A change is as good as a rest!!!

Is a lie!!!!

We have huge changes coming up and I am tired and stressed!

There is going to be a big change to the way I work and where I work.

The only immediate plus to this is it is further away from home so I will be doing more walking!!!!

I have checked out my route and this is my dry weather route.

The wet weather route is much more boring! road's, road's and more roads. 

however it does take me past the gym....... so hopefully I may be popping in more often! 

As if the change is not bad enough....LSP and I have been discussing other big changes! I cant share them but they potentially life changing...My brain is swimming...... what with work and home...

So no a change is not as good as a rest

Last Parade.

On Friday I went to Swindon to watch the Last freedom of the town parade by the airmen and women from RAF Lynham.

Servicemen and women have paraded through the town since they were granted freedom of the town in 1964.

They are allowed to march with their standard's raised and their bayonets fixed.

RAF Lynham is due to close, so this will be the last parade in Swindon.

5114

5114 is the number of steps from my work to my house.

If you can remember I am taking part in the global corporate challenge, which encourages you to walk more.

 In my organisation there are 3 teams. Our team is currently 3rd.

However we are not that far behind the next team...

I am team captain. It is the captain's job to encourage/motivate (and occasionally nag) the team. It is also the team captain's job to set a good example!

That I have managed. Out of 21 participants I am 2nd! I am averaging 15.000 steps a day. The person who is in first is averaging 20.000 steps. As you can see by walking to and from work I can manage 10.000. However its not practical to do this everyday. I have to do walking lunches and trips with the dog and doing more miles on my bike will help!

The only drawback is...........I am ravenous..............

I am supposed to be on a diet as well and losing weight but I am craving food, food and more food!!!

The 3 meals and 3 snacks a day just is not cutting it. I have just eaten my dinner and am craving more. I will wait for 20 minutes and have a big drink. But I know, I will still want more.

In fact I did, whilst writing this blog, I have eaten my dinner + a snack + a toffee crisp!

I have a massive bowl of muesli and fresh banana for breakfast, washed down with hot coffee and occasionally some toast as well.

Mid morning snack is a cereal bar and a mug of tea.

Lunch is a big Salad, today was chicken, lettuce, celery and cucumber. washed down with water.

Afternoon snack is some wotsists (99 calories)

Then a normal dinner.

all good apart from all the other snacks that sneak their way into my day....we have a treat table at work however it is becoming more like a filling station! biscuits, brownies, chips, sweets, chocolate.......its my downfall.

I just need to be more strong willed and resist.

oh and keep walking!!!

Its an uphill struggle!!!!

what's so great about 5am?

This morning I woke up naturally at 5am.

Did I take a glance at the clock, roll over and go back to sleep!

No I got up, sorted out the washing I had put on last night, hung all 3 loads out whilst listening to the birds chatting away.

The sky was a blissful blue and the air felt so fresh.

It was still......

There was no noise from the road and the house was quiet....Even the dogs stayed in bed and did not want to come downstairs.

I listened to prayer for the day on radio 4.......

I had a long hot uninterrupted luxurious shower.....

I pottered in the kitchen...

Making a nice breakfast.

Making salads for lunch.....

Doing the dishes......

Waking up my LSP with a relaxed smile on my face (instead of a shake that says hurry up were late).....

What's so great about 5am?

This morning it was all mine!

rainy bank holiday

Brrrr, Its cold and wet  here today.

This morning I got out of bed at 6:30am got showered and made breakfast. We were all ready and in the car for 07:50am. We went into town and picked up SE, filled up with petrol and off we went. We drove through Wiltshire and Hampshire and into Dorset.

Why I hear you ask... was I going to a craft fair, vintage fair, antiques fair, visiting a stately pile?

No.

YD and SE went zorbing

Zorbing is where you climb into a ball and hurtle down a hill, kind of like  being a hamster, on a hill...

It lasted about 30 seconds and all you could hear was YD squealing all the way down the hill. 

They had a good time which made it worth the 2 hour drive and the 1/2 hour in the cold and wet! 

