Competition countdown - 5 days to go!

Well hello there!

See, I told you I wouldn't abandon you again (at least not just yet! ;-) )

Weight

Well, I'm 5 days away from the UKBFF Stars of Tomorrow 2010 competition and I'm starting to get rather excited.

This is mainly due to my phenomenal weight loss over the last couple of weeks which I can only attribute to help from the fabulous guidance from the gorgeous and talented Vikkie Krzyzanowski. If you've not visited http://bikinifitness.co.uk/ yet you really need to get yourself over there!

Basically, 2 weeks ago I was feeling pretty fed up and bordering on desperate. Although I was losing weight, it was fluctuating so much that anything I lost was going back on, my weight graph was a total zig-zag!

As well as logging my weight training and cardio routines on my iFitness app, I've also been logging my weight on so to give you an idea, here's my weigh-ins (not regular) from 9th to 27th October:

09/10/2010 - 150.0lbs (67.5kg)
13/14/2010 - 148.8lbs (67.0kg)
15/10/2010 - 148.6lbs (67.4kg)
16/10/2010 - 146.8lbs (66.6kg)
18/10/2010 - 148.6lbs (67.1kg)
19/10/2010 - 148.0lbs (67.1kg)
20/10/2010 - 147.2lbs (66.8kg)
24/10/2010 - 146.6lbs (66.5kg)
25/10/2010 - 147.4lbs (66.9kg)
27/10/2010 - 148.6lbs (67.4kg)

I was so demotivated and when Vikkie emailed to ask how my competition prep was going, I expressed my sheer frustration and concern at not being able to drop enough pounds before the show!

So she took some details from me and put together a special bespoke diet plan for me which included how meal ingredients, properties (amounts of protein, fat, calories etc), frequency and quantity too - what a star!

To say that this diet plan had a dramatic effect on my weight loss would be somewhat of an understatement.

I think the figures speak for themselves:

29/10/2010 - 148.0lbs (67.1kg)
30/10/2010 - 147.2lbs (66.8kg)
31/10/2010 - 146.2lbs (66.3kg)
02/11/2010 - 147.2lbs (66.8kg)
04/11/2010 - 145.8lbs (66.1kg)
06/11/2010 - 144.6lbs (65.6kg)
07/11/2010 - 144.0lbs (65.3kg)
09/11/2010 - 143.6lbs (65.1kg)

Although this might not seem a great deal of weight lost, you need to appreciate that my weight has fluctuated between 146lbs and 150lbs for the past year now, at one point even going up to 153lbs which scared me somewhat! I think my lowest weight was around 145/6lbs when I did the Dukan Diet for a couple of weeks before realising that if I kept it up I might lose my health as well as my mind!

Also please bear in mind that I've managed to achieve this weight loss while still eating around 13,000 + Calories a day comprised of at least 6 small meals... I'm basically eating every 2 hours and finding that it really suits me and has helped to shrink my stomach too :-) I won't give away *too* much info on the diet as it has been specifically tailored for my needs so if you want one of your own you'd have to contact Vikki yourself :-)

Progress

So, here's me on Saturday. I thought I should practice some poses for the contest. Unfortunately I find this difficult as I have an ankle injury - an Osteochondral Defect which is due surgery and the position of which means that when I put my foot into certain position - e.g. when wearing high heels - it 'catches' and hurts like hell!!

I was due to have this operated on 2 days after my competition but the stress caused by mountains of work and the fact that we're *still* having building work carried out in our bedroom, meant that I just would not be able to convalesce in peace - I've been told I need around 2 weeks of total rest with my ankle elevated at all times! I think I also get crutches and a funny shoe to wear - cute! ;-)

So now my operation is in January which is good as I get Christmas out of the way without having to work round a healing fragile ankle and that is just as well as we're having *both* sets of parents, plus Joe's older brother, round for the whole Christmas period! It's a good job we've got four bedrooms or I don't think we'd get everyone in!

