Sorus's Mulled Wine Musings

[Sorus]

High drama here tonight. Daughter flying out to Thailand for 2 months on the 8.40 pm flight tonight from Heathrow. It has been 6 months in the planning. She's 18 but sometimes still seems not much older than a 12 year old...

She'd rung me an hour earlier to say her boyfriend had almost been too scared to even to go into the airport (he has a fear of flying). Then... at 9pm I got a call from her. She was in floods of tears. Her boyfriend just wouldn't get on the plane. She was on the plane, and they were about to close the doors. There were ten cabin crew desperately trying to help him get on the plane but now they'd taken his bags off.

Not only that but somehow she'd ended up with his phone, his money, and his cards.

So my daughter is in hysterics - and not the good kind - as she's bound for Thailand sans boyfriend. And I have to ring her boyfriend's mother to say her son is somewhere in Heathrow, probably extremely upset, and doesn't have any money or a phone on him....

As this happened at the end of the day it didn't derail the diet. But I might have to take a few valium tonight....

I had a gorgeous lunch. Made a chickeny thing with yoghurt, tandoori spices and chilli sauce. Mixed it all together and added cooked chicken then warmed the whole lot up in the mic. Had it with couscous. Really scrummy and will be making that again.

For tea I had spag bol and also made the rice pudding recipe which is on here somewhere. I made it with half skimmed milk, half water cos had had some milk for breakfast on cereal. And that too was gorgeous. A bit too gorgeous actually! So I've had a ton of carbs today. I know they're allowed but I normally try and do a red day (ie not so many carbs) the day before my weigh day, which is tomorrow. Can't imagine I'll have lost much weight this week, if any.

But not to worry - cos after next Sunday and Monday's pre-op fast and scary sachets followed by an, um, major evacuation, I can't fail to lose several stones by the sound of it.

 

[x.squiggy.x]

Hello, i just wanted to say you are brilliant!! Your diary is amazing and i have been glued to it! You are doing fab with your weight loss and you sound like a fabulous cook!! Love the banter with your slimming buddy Ozzimoz, think that is a great idea!!
Hope your daughter is ok???
Just wanted to say thank you for the insight into your life and hope you continue with great weight losses!! x x

 

[Sorus]

Blimey thanks Mrs2be! It's always nice to hear that someone actually reads it! Though to be honest I'd still write it even if no one read it cos it's quite therapeutic.

Well my daughter rang in tears from Bangkok this afternoon. The hotel was horrible apparently, her life is terrible, she wants to come home and to make matters even worse the boyfriend who never got on the plane had the charger to her phone in his luggage and also the laptop. And we were going to use the laptop to keep in touch via Skype. And her battery's nearly run out....

So now I have the prospect of my mobile phone bill being approximately £500 by the end of this drama. And that's if she can find somewhere to buy a charger so I can actually speak to her. And now the hotel bills are going to cost her double cos she's not sharing them AND she's got the wrong sort of visa AND she's got to go over the border on her own AND she'll never make any friends cos no-one will like her. Etc, etc. This was all said through gulps of tears so I'm not even sure if I've got all that correct.

I kept saying 'no-one's died' which is always my mantra in times of drama. Unless of course, someone has died.

Well today is my weigh day and I lost.... roll of drums.... half a pound! And that was only achieved by jiggling the scales round rather a lot. In other words, haven't really lost anything this week. But that's ok.

Didn't sleep last night worrying about my daughter so as soon as I'd packed my son off to school I went back to bed. Not for the first time did I thank God, the universe, anyone who would listen - that my job isn't 9-5. I put the leckie blanket on and slept till 11.

Whereupon I had magic porridge. Thought I'd try it. Well I must be the only person in the Slimming World kingdom who doesn't like it. Much prefer it with milk. Heck, I much prefer it with water.

