My Long and Bumpy Journey

Hi all,

This blog will be continued on my other site:

http://ukladyluck1.piczo.com

that I'm happy with my lot at the moment.

Money's tight (not unusual), we're barely keeping up with the bills, but we have what we need to live on which is enough. 

To add to our 'problems' my favourite pub has re-opened with a great landlord and the local fish shop just down the road (like 5 minutes away) has just decided to change over to mainly marine fish - go Sean!  Every spare penny goes to both of these places now lol!

My weight. 

Figured out that it's only since I stopped going to the pub before Christmas that I started gaining the weight back.  Since my pub opened up again 3 weeks ago, I've lost 6lbs without changing my diet at all.  The only reason that I can think of is that I barely eat on the day I'm going out (just enough to stop hunger pains, otherwise I'm sick) and don't get up until about 2pm on the following day (sleep off the hangover, hehe), then only have a light meal that day too. 

I drink loads of water in the pub (whisky & diet coke in one hand, pint of water in the other!) and lots the day after as well.  Jeez, if I could do that every other day I'd be skinny as a rake!  Well, I can dream can't I?!?!

Need to concentrate on losing the rest now (bout 9lbs) by the time I go to my sisters on June 20th. 

Told my brother that I'd of given up smoking by then too (he gave up about 4 months ago - doing great Frank) but I think it's his fault that I haven't. 

When we were at the wedding in November he told me that 50% of people that died from heart attacks or strokes had never smoked.  Damned if I can find any evidence against that statement either!  So now the thinking is 'why should I then?'.  Stupid, I know.  Come on people, tell me it's stupid - I need to stop.

Bailey is still going great guns at school - she tells us she has a science test tomorrow and she said it as if it was an everyday thing.  Hope she stays that way when she realises that these 'tests' are really quite important when she's older.

She accidentally bumped into her mum a few weeks back while she was out with her auntie Teresa.  Freaked her out a bit I think as she was meant to be staying at Teresa's flat that night but wanted to come home instead. 

Took me, Teresa and Teresa's flatmate Karla about an hour to persuade her that her mum never knew where her auntie lived so in the end she toddled off with her quite happily.

What surprises me most is that Stephanie (mum) hasn't tried to make contact with her at all since then (she knows she has no access) and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if she turned up on the doorstep. 

Oh well, no point in worrying about that, I'll deal with when or if it happens. 

Can't be doing with with worrying about every little thing - leads to an early grave! 

Seems I've been neglecting this bit of my site recently - sorry!

Also been neglecting the diet a bit since Christmas as I'm a bit heavier than I like to be.  I started to lose the weight again but then my doctor had a go at me about my diabetes, so I had to start taking my insulin properly again and not just playing at it!  As most diabetics know, when you take insulin you have to eat regularly - soooooo not fair lol!  Never mind, just getting my head round that AND dieting together now, so watch this space - or shall I make a 3rd weightloss page??

Went to my nieces wedding in November as Bailey was a bridesmaid (I woulda gone even if she wasn't tho!) and my brother actually said "wow, you've lost some weight now!".  'Bout flipping time he mentioned it too, only taken him 2 years!

Now I have to get back to my gold weight cos I'll be seeing him at my sisters 50th birthday in June.  Rebecca, her daughter & my niece is also pregnant now so I'm gonna be a great aunt in September too.  I remember saying to my sister that great aunt sounds so much older than grandmother, and I know exactly what she'll be saying back to me when I see her, lol!

Bailey's getting on really well at school, reading and writing.  Today she turned a purple potion blue and made a blue flame yellow.  I said to her & Mark that letting a bunch of 5 year olds play with bunsen burners is asking for trouble.  Bailey said "yep, if I don't like the school one day, I can burn it down!"  Out of the mouths of babes eh.............

Hi everyone.

To those of you who have suggested various things for this site (thank you one and all), the good news is that I will be reomoving all references to the slimming group that can't be mentioned - from here on in it will be known as a World Wide slimming club!

The points will be changed to 'my values' and I am NOT going down without a fight!

I'll still be sending out the updated excel sheet (plus there'll be an added sheet which I can't mention here as I don't know who's reading this), as it will take me quite a while to get all the NV's from the various sites (yes, they'll be displayed as well- never thought to save them, silly me!).  A few things may only be available by email, but that'll only be the stuff that is directly copied from 'that site' or the other book), you'll see which ones as the site progresses.

Thanx again and I'll be back very soon to write a proper blog.

