A ‘baking bug’ is not good for the diet

  So. I’m back on the diet after Christmas and the wedding (and seeing fat belly pictures of me from said wedding.) But this weekend I am going to a friend’s house for dinner and the birthday boy, Lord Prater, has requested a Black Forest gateaux. 

As I have spent this week watching the The Great Sport Relief  Bake Off, I have caught a bit of the baking bug.  So, I have decided to make the Black Forest thing myself.

Whilst researching recipes, I found this (pictured above) bad boy of a Black Forest cake, a recipe by Australian Masterchef judge Gary Mehigan. I don’t usually like Black Forest Cake at all but this got my interest.  UNTIL I read the recipe. Jeez. Making your own glace cherries, cherry compote, cherry syrup, hazelnut praline etc… way too much stress for me, so have reverted to a Nigella recipe and will ‘steal’ the ideas I like from Gary Mehigan’s complicated cake.  I’m going to do the four layers and different fillings.  Plus I am going to pipe a corny birthday message on the top! Get me! 

I will have one slice, which will be bad for the diet, but the good point is that I get to bake and leave the cake at our friends house so that I am not tempted to hoover the remainder up!

I also saw another couple of cakes that I would love to make.  I need more birthdays so that I can give the cake away and not eat it all myself!

I’d love to make this Sweet & Salty Cake by The Boy Who Bakes, Edd Kimber

 And also this fabulous looking  Chocolate and Caramel layer cake  *drool*

 

 

This is supposedly a diet zone.  I am just taunting myself with food and calorie p*rn!

Resolutions Wins and Fails

Happy New Year!

I have finished putting away all traces of Christmas and just about managed to cram all left over food in before starting my new years diet (almost).  Back to work tomorrow (boo).

I usually make resolutions and fail within days or weeks of making them. Even already on today – the 3rd of Jan I have failed one – I was going to upload a photo a day and already failed on that yesterday.  I started today with bran flakes and good intentions – I have just eaten a load of biscuits. Fail.

There are a few things that I know I will probably achieve this year;

• Move house – locally but somewhere that is a long-term house with some land or outbuildings for my parents to build or convert. This will also entail me selling my house in Newbury. Probably.
• Lose the final 7lbs to hit my target weight. I now know that I can do this (yeah, I know today doesn’t sound very promising but in my defence I am not back to work yet am I?)
• Being 40!  I know that I have no choice in this but it is a bit of a landmark year and I should make an effort to do a few things that I have always wanted to celebrate my grand age
• Some kind of change in my work-life. I don’t know what, but I can almost guarantee that I won’t be in the same place this time next year.
• Stay in my favourite Hotel, The Feathers in Woodstock, this I will achieve as my lovely Mum bought us a night and meal there to be taken before April. Yey!

There are a number of things that I would LOVE to do but probably won’t achieve;

• Blogging more often.  I wish I had more interesting things to say so that blogging more often was feasible, plus having the time to blog more frequently would be nice.
• If we move then a long holiday we were thinking about in San Fran while Stu is working out there all summer may be a no-no :0(  Although I am still hoping to get to the Americas Cup in Venice or Naples, which will be new for me. I also hope at some stage we may sneak a weekend in Paris in as its my 40th year and its my favourite city.
• Get better at photography, flirting with a 2nd hand SLR and not using so much auto stuff, although I am addicted to Instagram for sharing and Camera+ for taking the pics.
• See more of my friends and family that I don’t see enough of as I am always on the treadmill of working full-time and spending the weekend cooking, shopping, washing and cleaning.
• Read some more books and at least three classics. I am such a lazy reader and go for the easy reads. I should stretch myself.
• Dye my hair Titian.  I have always wanted to. I’d love it.

So a happy and prosperous new year to all! Let’s get on with it!

My 12 Days of Christmas Tweeters Message

I have done it again.  I bought the cards, I wrote them. I even addressed them. They are still sat in a pile in my kitchen and I have missed the last day for 1st class post in time for Christmas.  I also found the pile of last years cards, addressed and non-stamped in a bag of wrapping things last night.  I am so bad.

