WooooooHoooooo

Hi everyone...remember me :-) 

Although I was planning a short break I have also had awful computer problems of late so had little choice. I am still not fully sorted but better than I was.

Also what is with Blogger lately ? In my dashboard I used to be able to view all the blogs I follow and  could  literally scroll down and go back through weeks worth of posts making it fairly easy to catch up.  For some time now my dashboard has only been showing the last 20 blog updates.....and seeing as how I follow 300 different blogs I miss loads :-(

When my time is limited I don't get chance to manually look for all the blogs I want to read :-(  I guess this is a new thing rather than a glitch and I don't like it.

Anyhoooo, I'll be away from here for a little while longer because....

I am going home. Yup I will be flying back over to England next week for a 3 week vacation.

I've not been home at all since I left 7 years ago and I can't tell you how excited I am.

There are sooo many people and places I want to see that 3 weeks will go past in a whirl I am sure. 

We will be meeting some friends in London to start and then going to see  the Trans Siberian Orchestra again. I was looking forward to this already but now I am even more excited as Wendie will be there and we'll be staying in the same hotel....how much fun will that be :-)

And the food...oh how I've missed the food. I am not a food person at all...I used to eat perhaps once a day and ate because I had to , not because I wanted to. Yet the thought of going back home and getting to eat all the food I missed had me drooling. Walkers crisps, buttered teacakes, scones and clotted cream, real fish and chips, pukka pie, mushy peas, real chocolate..then with these thoughts came the realization that I'd end up putting on 40lbs.

Not good seeing as I have already put on almost 40lbs in the 7 years I've been here.  So I decided to go on a diet.

Yes, yes, I know I should be losing weight for health reasons, to look better etc etc but the motivation just wasn't there...until I wanted to stuff my face with yummy English food while I could.

So I started dieting on January 13th and so far have lost 26lbs...another woooo hooo. I still have 11lbs to get to the weight I was when I moved here but I've gone from a size 12 jeans down to a size 8 which is unbelievable. I am surprised the store staff didn't come into the changing room when I first tried on a size 8 cause I was squealing so much lol. For the Brits, that isn't as impressive as it sounds though...sizes here are different so now I am a UK 10 but still down from a 14 :-)

And it has been the easiest dieting I've ever done. Had to learn to eat more than once a day and eat more than I ever have but I managed.

A huge part of it being easy has been the energy I've gained. I am sure some of that is from not having to lug all that flab about  , and some of it is because I am so excited but I am literally bouncing off the walls with energy and find it hard to sit still. Good thing really with all I have to do :-)

And I couldn't have done it without my friend Patti. We may be on different coasts but doing this diet with her has helped so much. We hold each other accountable and it has proved much better than any dieting group :-)

Meeting some fellow blogger friends is going to be so much fun. I also come from the same area as Debie so will be meeting up with her as well....gosh I so can't wait :-)

And... if this wasn't enough excitement for one person, ,for the first time since he started studying fine art at college I will get to go with my Son Aydn to an art gallery. He is much more knowledgeable about art than I am so this will be a fun learning experience for me . 

He is doing extremely well at college and while I am there he will be having his work assessed by Walsall Art Gallery with a view to exhibiting there which is really exciting. He has exhibited there before when he was working on his homeless project. This was very successful and when the Director of The Big Issue heard abut it he came along to take a look and loved it.

I always expected that he'd become an engineer like every other man in our family so I am very pleased he took after me :-)

Well, a week today I'll be off so I best get cracking. We have a house sitter so I have to clean and get the guest room ready as well as pack.


Toodle Pip...see you soon xxxx







p.s...we'll likely be whizzing all over the country so if anyone else is interested in meeting up just shoot me an email :-)