Noreen xx

PS: Can anybody get me an esource code, my new leader doesn't know anything about them apart from with the monthly pass - I ain't paying £17 for one month (I'm gold so don't have to) and esource will only cost me £15 for 3 months! If you can it'd be much appreciated.  You can email it to me rather than put it on here.

Many thanx!

Thank you all for the great response to the WW email.  Everyone that has asked for an ebook (which is actually going to be an Excel Spreadshhet, thanx to Fat4now) is going to receive one.  I'm just updating it now and as soon as it's ready you'll have it.

For those of you that have signed my guestbook requesting a copy, I can't get your email addresses unless you become a member of the site, so if you haven't done so already, if you could then that'd be great and it'd ensure that you get your copy. 

I actually went to a meeting tonight , and enjoyed it too - even tho there was only 3 of us + the leader, was fun.  I weighed slightly heavier than I would like (10st 4.5lb), but it was in the evening and not in my bedroom where I weigh myself in the morning almost naked! Please don't try to picture that, you'll have nightmares!  The idea is that I get to 9st summat in the next 4 weeks  cos I'll be having my photo taken at my neices wedding on the 15th November, and I really hate having my pic taken.  We shall see eh?

Got Baileys first Parents evening tomorrow night.  According to her teacher, when I spoke to her a few weeks ago, she's getting on really well and picking up things really fast.  She's surprised me with her maths and her handwriting - all that's left to do is for her to learn to read, then she won't always be asking us to read the instructions for her games when she's playing on her pc!

Right, best got off and get on with this updating marlarky!

Loads been going on, been really busy lately!

It started with my friend Claire coming up from London for a break from her husband and kids.  She was meant to stay for a week but ended up going home after 5 days and promptly kicked her husband out!  However, they're back together now.  Then Bailey was sent home from school cos she had a tummy ache on the Friday.  The school said 'no temperature, but feeling unwell'.  A couple of hours later she was being sick every few minutes and had a temp of 39.7  , which was when we rang the doctor.  It was a 24 hour virus thing but she had us worried for a while.  We were supposed to be going to London the next morning for a bridesmaid dress fitting.  Thankfully the last time she was sick was early Saturday morning, then she was fine (although still not eating) so we managed to get to London after all.  She looked gorgeous in her dress and fur shrug but she had a crying fit just before she put it on as 'I'm not a girl and I DON'T wear dresses!'.  In the one photo I got of her she had a face like a foot on her, but I played with it a bit and now she has a smile on her face, lol!  Both pics are in the Me & Mine section.

The I got home to THE EMAIL.  It's on my website (last page) or you can link to it from the home page.  Weight Watcher ain't happy bunnies at the moment and want me to remove all references of WW points from my site. 

I'm going to keep the points running as long as I can, hopefully until after Xmas.  I'm making all the points pages into an ebook which I'll send out to everyone that wants one (free) and I'll also do 3 monthly updates to it and send those too - so don't panic, you'll all still get your points, just in a different way.

That's it for now, I'd best get on with this ebook thingy!

Things have been going okay here lately, & health has been okayish.  No more strokes anyway.

Bailey has started school and has woken up with the screaming habdabs every night since she started.  She says she's fine, but I think maybe the change of routine has freaked her out more than she realises.  She'll settle soon.  She looks sooooo cute in her uniform!

Those of you that ask questions or for new pages in my guestbook, I do answer most of them so you need to revisit my guestbook to check.  Also, those of you that ask me to email you - I can't work out how to get the email addresses up, this site appears to keep them secure from me as well as everyone else , so I'd appreciate it if you could email me and then I'd be able to answer you!

We have a fish in the tank, at last!  It's a long nosed butterfly fish (which was on my list and researched beforehand) and we never had to quarantine it as the shop had had it in for at least 7 weeks.  We also have a clean up crew (6 red legged hermits and a cleaner shrimp so far) that was bought the day after the fish, der!  Slightly the wrong way round but no matter - all alive and thriving.  If I thought I was on a tight budget before we got the tank I was wrong , every spare penny goes on the tank now, after school costs, petrol, and general living expenses that is!  But hey, I still manage to get out most weekends .

Weightwise, still no batteries in my scales, but can still get into my size 12 jeans, so no gain at least.  Must get batteries soon, as I can't seem to lose anymore without my scales!

Hehe, just read in my guestbook that someone was told to google my name, which is how she found this website.  So, being me, I tried it.  And it works lol!  Not just with this site but with every other site that I've ever been mentioned on..............does this mean I'm  famous?  Cool!

