Perseid Meteor Watch At The Tin Hut

As I mentioned before ... Facebook - which I initially hated then learned to use to my advantage - has taken over from my blogging. I said I'd copy from there and paste here ... oh, my word, the things you've missed about my grumpy old man, I really must bring you up to date. Anyway here's a few snippets straight from Facebook of my nights spent freezing my bits off on a sunlounger watching for the Perseid meteor shower.

badgers from earlier this year ... well you can only look at so many photos of whitish spots ;)

Gone midnight 7th August - Stargazing ... practising for meteor watch. All that's flashed past so far are satellites and loads of bats.
1.04 - Got an owl here now and my camera is busy!!
9.02 - It looks like my photography skills need addressing ... I suppose I can be forgiven as it's the first time I've dared go out in the night since last year after all the oddities I or my camera witnessed.

#meteorwatch was a disaster, not one single photo, yet I know there should have been four (saw five). Saw Eight satellites and all I can find in the photos is an aeroplane and a strange flash but there were so many bats that they must have got in every photo :/

All I got of the owl is his eyes and he posed for at least two minutes.

My swearing was kept to a minimum when I was struggling with the sunlounger, tripod and camera, then realised I'd taken my glasses off, so had to use the light from my phone to go back and find where they'd dropped.
Things weren't helped by me trying to stuff things (phone, batteries) into my dressing gown pockets, only to find they were so far around my back I couldn't reach ... new smaller dressing gown required for #stargazing (already got new fleecy pj's for the job).
If it's clear tonight I'll do it again :)

Star trails from 6th/7th August ... with one aeroplane passing through (dots) just below the pole star and a tidgy widgy flash of meteorite level with the same star and to the right of it. Must try harder. And I will try to make sure that my camera lens doesn't get fogged up this time. 40 photos and 30 mins of my life wasted freezing my bits off taking photos of condensation

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8th August 0.19 - In stargazing position and a badger is here already munching on left over quiche. Noisily barging other side of fence now. My pussycat is keeping me company tonight.

0.40 - And I've got three badgers and one pussy cat for company - nice
1.44 - Given in I'm freeeeeeeezing ... Ar*e! What should have been one perfect photo, turned out to be FOG! For the last 20 mins my camera lens was in it's own damp little cloud. No wonder I was cold :'(
8.24 - Yawn, these stargazing nights are ok but methinks I need a nap during the day. Gone 2.30 before I got to sleep last night with my confused cat thinking I was going out again, bless her :/

10th August 0.16 - On #Meteorwatch again, Chuffin cold. Had to cover Miss Tia Pussykins up with my dressing gown cos she's shivering.

So far, one rabbit, one badger, several satellites and two meteorites. Many, many bats and flying so low they're practically parting my hair!

I can hear another badger other side of the fence. May give in soon and go in, I'm perished, even with a cat sat on me:/


Last night's star trails with one meteor. I admit it's been enhanced slightly but it is actually there. I've also learnt to tweak the contrast of the first pic before stacking to get the bright start to the trail ... I will no doubt do much more tweaking:)

Oh yeah, and the pale blurry bits are clouds, they turned up about 20 mins before I went in but I couldn't move without disturbing a badger, so I carried on pressing the camera buttons - as you do. I'll do the photo stacking again later without the cloudy pics but now I really, REALLY must do some work:)

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11th August 2.45 - Hmmm, the amount of things that keep flashing past - aeroplanes and satellites, also moths, bats, pigeon feathers?!? (reflected from lights) ... and the occasional meteor :/

2.43 - and warmest #Meteorwatch night so far, unless I'm just hardening up. I have to keep sticking my hands under my pits though, and they're not too happy about it, brrrrrrrrrr.

4.22 -  Grumpy woke up and came out an hour ago (3.30) to see if I'd fallen asleep, yeah right. Clouds have arrived and all that can be seen is Jupiter...
Aaaahh, a lovely cuppa and now I'm warming my hands on himself :P

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later the same day, 16.48 - I've just been sent to my bedroom for a nap or I can't go out to play tonight (just because I didn't come in until gone 4.30am).

Have mobile phone - will play - ner ner ner ner ner ;)

12th August - Sigh, last night's #Meteorwatch didn't happen for me ... and it was nearly the night I'd been waiting for.

I stayed up until after midnight but we had far too much cloud (could only see one star at a time) and it showed no signs of clearing.

Never mind, I counted 25 meteors the night before and managed to get a decent photo of one - as well as two aeroplanes and a bat pirouetting above me.

There was much muttering done - and a lot of naughty words used in my notes on the android - as very few were directly overhead.

Fingers crossed for tonight's show xx

 

Two babies from when they first started to visit

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Later the same day at 23.42 - One is in one's #Meteorwatch position. Am frozzed! my GOM - the lightweight - went in after seeing only 5 meteors. I'm made of tougher ... or dafter stuff.

Ooooh, pretty, another one:)

And now a bit later 13th August, 0.05 -  Just given my armpits the cold hand treatment. They were unimpressed. Don't know where I'm going to stick my cold feet.
Oh dear, the badgers were just arriving and a dog has frightened them off (gardens other side of the dyke). Daft mutt is barking with a squeaky toy in his mouth. They'll be back later I suspect.

0.08 - Miss Tia Pussykins has arrived now, wonder if I can get her to sit on my feet?? Uho, hands cold again, sorry armpits ... aaagggghhh!

