Hey guys!
Didn't manage to update in Dubai as was so busy (barely even managed to exchange a few messages with G, much to his dismay!)
This is a mamoth post so please do just skim it/past it! It's kinda detailed to remind me of my food naughties etc, a food catch up as well as general doings so I can remember why I gained so much (haven't weighed in yet though lol!)
Had a good time again! The Desert Safari wasn't quite as good as it sounded (as expected!) camel ride was like 1 minute! Like you got on and were walked on a circle and got off :/ lol! But still was fun. I'll get a proper camel ride in when we go to India hopefully
but the dunes bashing was so cool! Maniac jeep driver going over the dunes in a way where we really all thought the jeep would topple over- everyone was screaming, it was great! Food and shows were good (buffet) but then we had another dune bashing jeep ride back to the bus STRAIGHT after food- nearly was sick lol! Literally ten minutes after eating we were swerving around up and down the sand dunes- mad haha!
Sadly my company kinda ruined it- I asked if any of my colleagues fancied it and one 40 year old woman who I've worked with before said she was up for it but didn't really look at what it was. She seemed so unimpressed/above it as it was 'touristy' (who cares? Not like we have a week to explore the place and it was cheaper than just hiring a driver to go an hour out of Dubai into the desert!) she was really low energy and kinda pulled me down. I wish I'd have gone alone really as I kept bumping into this hilarious british couple who were really cool and I'd have much preferred to hang out with them and their friend, or just mingle with strangers! I felt a bit guilty seeing her so not interested in it (as I'd suggested it) but also it was just generally a downer *sigh*
Food wasn't great SW wise
I got a bit 'woohoooo!' and ate whatever really. First day: I had had the small sushi box for brunch and then on the flight had two mini bags of choc buttons, a creme egg (choc cravings galore at the airport!) and had the desert served on the flight (a small sticky toffee pudding) plus some jaffa cake bar they served later that wasn't worth whatever the syns (couldn't they have just served a general jaffa cake? Would have been way nicer than the crappy bar thing! Also during the 8hr flight I had a pack of beef jerky, a banana, apple and two alpen light's. The flight meal was a lamb stew with mash. Dinner was just a banana though so hopefully balances the nosh a bit. Doesn't balance the copius amounts of WINE I drank though! LOL. Free booze, it's become a habit with these flights! I drank 4 mini bottles (each bottle = 1.8 glasses of wine) and was very tipsy
watched The Breakfast Club, Jurassic Park and I can't remember what else.
On the first day in Dubai (day 2 off plan) I had slept AWFULLY and despite going to bed at 5am and waking up almost hourly, was wide awake at 10am so hit the buffet breakfast. I had a big portion of fried eggs with veg chopped in and asked for low oil, then some fruit, some baked beans and a hash brown with ketchup and some hummus LOL hummus at a breakfast buffet...
Lunch was also HUMMUS though! We grabbed something quick before getting our bus to the Safari so shared a hummus 'with meat' and it came with roti bread so I had one of those too (probably 15 syns alone for the bread!) but at least it wasn't a huge lunch. Dinner at the buffet was rice, more hummus, an onion bahji, some sort of vegetable (potato) curry, salad and a skewer of chicken (and a small BBQ chicken wing) so wasn't toooo naughty and did avoid the bread. I had such a tummy ache that evening though- not sure if it was just a shock to the system to suddenly have had bread/carbs at lunch and dinner after a red week and a WHILE pretty much gluten free (without even realising it! Even the cereals I've been having have been gluten free!) but the tummy ache thing lasted the whole next day too. Bowels wise nothing dodgy and it did luckily lift just before the shoot when I did a poop! But it was weird... The curry was veg and not spicy so wouldn't have blamed that.
Day 3: Shoot day! Had some pool time, read my book in the sun and even have a slight tan line :O
Slept 11hrs straight BEAUTIFULLY that night, so was up in time for breakfast and kept it clean with a bowl of porridge and honey, some fruit and a full fat yoghurt as that was all they had. Had a small glass of OJ too, and a potato croquet.
Pre shoot I went to the near by cafe/take away place which was greasy as hell. I decided to not order rice and keep it a red meal, so had some sort of chinese spicy chicken which was quite nice but probably quite a bit of oil, and a salad.
In the hotel lobby they had a tray of fresh dates (freshly picked and SO nice- so soft and sweet and OMG) and I had maybe 8 of those thorughout the day- hoping they'd help my tummy pass a bowel movement to stop the ache- which they did! However I was gassy as HELL at the wedding which was really embarrassing
silent and deadly ones...
At the shoot they had big serving plates of food at a table for us to dish out from; I had a bit of everything including some AMAZING vegetable lasagne which I had seconds of, and some fairly creamy looking chicken curry, then rice, salad and a couple of things I have NO idea what the substance was lol! One of them looked like pre-chewed food, but tasted... OK!
But yeah, that was a very rushed meal as we had to get back to shooting, and I'd been running around filming so felt I needed a good energy boost... What can't really be forgiven is how I stuffed myself at the chocolate fondue once the wedding had finished
oops! OK I didn't go MENTAL, I had like 4 mouthfuls of some brownie bite, marshmallow etc dipped in the chocolate (OMG
<3) but I did have kinda just eat whatever really fast! I felt like hysterical about it LOL, like a mini binge where after it kinda came to me what I'd done and I felt quite sick
I ate maybe 3 other treats from the table without the chocolate including some candy floss meringue bites which were really interesting! Also had a tiny glass dessert choc mousse thing and the icing of a piece of wedding cake *sigh* bad girl!
