02/07/2013 - Tiresome Tuesday

We were so bad this morning. Well. Kinda bad. We got up to go to the gym. My legs were tired and Paul's back was sore. So we went back to bed instead of going to the gym. Koran cancelled boxing later so I am gym-free today. Naughty.

So I got to work at a decent hour and got quite a lot done. My boss was there. He kept giving me more work. My work load was never ending. It was getting me really quite stressed. I don't need this this week!

I came home to a lovely surprise. Paul had done some ironing! This NEVER HAPPENS!

Wow!

Sadly for me, there was still more to do, and as it was all mine, it really needed to get done! So I got cracking on it!

Paul needed to pop out to get some bits and bobs for dinner, so I took a break and hopped on his laptop to do Monday's blog update! Yeah. Not easy.

On Paul's laptop I use Firefox so we can keep our favourites etc separate from each other to make life easier.

Easier. Ha. Yeah. Not so much.

Every few words I typed, this happened:

ARGH! It took probably over half an hour to write that post. It was driving me bonkers. Why did I think leaving my own laptop in the office was a good idea?

I got back on with the ironing, after a lot of grumping and huffing and puffing. Ironing seemed far more preferable after that blogging experience!

So I am in a bad mood at this point.

Even Maia-in-a-box couldn't lighten my mood!

 She is cute though.

Paul took pity on me. After my stressful day and a very healthy dinner, we had a little treat.

 These. Are. Amazing.

I could have eaten both of these without a second thought.

I mean, LOOK AT IT!

Even typing this now, I am dribbling!

Once the ironing was done, it was time to head to bed as I was tired. Long week ahead!

31/05/2013 - 99 days to go! EEK!

We're now into double figures until the wedding. This thought excites me and terrifies me in equal measure. I remember when we were 400 days away! Now a mere 99.

I love that we're getting married soon, and I can't wait to be Paul's wife. It's just...well...THERE'S SO MUCH LEFT TO DO!

ARGH!

Anyway! It's Friday. It's payday. It's going to be a good day. Fingers crossed.

It actually wasn't bad!

Busy as ever in work. At lunchtime I decided to take a walk to the local shops to have a nose in some of the charity shops for some bargain books! I found some and might go back for some more for some trashy holiday reading material. What's the point in paying full price for a book you'll read only once and then probably end up giving back to charity any way?!

After work, Paul and I settled in for a nice relaxing evening in front of the tv with a nice glass of chilled wine. I didn't fancy watching something that required much effort on the tv. So we decided on "I Know What You Did Last Summer".

I've never seen it before. Turns out...it's a bit naff. But harmless fun.

Next up was a treat from Paul that he got this week after he heard Chris and I discussing it on Wednesday.

Hadn't watched it in years. Great film! Was very enjoyable.

Whilst watching the films I decided to try out my birthday present from my brother and sister in law. They got me a manicure kit thing, complete with moisturising gloves. Which are a bit odd, especially to sleep in.

I think I make them look good! They work, I guess. My hands felt nice for about 24 hours. Will try it again sometime.

Sadly, we went to bed before I was allowed my choice in movie viewage.

NEED. INPUT!

Well, here it is. The last #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge. It's been tough, guys. It's made this month LONG. Plus it's probably made me more tardy than I'd like to be with my blogs as finding/taking pictures isn't always easy. Plus at the time of the morning that I'm exercising, my mind isn't focused on taking pictures!

Anyway - the final picture - me looking fit.

I'm wearing athletic wear in front of my bed. The final time I have to take a selfie. I'm not good at it. Or maybe I haven't had enough practice!

Still - I like that this shade of pink makes me look like I have a decent tan, so go me! I don't actually have a tan. So this is good!

30/05/2013 - Did today happen?

Ok, a somewhat interesting title but it's a valid point. I don't actually really remember today! It was Thursday. Yep - that's all I've got.