I am now tucked up at home with the last of the roly poly and a nice cup of hot chocolate, listening to the rain outside. 

Bonnie Scotland.

We have friends and family in Scotland so we are lucky enough to visit it frequently.

The amazing thing about Scotland is that you can see four season's in one day.

We leave our home in the south west at midnight so we can zip through the boring bit in the dark.

The sun comes up as we hit the lake district which is beautiful enough but the real magic start's when we get to the east coast. Here are some of our highlights!

If you can see some odd reflection's its because most of these photo's were taken at 50mph! There is so much to see and to photograph it would take a week to get there if we were to stop the car just because I want to take a photo. 

The Waterfall photo and the last one (which is loch Leven) were static shots as we had a brief stop. 

Today We had friends round for Lunch, I made a lovely chicken dish, pan fried chicken with a mushroom, spinach and parmasan sauce, finished in the oven and served with jersey royal potatoes, cabbage, green beans and carrots. 

Finished off with Jam roly poly and Birds custard...yum. 

I have been on a bit of a nostalgic food trip lately, I think its being in Scotland and having Jam and Butteries for breakfast. Butteries or butter roll's are flat bread rolls traditionally made with butter and lard folded together. Although nowadays they are more healthy.... I like them lightly toasted and spread liberally with strawberry jam. mmmm. 

I have had craving's for jam and spam and tip top.......

So tonight I had a Spam sandwich with pickle on white bread spread with butter. I am going to have a bit of left over roly poly for my supper. 

In the cupboard there is a small tin of tip top and some tinned pears which may meet up in the week...

I have another busy week ahead next week but will try and blog when I can. 

Have a great bank holiday!

A walk in the park!!!

I am sitting here looking at 2 tired but happy dogs.

We had to do a favour for my BIL in London so, on the way home we went to Windsor great park.

I love it there. If you want pretty you can go down to Virginia water's  or to Savil gardens and admire the plants. We would have done Virginia Waters today however, As the PGA was on at Wentworth we felt it was best to stick to the Windsor side.

If you squint really hard you can see the castle in the background!

We were careful with our speed!

(not 30 mph or 40 mph or even 35mph)

We walked round Russell's pond, which was blissfully quiet. We only saw 2 people the whole time we were there. The wildlife however, was in abundance.  Unfortunately we only had my camera so no amazing close ups. (more squinting required)

This is a Kite,

You can just see the fork in the tail. It was amazing to see it flying around! 

We also saw a buzzard and some Mandarin Ducks, both of which were to quick for me! 

We did see 2 Canada Geese and some gosling's...

The light was bad so there are no good arty prints today! This was quite nice though.

The star of the walk however was not the view's or the wildlife but the Spaniel! 

For those of you who do not know our Spaniel is Blind (and a bit stupid).

So he only very rarely gets allowed off the lead. As today was very quiet we did let him have a run. He loved it.

(look no strings)

We put him back on the lead after a gun shot sent him running in the wrong direction. He is very skittish. 

Well it was a good job we did as he managed to launch himself into the Pond! 

We rounded the corner and he fell into a ditch, luckily it was a dry ditch, so we hauled him out.  

we walked around the pond and on the way back he fell into the same ditch!!!!

 Once we were passed the pond we let him off the lead again for a short while. Now do you remember I mentioned there were only 2 other people there today, well the Spaniel took a liking to one of them. A strange woman walked past us and the spaniel followed her! well we managed to get him back put him back on the lead and the rest of the walk was pretty uneventful. 

Near to the car park was a heard of long horned cattle. I have a liking for cow's of all breeds. they are such lovely animal's.

 I grew up in a small village and the farm nearest to my house had a small herd of dairy and beef cattle. I used to love going over there. I would help with the milking and getting the cows in. I used to love watching the steers as they grew up and was heart broken when they went for beef. (did not stop me from eating beef) 

I have a strong affection for cattle. I take photo's at any opportunity. 

Sorry for the lack of Blogging I have been so busy since I went back to work. Well its a combo of work and tiredness!! We have another trip planned so I will put the camera battery on charge!!