Anyway, I've gone a bit off track again so here's the pic I took on my rubbish phone while commandeering my son's bedroom as he was out at drama school. If anyone has teenage children you will appreciate what an unpleasant experience this was for me but I managed to crop most of the rubbish and junk out of the picture (I think!) and this was even after cleaning up the room a bit so I could walk to the full length mirrors without falling to my death on the array of junk that was strewn across the entire length of the room!!



I'm quite pleased with how I look in this pic. Obviously I've still got a long way to go with leaning out my legs but these are my 'problem area' as I'm classically pear shaped... I find it incredibly difficult to lose weight on my legs or butt, the latter I'm not as concerned about because it has such a nice shape but I'd love it if my legs were slimmer - especially near the top.

Anyway, I'm very pleased with my stomach right now as I've been doing a tonne of sit-ups, which I deplore!! I think working my abs is my least favourite thing, it just feels too much like hard work! ;-)

Training

Here's what I've been up to over the last couple of days

Saturday 6th October
I didn't get a chance to train so it was an enforced rest day that my body was probably quite glad of! I went out in the evening for a friend's birthday drinks and managed to stay off the booze and just drink diet coke and sparkling water. This was rather difficult given how merry everyone else was but I still had a great time and a bit of a boogie too. I can't hand on heart say I wouldn't have a had a *better* time had I drunk alcohol though ;-)

Sunday 7th October
I was meant to train for longer on Sunday but I literally ran out of time as was busy throughout the day so I thought I'd catch my old gym before it shut at 9pm.

So I ran from our new place to the old gym and blasted out a super speedy leg session before running back.

Run - 2.9km - 15 mins
Leg Extension - 35kg - 3 x 10 reps
Leg Curl - 35kg - 3 x 10 reps
Leg Press - 80kg - 3 x 10 reps
Run - 2.9km - 16 mins

Monday 8th October
As I'm so close to my competition, Vikkie has advised me to drop the weight and up the reps which is reflected below as I usually do a lot less with more weight:


Spin Class - 45 mins
Bent over dumbbell rows - 10kg - 4 x 15 reps
Bent over reverse dumbbell flye - 4kg - 4 x 15 reps
Lat pulldown - 35kg - 4 x 15 reps
Low row - 35kg/30kg - 1/3 x 12/15 reps


Tuesday 9th October

Boxercise! :-D

I love Tuesdays for this reason!

I felt weak to start but my increased fitness levels started to kick in and I managed to complete the class without dying, which is always nice ;-)


Contest Prep


Bikini


I'm attempting to make a bikini... well, two, in time for the show, but I'm trying to be realistic and I do have a back-up in the form of the one in the picture which is the one I wore for FAME... it's about 10 years old, lol! But I do love it :-)


Tanning

I've bought some Jan Tana Ultra 1 which is a new Jan Tana produce and is apparently the darkest

Posing

Definitely need to work on that so will have to brave the painful heels between now and Sunday!

Diet & Nutrition

As until recently I hadn't trained much since May this year I had quite a lot of surplus Maximusle Promax protein powder to use up and, instead of doing my usual and just order a load more I thought I'd branch out and try a few other brands so have been ordering sample sachets from various places.

I really love USN's Pure Protein, the pistachio is nice and the strawberry is so close to a regular milkshake it's unreal. There is a slight synthetic after-taste I find but that might just be me as my sense of smell and taste-buds are super-sensitive.

Vikkie recommended I finish the day with a protein shake containing Casein so I have been drinking MyProtein's 'Milk Protein Smooth' in chocolate smooth flavour which is definitely an acquired taste! The powder is also really messy and what I thought was a great idea - having it in pouches - is actually a pain because of the consistency of the powder - it goes *everywhere*!!

However, it's really great stuff, it doesn't taste bad, just different to regular whey, and I must say I feel like I've slept better and woken up more refreshed every time I've taken it before bed. No dodgy stomach side-effects too which is always nice!

I also really like MyProtein's Impact Whey protein in Strawberry Cream flavour. I wasn't too keen on many of the others, particularly raspberry - which is a shame as it's my favourite fruit!

After the competition on Sunday I'm going to take a week off to let my body recover from the intense training and I plan to schedule a couple of cheat meals too!! ;-)

After that I'm going to get straight back on it as the diet I've been on has really suited me in terms of the type and quantity of the food and the results I've achieved.