1.40 -  Badgers are back, pussy gone to investigate. Owl been sat on next door's aerial, did I get a photo? Nope, just its eyes :/
1.50 - Going in when badgers gone, am so cold now. Can hear owl and geese. Pigeon feathers keep floating past ... again.

2.22 - Owl came again and sat on another aerial. Was I ready this time? You bet I was. Did I get it? Did I ar*e? I got the fire assembly point instead mutter, mutter.

Badgers went as soon as I shifted so I'm sat in front of the fire now thawing out. Will look at pics now, had a quick look outside, the 1.20 photo looks to have 2 meteors in it. I didn't see anything then. Bet I was rabbiting on Facebook and just pressed the buttons and hoped for the best.

2.44 - Just checked. That's exactly what I was doing - rabbiting on Facebook.
Got several aeroplanes, one possible Iridium flare and a few meteors, all in the company of Tia, two badgers, one or two owls and umpteen bats - not forgetting the pigeon feathers ... and a brief but exciting (ok NOISY) 15 minutes early on before my grumpy went to bed.

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13th August 1.20 photo - Definite meteor on the left but it looks like the other one is an Iridium flare (brighter in the middle where it's flared by reflecting sunlight). If I'd been looking, I'd have known. But then again, if the app I PAID for was working properly I'd have been reminded five minutes before the event. Same with the ISS, we saw that when we went out but my phone didn't mention it ... chuffin update, was fine the day before :/

17th August 0.07 - I say, these badgers don't worry about little me at all. One of the babies has just walked right past me - in my stargazing/meteorwatch position - to get to the nuts:)

0.29 -  Another badger on it's way past me, so close I could stroke it if I wasn't so attached to my fingers.

0.31 - Think there's too much blackberry undergrowth other side of fence so they're coming this side plus there's always a dog barks at them on the dyke side. They can tip toe past without disturbing it on our side.

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That's it, I've not been out at night since - other than taking moon and badger photos ...

  

A Year of Alternate Day Fasting

Flipping heck! I get worse. I wrote this nearly a week ago (8th August, my ADF anniversary) and went off at a tangent - yeah, Facebook mostly and a bit of work. This is because I now use the android app to blog - while it's fresh in my mind - then tidy it up later on the laptop ... only I forgot that bit. 

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Well, I'd set my target to lose 57lbs. Yes I know it's a lovely 'even' number (not). But I need to get down to an even number (of course). As usual I failed to reach my target on a specific date by 1lb, but who cares?

I've not been this weight since I left school in the mid-70's. The first thing I did on leaving school was to go on a diet to lose 2lbs I needed to qualify for something. Of course - me being me - I starved for a week and lost 7 lbs, and I've never looked back, hmmm :/

Since then I've gone on umpteen little diets (lasting a month or less - usually hours). And several proper 'let's do this fatso - and de-flab this pudgy little body' diets lasting three months and more. Never have I got beyond six months. That was Slimming World and only so long because I was allowed to change my target (the weight I'd already reached) and go for free.

And here I am, a whole year of Alternate Day Fasting and no signs of tiring of it. It's just so natural to me now. I'm also back to Mon/Weds/Fri as my down days after faffing about trying to mix things up.

I have incorporated a gentler version of Fast-5 (19 hours fast/5 hours noshing) into ADF because it eventually became obvious that my breakfast cereals were causing me problems:

1. I wasn't losing weight.
2. I was always hungry before lunch.
3. I was constantly bloated on up days.

So now when I wake up in a morning I don't have to think 'can I have a biscuit this morning?' Because the answer is 'no'. I've extended my previous day's (complete) 'fast' to 19 hours by not eating until 1.30pm.

During this day I continue to eat normally up to 8.30pm, when ALL snacking must cease. If you were to be in my vicinity between 8.00-8.30, you'd spot me munching on nuts.
So I have a seven-ish hour eating window on up days and six hour eating window on down days. This does NOT include Saturday. This is my 'munch' day when I start with a biscuit in bed with my coffee, then continue to munch throughout the day, including booze at night, then I stagger to bed completely stuffed.

By Sunday morning, I'm relieved to wait until 1.30 for my dinner and bemoaning the fact that I ate too much the day before. This has been my pattern for the last couple of months unless we've had visitors. Then I just do a fast-8 (16 hours fast, 8 hours to eat) every day - basically I just miss breakfast - this maintains my weight for that week.

I've decided that I'm going to carry on and lose another 6-8lbs ... or until my sisters tell me to stop - I'm very obedient - because I still see a very fat woman in the mirror (but not photos oddly enough). This extra few pounds  will ensure I've got a bit of leeway while I find which maintenance method suits me best.

I still like the idea of 500 cal days at least once a week. So my latest idea is to have one down day of 500 calories, one super up day and the rest Fast-6ish days. I'll let you know if this works when I get there ...
 

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1. Me and Alternate Day Fasting
2. Me and Alternate Day Fasting ... Three Weeks On
3. Five Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
4. Eight Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
5. Ten Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
6. Alternate Day Fasting Three Months On
7. Alternate Day Fasting in Winter
8. Alternate Day Fasting Over Christmas
9. Me and Zumba
10. Saying Goodbye To My Curves 
11. Eight Months Of Alternate Day Fasting And Me
12. Growing Up 
13. A Year Of Alternate Day Fasting 
14. 60 Pounds Of Blubber - Vanished
15. The Perils of Alternate Day Fasting 
16. Mr Grumpy Is Losing It
17. Mr Grumpy Has Lost It
18. Fasting For Maintenance
19. Tweaking Maintenance
20. Weight Gain 
21. Still Maintaining
22. Four Years Of Intermittent Fasting

  .....

