All these things that I have done

Well, I tried being really good on my food for a week and ended up putting on weight, which was really irritating. I suppose the next thing to try would be a week of eating normally and really pushing myself on the exercise front or something like that - I've only been cycling to work about half the time recently due to the weather in the last month so perhaps if I force myself to do some other aerobics any days that I don't cycle this week and see if that makes a difference. I really need to shift some of this though as I've put on nearly a stone since the start of the year and I don't want to have to replace my whole wardrobe for larger sizes :(

In good news, I've been doing lots in the garden recently and it's starting to look really pretty. The planting's pretty sparse in the back at the moment as the idea is to give me a chance to attack the things like the dandilions easily and I have been doing my best. I'm sure there's still plenty of roots waiting to come up again next year but still, it's reduced, I think. I really want to post some photos but it's ages since I've synched my treo to transfer them to the laptop so I haven't got around to it yet. Maybe later this week even. I wish I was better at remembering plant names as there's some really pretty flowers but I won't know what to tag them! Ah well. I should get one of those gardening bibles to help me out or something.

I really need to go shoe shopping soon. I've been putting it off for a while - I just couldn't face being in the city centre on Saturday for example! Maybe next Thursday? I've got roleplaying this Thurs, unfortunatly. Anyone fancy a bit of late night shopping with me? Or alternatively, meeting up afterwards for drink/dinner, probably around 7:30?

So, pub meet, Monday, 5:15, Far from the Madding Crowd?

Forget not - pub, tomorrow, 5pm.

Totally forgot when thinking about pub meet this week that Alex was coming home today and so I really want to just go home after work and hug him and have an evening in. Anyone up for a different night - Weds or Thurs?

I'm going have a week of trying really hard to apply the Weightwatchers programme this week - I need to remind myself that when I do it properly I can actually lose weight. One of the things I've been having problems with in the last couple of weeks particuarly but also generally is comfort eating. Or not exactly comfort eating but I've been finding that I get home and have dinner and a glass of wine and then what seems to happen is that I feel tired and perhaps a little bored and just want to sit in front of the TV with another glass of wine and perhaps a toasted pitta or bakewell tart. And then repeat for the next 3 hours or so.

So my question is have you got any suggestions for things I could try instead. I need something with fairly low barrier to entry (as it were) as it's difficult to get myself started but once I'm going I can get re-energised fairly quickly. Ideally it should also be something that I don't do just sitting down in the living room, at least for the moment as I currently associate that with relaxing with wine, pittas, etc. Any ideas?

Also, as support is so important ( :) ) I thought I'd organise a pub meet tonight. Far from the Madding Crowd? (Or Copa, but they have more tempting food) from around 5:45? Comment now and I'll txt white_hart after lunch with the conclusions.

Am going for meeting tomorrow and so will need pub meet when I get back. How do people feel about FFtMC tomorrow from 6? white_hart, can you tag if you've seen, otherwise I'll txt you tomorrow.

Ah, the freedom to write LJ entries while my tests are running. I've been vaguely thinking that I'll discipline myself by trying to write at least one entry a day for a month, even if it doesn't have much content (like this one). Perhaps for the whole of October?

This week, I have been mostly thinking about house things. I bought a shelving unit to use as a shoe rack on Sunday which I am ridiculously pleased with. I also managed to find some door tidies but they're all designed for children and are correspondingly inelegant. I still might buy one of the less offensive ones and dye it or something - how hard is that with canvas?

Also on my list are hassling the plumber (still no sign of quote re boiler, dishwasher to be delivered this week and needs to be fitted...) and visiting the fireplace showroom to get things moving on installing one in our living room. Mum has decided that she wants to buy Steve and I each something special as a gift with her legacy from Granddad and in my case has plumped for funding my fireplace. I'd quite like to get in in before Christmas and have found somewhere which will give 6months interest free credit by which time the will should be sorted out. The more I think about it, the more I look forward to it - that and the dishwasher.

I'm suffering a little from "so many ideas, so little time" syndrome with the house right now - there's tonnes of things I want to do and I end up making lots of plans and only rarely doing any of them - the shoe rack was a happy exception (which possibly explains why I'm so pleased with it). Perhaps I'd feel a bit better if I settled on something that I could do myself and just got on with it.

Tomorrow, are people up for pub meet? dyddgu, are you working late? My memory is terrible!

So, pub meet. That I can actually go to, which is good. Usual time (i.e. 5:30 ish for me, I guess). Do we fancy going to

(a) Far from the Madding Crowd (no food, which is fine with me, but don't know about Bethan & Milo)
(b) Chequers
(c) Old Tom
(d) Other...?

Hmmmm. Between Truck, Caption and rarely having time to eat properly in the week at the minute, my weight is doing really badly. I think I'm going to have to try to be extra focused and stick to WW until we go to France in the hope of minimising the damage while we're there. I won't be dieting while on holiday - holidays are a break - but I might try to be more adventurous when it comes to dessert rather than always going for the cheese!

[Poll #545615]

It looks from last week's poll that (a) we should definitely be on Weds or Thurs as no-one said they weren't available then and (b) Thursday was more popular than Wednesday (sorry, white_hart!) so for the moment, Thursday it is. I suggest we give Chequers another try tomorrow and see if the last Thursday we were there was just a fluke, busyness-wise. I'll be heading on from there to roleplaying at 7pm and will probably try to turn up there at around 5:30pm.