I'm planning to up my carbohydrate content a little though and aim for a more gradual weight loss to take me up to January when I will have to scale back my food because my activity levels will drop significantly - to zero for a few weeks at least - once I have my operation!

So I'm going to need a protein powder that supports my weighloss goals and also helps me preserve my muscle and I've found a brand I've not tried before: Multipower.

Multipower are a little like Maximuslce in that they offer a vast assortment of sports foods for bodybuilders, regular exercisers/gym goers and endurance athletes alike.

I've particularly got my eye on a shake Multipower do called which has 25g protein per serving but only 109 Calories and 2g of carbs. This is perfect for me as I plan to continue getting my carbs from my food as I don't really like to drink them!

I'm also keen to stock up with protein bars and Multipower also do a delicious looking and sounding protein bar with 9g of protein but only 112 Calories per bar. It's called a Carnitine Bar, which isn't the most glamorous of names, but hey, if it tastes good I'm not really fussed, especially as these flavours all sound divine... Chocolate-Crisp, Strawberry-Yogurt, Vanilla-Crisp (which has a white chocolate coating - my favourite!).

I really hope they taste good and I don't end up with a box of disappointment like with Optimum Nutrition's Optimal Protein Diet Bar in peanut butter flavour, I have 13 of these left that I cannot bring myself to eat... the first taste is find but the aftertaste is just horrid!

I'd also really like to try Multipower's RTD 'Fitness Shake' as there's only 13g carbs but a massive 25g protein per shake... plus no mixing for lazy short-on-time people like me! :-)

Anyway, I need to head off now and have dinner and work on my bikini design :-)

More shortly, hope you're all well

TJx

New house!!

Hello!

Well, hello and goodbye really... or more like 'so long for now', 'see you soon' etc :-)

Granted I've not been the most prolific of posters... in fact I've been a rather pathetic excuse for a blogger of late but I do think my excuses reasons are justified!

So, today we completed on the purchase of the house I never thought we'd get. Given that we put in an offer on 22nd December 2009 and actually LOST the house on 15th February 2010... this has definitely been a rollercoaster ride of emotions... and I do believe the fun has only just begun!

So, here's our house:



I admit that it's nothing spectacular to look at... we don't even have a bay window as I think the property sustained fire or perhaps bomb damage a while ago! But I really like it and the exterior of a property is always something you can change/brighten up :-)

To be fair, there's less that needs to be done to the outside than the inside as this place was used pretty much as a bedsit! The (now previous!) owner rented out every single room (yes, including the living AND dining rooms!) to various families and he basically neglected the place from the outset... the house has been very unloved, the poor thing!

We've definitely got our work cut out for us and Joe and I have got the rest of the week, plus next week, off to decorate as we're trying to make savings where we can as we're going to be pretty broke for a while to come now...

It'll be worth it in the end but for now I thought I'd share a few of the marvels that we have to contend with in our quest to turn this property into the house of our dreams...

Firstly... here's the rather gorgeous luxury bathroom we have in place on the first floor ;-)



Fortunately replacing this is *not* one of the things we have to do ourselves as we've managed to budget to have that done and while it's being refurbished we'll be able to use the bathroom on the ground floor (which will be ripped out afterwards to make a utility room just off the kitchen).

Here's another rather gorgeous feature, check out this fireplace - hubba hubba!



I think the fire-safe doors and exit signs will need to go huh?



Now, surely nobody can argue that this carpet is 'something else'! Just what 'something' it is I'm yet to work out!



The staircase going up leads to my son's new bedroom... yes, he's got a room on his very own floor - how lucky is he?! Basically he's got his own little bacheolor pad of a room to himself, I'm quite jealous, my shoebox bedroom growing up wasn't big enough to fit a wardrobe and chest of drawers in... I had to have a cabin bed to get everything underneath!



If you turn round instead of going up to the smelly teenager's room you are faced with this rather 'interesting' wall feature...



