My Year in Pictures - 2014

That was the year that was....

After 2 redundancies and 12 years of low paid jobs, I was finally in a position to be able to buy a car.  It is the oldest car I have ever owned, it is the cheapest car I have ever owned, but, my word, it is the most appreciated of any car I have ever had the use of.

June saw exams and a week in Spain, most of the week was spent here...

 In the Alcatraz...

In Gringo Joe's....

Or in the strawberry cake shop, otherwise known as Bar Centric.

In September I travelled to Norfolk for a birthday party, I also visited some of the local attractions.

The Gruffalo Trail, High Lodge Thetford, Suffolk

 Banham Zoo, Norfolk

Gallifrey, Norfolk

September also saw me in Prestatyn for the Queen Fan Club Convention weekend.  Beautiful Haven site, but the sea had evidently gone away for the weekend too!

October saw me back in Norfolk for Halloween, alcohol may have been involved here, the theme was Doctor Who if anyone is still wondering,  I went as a fat Ace.

I again visited some local attractions.

Africa Alive, Suffolk

WWT Welney, Norfolk.

Then December was exams (boo) and Christmas, a colleague and I were taken out for a Christmas meal by our line managers (and friends) to say thank you for our help over the year.

Then Santa arrived

And New Year Happened.

The Grape Escape if anyone is wondering.

Happy 2015 everyone!

My Christmas Presents

I wasn't going to follow the pack and do this, but then I looked at everyone else's posts and changed my mind.

These are my gifts...

From Mum and Dad I received the bottle of brandy, they also paid the deposit for the Queen Fan Club Convention weekend that I attend every year.

From elsewhere in the family I received a toilet bag with hand soap and hand cream.

From my friends at work I received a beautiful candle, a large selection of frozen cocktails (yummy) and some warm socks.

I didn't get anything from the dog this year, she was obviously a little low on funds.

Hope Santa visited you all too.

Another Christmas as a single woman.

Every year I say that 'this is going to be last Christmas and New Year as a single woman', and every year it isn't.

I watch everyone worrying about what to buy partners, children, the world and I wonder why people seem to make such a big thing about this time of year, why do they get into debt to buy presents, why the panic about not being able to get cranberry sauce?

Would I be like that if I wasn't single?

I'm guessing I will never find out as I am never going to be anything but single.

I leave the house for work, college and holidays and that is it.  Thanks to my medication, going to work and college is no longer an issue, leaving the house to go on holiday is still a struggle.

And when I do get out, I always holiday in the same place, and much as I love my time there, (if I get there, I have booked hotels and not used them) I know everyone, and I am never going to meet anyone.

I have tried online dating, it wasn't successful.  Although that is probably a good thing as I would have had to force myself to leave the house to meet up.

I do get annoyed when I hear people complaining about being single for weeks or months.  Try 43 years!

Whilst I was looking for a suitable illustration for this post, I came across this item from The Mirror, it's a Christmas survival guide for singles. 

1. More money to spend on yourself - yep, bought myself a new duvet and pillows, boots and smellies.
2. Don't be the only single person at the party - what's a party?
3. Go for a winter escape - I was intending to, but outside forces (I shan't say what) put paid to that idea.
4. Fill your time - I'm working most of Christmas and have no-one local to meet up with anyway.
5. Catch up with family - I see Mum and Dad every day, I have no brothers and sisters.

Bah Humbug!

Am I the only one not interested in the John Lewis Christmas adverts?

I really don't get the fascination with the John Lewis ads but I seem to be alone in this.

The first one that I really remember, I may have seen earlier ones, is the one that showed the old dog outside in a snow covered kennel, a little boy runs out, gives him a present and runs straight back into the warm house.

I didn't like the advert, and as far as I remember, it had to be edited to remove that section due to a poor response.

Two years ago, a Snowman struggles through the snow to the store to buy a hat and scarf for snowy girlfriend.  For some reason I always feel sorry for robots and the like, I can't watch a Confused.Com advert, and I couldn't watch the Snowman's struggles.

Last year's was all animated animals and I just felt so sorry for all of them, I again couldn't watch, (it also reminded me too much of Watership Down).

Now this year we have Monty The Penguin, although I know it was a CGI penguin, all I could think of all the way through was, 'that poor penguin'.  I know at the end it is revealed that it is a toy penguin but the advert was already ruined for me.

