Eight Miles High!

I believe it was Kate Moss who said "Nothing Tastes like Slim Feels."
Well I have a new one.
Nothing feels like running 13K just because you can.
I had an amazing run around Finsbury Park yesterday. All Eight Miles!

But I haven't got time to post on the blog.....

Trouble is, it's all circular. I want to post on the blog. Angela and I use it as a sort of online memory-bank. It's amazing how you forget things nowadays. Getting older, less time and more distractions.
We used to post much more frequently, but as you don't post, you grow more reluctant to re-start. Alcoholic-falling-off-the-wagon-again syndrome. After a while you stop trying. It will be too disappointing to start again and then let it drop again. Embarrassing even. It's like when you pick up a paintbrush but part of you is frightened of mucking up a nice, safe blank sheet of watercolour paper. Plus there's all the things I promised to do but haven't done..... They are really embarrassing. Tributes to loved ones and acquaintances now dead..... Breaking promises to the dead. Now that is really mean...... Mind you, I'm doing more than I used to... Going to the gym before work, running three times a week, on no less than three committees... Plus this year we are really going to get the Garden looking good and productive.... I somehow find time for all this... Trouble is, it's all circular. I want to post on the blog.........

"Curry Night, my Favourite!"

"I can dream, can't I.....?"

Believe it or Not...

This was me last June...

And this is me now...

I have managed to lose just under 3 stone since January 2015.

How did I do it? Mostly by sticking to a calorie allowance. One of the main tools I have used is Nutracheck. This is a phone app and also a website. What it does is simplify calorie counting, and it also has a terrific collection of exercise and nutritition advice, plus masses of online help and encouragement from a flourishing user Forum.

If you are thinking about seriously losing weight, I suggest you take a free trial subscription. Nutracheck is 100 British, and has a vast database of British foodstuffs. There are no gimmicks, no food-substitutes or branded meal-replacement bars pushed at you for profit. The fees are really low, I'm paying less than a fiver a month. The pounds I'm losing are showing on my scales, not my bank balance.

I also use a Fitbit, a device which measures steps taken and activity, a bit like a souped-up pedometer.

Trying to keep up to 10,000 steps a day helps with the motivation levels. Angela (my wife) also has one, and we can encourage  ourselves with gentle competition between ourselves and other friends who have Fitbits. They aren't cheap, but if you can't afford one a pedometer would work just as well. (Try looking at those made by Omron, Amazon usually have them at a good price).

Finally, I have started going to the local gym. If you had told me six months ago that I would be getting up early to hit the gym  before work I would have fallen over laughing. In a couple of days I will be logging my 50th visit since January!. According to Gym Hero Pro, another app I find invaluable, I have shifted over 90 metric tonnes of metal in that time, plus over 100 kilometers on the Rowing Machine, Recumbent Bike and the Treadmill of Doom!

Why am I doing this? Well, I think the letter I had from my G.P. a few months ago offering me a Care Package may have had something to do with it! As I approach my mid-fifties I guess it's finally time to start looking after myself. Angela has lost weight too, even though she was barely overweight, and we are both thoroughly enjoying the compliments we are receiving.

DISCLAIMER: I am not receiving any payment, incentive or material benefit from recomending the products above. I just want to share what works for me.

It Was Thirty Years Ago Today.....

It's difficult to believe it but the first mobile phone call in the U.K. was made on January 1st 1985.
They have become such a part of modern life that it is hard to remember when being out of the house meant being out of contact unless you could find a phone box or an open pub  Yes, pubs only used to be open between 11 and 3, and then again in the evening.

I guess the younger generation will be wondering how we managed to connect to the World Wide Web without mobiles...   Sorry guys,  it wasn't invented until 1989!

You can find the background to the phone story in today's  Guardian.

Procrastination....

I have a training session to prepare for work, nothing major, just a one hour session on collection management. It's due in two weeks time, and I've known about it for a couple of weeks.

I always let things percolate through in my subconscious for a while before I start physically jotting down ideas. Today though, is "start getting it into shape day".

Thing is.
I have a nagging feeling I need to check over the magazine subscriptions first. I won't be able to relax until I've done that. It will distract me.

Then it occurs to me. Am i just procrastinating?

So what do i do?

I Google "Procrastination"......

In the Pawprints of Pooh!

I have always been a lover of Winnie the Pooh. I think they were some of the very first stories I ever read. (My mum told me that I had cloth books with the characters on before I could even walk).

Tomorrow should be a very enjoyable day. The Marylebone Birdwatching Society will be visiting Ashdown Forest for a birding trip. It was in this area of woodlands and heath that Christopher Robin played with his teddy bear Pooh, and where his father A A Milne wrote the Pooh stories.

The area should be a great place for birds, as well as being an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and an SSSI. Mind you,  I do hope we will find the time to visit Eeyore's Gloomy Place and  100 Aker Wood....

