Katie and her mental meanderings

I’ve lost a little weight. Hurrah! I bit the bullet and changed my rate of loss on the weight loss website to 1lb per week, but made sure I had a plan which would make that possible: I am trying to do some exercise every day, and also to cycle to work even if I’m doing yoga or something at lunchtime (the day I do ballet, I don’t cycle to work but I do walk to the further bus stop and get off there on the way home, too). I have also tried very hard not to eat snacks in the evening, but to always eat snacks in the morning and afternoon – crackers or fruit, mainly. I’ve lost 4lb in 3 weeks which is not too shabby. Of course, now I’m going on a work trip but the student I’m going to stay with used to do yoga with us all so I’m taking some yoga CDs/MP3s with me.

No change in clothes sizes though. We have a skive reading group that meets in Picturesque Northern Town With Shops a couple of times a term to educate ourselves, it is a very helpful group work-wise to be honest as everyone is about my “level” and willing to explain difficult things they know about but I don’t (and vice versa) and not too Busy And Important to take the time to educate themselves. And the shopping is good. I did buy a new pair of jeans because the old ones were huge, but they’ve been huge for a while, and the nice lady in Bravissimo said I don’t need a new bra size. But that’s good because replacing all my bras is expensive.

1. Leave your email in the comments either here or at the other blog
2. Respond to the email invitation you get (ahem, cal??)
3. When you want to post a day claim it (preferably on the Ship thread)
4. Go to the New Post link and write a new post. You don’t have to do this on the day the actual saint corresponds to. If you do it in advance (or late) you can just change the date it thinks you posted it on. It says at the bottom “Post and Comment Options” and you change the date by clicking on that.
5. If you are posting in advance, save it as a draft. If you, or I, come along on the right date we can then Publish the post. If you aren’t finished just write that in the post body and I’ll try not to publish it!

If you want to write a day or days of the saints diary you’ll need to either:

Leave me your email address in the comments here OR
Leave me your email address in the comments at the other blog (I have now fixed it so you don’t have to already have an account with Blogger, but you’ll need one at some point) OR
email me via the Ship.

Thread on this is <a href=”http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=003599″here.

Also: you might want to check your spam boxes for the email inviting you to participate.

I just had an idea for a new blog. Just what I need, I hear you cry, another blog. Bear with me – this one is supposed to be collaborative (yes, you do all want to join, don’t you?), and to involve one person picking each (well, almost each) day of the church year, and writing about either the saint/holy person who is honoured that day or the festival that day (not all days are allocated, in Common Worship – probably about 300 days?). A small start is here.

But someone else has pointed out to me that there is already a site here that is quite similar. Now I’m not sure. Is it worth trying to round up people to do this? It would major on the saints themselves and not have the extra liturgy; it would be written by lots of different people (hopefully) and therefore in different styles, and would have a slightly more informal take on the saints; it would also possibly have people’s memories of their own loved ones; and it would appear daily so people can check for the update.

Any offers/suggestions/votes? If you think it’s a great idea or a rubbish idea, let me know; if you want to do a day, you’ll need to be a member, for which I’ll need your email address; you can put it in a comment either here or at the other blog (I’ll delete it after I’ve contacted you so you don’t get too much spam).

Last night I went to a Games Training for Guide leaders. It was such fun. Thirty grown women (well, a couple of teenagers) in a room all playing silly games, and pretending it was serious. We played such classics as The Queen is Coming to Tea and Musical Conductor… I have made notes of them all so I can play them with my group (gosh! my group! no idea when this will happen but the other leaders seem to be assuming it will be sooner rather than later!)

In other news: I am FED UP with my inability to lose any weight. I’m the same weight I was a year ago, which is alot less than I was 3 years ago, but more than I should be. I am very good, mostly, at sticking to my allotted calories (I use a site called Weight Loss Resources, which is more flexible than e.g. Weight Watchers, which I hated), and I try to exercise every day, and do new exercies (e.g. the ballet). I don’t really know where to go from here.

a new month, and no posts for weeks.

I went to ballet class today – it’s the third one, basically, since I was about 10 – I’m starting to gain a little confidence. When I was 10 I was very poorly coordinated and I do remember being the worst in the class, and feeling like a lump. In this class, even though I’m certainly the oldest pupil, there are other beginners (who have more balletic figures, but who are just as uncoordinated as me) and other short and dumpy people (who are very good at ballet, and probably just didn’t continue at a higher level because they didn’t grow tall and thin). But I don’t feel too out of place, and I felt a little more confident this week, and it was actually moderately fun.

What was slightly embarrassing was getting dressed for class and finding, from somewhere about my person, a bendy heated roller emerge. Obviously it wasn’t heated any more as I’d heated them to do my hair in the morning, but I’m not sure if it had been in my hair all morning (it’s a bit wild, but I don’t think it’s that bad! surely someone would have told me?), down the back of my shirt (in which case, how did I sit comfortably at my desk chair?) or (I hope) in my jacket pocket.

Currently reading: The Brooklyn Follies, by Paul Auster. I haven’t got very far yet – it is one of those slightly weird books – it is the book this month for the local library book group – I went to this book group when we first moved here, but life got in the way, and there was a group at church which met on a Monday, but now that is Brownies night, so I went back.

There is a lovely French woman who I chatted to last time – with a very classic French name, Clothilde – who came round to lunch one day when I was working from home – I’m not quite sure if I gave her the impression I don’t work full time, though, as she left a message yesterday asking if I was free to go for a walk. Sadly, I was in meetings all yesterday afternoon. Wish I had been free.