The wedding shoot went well. There were about 1000 women there, all dressed to the nines like Princess Jasmine meets Cinderella's ball gown, everything went smoothly (and the cake was about 8ft tall, just 'cause... You know, why not?) and the place was like a palace... They really must spend millions on these weddings! We found out that a wedding planner who had IG'd a picture of the wedding set up (for another wedding) had been DEPORTED because in the picture was a woman without her head dress on (as when only other women are around, they are free to take it off) and the groom saw the picture and called the police who were about to throw her in jail! She luckily got away with just leaving the country (where she lived!) but yeah, bit scary! So won't be sharing any pics
but there is a carefully composed (no people!) choc fountain pic on my IG
Day 4: Flight home day. We'd gotten back from shoot at 3.30am, were packed at in bed by 5.30 (ended up getting engrossed in a convo- doh!) then got up at 10.30 for flight (had only half an hour to get ready- bit risky!)
Breakfast was a full fat yog nabbed from the day before's buffet and a porridge pot with honey.
Food on flight was served at 4pm so my lunch I guess was the banana, apple and alpen bar I had on me... But then I got on the wine again! Managed 4.5 bottles this time and was quite drunk! Couldn't steer my wheely bag very well after the flight LOL. I watched Pocahontas (cried like 6 times, no idea why I was so emotional! I had never loved Pocahontas that much but I really understood it in a different light this time and I loved it! The Colours Of The Wind song made me cry so much!) then About Time which was one of my favourite films of the past year- so lovely! Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy gold! Funny, cute and a tear jerker too, but generally a lovely film, well made and written
then I watched Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones just because the guy who looks like my childhood crush (Ville Valo from the band HIM) was in it- but he's SUCH A BAD ACTOR that it really dragged the film down! The sad thing was, I'd seen the film in the cinema already
G and I both agreed that it was an AWFUL film (acting/directing/writing SUCKED) but actually we both found it entertaining from a guilty pleasure point of view! Also the cast are really, really pretty, and I was drunk and that's all I really wanted
I just WISH that guy could act as he's so sexy in a weird kinda way!
As if all that wine wasn't bad enough I then told G I'd get us dinner on the way back so picked up some Sushi from the Victoria station Wasabi joint- I didn't really need it as booze stops my hunger but I ate it anyway and really I feel most guilty about that as I ate when totally not hungry :/
Yesterday we went to watch Chinese New Year celebrations at Trafalgar square- big mistake! It was MOBBED and the show wasn't even that great (we left after the lion dance and some stage performance). I had my heart set on chinese food but the queues around china town were insane! We ended up walking around for an hour until we found somewhere miles away serving sort of pub food. I was so depressed by this point (partly because I had just stopped taking these AD pills (5HTP) as you are supposed to break from the ones I take every couple of months so your brain remembers how to release it's seretonin- and because the twatty hotel staff through the few I'd brought out there away as they were in what looked/felt like an empty packet >:/ ) so yeah, I was in full depression 'come down' mode which happens for a few days after stopping them usually, and I just really had my heart set on sweet and sour chicken but it wasn't going to happen.
I had chilli con carne (probably mega synful because it was full fat beef) with rice, I asked for jalepeños on top for some reason and they really made it
they added sour cream too because of that which was nice too. Then I had a 'feeling sorry for myself' brownie and scoop of ice cream. I gave G about 1/4 of the brownie as it was so dense and I felt guilty for eating it
I perked up a bit after food and we went to the Waterstones at Picadilly circus (biggest book shop in the world- and my fave place to hang out haha!) and browsed the SE Asia travel section for 1.5hrs, getting a better idea of some of the B places we're heading to as they're en route (and places G suddenly wants to go to- Bali and parts of indonesia! This is going to be a long trip!) then we headed to Brixton academy for a metal gig (Trivium and Killswitch Engage) which was fun
hadn't been to a proper gig in ages (apart from the 'chapperone' one before xmas but that doesn't really count as I wasn't a fan
) but this was great- I got beaten to shreds in the mosh pit- G absoluted HATED being in the mosh pit, he looked SO destressed, so for KSE he stood further back and I went into the circle pit and got half killed trying to get past it/nearer the front
will definitely be on the DVD they were filming for both bands- they had a tiny camera on a jib that kept going into the crowd right by me! For KSE though I was like singing along when it was really close and was thinking "yay, I'll be on the DVD!" just as some crowd surfer landed on my head and crushed me LOL! Bet that looks hilarious in the footage (they probably won't use it though- dang!)
At the end of the gig I searched around the front as I was 2nd row back and a handful of guitar picks were thrown in my direction by KSE! And I found one wedged under the front barrier! Then I found a Trivium one too
has the logo on it- yay! I also got a set list! And found £2.50 and a pair of earphones (with volume control
) LOL. Success!
I can't hear in one ear this morning, it feels blocked like after a flight when it hasn't popped- the ear that was nearest the speakers! It is ringing too, sheesh. Throat is sore too.
Off to WI now that G is up. I'm completely dreading it! Probably another 6lb gain or something :/ also feel quite dehydrated from last night nad have drunk half a glass of water so that might make me heavier- RIGHT?
excuses excuses. I'm going to try and have a 5:2 fast day today to balance things out a bit. Tummy is already rumbling though! Will finally get that beans on toast in
Will report back in a min with WI results- sorry for the mamoth post :/ sheesh!
