More bags, money and credit

With the changes going on at work I realised I would need to travel more and therefore the shopping demon within me saw an ideal opportunity to buy new bags. 

Hi my name is Mrs Midnite and I'm a bagaholic, it has been 6 months since my last bag.

Until:

Cabin size to avoid the whole check in thing.

And a work / laptop bag to match.

Hi my name is Mrs Midnite and I'm a bagaholic, it has been 6 days since my last bag, ooops.

BUT, they were in the sale and the travel thing, it was essential.  I had Christmas money that I paid off my credit card so really it just used that.

I'm on a money plan designed by me to pay off my credit card, manic spending is a big problem.  I have been trying to get it under control and I'm doing OK, I just need to break the credit card habit and I'll be there.

Slight problem though, work has decided to change the expenses system.  Before we had to pay for things ourselves and then claim it back.  This is why I can't just cut up my credit card and never use it again, I had to have one for work.  Now they are providing an American Express card in joint names, they pay the bill directly.  Great was my first thought, I can cut up my credit card and remove temptation.  No actually I can't because loads of places in Europe don't take AMEX so I still need my own card as backup.  Plus an added issue, I now have another credit card that I'm not supposed to use except for work.  How much will this matter if bag mania hits? 

Bad Blogger

I realise I'm neglecting my blog and my blog reading.  It's been really hectic here so far in 2011 and after the storm I have been hit by a second bout of Gorilla flu.  The calm after the storm but unfortunately I don't feel well enough to look at the screen and catch up on your exciting posts.  I will though!

I've been doing some thinking about something that keeps cropping up in my life and wondering if it is a coincidence or a sign that I should accept it.  I need to think more.

A funny thing I find is what I take as signs and what I ignore.  I had a day when I was feeling fat and unhealthy.  I saw a few programmes on TV that inspired my last post and made me feel motivated to lose a few pounds.  The next morning with motivation high a leaflet for weight watchers dropped through my door, free membership and first class.  A sign?  Anyway I joined, and no that doesn't mean this is going to turn into a weight loss blog.  I like the system so far, got to say the Gorilla flu is helping as I'm definitely not hungry.  Will see if the universal signs that it's time to lose my spare pounds is really a sign or just a coincidence.

I wonder what other signs I miss?

Half Ton Teen

Like a large percentage of the population I am trying to lose a few pounds following the holiday excess.  I'm never going to be skinny, I don't want to be.  I have curves, or the currently unfashionable hour glass figure.  Even at my lowest weight I still have this shape and I'm happy with it. 

I love food, fortunately I don't focus on things like chocolate, I love lots and lots of food including the healthy stuff.  I'm an equal opportunities foodie.  I often think that if I didn't exercise or at least exercise some self control you would see me on the news.  I'd be one of those people you see getting winched out of a window because they no longer fit through doors!  I'd be dressed in a duvet cover because no company would make clothes in my size.  I seriously could eat myself to death.

Fortunately I do some exercise and I stop myself from eating the entire contents of my fridge most days.

I saw on TV a programme about a 19 year old boy who weighs half a ton.  I watched with a sense of disgust and fascination.  The guy had a giant armchair and foot stool, he spent his days and nights sitting there watching TV.  He couldn't get out of the chair without help.  The programme was about him going into a hospital that specialised in treating massively obese patients.  They did surgery to remove 65lbs of fat from his stomach to ease the strain on his heart.  They put him on a diet so he could lose some weight before having a gastric bypass. 

How does someone get like that?  Obviously they eat too much.  When you reach the stage where you don't fit in the batch or shower and have to have your mum hand wash you wouldn't something stop you eating?  How do you continue eating when you are too heavy to move?

If you have a pet and it is fat it's your fault, they can't get the food.  If you have a young child and it is fat it's your fault, you must be giving them food.  If your teenage son is so fat he has to be home schooled, can't bath and can barely walk guess what, it's your fault.

I wanted to shake this guy's mother, she was feeding him junk, bringing him all the food and watching him get fatter and fatter.  It was a disgusting inter dependant relationship.  She had lost a baby and when he can along she was over protective and wanted him to have everything he wanted, fair enough I get that.  But to assist him in killing himself with food, it made me angry, I cringed in my chair when I saw them together.  She did everything for him and was clearly enjoying his dependency.  She ended up going for therapy to resolve her problems while her son attempted to lose the equivalent of 10 adults in weight.

