Fantastic Frank (Turner).....and 3lbs on

Hi all,

Let's get the '3lbs on' bit out of the way. Despite sticking rigidly to the 10,000 steps a day and 8 glasses of water routine it seems that the Poppy Picnic leftovers have taken their toll. When I stepped on the scales this morning I was not at all surprised to see that my weight has increased somewhat. To be honest it would have been miraculous if it hadn't. Licking out cake mix bowls, eating most of a packet of shortbread fingers and having toast with real butter really isn't conducive to keeping the weight at bay. The same applies to the pint of cider, pint of Pimms and the bag of candyfloss that I devoured at Meonfest in the sunshine yesterday.
However, I still feel much more energetic than I have in a long time, I am more motivated and I am definitely sleeping better so all is not lost. I'm keeping to the steps and water regimen because I know it is doing me good. I am not going to be eating candyfloss and licking out mixing bowls again for a while and a little of what you fancy does you good I do believe.

Moving onto more interesting things....

Yesterday hubby and I spent the afternoon and evening at a local event called Meonfest which was held in the grounds of Bereleigh House in East Meon and was a fundraiser for the local school. The grounds are 15 minutes drive from our house and we hadn't been there before.
I don't know East Meon well having only driven through it several times and once going to one of the pubs in the village on a sunny evening. However, I discovered via the medium of Twitter and the local paper that Frank Turner was going to be playing there as his Mum was one of the organisers and she basically booked him to play.
Hubby and I are huge fans of Mr. Turner and have seen him several times in various venues and the chance to see him so close to home was not to be missed so I purchased 2 tickets for £20 each (total bargain!) , packed a picnic and off we went.
The weather was perfect, the setting delightful, there was ample free parking and the atmosphere was wonderful as it was basically a family event. There were a few food vendors dotted about and activities for the children. There was loads of room for little ones to run about safely and it seemed the vast majority of them spent their time rolling down the hills and throwing straw at each other. Perfect!

We picked our spot to sit, spread out the blanket, got some drinks and we were settled for the day. It was pure relaxation as we layed in the sunshine and listened to the various acts who were on the bill. Some were fun and some were very good. All very pleasant.
We sat, quite unintentionally, to the side of the stage where the artists parked up and I was more than a little excited (ridiculous I know!) to see Frank and his driver pull up and exit their vehicle an hour or so before he was due on stage. It was also lovely to see him greet his Mum and family with big hugs.
Now, the man must have incredible reserves of energy because, before playing for and hour and a half at Meonfest, he had played two sets at Glastonbury earlier in the day - one solo and one with his band The Sleeping Souls I think. You would never have know that judging by his performance in the field at Bereleigh House.

Frank's arrival on stage was greeted by applause and  cheers from the relaxed and happy crowd and, despite the fact that he must have been knackered after his day, he gave his all with a solo performance that I will never forget. He sang almost all of my favourite songs of his and seemed genuinely happy to be 'home'. He referenced his family a lot, told personal stories and apologised often for swearing. He even apologised for the fact that he wouldn't be able to hang about after the show and chat in the bar like he often does because he was exhausted and wanted to spend some quality time with his family who he hasn't been with for a year or so. What a star!

We made our way back to the car with the sounds of fireworks ringing in our ears and passing weary but happy families who had had a terrific day. We got into the car, exited the car park and were home again in 15 mins. Result.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...for any of you festival lovers, music lovers, singer/songwriter lovers if you get the chance to see Frank Turner with or without The Sleeping Souls please do grab it with both hands. You will not be disappointed.
As for us, we are off to see him again at the end of July at The Cambridge Folk Festival and I can't wait.

Happy Sunday everyone. I'm off to listen to some Frank Turner and reminisce about last night.

xxxxx

Poppy Picnic 2015 (and 12st 13lbs!!!!)

Morning all.

It's the summer solstice and the longest day of the year. The sun is shining a bit but it's chilly. I walked Harvey at Hayling earlier this morning and was very glad that I was wearing my fleece.

As you can see from the post title, quite amazingly I now weigh under 13 st and I have no explanation for it apart from the 10,000 steps that I make sure that I do every day and the 8 glasses of water that I force down both of which I have been doing religiously since May 31st when I was horrified to discover that I weighed in at 13st 6lbs. This new weight is even more strange as I have spent the last few days baking and eating cakes for the Poppy Picnic. Sometimes there is no logic to these things is there?

On Friday I spent what felt like all day in my little kitchen baking cakes and bits for The Poppy Picnic which I held for the 2nd year in succession at my beach hut. I made elderflower and blackberry cakes, butterfly cakes, a gluten free chocolate cake, poppy seed and lemon muffins, some apple and spice sponge bread, some flapjack and some buttermilk chicken. Quite how it took me all day I'm not sure but I did have to walk the dog in the midst of it all and also had to shop for the ingredients so that may explain it. All I know is that by the time it was time for bed I was exhausted and slept deeply for 5 hours which was an unexpected bonus from my endeavours.