Had the opening scenes shown that it was a toy, but then the boy imagines that it is real, I think I could have quite enjoyed it.

Does anyone else think the adverts are overrated?

Sunday Night Mash Up

This week saw the start of 2014, so HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It was also back to work after my Christmas leave, but with the schools and colleges being closed, the bus journeys this week have been short!  Although Monday and Tuesday it was a Saturday service which meant an extra couple of miles on an already lengthy run.

The weather has been bad this week.  I am not a fan of Coventry, but frankly, having seen the conditions that elsewhere has suffered, I am quite pleased that I am in the centre of the country.  The worst we really have seen are a few slightly flooded roads, a few battered fences and some downed wheelie bins.

Friday night I felt like a bit of a gamble.  I have an online account with William Hill and have done for some years.  I am useless with the horses and football too, but I do like the slot machines (or one armed bandits as we used to call them). I managed to turn my original £50 stake into over £2000!  You could have knocked me down with a feather.

Unfortunately, never being one to be able to stop whilst I am ahead, I carried on playing and ended up withdrawing 'just' £1200, still, it all adds to the car fund.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I will be the grand old age of 43, I have no idea what presents, if any, I am going to get.

I still have over a month before I receive my ACCA exam results, it seems so long since I sat them.

Weightloss Challenge - The Sequel (This Time It Is Personal).

So Christmas is over and not just the goose got fat!

After being reasonably successful in the run up to Christmas, I think I have probably put on all the weight that I had lost, and I think it brought friends.

I am hoping to lose weight a bit more consistently this time, I had a big loss the first week (6lbs) but then patchy in the following weeks.  My goal this time is to lose 5% of my body weight, at my start weight of 17st 7lb (aaarrrggghhhhh), this means that I am aiming for a loss of 12.5lbs but I am not putting a time limit on it.

It is my birthday tomorrow and that means taking cakes into work, but after that I will be good.  I am currently planning my lunches, so fingers crossed.

I have added a weightloss ticker at the top of my blog, so it will be the first thing everyone sees! Hopefully this will help.

"What I got for Christmas 2013"

I have seen a lot of 'what I got for Christmas' posts, some people having to do them in 2 or 3 parts, so here is mine.

From Mum and Dad

£50
A Cosy TV Blanket

2 Bedsheets

Box of Biscuits

Box of Marzipan Fruits

From the Dog

A bottle of Cherry Liqueur

From the rest of the family

A tea light holder

From Work

A big bottle of Babycham and a Brandy miniature
A matching skull necklace and bracelet
A half bottle of Brandy
A book of scary stories, bookmarks and a handmade black heart necklace

The marzipan fruit have already been demolished and the brandy and the biscuits have been started!

The Pros and Cons of being Single at Christmas.

I'm feeling a bit (more) fed up (than usual) at the minute, so to cheer myself up I started to list the pros of being single at this family oriented time of the year, then added the cons to make sure I was still ahead.

So here goes

Pros

• I don't have to worry about the cost of Christmas
• I don't have to think about what to buy people
• I don't have the last minute 'did I get the right thing/enough stuff' panic
• I don't have to decide whose house to go to for dinner
• I don't have to put a tree up because there is no-one to see it
• I don't have to share the chocolates with anyone

Cons

• I don't have anyone's face to watch when they open their gifts
• I don't have anyone to cuddle up with after a hard day's preparation
• I don't have a smiling face to wake up to
• I don't have anyone to share the chocolates with
• I don't have anyone to go for a cheeky drink with whilst doing the shopping

I am hoping next year that I won't have to worry about being single for Christmas, but then again I said that last year.  

So, everyone out there who does have someone to spend Christmas with, enjoy yourselves and make sure they know how much you appreciate them.

Christmas Songs

Much as I don't particularly enjoy Christmas, I do like some of the music that is associated with it.

Here is a selection.

The Muppet Christmas Carol - Ebeneezer Scrooge: I love this, in fact it is my ring tone

Nativity! - Sparkle and Shine: It was ages before I actually watched this film, yes it was filmed in my city (Coventry), my former school (Coventry School - Bablake, used in the film as Oakmoor School) and a former workplace (I had a brief stint at the Cathedral), but it was about kids.  I eventually watched it and was hooked, tears were streaming down my face.  And who couldn't love Bob!

The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York:  I can't find anything wrong with this track, I like the Pogues and I thought Kirtsy MacColl was great and yet another talent taken before their time.

