New beginnings

See this? It's my finger. Still attached to my hand and with a blue food-grade elastoplast on it. I couldn't find any ordinary ones but then, we NEVER have any when I want one!

And THIS is the little demon wot dun it! The biggest knife I have and lethally sharp, I used it for cutting up veg this morning. I washed it very carefully, rinsed it under running water and stood it in the drainer while I turned away to get the teatowel to dry it with, at the same time knocking down the lever which turns the tap off - and slicing my finger. BLEED? Think 'stuck pigs'!

I think me and Slimming World have come to the parting of the ways. Although I've been following their plan to the letter, I once again lost only half a pound this week - and that was only the half pound I gained last week which, in turn, took care of the half pound I lost the week before. Impasse! Well I can do that without paying £4.50 each week for the honour. I've been doing some reading and serious thinking and, together with what other people have said to me (including some of you - bless you for that) I've reached some conclusions.

The main one I'll just have to quote from my book of the moment: "If what you're doing isn't working, you need to try something else ".

So ...........

I am going to stop being so horrid to me; have a 'be nice to Angie' regime.

I'm going to accept me just as I am, at any given moment in time.

I'm going to try very hard to remember that other people don't see me as I do. I only see what's in the mirror; others see the whole package.

I'm going to try each day to find one nice thing to say about myself, and believe it.

I'm going to stop being ashamed of my 'fatness' and be proud I'm doing something about it.

I'm going to eat properly and healthily and only when I'm actually hungry.. I know HOW, I just got out of the habit.

It starts right now.

I just had a lovely surprise phone call, while I've been limping around my keyboard with my poorly finger (awww). It was a lady called Jan who has a blog named Serendipity and I've never spoken to her before. She was only looking for a piece of information but we ended up having a good old natter and I have no doubt that we shall natter again very soon. It's nice to put a voice to a name, don't you think? Even nicer if there's a face to go with it, though I understand people being a bit reticent about showing their faces. Specially if they're ugly ............... JOKE!!!!!!!!!!!

For goodness sake, it's almost 2pm (and not a child in the house washed, as they used to say)! Keith will be leaving work soon so I should do something about lunch.

Quite by Chance

When I first started blogging on AOL and again, when I came over to Blogger, I used to wonder how on earth people got all the bits and pieces in their side bars. Now I know the answer: QUITE BY CHANCE!

It's always something seen in others' posts that leads me to think "I could do with one of those". The latest thing I've put in my sidebar is my "Facebook Badge". How did it get there? Search me, I must have done something.. I never in a million years thought I would join Facebook but I saw that there were so many people who had given up blogging for it that I was afraid I would lose touch with them if I didn't sign up. At the moment I don't regret it but.....who knows? HOWEVER - this blog will not sidelined or, even worse, kicked into touch.

I don't make posts as often as I would like to but that's because I'm not one of the world's great natural writers. I do get inspired, but at the wrong times (some people are never grateful). 3am is favourite, closely followed by 'in a dream', then in the bathroom - anywhere, in fact, where neither the computer nor pencil and paper are to be found.

Different topic now: my journey with Slimming World. Ooooooh dear! Things are looking a bit bleak. I gained half a pound last week and I am seriously wondering whether I may have gone as far as I can with Slimming World. I still have weight that needs to be lost but I can't see me losing any more with them. One of my problems is, of course, my enforced inactivity and, whatever they say, a bit of exercise DOES make a difference.

Do you know the really depressing thing? Even if I get down to the weight that I think I could comfortably maintain, the medical world would still class me as overweight. Never mind the struggle I had to get there, never mind that I made the effort - F-A-T is what I'd be. But while we're on the subject and being poetic about it (that last bit rhymes in case you didn't notice), let me just say this: I'm a tryer; I aspire no higher. Wow!

Keith has had a 'was gonna....' week. He was gonna cut the grass, was gonna weed the border and he was gonna take half the contents of his shed to the rubbish tip. "Be ruthless," I said "You know you don't need all those old nails and things you keep stashing away. You will never have need of my old washing up bowl or the old cutlery you nicked from the kitchen to stir paint with." He has even got in there the kitchen sink!! True, he has. The old one that was taken out when we had the kitchen refitted 6 years ago is in there, complete with its cupboard unit. And he's kept it! Is this hoarding of useless rubbish general to men or is it just Keith, his brother, his late father? Genetic maybe?

WE don't hoard things, do we? We collect things: white pots, blue pots, yellow pots, piggies, thimbles, teaspoons, cookbooks.......................... nice things. you know?

Have you noticed something? I've put some pictures in. YIPEE - I can hardly contain myself! And how did I do it? QUITE BY CHANCE!

Ask yer blog...........

Well that was the post from hell wasn't it!! It was for me anyway, I could have wept. It isn't that it was really spectacular it's just that I had spent such a lot of time and effort at it. I think you might have had a giggle at it. It was quite funny really. Oh well, it's gone and I can't write it again because, as with all my posts, I made it up as I went along.

