I’ve missed you!

Paul, if you’re reading, im sorry in advance my love for the rant.

Hey all, oh my word, it feels like a life time since we’ve swapped snippets of our lives!

I’ll do a quick review of, well, everything since my last post.

Pete – It is with sadness that I report Pete, a wonderful, delightful man, passed away on 26.12 at 00:15. There were very hard decisions to be made by my dear friend and his family. Knowing there wasn’t much of the Pete they knew and love left, helped their decisions. His funeral will be later this month. In the meantime I support Angela as much as possible, I’ve hugged her as she quietly sobbed, I’ve held her hands as she’s talked of her loss. I’ve laughed with her as she’s remembered funny things. As most of you will know, we feel useless in these situations – but being there or not as my friend needs is as much as I can give. Their youngest son, Luke (we do cooking lessons sometimes) has been extra cuddly, as has Angela’s youngest step-daughter. Not only was Pete a fabulously funny friend to me and mine, and a lovely husband to Angela, he was a wonderful step dad to Lee, and an amazing dad to Becky, Sophie and Luke.

My cousin, so as you know I don’t hear from my cousin, we kind of drifted, and now it’s been too long, I don’t have any more news on her cancers at present or how she is doing. I am still debating sending her a letter, just so she knows how much I have valued her in our shared past, and how over the years, I wish I had made contact.

Aunty Gilly (Claire’s mum) – CRAZY lady!!! I have two amazing aunties, but this one, WOW, she has always been a nutter – crazy hair, crazy shoes, crazy sense of humour 🙂 Regrettably she has now been diagnosed with breast cancer (one of the ones my cousin has), needless to say, it’s more imperative now I get registered to a doctor and have a general check over, in particular with regards to my breasts.

I don’t believe there’s anything to worry about, however last year was horrendous – Angela’s dad very ill – all good now, Paul’s mum skin cancer – all good now, Angie (not Angela) sudden death – age 52(ish), cousin’s shocking multiple cancer diagnosis – not an expected cure, Pete’s major heart attach – death, A.Gilly’s breast cancer – expected to be able to cure.

Makes a person feel very nervous.

Christmas was…. stressful! I cooked dinner for all Paul’s family, his sister came in to my home and immediately stated, aggressively that the kids should not be forced to eat veggies! now excuse me, i encourage and have success, i DO NOT FORCE! and besides, it was Christmas, couldn’t give a damn on Christmas day! As it happens I cooked Christmas dinner knowing my daughter, partner, I and MIL would enjoy the proper food. Even Carly enjoyed the parsnips! They are a family of frozen veggies, including frozen roast potatoes… NO WAY not on Christmas day. Paul’s sister made it very clear she was disappointed there were no baked beans on the table, didn’t thank us once for dinner, aggressively told the room again that no veggies should be forced on her children, she won’t cook them at home for them, veggies are poison, blah blah blah, not a nice or kind word came out of her month once that day! Even going home I asked if she would like to take any food with her, any food – that included the snacky, cakey stuff as well. She LITERALLY turned up her nose and said, and I quote, “well I suppose I could take some of the meat home for the dog” FOR THE FRIGGIN DOG!!!!! So nothing I served up was good enough for the food freak! I am not happy, and have advised Paul, we are NEVER hosting for his family again at Christmas. Three time in 11 years we’ve hosted and the sister has made it her mission to be mean spirited in every way possible, such piss poor manners!

New Years – I spent this time with Angela, Lukey and Lukey’s girlfriend. We had an emotional evening. Lots of ups and downs. I’m pleased I was able to spend this time with Angela. I did miss my Paul and Amy who were at Paul’s mum and dads, but we are lucky as we will have these times with each other again.

And now, on to me. So, the last few weeks have been highly emotional, highly stressful, no time spare for love nor money, trying to get everything done for xmas, trying to be there for my friend, trying to make time left right and centre for everyone and everything, has had a serious toll on my healthy lifestyle. I’ve put on 6lb since I was properly on the ball, and exercise has dropped to zero!

I can’t seem to get rid of all the treat foods in the house, we obviously bought way too much for xmas, and I’m a child!! I can’t throw or give any of it away! Having said that, we are having family over this weekend, fingers crossed the last bag of goodies will be gone ready for the new week! Needless to say, I expect tomorrow’s weigh in will not be pleasant either, but knowledge is power.

What I have done: So yes, Paul and I (and anyone setting food in our home) is munching though chocs and biscuits still, but we are back to the healthy foods so that will at least meet our nutritional needs. Only started this week, but I have to say, I am sooooo pleased to be eating sensible healthy foods again, as much as I’ve enjoyed the crap, I’ve missed the good!

As for exercise, I’m easing my way back in, and with good reason! We’ve gone for a good walk for the last two weekends, and this week (Wednesday) I started my youtube programmes again. I did a bit of walking and the 15 minute strength workout, and oh my word, I could have collapsed! mmmm, actually on the 3rd planking session I did collapse! my triceps are absolutely caning! today I did the stretchy programme and the 11 minutes cardio programme. Not knackered by it, but I can definitely feel the loss of my fitness. So I’m just gonna build up slowly from the start again.

My mum bought me a samsung watch for Xmas, I don’t think I’m using it to it’s fullest advantage, however, I can now see my vigorous and moderate activity (8vig and 18mod today, 15 vig and 3 mod yesterday) so that’s been interesting. I think I’ll start giving that information on my post from now on. I can also see my heart rate which I’m quite fascinated by!

Anyway, so that’s my update so far, things are becoming more settled, now I’m looking forward to getting back to where I was before the last few weeks.

I’ll be honest with you, I might not get to check all your posts from the last few weeks, but I am looking forward to reading your posts from now on.