"I'm Losing It"

I did the craziest thing last night. I joined my local Weight Watchers. I have been gaining weight slowly but steadily over the past 2 1/2 years and I have finally faced the fact that I must do something about it. Nine years ago I joined WW in California and it was very successful. Mind you, there is a big difference between 58 and 67. Also, I was still smoking back then which is a great diet aid. Too bad the side effect is an early death from some horrible lung related disease to say nothing of the social impropriety. Anyway, back to the poundage. I'm sitting here at the keyboard debating whether to tell my weight. 'No' has just won. I will report each week if I have lost any weight. I and I alone will know the starting point. All I can say is that it is much higher than when I started the process nine years ago. Another factor for me is keeping a straight face. I was sitting there watching Debbie give us all the good word and I kept flashing on Little Britain and the Fat Fighters. I kept expecting Debbie to finish her talk and to turn into the only Gay in the Village. To go along with this fat fighting binge, I have joined a gym. Stiffness and lack of strength has been going along hand in hand with my weight gain. I'm doing four classes a week, two in Old Folks Aerobics and two in Old Folks Pilaties. Each in its own way is very difficult and very essential. I also go on the machines at least twice a week and I've been taking long walks daily (well, long for me). Hopefully by the summer I will be looking and feeling a damn sight better.

Another climate change

A few of my crocuses and snow drops



We have had a beautiful week most of which I spent in Brighton with the Williams' girls and the Fox. He is fantastic. If they had prizes for the brightest, smiliest baby, he would have to win. You can see pictures of him and even a little video if you look on the 'Diva at Home' blog. I came home on Friday and had a sunny warm weekend. Judith came by on Saturday and was determined to cut a branch off one of my beech trees. It was blocking the light and would do so even more when the leaves come out. It turned out to be a huge job which took a good part of two days. It was just high enough to be awkward to reach so she ended up with a crick in her neck and very sore arms. On the plus side is this picture of the crocuses and snow drops which are out in large swathes. I think they were sitting there waiting for the snow to melt so that they could come to life with a little sun. The next couple of months will be wonderful in my garden. The bulbs and wild flowers are well worth waiting for.

A New Day - A New Climate

I wake up this morning and lie in bed listening to the news. Guess what - flood warning all over the south of England. It began to rain yesterday afternoon and now several communities are flooded. Thank god I never shovelled. I only have a small bit of pavement (sidewalk) in front of my house and it's level so I couldn't be bothered. I saw one neighbour (American) shovelling last week and when I praised her efforts she said that one passerby had told her that she was making things worse! I don't think it's true but I liked it as a general principle and I've definitely taken it on board. My back garden is still covered in snow and looking pretty. Better still, not in need of attention.

I have been to see five films in the past week. We had the Bafta's on Sunday evening and I wanted to be up-to-date. Also the Oscars will be on in about ten days. Unfortunately, with the time difference, they are on here live in the middle of the night. I used to go with my friends Robin and Stacy to watch them when I lived in LA. We would each chip in five dollars and choose which films we thought would win. We had about ten categories. Whoever got the most correct, got the money. Stacy usually won. Anyway, back to my film viewing. I shall rate them with stars, 1 through 5 with 5 being the best.

The Wrestler **** - Mickey Rourke was a 5 (he won best actor in the Bafta's)
Slumdog Millionaire ***
Benjamin Button ****
The Reader *****
Revolutionary Road ****** - I know I'm only supposed to go to 5 but I saw this film last night and it blew me away. It was awesome. I was reluctant to go because I thought that L.C. and K.W. would be reprising their efforts in Titanic which I didn't like.

Enough for now. It is neither raining nor snowing at the moment so I think I shall take a walk (power walk LOL).

A New Week

I was looking forward to having last week over because of the bad weather. Guess what. Snow is forecast for today along with rain and then it is supposed to freeze tonight. I'm desperate to get over to Ikea to invest in some more junk and I'm thwarted. I think the god of weather is in cahoots with my daughters who insist on this crazy idea that I should go up scale when I spend money. I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Because I'm stuck in the house today, I'm going to make a start on sorting out all my banking information. I seem to have several bank accounts that I have acquired over the last two years and my filing system seems to consist of opening drawers and shoving stuff in. I then put a label on the drawer which is useless since I also have a filing cabinet with similar papers and labels. I have books on the subject of how to sort yourself out. If the weather were better I could spend at least half of today going into town to buy more self help books on how to be organized. I just looked at my bookshelf and my copies of Getting Things Done (two copies) is next to On Death and Dying. I wonder if that was a Freudian slip?

More snow

It snowed again last night - two days in a row now. I don't like to drive my car in this weather because the country isn't set up to deal with it. I think there is maybe one snowplow in London, no one has snow tires or antifreeze and, as of yesterday, they have pretty much run out of salt! I have just raised my eyes from the keyboard to look out the window and it is snowing again. On Monday it was magical; on Wednesday it was copable; today it's a nuisance. Probably if I were at work or at school I would be delighted to have the day off. I'm going to dress appropriately now and walk down to Starbucks for a decent cup of coffee. I can watch the snow through their windows as well as mine.

My Academic Career

I have spent the last month thinking hard about whether to continue with the history course or call it a day. Today, I called it a day. I got my last essay back on Saturday and I had a slightly better grade than the first one but not good enough to make me want to go on. The real problem is that I'm not enjoying the course at all, I'm rubbish at essays, and I never seem to be able to do enough reading to feel comfortable. I was going to stick it out until the end of this term but I knew I would definitely leave then so I couldn't see any point in going on. I feel a great sense of relief but I'm glad I tried it because I would never have known that it's not me if I hadn't had a go.