Dinkie Dawnies Dubious Diary of Downsizing, Deflation, and Debauchery

I am so upset to hear that he has passed away. He was a lovely man and I loved meeting him and you, Lal and Bev in Nottingham. That photo of us all is lovely. A blooming cold day it was though. RIP Steve xxx

It’s very upsetting isn’t it @Lolly Large 😞 53 is way too young...especially for someone with such a zest for life x

It was a freezing day wasn’t it. And that snow! Just shows how dedicated we all were. Thank goodness we all got home safely x I’ll try to find the other photos and post them here, although I think our albums have all been removed from minis. I might still have a few on my phone x
 
Hi everyone x
Feeling a bit out of sorts as I’ve just heard a good friend from Minis has died.
Some of you who have read some of my diary will have come across Steve (AKA Maximus), a mad Geordie who who was a great advocate for SW and also for walking.
Sadly I’ve found out that he passed away unexpectedly at the weekend. He was only 53 years old.
Years ago Steve played a huge part in not only my slimming journey but also the journeys of many of my mini friends. His quick wit and good humour had us in stitches, and his determination and dedication was an inspiration to us all.
RIP to a very special man x
Really sorry to hear this x
 
It’s very upsetting isn’t it @Lolly Large 😞 53 is way too young...especially for someone with such a zest for life x

It was a freezing day wasn’t it. And that snow! Just shows how dedicated we all were. Thank goodness we all got home safely x I’ll try to find the other photos and post them here, although I think our albums have all been removed from minis. I might still have a few on my phone x
I have the ones you sent me back in 2012. They've nearly all got Gail on though - so I'd need to modify them first!
But here's one of you Lou with Jess & Sarah. And one of me to show how cold it was. I had 4 layers on the top and 3 on the bottom. I even had my ski thermals and ski jacket on and I was still freezing! And someone (Sarah I think) lent me her ski gloves as my hands had gone white inside the gloved I had with me!
 

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I have the ones you sent me back in 2012. They've nearly all got Gail on though - so I'd need to modify them first!
But here's one of you Lou with Jess & Sarah. And one of me to show how cold it was. I had 4 layers on the top and 3 on the bottom. I even had my ski thermals and ski jacket on and I was still freezing! And someone (Sarah I think) lent me her ski gloves as my hands had gone white inside the gloved I had with me!

Aww these are great @Pommette x Brings it all back doesn’t it? We must’ve been mad to even attempt that trip with the weather forecast being so bad.
But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world! ☺️

I’ve just scrolled right back in my diary to find my post of the actual day...the pics obviously wouldn’t copy and paste but here’s the post...made me smile


6 February 2012#4,375
Good Evening everyone!

Sorry I haven't been on to update before now...you impatient people...Penny!!! But I'm here now!

So, Sarah and I arrived at Rufford Abbey Country Park http://www.tourismleafletsonline.com/pdfs/Rufford-Abbey-Country-Park-Tourism-Leaflet.pdf about 09.45 and parked up next to Steve! And while we were talking to him, Gail appeared with Bev, Chels and Jess! It was just brilliant to see them! :grouphugg:

It was really cold so we opted to head for the cafe to get some warm drinks and wait for Shrimpy who arrived a little later.

Having warmed up a bit, we decided to ignore the freeing temperatures and voices of doom saying that snow was on the way, and set off on a walk around the lake. OMG it was cold! :winter_brr: Even the lake was frozen and the poor swans, geese and ducks were waddling around on the surface. But we ploughed on regardless and I have to say I totally enjoyed the walk! It gave us the opportunity to chat, which was really what the day was all about :D

On the way round, we called in to the Outdoors Clothes shop there and spent some time trying on hats and gloves, with quite a few of us buying things to wear there and then! And tiny little Shrimpy bought a coat in a CHILDRENS size lol! :23:

And so we made our way back to the cafe where we were joined by the lovely Bess, and ordered 8 jacket potatoes with beans and cheese and one soup with wm roll lol! Weren't we good!!! :angel:

After lunch we spent a couple of hours chatting and showing off photos and various items of "slimmed out of" clothes! And Shrimpy brought her Woman of the Year board which had some amazing pictures on it. :clap:

It was during this time that word was getting through about the serious weather problems, and that snow was already falling in several parts of the country :( And so the decision was made by half of the group to leave early for reasons of safety :sigh: It was a shame of course but very sensible considering we had all travelled some distance.