• ADF Facebook Group ... come and join us :)

Blame It On Facebook

I've been fairly worried lately about my total lack of blogging. Is my life so uninteresting - even to me - that I no longer want to share the funny bits?

It was when I read on another grumpy ladies blog that she'd been writing everything on Facebook that I realised that was happening to me too.

Instead of sitting at my laptop or computer trying to stretch out a brief moment - actually, it's trying to shorten it that I have a problem with - into a blog post, I found that I was reaching for the - ever handy - android, and instantly updating my friends about grumpy's latest misdemeanors using the Facebook app.

This is ok, but not ALL my friends are on Facebook (or indeed Twitter), and whilst I'm amusing them there, I'm neglecting those in the blogosphere.

This will be rectified in future because I'm going to update both my blog and Facebook simultaneously ... well I'm going to try. And if I find the time, I'll go through my past status updates and publish a selection of 'funny moments' ...

Growing Up

Ey up burra fergot ta mention summat ded important in me last ADF post. Ooooh owd on, I'm writin' in me adopted Derbyshire accent ... When did that happen?

As I so eloquently put it, I forgot to mention something important that happened recently, well it was important to me.

I'd already noticed a while ago that when I walked I felt much lighter - like I was supported by wires somehow - but the weird thing is that the ground had started to look fractionally further away. I just took this to be an illusion caused by me bouncing merrily along at high speed ... or I needed new glasses.

Then when we first came to the tin hut this year, I was in the bathroom and thought 'Oh heck, the sink is broke' because it looked lower down. I checked the pedestal and under the sink and all was fine ... it's a hut, the sink and pedestal are plastic, they've been replaced before through breakages.

Hmmm, odd. After a few more sessions of thinking - 'by gum burrit's a long way to t'floor' - I decided I needed measuring. Grumpy stood me against the end of a tall unit doo dah, stuck a bit of white insulation tape roughly where my bonce would come to, marked the tape exactly where the top of my person was - flattening my coiffure in the process - then got out his heavy duty tape measure. Nearly 5'3. Interesting, I'd been 5'1 and 3/4 all my adult life and here I was an inch taller.

Oh what joy. To anyone of normal proportions, you won't realise what this means. Well the first thing I did was check my newly adjusted BMI ... aha, only just a bit overweight and not at all porky. And with my 10% adjustment for a large frame - oh yes it is! - I'm now within a normal healthy weight range :) ...

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1. Me and Alternate Day Fasting
2. Me and Alternate Day Fasting ... Three Weeks On
3. Five Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
4. Eight Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
5. Ten Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
6. Alternate Day Fasting Three Months On
7. Alternate Day Fasting in Winter
8. Alternate Day Fasting Over Christmas
9. Me and Zumba
10. Saying Goodbye To My Curves 
11. Eight Months Of Alternate Day Fasting And Me
12. Growing Up 
13. A Year Of Alternate Day Fasting 
14. 60 Pounds Of Blubber - Vanished
15. The Perils of Alternate Day Fasting 
16. Mr Grumpy Is Losing It
17. Mr Grumpy Has Lost It
18. Fasting For Maintenance
19. Tweaking Maintenance
20. Weight Gain 
21. Still Maintaining
22. Four Years Of Intermittent Fasting

  .....

• ADF Facebook Group ... come and join us :)

Potters Langley Mill ... And Smiths

As noticed at AVBC by ALLEY - I've not looked this week, busy, busy, busy :)

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POTTERS SNOOKER CLUB - 51 Cromford Road.

Planning Application AVA/2013/0380 Applicant Mr. Nicholas Henrys (Hucknall)

Change of use from retail units to licensed premises. Refurbishment of interior ground floor area into bar.

It states that the new bar, which will be on the corner of Dean Street and Cromford Road, will show 'live sport' and will put on 'live entertainment' aimed at all generations and all tastes !

Hmmm ...

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Smiths

Wellingborough-based Whitworth Bros. through Dogsthorpe Acquisitions paid £450,000 for the business assets of Smiths Flour Mills 3 sites in Worksop, Holbeach and Langley Mill and as far as I can see still own the site here in Langley Mill!

Pottery Lane

Just a short one this time to say that half of Pottery Lane is closed - Station Road to the bridge - we could be completely wrong, but we're assuming that the promised tarting up is being done very, very slowly, by two men who arrive every morning in a Northgate hired van :/

Hmm, interesting ... I thought it would be more than a two man job, but perhaps they're just clearing it. There's a bit of temporary fencing, a red container, a mini-digger and little muck shifter so far.

Until the temporary fence was erected the yoofs of Langley Mill were using the container as a high perch - just the sort of thing I'd have done as a yoofess because - I have to confess - I liked climbing on things.

Grumpy has said he'll go across and ask for sure what's happening sometime, oh ... in the next few months ;)

I'm sure someone else will have been and asked by now and will no doubt leave a comment - please. Or I could have a look at Derbyshire County Council website if I get bored enough ...