Original Illustration by E. H. Shephard. Image credits here.

Time Passed....

.... The last few months certainly did. It is nearly a year since my last post.
 (Sounds like confession, forgive me Father...).

A brief catch-up:

My dear friend and second mum Pilly died. I will put up a post about her soon. Enough time has elapsed that I think I can say what I need to without getting mawkish.

We finally got a new roof on our house, the bucket we had under the ceiling has now been retired.

Angela and I are both pretty healthy, considering... Some of the tablets I have been on for my heart rhythmn have managed to knock out my thyroid gland but I'm still fit enough to walk up hills...

As I mentioned in a previous post the Legal Eagle and her Beau got married, we had dinner round with her and some other friends last Sunday...

Next to Angela; Gianluca, Jo and Irina: next to me; The Legal Eagle, her Beau, and Harry

As usual, the food was excellent, especially the puddings.....

(Clockwise from top, Angela's Apricot and Marzipan Loaf, French Apple tart and Hazlenut Meringue sandwich).

I can personally vouch for the deliciousness of all of them!

To walk off the excess calories some of us took a stroll round to Waterlow Park, only a few minutes away from the Eagle's Nest.

The late afternoon sun was peeping through. I think even grumpy old Karl Mark looked a bit happier than normal.

Walking in the Chilterns today.

Is this a Llama I see before me, or an Alpaca? Time to buy an Iphone Ungulate Identification App.

In Praise of Serendipity

Yesterday was a Bank Holiday, and not only that but it was sunny too.

Taken aback by this unusual conjunction, Angela and I thought we would go for a stroll.
We both felt like a walk by the Thames, so we hopped onto a 4 bus and were soon whizzed through an empty City and decamped at the South Bank.
Apart from doing a circuit up to Tower Bridge and back, we had no great plans.
Picking up a coffee we soon bumped into what would be the first of a trio of exhibitions to investigate, all with free entry, though two of the three tempted us with stuff to buy.

The first was Everest 1953, a photographic exhibition celebrating the first conquest of Mount Everest, sixty years ago tomorrow. The photographs were breathtaking, some even in early colour processes.

After Everest, near the Globe, we came upon the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers Annual Exhibition.
I am learning a little lino-cutting at the moment, so this exhibition was a fascinating chance to see the wide variety of printmaking techniques being practised by experts.

The third exhbition was just outside the London Assembly building, sometimes unkindly referred to as "The Testicle". The display was of environmental initiatives and wildlife in the U.K. You can find the link here

In between we managed an excellent lunch at Zizzi, a restaurant chain new to us and chosen more or less at random.

At Tower Bridge we crossed to the North Bank for the return trip.

I always find Tower Bridge fascinating - I made a quick sketch to send as a postcard to my friend the Legal Eagle. After knowing her for nearly thirty years I managed to fall ill at the weekend and missed her wedding.

So Rachel, this little sketch is for you....

You Know You Are Getting Old When ...

They start selling Televisions as Antiques

In praise of old pubs

Yesterday Angela and I joined a ramble around Ware in Hertfordshire. Although muddy in parts, the walk went through some lovely countryside. 

Perhaps the best bit of the walk was the lunch stop though!

We went to The White Horse in Wareside. It was like stepping in to the past. Public and Saloon bars ( so no problems with our muddy boots), a piano, a lovely real fire, real ale and two lovely dogs asleep. In their own beds by the fire. 

Talking to the landlord, he told us the two Jack Russels earn their keep. He goes out shooting rabbits and the dogs retrieve for him. On a good night he can get 30 rabbits. No wonder rabbit pie was on the menu!

The photos above are of Henriette, the walk leader, getting to know one of the two dogs. 

Half Board

We poached a lovely fresh trout this evening. The fish was big enough to have half each and still have a little left over. 

We finally realised we have become "cat people".

We found ourselves looking at the chopping board we had divided the fish on, thinking  "what shall we do with the juices?" And coming up with this solution!

A Room With a View

I was birding in South Devon this weekend. This is the view from my hotel room. 

Neigh, Neigh and Thrice Neigh.

In the light of the recent revelations about Tesco's burgers , maybe Waitrose might go for a re-design?

Snow Joke

Following on from our wash-out coach trip, this weekend a band of intrepid MBS birders are scheduled to be in South Devon for a long weekend. 

Let's hope the snow clears in time

We will be praying to the Snow God. 

Sign of the times

The Saturday before last was spent in horizontal rain; we were allegedly birding in Hampshire.

The road sign said it all...

Luckily the Ship Inn was warm, very welcoming, and did lovely chips!

Twelfth Night (plus or minus 1)

Time to say thank you to the Nordmann Fir for 2012, and pack the fairy away for another  year. Back to work tomorrow. Normality?