I thought my blog was getting a bit plain so here's a pic of my wife in Ukraine last year. 
Friday, February 24, 2006
My Wife in Ukraine
I thought my blog was getting a bit plain so here's a pic of my wife in Ukraine last year.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
A Newer Fitter Me
So it’s been a month now without any alcohol, except for two glasses of wine when friends came around and about two glasses of champagne on Valentines Day. I must say though I don’t feel any better for it apart from losing weight. When you see those people on the TV who have stopped alcohol for a bit they’re always praising the way they now feel. It must be all in the mind.
Mind you I wasn’t a big drinker anyway. If we had it in the house I would have a drink most evenings but I never go out to bars etc. just for a drink, to bloomin expensive to start with.
Yes I have been good this last month. I started off reading the Gillian Mckeith book ‘You Are What You Eat’ because even as a vegetarian of about 30 yrs one can still get into bad food habits and eat junk – and I had got that. Plus after Christmas I started to feel really down and I had noticed that my weight had really crept up.
So I started the detox diet she suggests, not majorley sticking to what she wrote but my own sort of version of it. Warm lemon water first think in the morning, lots of green stuff, fruits and vegetables and stuff like nettle or dandelion tea, which I quite enjoy now!
Luckily I also found a juicer and a blender at a carboot sale and have started juicing; now that does make you feel good. So its juice, smoothies and salads for me! This guys book is really good: Jason Vale, The Juice Master’s Ultimate Fast Food.
Search Gillian McKeith and Jason Vale here!
Plus we joined a gym. I’ve been going for about two weeks now and things are fine.
I think these are the things that make you feel good, not just giving up alcohol, but the combination of eating well, drinking juice and exercise, but I still wake up at about 5a.m! I hope that this will solve itself as I get fitter!
Anyway it seems to work as I have lost about a stone in weight (about 7 kilos) a new slimmer fitter me beckons!
Mind you I wasn’t a big drinker anyway. If we had it in the house I would have a drink most evenings but I never go out to bars etc. just for a drink, to bloomin expensive to start with.
Yes I have been good this last month. I started off reading the Gillian Mckeith book ‘You Are What You Eat’ because even as a vegetarian of about 30 yrs one can still get into bad food habits and eat junk – and I had got that. Plus after Christmas I started to feel really down and I had noticed that my weight had really crept up.
So I started the detox diet she suggests, not majorley sticking to what she wrote but my own sort of version of it. Warm lemon water first think in the morning, lots of green stuff, fruits and vegetables and stuff like nettle or dandelion tea, which I quite enjoy now!
Luckily I also found a juicer and a blender at a carboot sale and have started juicing; now that does make you feel good. So its juice, smoothies and salads for me! This guys book is really good: Jason Vale, The Juice Master’s Ultimate Fast Food.
Search Gillian McKeith and Jason Vale here!
Plus we joined a gym. I’ve been going for about two weeks now and things are fine.
I think these are the things that make you feel good, not just giving up alcohol, but the combination of eating well, drinking juice and exercise, but I still wake up at about 5a.m! I hope that this will solve itself as I get fitter!
Anyway it seems to work as I have lost about a stone in weight (about 7 kilos) a new slimmer fitter me beckons!
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Valentines Night- a cautionary tale
Ok so the restaurant is booked, I have paid the £40 deposit. We are expected at about 9:15 as I am working on Tuesday night. We look forward to a romantic dinner, listening we are told to the gentle strains of a saxophonist!
We arrive at 9:15 as planned and are shown to our table where we sit. And we sit and sit. After about half an hour of sitting, we have run out of romantic chit chat and am fed up of yelling over the blare of the saxophone and the three piece band that seems to have been fitted into a small box . We are now both fidgeting on our chairs. A waiters comes by, I catch his eye. ‘Has someone taken your order sir? He asks. ‘No’ I reply. He takes our order, I remind him that I am a vegetarian and that I had informed the restaurant of this salient fact when I booked, it was ‘no problem’.
