Electric Bikes

Today I took another step forward to lowering my carbon foot print, I took delivery of my beautiful Electric Bike.

This has been the result of much research over recent months I decided that I need high spec and power because I plan to get to work on it every day and there are quite a few hills also it has to carry my ample but lessening weight!  I was put off when reading reviews about other bikes when the reviewer commented that his wife who was lighter got on better and that his bike struggled with his 10 stone frame!

Electric Bike World were incredibly helpful when I visited recently for a test ride, I'm sure I will get used to it but it did seem to go quite a bit faster than I usually go on a Bike!
Actually, there is quite a list of colleagues and family who want to test ride it.

Goodbye to 15 Stone

 Today an important milestone was passed I have said goodbye to being 15 Stone something

“When was the last time you were less than 15 stone?” OH enquired I replied before we got married which is more than 10 years ago but frankly I don’t have a clue. What I do know however is that quite soon I will need some new clothes but I have decided to try and wait until pay day at the end of March as I hope it will be warmer so I could buy spring kit, I’ll be thinner too. This change is happening so fast it seems I’m very happy about it.

Long time no post

It's more than a year since my last post (confession)!  Things have moved on quite a lot recently I'm on a diet!  I know I know diet dribble is so boring but this time I am exited I have already lost more than a stone with hardly any effort I'm beginning to feel much better.  The diet is called Dukan Diet and is invented by a french medical doctor.

http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/t/w4PZ6Cu/weight.png

Seeing the Light

Yesterday a very dear friend who I've not talked to in maybe 3 or 4 years called me, I wrote to her at Christmas confessing that I've been a depressed antisocial idiot and saying we should meet and that I would call.  Yet is was she that called me!  It was so good to speak we have a meeting set up now.  I wonder how long it would have taken me to make that call?  A day? A week? A year? Would another Christmas have gone by?

Simple Pleasure

I captured this image today. I’m still off work ill and quite low with the virus, but the kitchen reorganisation has progressed just a tiny bit. This glassware belonged to my great Aunt Eva and I found it lurking at the back of the kitchen cupboard yesterday I dusted it down and placed it on the upstairs loo window sill. Today the way it captured the light caught my eye.

I confess that I'm not thrilled by the sight of the black mould on the crittal windows, it does not come off with wipe, still it's often seen in the pages of Country Living Magazine, so that's alright with me.

Organising the Kitchen

This morning my mind is attuned to organising the kitchen better so it fits my needs. Unfortunately the rest of me is not so in tune to this objective as I’m back in bed already having made a cup of tea, a piece of toast (gluten free of course) and loaded the dishwasher. In fact I should be at work but I’m still too ill I hope to be well enough to go tomorrow.


Here is how the kitchen looked this morning

That’s after I loaded the dishwasher! Hardly conducive to making wonderful meals or chatting with friends, two years ago I formed a plan to rework the whole kitchen and dining room into one big space and I still yearn for that but M has not responded to this wish and the money that was earmarked for the project has disappeared on other things. So now I want to make some change on a very low or nil budget.

I’ve been feeling disenfranchised in my own kitchen and in the last few months I have been reclaiming it whenever I have been well enough to cook. In 2007, 2008 and a good part of 2009 I have been so exhausted just trying to get through my working day that M has been making all our meals he’s been a life saver.

Now I am quite a bit better I feel like I must be six inches shorter, how this happened I don’t know, but reaching up to get things seems impossible, sorting out to find ingredients that may be at the back of the cupboard is such a challenge and worst when M empties the dishwasher he will often put dishes actually on top of the Kitchen cupboards where they are lost to me forever or at least until I am prepared to climb on to a chair to get them.

So my action plan for January is to try at least get the things that I plan to use regularly where I can reach them easily.

Here my cappuccino cup is on the top shelf needed for my regular weekend treat but such an effort to get to. With only two of us generally at home now do I really need this many plates in my easy access space?

This cupboard is not as accessible as it looks at first glance it is situated above the dishwasher and microwave and extends right to the window over some inaccessible worktop near the draining board.

Wish me luck I will keep you posted.

I wanted to be in Cornwall

I planned to go to Cornwall this weekend to see my friend Jean; she lives in Polperro it’s not too far from Plymouth. The problem was twofold firstly the weather or should I say the weather spin doctors yes the UK had more snow last week than it has seen in 30 years and yes apparently we are running out of grit for roads but in my day things slowed down in snow they did not stop. We went to school, trains mostly ran, buses were late but rarely cancelled. Then secondly there was the forecast more snow for the South & West for Sunday afternoon and evening, just when we were planning to be travelling back! On the news everything was cancelled most football matches, only one Guinness Premiership Rugby match went ahead Leicester & Wasps most of these were cancelled not because the pitches or the grounds were unsafe but because Local Authorities could not be assured that “the public” would not be injured on frozen roads and pavements so advice was that all but essential travel should be postponed. Now we have a 4x4 but none the less the other half declared that our weekend should be put off until next week. I am quite certain that if he really wanted to go we would have he was trained in Arctic survival by the Royal Marines after all, but no I was deemed too fragile to travel in such conditions.  For real snow travel problem check this out.


Well I might not have minded being stuck there for a few days back in 2002 I went down on my own I remember then that I woke up on the 4th January and there was quite thick ice on the inside of the windows, last year Jean had some new heaters installed and double glazing done so now life is much more comfortable for her. But she has seen no family or friends at all over the Christmas period and I very much wanted to bring a little seasonal cheer.

Any way my fragility was proven when on Saturday afternoon I started sneezing, I have a classic head cold and I am still suffering this morning not well enough to go to work, they will probably think that I’m still living it up in Cornwall whereas I’m tucked in bed with a hot water bottle, a good book and a laptop for company.

I will leave you with a picture taken very close to home on 6th January, as I said the most snow for 30 years!