Sarah, Gail, Steve and I opted to have a look in the gift shop and craft shop, and I was really pleased to find almost an exact replica of the bracelet I'd broken that morning! As the snow began to fall around us, we popped back to the cafe for a last hot drink, and some of us may have had a teeny weeny scone but their identity shall remain a secret! :secret:

And then it was time for Gail to start making tracks as she was worried about the journey home with the snow, so we said our goodbyes :wave_cry:

And then there were three! Being the hardcore peeps that we are :rolleyes: we thought we'd find a nice little country pub as Steve and I were adamant we wanted a steak before we left! :eating:

Which was fine, except none of us knew the area, and Steves phone app which tells you where the nearest pubs are wasn't working :rolleyes: so we just set off in the hope that we'd find somewhere.

After a false start (found a pub...full of rough blokes playing pool...:bolt:) we found a beautifully picturesque pub with an open fire :happy036: They did do steak, but it came with chips, so we opted for chicken skewers...which also came with chips but in fairness we didn't actually know that! I'm afraid we did eat some of the chips...they were huge and totally delicious! :drool:

But all the time we were there, we had one eye on the snow which was getting pretty bad and starting to settle. So once we'd eaten, we set off on our rather traumatic journeys home. Sarah drove really well. The visibility was incredibly poor, in fact it was almost impossible to see the sides of the motorway, and we did stop at an accident as a car hit the central reservation but the occupant was fine. Talking to Steve (handsfree of course) he was possibly having an even worse journey than us :(But we got home safely around 7.30pm, with Steve finally getting back around an hour later.

So I have to say that I really enjoyed the day and would certainly do another one. Thank you Gail so much for organising it :thankyou: Can't wait for the next one!

Now I've got quite a few photos to put on. A couple of minis have asked that I respect their privacy and not show their face on here, so I'm sure you understand why some faces have been blacked out.

http://www.minimins.com/45524-skinnydawn-albums-mini-meet-feb-4th-2012.html
 
Home! Finished a bit early too so that was a bonus! Mind you, I did a double take when I got to work this morning as there was a newbie in the watch room who looked just like poor Steve! 😱 I mean REALLY like him! I showed him a photo and even he was shocked at the likeness!

Anyway the newbie had been allocated to me and my crewmate Sue to come 3rd manning with us for the day...well for the four shifts actually. He’s a nice chap, a little shy but I’m sure we’ll bring him out of his shell 😃

It was a good work day and quite useful to have another pair of hands to push, pull and carry.

I think my Food has been ok but I haven’t really totted it all up yet so here goes...

Red Day

Porridge B1
Milk A1
Banana


WM cheese & onion sandwich A2 + B2
Crisps 3 1/2
Special K bar 3

Mince/swede/veg 1
Muller
Pear
Satsuma

So total syns is 7 1/2 Thats not bad at all for a work day!
Really need to keep this going so I can get my one stone shiny next week.
 

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Hi there x Very tired tonight after another busy day so will list my food and hopefully get some sleep. I keep waking up pretty much every hour which is frustrating. I’m also suffering from a very annoying chest pain which I think is a pulled muscle from carrying a chap up 22 steps the other day. Been taking paracetamol and put a heat pad on but nothing is working. And it doesn’t matter how I lay, I can’t get comfortable. My right hip is playing up again too but only at night 🙄 All the more reason to shift this weight.

red day

baked oats B1
Cherries
Yoghurt 1


Wm cheese sandwich B2 + A1
Butter 1


SW curry
Cauliflower rice

Milk for drinks A2

🤔...doesn’t look like I’ve actually eaten that much today but I haven’t felt hungry so I must’ve had enough

Total syns 2
 
Your food does look light but if you didn't feel hungry then it's not worth eating just for the sake of it.:)
When are you next day's off?
 
Your food does look light but if you didn't feel hungry then it's not worth eating just for the sake of it.:)
When are you next day's off?

Thanks Mary x I’m off Monday to Thursday (unless I go in on O/T) then start nights on Friday. I really hope this pain has gone by then! xx
 
Finally back for lunch...nearly 10 hours after starting work! 😂
Yet another regular patient taken very ill today 😢 Lovely old boy with a very dry sense of humour deteriorated on dialysis so we took him to the general. I do hope he recovers...we’ve lost so many recently.
My chest has been bleddy agony all day despite codeine, ibuprofen and a heat pad. I’ve about had enough of it now. I think it’s a torn muscle and it’s affecting almost every movement I make! Can’t wait to get tomorrow out of the way and then try to rest up a bit on my days off.