Eight Months Of Alternate Day Fasting ... And Me :)

I think it's fair to say that I've been successful following the ADF lifestyle. Up to now I've lost 48lb and my target is well within sight.

Just lately - because Doctor Mosley's book was recently released - there has been a flurry of interest in what we Brits are doing - diet-wise - from across the pond in lard country aka the U S of A. Mostly their reaction is that we're totally barking:

'During those 500-calorie days, you probably won’t be doing much of anything except sleeping. You'll be light-headed, anxious, shaky, dizzy and super tired -- Imagine what you are like when you eat lunch late and multiply that by 100. You definitely shouldn't drive, operate machinery, take care of young children, perform surgery or basically anything else that might put yourself and others at risk. You might pass out! And even if you don't, your body doesn’t have enough energy (calories) to let your body function properly.'

Yeah, right ... this was obviously written by someone who lives with a burger in one hand and a super-sized coke in the other lest they miss out on a few calories ... I can say this with impunity, they rubbished us, I'm getting my own back ;)

What is it with Americans and their desire to be fat ... And no-one must dare to suggest they miss a meal. American news sites and their associated diet advisers are dire! They MUST be on the take somehow.They've been telling us how to eat for decades and when we did as we were told, we got fatter ... how does this STILL make them right and give them the right to tell anyone how they should eat?

Well, it's like this ... dieting is big business. Anyone who comes along and rocks the dieting boat by declaring that - 'You don't need to go and be weighed weekly and be told that you're fat ... and you're not going to get thin by paying us lots of dosh and eating our dreadful processed meals' - is going to be regarded as either a total barmpot or a charlatan. Fasting can't possibly work ... they can't make any money out of us, they'd rather we went away and kept quiet.

We've even been told by nutritionists and diet gurus that we must eat little and often (six meals a day) to keep our metabolism going. Yes it keeps it going all right, it also keeps insulin production up. Once we've done growing our bodies need a rest from constantly digesting food. We're not really built for grazing because we're not ruminants!

Anyhoooo, despite all the warnings that we're obviously completely off our collective rockers, Americans have joined our ADF Facebook group at a very fast rate since the publication of the book. Not only that, I get far more 'hits' on my blog on this subject from America than anywhere else in the world. Australia creeps in second place. It must also be noted that the basis of this 'diet' has been adapted from experiments done in the USA, but apparently we in Britain are far more gullible and ready to jump in and have a go ... we're also considerably lighter now :D

We've now been told - by them that know - that fasting isn't safe for women. Now, to me this is a grey area. I will NOT pooh pooh any proper medical advice given on this, because they may have a point, especially with women who want to have children sometime soon. Hormone fluctuations seem to be a real side effect of fasting and I think we should take this into consideration if we're going to fast more than two days a week. However, have they actually proven this to be the case or is it yet another way of making us conform to the established way of dieting that makes someone else rich?

And now we come to me: It's no secret that I've been perimenopausal for a few years now. Things came to an abrupt stop on my last birthday (6th November). I had hot flushes through December to late February when they too stopped - just like that.

Well, methinks, if this is menopause; it's a doddle. Hmmm, yes, but not the doddle I thought. Over the last few weeks I'd tried experimenting with two sets of double down days every other week (yeah, yeah, broken promises blah, blah blah), making me seven up and seven down a fortnight, so true ADF with a twist.

By the Thursday night of my second set of DDD's I had a visitation, and I don't mean in any biblical sense. Chuffin Nora, but it was unpleasant, five months totally without and this happens. Worse still, I never can eat much during this time or I'm in agony with windy bloat as well as the cramps.

This was not the best way to end my week of extra 'fasting'. I decided that any signs - as these news sites reported - of being weak and faint  then the only sensible option I had was to take a week off and eat sensibly and healthily every day. Someone as tough as old boots like me going all delicate - pathetic isn't it? ... Or would have been. As it happened I was fine, I just lost no weight.

Anyway it set me to thinking 'why did this happen? Why now? I know the road to menopause is rocky but I had to wonder at all these warnings about our hormones and the consequences of fasting.

So I contemplated my - recent - past diet, what had changed? Well, Asda stopped doing the warm salad I had three days a week, these consisted of chicken, leaves, butternut squash, peppers, potatoes, courgettes, endemame beans, broccoli (depending on which flavour I chose; there were three) plus a dressing which came out at approx 200 cals.

I decided to do my own version with the leaves, low calorie dressing, chicken and prawns. I was angelic as ever and weighed and counted calories in everything. But because I was DIYing and didn't bulk out the salad with many calories, I had more chicken - thus my protein intake almost trebled on my 3 or 4 down days.

Checking back through my food diary and my hot sweaty lady calendar, there does seem to be some correlation in losing the hot moments shortly after upping the protein. Now I know almost absolutely nothing about how our bodies work, I'm just going on my own observations and notes, which is what I promised to do when I started this experiment.

I will cut down on the protein and try to get a happy balance or I know I will be drifting into Atkins country without meaning to - been there, done that, had the smelly breath. It was an awful diet and totally unsustainable for a - then - vegetarian. I didn't lose a lot of weight but I did start eating meat again, so both me and the animals have got a lot to thank Dr Atkins for.

I've got lots of milestones coming up over the next nine pounds:

1. Three and half stone lost.
2. 50lb lost.
3. My weight in stones starting with a fresh - smaller - number.
4.  25% of my bodyweight gone.
5. 4 stones lost.
6. Target weight.
7. The lightest I've been since my school days.

