Good Evening Crackers!

There is a huge storm fast approaching from Italy which I shall try my very best to outrun as I want to quickly post before I leave for the UK again tomorrow.

Bracken lovely as always to hear your news and congratulations on your fantastic 6 pound loss. I do hope you are able to feel and see the difference and it spurs you on-wards. As you know I am a daily stepper on the scales and usually I'm pretty accurate at knowing what they will say! For example I forgot to log my last weight loss and then we had family staying over the long weekend.... I didn't think I was too bad but I was bad and come Tuesday the scales showed a 3 pound gain - no way! But it took a whole week 'of being good' for the scales to come down just slightly daily and I needed to see it happening!

As I mentioned I'm off to fetch the daughter 'home'. She's just completing her final exams - lots of stress for her and for me too having to listen to her! It's going to be a very long summer as she doesn't get her results until the middle of August and I think I've mentioned, to go to her chosen University she needs A's - so no pressure! Meanwhile I've been keeping myself busy and occupied in the garden and I've painted the woodshed. I had painted the lower half last year but whilst sorting out the roses I kept looking at the top half and thinking how dreadful it looked. So as the paint was there, I just started. Whilst lying flat on the sloping roof it occurred to me if I toppled off what a pathetic way to go, for the sake of a rustic woodshed - however having survived intact I'm actually very pleased with the finished result. The husband was working so isn't even aware I've done it (over 2 days) as he rarely comes in the front door and it runs one side of the house, so I shall wait and see how long it takes him to notice!

My kitchen and sitting room the colours are very understated. The whole house was once white and I've managed to persuade the husband to allow me to paint it many different shades of cream except our bedroom which is very pale blue/grey and almost caused him heart palpitations at the first few strokes! But the kitchen is now Farrow & Ball Dimity which goes well with our work surfaces and tiles, I just hope the paprika curtains I'm collecting are as I remembered!! The walls look so much warmer now which I want for the cold winter months. The sitting room is White Tie which goes very well with my many cream marble lamp bases and cream mirror, the rest of the room is shades of purple and green so I'm now happy and the husband approves.

Bracken I was very shocked at the story about your poor friend from the stable and the other woman. I think it's a dismal show of support and friendship when it's most needed. My favourite Aunt died from ALS and by the time I returned to the UK she could no longer speak but could still just about write although it was downhill from there very rapidly - a matter of weeks and she was gone. To be able to think still but not communicate must be dreadful and so frustrating but to be totally ignored is disgraceful as your friend is still the same person inside but a prisoner, trapped in a failing body. I too would be very disappointed.

Well I shall finish on some positive news as this week I have lost 2 pounds and I am back at my target weight! Actually I'm 0.6 below! It's taken me 6 months to get back here but there is a very good saying 'don't miss out on 95% of your life just to weigh 5% less' which I was obviously thinking of but I'm more than delighted to be back and able to wear my trusty capri jeans again and feel comfortable in them. I shall try and keep that in mind if any temptations are placed before me in the UK!

BM - long time since we've heard from you, hope all is well with you?

Be good Crackers!

Well, I've just got back from my annual endurance test in the UK and no one else has posted. I guess this is the end of our little group. I have loved being a part of it. You have been with me through the ups and down of being an overweight expat! MITM I wish you well and expect to hear a lot more of your Daughter in the future. I wish her well, her chosen subject is a valid one and unfortunately with Trump at the helm it is of more importance now more than ever. Bracken, your times spent in your garden and with Nellie have meant more to me than you will ever know. Your wisdom and gentle knowledge guided me on several occasions when I was at rock bottom and couldn't show it. I wish you both and your family much peace and happiness.

Take care both, love always, Deborah xxxx

So lovely to hear from you! I am delighted our little group are going to soldier on! Hopefully Bracken is just busy and that everything with herself and family are OK.

Well MITM, I cannot believe what a difficult time you and your family have gone through. I sincerely hope you are all over the worst of the many shocks you have all experienced. I hope than when your Daughter is able to go over her History paper it will give her some kind of comfort and closure so she can move on from it. I wish her well in Southampton!

Yes I went on my Shetland Textile tour and absolutely loved it! The 7 ladies I met were wonderful and thankfully we all got along brilliantly. Everyday was amazing, I fell in total love with Shetland and it's people. I am still having parcels delivered on an almost daily basis as due to the 20kg luggage restrictions for Shetland I had almost everything I bought shipped home to Singapore. So it feels like my holiday is never ending! Lol x

My other good news is we have sold the Cambridge house, it was all a ridiculous rush though. We put it for sale in the week before we came home on the Friday, a family looked at it on Saturday and bought it on the Monday! So poor OH had to spend the whole week I was in Shetland emptying the house, finding storage for some furniture and getting it ready for the new people. We have nothing in mind to buy yet though, the two houses we wanted, especially the new one in Somerset we lost last year knocked us a bit. So we are looking slowly and not in a desperate rush to buy yet. Hopefully the right house will come along.