So instead of e-greetings, which I hate, I have decided to do a virtual message of Christmas cheer to those online buddies who if it were *real-world* (and I wasn’t a rubbish correspondent) I would be exchanging cards and some 12 days of Christmas presents with…

 

On the first day of christmas my Partridge in a Pear Tree  present goes to the fabulous and gorgeous @PeacockPete – it’s the closest I could get to a peacock,  Amazon were out of them, but with a bit of glue and some coloured feathers no-one will know the difference.  My wish is also to see each other in 2012! Have a wonderful Christmas gorgeous.

 

 

On the second day of Christmas my Two turtle doves present goes to @MrStu69 - you know why and it couldn’t be a nicer, more perfect gift for a lovely chap.  He has one major fault, that being the team he follows, but as I am a very generous person, I have given him the benefit of the doubt and like him anyway.  Plus the fact he lets me beat him at Words with Friends regularly. Have a great christmas Mr Stu.

 

 

 

On the third day of Christmas my Three French Hens present goes to the lovely @RaeMck - one of the few online pals I know IRL and used to work with way back before my twitter life.  She is kind and funny and sometimes very direct, I love her when she ‘says it like it is’.  I read her Coop and the Gang blog about her lovely chooks in preparation for when I get some in 2012 when I move *hopefully*.  Have a fabulous christmas Rach, I chose the Three French Hens as you have three and maybe in their family tree there is some French breeding way back? x

 

On the fourth day of Christmas my Calling (or Colly) Birds present goes to @CaptainFlashman who will need the birds to keep in contact with all his twitter chums and family when he starts his new exciting role in the New Year in Europe. He did tell me where, but I would have to kill you if I told you.  He leaves Winchester and that means my moans about the direness of the A34 Hell Road will be a solo past-time from now on. Sad times. He also needs a few good wishes as he is a Blackburn fan, poor guy.  Enjoy your time oop North with the lads

 

On the fifth day of Christmas my Five Gold Rings present goes to @saarflondonbird as a token of five bits of good things that are going to happen in 2012! Or five rings that she happens to be given by five rugby playing hunks?  She is a feisty and lovely bird who deserves all those and more Hope you have a fab Christmas and a stunningly good new year!

 

On the sixth day of Christmas my Geese-a-laying present goes to @demererabird for feathering her lovely nest (aka SVH).  She can use the eggs to bake her lovely Lemon Drizzle cake and more for a cake sale that I can contribute funds to her planned expedition this coming year Everest Base Camp. She’s a lovely local tweep who I really should meet this year  Hope all goes well and have a wonderful christmas

 

 

 

On the seventh day of Christmas my Swans-a-Swimming present goes to  @RockChickGill who is the most elegant and lovely lady gliding through my twitter feed. She is also protected by the Queen  Hope you have a happy christmas Gill and thank you for being so lovely.  2012 is definitely our time to meet – see you at the Boat Race for an Oxford v Cambridge drinking date?

 

 

On the eighth day of Christmas my Maids-a-Milking present goes to @NateFitzgerald - the maids can provide him with lots of free milk to help with the catering requirements for his Christmas guests, ample Christmas milk and cream for Linus. Also the odds are that one of the maids with the dairy supplies will pass Mrs Donaldson’s approval and may become more than a milking maid to Nate in 2012.  Keep on writing. I love it and read it, even when I don’t comment. I hope you are feeling a bit better and have a successful 2012 x

 

 

On the ninth day of Christmas my Ladies Dancing present goes to the feisty and funny @gillian_b and @nicnicus who always make me laugh and their bickering is something to behold. Gillian is also known to dance in  the office (if she’s there alone). Hope you gals had a fab time in NYC and have a great Christmas and very happy new year.  Thanks for the entertainment

 

 

On the tenth day of Christmas my Lords-a-Leaping present goes to @KingofAnkh  whose late night twitter DJ sessions are funny – especially if he has been at the wine. A clever boy who loves University Challenge and is a music and film geek too. Lords was the closest I could get to royalty with my Christmas shopping. Have a god Christmas x

 

 

On the eleventh day of Christmas my Pipers Piping present goes to the fabulously talented baker girl @HairyMcFairy wishing her ten pipers to help her in her piping for all those wonderful cakes and cup-cakes she bakes. I am campaigning for her to be on the Great British Bake Off in 2012, so join me. Have a wonderful Christmas Annie x

 

 

On the twelfth day of Christmas my 12 Tweeters Tweeting wish goes to 12 of my other regular tweeters as they keep up a steady rhythm in my feed. Thank you all for some entertaining tweetage this year @CateColes, @rutthenut, @_andythehat, @andrewlindsay, @eleanorc, @snowgirl72 and @thorn_waite, @ValiBG, @Jake_in_notts, @nigel_richards, @Nigel_Morgan and @cooda.