Best of all though is the knowledge that I'll never be fat again by continuing to follow ADF maintenance ...

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1. Me and Alternate Day Fasting
2. Me and Alternate Day Fasting ... Three Weeks On
3. Five Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
4. Eight Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
5. Ten Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
6. Alternate Day Fasting Three Months On
7. Alternate Day Fasting in Winter
8. Alternate Day Fasting Over Christmas
9. Me and Zumba
10. Saying Goodbye To My Curves 
11. Eight Months Of Alternate Day Fasting And Me
12. Growing Up 
13. A Year Of Alternate Day Fasting 
14. 60 Pounds Of Blubber - Vanished
15. The Perils of Alternate Day Fasting 
16. Mr Grumpy Is Losing It
17. Mr Grumpy Has Lost It
18. Fasting For Maintenance
19. Tweaking Maintenance
20. Weight Gain 
21. Still Maintaining
22. Four Years Of Intermittent Fasting

  .....

• ADF Facebook Group ... come and join us :)

Spring Cleaning The Glory Hole

Hmmm, where can I start?

Well I decided that it was a good idea to tidy under the stairs. It's been a long time going to happen. There was stuff in there that hadn't seen the light of day in thirteen years or more.

This task was undertaken during a week's holiday, it had to be as it wasn't something anyone should do on a mere whim, it required forward planning ... and should have included a skip!

I started at the front - as you do - and worked my way to the back. I put all my crap straight into bin bags ... ooooh, I remember that coat ... ahhh, there's that missing glove, damn I threw it's partner away a month ago. HECK! And five, I repeat FIVE tool boxes and drills not to mention all the loose tools. Who needs five tool boxes under MY stairs when he's already got an outbuilding FULL of similar crap?

Where did all this junk come from? Bird books ... candles ... unwanted photos ... pens ... awful ornaments ... knitting patterns ... cookery books ... old proper light bulbs ... coats ... scarves ... umbrellas ... pills and potions ... car vac ... kids car seat ... three footballs ... box of toys for a two year old who is now nine ... dog toys and leads for a dog who is no more ... six empty Liquorice Allsorts tins ... many more full ones ... someone's Mayfair diaries from the 1990's ... instructions on all electrical items ever bought going back to the war! ... all his handy electrician instructions (17 volumes, hand written by himself - mostly the same instructions but lost and re-written) ... along with the handiest gadgets you'd ever want but never use.

And ... a 'Fabulous Fred' game that I had to go out and buy new batteries for ... just in case it was indeed fabulous - it wasn't, it was horribly noisy with no visible volume control without the use of a hammer. It has now been hidden.

I placed everything of grumpy's in the front room for him to go through when he got back from the bookies. It filled the room. I put all the car oriented stuff in the dining room - again for him to go through - in the hope that some of these items may actually reach the car ... Two months later and they've not got there yet.

To go back to the cookery books, one was his mum's, so really quite old, grumpy in full Flog It mode was quite excited. He thumbed carefully through it, then went back to the inside front cover and read out to me 'Reprinted 27 times ... I wonder which edition this is, do you think it's a first edition?' ... You have to wonder don't you ...

My Winter Of Discontent

It started way before winter but now it feels like I'm stepping into a lovely warm spring. This is only because - as advised by my family and friends - I'm finally letting it go.

It all began at the end of last May, because - believe it or not - I cared too much ... I was going to ask a certain person for their opinion on how we should do something - so they wouldn't feel hurt or left out of our plans - but my grumpy said he'd sooner do it by himself if I didn't mind, so off he went. That mission totally backfired and he was the one left upset.

Things did get partially smoothed out a week later - because of certain assurances made by us - but my GOM was still very hurt by their initial reactions. And for him this never went away.

Time passed, we had to get organised and these people needed to be approached to tell them our plans and find out what they wanted to do. And here's where things really took a nosedive. My grumpy old man made one simple mistake - which was rectified within twenty minutes. But it was too late.

I was warned around this time to be careful what I write on the Internet, this in itself puzzled me, because up to then I'd written nothing about it or them and didn't even know I'd end up doing so.

I won't go into too much detail because my family and friends already know the truth so I'd just be repeating myself - again. I'll just say that I wrote a letter to one of these people explaining things better and I stupidly assumed this had put things right.

I found out later that I was wrong. This person had latched on to grumpy's mistake and must have gone on to tell everyone their version of events, which - if these friends of theirs knew me - couldn't possibly make sense or be true.

I discovered I'd become persona non grata with several people and still (at the time) with no real idea of why this should be. Grumpy was also told that if we went somewhere we'd been invited to, then they would be okay with him but ignore me. This obviously meant we couldn't go.

But by now - me finally having cottoned on - I was starting to retaliate on my Facebook timeline ... this probably wasn't my best idea but I was frustrated by the injustice. And when I say retaliate, I mean I told the absolute truth. This didn't go down too well - because for people who hated me, they went out of their way to find out what I had to say.

We had a visit at the beginning of this month. I was verbally abused and accused of being an idle gold digger (not the exact words used because I'm being polite, but they are transcribed in full in another - as yet unpublished - post). I was also accused of having a relationship with my ex-husband, if that statement hadn't been so hurtful to me and my grumpy old man, it would have been laughable.

