Why the long face?

Can't shake off this rotten mood, 'go away grey cloud'. Feeling sorry for myself, I hate it when I feel like this,  my mind has a lot to answer for, being a Gemini aint easy! I desperately need a bloody good long 'belly' laugh right now, anyone got any good jokes?

On a positive note though it is Friday, which means a lie in tomorrow, followed by a long leisurely breakfast consisting of fresh coffee, naughty croissants and pancakes, or maybe a muffin or a crumpet instead of a pancake, ooh I'll make that difficult decision in the morning. (Methinks I could be completing 'The Evil Food Circle' very soon!) 

I need to go to bed with the positive thought 'Be thankful for what you've got', then maybe I shall wake up feeling sunny and bright again. Cross your fingers!

 

Something nice

I do like my food. Oh and I don't do exercise and I love to sleep.  A recipe for disaster ..... perhaps?

For breakfast on a week day I'll have a mug of boiling water and a slice of toast or a weetabix with semi skimmed milk. For 11's I'll have a cup of tea and a few biscuits and lunch (I have half n hour from 1210) usually consists of a sandwich, a packet of crisps and and apple.

Hmm, not too bad I'm thinking. But once I get home, round about 330, I'm pretty peckish and usually I'll go for the crackers and humus whilst preparing dinner. We usually eat between 530-6, but by 9pm I get the nibbles, so usually the crackers and cheese come out. Or even worse something nice from the dessert section at M&S. Is it any wonder I worry about my evening eating habits.

Last year, in June, I went to see my GP. I was to have some blood tests because I had been feeling constantly tired for a very long time (having siestas almost every afternoon). I needed to know if this was due to any medical problems but luckily for me my results showed nothing untoward. Now I knew it was just down to my lifestyle, particularly my eating habits.

So the next thing I did was book a consultation at a health clinic. I came away from that appointment totally confident that I would buy the vitamins, drink the soya milk, cut out sugar and white rice and pasta etc (you know the no-no's, right?). And I did, I tried, but not hard enough I'm ashamed to admit. I went for walks (for a while), I tried it all (for a while), but as I've confessed already, I've well and truly fallen off the band wagon.

My life tires me out. Sometimes I think I'm just a wimp. Sometimes I think 'Hold on a minute, you've been a single mum bringing up three daughters for the past ten years.' 

I've done the mind numbing cleaning jobs to work around school and moved onto part time jobs as they got older, still determined to be there to pick them up from school. I pay my bills, I even run a car (god knows how!). I'm not asking for a pat on the back, I know there's plenty of single mums and dads out there doing the same thing. I just need to stop punishing myself for feeling tired maybe. AND I need to stop eating crap!! 

PS. Gillian McKeiths says in her book 'You Are What You Eat'  that a burger meal (large burger, fries and cola) contains 38 teaspoons of sugar and over a 5th of a block of lard! 

  

Ugh, Mondays ....

Having completed a one and a half hour motorway journey in rotten weather yesterday evening (which made me so tense) the last thing I should have done was stay up into the wee small hours, what was I thinking!

Consequently I woke up this morning feeling like I'd only had 20 minutes sleep. Not a good way to feel when you're about to go on a day out with thirty 8 year olds believe me! Thankfully all were returned safely back to school this afternoon despite my zombie state, which is just as well because we'll be doing the same trip tomorrow and for the rest of the week! 

I was greeted with a cup of tea and biscuits when I got home courtesy of daughter no2, which was greatly appreciated. I sooo could have done with a foot rub too, but no-one was offering. No3 didn't even drag her eyes away from the computer, but did just manage to release a grunt, when I asked her if she'd had a good day at school. So... asking her to touch my feet was definitely out of the question, ha!

Oh what a day....

Home, safe and sound.

I didn't enjoy driving back from Pompey at all (why is that Portsmouth's nickname by the way). Motorways bore me at the best of times but the dark, coupled with pouring rain, made this particular trek even more tedious than usual. 

It was worth the pain and suffering though 'cos I've gained a daughter this trip, leaving only one behind in Portsmouth and she'll be home on Friday. I do like us girls all being under one roof.

Had a laugh out loud moment earlier on this evening . . . .  my girls were watching X-men3 and I happened to see the bit where Magneto attempts to rescue Mystique from the clutches of the government. To cut a long story short Mystique takes a bullet meant for Magneto and loses her mutant powers. 

