Going North

So I failed to loose any weight, moving on....


This weekend we drove up north to visit my Granny, which as lovely. Fascinating woman. Hardly talks about the past but when she does she comes out with the most amazing stories. Told us this time about the time Granddad came home from work one day and told her he had quit his job totally out the blue. That was pretty much all we got, just a little titbit of an amazing history.

My Granny lives in New Deer, which is north of Aberdeen. I always feel its not very far away, because you just go through Dundee, passed Aberdeen and you are there. But in actual fact its over 100 miles! Thats further than Nottingham to York! Think of all the places you pass between Nottingham and York. And yet all the way from Dundee to Aberdeen you pass absolutely nothing. Nothing. I still find it fascinating just how much farm land there is in Scotland.

Becoming Bridget Jones, hopefully not...

I do not want to become Bridget Jones, but I think I want to try and use this blog as a little inspiration to help me be a better human being. So, I'm going to use it to update progress on my diet in the hope that if I know I have to tell people about it I will be less likely to eat that cake/spend that money. 

Before you panic and stop reading some good news - my scales have broken, hurra! So this won't be your typical "Lost 1 pound this week, bad times bla bla bla" diet updates (also who works in pounds still? Seriously, they were stupid at the time, they are even more stupid now that we have a better system). Instead it will mostly be things like "Salad for lunch today, yay!" and "Got stressed and ate chocolate, boo". In case of this week the news is more bad im afraid. I was being a guide at uni for some school groups three days this week, which meant free lunches (why else would i be doing it?). Add to that Louise's birthday cake and mini-party with a little too much alcohol and its been a really bad week. So it was bad Fiona this week, i think the diet will have to start again on Monday. 

On to more fun things - Strictly was back tonight! Woo! This means its nearly Christmas!! I enjoyed txting my mum the usual remarks as the show progressed. "Cat is going to fall out of that!" and "Why is he not dead yet!?!?". I feel I could be providing a running commentary on Strictly as the weeks go on, so it will be fun to see how my allances fall. Currently wishing Chavy McChavson would shut and go already (thats Chelsee Healey btw) but sadly with boobs like that I think she will be in it till the end. Im quite looking forward to finding out what Nancy is like, and that footballer (I may refer to him as Blondey for the rest of the time). I was devistated when I found out its three weeks till the show starts up properly. 3 Weeks?! 

OO Dinners nearly ready....

OMG Its been nearly a month since I last blogged!

So In that month I have done two things. Firstly I did my first year report and VIVA, and secondly I went home for a holiday.

The report... well we don't really want to talk about the report. Surface to say I didn't do my best work and I had better improve next time. But no big angry security guard frog-marched me off the premiss so it can't have been that bad. It wasn't great though, I'll be honest. Both my assessors we women, and one of them is heavily pregnant, how am I supposed to deal with that?

So I felt like a pretty much ran away to Nottingham to escape my failing work and pretend it wasn't happening. I think I managed this well.

Here I am drinking cocktails with Joni.

Here I am drinking with Ali...

Drinking with some more people (Mike, Chloe & Roger)...

Not drinking this time, but gossiping with the girls, which has smiler effects (Charlotte, Beth & Jack)

I did do other things on this trip other than drinking, lots of other things. We had lunch in my favourite lunch place in Nottingham (Tamatangas - Indian, if you are ever in Notts you must go there for lunch) and we went to the CCAN and to the Castle. The exhibition in the castle at the moment on street art is particularly good. 

We also spent at least two nights hanging out at Tims playing games and arguing politics and stuff. This is possibly one of my favourite things to do in the whole world. It reminds me of how much fun you can have with just good friends and good conversation. I do think at some point im going to have to remind Tim (the theatre arts graduate) that whilst slightly inebriated he tried to argue that arts should receive no funding from the government, and argument which kept me up later than any of the nights out in town! 

Special thanks go out this holiday to Chloe, who once again found the excuse, rallied the troops and organised a fantastic night out in town. I miss going out so much when i'm stuck in Scotland, and there is nothing like nearly getting thrown out of a bar for dancing on a table to make you feel wanted! Although saying that there was a brillient moment when we were deciding where to go next, shared by myself and Mike and the conversation went something like this... 

Everyone else - "Lets go cucamaras!" (the place in Notts for seriously cheap and nasty drinks)

Me to Mike - "Is it just me or dose 'really cheap drinks so you can get drunk quickly' just not sound like a good advert for a bar anymore?"

Mike - "nope, i hate cucamaras"

Me - "me too. Next time we are home me, you, Joni and Helen should go out together to The Pitcher (old church converted to cocktail bar) and Tilt (jazz club/cocktail bar)."

Mike - "That sounds great."

Me - "We are getting old."

Mike - "Yup."

Oh dear.

Anyway, so I had an amazing trip home. We managed to see just about everyone, including Jonis older brother and family which was great. I only lost my voice for half of it and have just about caught up on my sleep now. 

I came home feeling much better about the work, ready to throw myself into it, to conquer it all, save to world, cure cancer, get skinny, earn a million and even make time to house train the cat. Lets see how that goes shall we....