For lunch I had left over spag bol and salad and for tea I made some burgers with pork mince (much prefer them to ones made with beef mince) and barbecue sauce and SW chips. And salad. In fact I don't want to see another salad leaf for at least a month. Bags of salad were on special offer in Tesco's yesterday so I bought some. Some, not one. Must've been mad. Cos of course they needed to have been eaten by yesterday, which only just dawned on me this morning. Duh.

So my plates of food have been about a foot high today. With bloody salad leaves. No one can accuse me of not eating a third superfree.

 

[x.squiggy.x]

O dear, i would be terrified if i was in her situation!! Hope she gets on ok!!
Your diary really does make me smile. I really think you could become a writer - pure genius!!

 

[OzzieMoz]

Blimey

I'm rendered almost but not quite speechless! or wordless .... or typeless! What a drama! I would be in a terrible tizzwazz - all you want to do is help but when they're that far away it's very hard, especially if they're in a tizzwazz themselves, which your daughter obviously is and understandably so! I have nothing useful to suggest at the moment - perhaps someone at the hotel could help point her in the right directions for seeing if she could get a charger for her phone at least if not for her laptop as well. I really hope it all gets sorted out so your daughter is happy and you can relax.

What happened to the boyfriend? Did he make it home yet? He must be feeling awful - had he not realised quite how strong his fear of flying was? My ex-husband used to get physically sick before flying but always made it on to the plane! My new husband also has a fear of flying which I found quite funny considering he used to work at the airport here and loved it!

Will keep my fingers crossed for good news about all this soon! Incidentally, if you get tired of your mantra "no-one's died" you could add in "worse things happen at sea" for a bit of variety! I always think that's slightly nonsensical as sayings go.... hence I use it!

Salad leaves. Oh dear! Magic porridge on a bed of wilted lettuce - mmmmmmm unappetising.... Rather you than me! I'm a bit anti-salad at the moment - I might go out and paint anti-salad slogans later. Or not.

 

[Sorus]

My brother is now a God in my daughter's eyes. Or rather - even more of a God than he already was. My daughter idolises him. God knows why cos she's probably seen him less than ten times in her entire life and he is possibly the least responsible person I know. However when she does see him he makes her laugh and in her eyes he leads an impossibly glamorous life.

This life - as a thriller writer - has now come in handy cos he needs to complete 100,000 words by the end of Feb or something. And when he has a deadline he goes to Bangkok (as you do) to get some peace and quiet. Or so he says. I strongly suspect he goes for other reasons as well but that's beside the point.

So he has arrived on a white charger (metaphorically speaking) into Bangkok to help my daughter in her hour of need. Praise be. I have had 2 texts from her today. One to say she was feeling much better now and the next one to say ignore the first one, she was bloody miserable again AND being bitten alive by mosquitos and was there anything I could do about it?

I had a sad moment this morning. I bumped into a friend of mine. Well she used to be a friend - as in I used to see her every week in a professional capacity but now that I don't do that job anymore I've hardly seen her.

When I was seeing her on a weekly basis she used to tell me about her daughter, who was roughly the same age as me. She - the mother - was very worried about her daughter. So much so that they'd persuaded her to move to Cornwall so they could keep an eye on her. She had emotional problems. She was wondering if I would possibly take her daughter under my wing a bit when she arrived and introduce her to a few people.

Which I gladly did. But her daughter was quite difficult - in that she was very intense - and it was difficult keeping up with her weird moods. Apart from going to the pub occasionally with her I invited her to a dinner party one night and she kept bursting into song at totally inappropriate moments. The first few times were amusing but then it got a bit embarrassing. Anyway - she moved to another town and I didn't see her again and I confess a part of me was a bit relieved.

9 months ago she was strangled. An estate agent is on trial for murder this week. Today was the first time I had seen her mother since it happened. She'd aged about ten years since I last saw her which was about a year ago. All I could do was give her a hug. What do you do? What do you say? We chatted for a bit, hugged a bit more and were both tearful. People in the street must have thought we were mad. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that anyone can do to ease her pain and it's horrible.