So she's lying naked on her side on the floor of this armoured vehicle (arms and legs strategically placed) but all I could look at was her amazingly flat stomach. I told my girls (they hadn't noticed funnily enough!) and added 'no-one's stomach looks like that when they lie on their side'  to which my 13 year old boasted, 'Mine does'. Ooh that hurt! 

I let out a cry of disgust as I hurled a cushion at her from across the living room. This was swiftly followed by cushion no2 (which I'm glad to say actually hit the intended target spot on) launched by her big sister who felt equally wounded by this younger siblings blatant honesty! 

I had to let her off though, for earlier this evening she did something for me that was very thoughtful, without being asked.

 

A very gorgeous friend of mine was to be interviewed on the radio and I had planned to listen on my mobile. However, that plan was instantly snookered when I realised it was about to die so I had to charge it instead.

At this point I ran upstairs to tune in on the radio in bedroom no2 (couldn't use the one in the livingroom because the girls were watching TV). However, I ended up muttering 'oh sh*te' at it instead when I could only get stations on FM. I needed MW but couldn't even find one station!

As time was well and truly running out I suddenly remembered there was a portable radio in bedroom no3, but found myself muttering 'oh sh*te' yet again as I quickly discovered it only had FM and AM bands. Hours had passed (ok slight exaggeration) as I flew downstairs like a banshee to try the computer. 

I was just in the process of googling internet radio when a voice piped up,  'Is this the station you're looking for mum?' and low and behold my little angel had stopped watching CSI and instead, on the box, she had the radio station for me (for a fleeting second I thought about giving her a big kiss but decided against it, she would not have been impressed). 

I'm so glad all that damn fuss paid off, for a moment later the radio host introduced the man I'd been waiting for and we all ended up listening to him together, whew!  

Family time

My alarm went off at 830, I peeked through my blinds to see my parked car covered in frost so was glad I still had snooze time to snuggle back under my duvet. I forced myself out of bed at 9, showered, got dressed, had breakfast and left just after 1030.

Should have filled the car up, put air in the tyres, checked the water and oil yesterday but mistakenly put it off, so once all that had been done we eventually set off for Portsmouth about 1115.

The journey itself took about 1hr 45mins, but without my Garmin I could have ended up in Russia, my sense of direction is sooo non existant!

It's great to see my girls, they're so independent. I'm happy that they're loving it here and coping so well with their workloads. They seem to have struck the balance between studying and living it up.

Right now they're busy debating the choice of DVD. The plan is to curl up on the sofa with a cuppa and then see who can stay awake until the end of the film. I'm certainly not going to win that one!

Let the weekend begin!

I love Fridays! I treasure my weekends, if only they were longer. However, I'm luckier than most as far as having time off's concerned (an advantage of working in education, ha!).

Meant to write this entry much earlier but ended up playing around with customising the look of my page instead, so have spent aaages changing templates and the colour of everything! Still not sure about my choice, I will probably change it again, to suit my mood (and being a Gemini that could be an hourly occurrence!)

I'm driving to Portsmouth in the morning with my youngest daughter to keep me company. We're going to visit my two other daughters who are currently at university there. My eldest has turned 21 today so we've planned a birthday lunch and some shopping at Gun Wharf when we arrive tomorrow.

I miss my girls terribly, my youngest is 13 and she can be quite difficult to live with at times. She seems to have perfected the Kevin and Perry 'attitude' thing and will insist on re-enacting scenes on a daily basis. I love her but she can be so frustrating!

Right, now I shall climb my stairs, must keep that date with my lovely bed. To feel refreshed I need at least eight hours sleep, plus the obligatory 3 snooze hits before I can rise and I need to be up at 9. So...

Goodnight, sweet dreams.

Shake a leg and lose some pounds!

Had an uneventful day at work today, which is to say the usual suspects decided to behave and actually listen and learn, always good, beats coming home in a bad mood with a headache. The fact that it's an inset day tomorrow, so a day off for the kids, might have had something to do with it?!

My friend and I made a New Years resolution to start Salsa again (we stopped dancing over a year ago). We're on the lookout for a decent venue and tonight was our first outing.

We visited a local community centre type place just to take a look, but it didn't appeal, the room was a bit dingy and there were quite a few odd bods attempting the 'beginners' steps. After only 20 minutes we decided to split (having spent the last 10 minutes giggling very discreetly at the ones who didn't have any rhythm whatsoever, miaow!)

We ended up at The Crown, had a 2for1 meal, a glass of wine and a jolly good chat, something we know we can do well. The search continues!

I've just been born!

Hello, I've just started up so tune in tomorrow when I have thought of something to say!