The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping: I know it is officially the countdown to Christmas when I hear this.

David Essex - A Winter's Tale

Slade - Merry Christmas Everybody: Will get everyone up and dancing, every time!

Queen - Thank God It's Christmas: I couldn't not put this in!

and finally, something a bit more serious

Greg Lake - I Believe in Father Christmas.

Lose a Stone for Christmas/Pounds for Pounds

I didn't post last week as I wasn't very well.  I don't know if it was something I ate that disagreed with me, or I picked a 24 hour thing, either way I got in from work and went straight to bed.

This week saw the start of my exams, so chocolate has been a staple part of my diet, somehow I only managed to put 1/4lb back on.  Maybe stress is a weightloss accelerator.

I have two more exams before my next weigh in, so fingers crossed for both my remaining exams and my weigh in.

Goal: 14lbs

Lost last week: 0.75lbs

Total lost: 8.25lbs
Still to lose: 5.75lbs

Goal: 14lbs

Lost this week: 0.25lbs GAIN

Total lost: 8.00lbs
Still to lose: 6.00lbs

Christmas, Love it or Loathe it?

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

And I am getting grumpy.

I am not a fan of Christmas and haven't been for years.  I loved it as a child, making paper chains, covering the house, and the dog, in glitter, glitter which you were still emptying out of the vacuum cleaner at Easter, putting the tree up, putting the cards up, I even enjoyed wrapping presents.

But as I got older I started enjoying it less and less.  And any enjoyment I still had was knocked out of me by four Christmases working in retail.

As I was single and childless, I was obviously available to do every late night.  Occasionally, the late nights were planned ahead, but a lot of the time we would be informed on the 5pm regional conference call that we had to stay open until 10pm because M&S were, or Next were.  A 10pm close meant the earliest we would be out would be 10.30pm.  Being a manager I was paid for 40 hours regardless of whether I worked 40 hours or 140 hours.

Because of the hours I was working in the run up to Christmas culminating in a late night finish Christmas Eve to get ready for the Boxing Day sale, and an extra early start Boxing Day, I used to spend most of Christmas Day asleep, going to Mum and Dad's to open presents and eat lunch and then back home again. 

Mum and Dad started going to Germany for Christmas and did this for a couple of years.  The first year I spent Christmas Day with a pizza and the telly, the next year I went to a friend's house.  

I have been away for Christmas too, but I went to Spain, but it really is expensive to go.

There are adverts every Christmas reminding us to think of the old people whose only company will be the television, it's not only the older generation who can be alone.  In the past I have gone nearly a fortnight without speaking to anyone.  This was after I had been made redundant, Mum and Dad had gone on holiday on the Saturday, I had to attend the Job Centre on the Monday and I didn't see or speak to anyone then until Mum and Dad got back.

Even now, other than work and college I don't see anyone other than a couple of times a year.

I do think Christmas is for families and groups.  As a single person you do feel very left out.  I said last year that I did not want to spend this Christmas as a single person like I have all my previous 41 Christmases and New Years.  But I am.

I have volunteered to work this year, if I am going to be alone, I may as well be alone in the office using their heating and lighting as using mine!

Lose a Stone for Christmas/Pounds for Pounds

This week saw the second weigh in of the Pounds for Pounds challenge at work.  Unfortunately, I am not at work this week as I am in Birmingham on revision courses for my ACCA exams next month

I did weigh in at home, and although the scales seem to weigh different to those at work, the overall weightloss should be the same, so that is what I am going with.  I will be back at work for next Tuesday's weigh in, so I will be back to accurate figures.

This week, according to my scales, I have lost 1.5lbs and I am pleased with this.  Hopefully it means that I have broken my usual diet/fail cycle.

Onwards and upwards!

Goal: 14lbs

Lost this week: 1.5lbs

Total lost: 7.5lbs
Still to lose: 6.5lbs

Sunday Night Mash Up

This week has seen me in Birmingham on a revision course for one of my forthcoming ACCA exams and it was hard going.  I have another revision course this coming week and 2 weeks on Monday is my first exam of this sitting!  Oh, poo.

The Birmingham Christmas Market has opened this week too which makes getting to the train station fun.  You know that scene in every zombie movie ever where there are 100s of zombies stumbling along and one or two humans are trying to blend in? That's how I have felt.