A tenuous post, but full of Christmas cheer!

A very merry Christmas to all.

Moody Moo’s Fat Fighters Interview

Since you last saw her, Moody has actually shrunk a bit. She joined Fat Fighters ten weeks ago and she has changed… She is interviewed here by a bored bystander, who hopes that an interview about her weight-loss and diet will get it out of her system and shut her the hell up… we can but hope…

What was your heaviest weight, what do you weigh now, and what is your goal weight? At my heaviest I was 11.5stone – that’s non-pregnancy weight of course! At the moment I weigh 10.5stone and my goal weight is 9 stone 12 (realistically it will be around 10 stone).

What is your number-one motivation for losing weight? Fitting back into a lot of my favourite clothes, being happy (er) at what I look like in underwear/swimwear and pictures of a less ‘fat-faced’ version of myself.

Have you always been overweight? I have never been extremely overweight and I have never been really skinny. I did go down once to 9 stone through stress and depression but that was too low for me (5’9) and it made my nose look massive!

When you feel like giving up, what inspires you to keep going? The fact that this time I have lost the most weight ever (intentionally) and that I have done really well to have lost a stone and it hasn’t felt like it’s been a BATTLE. Measurements as well as just the weight has been a huge help, and also getting back into clothes that were too tight before…

What is the one thing you look forward to most when you reach goal? The achievement as I have been a failed dieter many times – and I am dreaming of getting back into my best pair of jeans I ever owned! If I can get there, there are a load of clothes I can wear again. And I will feel so much better in myself and get the lush underwear back on.

Do you have support on your weight-loss journey? The online community at WW is great for sharing tips and support as well as seeing other peoples journey at a similar pace to yours. Really reassuring and would recommend to anyone – I don’t go to the meetings as they are not for me, but I do like this online support network a lot. I have other friends on Twitter across the country that are also on WW and that’s supportive too. My DD is really proud of me and my OH has been very complimentary.

What is your favourite exercise? Long walks with the dog. I hate running and it cripples my back, I don’t mind cycling. I love BodyPump, but I can’t commit to a regular class and sometimes I have done a bit of Davina DVD at home. But being honest – not so much.

What is the most important thing you have learned on your weight-loss journey?
Portion control. I was eating, and sometimes out-eating my OH who is 17 stone and 6’4! Cutting back on alcohol and also being aware of drinking more non-alcoholic fluids. I am happy with slow and steady as this seems to be harder to ‘mess-up’. There is nothing I CAN’T have and my tastes have changed immensely.

What is the one thing you have had to give up, that you miss the most?
I really miss doorstep white toast with lashings of butter and peanut butter. I crave that more than anything else. Everything else I have not really missed that much or I have taken the healthy version or alternative. I was drinking 2 large glasses of wine every night – even when I now have one at the weekend, that is enough and I don’t want anymore. Result! (Can’t say the same about Gin though!) I also like Green Tea, Fruit, Bran Flakes and Sprouts (raw) now. How annoyingly cliché.

What is your strategy for losing weight?
I track using my iPhone WW App which has really helped me stay on track. Being aware of the points of things and being organised with your shopping helps enormously too. Also not to beat yourself up if you have an off-track weekend – each new day you can start again, and get back on track.

There is still the last 7 lbs to go, which I feel will be slow, but assured. And in the meantime it will be christmas! Interesting, in a house full of foodies that have already planned 3 days of menus and wines.

Is this the LAST we are going to hear from you about weight-loss now? *crosses fingers*

Well, you can be sure as eggs is eggs, I will be screaming the place down if I hit goal in the new year and end up back in *those* jeans. But relax, you have probably until the end of January to worry about that.

*rolls eyes, exhales*

Friday Blog Theme: Fantasy Dinner Party

So I have thought about this long and hard. Again, this is a theme from Fat Fighters. They have kick-started my blogging mojo again.

The venue of course would be a beautiful apartment (mine of course) on the Ave. Montaigne in Paris. I would of course be wearing a casually chic Agnes B number.

Dinner would be served by my staff, I would simply waft in on a cloud of White Gardenia Petals. (I may be also wearing my fluffy slippers but lets not ruin the vision).