I’m just tucking into an Aldi fake SW curry with some Asda lentil dahl and cauliflower rice and it’s actually quite nice. I did manage to have a sandwich earlier on the truck so I wasn’t completely starving 😊

Hoping we don’t get any more jobs come in now!

Bran curls B1
Milk A1
Banana
Cherries

Wm cheese sandwich A2 + B2
Butter 1
Yoghurt

Sw curry
Lentil dahl 1
Cauliflower rice
Pear
Satsuma

Ooh syns are low again today! I might just save them for a glass of wine when I finish work tomorrow night!
 
Should you really be lifting with a torn muscle?

Only today to get through then you can try and take it easy.:)

I’m trying not to do too much lifting but unfortunately I’m in the wrong job x My crewmate has been great and tried to take most of the physical stuff on but most of the time it’s a two man job. Fingers crossed I can rest it over the next few days ☺️
 
Yay only 3 hours left at work!!! :woohoo:Not that I’m counting! 😂

Food has been fine, except I’ve discovered Aldi SF sweets and have somehow managed to eat a whole packet which is probably about 5syns! 😱

Red day

Baked oats B1
Yoghurt 1
Cherries

Breakfast muffins - egg, ham, onion, tomato

Wm ham and tomato sandwich B2
Butter 1
Crisps 5
Sweets 5
Special K bar 3
Pear
2 satsumas

A2 milk for drinks

Total syns 15
 
So today didn’t start for me until 10.30am when Gwyn woke me up with a cup of tea in bed! I think it was past 3am when I finally settled down after work so I must’ve been making up for lost time!

Obviously I’d missed breakfast so I had a couple of savoury muffins that were left over from yesterday...very nice.

And tonight was very special as I finally had a catch-up with former mini Sarah (Jim of Troy) after somewhere in the region of 3 years! We met on here around 7 or 8 years ago and became good friends, but then my ambulance office moved out of the hospital that Sarah worked at so we couldn’t meet for lunch every day, and we gradually lost touch. So it was great to have a really good natter over an excellent curry ☺️ And a Cobra of course 🍻

Of course I’m over my syns but it WAS a special occasion, and I HAVE been on the low side for a day or 2 on synnage...so I’m not going to worry too much.

Looking forward to catching up with my VERY pregnant daughter Vicki tomorrow and hopefully having a more on plan day!!! 😂
 

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... a pulled muscle from carrying a chap up 22 steps the other day...
... My right hip is playing up again too but only at night...

Old age, m'dear :p

(You came on FFF to speak to me, so I thought I should return the favour.)

Good to catch up.
Do it again in another 3 years? Even if you're another zillion grannies by then! o_O
 
Feel rather sheepish coming on here as today was hubbys birthday so I asked him what he’d like to do, thinking he’d like to go to a nice restaurant etc. But what he actually wanted to do was to go to the little cafe we normally eat in while we’re waiting for the dogs to be groomed! It’s a Jenny’s so quite basic but really good (read naughty) food and generous portions! So we popped to Vicki’s as the cafe is in the same village she lives in and we took her with us. Needless to say none of us ate very healthily ... think all day breakfast and chocolate fudge cake ... but we had a great time.
After a wander round the shops we went back for coffee and a chat/nap before heading home about 8pm. We carried on celebrating Gwyn’s birthday with a big glass of Bailey’s and a slice of lemon Swiss roll 😋
And then I remembered it’s WI tomorrow! 😱
Really hoping I :sick0019: before I :scale: in the morning or there’s little chance of getting my 1st shiny!
 
Weigh in yesterday and only lost 1/2lb 😳

Moral of the story...you can’t expect to eat Indian / all day breakfast / lots of birthday cake etc in the 3 days running up to weigh in day! 😂

Back on it today. I’m starting nights tonight so need to make sure I take plenty of food with me!
 
I'd say you've done well to lose this week - we have to learn to fit our food around life & celebrations don't we - or else things gets dull & we abandon the diet :eek: congrats on your shiny too! I'm drooling over your cake talk :classic_tongue:
 
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