After this little offering, in which the only 'picture' will be my little mouse, I'm going to try and find out what's going wrong. Everyone else seems able to put their pictures up.

Now then, Keith has a question (snigger): he wants to know how you cook battered fish in a deep fat fryer without it welding itself to the bottom of the basket? Come on, altogether, nice and loud, "DON'T USE THE BASKET"!!! He won't listen to me.

{{chuckle chuckle}} Can you imagine him with the rolling pin and a pair of scissors chipping his dinner out of the frying basket.

I caught him cackling over the washing up the other day while I was busy taking my daily meds. I have a little screw-topped plastic pot that I keep the ones in that I need for later on. I'm very methodical about it. I stand lid and pot side by side and then start popping out the tablets. There should be six in the lid (for me to take 'now') and three in the pot (for 'later'). Then I pick up the pot and, looking up through the bottom of it, count silently. Then I pick up the lid and, gazing into it, count them too. silently mouthing "1-2-3-4-5-6". For all the world, he said, it looks as if I'mpraying over them!

I've just re-read that last paragraph and I sound like a real little old lady don't I. I've always been methodical though. One of those sort of people who, if they take anything apart, have to put the screws and things down in the order they came off or else I can't remember where they go. He may well laugh - I'm not the one who has to take things apart again to find where the spare screw goes!

Now, here's the bad news: Keith is selling his concrete mixer (awwww). And the good news: He's got another (yayyyyy). But how about this for a bit of typical male logic: the bloke who used to own the 'new' mixer wants to buy Keith's old one.

According to my Optician I've got dry eyes. If that's so, why do they run so much? Perhaps they're in training for something!!

Well, it's a minute past midnight and my coach has just turned back into a pumpkin so I shall wish you all Goodnight and God Bless.

Sometimes I just wish and wish that I had a bigger house and two legs that could be relied on to keep up! Keith's 65th birthday and retirement at the end of October will be here in no time. Sorry to those of you who thought we were going to have summer first! He will finish work on 23rd October - our 38th wedding anniversary - and on the Sunday will be a lunch for immediate family. I've booked a big table at a local hostelry (there will only be 15 of us)but it will be just a basic Sunday lunch, the attraction being that nobody has to work for it. Nobody has to do the dishes!

Oh but how I wish I could do it myself, with the best china, the best glassware, a table to be proud of and food to die for. I even had to ask someone else to do his cake. Now I know it will be special - a designer cake if ever there was one because the lady is an expert - but I will never have the chance to do Keith's special cake again.

Oh listen to me, whinging on! I know I must accept my limitations, and I do usually, but in this case it's just getting to me a bit.

OH NO - I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT BELIEVE THIS. I'VE JUST SPENT ABOUT 3 HOURS WRITING THE REST OF THIS POSTING, TRIED TO UPLOAD SOME PICTURES AND - WHAM - IT'S GONE! EVERYTHING I'VE WORKED AT TONIGHT HAS DISAPPEARED INTO THE ETHER. WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?

Not only can I not sign off with my little mouse but I can't bring you any photos nor even a decent post. Excuse me whle I go have myself committed.

love, Angie, xxx

Not quite Sun Dried Tomatoes

Now listen, I wouldn't want to steal anyone's thunder here. I'm not a foody blog, right? But I just wanted to share this recipe with you because you can eat as much of it as you like - just as it is - or you can use it when sun-dried tomatoes are called for in a recipe. If you keep them covered in the fridge you can keep picking at them for a week. This isn't even my recipe, I got it from a woman at Slimming but I shouldn't think she's copyrighted it. It's for everyone who can't open the fridge door without picking at SOMETHING!


You would only want to make it when you have a glut of little cherry tomatoes in your garden, or when they're selling them cheap at the market. Red ones, yellow ones, it doen't matter. Mix 'em up! The only criterion is that they're tasty.


Sorry, no photo because I forgot to take one!


Amanda's Not Quite Sun Dried Tomatoes

1 lb (or more) cherry tomatoes, halved

a good pinch of sea salt

a good pinch of demerara sugar

a good pinch of freshly ground black pepper

a good pinch of oregano (or mint or rosemary or thyme - what do you like?)

Fry Light Cooking spray



Pre-heat the oven as hot as it will go (just do it!)

Cover a large (mine's 12" x 12") baking tray with aluminium foil.

Spray well with Fry light


Arrange the halved tomatoes, cut side up and complete with skin and seeds, on the baking tray

Spray the tomatoes well with Fry Light

Sprinkle with salt, sugar, pepper and whatever herb takes your fancy. I used dried but you can use chopped fresh ones. Probably even better.


Note: SPRAY BEFORE YOU SPRINKLE or the spray blows the other stuff away!


Now, put them on a high shelf in the hot oven.

Time them for 5 MINUTES ONLY.


Now turn the oven off - DON'T OPEN THE DOOR, they'll be ok.


Go to bed leaving the tomatoes in the oven all night.


Next morning excavate tray from oven. The tomatoes will have dried ever so slightly round the edges, retaining their shape and becoming a little bit sticky just on the top. Eat one. You'll find they're tender and succulent.