The programme made me feel slim!  But it made me realise how your childhood and you parents attitude to food stays with you for life.  My family eat really fast, the eat it before someone else does tactic.  The have large plates of food rather than a small plate with an option for more.  My Dad's holidays revolve around planning the meal stops.  My gran used to constantly be trying to feed us all, piece of cake, go on it's only light.  I realise why I love food so much and I'm just pleased they didn't take it to the level of feeding me to death.

So I'll have my healthy eating phase and lose a few pounds and be grateful hat I don't need to lose the equivalent of a few people.

Source

The furry girls 2011 declarations

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. ~Ellen Goodman


I was talking to the furry girls about New Year's Resolutions.  I try not to date a resolution, this year I have two goals, I started one on Boxing day and the other on 29th December.  If you have decided to do something why wait until the 1st of the 1st 2011?  The furry girls however decided the resolutions were good.

I suggested the following options:
1) We will not chase children!
2) We will eat our doggy dinner when it is put down.
3) Sasha - I will not roll in stinky dead animals or smelly piles of unidentified poo.  This is not perfume!
4) Sasha - I will give up my 6 a year slipper habit, shops think mum has a slipper fetish.
5) Star - I will stop stealing underwear and hiding it in odd places around the house. 
6) Star - I will accept that I am not Princess of the Universe, just Princess of this house.
7) We will stop leaving snot marks on the window
8) We will accept that the basket is our bed and the big comfy bed is mum's

They disagreed and decided the following were better:
Both:
1) Grow opposable thumbs so that we can help ourselves to food in the kitchen
2) Perfect the sad doggy face for getting extra food
3) Get mum to take up less of the big bed so we can stretch out.
Sasha:
1) Prepare marketing plan for a new range of perfumes, eau de fox poo will make me millions
2) Kill all slippers, they are evil and must die.
3) Steal all Star's toys and pull the stuffing out.

Star:

1) Prepare plan to take over the universe, I am a Princess you know.

2) Steal all underwear and hang in the most embarrassing places

3) Get more cuddles

Last Day of 2010

As I'm starting this parts of the earth are entering 2011 while some are just starting the last day of 2010.  Here in Edinburgh we are half way through the last day of 2010.

I find New Year's Eve or Hogmanay as it is in Scotland a strange celebration, we welcome the new year with a big party to say hello.  Not to say I don't enjoy it, any excuse for a party and all that I just find the celebration and superstitions a bit odd. 

A lot of people pay to get into there local pubs or travel to cities and stand in the cold to countdown to the New Year.  The pubs are full of people who have never been there during the previous year and probably won't be there in the new one.  A lot of people end up in places they wouldn't go with people they rarely see to welcome the new year.   We join hands and sing and kiss strangers.  It's fun and nice but to me a bit weird.

My gran used to say that you shouldn't be in debt on New Year's Day or you will be in debt for the whole year.  It was very important for her to pay all her bills before the end of the year.  She also used to say to my brother and I "don't fight on New Year's Day or you'll be fighting all year".  I've heard this idea expanded to include thing like having to have a clean house, an empty washing basket, a full fridge and even a great haircut.

So you leave your house spotlessly clean with your washing all done and you head out to stand in the cold with a sparkly drink.  You count down the final seconds of the old year and sing Auld Lang Syne.  You welcome the new year with hugs, kisses and best wishes to all.  Then you head home and off to bed.  New Years day you sleep in late and wake with a hangover, you spend the day on the sofa watching TV and eating junk food. 

So how does this fit with the superstition, if you spend New Year's Day lying on the sofa with a hangover does this mean you will spend the rest of the year like this?  Actually that explains quite a few people I have met. 

Anyway for me New Year is generally spent having some found with best friend boy and girl and then watching TV with a glass or two of wine.  It's very nice and you don't lose New Year's Day in a hungover haze. 

It's now New Year everywhere in the world so here's to 2011, Health Wealth and Happiness, here's wishing you all you wish yourself.  Happy New Year.