Come Saturday morning and I was up with the larks - or at least with whatever noisy birds were twittering away sunrise - and grabbed a cup of tea and a slice of toast before boxing all of my goodies into containers, loading the car with the same and some extra chairs and lots of blankets, and set of for the hut via the train station where I picked up my daughter who came prepared with some scrummy cakes that she had purchased from the local bakery en route.

We arrived at the hut and set it up in preparation for whatever visitors would arrive. Balloons and posters were put up, food and drink put out on the tables and the kettle was put on and seemed to be on all day from that point.
The weather forecast wasn't promising but I was determined to make the best of it hence the extra blankets. Fortunately, although there was a brisk chilly wind, the predicted rain showers didn't appear.
I'm delighted to say that we had a lovely amount of people who came along and stayed for ages despite the chill in the air. Some people brought their own picnics and some made the most of the homebaked goodies. My lovely stepdad did what he always does and brought loads of amazing food with him - chicken, prawns, fish fingers, chicken nuggets, new potatoes and amazing asparagus wrapped in bacon which was divine. One of my daughters made some brilliant pulled pork and I ended up with more food than I knew what to do with. Most people left with a goody bag of cakes to take home and my freezer is know stocked with lemon drizzle cake and scones.

We had a lovely mix of people - friends, family and neighbours of all ages came along and I was delighted to see them all.
I did spend most of my time in the hut boiling the kettle and making hot drinks to keep my visitors warm. I made lots of trips to refill my water bottles and I ran out of sugar!

I didn't take many photos due to my 'hot drinks maker' role so I have borrowed a few. The photo directly above shows how grey the sky was for most of the day but it didn't stop people paddling, kite flying and looking for treasure! My nephews left their mark after their first visit to the hut and their name stones are added to my growing collection of stones that line the shelves of the hut these days.

At about 7pm it was time to pack up and go home. I spent 10  mins or so sitting on my own thinking about the day and feeling pretty proud of myself and feeling grateful that so many people had made the effort to come along on what was not the nicest of days to sit out on a beach.

I am delighted to say that the day raised £108.50 for The Royal British Legion and a cheque for that amount will be winging its way to their head office tomorrow morning.

Have a good day everyone and ,to those able to celebrate Father's Day, let your Dads know how special they are and how much you love them. They will appreciate it more than you know.

xxxx

Paris, Hayling, Oxford - And Another Pound Off

Hi all,

Firstly, a quick update - I have continued with my 8 glasses of water a day and I have managed to get in a minimum of 10,000 steps each day too which is excellent. I am definitely sleeping better and I am not waking in the night covered in sweat and feeling rubbish. My skin is softer and I feel good. I most definitely have not curtailed my eating, in fact, quite the opposite over this last week so you can imagine my surprise when I stood on the scales the morning to find that I have lost another pound. Yep, the scales now tell me that I weigh 13 st 3lbs.
I know that I still weigh too much but I think it's proof that keeping active...walking is the only exercise I am doing at the moment... and keeping hydrated has many positives and I have yet to find a negative. I shall be continuing with the challenge and I'll keep you posted.

On to more exciting things. Last Tuesday my youngest daughter and I met up at St Pancras station and boarded the Eurostar to Paris where we spent two days and one night in each others company and lived to tell the tale.
I had wanted to go on Eurostar for a long time. It seemed silly to me that I had never been on it so I asked my daughter if she would like to come with me as a birthday treat for her. It's actually her birthday today (June 14th) so it was an early present. I booked the tickets for the train in advance as the tickets are cheaper that way and I booked a nice looking but small hotel for the night and that was it. We just had to wait for the day to arrive.
As I mentioned, we met at the station, brought ourselves some treats for the trip and boarded the train. It was really a train trip like any other and we spent the 2 and a half hour trip chatting, eating the strawberries and sandwiches we had purchased and toasting our trip with Prosecco.

Very soon we arrived at Gard du Nord which is quite an experience. Within minutes off us getting off of the train we were approached by a woman with a sheet of paper in hand asking us to sign in 'to save children'. There was also a column to fill in your Euro donation!  Cheeky things. We learned to say no when people approached us with out feeling guilty about it very quickly after that.

The area around the station is quite daunting. There were a lot of groups of men hanging around and also quite a few people begging. However, we knew that out hotel was literally a stones throw from the station so we made our way there. Just outside the station there was a large noisy gathering of police and taxis and there appeared to be a stand off of some kind going on. Lots of intense discussions and many frustrated Parisiens whose journeys were being delayed because the taxis appeared to be blocking the roads. Apparently there had been the discovery of some illegal immigrants in the area and, for reasons unbeknown to us, the taxi drivers were involved in the situation. We never did get to the bottom of it but it didn't affect us anyway. We were just curious about what was happening.

