Cause I'm bluffin' with my muffin...

Well I've been a good little girl again today (up on time, worked hard at job, had proper healthy breakfast and lunch, went to gym, having a nice Core Plan dinner - which will complete my 5-a-day -, no booze consumed, etc, etc). It would be perfect if I hadn't totally nommed that blueberry muffin in the café at the leisure centre. In my defence I was hungry and tired and needed the boost before I went to be all active 'n' stuff, but also it just looked way yum. And it was! But alas I don't quite get to shine my halo today - blueberry muffins are not a Core food!

In other news I somehow triple booked myself for Thursday evening. How come the rest of the year I have nothing to do on a Thursday night but go to the gym and then watch Star Trek DVDs and then suddenly I have 3 things to do at once? My choices were shopping, pampering or attending a meeting. It was a close-run thing but I've gone with the pampering. The mother-shaped-one very kindly bought me gift vouchers for a beauty salon for Christmas so I'm finally going to use them to get myself an Indian Head Massage and a facial. Let me stress at this point that I've never even been in a salon before - I'd be more at home in a saloon to be honest. However I've always fancied having someone else gently poke and prod the tense bits of me and not being able to complain because I'm paying them for it. So Thursday is my chance! I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime I'm off to have dinner (yes, at 9.10pm, wannafighdaboudit?) and, yes, you've guessed it, watch Star Trek. I just can't get enough of wee Data - he's so cute!

Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee...

Seriously peeps, how much of a goody-two-shoes am I right now? Let’s look at the evidence:

1. I spent Saturday morning on a sponsored walk for the hospice, rambling around the coast in the wind and rain, being all active and healthy while raising money for a good cause.
   
2. I am currently (mostly successfully, for a change!) following ye olde Weight Watchers Core Plan, where you can only eat foods off a big list, which basically includes healthy nutritious and filling things like fruit, vegetables, lean meat, wholemeal pasta and rice, porridge, etc. Goodbye scones! I even had porridge when I went out for breakfast on Sunday morning instead of bacon and pancakes (which I know are delicious).
   
3. I may have skipped the gym today (still recovering from Saturday’s walk) but tomorrow I plan to do a gym session AND go swimming.
   
4. I have had one sip of Yawksha Boy’s Guinness but no other alcohol whatsoever for 21 days so far. I plan to stay off the booze til lent is over, so that’s another 2 weeks or so.
   
5. Tonight I will be going to bed nice and early so as to be rested after a hard day’s work and in preparation for another one tomorrow.

Could I be more freaking boring? But still, all this clean living is good for me and, if previous experience has taught me anything, it won’t last too long. However I calculated today that there are only 33 weeks until my wedding. That’s 33 weeks to lose weight, get toned and improve my skin, which suddenly seems like quite a short time! Best keep up the Good Sandy act for a while yet then. Still, I am SO looking forward to a nice bottle of wine and bar of fudge at Easter. I am the worst healthy person, like, ever! However, I will sit here and sip my flavoured sparkling water (2 kcal per 100ml dontcha know!) like a good girl and imagine it's a lovely sauvignon blanc.

If only my imagination were any better than my willpower. I think my brain is broken.

Unknocked Up!

Dearest world,

I am writing to you regarding your recent concerns on the subject of my wellbeing. I appreciate your understanding that I am currently in a long-term relationship and am about to be married and thank you for your kind thoughts on this matter.

However I would take this opportunity to advise you that, despite popular belief, it IS possible for a female of child-bearing age to occasionally have a tummy bug or feel tired without being pregnant. Additionally, when said female denies such allegations, smug, "knowing" looks and remarks such as "are you suuuuureeee?" are certain to be met with disdain. And no, that does not make me "hormonal" either.

I would furthermore like to assure that, should I suddenly find myself in the bumpular way, I will be sure to advise you as soon as is appropriate. In the meantime please try to restrain your schadenfreudal tendancies or OH MY GOOD GOD I WILL END YOU! M'kay y'all?

No, still not hormonal.

Shut up!

Bah.

*mutter* *mutter* *big ol' hammer* *mutter* *hide the bodies*

Paris in springtime

Recently I had the good fortune to go to Paris for a few days. Back in January a local airline was having a really good sale on cheap flights and we managed to locate a nice little cheap chain hotel in a decent location online, so we thought, why not? After all, we won't be having a summer holiday for the second year in a row because we're saving for our wedding, so we won't be getting a decent break until our honeymoon at the end of the year. Isn't it great how you can justify such things to yourself? But anyways, the first week of March came around and off we went to the airport.

I love airports! There's just something exciting about them I think. Planes taking off and landing, people going away or coming home, the shops, the cafés... the whole thing! I always fancied working in airport but both the ones near me are awkward and expensive to get to without a car so alas I shall remain a civil servant instead.

As we sat in the coffee shop (having lucked out on nabbing two of the comfy, squishy chairs instead of the hard wooden things) I started reading my latest book purchase, Petite Anglaise, a true story of an English woman who moved to Paris and then blogged about her life there. In the opening pages she talks about why she fell in love with France and describes what she did and saw when she went there.

