naive that I don’t know horrible things happen in my local area but I’d rather not know the details of them to be honest else I’d be living in fear for the rest of my life. I’m not one to watch CSI or NCIS as I do have an over active imagination, I’d never get any sleep if I watched those kind of programmes. So apprehensively, I got ready to serve my summons and do my public duty.
I arrived for my first day of service at 9am at the Crown Court and had to go through various security checks. I was then allowed access to the Jury Service room. Only jurors were allowed in here and it had its own catering facilities, toilets and even a pool table. We were entitled to a daily smart card with £5.71 allowance on and we could use that for drinks, breakfast, snacks and lunch. A bog standard coffee was £1.50 so it was easier for me to bring my own lunch and use my smart card for my drinks throughout the day. The best bit is that anything you don’t spend per day is credited to your bank account at the end of your service so I might actually get a bit back as I didn’t use much!
It is boring waiting around for a trial but to be honest, once you’ve been selected (at random) and you’ve taken the oath (this is the part I was most scared of!), it is actually quite interesting. The barristers like to try and outwit each other and use mind games to try and get you (the jury) to think what they would like you to think. I didn’t like any of them to be honest. You get to see the evidence (photo’s, witness statements, police interviews the lot) so you’re able to make your mind up based on the evidence provided.
The court staff are very friendly. You get a tour of the courts so you’re aware of what one looks like should you be called up and if you are called up you’re introduced to the judge, the clerk and the usher so it’s not too daunting.
I’m not going to go into much detail about what trials I sat on but all I will say is that justice was served. My first trial was at a Magistrates Court (with old wooden paneling and stained glass windows) and my second was at a new modern Crown Court. We (as a jury) delivered both types of verdict; one guilty and one non-guilty verdict. I’ve got to say that the ‘guilty’ verdict was horrible but there was clear evidence and the defendant was a bit of a troublemaker and didn’t do themselves any favours. The ‘not guilty’ verdict was given to an innocent man who was defending himself against a couple of chavs who alleged that the defendant had beaten one of them up. I never imagined I would get so involved in a case but once we had deliberated we knew he was innocent and was able to deliver the ‘not guilty’ verdict. I was so relieved and actually sobbed once the defendant was allowed to walk free out of court (he also thanked the judge and jury and said he was grateful.) It’s horrible to see a genuinely nice man giving his all to prove his innocence to look after his family. There are some horrible nasty people in this world and unfortunately they don’t a shit about causing other people grief alleging all sorts to cover their own criminal acts!
Luckily for me, I didn’t have to sit on a lengthy trial. We were asked about our availability for a trial that was likely to last 4 weeks and we would only be excused from sitting on a trial if we had a pre-booked holiday or hospital appointment. So if you’re called, you’re called and there’s not much you can do about it. I can thank my lucky stars that the only trials I heard were about alleged robbery, grievous bodily harm and actual bodily harm. I’m not sure I could of handled anything worse.
When I rang the juror line this evening (if you’re not on a current trial, you have to ring every evening after 5pm to find out what time you’re needed the next day), I was told my service had now ended and I was no longer required. I’m glad for it to be over. I’ve been part of a jury that has delivered two different verdicts and saw first hand what happens in trials at both Magistrates and Crown courts. I’m happy to have done my duty and hope I’m not called up again, ever!
Achieve 50lb loss: Done 10/08/2011
Lose 4 stone (56lb): Done 01/11/2011
Lose 4.5 stone (63lb)
Lose 5 stone (70lb)
Achieve 75lb loss
Lose 5.5 stone (77lb)
Lose 6 stone (84lb)
Began WW for last time on: 06/01/2011
1st stone gone by: 23/02/2011
2nd stone gone by: 14/04/2011
3rd stone gone by: 29/06/2011
4th stone gone by: 01/11/2011
5th stone gone by:
Total weightloss so far: 58lb (21.02.2012)
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Mission Zumbathon 2012: complete
I am pleased to report that I have spent the afternoon in good company and being just a tad bit active, mission Zumbathon is complete!
The girls ready for Zumba!
Today I joined my friends Sarah and Tresa with a few other lovely ladies in a 3 hour zumbathon raising cash for Beacon Centre For The Blind. Sarah’s daughter uses the Centre and as a way of thanking her for her fantastic support during the last year, I signed up to wiggle my booty for a few hours in aid of a very good cause.
The music started and so did the dodgy dance moves (from me, that is!) It was a very high impact session with lots of totally difference music tracks to what we are used too so it was mostly a case of joining in where I could and following the dance routines as best as I could.
It was a good 3 hours, after an hour we were hot, sweaty and in disbelief that we’d only been dancing for an hour. After 2 hours we were still hot, very sweaty and pleased we only had an hour to go and at 3 hours we were delighted to have finished. It’s wasn’t easy and I ache a bit now.
Here’s a totally unattractive photo of me just after we had finished. I drank 4 bottles of water and had a very quick ‘comfort’ break.
So, there we go who’d have thought that 6olb down and I could Zumba for 3 hours! Certainly not me, that’s for sure.
If you’d like to help me raise as much cash as possible, you can donate completely securely here and every penny will be put to the best possible use helping families across the Midlands with the one thing we all take for granted, our sight!
I’ve had my bath, a brew and my Chicken Chow Mein is order and I do believe that my mission is complete!
Also filed under: Weightloss |