My grumpy was asked what he saw in me and he was told that no one likes me and everyone thinks the same about me. As we move in completely different circles which NEVER overlap - some of my friends pointed this out - I can't imagine who these 'everyone'  are.

My husband was too shocked to react at the time but since then he's again assured me it's just jealousy on their part. He has been telling me for a long time that this is the case. I don't mind people being jealous of me, but I would have liked some idea as to why ... clever, witty, happy, drop dead gorgeous ... yes I'm all those but I don't think they're the reason - do you?

It has become obvious to me that - as a couple - we've wasted eighteen years bothering about what certain people think. And for me in particular, being made to feel grateful - from thirteen years ago - for any crumbs of acceptance flicked from their tables.

Well, after all that has been said and done, we ARE going to get on with our lives and these people will have no further involvement in anything we think and do. And if we choose to stay living where we are, then it's got bugger all to do with them. And furthermore they are NOT welcome in OUR home again.

To me they no longer exist ... alas my grumpy is a little more stuck with them than I am. And if they decide to remind us of their existence in any way that further upsets my husband, then I WILL publish the other - much nastier and more detailed - posts one at a time. And let these people take note - I record conversations on my very expensive phone ... because I've got an app for that ...

Saying Goodbye To My Curves :(

40lbs

Well, this is a bitter-sweet post I must say. I've been following the ADF lifestyle for a little over six months and still feel amazing. And - as can be seen in my last post about me - I've felt so much fitter, healthier and simply just more alive, that I've taken up Zumba six days a week in an attempt to tone my saggy bits.

As well as weighing, I regularly measure my waist. I was a little frustrated after Christmas because although I'd carried on eating fairly healthily and was 'wafting me bits about' doing Zumba, neither my weight nor my waist was diminishing.

It took four more weeks of breathing in to measure, then - whilst on the scales - balancing on one leg, holding my boobs up, leaning precariously back, bouncing up and down ... along with much more drastic measures of cutting my long heavy hair, quite, quite short - alas, it wasn't heavy enough.

And I tried fast-5 by going without breakfast on an up day ... I only did it once, because I then had to eat late in the evening because I'd only consumed approximately 1350 calories throughout the day and this isn't enough for me on an up day, who'd have thought that I'd have to eat more to lose weight??

Sigh ... why aren't I losing weight? Why aren't the inches coming off? I did think with exercise I may temporarily stop losing as the muscles built up a bit. I got the tape measure out yet again, tried to stretch it - as you do - then decided to measure elsewhere ... well bugger me! I'd lost an inch off my boobs and 2 inches from my bum. I measured my waist again - nope, still the same.

Then I had a lightbulb moment ... I'm just regaining my natural shape, which is almost straight up and down with two lumps up front.

I should have looked a little further afield to have realised this, one of my sisters - ovver t'border in another county - is extremely fit, no fat to speak of, but her waist to hip ratio suggests that she's a heart attack waiting to happen ... as I will be - again - after I lose another inch from my bum.

So, there you have it, my lovely curves which I so quickly attained by losing 7" from my waist will soon be back to my normal boring - no nice sticky out bum (well, it never did do that) - shape, albeit much narrower than it was.

I'm also a bit miffed at my BMI, apparently I'm just teetering between overweight and obese, this doesn't take into account that I have a large frame ... oh yes I do! I checked. My writing wrist is 7" and anything over 5.75" for my height is large framed, so in fact I've got quite a mammoth frame ;)

.....

I've now juggled my ADF days around to Sun/Mon/Thurs in an attempt to shake things up and get my body to realise that I'm in charge around here. Thankfully, I'm back to losing 1-2lb a week. Total loss so far is 40lb, one pound more and I've lost 20% of my starting weight ... go on, get your calculators out.
 
This is the first time for as long as I can remember that I'm actually looking forward to spring and summer. I've spent so many years being grateful for cold weather so I can hide under my big, baggy and shapeless clothes. And now I've got to spend a mini-fortune on an entire new wardrobe because nothing fits ... tragic isn't it? Ahhhhhh summer ... bring it on :)

I'm also enjoying checking the BBC Global Fatcheck to see which country a woman of my age and weight I'm most similar to - I started at Tonga, been to Micronesia, Samoa, Kuwait, Egypt, Barbados, United Arab Emirates, Malta, United States, South Africa, Fiji and Qatar. This week I briefly visited the Solomon Islands before going back to Qatar ... must change my official weigh day to Tuesday methinks.

Of course I had a slight panic attack when I accidentally did it in kilos instead of pounds and found that I had a BMI of 65 which is 100% higher than everyone worldwide ... and, if everyone had the same BMI as me, it would add 503,400,866 tonnes to the total weight of the world's population - nice ...

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1. Me and Alternate Day Fasting
2. Me and Alternate Day Fasting ... Three Weeks On
3. Five Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
4. Eight Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
5. Ten Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
6. Alternate Day Fasting Three Months On
7. Alternate Day Fasting in Winter
8. Alternate Day Fasting Over Christmas
9. Me and Zumba
10. Saying Goodbye To My Curves 
11. Eight Months Of Alternate Day Fasting And Me
12. Growing Up 
13. A Year Of Alternate Day Fasting 
14. 60 Pounds Of Blubber - Vanished
15. The Perils of Alternate Day Fasting 
16. Mr Grumpy Is Losing It
17. Mr Grumpy Has Lost It
18. Fasting For Maintenance
19. Tweaking Maintenance
20. Weight Gain 
21. Still Maintaining
22. Four Years Of Intermittent Fasting

  .....