We wait for the appetiser. I have eaten all the bread, the rose looks appetising, but on inspection it is a false rose (cheapskates!) About 10 minutes later the waiter turns up with a plate of Oysters which he places in front of my wife, we wait for my appetiser. After another 10 minutes, I get up and go looking for the waiter. He tells me that ‘there isn’t a vegetarian appetiser’. I sit and watch my wife eat her Oysters.
10 minutes later he’s back saying very sorry but there is after all a vegetarian appetiser, although he hasn’t got it with him, he goes away, I wait, my wife eats her oysters (3). I wait and wait, we play with the foil hearts strewn across the table trying not to think of Kenny G whose music at this moment is quite appealing.
After another 10 minutes I get up in search of the waiter and find him on his way with lentil soup. I start to complain, but he insists that its not his problem and they are really busy, do I want to speak to the manageress? I say yes.
I sip my soup, the lentils are chewy, uncooked. This is clearly a soup that has a hint of desperation about it. The bread thing floating in it, tastes bad. I remove it from the soup. Well I call it soup but it was basically brown water, enlivened with chilli and ginger at the bottom of which were a couple of teaspoons of uncooked lentils. I can make better lentil soup and I know you cannot cook a lentil soup from scratch in about 20 minutes unless its out of a tin – which at that moment I would have preferred. – I left it.
The waiter came back, ‘is every thing OK sir?’ ‘No, the soup is uncooked’ I said. He whipped it away from under my nose and stalked off. The manageress had still not appeared to listen to my complaint.
The saxophonist blared away in the background.
The manageress turned up bearing our next course, all chatty and smiles, she didn’t ask what was the problem and my wife had asked me not to cause a scene. So I left it and ate my gnocchi.
We ate and drank a little, we yelled sweet nothings at each other. They bought a flaming sambucca to finish the meal. It was now nearly midnight.
I went to pay. There was a obnoxious drunken guy arguing with the manageress about something to do with their evening, and she was attempting to totally ignore him while serving me. I was edging away from the desk as it seemed likely that the fracas in front of me was going to escalate as his tone and language also escalated.
She couldn’t seem to find our ticket, so she just wrote out a total on a bill sheet. £130!
I said What?
She said £130.
I said ‘No way, you told me £35 a head when I telephoned and booked, plus you have already had a £40 deposit off me’.
‘Well you have had a 5 course meal’ she said, Its £65 a head.
‘And the service was crap’ I parried ‘I sat there for the best part of 40 minutes without being served and when I was served the food was uncooked’! Plus you told me it was £35 a head, if you had said £65 a head on the phone I would not have booked it.
‘You don’t want to pay then’ she said
‘Well’ I said, ‘I’ll pay the £35 a head’
‘You’re not going to pay then’ she said
‘OK, I’m not going to pay’ I said.
She turned away and ignored me
So we left.
That was our romantic night out!
I cancelled my bank card this morning because she has the number from when I gave it to her over the phone and no way is she getting that money.
This always happens to me in restaurants, I always seem to get bad service, poor food or the waiters forget we’re there. Or is it that I’m one of the few who will complain about bad service in this country.
And its not any excuse to say ‘we’re really busy’ – its Valentines Night for Christ sakes, you knew you were going to be busy!
The food of love hey!
We arrive at 9:15 as planned and are shown to our table where we sit. And we sit and sit. After about half an hour of sitting, we have run out of romantic chit chat and am fed up of yelling over the blare of the saxophone and the three piece band that seems to have been fitted into a small box . We are now both fidgeting on our chairs. A waiters comes by, I catch his eye. ‘Has someone taken your order sir? He asks. ‘No’ I reply. He takes our order, I remind him that I am a vegetarian and that I had informed the restaurant of this salient fact when I booked, it was ‘no problem’.
We wait for the appetiser. I have eaten all the bread, the rose looks appetising, but on inspection it is a false rose (cheapskates!) About 10 minutes later the waiter turns up with a plate of Oysters which he places in front of my wife, we wait for my appetiser. After another 10 minutes, I get up and go looking for the waiter. He tells me that ‘there isn’t a vegetarian appetiser’. I sit and watch my wife eat her Oysters.