Oh, I do remember coming into work and colleague J telling me he doesn't want to drink tea of a morning any more, he wants to drink lemon water (like me) and using up a massive amount of my lemon, leaving me with a pathetically small slice in my drink and none for tomorrow. You can drink lemon water when you provide a lemon. This might sound petty, but he doesn't buy anything for himself. I seem to pay for it all. Not this time, buddy. Whenever I make the drinks, he's getting tea. Soz. I ration my lemon so it lasts me a week. Even a 4-day week like this one. Him taking some without asking - spoilt my rationing. Not a happy bunny.

Lucky for me, he's rarely in the office before me, so it's not going to happen often.

As for anything else during the working day. I got nothing. Except this.

These are my vitamins, minerals and herbs that I take every day. My magnesium, glucosamine, green tea, multi-vit and milk thistle (only when I've had a drink as I had yesterday).

Yup. I really got nothin'.

It's not the end of the world though. Better I admit that I have nothing than bore you, right?

Today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge: Favourite Cheat Meal/snack

This probably doesn't count as it's not a cheat as such. Granted, it's not the best for me but it's certainly not the worst.

Roast pork dinner with root vegetable mash, green veg and stuffing. Not shown - lashings of gravy and apple sauce! MMMM.

I tried to find a picture of bangers and mash which is probably my ultimate favourite naughty dinner, but couldn't find one even though I know I've taken one before. Hmmm.

I love this dinner so much, we're having it on Sunday! Result!

29/05/2013 - I'm a winner!

I had very creative dreams last night. Sadly, that's all they were. Dreams. I dreamt that my Mum won £100,000 on the Euromillions and decided to text me to tell me as she didn't want to wake me up. How sad was I when I checked my phone and that text message wasn't there. :(

When I got to work, however, I found this email awaiting me!

 I TOTALLY WON THE EUROMILLIONS! Well, when I say I won it...I didn't win the £84m jackpot. I won £9.10. Basically bugger all. But still - yay me!

Another day of madness in the office. Seriously busy. Joys of doing two jobs again I guess. The best bit being that I actually enjoyed it a little bit! I think I'm still delirious from winning the lottery this morning.

The other good thing about being in my office alone whilst colleague T is away is that I can put the radio on and listen to whatever I want! As I was sorting things out to prepare to come home, Bruce Springsteen 'Born to Run' came on. If that's not a great song, I don't know what is! I danced around the office, thus aggravating my hip injury a little but I don't care! I enjoyed it! My other colleagues probably think me a loon, but hey, they knew that already, right?

Then it was time to come home for #Whedonsday fun. It was touch and go as to whether I remembered right if Chris was coming over or not. He was. Phew! We ate lamb and feta burgers (homemade by Paul) and watched more Firefly. Last week next week. It's sad.

We caught the end of the England football match (which was dull) then Chris left to get his train.

Then to bed, as we were both cream crackered!

Today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge is a well dodgy one and I hope the inventor got lots of pictures that made his eyes crawl: Body part you're most proud of.

Well.

This is a difficult one. I don't think I have one. I'm not done with making myself happier about myself yet. So soz. I fail. I don't have one.

Here's a picture of Maia's bum though. She grew this with my help, so I think I can claim that I'm proud of it!

Beautiful heart-shaped bottom.

28/05/2013 - Two people at once!

Back to work it is. That's the worst part about a long weekend. It's still just a weekend and you still have to work afterwards.

Made extra un-fun by the fact that colleague T is on holiday for the next two weeks, so I have to do her work as well as mine. At least it's only 9 days and not months, like it was before.

At home, the unglamorous life is well and truly partying. Our shower is blocked. Which is not good. We have put two different types of unblocker down there and it's having none of it. We're going to try each of these bad boys until one of them does the job.

 We bought the Domestos stuff on the far right. Spoiler - it works. PHEW!

Want to see how busy my day was:

I've barely been making 100% recently, as a lot of my work is off machine. I'm quite proud to be over 250% again!

Once home, we had dinner and lamented the fact that we don't have a lot of TV to watch now that most series have ended for the summer over in America. What are we going to do now?!

Have an early night, probably. I'm really not complaining.

Today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge: Planking.

Since last month I've got quite good at planking. Taking a picture of yourself doing it, however...not so easy!