Now I find I can't even make my usual litlle Angie mouse appear so you'll just have to believe this is from the real, genuine, authentic

ANGIE

XXX

The Shame of it!

There's good news and bad today. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. I am ashamed to say that at tonight's Slimming World weigh in I had gained 2lbs. I hope to lose 3 lbs next week. In fact, hope isn't in it. In fact, watch out Heaven and Earth because you're about to be moved!

Now for the good stuff: fiddling about the other day I came across the Friends Reunited site and it has improved a lot from when I had my name enrolled a few years ago. And it's FREE. It didn't used to be. Anyway, I enrolled again just to see if any of my old school colleagues might get in touch. And sure enough, that same evening, I got a message from a girl I had been in touch with years ago on FR. Guess how she started her message? "Angie, where the HELL have you been......" - as though I had just popped out for a bottle of milk! It'll be lovely catching up. And yes, I did mean "girl". School = boys and girls, right? Not grandmas and grandpas, Just so we got that straight!

I had my two-yearly bone scan in Sheffield today and, thankfully, my bones are no less dense than they were 2 years ago. Mind you, as you can hardly see them on an x-ray it's hard to see how they can get much less dense! I can still look forward to fracturing even more as I get older including, possibly, spontaneous fractures. That was a new one on me but it seems that very un-dense bones can fracture, though rarely, without provocation, specially if you're treated with bisphosphonates (which I am). "So," said the doctor, "You can either stop the drug and run a little risk of losing bone density, or you can keep the drugs and run a little risk of spontaneous fracture." Decisions, decisions! Well me and my drugs are very happy together and we've got used to each other over the years so.......! Hey, what's a little risk!


xxxx

THIS AND THAT

Here I am.....it's me-eeeeeeeeee! Did anyone wonder if I'd emigrated or something?

The first thing I want to tell you is that since the last week in April I have lost 16 lbs. I know that doesn't sound like much but it means the world to me! I would like to wave bye-bye to another 28lbs but that may be a bit over-ambitious. I'll aim for 14 and see how it goes. One of the reasons I wanted to lose some weight was to prove to myself that it could be done without going to the gym or taking vigorous walks. Because of my bone condition those things are not possible but on the other hand I didnt want to starve to death either. Some of you will know that I do like my food and a lettuce leaf and half a tomato WILL NOT DO! So there we are, with barely a finger lifted and food aplenty, I've made a start.
.
Keith found a fiver (£5) a couple of weeks ago as we crossed the Church car park. Well now, if that had been me I would have handed it in somewhere. You never know, do you, maybe it belonged to someone who didn't have any more. He scoffed at the idea! "More likely somebody off to the shop for a packet of fags." Anyway, next day he was in the paper shop and bought a £5 Lotto with it. And on the Saturday it won! Well, sort of - £40. It was always our intention to go to one of the local village fetes on the Sunday and we did. I was instructed to leave my money at home, he would pay. When he's paying, specially with ill gotten gains, the least they could do is make it expensive! Nope - only £1 for the car park (on foot it was free) The fete was so very English. The Vicar in a straw hat minding his stall. A brass band playing. Strawberries. Candy floss. Ice Cream. Pony rides. Egg and spoon and sack races. Dog obedience display. A warm, sunny afternoon with just an occasional fluffy white cloud.


Of course, I just HAD to have some recipe books. I only bought 2 and they were only little old paper-back booklets from 1960's and 70's. What really interested me were the magazine and newspaper snippets and the barely legible handwritten recipes tucked in the books. Hundreds of them! So my new hobby is going to have to be scrapbooking them all. And the thousands of others that were left by my dear old surrogate grandma Helen.

I do love to let my imagination loose on handwritten recipes! I can just imagine the grey heads put together over church tea "Oh you must give me the recipe for your scones Edith if it's not a family secret dear." One recipe in particular - it's for Victoria Sandwich Cake - is scribbled on the back of a scrap of paper that somebody's husband has been using to work out his finances on. I bet he searched the house for that!

Keith is retiring at the end of October and is really looking forward t it. I'm not sure! He says he is going to start making beer in the garden shed. He hasn't thought this through. The contents of 'his' shed will have to disgorge onto the lawn again and he will begin the painful process - yet again - of journey after journey to the rubbish dump using whatever trailer he can beg from friends while his perfectly good (brand new) one sits unused at someone else's house! So that's just for a start. We have to fire the window cleaner because it's "pointless paying £3 a fortnight". He's going to do it himself. So he says.

AND - now remember I told you this - he says I can use the long service money he will get from the factory to buy a laptop. Huh? You heard it here! I never told you what he is having for his birthday in October. Picture this.....I swear it is what he wanted.....you know how some guys get 2 weeks in Bermuda or somewhere? He's having 3 nights in Blackpool to see the lights. Believe it or not we could almost have had a week somewhere warm for the price of that. Because of my wheelchair we have to stay in decent hotels with accessible rooms so that bumps the price up. No wonder English people don't take holidays in England is there? OK, that's it for now. Hope to be back sometime soon
XXX