• ADF Facebook Group ... come and join us :)

Langley Mill McDonald's Is DEFINITELY Open

... And an accident waiting to happen. Grumpy came back from Heanor last night, and cars from Eastwood were having to go onto his side of the road to get around cars queuing to get into McTrafficJam. As if that roundabout wasn't already bad enough :-/

We have to step over McRubbish just to get in the car.

McDonald's opened Friday morning 15th February ... and just in case you didn't know, it's a 24 hour McMunching parlour.

Their employees need to get around McLangley McMill and clean up their McLitter because the majority of under 40 year olds around here still believe in the litter fairies.

I wonder if the same people - we had a glossy magazine delivered yesterday - who found it 'so encouraging to see another empty space in our parish having an establishment built on it' will be out clearing up the McRubbish ... no? Thought not. And no-one has forgotten about the roadworks from the Asda build as is evidenced by frantic searches for the next spot of roadworks still made on my Mcblog.

Clearly whoever has been given the highly important task of writing the Mc24 hour McLeaflets that have been shoved through our letterboxes, telling us that ... 'The wait is over' needs a few lessons in basic English.

Quote:

Our team have been busy making sure that your look McDonald's is brighter and comfier than ever. So now you can enjoy all your favourites in fresh, new surroundings with free WiFi - perfect!

It doesn't actually make sense as a paragraph, there may be a word missing, I suggest that it's NEW ... and I've decided not to mention the particularly annoying - to me - bit about team have/has. It really ought to have been written by someone who should OF known better. It also reads like it's an old McCrap that has been done up. Oh and Notthingham (back of the coupons) is incorrect.

There, I've had a spiffing time picking fault, it's quite made my day.

I've got nothing against McDonalds or any other fast food eatery. As far as I'm concerned they're all fine for a once every so often treat, but we're getting the same teenagers day after day passing by with what's left of their McLard breakfast/lunch/snack/dinner/tea/supper.

And no matter how McDonalds try to market their McFood as healthy, it doesn't exactly make for a balanced diet ... unless you use both hands of course ;)

Me And Zumba ;)

I was at Center Parcs last November (honeymoon) when I announced that I was going to have a Wii with Zumba for Christmas. This was received, as you'd expect - knowing my allergy to any form of exercise - with much hilarity.

I was as good as my word. I didn't go to enormous expense because I too suspected it'd be another brief but frenetic interlude in my life. So, over the next couple of weeks I watched several auctions on eBay until the right one came up at the right price. This only took three attempts until I was successful ... Ooooh heck, what have I done?

Despite the fact that I wrapped the large box containing the Wii, zumba and associated bits and bobs, I managed to look surprised when I opened it at Christmas ... 'Ooooh, look at that ... what's that bit for? ... where the hell do I wear that? It'll never fit around my waist ... oh, phew it's for my thigh'.

Anyway, come December 28th, the Wii was plumbed into the dining room telly, I wore my new bright pink Zaggora top and navy and pink cropped britches. I looked ahem, lovely.

Twenty minutes later and I was dying. I'd shaken my bits, waddled up and down and shimmied hither and thither. My outfit was stuck to me and I had to lie down in a pool of sweat until my heart stopped pounding.

'I can't do this again', I panted, 'it's horrible'. But I did do it again, the following day ... and then over the next couple of weeks, I did it a few more times. Was it any easier? Hmmm, no it wasn't, at first. And it was patently obvious to me that they've speeded that Wii woman up, no-one can move that fast and she must have been suspended on wires.

I tripped over my feet, hit my knuckles on the dining table, knocked over a glass of squash, banged my glasses onto my nose and shoveled my boobs back into my top several times after they decanted themselves ... I need a better bra here methinks.

A better bra was bought ... a level 4 bra, designed specifically for really vigorous exercise or huge boobs. It is a brilliant bra, nothing moves, I can jump up and down, swing upside down from the light fittings and I swear my boobs wouldn't be flapping about around my face.

Alas, after two 45 minute sessions of Zumba I can no longer wear it. Yes it's brilliant, too brilliant, all the weight of the boobs is now on my shoulders and they simply can't take it. They were agony.

I'm already not wafting my arms about as much as the instructor because I can't stand to hear the grinding and crunching from my shoulders, and they were getting sore, it would only be a matter of time before it spread to my neck and I'd be in real trouble then.

Did you notice at all that I'd gone from 20 mins to 45 mins just then? Oh, you did ... very observant.

Yes, I realised after two weeks that I was hardly out of breath after a 20 minute session, never mind not sweating, so I upped it to 45 mins. This is OK methinks but getting a tad boring now. I know all the moves - this doesn't mean I can do them - and frequently tell the instructor off for missing out a couple of steps. So I tried the expert levels.

Oh no, I didn't like that at all. It's a mister instructor. I know he can't see me but I feel like I can't enjoy it the same with a man telling me what to do. He had to go and I went back to 'intermediate' where I was happier.

I do my Zumba first thing in a morning - yes, I do mean first thing in MY morning so it could be anything after 10.00am - 45 mins on my three fasting days and 20 mins on three of my eating days before breakfast - I have one day off for good behaviour. I've read that exercise before eating is more beneficial because you burn your fat instead of carbs even if you consume them later.