Anyway all of that is nothing to do with Slimming World but in a weird way the structure of SW is helping at the moment, and the mindlessness of scouring books and the web for ideas for meals is oddly comforting.

For breakfast I had bacon, eggs, a Weightwatcher's sausage (special offer in Tesco this week! - must check the syns now I think about it!) and grilled tomatoes.

For lunch yet another bowl of left over bolognese sauce with some tagliatelle. Thank God I've finished that now. I don't have any room in my freezer so had to eat it up. For tea I made BritMum's Chicken with peppers and mushrooms. As all her recipes are - it was delicious. Had it with roast BNS and beetroot, and carrots and sprouts.

I've got to go back to having a bowl of berries at 9pm. I think my negligible loss last week was because I discovered the rice pudding recipe. It was too, too delicious! I could eat it all day every day! And yes it is free on EE with a HexA but it's still a mass of carbs my body can probably do without that late in the evening. :sigh:

 

[OzzieMoz]

So glad to hear that things are looking up for your daughter! Thank heavens for slightly feckless brothers roaming the world at large! I have 3 brothers one of whom falls into this category, although he doesn't roam the world! He is lovely though! Seriously, it must be a load off your mind..... breathe and relaxxxxxxxx

That's awful about your friend, I don't even want to start to imagine how she must feel. It's just too much. Poor poor lady - no-one should have to go through that. Bloody hell, I'm welling up here! There is nothing you can say or do to make things better, but I'm sure it does help her on some level to know that you care.

On a more trivial note, I hate rice pudding so that is not a temptation. I see it's an hour past berry time - hope you enjoyed them - slightly warmed and sod the consequences!

 

[Sorus]

Yes, praise the Lord for feckless brothers! Though the latest text from my daughter said that her boyfriend might try again. ie to get on a plane. Right. So let me see: he's going to spend even more money than he's already wasted just to hover at the doorway to a plane again? Hmmm. Can't help feeling sorry for him though. Must be horrible being here with nothing to do when his girlfriend's in sunny Thailand telling him how fab it is. (Which I think she does think now..)

Anyway, enough of people jetting off to Bangkok. Chance would be a fine thing as far as I'm concerned.

Now I sound like I'm fed up which, in fact, couldn't be further from the truth! I am soooooo in The Zone today it's frightening.

It all started when I woke up and saw the blue skies. Enough of accounts I thought. Enough of bloody housework. Enough of sorting out decorators and plumbers. And enough of wondering if my OH will ever get a day off work so we can go walking together. I shall go alone, I decided!

I always used to walk alone. I love it. I love map reading! I love trying to work out where the next stile is, where the next path should run, based on contours and stuff on the map. It's my inner geek coming out. Then I got dragged along to a walking group a couple of years ago and assumed I'd hate it. Well I loved it and ever since I've got into the habit of walking with them and/or my OH, who I'm trying to train to get into the habit of exercise!

So today I revisited the past and did one of my favourite walks. Up hill and down dale, knee deep in mud, skulking along the edges of fields containing bulls (have a thing about bulls...) and of course I loved it. And some of it I ran, which I haven't done since my back injury over a year ago.

God it was fab. Fab, fab, fab. I felt in touch with the universe, my legs actually worked, the sea was sparkling and I was all alone. Not another soul. Then I realised what I want to do for the next 5 years (which I've been mithering about) and suddenly everything fitted into place.

I know if I do the same walk tomorrow (which I'm tempted to do) I will never be able to recreate that high. It was just something about today.

Stuck to the diet too. As I said - I am in The Zone. For now. Big time.

 

[OzzieMoz]

yayyyy - glad to see you're in the zone! Have some cake now and bad stuff - I've got a feeling I'm not going to lose this week, so in all honesty, I must sabotage your week!