I wasn't actually trying to blend in, but I physically could not move any faster than a shuffle and I was penned in on every side.  It was not fun.  I eventually managed to nip down a side street and away from the crowd.

Only five more evenings to get through, I will try not to kill anyone.

I have to say though, although the market is called the Frankfurt market, I did not hear one German accent, or see one German registered vehicle.

There was a Belgian Hot Chocolate van, noodle bars, falafal, stalls selling ostrich burgers, jerk chicken, none of which I believe are German.

The beer stalls were doing good business, I do think it is the novelty of being able to walk around with a pint in their hands that was attracting people, it certainly wasn't the price.

Majority of the craft stalls looked like they had all gone to the same warehouse to fill up.

I imagine that it would nice to walk around with friends, and stop now and then for a drink or something to eat, but when I am on my own and it is between me and home I have to say I am not impressed.

Silent Sunday - 17/11/13

Lose a stone by Christmas, Reset.

I have been trying to lose weight with a group of fellow bloggers, and failing miserably.  However, last week at work we started Pounds for Pounds, we pay £2 each week with all money going to the onsite hospice.  It started off with just a handful of people taking part, but there are now 14 of us so we have been split into two teams.  After the final weigh in the losing team has to take the winners out for lunch.  Also, the last week's fee will be £4, half to the hospice and the rest towards a gift card for the biggest loser.

So, with this in mind, and also my dismal attempts so far, I have reset my weight to that which I weighed in on on the scales at work which was 244lbs (aaarrghhhh), my goal is still a 14lbs loss.

It was our first weigh in today, 13 of the 14 people taking part were available and between us we lost 30lbs!

I lost 6lbs which really surprised me (good old Weightwatchers), I am expecting to put some of that back on this week, but hopefully not too much of it.

As we are raising money for charity, even I fail someone will benefit.

Goal: 14lbs

Lost this week: 6lbs

Total lost: 6lbs
Still to lose: 8lbs

Lose a stone by Christmas - Week 8

I missed last week's weigh in, and I think I should have missed this week's too!

The 2 pounds I lost in week 6 are back, and they brought a friend too.

On the upside, I have am having a fab time at the minute and so I am not too fussed about losing any weight.  Give it a couple of weeks till I am back to my usual grumpy self and I will be trying to diet again.

Goal: 14lbs

Lost this week: 3lb GAIN

Total lost: 1 lb GAIN
Still to lose: 15lbs

Lose a stone by Christmas - Week 5

Week 5 and I have lost a pound, so I am now back to where I was 5 weeks ago!

It's a bit annoying as when I had my midweek weigh in on Friday, I had lost 3lbs but have since managed to put 2 of them back on.

I shall soldier on.

Goal: 14lbs

Lost this week: 1lb

Total lost: nil
Still to lose: 14lbs

Lose a stone by Christmas - Week 4

Week 4 and no loss, but on a positive note I have not put any more on!

I have two assessments that have to be completed and in to my training provider by Tuesday of next week, so hopefully having a pen in one hand and a calculator in the other will prevent me from having a free hand to shove food into my mouth!

Strange as it seems, now that the colder weather is starting to arrive I should do better with my weightloss (famous last words) as I seem to pick less if I have a hot meal than I do if I have something cold, like a salad.

Anyway, fingers crossed.

Goal: 14lbs

Lost this week: no change

Total lost: 1lb gain
Still to lose: 15lbs

Lose a stone by Christmas - Week 3

Well week 3 and things are not improving.  I know I overindulged somewhat at the weekend, but I really thought that between the extra walking I did, up hill and down, well, hill (including walking around a very foggy graveyard at 7.30 on the Sunday morning) and the amount of time I spent in the bathroom (sorry), everything would have balanced out.  But I was wrong.

I have no plans this week except for being back in Birmingham all weekend with my ACCA course, so fingers crossed!

Goal: 14lbs

Lost this week: 2lbs gain

Total lost: 1lb gain
Still to lose: 15lbs

Lose a stone by Christmas - Week 2

Today was my second weigh in and I have put 3lbs back on, but it could have been worse seeing as much of the weekend was spent eating cakes and chocolate and drinking alcohol.  This week I am on Annual Leave and I have a barbecue to go to on Saturday so am not expecting great things this week either.

How is everyone else getting on?

Goal: 14lbs

Lost this week: 3lbs gain

Total lost: 1lbs
Still to lose: 13lbs