Take good care of yourself too, whilst you are looking after and worrying about everyone else (understandably) take some time for yourself xxx

I'm off to the UK today for 2 weeks back 2nd October.

Evening Crackers!

Oh LMV that looks absolutely delicious! I'm not sure I could be trusted to stop at one slice.

I have spent today working out in the garden as there is much to do, so I did very little walking but lots of raking. That is a brilliant step count for day 1 what is your daily aim? This evening I cut the labels out of my exercise gear and regretted doing so 2 minutes later! I've just had to check on here when I bought them and it was back in January. On the 24th I described my new capri styled exercise trousers as like putting on a wet suit - however once in it was like a firm 2nd skin and I looked the part. Ha! Eight months on with no exercise in between, I struggled to squeeze myself into the trousers oh and the sight of the ripples of flab spilling over and I'm the same weight as I was when I bought them!! Just even more unfit. Tomorrow morning I am going to get the tape measure out.

Well I'm hoping that the DVD will do as it says on the box burn calories and shift fat. I only did one 20 minute workout 'Cardio Max' + warm up/cool down and it went very quickly although I think it was 40 minutes in total. My only complaint would be as is says on the Amazon reviews, the camera is often just on the top half of the instructor and they do the move a couple of times before you see her legs. However I got the hang of the steps eventually and I was surprised to find myself hot and bothered by the end and now as I'm tapping this I'm actually aware that I ache where my ripples of flab are - so that's a good sign!

Right I'm off to bed now - I think I might sleep well as I'm absolutely shattered!

Be good Crackers!

Evening Crackers,

LMV I'm not surprised the cake went down well! We too have apples coming out of our ears. I pick up a bucket load daily which the husband then takes to work to cook and those we've yet to pick, we will store in trays in the basement for cooking over the winter months.

I forgot to put my pedometer on again today. Which is a shame as I would have been interested to know how many steps I did since I was up and down 3 flights of stairs most of the afternoon. It was the biannual collection for 'rubbish' in the village and I finally got my act together and sorted out the old bedding which is up in the loft. No kidding there were duvets up there as old as me and the house (duvets have been used in Austria since 1896 unlike the UK where they were introduced by Terence Conran) and nothing has ever been thrown away in this house, so my husband's Grandmother's duvet was up there, plus pillows... Twelve sacks in total went plus 3 single mattresses. There was a wooden double bed base but the husband insists he will chop that up to burn - oh yes! Next week it's electricals and I've already spotted up there a coffee machine and a microwave...

This morning I got the tape measure out. I have a notebook appropriately covered with tape measures which I acquired in Bath from the fashion museum, where I have recorded my measurements over the years. Interestingly it's been 18 months since I last wrote in it and would you believe that last entry I was then the same weight as I am now 2 pounds over my target. However the difference those were the days when we did the dreaded 30 day Shred which I have not done in over a year and Rosemary who I've done a handful of times over the summer and I haven't even had time to walk much since June, so those 'ripples' are an inch gain all over from lack of exercise.

Still tonight I did stages 2 & 3 of the DVD. I wasn't very happy with stage 2 as I spent much of the time trying to work out the steps - the camera angle was really bad and the steps were fast so by the time I had worked it out, they were moving on. I didn't feel I'd worked out at all by the end so I decided to press on with stage 3 which is squatting! Funnily enough I did feel the burn this time and I had no problems keeping up. Now that you've ordered the DVD assuming it is the same one (they have a second also where perhaps the camera work is a lot better) - there are a lot of Jillian moves but without weights and incorporated into dance moves!!

Right I'm off to bed I didn't ache this morning but there's a good chance I might tomorrow.

Be good Crackers!

P.S. BM - hope you are okay?

Evening Crackers,

Up until lunch time as we were working and I was sat, I hadn't done more than 200 steps however in the afternoon the husband did indeed drag me around the village and yes climbing up the hill behind us was hard work. I could tell I hadn't done that for 3 months puff puff - use it or lose it springs to mind. So to recover tonight I just did my 15 minutes of Rosemary which has brought my step count up to 11770. Hopefully that will help compensate for the husband cooking lunch.

Be good Crackers!