Driving/weight/weekend

[lnr]

So-so driving lesson this morning. The week's stresses seemed to be getting at me somewhat and I didn't drive very well really. Got the reversing round the corner perfect after 3 disastrous attempts though. More lessons booked for next Wednesday and the one after, hopefully I can calm down by then and have a more relaxed drive. Out of town seemed to be mostly pretty OK though, and the A14 wasn't too horrible. Hate the car though: glance at the blindspot over your right shoulder and the blind spot is *all* you can see in the direction, it's really disconcerting when I've been used to a bike.

Weight update didn't get done last night, so I'll wibble about it here and that entry can just be the graphs. I really knew I'd had a bad week, and I do still suspect the loss last week was at least partly only dehydration and a small lunch rather than real loss, IYSWIM. So this week I've put half a stone back on, meaning I'm now a whole stone away from my target again. Definitely chubbier around the tummy again too which is annoying.

Feeling frustrated with the whole thing to some extent: being shattered in the mornings at the moment I'm just not finding the time or energy to make lunch to take in, and feeling like I can't be arsed to go into town either I've been eating junk food instead. Feeling a bit like I'm stuck in a straitjacket eating-wise for the rest of my life if I don't want to just get fat again, which is demoralising, but I know it won't be quite this bad once I'm actually there. Feel a bit like Bev has just been assuming that I know what I'm doing since I've been doing well for so long, whereas really because now is the first time I've really struggle now is when I feel like I need the help most.

Determined to get back on track now though: don't want to feel like all my clothes are too tight again, and I gave away all the big ones so I can't just quietly go back up a size and pretend it's not happening. Going to try and be positive about it, because it *is* worth it, and when it's going well it's not really that hard to do or that much of a sacrifice.

Nearly the weekend now anyway, and looking forward to a break. (And a longer one next weekend too since I've booked next Friday off). Doesn't seem to be much going on on Saturday, so I think I'll throw a smallish party. Not a soireé though, we don't have the nibbles and the posh drinks for it. Um. Should try introduce Ross to August and see if those two and Colin fancy setting up a scots geek enclave, since all 3 of them could do with somewhere a bit closer to town. A lot in August's case, if he doesn't want to commute from Edinburgh: apparently he has 3 flats lined up to view today though.

Comments

[simont]

I could bring some nibbles if you like :-)

*hugs*

(mmmm, nibbles...)

[lnr]

Well, I probably shalln't be eating them myself, but feel free.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Got the reversing round the corner perfect after 3 disastrous attempts though.

You should have seen me trying to reverse into our drive when I got home on Wednesday night. I got the angle wrong on the first two attempts, worrying so much about hitting the wall that I didn't leave enough room on the other side; then finally got in but at such an awful angle that I decided to try to straighten up, and faffed about for a good 10 minutes failing to get the car in a straight line. And then I thought I'd got it pretty good (and besides I was too tired to faff any more) but sion_a said the next day that the wheels had been at a dreadful angle. :-/

The good thing is though that in real-life driving you can take several goes at things like that... and I think even in the test you can pull back round the corner and have another go if you can feel it all going wrong. Good luck with it all anyway... are the manoeuvres something you can practice in ewx's car, or is it just too different a size/shape/etc.?

[...]

Doesn't seem to be much going on on Saturday, so I think I'll throw a smallish party.

Is daneel_olivaw invited too? :) Will have to check with him if he's up for partying before I can say one way or the other. But if I (we) do come, I'll try to bring sin-free nibbles, even if it's only some nice fruit or something.

[lnr]

He is yes, (I tend to Bcc invite lists, rather than letting everyone see all the other addresses, this does have the disadvantage you've just encountered though). It would be nice to see you both if you want to come along, but perfectly understandable if you'd rather have an evening to yourselves for a change.

Fruit would be lovely, but feel free to bring lots of crisps too, I don't like people to feel like they're not allowed to eat things around me in case it's a temptation. Some of the fun of food is looking at it and thinking "mmmm, that looks really yummy" and I can do that just as well if other people are eating it :-)

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

Should try introduce Ross to August and see if those two and Colin fancy setting up a scots geek enclave, since all 3 of them could do with somewhere a bit closer to town.

An considering moving out of Sherbourne Close myself since now Greenend's going I'm feeling rather out on a limb, and there's the smoke issue as well.. also what about this Iain chap who's staying with you and ewx at the moment?

[lnr]

Sorry, August == Iain. But if you're looking for places definitely talk to Ross.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Apparently he's found himself somewhere...

[simonb.livejournal.com]

I can still remember the fun I had when it came to reversing around corners when I was learning; thankfully my driving instructor would always manage to find the most evil corners for me to reverse around so that when it came to the test it was easy - AFAIR he had me practise on a corner which was down a hill, was very sharp and the angle between the roads was less than 90°... the one in the test was very easy as a result. My instructor also had me doing three point turns on narrow roads on hills which had nasty cambers in them. I think that my instructor had the right idea - make me encounter nasty things on the road with him and the test would be easy... and driving after the test would be easier as well.

Party sounds good; would you like us to bring along S/F food ? Thanks to illness I've got a load of potatoes I could turn into those chickpea/potato/spicy things I've made at the last few of our parties.

[lnr]

Those are really yummy, so they'd certainly go down well, but don't feel you have to.

[kake]

> [...] chickpea/potato/spicy things [...]

These sound rather nice — is the recipe available anywhere? I had a look at your recipe memories but couldn't see them there.

Kake

[simonb.livejournal.com]

They're not in my recipe archive as they come from a Slimming World cook book :)

The recipe is pretty much:

• 5-6 large potatoes
• 2 cans chick peas
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp bombay spice mix
• 1 tbsp baking powder (yes, you can get G/F versions :)
• Salt & Pepper
• FryLite

Chop up the potatoes and boil for ~10 minutes. Drain and add the chick peas. Mash together. Slowly mix in the spice mix and baking powder. Mix in the egg.

Form into small balls (I prefer to wear gloves and do it by hand) and put onto a baking sheet sprayed with FryLite. Once the tray is full spray FryLite over it.

Put into an oven preheated to GM7/220°C/425°F for around 20-30 minutes, or until the balls have a nice golden brown colour.

[kake]

Cool, thanks! Now, the next challenge is to find a way to add this to my “memorable posts” as just itself rather than having the entire thread there and wondering in a year's time why I saved it...

[simonb.livejournal.com]

See this journal entry of mine (http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=simonb&itemid=159330) which I just posted :)

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

Sig recipe!