I went to West Middlesex University Hospital yesterday for one of my routine IV Iron top-offs, Usual pre-proceedure routine of assorted blood tests, and other standard measurements like BP and weight.
Nurse turns to me smiling and says, "you've lost over 10 KG since last time you were here."

Yay!!  Diet is working! I weighed 12.3 kg less than the last time I was treated at West Mid. Not bad for about 4 months and absolutely no feelings of deprivation. It's slow but as long as we stick to the changes we've made since February it will keep adding up. I'm really pleased. Of course, when I arrived home and announced the good news to Alan he said, oh yes, his GP mentioned to him last visit to the surgery, that he'd lost a couple of stones.

Anyway, in a generally depressing landscape of illness and aging anf other associated crap of the human condition, this was a bit of delightful news.

Now Alan just needs to find a new job.

This is my stringy. There are many like it but this one is mine. My stringy is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my stringy is useless. Without my stringy I am useless.

Rosie - February 2016 - London

Finally, day 1 diet. Completed. I had planned and hoped to start earlier but life doesn't always work as you want it to. I think for me it was just to actually get it started. And to keep it going through the day even when I screwed up or strayed off plan a bit. It's done. I did it. Tomorrow I will do it again. I guess it's like AA in some ways - I take it 1 day at a time and just focus on getting through the day.

So hooray! Day 1 belongs to me!

I've been smoke-free over 4 months now so tomorrow morning I'll finally start a real diet. Basically I'll follow the 16/8 plan. Take it a day at a time and see how things go.

Marmalade Day

Alan spotted fresh Seville Oranges at Sainsbury's and brought home a bag of them - good move because those oranges have an ultra-short season and go out of stock in a flash. We're fans of homemade marmalade which is nothing like the commercial stuff. So I was delighted to fuss about in the kitchen and fill the first batch of kilner jars with tart golden deliciousness. I'll start batch 2 shortly.

Sunday Brunch - Homemade Eggs Benedict! Yes, that's right, homemade. Specifically the hollandaise sauce! And OMG! was it good - lemony, buttery, silky. Breakfast perfection; the egg yolks hot and liquid, the whites firm but tender, crisp medallion of bacon, toasted muffin and the hollandaise sauce spooned generously over it all. Yum!

I'm so pleased I've finally cracked the hollandaise conundrum. There's no alternative for it. It must be homemade from scratch or crossed off the home kitchen choices list because this sauce cannot be reheated from a jarred source. You can buy jars of the sauce in supermarkets but it tastes disgusting and not to be considered. So I've been trying on and off for years to make it but never produced an acceptable quality. At last, my time has come.

Yay!!

Turnabout is Fair Play.

It's bad enough that I'm subject to profound pain that comes and goes without warning to make it worse, I have no way to anticipate or predict the level of pain ahead of time. So regardless of what I plan, that can change without warning or reason at any time. I accept that this happens and just stay patient; my GP accepts that this happens and makes sure I have breakthrough doses of my meds; Alan is convinced that this is deliberate on my part, and caused by bad planning, laziness, and inconsideration. As far as he is concerned, if I casually mention that I would like to make fish pie for dinner tomorrow, then come hell or high water I should damn well be up and in the kitchen making that fish pie at the appointed time.

So, this afternoon, I suddenly was in very bad pain and really bad shape. Nothing helped and I knew I'd have to excuse myself from preparing our meal and the usual miserable scene would play out - and it did. Absolutely no explanation was accepted and my only choice was to drag myself into the kitchen and start to prepare dinner shaking and stumbling thru the pain or accept Alan's offer to wash and massage the painful foot area because it's a sort of voodoo he believes in - his quick little one off massage heals whatever it is at the moment. I accepted the massage and it actually helped surprisingly well this time - we think a bit of cat litter or pebble might have gotten lodged in my sole.

Anyway, I went into the kitchen and made the fish pie mix from scratch -gorgeous stuff made from scratch, even the white wine fish stock cream sauce. Pie mix complete, I filled a deep dish pie plate and set it aside to cool. Later Alan would make the mash, top off the pie plate and finish it in the oven.

Time passed and the dinner hour approached and I noticed that Alan hadn't done anything of his part of the dinner prep. Twice I reminded him with only a grunt in response. At 6:30pm I pointed out to Alan that it was getting very late  for him to get all his share of the prep work done and even if he started right now the fish pie would be way overdue. I didn't really care one way or the other but since he'd made such a huge fuss that he had been promised fish pie and it was fish pie that he wanted for supper tonight and nothing else would do, then he damn well should get up and get to work. So he headed off for the kitchen grumbling and muttering all the way.

Turnabout is fair play. (And it was a delicious pie no question.)

By the way, the attitude is not unique to Alan by any means. It really feels like it's ubiquitous and universal. Utterly infuriating and frustrating and nothing to be done about it.

Apple crumble tomorrow if you're in the mood for it, folx.

I stayed up to watch Big Ben and the fireworks welcome in the new year 2016. As a pleasant surprise, Andrew joined me online and we chatted in the new year together - it was only 7pm for Andrew so easily enough done.

Anyway one day this week I'll start my Intermittent Fast diet/eating pattern. To my surprise, last week Alan brought it up over breakfast and after some discussion he announced that he would like to join me on the diet, too. He was interested in the diet because it not only helps to lose weight but also balance metabolism/body functions like improving Diabetes Type 2. I'm really pleased as this would make it a lot easier on me not having to compete/conflict over foods.

I' committed to starting the plan this week; just haven't picked which day. I'll know when the day arrives just like how I started my stop smoking plan.

I canceled my car insurance today and sent in the papers to the DMV to transfer ownership of the Honda to the new owner. One less burden to worry about.

Tomorrow I'll update Alan's CV on all the websites he has it posted then it's up to Alan to run his job hunt. I hope he gets something pretty quickly.

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 What do Hiroshima and Tehran have in common?

Nothing, yet.