Suddenly it all came rushing back. You see, I'd been to Paris once before, in December 2007. My mum, sister and I went for a long weekend of sightseeing and shopping and I completely fell head over heels for Paris. It even came in at a close second to my favourite city of all time, Barcelona. But even though we saw most of Paris (well, the bits around the bus tour routes and our hotel on the Rive Gauche anyway), we didn't quite do many of the "French" things I'd learned about in school or read about in books. You know, all the stereotypical things that makes you feel like you're really experiencing Paris - going up the Eiffel Tower, ordering a "café au lait" and a croissant in a little café... I didn't quite want to cycle around in a navy and white striped t-shirt with garlic and onions around my neck and a baguette sticking out of my backpack or anything, but there were certain little things I wanted to do and didn't get a chance to on my first visit. And then of course there were things I did do and then wanted to do again!

So while I was waiting to board the plane I came up with a mental list of 12 things I wanted to do in Paris. Some of them were bonus items that I didn't really expect to be able to do, but they were there in my mind anyway. My list was as follows:

1. Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, preferably at sunset.


2. Speak French to someone and be understood.


3. Buy a pastry from a Patisserie.


4. Drink wine at a table outside a café/bar/restaurant and watch the world go by.


5. Eat a banana pizza at Del Arte on Boulevard St-Michel.


6. Eat a croque monsieur.


7. Visit the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa.


8. Ogle the goods in the food hall at the Galleries Lafayette.


9. Buy a crepe from a street-side stall.


10. Walk along the Seine.


11. Drink an espresso.


12. See the Moulin Rouge.

Funny how so many of them involved food or drink. Hmmm. But do you know, I managed to do them all!!! I had my doubts about the probability of numbers 2 and 5 and I wasn't sure how readily available number 6 would be outside the pages of a French GCSE textbook, but every one them was fulfilled. I even managed to combine 6 and 7 by having a croque monsieur for breakfast at a café in the Louvre, and also 1 and 11 by warming up with an "expresso" at the café on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. How perfect a trip! One I did forget that has just occurred to me is to eat smelly French cheese. Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to go back and do that another time... what a pity!

I also had a separate birthday wish, relating to number 1 on the list: I decided that it would be utterly romantic to have a lovely birthday kiss at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Luckily, when my other half had exhausted photo-taking opportunities of "the city of lights" as night fell, he was happy to oblige. Aww, young love, eh? I may read too many chick lit books and watch too many rom coms... oh well!

Let me tell you though, mes amis, on the only full day we were there we decided to walk around all the sights, i.e. no Metro, no buses, no tour buses - just our own four feet. We walked from our hotel near Montmartre to the Madeleine, to the Place de Concorde, along the Seine to the Louvre, around the Louvre itself (which is MASSIVE), up to Notre Dam, over to, and along, the Boulevard St Michel, down loads of other LONG roads, to the Eiffel Tower, up to the Trocadero, down again to the Eiffel Tower, over the river, along the Seine, down another LONG road, up the Champs-Elysses to the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champs-Elysses again all the way to the Place de Concorde, up past Madeleine again and, after a pit stop at the only restaurant that was open and we could afford, back to our hotel. We were KNACKERED. If we hadn't been frequently fuelled by sugary snacks and wine en route, I'm not sure I would have made it. Or there would have been at least a 100% increase in the amount of whining about sore feet, etc.

It was all worth it though. It was a beautiful day and we have some great photos to remember it all by. But now, alas, it's back to porridge as they say. Literally for me - I had a bowl a couple of hours ago for brunch! With limited funds and even more limited leave from work (because of that whole wedding malarky we're doing at the end of the year) there'll be no further exciting jaunts for us for a good while so we have already started to retreat back into our Star Trek DVD box-sets as a means of escape. But when it's cold outside, the dishes need washed and we're facing another week of work, at least we know that we'll always have Paris.

Lookin' fine in 2009

Gah! This blogging thing is hard. I've so far written one blog post on paper and about a dozen in my head when I've had nothing to do on the bus but daydream, but then discounted them all because, well, they were BORING! However, on the basis that something is better than nothing at all, I've decided just to let my (not very) creative juices flow directly via the keyboard and actually post something. Well, that and I have a (suspiciously!) quiet day at work and keep losing at Spider Solitaire, dagnammit!

Hang on a tick… this blog is called coffee and scones for a reason. I happily nommed my way through a scone for breakfast but I'm going all slow-mo' and am realising that it's now time for my eleventieth cup of coffee of the day.

*kettle boilage*

Aaaaah that's better. Not quite as strong as I would like but I'm trying my best not to work my way through this jar of coffee quite so fervently as I did with the last one, especially since it's technically to be shared with all the other minions in my office. Still, caffiney bliss - mmmmmm.