There's concentration in that selfie. Not aided by Maia rubbing up against the camera as I was taking pics. This is the best of a bad bunch!

27/05/2013 - Another free day off!

Have I mentioned before that I like Bank Holidays?! I do. They are amazing!

I pretty much wrote off today, knowing that Koran was over last night. I need not have, though. I was far less hungover than I should have been. Although more than I would have like. But never mind.

As my hip was still sore, a very lazy day was called for. No ironing for me, which is a shame as that's what I intended on filling my day with. Instead I did some wedding stuff and generally lazed around. It was brilliant!

Of course, I had company. I had Paul and the kitties. Which is nice.

Apparently Maia needs a bath. She didn't put up with him for long. She isn't fond of Barney baths!

As we were being lazy, there's not really a lot to talk about! We watched a couple of movies, but nothing we haven't seen before, and generally relaxed. As there isn't going to be a whole lot of that going on in the near future we will a) probably regret it a few weeks down the line when the invitations aren't finished and b) make the most of every second of it!

Today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge is a tough one for me. It is of many friends drinking water.

Well, person who set this challenge, I don't actually have that many friends that I see day to day in real life. Short of asking my twitter followers to send me a picture of them drinking water, I struggled. If you remember, the other day, I used pictures of my cats to make up the space! I'm all out.

Instead I'll show you the pictures of a week's worth of empty water bottles from the office. That's a few people drinking water (as well as me) so that will have to do!

Admittedly, it's probably mostly me.

26/05/2013 - Uh oh...

My darling readers, I am in pain. My  hip is not my friend. Every time I moved last night, I awoke in pain. Not a happy bunny. So we had to stay in bed a little longer. Because I need rest.

Luckily for me, Paul decided to join me and watch the build up to the Monaco Grand Prix in bed! :)

Smug Paul is smug because that top didn't fit this time last year. It's a perfect fit now. Everyone do the dance of joy!

It's all good fun!

We had to get up though, because we have a visitor this evening! I know! How popular we are! So we had a little tidying to do and an invitation to make! Our visitor this evening was our test run for invitations!

Koran came to visit! The same KoKo who came dress shopping with me, and who took me out after I had my hair and make up done. She's a good friend (to get me drunk) and tonight was no exception! Yay! I need pain relief and actual medicinal pain relief isn't working!

Gin and Tonics were the order of the day! They went down very well indeed!

We ate Paella and drank. We watched crappy movies but mostly chatted. Paul went to  bed early and we stayed up and chatted some more!

It might have been a late night! Worth it though.

The invitation - she approved! We have some more work to do on them for other people but I can get them together a lot quicker than we thought, so we are feeling quite happy now!

Today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge: Making fitness fun.

So I'm injured. I can't make fitness fun right now. Sorry.

Here's a picture of me making fitness fun last year, though!

We attempted a world-record attempt for a can can! Sadly we didn't make it, but it was a good giggle any way!

I actually  look quite skinny here! So this picture is even more fun! :D

25/05/2013 - No pain, no gain. REALLY?!

It's Saturday night and I'm writing a blog post about the day that it actually is! This never happens! I'm up to date!!

I think it's because the only thing on the telly (meaning that I have lost custody of the remote control) is the Champions League Final which has just finished. I won't spoiler.

Anyway.

For a crazy random change, I'm going to start with today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge picture. Mostly because it started my day!

Today's picture is "at a Park Run or about to do 5km". So, even though I really didn't want to, we went to Park Run!

I have mentioned it before (although last year and I can't even remember that far back, but as it's a 'label' on here I must have mentioned it!) but basically it's a free weekly timed 5km!

We don't go as often as we should. But, as I said, even though I really didn't want to go, we went!

It has been a gorgeous day in Liverpool so it wasn't a bad morning to go for a run. 

I managed to jog/run the whole 5km. This is a big achievement for me. I've never done that before. If you go back to my entry on the 8th May 2013, you'll see that one of my goals for 2013 was to be able to run a 5km without stopping. Yup. Big tick against that one. I'll never be able to 'run' 5km, so maybe I phrased it wrong. But I didn't need to walk at any point. Whenever I found myself getting out of breath, I just slowed down. So I was probably jogging at walking pace, but hey, I didn't walk! 