We checked into our very nice hotel and had a room with a balcony on the 6th floor where we had a lovely view of the streets below. The room the clean, bright and airy and the shower was fabulous!
We settled in and then made our way to the restaurant that we had booked and which had very good reviews on Tripadvisor.
Enroute to our dinner reservation we found that Sacre Coeur was very close by and, as we were early, we decided to investigate. We climbed a lot of steps and found ourselves here....

The place was full of people and it was really lovely. The views of the city from there were wonderful. We then descended the steps again and stopped for a glass of wine before making our way to the Sacre Fleur restaurant which was just down the road.
Sacre Fleur did not disappoint. It was a small, intimate eatery which was fully booked. The staff were very friendly and the food was wonderful. I had the frogs legs and a 'blue' rump steak which was divine. We shared a bottle of 'champagne' too and neither of us could manage pudding or coffee!

We left feeling full to the brim but decided to pick up a bottle of wine on the way home (never a good idea!) and then drank it on our balcony while listening to music and generally having a great time. We had a fab evening.

The next day we set off for one of the open top hop on/hop off buses which gave us a tour of the city. We had about half an hour to walk from the hotel to the pick up point but we found it which was impressive for two females with no sense of direction!
The sun shone throughout the day which made the open top bus even more agreeable. We were driven past the Louvre, Notre Dam, Arch de Triomphe and along the Champs Elysee. We decided the only place we could get off and spend any time was at the Eiffel Tower and that's what we did.

Then it was lunch in the sun and back on the bus to get back to the hotel before we had to catch our train home.
We really had a wonderful couple of days and it was a pleasure to spend some quality time with my daughter. We should do that kind of thing more often.

The day after I got back from Paris I went to the hut with my son and his girlfriend. He had only been once before and she never had. It was another glorious day and a perfect day to introduce the hut.
Son cooked bacon sandwiches and I made cups of tea. Then we sat about in the sun, they collected shells, and I went and got an ice cream for us all.

We had a lovely day which ended with me working a night duty and then the following evening was spent in Oxford where we had been invited to dinner in the halls at New College and which is quite an experience...very Harry Potter!
We all sat at long tables and were we served with a three course meal with coffee. We took our own drinks and generally had a wonderful evening which ended at a very respectable time as I had to drive home as I had an early shift to do the next day.




It's been a very busy, very interesting week and it has been a lot of fun. There have been a few things to deal with as is the norm and I don't think that I've let anything stop me form enjoying myself which is good.

I'm off to drink a glass of water now. Have a great week everyone and happy birthday to my little girl.

xxxxx

10,000 steps and 8 glasses of water per day....

.....equals 2lbs weight loss!


Hi everyone,


Yes, every day for the past week I have walked a minimum of 10,000 steps and drunk at least 8 glasses of water a day in an effort to try to get fit and shed some weight. I have not been dieting. I like my food too much for that! I have had chocolate and toast and butter and some really nice meals not to mention the 'occasional' g&t and I have still lost 2lbs. Goodness only knows what I would have lost if I had been dieting too.
In all seriousness, as I know many, many people are dieting at the moment with the summer looming and us all wanting to look our best, I am purely trying to get fitter and I do like a challenge. I am taking the challenge seriously but I am not on a diet.
I am always envious of those who are able to decide to diet and stick to it. I have only ever managed that twice in my life...once with Rosemary Conley back in the day and once with Weight Watchers. Both were successful but the weight didn't stay off because I went back to my old ways and didn't exercise enough and, more importantly, went back to my old ways of eating. So, I don't think diets and I are very compatible.


What I have found in the first week of doing this is that I have got heaps more energy and I think it must be the water. I know that it is recommended that we all drink 8 glasses of water a day and I most definitely don't drink even half of that amount on a good day usually. I have also got used to my weird tasting tap water. I turn on the tap, fill up my glass and drink. Easy!
I've just thought of another benefit...the dreaded night sweats that have been plaguing me for months and months don't seem to be anywhere near as bad and, as a consequence, I am sleeping better. All because of the water? Quite possibly.
I intend to keep up the walking and the water challenge until the end of the month at least and see how I get on. By then it may have become 'the norm'. Who knows?


On another note, today we scattered the ashes of my father in law on what would have been the 61st wedding anniversary of he and his wife. The family gathered at the cricket club where Grandma's ashes are scattered and where there is a bench with a plaque on it in her memory. It was a beautiful sunny morning and there was a youth match being played. The ashes were scattered around the bench by various family members and that was it. Job done. Grandma and Grandad are now reunited and together at one of the places that they loved to go to and where they spent many happy hours. They were both vice presidents at the club and it seemed to be the perfect final resting place for them.


I have a very busy week coming up and lots of things to look forward to including a trip to Paris and a posh dinner in Oxford so I will probably be going on about all that next week.


Enjoy yourselves folks. We only get one shot at this life.


xxxxx