10 minutes later he’s back saying very sorry but there is after all a vegetarian appetiser, although he hasn’t got it with him, he goes away, I wait, my wife eats her oysters (3). I wait and wait, we play with the foil hearts strewn across the table trying not to think of Kenny G whose music at this moment is quite appealing.
After another 10 minutes I get up in search of the waiter and find him on his way with lentil soup. I start to complain, but he insists that its not his problem and they are really busy, do I want to speak to the manageress? I say yes.
I sip my soup, the lentils are chewy, uncooked. This is clearly a soup that has a hint of desperation about it. The bread thing floating in it, tastes bad. I remove it from the soup. Well I call it soup but it was basically brown water, enlivened with chilli and ginger at the bottom of which were a couple of teaspoons of uncooked lentils. I can make better lentil soup and I know you cannot cook a lentil soup from scratch in about 20 minutes unless its out of a tin – which at that moment I would have preferred. – I left it.
The waiter came back, ‘is every thing OK sir?’ ‘No, the soup is uncooked’ I said. He whipped it away from under my nose and stalked off. The manageress had still not appeared to listen to my complaint.
The saxophonist blared away in the background.
The manageress turned up bearing our next course, all chatty and smiles, she didn’t ask what was the problem and my wife had asked me not to cause a scene. So I left it and ate my gnocchi.
We ate and drank a little, we yelled sweet nothings at each other. They bought a flaming sambucca to finish the meal. It was now nearly midnight.
I went to pay. There was a obnoxious drunken guy arguing with the manageress about something to do with their evening, and she was attempting to totally ignore him while serving me. I was edging away from the desk as it seemed likely that the fracas in front of me was going to escalate as his tone and language also escalated.
She couldn’t seem to find our ticket, so she just wrote out a total on a bill sheet. £130!
I said What?
She said £130.
I said ‘No way, you told me £35 a head when I telephoned and booked, plus you have already had a £40 deposit off me’.
‘Well you have had a 5 course meal’ she said, Its £65 a head.
‘And the service was crap’ I parried ‘I sat there for the best part of 40 minutes without being served and when I was served the food was uncooked’! Plus you told me it was £35 a head, if you had said £65 a head on the phone I would not have booked it.
‘You don’t want to pay then’ she said
‘Well’ I said, ‘I’ll pay the £35 a head’
‘You’re not going to pay then’ she said
‘OK, I’m not going to pay’ I said.
She turned away and ignored me
So we left.
That was our romantic night out!
I cancelled my bank card this morning because she has the number from when I gave it to her over the phone and no way is she getting that money.
This always happens to me in restaurants, I always seem to get bad service, poor food or the waiters forget we’re there. Or is it that I’m one of the few who will complain about bad service in this country.
And its not any excuse to say ‘we’re really busy’ – its Valentines Night for Christ sakes, you knew you were going to be busy!
The food of love hey!
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Valentines Day Gift of diamonds
While we are at it I may as well suggest that you go an buy the beautiful 4 carat brand new created diamond earrings I am selling on ebay for a bargain price and I only have two pairs!!!.
go here
go here
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Valentines Gift Ideas
A poem for the Valentines season!
Digigran complained that there were too many lists and not enough poems. So here's a topical poem wot I just wrote.
Hope you Like it.
Valentines Day
I’m thinking of my Valentine
It’s that time of year
I’m thinking of my Valentine
I’m thinking of a spear
Or should it be a teddy
The type that she could wear
Or would she be more comfortable
With a fluffy teddy bear
Or a floppy dog with ears
And a great big wet wet nose
A great big box o chocolates
Or a luverly red red rose
I’m thinking of my Valentine
I think she’s thinking ice
Great big stonking diamonds
I’m thinking of the price
I’m thinking of my Valentine
I’m thinking of the food
At the expensive restaurant
I hope it’s not to rude
To point out to my Valentine
The prices al la carte
That lobsters, crabs and oysters
And Frenchy Apple Tarte
Will spoil our little Valentines
When we get the bill
I don’t want my darling Valentine
To see me being ill
So just thinking of my Valentine
I vote that we stay in
It just a cynical marketing ploy
And I’ve just forgot my PIN
So I’m thinking of my Valentine
I’m such a caring man
I’m thinking of my Valentine
Isn’t that a plan?
