Journal Entries
Tis the Season again
Posted Dec 26, 2016
It's Christmas again...two years on since my last journal posting, that's just lazy 
Lovely day yesterday. I had a leisurely morning opening the dog's (many) presents and my own few, eating crumpets with real butter (Lurpak if you're interested 
) and bramble jam, and walking the dog on the local field, merry christmassing with the other dog walkers.
Then it was off to my brother's to spend the day with him, my lovely sister-in-law, my niece, my two nephews, my mum & my stepdad. The kids were delighted with their presents, the lunch table was groaning with food (joint effort between my SIL, my mum & I) and we played some party games that had us laughing out loud . Really enjoyable. I do love my family 
Today I'll be going to my mum & step-dad's for another family get-together and buffet. This time we'll all be joined by my two step-brothers, one with his fiancee. We all get along nicely so I'm expecting another pleasant, convivial day.
Tomorrow I'm having lunch with an old friend. As we only get together two or three times a year our catch-ups are always long and chatty, so I'm really looking forward to that.
Then I get the couple of days I look forward to all year - three whole days to chill at home on the sofa with the dog, binge-watching box sets and binge eating turkey fajitas and christmas chocolate. Sod the diet until the new year 
Merry Christmas to whoever's reading this, and wishes for a good 2017. I think the celebrity world will breathe a sigh of relief when this year is over. So many much-loved celebs have moved on this year - for some reason I was hardest hit by Alan Rickman, his was the only death to actually make me cry 
. Not sure what that was all about really. I'm hoping George Michael was the last.
Deb 
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Latest reply: Dec 26, 2016
Tis the Season
Posted Dec 28, 2014
Well, I've had a lovely Christmas.
Christmas eve I went to my brother & sister in law's to do gifts with my niece & nephews. Although I was going to be seeing them on Christmas day it would be in the evening and there would be an awful lot of other people giving them presents too, plus I was giving them Stompies slippers which they'd want to wear in the morning. It was lovely, nice to get my gifts in first before they're totally jaded by the mounting piles of giftwrap! Also did gift exchange with my brother and sister in law, got some very nice thoughtful gifts - my sister in law has the happy knack of choosing things I'd pick myself.
Christmas day was spent at my eldest step-brother & fiancee's. There were loads of us there - my mum & step dad, my step-dad's ex-wife (we're a modern family ), my step-brother's fiancee's mum & dad + sister & boyfriend. It was really nice, very convivial and relaxed. We hadn't even had pudding when my youngest step-brother arrived with his girlfriend and her little boy, closely followed by my brother & family. Eighteen of us in one little starter home! But it worked and a good time was had by all.
Boxing day I went to the pantomime with my brother and family (oh no I didn't, oh yes I did). It was great fun, especially watching the kids enjoying it. When we came out the snow had started and it looked like a winter wonderland.
Saturday my mum & stepdad had a party so the whole family were together again, with a few added friends to vary things a bit. Another lovely time.
And today...today's just been me and the dog chilling, helped along by some leftover turkey, a dark chocolate mint selection and season 10 of Grey's Anatomy to binge on. I did get in a nice walk on Cannock Chase with my mum & the dogs too, but other than that it's been a people free day and just what I needed after so much sociability!
It's been a real contrast to last Christmas when my eldest nephew was in hospital with a ruptured appendix right before Christmas and with an infection in the wound right after Christmas. We were glad to see the back of the festive season last year; this year it's been fabulous.
And I've just had a phone call from my brother inviting me there for new year's day dinner, which is nice.
I'm quite a happy & contented little bunny at the moment 
Deb
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Latest reply: Dec 28, 2014
December started off well...
Posted Dec 7, 2014
...On the first I got in the car to leave work and it died on me. I have RAC cover so I gave them a ring and they made me wait just long enough to stress-eat a left-over slice of someone's birthday cheesecake and drink a hot chocolate from the machine in the office - ie, not very long. It's your battery, the RAC man tells me, I can do you one for £115 fitted. I ask if that's very much more expensive than taking it to a garage and he said not much more so I went for the convenient option and got him to do it there and then. Once fitted he got me to turn on the engine, rev the car, turn on my lights, radio, heater...and announced the reason my battery had been knackered was that my alternator was also knackered and wasn't charging the battery, so that also needed replacing. He didn't have one, so he recommended I drop the car at my garage that evening and get them to replace it the next day. In the meantime I'd be ok to drive the 25 miles home up the motorway as long as I didn't use anything other than my lights.