Your tale of walking reminded me of a friend of mine who lived just outside of Brighton. She harangued me and conned me into going for regular walks with her on a Sunday morning in the local area. She had a book of walks that some idiot had given her and somehow made some of us, her idiot friends, go along with her. Come rain or shine (mainly rain) there we were getting lost, trespassing, climbing down (falling down) precipitous cliffs that had magically appeared on (or should that be off) our route! I absolutely loved it! It went on for a few months and was among some of the best times I've had. I'm all sad now, miss the walking and miss my friend whom I've lost touch with. Wahhhhhhhhh :cry:

Must be great knowing what you really want to do in life - I've always just muddled along, lurching from one thing to another! I'm not sure what I want to be when I grow up ...

 

[OzzieMoz]

Been sat here wondering where you've disappeared to my explosive pal Then I remembered that you gave us warning that there might be tremors in the south west .....

Hope all went well, thinking of you, hope you're eating plenty as I want to win dammit! hmmm or as we are on Slimming world maybe we don't win, we "wyn" I really shouldn't laugh at my own little jokes, especially when the key word is "little" and they're not really funny at all *sighs*

Catch up with you soon

 

[Sorus]

I'm still here! And with possibly the cleanest colon in the world. Frankly I haven't written anything on here because I've been too weak to type. Had to go 45 hours without food. 45 hours!! I don't think I've gone 4.5 hours before without food. Ever.

Had my last meal Saturday night then Sunday was all about not eating and taking some dynamite. Or at least, that's what the description on the sachets of powder made it sound like. And did I mention I wasn't allowed to eat for 45 hours?

The first 24 hours weren't too bad, but waking up yesterday and still not being able to eat was the pits. I actually felt ill by that stage. Specially as the night before, after swigging the contents of the sachets, I'd set up camp on my loo surrounded by a variety of books and magazines to see me through the worst. The 'event' took place over several hours. By which time I had nothing left inside whatsoever, not even skeletal remains.

I had anticipated that by the time the 'procedure' was over I'd be literally running to the hospital shop to grab a bar of chocolate so I actually took an SW friendly snack with me. That act alone probably qualifies me for the title 'Diet Bore of the Year'. I took a wholemeal pitta filled with laughing cow, chicken and tomatoes. My God - I'm not joking - it was the best meal I've had in my life. Beyond description.

Anyway good news is that my colon is not only the shiniest, cleanest colon in the world, it is also looking pretty healthy. They think. Will know more when the biopsy comes back but I refuse to worry.

The upside is today is weigh day and despite stuffing my face with chili con carne last night and a ton of rice I've lost 3lbs!! Now I know it's artificial and frankly next week I'll be pleased if I just sustain that loss, but still - it's nice to see the needle on the scale drop below the 12 stone mark. I'm also now nearly at the 10% stage so that's a boost too.

In other news: my daughter's boyfriend has bought yet another ticket to Thailand and is due to make another attempt to get on the plane this time next week. I hope he does it this time!

 

[OzzieMoz]

Hurrah for your shiney colon! They do say Mr Sheen shines everything clean, did they use that do you know? did they? did they? Hope you get the official good news soon! :fingerscrossed:

You're not a diet bore, you're a .... hmmm..... diet enthusiast! ... I must confess though, it was the laughing cow triangle that made me laugh!

Glad to hear your daughter's bf has summoned the courage to buy another ticket, hope he has the gumption to get on the plane this time! Bless him! It's hard to understand other people's fears at times and if he has a real phobia it must be difficult for him and embarrassing. Just hope he manages to get over it!

Great about your 3lb loss, you are now beating me hands down again, but I'm going to be noble of spirit and say well done! Have a slice of double chocolate cake! Nobility of spirit doesn't work for me!

 

[Sorus]

I think my body has decided that 'the event' from Sunday night is more than enough for one week. Possibly month. So I think the 3lb loss is going - if it hasn't done already - straight back on. It must do as a lot is going in and nothing is coming out! Sorry to be so graphic.