Hope you Like it.
Valentines Day
I’m thinking of my Valentine
It’s that time of year
I’m thinking of my Valentine
I’m thinking of a spear
Or should it be a teddy
The type that she could wear
Or would she be more comfortable
With a fluffy teddy bear
Or a floppy dog with ears
And a great big wet wet nose
A great big box o chocolates
Or a luverly red red rose
I’m thinking of my Valentine
I think she’s thinking ice
Great big stonking diamonds
I’m thinking of the price
I’m thinking of my Valentine
I’m thinking of the food
At the expensive restaurant
I hope it’s not to rude
To point out to my Valentine
The prices al la carte
That lobsters, crabs and oysters
And Frenchy Apple Tarte
Will spoil our little Valentines
When we get the bill
I don’t want my darling Valentine
To see me being ill
So just thinking of my Valentine
I vote that we stay in
It just a cynical marketing ploy
And I’ve just forgot my PIN
So I’m thinking of my Valentine
I’m such a caring man
I’m thinking of my Valentine
Isn’t that a plan?
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
4x4 meme
I have been tagged to do this by Mary Plain and I understand that it is a breach of blogger etiquete to refuse to do it. So here it is.
4 places I have lived:
Vanderbijpark, South Africa
Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands
Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset
Ley, Cornwall
4 jobs I have had:
Supermarket sweeper
Hospital porter
Soldier
Precision Turner
4 favourite movies
Some Like It Hot
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (do DVD’s count?)
Zulu
O brother where art thou
4 favourite TV shows
Time Team
Flog It (for ebay research purposes)
Pay your mortgage off in two year (for obvious reasons)
Life on Mars
4 favourite CD’s
Ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars – D. Bowie
Burn the Black Coat – Juliet Turner
Dustbowl Symphony – Nancy Griffiths
Songs of Leonard Cohen – L. Cohen
4 places I have been on holiday
Crimea – Ukraine
Washington DC – USA
Marrakech – Morocco
St Ives - Cornwall
4 things I love to do
Surf
Travel
Read
Write
4. Favourite Books
Gulag – Ann Applebaum
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
Bhagavad Gita
On The Road - Jack Kerouac
4 websites I visit daily
ebay
jonny b’s secret diary
Travel to Ukraine
The great blog story
4 bloggers to tag! Gemmak, Vit Beer Girl
4 places I have lived:
Vanderbijpark, South Africa
Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands
Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset
Ley, Cornwall
4 jobs I have had:
Supermarket sweeper
Hospital porter
Soldier
Precision Turner
4 favourite movies
Some Like It Hot
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (do DVD’s count?)
Zulu
O brother where art thou
4 favourite TV shows
Time Team
Flog It (for ebay research purposes)
Pay your mortgage off in two year (for obvious reasons)
Life on Mars
4 favourite CD’s
Ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars – D. Bowie
Burn the Black Coat – Juliet Turner
Dustbowl Symphony – Nancy Griffiths
Songs of Leonard Cohen – L. Cohen
4 places I have been on holiday
Crimea – Ukraine
Washington DC – USA
Marrakech – Morocco
St Ives - Cornwall
4 things I love to do
Surf
Travel
Read
Write
4. Favourite Books
Gulag – Ann Applebaum
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
Bhagavad Gita
On The Road - Jack Kerouac
4 websites I visit daily
ebay
jonny b’s secret diary
Travel to Ukraine
The great blog story
4 bloggers to tag! Gemmak, Vit Beer Girl
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