I'm wondering first "Why?!" and secondly if the guy left us the attractive clock that matches the woodwork on the filled-in windows.

Bizarre.

Also we are faced with certain oddities like pipes that start somewhere...



...but go nowhere!!



Hmm, I'm sure we'll work it out and our surveyor said the building is sound... just 'quirky' I reckon!

Last but not least we find out new beautiful gigantic (*cough*) elegantly landscaped (*cough* *cough*) garden :-D



Aside from the obvious ground work and fence repair... the beast of a tree *has* to go... it's a sort of mad hybrid tree/bush/ivy plant!!



*Shudder*

So there you go, that's what we've got to contend with, I think we have our hands full!!

For obvious reasons I won't be able to blog for a little while to come... despite having our broadband and Sky+ HD installed tomorrow (priorities, priorities!! :-D), but rest assured that I am still training hard and watching what I eat - I even managed to resist tucking into the celebratory Krispy Kreme donuts I bought for everyone earlier and I can safely say I've never been stronger before in my life - it's all good!

Any of my Twitter friends will know that I do tweet quite a bit (and quite often add random pictures to TwitPic), so if you would like to stay updated, please do follow my twitter account or catch up with me on facebook (though I do update that less and haven't uploaded pics to it for almost a year!!).

Right, better get on now and go home to finish off the packing and get some sleep as early start tomorrow to move boxes and pick up floor sander and lots of tins of varnish and paint!

I hope everyone's well and to catch up soon.

TJx

'A List' Hollywood Party

I'm still waiting on some pics from the Maxitone Launch Party last week so won't update you on that until I've seen them (got one yesterday though of me performing some balancing act with a PT!! :-D )

I will however share a rather good evening that took place the very next day...

While our current leisure benefits co-ordinator was away on a secondment somewhere, she was replaced by a rather fabulous guy called Adam (who also rather fabulously has the same surname as me - top guy!) who secured some superb local deals, discounts and offers.

He's had to go back to his usual day job as the original lady has come back *sob* but his final act, his swansong, was to organise an 'A List' Hollywood themed party for all of us based at head office.

What a legend.

The whole night cost me a fiver, Joe was £20 as he's not a partner, still amazing value!

The venue for the event was Tiger Tiger on Haymarket in Soho. I'd never been to the place before and didn't know what a huge venue it was - really nice too with a big club area 3 floors high at the back!

Here we are at the start of the night following our 'red carpet entrance', I love it when Joe dresses up. The dress code was black-tie which was not something that everyone (i.e. the men) adhered too unfortunately! Obviously all the women made a fantastic effort though which is pretty usual!



Here's my outfit. I was going to wear a spangly dress of some description but as I spent the whole of the Maxitone launch party the night before in sporty clothing I thought I'd wear the outfit I'd picked out for that instead!



I love the skirt, I bought it the weekend before in a sale and it cost me a meagre £10 from a fabulous boutique-style shop near me in Herne Hill called Dust.

In fact you can still buy the skirt online for only £15 http://www.stardustkids.co.uk/acatalog/Funky_Womens_Skirts.html! (I bought my son one of their "Brockwell Park is Sick" T-shirts too, that went down well :-) )

Here's my top, I bought it ages ago from ASOS.com (as seen on screen), I love that site, have used it for years since the company first started, though I have to actively restrain myself from visiting it as they have such bargains and lovely clothes too, great designers and their own brand stuff is super too!

This top is a 'halter-neck' style but unlike normal tops/dresses where you tie the loops round your neck, this one has two 2m long straps that you can wind round your body! It's probably too dark to see but I had wrapped them round me a few times (probably didn't do much for my waistline but I don't care as I love that top!)

So, onto the fab extras that Adam had organised.

Look at this beauty. It was pure white Belgium chocolate. The man who ran it was lovely and had a constant smile on his face, which wasn't really surprising, what a job to have eh?



Apparently the best combination was grape and fudge :-)

Obviously Joe was unable to resist, I however showed the upmost restraint, honest....



okay.... busted!!!