I am bored this morning cos I'm having to wait in for a delivery. So I've made a huge casserole for tomorrow night's dinner. I have my mother, stepfather and ex-boyfriend coming round. Hope my OH doesn't mind - haven't actually mentioned it to him yet...

Well they all sounded depressed so I thought a casserole for many is just as easy to make as a casserole for few. All sorts has gone into it - God knows what it will taste like. I added a couple of tablespoons of Madeira. In my experience that jazzes up even the dodgiest of sauces and casseroles. The syns will be worth it!

Tonight I'm having Britmum's sweet chilli chicken and last night I had roast pork with roast BNS, sweet potato and carrots. And swede AND sprouts. I definitely had my third superfree. I did make some gravy using a bit of flour so I counted it as 10 syns in total as I had home made apple sauce as well. I find gravy almost impossible to guess syn-wise accurately but I don't want to use gravy granules just because it's easier to count when I can have a really nice gravy instead. That's not how I want to live the rest of my life and this IS about the rest of my life. Not sure I can spend the rest of my life not eating crackling though. It was quite traumatic having to leave it. People have sought counselling for less.

Went for a lovely long walk yesterday but I've come down with a cold today. Guess not eating for nearly 2 days then time in hospital surrounded by loads of sick people made getting some sort of bug a given.

So when my delivery arrives I have the option of either taking to my bed for an hour and being properly ill or going down the road to do a bit of tiling in the flat I'm refurbing. I love tiling so that'll probably win.

I wish Tesco Direct would blinking hurry up though!

Oh - forgot to say when I got back from my walk yesterday I had to change my jeans cos the ones I was wearing were muddy and I had to present myself in a vaguely acceptable way for my son's parents' evening. So I grabbed some from my wardrobe thinking they were my usual pair and put them on. They were snug. But fitted. They were also the wrong jeans and a size smaller than my usual pair. I was ecstatic!

Somewhere along the food optimising line I'd forgotten that I'd be able to fit into smaller sizes some day. I suppose I just thought the ones I normally wore would just feel more comfortable on me! Talk about a complete lack of ambition.

 

[OzzieMoz]

Can I come to dinner please? Casserole sounds lovely! I should make a casserole - first I have to buy a casserole dish - seriously this house has no kitchen utensils! Gradually getting everything as finance permits! As to crackling, ewwww ewww ewwww! I do not like it.

Good news about the smaller jeans! I haven't given too much thought to trying on smaller clothes. I do have quite a few skirts that haven't fitted me since I first came over here, so I'm looking forward to getting back into them, but think it will be another stone off before I even think about trying them on!

Anyway, catch up with you soon, I'm off to sing in the rain ....

 

[Sorus]

I'm typing this in my study with a dying cat at my feet. It's all very horrible. Last Saturday night some friends of one of my neighbours - let's call him Mark - called the police because they were concerned that he hadn't answered the door despite having a pre-arranged meeting with him. The friend said she had some sort of sixth sense, even though the previous day she'd been with Mark and he'd been fine. Thank God for batty people in touch with their inner psychic! (She is batty btw, not just because she's in touch with inner psychic. )

The police broke in and found Mark unconscious in his bed. He'd had a brain haemorrhage. He was rushed to hospital and most of this past week it's been touch and go as to whether he would survive. He's only in his mid 50s and lives alone with his 2 cats. He's a complete eccentric but I love eccentrics and he's incredibly intelligent and funny. He is also the untidiest man in the universe to the extent that even Kim and Aggie would have the vapours if they saw inside his house.

He has now had an operation to drain his brain and while still gravely ill, there is more hope than there was. And now one of his cats, Samson, who I adore as he's spent half his life round at my house, is dying. He is very old but it is still very distressing. His kidneys have failed and I know it's only a matter of time. Mark's daughter who I have spoken to on the phone doesn't want Samson put down, and I agree because he's not in any pain and doesn't seem distressed.

