Fighting The Flab

Hello folks, once again I am going to try and revive this blog... as I have had nearly a 2 month break, I would like to say not a lot has happened, but I would be lieing, as we have had lots happen in that time.

A brief recap of December....
Christmas came, and went, in a flurry of family, feasting and present giving. It was also Albert's first Christmas! We hosted it this year and had family around us the whole Christmas season, and to be honest I could not think of a better way of spending it!

Albert on his first Christmas

Kerry went mad with the grub at New Year!

Kerry and I

We hosted new year as well! Which was another party and fun time with more food and booze... (See a pattern?) Again surrounded by family and close friends. I have posted a couple of photos, and once permissions are sought might even post some more!

So December was in general a good month. :o) In fact, I lie, it was a great month. I loved every moment of it. I got a great present from Kerry as well, a Sony alpha 35 with a couple of lenses and some filters. It is a camera I have admired for a while from a distance as I could not afford it. It was the ideal gift and I did not annoy anyone by taking over 4000 pictures in the space of a week! Well, OK maybe a couple of people lol...
I hope Kerry liked her presents as much as I loved mine. I think she did.

Welcome everyone to 2010...

The start of a new year, with it came new and old challenges... firstly the old challenge, the snow. I love it, some hate it. What I think is really annoying is this.. where I live (Up North) we have a good 8" with some wind blown drifts of about 3 foot... nothing too new there, the first day no one goes anywhere as the roads get sorted (and salted) and then the next day life carries on as normal, although there does seem to be less traffic and more 4x4's than normal. I have spoken to my friend Dan (Oddness Blog) who lives in Essex, and is part of the Basildon Massive (shout out). He has put his cam on live stream so we can see the resulting chaos due to somewhere in the region of 12mm of snow (yes folks, about half an inch). Roads are closed, Schools are closed, old people are already quivering in fear due to the extra heating expense.. is it really that hard to drive over 12mm of snow? Peoples of Essex (and most of the southern areas) snow does not mean a Holiday... its just white cold stuff which kids throw at you. Get a backbone, (and some warm clothes, no not short skirts and boob tubes, but real warm clothes) put a shovel in your car (for when your electric cars get stuck in the white stuff) and go out and explore the amazingly stunning views.

Smiles, only kidding, the snow brings chaos with it every time it arrives, I still don't understand why we don't have more resources dedicated to this type of weather, but there you go.

As for the new challenges, trying to survive in a world where everyone wants money off you is a little bit difficult at the moment, but I am surviving. Wish work would pick up a bit more and then I can ask for a pay rise as I have not had one in 2 years, in fact I am on less money now than I was when I started, hmmm.

I was supposed to start training again this week, but as my dojo (Lions Pride) is nearly 15 miles away over country roads I have skipped it so far, maybe tomorrow, hopefully!

Weight is up and down, as always, at the moment UP.. but again addressing that issue now. (again this is Dans fault for force feeding me Quality Streets all over the Christmas period... bugger)

Was great to see Pip Wilson over the Holiday season, and again I promise not to leave it 16 years, in fact I am going to try and make it less than 16 months hopefully bumping into him at Greenbelt this year and who knows, may even make another meet up before that if we ever have the same spare day in our diaries.

This post is quite light hearted, so please people don't take offence, I will post another more in depth blog shortly...

Stay safe and well and may 2010 bring you all enough...

love ya...

Well Kind of lol... the last full working week I should say... I think I am in the office on Monday next week as well... but then that’s it till the 5th January. Wahoo... a break, it is sorely needed.

So Christmas, that wonderful glittery (cold) festive (drink too much) time of the year where we get to have fun (see drink too much) and catch up with family members (who normally you wouldn’t spend 5 minutes in the same room) who we haven’t seen all year....

But it’s not all bah humbug... I love Christmas as much as the next person, if not more, ok I agree it has become overly commercialised and the media has turned it into a crazy shopaholics holiday, for that must have gift. Even taking all that into account I still love it. Even though this year I am on my own for Christmas day, I still love it. I love the fact that people smile at you, for no apparent reason, I love the fact that people are nice to you (mostly) for no apparent reason, it is still a time of good will towards all men (ok and women...) lol.

So how am I going to fair over Christmas dieting... I have already accepted numerous offers for 'Christmas drinks' as the locals refer to a right good knees up and party, and I am already beginning to wonder how I am going to deal with all the rich food and drink that is waved under my nose. Until the day comes I won’t know. I am planning on eating just before attending so hopefully I won’t feel like partaking in the food and hopefully not too many drinks. I have planned on changing my drink from vodka and coke to vodka and slim line tonic, hopefully this will help as well. (Also this means I can drink sparkling water and pretend I am joining in, clever huh?)

Training, the Bain of my life... smiles, ok so it’s not that bad. Found myself back in my old dojo this weekend, and to be honest as much as I loved it, I was also sad. I trained fairly easy, and did several rounds of sparing, didn’t get gassed (panting) which surprised my training partner after such a long lay off, and kept my wits about me. It was a good workout but one I am quite sore from, and I am now sporting a nice black eye as well. Happy Christmas.
I ran into work this morning which took me about 12 minutes it’s roughly a mile and a half so not too bad, and I am planning on running home afterwards as well. Tomorrow morning I am planning on jogging to the pool (about a mile and a half, uphill) doing 30-40 lengths and then jogging to work (about a mile and a half, with a 700 yard steep drop down) tomorrow evening I am getting picked up (hopefully) and going to train with Steve Primrose at Lions Pride. It has been a while since I have trained with Steve and I am both looking forward to it and dreading it in equal measures. As I am sure Steve is as well.

That’s about it for now....

Stay well