As of now - 2157 hours, I haven't received my result. Even though it's been over 12 hours since I finished. I guess I'll try to remember to let you know in tomorrow's post. IF I EVER FIND OUT.

Anyway. I might be regretting the run now. My hip hurts. Not in a good way. In a not-being-able-to-put-weight-on-my-right-leg way. I hope that goes away because I don't want to have to take an exercise break. I am going to rest for the next few days and hope it gets better. I think I run with my foot turned out, as when it's in that position, it doesn't hurt. When I turn it straight it does. So I guess I need to teach myself to run again. GREAT.

I can't take anti-inflammatory tablets due to my asthma. No ibruprofen or asprin for me. No voltarol or diclophenac. No deep heat. I have to suffer medicine free. So I decided to put an ice pack on it. Except we didn't have any ice. All we had was a frozen wine cooler. THAT'LL DO!

Pretty sure my parents gave me this. It's the best ice pack ever! Although it thawed pretty quick so it's back in the freezer.

So, next choice in medicine?

 This wine was a gift from Paul's Mum. It's REALLY nice. I'm currently drinking it slowly to make it last as long as possible!

Oh yeah - Paul's parents' came over this afternoon! We debuted our wedding invitations to Paul's mum. I don't think she liked them. Not a good start.

Anyway, it's just after 10pm now. I'm shattered and in pain. Think I'll finish my wine and go to bed soon.

OH, one more thing: Happy Towel day, everyone!

If you have to ask...google it. If you still don't get it...join the library! :)

24/05/2013 - RIP Boutr0s

Guys, today started badly.

I slept for about 4 hours. I woke up at stupid o'clock because the baby next door WOULD NOT STOP SCREAMING. Seriously. I don't blame the baby. He's a baby. But he was screaming for over an hour.

I understand that when you're a parent, you can't go to your child every time it cries. I know that. I also understand the whole thing about letting it learn to sleep in a room by itself. HOWEVER, an hour of screaming?! This wasn't attention-seeking screaming, this was genuine DO SOMETHING screaming. You know what they did? They put on the AWFUL CD that they always play. Granted, not at the volume that it's usually on during the day, but that's what they did to stop the baby crying. Spoiler. It didn't work.

After an hour of me huffing and puffing and generally being really p***ed off, I remembered my secret weapon: ear plugs. In they went and back off to sleep I went.

Until 3.30am when Barney decided it was a perfectly acceptable hour to stomp all over me asking for attention. I gave him a tickle - he purred and curled up next to my head. Until I stopped tickling him as I fell back asleep, where he started stomping again, then jumping onto the side and knocking bits and bobs onto the floor. With a dramatic exclamation of "Mummy can't do this, Barney! She just can't!" (yes, I refer to myself in the third person), I got up and went to give them more biscuits. Anything to get them to let me sleep!

It worked. I got to go back to sleep. Until 5.40am when the alarm went off for us to get up and go to the gym.

I didn't want to go. But we went anyway. I did some weights. It was tough.

I came home and showered. As I was getting ready for work, I got a text from my Mum to relay the devastating news that my fishy, Boutr0s-Boutr0s, had passed away in the night.

WAAAA!

I have mentioned Boutr0s-Boutr0s before, but for those of you who have not been paying attention, I have had him for over 10 years. Probably more like 11! Granted, Mum has had custody of him for the whole of that time, but he was my fishy. He was a pink kissing gourami and had been a lone-fish for some time. His tank-mate, Ghali, passed away a little time ago.

I can't remember why we decided to name them after an Egyptian politician, but that was his name.

The last ever pic taken of Boutr0s-Boutr0s, taken on 10th May 2013.

Rest in Peace, Boutr0s-Boutr0s. I missed you anyway, but Mummy Hartley will miss you the most. She won't miss how much you cost her over the years, but that empty tank won't be nice for her. :(

On that sad note I went to work and lamented my loss to my colleagues, who thought it was really funny. Meanies.