Still, it is horrible watching a cat slowly die. I stroke him and whisper to him that it's ok to let go and find some pussy cats to play with in cat heaven but it's not working. Every time I come up to my study I hold my breath wondering if this time, I will find an unbreathing cat.

All that has nothing to do with my food optimising but it does in part explain why I had about 3000 syns in wine last night. Still feel ill.

I hopped on the scales this morning (a sneaky mid-week peak) and I've put on a pound and a half! Now I was expecting it really cos my regular reader will know that last week's WI was artificial due to a long fast. I also haven't had a 'happening' for a whole week now and I'm fed up with my misbehaving bowels. How is it possible not to have a poo for a whole week! I don't even feel an urge!

The vat of wine I consumed last night will probably turn into another few pounds of fat by my weigh day on Tuesday. :sigh:

But hey ho - there are more important things to worry about. Now I'm going to stroke Samson and dab some water on his lips. He's not drinking at all now so I know it'll be soon. I really, really, really hope for all our sakes that it is.

 

[OzzieMoz]

Really sad to read about your neighbour and his cat. Good that prospects for "Mark" are looking brighter than they might have been and I'll be keeping him in my thoughts and hoping that this continue to improve for him. As for poor cat, at least he isn't on his own and should have a peaceful lapse into whatever comes next ... you're a kind, caring lady. I think I've mentioned this before.

Don't be too hard on yourself SW plan-wise, this lapse couldn't have been foreseen and is totally understandable. Sometimes we've got to do what we've got to do to get through what life chucks at us. You know the plan works and that you can stick to it easily when you can focus. You've had an unusual week or so!

Hope you have a "happening" soon. I think after a major clearout it takes a while for the errrrrrm poo-train to fill up and reach it's destination! There's probably a delay at Clapham Junction.

Seriously though, I do hope that things pick up for you, you deserve good things to happen.

 

[Sorus]

RIP Samson. He died in the night. *sniffs* I came downstairs to check him at 4.30 and I don't think he'd been dead that long cos he wasn't completely cold. I stroked him and said goodbye then I picked him up to put him in a bag and he let out a sigh. Freaked me out completely! But it was just the death sigh.

I found the whole thing quite distressing in the end. It wasn't that he didn't die peacefully, it's just that watching any animal die is horrible. Another neighbour and I are going to dig a hole in the cat's garden tomorrow (have taken instructions from the owner's daughter who is 200 miles away - her father is still in Intensive Care) and we'll hold a little funeral. As you do.

In other news: my daughter's boyfriend is - as I type - at Heathrow waiting to board a plane to Thailand! His second attempt. Of course his fear of flying won't exactly be helped by the plane crash earlier today. :-/ My daughter has a 12 hour bus journey to meet him at Bangkok and she's not sure he'll even be on the plane when she gets there.

I am going to have an absolutely disastrous day diet wise on Wednesday. I think I'm going to have to go on the treadmill non stop for ten hours to offset it. Lunchtime I am out for a 4 course meal with my walking group. It is an annual event and absolutely not to be missed. In the evening it is my father's 75th birthday. Well, actually it's his birthday all day but you know what I mean. And he's chosen not a nice sassy restaurant but Morrish's. Which, as anyone from Cornwall reading this will know, is a rather marvellous, but very basic, chippy. Their fish and chips are to die for and I haven't had any for months. So it has to be done. Can't let my Dad down. *cue rousing music*

Tomorrow is weigh day and I know it's going to be a bit annoying as I'm bound to have put on since last Tuesday as I still haven't had a happening. How is this even possible?I'll be in the Guiness Book of Records at this rate. Or at least, my intestines will.

Ozzie has suggested that it must be our internal organs that the weight has disappeared from because we can't see where else our respective 17lbs has gone from. I think she's right. I always thought my spleen could do with losing a few pounds! I should have taken before and after photos for the mag!