They also had a milk chocolate fountain (always wondered why it isn't just called 'brown chocolate' if the other's referred to as 'white chocolate' ;-) ) but it wasn't nearly as nice as the white... obviously we tested this fact thoroughly!! ;-)

There was also a dude with a candyfloss machine.... OMG I was in sugary heaven!!!



Not sure what Joe's doing here, it looks either like he's about to audition for a Father Christmas role or is exhaling a cloud of white smoke!!



As well as the glorious chocolate fountains, the free candy floss and ice-cream, the complimentary picture in a frame (which currently holds pride of place on our fireplace :-) ) casino tables and champagne fountain...



...there was also a bloody brilliant band!

Some of you may remember that I played Charlotte Lucas in a fabulous outdoor production of Pride & Prejudice last year?

To refresh your memory, here I am with "Lizzie" (Emily) and "Mr Darcy" (Phil)



Well, Emily, aside from being a fantastic actress is also an amazing singer and was at the party looking very rock-chick glam wearing a fab one-shoulder version of the lovely green dress from my December pictures post? which she teamed up with some awesome shoes and superb fingerless gloves.

Here she is belting out some absolute tunes with her band Moko!! She does a mean 'Mr Brightside', she's got such a fantastic voice!



Here we are afterwards, doesn't she look gorgeous!



Phil was there too and still able (and willing!) to recreate his 'Darcy' face immediately on demand!



Some more of my favourite colleagues were there. This is my friend Claire who is the ultimate girly-girl i.e. hair and makeup always in place, skirts, heels, the lot (e.g. opposite of me!) in fact I have *never* seen her wear trousers and as far as I know she only once wore a pair of jeans for 'novelty value'!



Despite all this she has a mad adventurous sporty streak (the first day I met her she insisted on climbing a tree) and is the most game bird going! We're actually both going to do the Three Peaks Challenge later this year (but more about that in another post!!)

And here is Chloe from my very own department, she always looks glamorous and brings a touch of class to our office which is pretty hard to do given the nature of our business! :-)



Obviously my boyfriend also looked gorgeous and deserved a kiss for looking so damn fine



After the band finished the usual cheesy pop and R&B tunes were played but they were actually alright and had lots of fun dancing around as you can see:



I'm not going to post *all* of the ridiculous drunken pics I took but, to give you an idea, here are a few to give you an idea...!

Joe and I were meant to be doing 'The Robot' but I've been told that I look like I'm rocking a baby so I don't think I quite achieved the look somehow!!



When one bottle just isn't enough...



Heh, Emily and I were a little more tipsy and less composed by this point...!



*More* drunken dancing!



It all goes pretty much downhill from there ;-)

A great night though and a credit to Adam, superbly planned and executed, what a star!

TJx

A tasty mess :-)

Just thought I'd share my lunch with you - and no, not in a mother/baby bird kinda way ;-)

I've mentioned before that I buy Two Chicks liquid egg whites because they come in a good size carton, seem to be sold more and more locally and, most importantly, come from free range hens (very important to me as I wouldn't buy barn eggs for usual every day use!).

Anyway, despite the cartons being a handy size I still manage to waste a lot of the egg white as I open it and then don't use it within the three days it recommends!

So what I've been doing is spooning out 10 tablespoon portions into mini tubs and then freezing them so they're ready when I need them (only thing is you have to be careful when defrosting not to turn them into scrambled eggs!! ;-) )

So today, while the boys were making cheese on toast I whizzed up some egg white, cheese, a little bit of milk, Tabasco sauce (essential) and black pepper (also essential).

I usually add either Maximuscle Promax Diet or Promax Natural to my egg white pancakes/omelettes but today I forgot to put either in and it was equally lovely!

I think I'll leave the natural protein powder out of my savoury omelettes in future as it does nothing for the flavour and can make them a bit carboardy. Plus I need to keep the Promax Natural back for my lunches as it adds protein and creamyness :-)

Promax Diet is lovely in sweet protein pancakes as it gives them extra flavour and can counteract the sometimes tart quality of all the berries I use. Incidentally I rarely use fresh berries as (thanks to a tip-off from the all-knowing and wise Gym Ninja) frozen berries are much better as you can buy them in bulk from supermarkets, they act like fruity ice cubes and don't go off because they're in the freezer - I think I need a *bigger* freezer!