After work, we debated going to a yoga class, but as a full box of envelopes had just fallen on my head in the office, making me go a little dizzy, we decided to just go home.

I can't remember if I tweeted the picture of the cat grass I started growing last week. This is it now!

 It has come along a treat!

Speaking of treats; as the kitties get one, I feel like we deserve one as well!

This chocolate has been getting a lot of press recently. It's completely Marmite (either love it or hate it) according to the people I know who have tried it.

My verdict: I really don't know! The jelly bits are also popping candy which is the stuff that crackles in the back of your mouth when you eat it.

I can't decide if it's fun or just plain annoying. I only ate the above. Will have to try some more just to see!

Absolutely exhausted, I managed to watch this week's 'Revolution' and then headed to bed. Pretty sure I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.

Today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge: Weights or Body Weights.

I did weights at the gym this morning. I didn't take a picture. Nobody needs to see that. Plus it's a bit weird taking photos at the gym! Instead, I got Paul to take this one of me doing dips at home.

Ignore the crazy amounts of dust on the side of my trousers. Pretend I meant for that to be there...

23/05/2013 - Messy

Thursday. We got up and went to the gym! Like we were meant to! Go us! Cross trained for a while and then hammered the upper body ergometer. Or the 'arm bike' as I like to call it! Reckon I was making some rather iffy noises but sod it! I was working hard!

You don't need me to mention how my day was in work! It's always the same! I did pop home at lunch to break up the day a little. It didn't really. The day was still long.

This is the view at my desk. Although imagine colleague T in the chair. Not that you know what colleague T look like. Hmmm. She actually does look a bit like Demi Moore. Just with shorter hair and less surgery! And a posh St Helens accent! ;)

 After work I came home and we set to work on our wedding invitations. I will reveal them to you (maybe) after we have actually sent them out, but there is some ink-work involved. It's a messy job. Which has left me with black fingers.

Messy.

As it turns out, Paul is much better at the ink-work than me, so I got him to do it. Instead, I sorted my friend Koran's birthday present.

It was her birthday on the 14th April, but as I haven't seen her, it's taken me a while to sort this. I made arrangements for her to come for dinner on Sunday so figured I should probably sort it out before she arrives!

Like it?! I bought it at a website called 'Not On The High Street'. I love that site! I buy loads from there!

After lots of hard work we went to bed, so we could have a good night's sleep before the gym tomorrow morning.

Today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge is of  a healthy dinner. I've already shown you salad and blah so here's something a bit different!

This is steak (can't remember if it was beef or venison) on a bed of asparagus and green beans and mashed root vegetables.

Nowt moist on this. Just a lovely and healthy dinner.

22/05/2013 - Naughty scran

It's Wednesday! Which means that it's a morning off the gym...not that we had one yesterday or anything...or the day before. Aherm.

Anyway, I headed to work with a little more of a smile on my face as I was legitimately able to sleep longer rather than by accident, and cracked on with my work!

Colleague J went to visit the Beanie Man at lunch time and got a few freebies, and gave me a nice cheese and onion sandwich!

Except the thing was that it wasn't actually nice. I'm sure some people like it. Not me. The whole cheese, onion and mayo combo has only ever been nice to me once. About 2 years ago.

Sorry, Beanie Man. Have a spare falafel salad next time and I will love you forever!

I just want to be clear, I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth! I'm poor. Free food is welcome!

Paul sent me this picture to make me smile.

Barney was doing his long cat impression. About 10 seconds before this picture was taken, he was even longer! Gutted!

It's #Whedonsday, so Chris was coming over to visit for some dindins. Paul made pork chilli burritos, after we watched Man vs Food last night and saw a giant burrito which looked AMAZING.

As it was taking a while, we had some snacks to start with.

I might have eaten more than I should have of these. Thank goodness we didn't have pudding!

After Chris went to run for his train, we went to bed. Fingers crossed for a good night's sleep.

Today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge pic: Proud Achievement.

Well, I've never run a marathon. Never anything close in fact. Never run an official timed race. I've never entered any fitness competitions and the only trophy I have won is from a disco dance exam when I was in single digits, before I was politely told that I was a little too...chubby...for dance.