Today I have had:

Brekkie - 2 slices wholemeal bread, one Laughing Cow (used as spread) and 2 poached eggs.

Lunch - BritMum's bacon, tomato, mushroom and courgette pasta.

Tea: Tesco Lamb shank in mint gravy (2 syns), cabbage, sprouts, carrots and broccoli.

Will have bowl of chopped fruit for supper.

And will be keeping fingers crossed that daughter's boyfriend gets on the plane...

 

[Sorus]

Daughter's boyfriend failed to get on the plane a second time. Daughter now not speaking to boyfriend. Ever again. Buried the cat yesterday. Have hideous cold. Had to listen to my mother explaining for 2 hours yesterday why she hates everybody. Have put on a pound and a half this week.

The only way is up.

Food yesterday was: 28g shredded wheat with skimmed milk and 2 boiled eggs. Lunch was baked potato with tuna, sweetcorn and 2Tbs extra light mayo. 4pm banana. Tea: mustard beef (a BritMum recipe - really nice) with baked sweet potato, carrots, cauliflower and courgettes. Supper (should've been fruit but needed a 'treat') was Nimble wholemeal bread and an extra light Laughing Cow.

Two meals out today. One a four course lunch at posh hotel, tonight fish and chips. Both unavoidable. Not exactly looking forward to next week's weigh in either.

 

[Sorus]

After Wednesday's slight deviation from plan I paid the price yesterday: bloated, uncomfortable, indigestion all day. Hardly surprising cos I really went off piste in style. I had all 4 courses at lunch AND the petit fours with coffee. AND the bread roll. First proper bread I've had since Christmas. God it was divine. Then in the evening I had fish, chips and mushy peas. And God that was divine too. But I really wouldn't recommend it all in one day! Just seriously bad timing. But there you go. The damage is done. And I felt so uncomfortable yesterday it was a good reminder that eating badly does not agree with me. My body just doesn't like it.

Anyway at least it was all contained in one day and yesterday I was back on track. Still feel horribly fat and bloated though and don't dare get on the scales till about - oooh - mid-March.

Daughter has decided to fly back early from Thailand cos of dickhead boyfriend and I had a plaintive text from her saying it's so annoying cos she could have come to Lanzarote with us after all. We normally go at Feb half term and this would have been the first year without her.

So what do I do? I do what most mothers would do or want to do. I ring up the holiday company (no seats left on our flight), google alternatives (she could fly from another airport and meet us there) and realise that now we're going to have to hire a car for the whole week to get us all to and from the airport (she won't have seat on courtesy bus) and basically the whole afternoon was taking up with organising my daughter coming with us and me wondering why the heck I was doing this when I was effectively rewarding her being such an idiot and coming back from Thailand early. Hey ho. It's also going to cost me several hundred pounds I hadn't banked on.

I told her if this comes off I will not tolerate a single moan or complaint about anything for the whole week in Lanzarote. This is a tall order for my daughter but she promised me faithfully she wouldn't.

She then went on to ask which airline I'd got her a flight on and when I told her Easyjet she said, 'Oh God, Mum, they're crap. Weren't there any other flights?'

Bless.

 

[Sorus]

Food for today is going to be...

Br: 2 bacon, 2 eggs fried in Frylight, 1 Tesco Light choices Cumberland Sausage, 6 plum tomatoes, one teaspoon HP sauce.

Lunch: leftover Mustard Beef with baked sweet potato, carrots and broccoli.

Tea: BritMum's Sweet Chilli King Prawns and noodles. Bowl of chopped fruit.

Will probably meet friends in the local pub tonight and have a couple of g and slimline t's.

I've realised I've become rather dependent on Britmum posting a regular supply of new recipes. Her website is the first I turn to when thinking 'what shall I have tonight?' Don't know what I'd do without her! Thank you so much Britmum!