Journal Entries
Wardrobe notes
Posted Jan 6, 2015
A place for me to note down lovely finds, items on the search list, and outfits that worked.
Lovely find:
I'd seen beautiful pale blue dress with embellished Peter Pan collar in M&S. Ddidn't much fancy the £40 price tag, but kept an eye out for it in case it was reduced. Over recent months, any time I looked for it in the various stores, I couldn't see it, so I gave it up for lost. Yesterday, I happened to be in the Forestside store, and lo and behold, on the last chance rail, was THE dress, now down to £9.99. It was only in a 12, and I'd normally take a 10 or 8 in M&S's frankly vanity sizing, but I think dresses hang better when they're slightly loose rather than too tight. Even better, I still had £15 left on a gift card, so it was free, really 
Search list;
J was wearing a gorgeous black jacket at Christmas, in soft leather with a fall away collar and zip detail. She recommended I get one too. Only problem, it was from River Island and they'd sold out. When out for cocktails with the girls on Saturday night, one of them was wearing an almost identical jacket, and it came from Dunnes (pronounced to rhyme with Hermes....). I did find that one, but at £50 it's a bit steep for something that I don't really need, and which isn't quite perfect. New Look had one in their sale with a grey tweed front and black leatherette sleeves, which looked great on. Maybe.
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Latest reply: Jan 6, 2015
Future presents
Posted Jan 2, 2015
None of them come here, so I'm safe enough in using this as a handy bit of cyberspace to note present ideas for friends and familiy.
J - jokes about her inner giraffe/ spirit animal, plus love of onesies = giraffe onesie, a la Miranda.
H - BBT fan, fancies a BaZnGa T.
S - Coco Noir is her new growed up scent.
(I'm now amused by the notion of "future presents"....
)
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Latest reply: Jan 2, 2015
Bea for Ball, Bacon Butties, and Bulgogi 30:11
Posted Nov 30, 2014
It's the end of November, so this will be the last NaNo journal writing for many of us.
It's also St Andrews Day, and so one of the biggest events in the Scottish Dancing calendar. We had our annual Ball last night, which went pretty smoothly. There were about 85 dancers there - a bit down on numbers from the previous year, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. There was some great dancing to the live band, who were a local group. I wore my fab tartan skirt which I bought at the St Andrews summer school earlier this year, with it's little matching fabric corsage. I wear it with a black top, but I am on the look out for a green velvet or red silk corset/ bodice type to give alternatives.
This morning, the weather was crisp and clear, so we took the dogs over to Mount Stewart, which has some astonishing trees and formal gardens. I made bacon butties when we got home.
Tonight I am doing a slow-roast pork dish, with a Korean barbecue sauce called Bulgogi.
A Happy St Andrews Day to all my readers - thank you for your company during the month, and have a great December.
Bisous
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Latest reply: Nov 30, 2014
I'm all about the BeaTch 29:11
Posted Nov 29, 2014
Saturday morning, and what am I doing? I'm parkrunning of course!
Since I was a parkrun tourist last week, and will be in Disneyland Paris next week, I thought I'd better put in an appearance at my home course. I've been suffering from a cold all week, and have done barely any training, so I wasn't planning to try for any speed records. But I did know that a fellow dog-runner was intending to come along. So when I saw lovely Samoyed Zola and her owners, we had a friendly chat before the start.
The whistle went, and off we zoomed. I started fast, and to one side, largely to keep out of the way of other runners. Zola and Ruth overtook me about half way round lap 1, but then had to stop for weewees (Zola, not her owner). So we took the lead (pun intended) for a while, until the streak of white passed us again. Mini seemed to relish the chase, and we were hard on the bigger dog's paws. She stopped at the same spot on each of the following 2 laps, which allowed us to get ahead each time, and the whole run was a very good-natured battle of grrrrrl power.
I was giving my Garmin the occasional glance, and knew we were making good time. Very good time, in fact. My previous record at this route was 25:30, and I'd managed an all time best of 25:10 last week on a slightly easier course. 
At km 3-4 my legs started to complain, but I'm used to this. And after the 4km marker I began to feel slightly nauseous - again, I know this means I am pushing myself to the limit. The aim when running is collapse in a heap about one step past the finish line 
So I was thrilled to bits with an official time of 24:42! Running a sub-25 minute parkrun had been one of the targets I was going to set for 2015, so it's nice to have that one achieved even before the bells have struck on New Year's Eve 
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Latest reply: Nov 29, 2014
A Bea Ca D 28:11
Posted Nov 28, 2014
I went to the doctors this week. It was for a complaint so minor that it barely even registers on the annoyance scale, but it has been going on for over 6 months, and when I was having physio on my broken ankle they suggested that if it continued I should get it checked out.
I have a flutter in my left eyelid. Not all the time, but certainly most days. It started about the time I fell and broke my foot, and at first I attributed it to stress, or lack of sleep while wearing a plaster cast.
I'd got that far with the story to the GP, who stopped me to ask more about the fall. He was concerned that a fairly simple fall, not even from a great height, in a 50+ year old, had resulted in a fracture. And so he wants to send me for a bone density scan. He also suggested that facial tics can sometimes be as a result of lack of calcium - did I eat dairy products? Yes I do, lots of them. How about Vitamin D? In fact, I take a daily Vit D supplement. So it looked unlikely that I'd be low on calcium, but I had a blood test just to be sure. The results of that are just in, and I'm normal (or whatever passes for normal in these parts).
Looks like I may just have to put up with it.
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Latest reply: Nov 28, 2014
Beatrice
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