Not been dieting and my scales are broken too (No, not cos I stood on them!), batteries are gone .  Good news is that I'm having to make sure that my clothes aren't getting tighter and they're not.  Will be interesting to see what the scales say when I replace the batteries.  Hopefully I'll still be in the 9's.

Bailey is grounded at the moment.  She got a stone and scratched a line right the way around my car.  Across the lights (front and back) as well and was just starting a new scratch when Mark came in from work and caught her.  I was not amused to say the least.  We don't smack her but she's not enjoying the grounding - no kids telly (which is on nearly 24/7), no playing out, no ice cream from the van and she was absolutely gutted when two of her friends knocked for her and I told them that she was grounded cos she'd been really naughty.  She spent most of yesterday up in her bedroom sleeping. The threat is now that I'll tell them what she did if she doesn't behave!  She's off to her aunties in a couple of hours till Monday, so I suppose that Teresa will let her off .  Thing is, I need the break so she's still going.

Bailey has a bridesmaid dress.  Apparently it's cream with a burgundy/claret sash and is completed by a fur shrug.  She'll have a wand that will have matching ribbons and bits.  The wedding is being West Ham themed.  When I told Mark that he said that he'd wear his Liverpool shirt , I said not to stand near me then!  We're going down to London on the weekend of the 13th/14th.  Staying with Claire on the Saturday and going to Sandra's on the Sunday morning, then dropping in to an old friend (Clark) who lives very near my sister with his boyfriend.  Looking forward to seeing them all. 

Went out last night, got nicely drunk (again).  Mark came out with me but he only had a couple of pints cos he had work at some god awful hour in the morning.  We are going out tonight as well - he's not being a Mr. Grumpalot at the moment, long may it last!  He's going to have to do lots of overtime for the next few weeks as we have loads of expensive things coming up - like many trips to London (£70 in petrol alone), Baileys birthday, the wedding and that's without the bits Bailey will need for school.  Thankfully we've already bought her uniform and PE kit.

The fish tank.  Well, it has the brace bars back in now and we have to wait till next Sunday to fill the tank (the silicon needs 1 day per ml of glass to cure, and it's 10ml glass).  We've bought some more live rock and some small snails which are out in a tub on the kitchen floor with the original sand. that tub has the skimmer on it and a strong powerhead.  The other tub that's on the kitchen table has live rock in it with another powerhead.  Suffice to say that the fishtank has more or less taken over the downstairs of my house!  There's even fish mags in the downstairs loo lol!

I've done it!  I've seen 9st 13.5lbs on the scales - well happy lol!  Ooh, and I'm wearing the size 12 jeans that I bought ages ago and that wouldn't go near me and they ain't tight!  And I'm getting comments about losing shedloads of weight even tho it's only a few pounds, loving it!

I deleted the blog that I wrote last night as I was still a wee bit drunk then (was surprised to see it there as I don't remember writing it - old age methinks! ) and have vowed never to write one in that state again!  It did seem like a mid life crisis as the 1 comment said, but it really wasn't, I am relatively happy with my lot even if it isn't the best lot!  I still state that the whiskey and Baileys is a drink well worth the money tho.  Mr Grumpalot IS coming out with me next week, he has absolutely no excuse.  He has the whole weekend off work and we have the money too. 

On the Friday we're going to Barnsley for a meet in a marine fish shop, which is about an hour or so away.  Our tank isn't even wet yet so this just to meet like minded people.  Living where we do, there isn't that much for marine fish here so the cost of the fish is gonna be higher as we have to drive miles to get anything decent.  Thank the lawd for t'internet is all I can say as there is so much you can get through the post nowadays, wouldn't risk that with the fish tho!

Well, that's it for now, need to sort out this Wii for the kids and get off my butt and do some housework (well, maybe for the housework, lol!).

bridesmaid!  For my niece Becci who lives in rainham in Essex.  Bailey bawled her eyes out when I told her - cos she doesn't have a dress lol!  Bex said that she'll sort that out but there was no consoling her.  Suffice to say that she's now really excited (told her bridesmaids get presents, she asked how many!) and happy to be a bridesmaid now, and this is one of a very few times at this stage in her life where I'll have pics of her in a dress (still very much a trousers child, even to school!). 

This has given me an incentive to get to 9 1/2 stones by then - middle of November - shouldn't be no problem .

The fish tank is progressing nicely.  Not got any fish in it yet, nor any brace bars (Mark's idea, not mine!) so until they're replaced can't even put any water in the stupid thing!  However, it is now painted and kinda blends in:

Ceiling fans are blue, so like I said, kinda matches