Before I left for home I called my usual garage and booked the car in for the next morning, explaining the problem. Two minutes later the actual mechanic called me back - I really shouldn't be driving it that far if it wasn't charging. So I called the RAC guy back - he'd left me his mobile - and he reiterated that I'd be ok, it was charging at 12 instead of 14 volts (or something). Called my mechanic back, he really wouldn't recommend it. By this time I was completely stressed, I didn't know what to do for the best, so I called the breakdown number again. The woman I spoke to told me she'd call me back after speaking to the guy who'd previously been as she could only go by what he said. Oh great, I thought. But when she called back she said that although he'd again said I'd be fine she herself drove the same stretch of motorway and thought I might spend some time in stop-start traffic, so she'd also spoken to their technical team - who agreed with her! At last people were agreeing with each other! So in the end the original guy came and fitted some kind of booster to my battery & I drove home with him behind me.
As we had a big meeting at work the next day I had to resort to public transport. This meant a two hour journey in the morning rather than my usual 45 minutes, said journey ending at our stores facility a ten minute drive from work - as the guy there was also attending the meeting he could run me to the office. Then I had to get someone to run me back to the station in the afternoon for another 2 hour train journey in time to pick up my car before the garage closed at 5.30. To be honest, the actual journey was pretty good, I had my kindle and everything ran to timetable. The only minor irritation was that I had to ask a member of the Birmingham New Street station staff how to get to Snow Hill station as it wasn't signposted at all in the station and I had to get there to get the onward train. It was nice having the walk through the town centre to get between stations though.
Then I had to hand over £206 for a new alternator & fan belt. So £320 of my savings has gone just like that.
Still, December seems to have improved. I've now done all my Christmas shopping, I have the day off tomorrow so I can hopefully get the tree decorated and the presents wrapped - and I found a fab pair of trousers which actually fit me nicely on the bum!
Tonight I'm at my brother's house looking after their kids while they're out on a works Christmas meal. It's been lovely sitting on the sofa watching Home Alone 2 with them...but I'm very glad they're now tucked up in bed and I have peace!
Deb
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Latest reply: Dec 7, 2014
NaJoPoMo 2014 Day 30 - The End
Posted Nov 30, 2014
Well, here we are on the last day of NaJoPoMo. I can't say I'm sorry because I've struggled for inspiration at least half the days, but I am going to miss reading all the other interesting, thought-provoking or just out and out funny journals other researchers have put out there this month.
I do still have Paul's Arborvilla to look forward to - if it's anything like Blemnox last year it'll be a great read! Also Freeway Rider's story - I have to admit to just skimming those entries through the month but that's also on my reading list for December because what I did read really sparked my curiosity. I just didn't want to commit to fiction in November.
I'd like to use my journal more often but I already have a hard-copy diary which frequently says things like "Can't remember what I did today because it's a week next Thursday" or somesuch 
. So that's probably me done for another year, folks. So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye as the song goes.
Deb
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Latest reply: Nov 30, 2014
NaJoPoMo 2014 Day 29 - Struggling
Posted Nov 29, 2014
I've really been struggling with my diet for the last few days.
We now have three baskets at work, one charity basket selling sweets & flapjacks for Air Ambulance, one selling crisps and one selling sweets & chocolates. I don't know who even agreed to give these baskets houseroom but someone evidently did and someone comes along every couple of weeks and tops them up. I have to pass right by them to go for a drink, to go to the toilet, to arrive and leave. And this week all the little goodies hidden within have been going "Deb, Deb, come to us, we'll make you happy". I've eaten a lot of satsumas at work this week.
I've been busy and stressed at work because the closer we get to Christmas the more urgent it is I get up to date. Our year end is 31st December and the first three weeks of January are always stressful. There are a lot of once a year tasks to be completed before the auditors come in, so I don't want to have to be playing catch-up as well. This leads to my next struggle, which is the coffee machine. My employer supplies a nice machine doing a whole range of sweet, creamy drinks - cappuccino, latte, mocha, hot chocolate...It's free and it's easy. Instead I've been microwaving some of my skimmed milk allowance and adding an espresso - which actually I enjoy more than the quick & easy coffees out of the machine.
There's a sandwich shop round the corner from work who do hot pork sandwiches on soft, white, crusty bread. They put a piece of crackling in with it too. I've been craving one for days. I had crispbreads with low fat cream cheese & salad on Thursday and a jacket potato with beans & mushrooms on Friday, both good lunches on my particular diet.
I look back on the last few days and think I won't have done very well because all I can remember is the stuff I wanted to eat. In days gone by I would have had them, no question, but I've actually managed to resist all temptation and instead of feeling good about it, I forget. It's very strange - although I KNOW I'm actually having a really good on-plan week, I FEEL as if I've wrecked it at every turn.
So hopefully I'll get a really nice surprise on the scales on Wednesday evening
Deb
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Latest reply: Nov 29, 2014
Deb
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