Another good reason for loading up on the coffee is that I'm off to the gym after work. I used to associate gyms with those lycra-thong-wearing skinny-minnies from the Call On Me music video or, more likely down our way, big muscle-bound, tattooed meatheads who grunt instead of talking, and so I stayed well clear. Last October though I was getting bored of the same old kicking and punching routine on my Davina McCall exercise DVD and decided something a little more intense was required… and so I took the plunge and went along for an induction. And do you know, I surprised myself by enjoying the experience!

Yes there were skinny-minnies in tight gym clothes and there were definitely a lot of muscley men "pumping iron" in the corner, but there were also older men with nobbly knees eagerly (if shakily) elliptically training, chunkier girls like myself plodding along on the treadmills and even some puny-looking young teenage boys desperately trying to add a little muscle to their frames on the weights machines. So even though I was still very intimidated, I didn't feel too out of place. Besides, one thing I quickly learned about the gym is that everyone is too busy pushing themselves to even notice the fat chick's ass and thighs wibbling like jelly as she tries to walk at 4mph on the treadmill.

And so from October until January I went along around 3 times a week to pump, walk, jog and cycle my way to fitness, concentration often etched on to my face and my tongue sticking out of the corner of my mouth as willed myself to finish my third "rep" of 15 on the pain machine (I think it's real name is the shoulder press). Then in January my monthly fee ran out and I didn't have enough money to renew it - poor me. Literally. Also, increasingly fat and unfit me. There's nothing more dissatisfying than to have lost loads of weight and reached a certain level of fitness only to have all your hard work undone in a month of lethargy. Although to be honest there's nothing more satisfying than a large meaty pizza, cheesey garlic bread and a bottle of wine or two, but such contradictions are the way of life, are they not?

Yesterday though, me and my darling fiancé, henceforth known as Yawksha Boy (as he hails from Oop Nawth, land of the silent 'R'), slunk back into the gym to sign up once again for a gym membership, this time with direct debit so we have no "I can't afford it this month" type get-out clause. And so in we went for our first session of our new (good) habit. Ooo it was hard, let me tell you! I was never exactly pounding along happily at 10mph on the treadmill for half an hour at a time or anything but before Christmas when I was going regularly, I'd built up my strength and fitness little by little to a level I thought was decent for a chunky chick like myself. But yesterday? Oy vey, man! The weights I was lifting were lighter but (I'm certain) even more painful and there was no way I was going to add elevation to my 4mph power-walk on the treadmill like I used to. Also, I put the upright cycle at the level I used to cycle on and turned bright red within around 30 seconds!

Flip me, mes amis, I was exhausted! But on the plus side, my hard work probably worked off the traybake I had while I was waiting for Yawksha Boy in the café beside the gym (never leave a chunky chick unattended near baked goods) and got rid of my craving for Dominos pizza for dinner. Instead I made a lovely wholewheat pasta dish with lots of vegetables and chicken. I felt quite self-righteous actually, until bedtime when I just felt plain knackered - hehe!

So my aim today has been to have a scone for breakfast (a girl needs her kicks people), irish stew and a bagel for lunch, some porridge for a snack this afternoon and then the gym. As for dinner, I'm not sure but it will not be a pizza :-) I've also sworn off the booze now for a month until lent ends. For random medical reasons I cannot eat chocolate so I will need some wine to survive the injustice of this at Easter, while others around me are munching on the sweet cocoa goodness. Let's hope this good behaviour lasts!

In the meantime, I only have 45 minutes to go until tea break time (don't you just love public service offices?) and about 2 mouthfuls of coffee left in my giant mug. Will I make it? Only time will tell. But two things are for sure this afternoon: I will be braving the gym once again, and I am not leaving this office until I beaten that sodding Spider Solitaire! Laters y'all! xxx

Newbie to the Blogosphere

Yes blogosphere, another newbie infringing on your virtual world. I must apologise.

You see, I got into the way of reading blogs a good year or two ago when I was in a job with unmonitored Internet access and not a lot else to do. Some were British, some were American, some were extraordinary and some were hilarious; all were well-written, entertaining and, frankly, bloody addictive! More than once I've discovered a new blog and gone back to read the blogger's whole archive. It's strange and wonderful to watch as people and their circumstances change over the years because of all the little things they write about.

The more I read, the more I feel like I know these people. Every morning at tea break time at work I check my Google Reader for new blog posts and when a new entry pops up from one of my favourite bloggers, it's almost like getting an email from a friend, or watching a new episode of one of my favourite TV shows. In short: it's nice!

I'll admit right up front that not much particularly exciting happens in my lil' ol' life, so I can't guarantee that this will be well-written or entertaining and it will almost definitely not be bloody addictive, but I figure if everyone else is blogging, why shouldn't I? You never know when life will take a turn for the more exciting (hopefully in a good way and not a scary, traumatic way!) ; maybe some day someone out there might be all like "Oh another entry from Coffee and Scones - I wonder what she's been up to..." and that would be kinda cool.

So there we go - my first post about, well, posting. Hmmm. I'll try to make the next one more exciting! Until then, take care y'all! xxx