Thursday 28 September 2017

At last!


My living room looked like this for a week!  Then after a false start yesterday I came home today and finally it now looks like this...


Hooray!!!!!!! 🎉🎈

Now I can crack on with painting, carpet ordering and making my curtains in my October break 😎

PS. I'm still full of the cold/flu/virus thingy

Saturday 23 September 2017

Long week


Well, they came yesterday and took it back out.  And the plasterer has plastered the wall.  Just the wall with the opening, not the whole chimney breast as promised.  There's plaster dust and drips everywhere.  *sighs*  I'm not complaining again as it's going to drag on even longer. So I'm just getting on with it now.  The wall will be dry enough to paint in 5 days.  I've painted inside the opening and it looks ok.  Once the stove is back in it'll look better. I still had 2 x 2.5 litre pots of unopened paint leftover from my old house (Dulux Natural Calico) so used that.  I think I'll do the whole room that colour and save some money at the same time.


It's been a long week at school as I've got the first nasty virus of the new session.  It started with a painful sore throat, on the day I had an observed lesson!  I croaked my way through and got good feedback.  Phew!  Now it's settled into a full blown cold with a deep chesty cough.  I've been dosing myself with cold and flu tablets, Benylin cough mixture, throat lozenges plus all my usual natural tricks.  Hopefully it will pass soon. Especially as I'm off diet and drinking tons of honey and lemon!

Sunday 17 September 2017

Who to believe?


No weight loss this week but I'm happy I haven't gained as I had a work night out on Friday.  I did save up my points to compensate but I'm still recovering from 3 glasses of wine with tapas.  The restaurant was very good at labeling the gluten free dishes although I had to work out if there was dairy in them.  Obviously I didn't work out everything!  Ah well.

Just out of curiousity I was looking at some of the info out there that's supposed to help you with weight loss.  I did the NHS healthy weight calculator and it told me I was overweight for my age, height and activity level.  Quelle surprise!!


But I found it interesting that it suggests I lose 15kg  just to be in the middle of my healthy weight range.  Eeeek!! 


I've been watching the BBC's 'How to stay young' programme and did their How are you aging? test.  I answered the questions honestly.  Apparently I have the fitness level of a 20 year old!! 

So I'm overweight and need to lose 15kg to be healthy but my lifestyle suggests I have the fitness of a 20 yo!  Who to believe??

I'm interpreting it as I'm making sensible lifestyle choices but need to lose a bit weight.  Common sense really!

Saturday 16 September 2017

Some progress


Well, the stove and hearth have been installed but I'm not happy with it.  The opening has been rendered with a rough render that can be left as it is or painted.  I had originally said I would paint it but for some reason they don't allow any time for the painting before installing the actual stove.  Apparently you just 'paint round it once it's dry.'  I did not know that.  I don't want to do that as I don't think the finish will look good.  Plus the application of the rough render is looking rather slapdash. After a very 'robust' telephone conversation and a visit in person to the showroom (where I had to use my teacher voice) 😀 they are returning this week to remove the stove so I can paint the opening.


They also left a big hole in the chimney breast as my chimney isn't straight and it narrows to one side. They had to knock out a hole to guide the liner in.  Luckily the whole wall is being replastered but I'm not too impressed with this company's work or their customer service skills.  And they weren't happy when I told them that!!  But as I pointed out I'm paying them a large amount of my money for a 'quality product and service' (their words!!) and so far I'm not getting that.  Fingers crossed it goes better this week!

Progress is slow but at least it's progress!

Monday 11 September 2017

Less of me!


When I went back to work after the holidays I resolved to get my weight back down to a sensible level.  As I'm getting older it's getting harder to stay at a constant weight.  And a whole summer of little exercise thanks to my ankle injury and cider drinking in Cornwall meant it crept up again 😔

But as of yesterday I've now lost 3.2kg/7lbs!!! 🙌🙌🙌

I'm using WeightWatchers, exercising more and not eating after 7pm at night.  Seems to be working so far but it is very hard.  My first target is to lose 10kg by Christmas so I'm a third of the way there already 😎

Sunday 10 September 2017

It's September!


Time flies when you're enjoying yourself, apparently.  It's now September and we're 3 weeks into the school term. Unbelievably it's only 4 weeks until half term!!  So far my new class is ok, only one specific behaviour issue.  I only have 24 kids which really makes a difference in terms of class management.  My non contact afternoon is a Tuesday which happens to be the time when the whole school does community groups so I don't have a group to lead this year.  I like to think of it as my reward for teaching last year's class!! Several colleagues have commented on how I look more relaxed this term.  And my headteacher told me I'm very organised at my planning meeting! 😎

The weather hasn't been great here, very autumnal.  I switched my heating back on last weekend.  Luckily yesterday was decent enough to get my back garden tidied up.  I emptied more potato pots.  The pic above is the result of 10 Maris Piper tubers.  Not great.  And they fell to bits when cooked .



I rounded up and emptied all the pots then gave them a good wash.  They're already for winter storage now.


I cleared the polytunnel of the remaining tomato plants.  I had 18 and not one of them produced a single tomato.  The last ones I removed yesterday did have some flowers but it's way too late in the season for them to produce any tomatoes now so I pulled them out.  Very satisfying.  I filled up the grobags with the spent compost from the pots and will add some feed to them.  I'm going to try planting a few winter crops and some herbs to see if they'll survive.


We've also been doing some work on the outside of the house.  The exposed bricks and the mortar between them are a bit crumbly.  A lot of the houses round me have just painted them so we decided to go down that route rather than getting a builder to re point/replace.  I spent £40 on 2 tins of Sandtex paint that will seal and protect them.  OH has used a full tin already on the side (he'll do the wee bit on the front when the weather is dry enough again!!)


The colour is Plymouth Grey but it doesn't look grey on my wall.  But it'll do, it looks much better already with just the first coat.  And it'll save me the cost of getting a builder.


September is always the time when I reflect on the changes in my life in recent years.  7 years ago my marriage fell apart.  4 years ago I moved into this house.  Life doesn't always work out the way you thought or planned.  Getting back up is hard, really hard.  But when I look at what I have now I wouldn't change anything that happened.