IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, try try try again and again (and again...)

[lorlypop]

Hope the weatherman has got it wrong! Enjoy your long weekend of radiator-bleeding... Sometimes we need those silly eating sessions to help keep us on the straight and narrow the other 99% of the time, lest we go mad! When the absences last weeks at a time, that's when we send out the search party... (You'll find me over Christmas hiding in the Quality Street tin!) x

 

[Joodle]

she makes a certain cake she regularly gives my husband slabs of when he's there alone and I'm here! very sweet of her! I hear it involves yoghurt, flour and oil... hmm. It certainly tastes better than it sounds.

Ooh, sounds like one I've been making lately for various birthdays - super quick as you just use a cup for measuring and there's only 5 ingredients! One Cup Yoghurt Cake recipe - Best Recipes

Hope your weekend's been ok. I have finally decided to fully succumb back to Dukan as of tomorrow. Annoyed that I've failed to find a way of eating in a more restrained manner but I just need to knock the creeping weight gain on the head!

Jx

 

[Maintainer]

That's the one! All ingredients plopped together, quick hand whisk, and you're done! Fab!
Oh Joodle, I am sorry to hear that. Tempted as I might be to join you, as I flounder, I know it's not the answer for me.
The radiator is still slowly emptying itself... this is one slow empty. Drip drip. Very annoying in the night too as, while it doesn't stop me from sleeping, if I'm tossing and turning anyway, I find myself listening for the next drip!
Thank you Alice. This week I've avoided scales mind... awh!
x

 

[Joodle]

Is that radiator empty yet Jo? How are you doing m'lady? Jx

 

[scooter]

Hope the radiator empties soon Jo - nothing worse than a drip in the bedroom!!! ;-) xxx

 

[sididd]

Oooooo eeerrrr I could get into so much trouble if I comment ......................................

 

[Paulinegin]

Oooooo eeerrrr I could get into so much trouble if I comment ......................................

What Sid said!!

P x

 

[scooter]

It's you lot with your dirty minds lol !!! ;-) I was simply talking about the radiator !!! - honestly girls you are rude!!!!!!! Xxxxxx

 

[sididd]

 

[Joodle]

Haha, I thought it was you being smutty Scoot!

 

[Maintainer]

haaaaa! Actually, with a four day weekend and my being away from the flat for almost six (when you add in that I left for work last Thurs at 7am and got home Tuesday at 7pm), I did have a mini meltdown with the building's manager trying to get the heating engineer to come back to help! He eventually deigned to visit my flat (mais madame, there are 200 other apartments in this building... yes but do they all risk water damage?!!), and in 10 mins had drained the offending radiator! Now why didn't he simply do that 10 days ago instead of promising me it would empty in 48 hours! So that's sorted!

Back from my long (non stop eating) weekend and haven't spoken to my husband since Tuesday! aaaaah! No row or anything but he left his mobile in Paris when we left on Thursday and we only realised once in the country and so... he must be having a nice quiet week now instead of getting on with all the jobs I'd have told him about each day when I rang him!! haaa!

We've started using our slow cooker again. It used to be my Mum's so it's pretty ancient but it makes lovely casserole type concoctions and now that the weather has turned chilly, I'm loving it.

Five weeks today I come home for Christmas. GULP!
x

 

[Maintainer]

Back to the city, and normality has resumed...
Sunday end of day, starting to pack up our toys before returning to the city with our three indoor cats, I realised that the younger crazy one hadn't been seen for a while. No real worries as the house is large and, knowing that I'd closed several doors in the morning, knew she wasn't behind them at least... Nearing our usual departure time, having figured out where the two older ones were slumbering (we have to be cunning as, if they see their cages come out, they have a tendency to make a run for ... oh behind the sofa, under a bed, you name it) we set about tracking Maxie down. Each room was searched, separately, by each of us. I even checked the washing machine, dish washer, cupboards in the kitchen (as I'd opened all when emptying dish washer!)... nothing. Realising how unusual it was for her not to be around for oooh four hours, as she usually can't stay still for long, panic started to rise and we aired our fears. What if she'd snuck out when we were taking the bins out/feeding the stray cats/putting things in the car. Not being able to be 100% sure she hadn't, out we trooped. Zero degrees, dark, up and down the road we went calling our baby's name. Nothing. No sign of any strays either - all her family members so my hubby tried reassuring me saying that she was most likely camped out for the night with them in a barn somewhere. Scant relief.

Hubby offered to drive me back (3 hours) to the city and return. I couldn't conceive getting in the car without her. So we drove 45 mins to a TGV station, bought me a ticket for the following morning, and returned hoping upon hope to find her waiting for us in the front garden. But would she know her way back? She's not been outside since she was six weeks old! I was feeling sick (and not only for all I'd consumed that day!).

As we backed the car in, my eyes searched the garden for a white splodge. There was one, but smaller and younger than her. I know the strays by sight as we feed them all when we're there! No sign. I unlocked the door with a heavy heart... and there she was! Impatient for her dinner!

This will remain a mystery... where the heck was she that two of could search the place several times over, separately, and not have a slightest clue. Hmm...