Arghh, sorry I'm waffling, Joe's sitting angrily strumming his guitar as I need to get on and do some household chores with him (yawn) instead of blogging.

So yeah, here's what I made... it doesn't look pretty as I had the pan on the wrong ring and it was too hot (you reeeeeally need to gently heat omelettes!) and one side cooked too quickly causing a big mess when I tried to flip it.

Bloody tasty though, got thumbs up from both the boys, you'd never have guessed that no egg yolks were harmed in the making of this feature:



Here's the nutritional info:

Calories (kcal) 239.8
Carbohydrate (g) 3.0
Protein (g) 31.0
Fat (g) 11.0
Fibre (g) 2.7

And here's the recipe, courtesy of the fab tools at Weightloss Resources if anyone's interested (any Brits, please note that Sainsbury's reduced fat 'davidstow' cheese is bloody gorgeous and doesn't taste like at all like it's not full fat!)



I think I'll make the same thing tomorrow but add some mushrooms and peppers for good effect, that's if my sweet-tooth doesn't take over ;-)

Hope you all have a great Saturday

TJx

(most of) December in pictures

Birthday Meal

Although you wouldn't guess from her Christian name, Joe's Mum's birthday is in early December.

His Dad's birthday is on Christmas day, which is just bad luck as far as I'm concerned... it's bad enough waiting the whole year to celebrate your day of birth, but to have it happen on the same day *everyone* else gets presents is just unnecessarily cruel!

I'm lucky that my birthday is late May so I get a break (almost) mid-year when I can have a whole day devoted to celebrating my birth ;-)

Joe and my offspring aren't quite so lucky as they share the same birthday - how random is that?!!

Anyway, so it was the birthday of 'My Other Mother', which has a very appropriate TLA so we'll call her 'MOM' :-D

As Joe's parents live in Essex (more about that in my Christmas post) the easiest place to meet is at Liverpool Street Mainline Station. My job was to find a suitable restaurant.

So, as per usual I popped over to the trusted toptable.com and had a look at what was local and recommended by fellow diners.

I found a place called Kazan City, whose sister restaurant is actually close to where I work but I'd not yet had a chance to go there.

I don't want to go on too much as this is meant to just be a brief picture post but if you're ever around Liverpool St (or indeed just in London) and fancy an awesome Turkish meal then I'd recommend you head on down, it was superb!

Here's the address:
34-36 Houndsditch, London, EC3A 7DB

in short:
food - amazing and plentiful
atmosphere - wonderful with charming charismatic staff
decor - stunning, even the loos are lush!

in fact, you can read my review (left on 20/12/09) and many others here!

So, enough of that, here are some pics from the night:

Here's me and my wonderful MOM :-)



Joe displaying the usual amount of respect he has for his father ;-)



Joe's uncle was over from Finland and he and my son got on famously and spent most of the evening engrossed in conversation :-)



I particularly like this picture because, if you look carefully, Joe's older brother is mid-spilling his water... couldn't have timed it better if I'd tried!



Oh and here are a couple of pointless pics of restaurant paraphernalia that I liked :-)



I LOVE this, I just wouldn't put it in my house ;-)




Serpentine Running Club Christmas Party (aka "annual pissup")

The majority of the runners I have encountered tend to take their training quite seriously - this often makes for nights stood in pub, pint of orange juice and lemonade in hand.

However, if there's one night that runners and triathletes really let loose it's at their running club's Christmas Party.

Also, because of being in a relative state of abstinence or at least self-enforced discipline for most of the year, it doesn't take much to get them drunk.

Very fit people get drunk quickly, fact.

Some very fit people also have this ability to drink a lot without it (seemingly) affecting them. These people are called freaks of nature.

In any case, fit drunk people are hilarious and great fun to be around. I just wish I spent more time at my running club as they are a fab (very large) group of people!

So, the night started off sedately. I'd spent forever earlier on trying to find a dress which wasn't boring, but also not garish - didn't fancy digging out one of my LBDs.