Guests:

Tom Selleck- not as Magnum, but as Jack in 3 Men and a… or Richard in Friends…. Finally he’d realise that I was his real destiny…

Jose Mourinho - yes he’s arrogant, but god what a man. Of course I’d really just want him to talk about being the ‘special one’ and agree to come and coach England.

Dawn French - I just love her. She makes me die. I love everything she has done. She is also my girl crush.

Eva Peron - I’d love to know the truth. I adore the story, soundtrack. I’d like to hear her story.

Nigel Barker - Film star good looks, height, sigh….. He’d also take great pics of the evening.

Billy Connolly - No-one tells a story like Billy.

Wow. I’m really excited about it now…. Although, I bet I wake up in the night with may more impressive and intellectual guests that I should have listed…anyway, off to microwave my ‘Fuller Longer’ dinner for 1…. *sighs*

Working girl

I was reading through my back catalogue of blog posts, and came across a post entitled New Girl which I wrote just over a year ago, a day or so before I began my current job.

It made me think of how I view that job and my life now.  I was apprehensive about the new job, in a much bigger firm, and the juggling of home life around this full-time post.

Well 14 months on, I can tell you how that panned out…

The balancing is sometimes hard, but due to having an understanding boss (hopefully he won’t read this) it’s very rare that the job really prevents me from being there for the girls when I need to be. Admittedly, since my younger DD has started senior school it has been a lot less stressful.  That extra step makes it a lot easier.

I experience the things that all full-time working mums do. Weekends that have to revolve around food shopping, chores and laundry, while trying to ‘do stuff’ with the kids. Busy weekday evenings, where you never seem to sit down until 9pm. And manic mornings with school runs vs breakfast/early meetings.

I had/have a lot to learn in my new role.  It took a bit of time to settle and not find everything confusing.  But I learned more in my first 6 months than I had in 3 years at my last job within the same field.

I have added value, I work with some great people (and some tricky ones) and rarely dread going to work.

I don’t regret it, enjoy it a lot. Any downsides are ones that would be replicated at most other jobs too, so I can’t complain. But it truly feels like I have been there 2 years+ instead of the 14 months it has been. Is that good or bad?

My ten guilty pleasures

I probably have a lot more than ten, but these are the only ones I am prepared to share with you.

1. Big pants. There. I’ve said it. Big high pants. Cosy, tummy flatteners and actually, I did read somewhere that some sexy actress always wore them… maybe I am not alone. (and when I say Big I mean the shape, they are still pretty colours and fabrics, they are not grey with failed elastic.)
2. Tweeting while I am in the bath drinking tea.
3. Casualty. Not the place, the programme. I love it. I have even recorded it. I can’t watch the staged accident happen and cover my face, but its a Saturday night staple for me.  Even with Charlie walking round with that confused look on his face all the bloody time.
4. Phil Collins/Genesis - yes I know. *hangs head in shame* But I like about eight of his songs.  While we are on the embarrassing music vibe, I also like a bloody good sing-a-long to Barry Manilow.  
5. I have also bought clothes from Supermarkets – and worn them, to death.  I have just purchased the Gok Wan at TU jacket thing.
6. Candles. I am a bit obsessed with good candles. Smelly, but not sickly, I have my christmas stash already growing in a cupboard and I almost ALWAYS buy one when I go to TKMax. I hate to think how much I have spent on candles and then burnt them. You won’t believe how cheated I feel if they turn out crap too.
7. I have tried to avoid food until now (being on a diet) but I do love taramasalata and ham sandwiches. I have also been known to eat taramasalata and marmite. And I was not pregnant.
8. I am a closet reader of both Piers Morgan and Liz Jones’ diaries. Not only are these both in the Mail on Sunday, but I actively seek them out. I don’t know whats wrong with me before you ask.
9. Also I enjoy OK magazine. I am that trashy. I have just grown out of Heat though. Sadly I have greatly enjoyed reading my mum’s Woman and Home now ….
10. Mrs Doubtfire - I just cannot watch this film enough. I am never ever bored of it.

My Death Row Supper

 I’ve been on weight watchers, or fat-fighters, as I like to call them, for three weeks. It’s going well.. so far. Today they have a  ‘Friday Theme Blog’ idea: ‘What would be your Death Row Supper?’  What a great idea! (the blog, not putting me on death row). I have replicated mine here.