All in all I am enjoying Zumba, I knew I'd got to find a form of exercise that didn't actually feel like exercise or I'd rebel against it and sit down with my arms crossed and bottom lip stuck out. I feel fitter at 53 than I ever did at 33 with years of sluggishness in-between.

I've had to be realistic and change some of the moves slightly to suit me and my - very nearly - middle age. I miss some jumps because of a dodgy left knee and as I've said, high arm wafting is out and I've learnt to mostly keep my arms below shoulder height. But ... to compensate for my shortcomings, I wiggle everything else that little bit more. I still trip over my feet and bump into things but I am innately clumsy anyway.

Another benefit of me Zumba-ing endlessly across the same patch of floor means that the floorboards no longer need polishing. Ahem, this would be fine if the dining room wasn't carpeted ;)

I may have to give up the Zumba-ing fairly soon though ... there's this man I know who keeps admiring my bum in its little white shorts when he passes me going one way. Not only that but he's taken to patting my bum on his way back. This is clearly harassment ...

.....

1. Me and Alternate Day Fasting
2. Me and Alternate Day Fasting ... Three Weeks On
3. Five Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
4. Eight Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
5. Ten Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
6. Alternate Day Fasting Three Months On
7. Alternate Day Fasting in Winter
8. Alternate Day Fasting Over Christmas
9. Me and Zumba
10. Saying Goodbye To My Curves 
11. Eight Months Of Alternate Day Fasting And Me
12. Growing Up 
13. A Year Of Alternate Day Fasting 
14. 60 Pounds Of Blubber - Vanished
15. The Perils of Alternate Day Fasting 
16. Mr Grumpy Is Losing It
17. Mr Grumpy Has Lost It
18. Fasting For Maintenance
19. Tweaking Maintenance
20. Weight Gain 
21. Still Maintaining
22. Four Years Of Intermittent Fasting

  .....

• ADF Facebook Group ... come and join us :)

Illegal Car Wash and Smiths Flour Mill

Sorry about Asda's lollypop in the way

I've just received a couple of comments by 'Anonymous' on an old post about that heap of tat aka the Diamond Hand car-wash on the Railway Tavern car park. One comment was about the car wash and the other was about the rather hasty demolition of Smiths flour mill.

Because the post is so old I decided to remind you all that the car wash is still trading illegally, as well as making Langley Mill look like a cheap doss hole.

.....

Comments:

I have tried talking to the Parish Council about the illegal car wash but I might as well have been speaking to the ducks on the canal for all the sense you get from them.

Also spoke to AVBC Planning Dept in Nov 2012, Emailed them and rang again on Jan 13 but wasting my time. They're not really interested even though this is a clear breach of the law.

The chap I spoke to said he had written a letter to the owner a while ago but hadn't had a reply. Big wow, so that's it then ... he can sit back, job well done and wait for his pension.

Unfortunately the rest of us have to drive past this eyesore every day. It's a shame because Langley Mill was beginning to look better than it has done for years but this ramshackle excuse for a business adds nothing to the area and it's about time that those who's job it is to regulate these things actually did what we pay them for. ... Well said :)

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lots more already come down further along

 Anybody noticed that the Smiths Flower Mill is currently being demolished, but on Amber Valley Planning Site it states that permission for demolition is not due until 04/04/2013 (AVA/2013/0103).

Work actually started before the application to demolish was even registered. The applicants form was signed 6th Feb and registered 7th Feb but work started before this. How is it possible for them to start demolition before being granted formal approval. Is it the funny handshake brigade at work again? ... More than likely :)

The new Smiths Flour Mill owners are Dogsthorpe Acquisitions Limited. I'm assuming it's the haulage/transport company of the same name based at Worksop. This assumption is partly based on the fact that Smith's is based there too. I am puzzled why Whitworths - who bought Smiths - need to look at my blog to find out how demolition is progressing. I will have to ask ALI for some photos sometime soon ...

McDonald's Langley Mill - Very Nearly Ready

Update 15.2.13:
 Just been told that McDonald's opened this morning at 6.00 ...

It looks like it won't be long before McDonald's is ready to open. They were busy turfing and planting when we passed today.

Hopefully the nice people who pass here being a damned gobby nuisance through the night - who then go on to see how many tunes they can get out of the metal railway bridge by hitting it (hopefully with their heads) - will frequent the 24 hour McDonald's after being moved on by Asda.

I imagine it could even be the same group of delightful teenagers who just throw their rubbish down after an Asda lunch, as witnessed by myself today.

But I rather imagine they'll come up here to chuck McDonald's crap about as a change from Asda crap :(

Hmmm, yes - Asda is still completely devoid of anyone opening the delivery gates actually being in charge of more than one brain cell. Whoever opens them in the night attempts to open the bolts without them squeaking ... this is irritating beyond measure. Whoever does it during the day couldn't care less how much they squeak.

Knowing that they do squeak would normally prompt someone with two brain cells to ask maintenance to grease the bolts ... alas, as I've said, they're sadly lacking in this department so I'm going to have to go across and tell them yet again to get them greased.

Oooooh, I nearly forgot. Would whoever it is that is trying not to squeak the gates in the night, please stop dropping pallets on top of one another. I know that's what you're doing because I've been there, done that and got the T-shirt!

Done whinging now ...