Aherm.

NOT ANY MORE!

I think my proudest achievement has come this year.

I wore these trousers all the time last year. They are now so big I can take them off without undoing them. I have officially lost 1 dress size. In some shops, I have lost 2!

There is still some way to go to where I would like to be...I mean look at those arms...however they are better than they was and with more work, I will be happy!

Seriously, these trousers are so big, I had to buy a belt to hold them up. The only one I had that would fit through the loops didn't have holes high enough to hold up the trousers! :D

21/05/2013 - Foldemort

I really couldn't think of a title. Soz. It's witty - when you see today's pics!

We had a little malfunction this morning. We might have kind of sort of slept through the alarm. So only waking up at 6.30 to realise it's too late to go to the gym. OOPS. There were no interesting classes to go to after work either (there was zumba, but Paul didn't want to do it) so looks as though we're having an unscheduled day off exercise!

Work was same old same old. However the joys of having a shared drop box with Paul is that I can see anything he takes a picture of in real time, as I get a notification in the bottom corner of my computer screen.

Today I got these:

I think Paul's a bit jealous of my origami skillz and so decided to try something of his own. Can you guess what animals they are supposed to be?!

I came home after work to discover that I had a delivery awaiting me! Another wedding one! This one I might share with you!

Place cards! They will look a little bit more exciting come the day. I purposefully ordered plain and uninteresting ones to inspire me to spice them up a bit for the day.

It's all getting a bit real now!

We watched some TV and I folded a load more cranes then went to bed like the rock n roll couple we are. I know you're all jealous of our lives!

Anyway. Today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge. My fitness role model

I don't really have one to be honest! There are people I admire but I don't think that counts as a role model. I admire folk who push themselves hard and work hard to get what they want and achieve it. A girl I went to school with is now a personal trainer. She was always into dance etc but after having two kids has, in her own words, now got the body she always wanted.

Follow her on twitter here! She's lovely!

I guess if you want a picture of something that I strive for - you all know what my fitness motivation is: I want to tone up and look good in my wedding dress. Who is toned and looked good in a wedding dress recently? Jessica Ennis. Olympic Gold medallist at last year's Olympic games in the Heptathlon. She seems lovely. So here's a pic of her on her wedding day.

Image from OK magazine

20/05/2013 - Active. Ish.

We did not go to the gym this morning. On purpose. So we would go after work.

I hate going to the gym after work, but do so I shall.

Maia loves to stand on my phone. She's locked it by inputting the incorrect 'code' on more than one occasion. I like to think she's tweeting her fans. Not that she has a twitter account. She used to have a facebook. She had more friends than me. I'm a bit sad about that.

Work was...well, you know the usual spiel. What can I say - nothing new happened. Which is dull. I should really make fun things happen!

As promised, we got ready and went to the gym straight from work. My colleagues make such a song and dance about me going after work. I guess it's because they see me in my fitness gear. Maybe they don't believe me when I say I go before work. I can't prove that.

Anyway, as last week sucked a little in the gym, I went to the circuit training class with Paul. It was tough. Especially as we were split into a group of 6, and the other 4 people in our group were super fit. Not impressed.

Here's Paul outside the gym afterwards.

The girl in blue (in front of the red bricks) was in our team. She was super fit. I hate her. Not really. I'm just jealous of her toned long legs and her stamina. Bet she can't quote the whole of Lord of the Rings though, can she? Bet she can't make a mean Lemon Drizzle cake. Bet she can't...um...[insert something cool here]...YEAH! In your face, fit girl.

We came home, ate dinner and went to bed. Because we're so rock n roll like that!

Today's #FitTeam13 #PhotoFitChallenge is pictures of 3 friends drinking water!

It's giving me a lot of credit here. I don't have that many friends that I see regularly. So I might have had to...improvise...somewhat...

Paul. Drinking water.

Maia. Drinking water.

 Barney. Drinking water.

Hey - it doesn't specify that my friends need to be human, does it?!

I am REALLY going to struggle on the 27th, aren't I?!