Mucho relievedo...

Diet? Hmm. Obviously back into week day mode now so all is well... my clothes are now decidedly tight. Dukan before Christmas wouldn't be clever so I'll hang in there.

I've noted lots of disappearances too. It is a shame. Chatting about trivia is always an option!

 

[sididd]

Oh Jo, reading that I was getting so anxious and thing the worst xxx so great there was a happy ending you'll have to put a bell around her neck xxx

 

[ALICE2013]

Glad you found Maxie Jo, cats can be such contrary creatures. Last year our (indoor) cat, Ash, went missing and we searched, called, checked outside, searched again and finally my five year old daughter found her fast asleep wedged in to the top floor of the dolls house! She had completely ignored our frantic calls!
Your right, Dukan with Christmas coming would be foolish - enjoy yourself and then refocus afterwards.

 

[lorlypop]

Glad that she reappeared Jo, I was fearing the worst too! You have a lovely style of writing, I was gripped!

It must be four weeks till you come home now...? x

 

[Maintainer]

Instead of spending our Friday night in traffic jams heading for our country pad, this weekend was very different. Friday evening I went Christmas shopping, then had sushi takeaway delivered (aaah there are benefits of living in a big city after all!). Then Saturday 6.30am, we headed out and drove 2.5 hours (plus obligatory croissant stop en route) to join up with friends from England who were in France visiting the "terrain de loisirs" they've recently bought. A new concept to me - an enclosed piece of land in a very rural area next to a river, with a converted shipping container on it, to use as a secondary residence when holidaying here or en route to elsewhere in France. I was pleasantly surprised. The wc facilities worried me, so we stopped at a cafe before arriving, but even there, I was pleasantly surprised at their innovative two pot temporary sanitation facilities!
A beautiful sunny blue skied freezing cold day, we walked their large dogs, spent some time helping in their garden, and had a delicious dinner in a local restaurant. We were back here for gone midnight. A long but fabulous day.
Sunday I woke with a sore throat... aaaah! Doing my best to stop it in its tracks, I won't dwell on it here in case it takes advantage and takes further hold.
To England I come on Thurs 19th overnight... so just three and a half weeks... yikes!

 

[Maintainer]

I've got a cold and a sore throat, boooo! My first in absolute YEARS so I'm well due one but...
This weekend we're going to a Christmas market in an abbey not far from us in the country. I've never visited it so it'll be a good excuse:
Abbaye d'Auberive
It looks beautiful and I love Christmas markets. I've avoided to date going to the Paris one on the Champs Elysées so as not to put anything smaller into the shade. I'll go to that one next week. I love the smells and lights. I'm such a kid at Christmas!!
Cards all written, presents purchased, wrapping to do still... I've made a big push on this year knowing that the lead up to Christmas and my departure from work on the 19th will be hectic. Plus my new boss sends trillions of cards, hopefully mainly electronic ones, so I'll be up to my ears in his too!
Food wise - well what to say. My (very few) size 16 trousers are tightening up and, although frantic internally, I know I can't get my head in gear to pass on Christmas. January will come soon enough and it'll be a relief to get back onto a strict food plan. Meanwhile, weekdays at least (but even that's not entirely true now as there's usually a dinner or lunch each week now until Christmas which will break my weekday rules) I continue with plenty of fruit and salads.
Christmas Day we're invited to my Dad's girlfriend's. (We take turns in my family catering Christmas Day.) Previously someone else would then do Boxing Day but we've all rebelled against two days sitting around eating and watching TV with the same people! We'll visit my Nana in the care home in the morning - she'll be 100 end January so fingers crossed for the telegramme She's been under the weather of late - just a cold but...
What are you all up to at Christmas? Feel free to update here or wake up your own diary... feel free also not to mention diet food or weight in your post! Just come back lurkers!!

 

[sididd]

Sounds great Jo, I love Christmas markets too, the music the smell warns the heart xxx

 

[alottolose]

hope you're feeling better soon Jo! xx

 

[robinhood]

Hi Jo (and anyone else here from olden days who may remember me and a wave to the others!)

Long time, no update. Bad Robinhood!

So, we've had a mixed time of it. Husband is ill, now getting help, so time will do the rest - hopefully. Has been mighty stressful but we are coming out the other side.

He ho, it's December. Advent calendars in place for the two youngest, 1 chocolate at breakfast time (yuk - 6.30 am weekdays) for the eldest who (rightly) refuses advent calendars. There ends (for now) my Christmas talk.

Now onto the reason why we all come here in the first place! So, I've been self-medicating on coffee/chocolate to help with tiredness in the past wee while. Weight (this morning) was 10 st 9.5 lb. Don't know what it was last time I weighed, but surely less because clothes are tight. Husband helpfully (?) told me to buy some more instead. (As shopping is the worst punishment I can be given, I consider a period of Dukan a much easier option). This time, not cutting out the fat so much (because tiredness = cold and I'm not depriving myself more than necessary). I'm aiming for a 2-3 pounds off before the end of the year.

Hope all are well, fighting the cold spell, enjoying the diets (whatever they may be) and that life is treating you well.

A bientôt!