I settled on a nice green number, here it is, and one of my very fast lovely running friends, Rach:



Me and my beloved, doesn't he scrub up well ;-)

yummmm



Although I'm not too sure quite how sexy he looks here

Maybe not at all? ;-)



Joe and Rach's husband looking resplendent in their silly hats



I made this for Rach, I stuck both crowns together with candle wax, aren't I talented (ahem)



I forgot to photograph the main meal, but that might have been subconsciously deliberate as it was rather forgettable and bland

The dessert was rather lovely though :-)



Now of course, what party for fit running types, would be complete without a

Panto Horse


!!! (note the shades)



This was the front end of Panto Horse, we did wonder why he'd brought such a massive rucksack to a black tie event!



Ahh, the shades have been stolen as I obviously think I look better in them. Fliss to my right looks unimpressed and the waiter looks as if he'd like to spill my food over me.

I don't blame him



So, after you've stuffed a large three course meal down your gullet and followed/accompanied this with plenty plenty wine... what does any self-respecting reveller do?

Get up and dance of course!



Oop look, Panto Horse made another appearance (this was the first of many)



Here is the usual obligatory pic of Joe and me



And just one of me (aren't you lucky to have me all on my own! ;-) )



Ooh and there's one of Joe too for good measure ;-)



I'm not 100% sure but, and correct me if I'm wrong, that might be Blue Steel we just saw!

This is my friend Lou, she deserves a place in this post not only because she is gorgeous fabulous, and super fast, but also because she looked amazing!

Look at that hair!



She had a corset on too which made her waist thinner than my calf!

Ahh, and this is the back end of the horse (not Joe).

As I've already mentioned, Panto Horse made several appearances throughout the night, each time dancing furiously away...

This made for a rather sweaty rear end, I think that shirt was transparent but I guess it's hard to tell from the pic. Consider yourselves lucky!



One last pic for luck, I love this, it's hilarious! Pete's a legend. He actually works with Joe but is also a running club member and just all round top bloke :-)




Wedding

...actually it wasn't the whole thing, just the reception, but it was superb. A really lush extravagant affair, but not too showy that you felt like you couldn't relax :-)

Initially I was a bit sulky at this whole wedding thing as I had tickets to see Florence and the Machine that night and I'd been really looking forward to it when Joe dropped the bombshell that that specific Sunday night we'd been invited to attend the wedding of his long-term colleague - dammit!

But c'est la vie, you can see bands many times over - how often do people get married?!

The wedding and reception were held in a rather grand hotel in London's Russell Square and I particularly liked the statues 'holding up' the ceiling



Pretty huh? :-)

This was the first Indian wedding I'd been to so I didn't really know what to expect food wise (don't say Indian food!).

I can safely say that it might have been the best wedding food I have ever eaten!

It was all vegetarian, all amazingly tasty with fabulous spices and so colourful to boot!

Here's the starter



and look at the main course - drooool



We were a bit too far back for my rubbish point-and-shoot to get a decent picture as the bride and groom came in but I got a quick snap later :-)



Obviously there was the cheesy dancing to disco classics after the meal:



And here's a silly pic to round off the night :-)



Alpha Meal

Some of you might remember that Joe and I did the Alpha Course

After it finished we went along to a Christmas supper with our group hosts who are the loveliest couple and are expecting their first child soon :-)



Here's my son and another from our group



While were were there Nicky Gumbel came over to talk to Joe!

He'd heard that Joe had enjoyed the course, but that his opinion on Christianity was unchanged and he still didn't believe there was/is this one almighty creator.

But Joe did say that he felt he'd developed a better understanding of the Christian faith, felt less ignorant about what it all meant and met a nice bunch of (not scary or strange) people to boot!

Nicky listened thoughtfully as is his way, and then asked Joe if he'd consider going up onstage and repeating what he'd said in front of everyone and he said yes!



How awesome, my boyfriend on stage at Holy Trinity Brompton, one of my favourite places in the world, talking to the legend that is Nicky Gumbel - woot!