Firstly, I wonder how much time I would have in custody deciding on this meal? This decision could keep me occupied for months! And obviously I would look amazing – something like the picture, is what I have in mind (although, god knows who all those people are…)

This did indeed take me ages and I have thrown out all kinds of favourites… but I finally decided on the following gut-busting, button popping, glutton-fest of a menu…

Pre-Dinner Drinks: Raoul’s (cocktail bar in Oxford) Bloody Mary with Black Pepper vodka, followed by a huge G&T with Hendrick’s Gin.

Starter: Foie Gras (I will be dead soon so won’t feel the guilt) with Melba toast and washed down with a fruity Merlot.

Main: Roast Rib of beef with claret and anchovy gravy, yorkshire puds, and rumbeldethumps and some white pudding. Washed down with a full-bodied Claret.

Dessert: Lemon tart with a chocolate fondant on the side. Sauternes to wash down.

Cheeseboard: Crusty warm bread, brie (so runny its like a pancake), Hartington Blue, Roquefort and a sweaty cheddar. With Grapes (hey, I used to be on WW).  I’d drink Zinfandel with this.

To finish: Cappuccino with a couple of big mouthfuls of handmade chocolate truffles and fudge.

For the road to ‘heaven’: A huge glass of Brandy.

What would yours be?  *goes back to my tuna salad and reality*.

So then I accepted a diet challenge…

Anyone who knows me, knows I cannot stick at diets.  My previous two attempts have resulted in a 7lb loss and then me getting disillusioned and then drunk.

I crashed onto the bathroom scales on Monday morning, and was shocked to see I was the heaviest I had been (excluding pregnancy) ever (give or take 5lbs).  I had also been feeling (and looking) bloated, chosing clothes was a nightmare as everything doesn’t quite fit properly and looks different on as its stretched around a lardier physique.

So, seizing  the opportunity of feeling disgusted with myself, I re-joined Weightwatchers online and set off on another diet.  I also saw a nifty challenge called ‘Loose 2st by Christmas’.   Never one to normally engage in any ‘target’ motivators, this one hit the mark,  I would have a deadline and something to achieve.  I joined this challenge a bit after their beginning, but the aim was 2lb per week, which would put me on track for a 1.5 stone loss by 19th December! Imagine that! My target loss and looking like a foxy minx with the mince pies and mulled wine!

So I’m doing it, and I pray to Rosemary Connolly that I stick to it this time.  I am on day three and I already feel really good, less bloated and the WW plan is easy to track online and the ProPoints thingy they do means you can have a treat on a weekly basis.  A glass of wine is only 2 points (I think a G&T with slimline is only 1!) but I am definitely not drinking in the week and am toying with the idea of 11 weeks off the booze until Christmas as well….

I know! I’ve changed!

I wish me every success in my endeavour to become less of a woman

Jurys Out on Jury’s Inn

I am so going to rant on Trip Advisor this time. Just like ranty man’s review I read last week of this very hotel. Jury’s Inn in Plymouth.

I knew before I arrived that the parking situation was less than ideal. I had chosen to ‘temper’ the ranty reviews of this as being a bit OTT. They weren’t.

It’s a dingy car park, under Mecca Bingo. That should describe it well. It’s under the hotel too. Is there any direction to hotel residents? No. None. It’s rubbish.

It’s £10 per day parking. Oh, the night before you check out you can get a voucher for £6 instead of £10. wow.

So you have to walk 10-15 mins to update your parking everyday. (no helpful access to the hotel from car park.)

Checked in and the professionally unhelpful receptionist was just that. Didn’t offer newspaper option, credit card information (to enable tabs at bar, restaurant or room service) or anything that could be helpful.

Lifts – they can only be operated by keycard, one button at a time, and regularly go up and down the floors at random, it took 10 mins to go 5 floors, on more than one occasion.

Three of us in our room, one towel. Three small, rock hard pillows. We called for more and were told ‘as we are full we don’t really have enough’… ‘if we can find some we’ll bring them.’

First morning, our room door was opened and banged shut by cleaner before 8am!

Can I just say, I hate this £100 per night hotel? When I get home I am so getting Ranty on TripAdvisor.

I won’t be staying at Jury’s Inn again either. I tweeted them and nada. They make Premier Inn experience like Four Seasons.

*rant over* (for now)