Look, he even got on TV :-)



On a big screen too! ;-)



I rather liked this rose, for no reason other than it was pretty :-)



Work Christmas meal

I haven't got a lot of pictures of this as didn't take many, but in brief, I organised it (go me) and it was at our local Giraffe Restaurant.

If you have a Giraffe nearby and haven't visited it yet I would highly recommend you do as the food is lovely and very varied and well priced :-)

My meal consisted of:

'blue cheese, avocado & toasted pecan salad' to start (yes, I'd almost finished it before I thought pull out my camera - it was too tasty to resist!!)



followed by: 'double roast crispy duck' for main



and then finally to round things off I had: 'Steamed apple & toffee pudding' which was lush but I was quite full by then and had to share it with a colleague (obviously she was *devastated* by this ;-) )



Any Other Business

My son and I finally put up our Christmas tree (we forgot last year). It's one of those fake ones with 'snow' on the 'branches' which absolutely covers our floor with white powder (grr).

I think this year it might not make it back into the box if Joe's got anything to do with it...!



Saw this dude on a tube, thought him worthy of photographing (surreptitiously of course), love that he's wearing one green glove, a twig wreath and is carrying a paint stick - plus how retro are his trainers?!



The rest of the month was spent working and house-hunting! Well, I say 'house-hunting' but we'd already decided on the place that we liked and (more importantly) could afford back in November but there were quite a few weeks of uncertainty - mainly because it's a huge thing to take on when the country's in the state it is right. However I am more than confident that the house will be worth it, and then some - it's in a great area and it's large with buckets of potential... just needs a lot of TLC!

My son went over to Joe's parents' place early on in the week of Christmas as he'd broken up for the hols. So I thought I'd make use of us still having a little disposable income (before it all gets invested in this house!) and plan a nice evening.

It just so happened that the day coincided with the current owner of the house agreeing to our offer so it was definitely a cause for celebration!

I booked us into L Restaurant and Bar which is in Kensington. I'd found it on toptable (obviously!) and thought I'd try it out as it had such a high reviewer rating and had 50% off food (it still does at time of writing this!).

We weren't let down, the food was delicious, really stunning :-)

To start I had the "Crispy Goat Cheese served with Roasted Mixed Peppers & Pine Nuts Salad" which was just scrummy, and Joe had "Baby Scallops & Sobrasada Risotto with Manchego Crisp" which was also nice but not as lovely as mine - it reminded me of a sort of fishy rice pudding!

For my main I had the "Pan Fried Stone Bass with Spinach & Mashed Potato with Sauce Vierge & Chorizo Dressing". The fish was a good size and it tasted wonderful but I did get slight food envy at Joe's steak, which was cooked perfectly - but obviously I had some of this ;-)

We had to eat relatively quickly as I'd booked us into the Kensington Odeon to see a film that I thought sounded promising, Law Abiding Citizen.

If you've not seen this film before, don't.

It's the biggest pile of tosh I've seen in a very long time... predictable, boring and ultimately unsatisfying.

It was rated 18, why?! There wasn't that much gore, it was just stupid and unbelievable.

By contrast, if you've not seen Rein Over Me, starring Adam Sandler and playing the first straight role I've seen him in!

I *love* Adam Sandler, have done for years, so was worried about how he'd take to the part but he nailed it and I experienced something I've not felt while watching a movie for a long time - actual caring about what happened to the characters in the end!

So yeah, there's my tip on 2 'rent out' and 'see at your peril' films

But it's all subjective and you might totally disagree with me on both counts, which is fine, as if we all liked the same films the movie world would be a very boring place indeed ;-)

So anyway, back to the night...

After the (rubbish) film came the final surprise of the night. I'd booked us into a hotel for the night (naughty) and found a great deal on Lastminute.com for one of their 'top secret 1/2 price hotels'.

The hotel wasn't as top secret as they'd have hoped because, although the description did its best to be relatively ambiguous, there are precious few 4* hotels in Kensington that have spas and gyms in them.

And that's your lot for December, well, apart from Christmas but I won't bore you with that right now ;-)

Hope you all had an equally lovely last month of 2009 and that January is going well for you already too :-)

TJx