Last OZ Blog; Coming home

My last day in OZ was spent in Mike’s office, we had to check out of our apartment at 10am so after several sweeps of the place to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything we headed to work.

I sat blogging, e-mailing, tweeting; all the while Mike did actual work coming back occasionally to check I was okay, bless his heart it was home from home sat there, laptop, coffee, camera full of photo’s – I was fine!

We went out to eat with a few of the guys from the office to the Arrivederci Pizzeria where they make metre long rectangle pizzas! Between five of us we ended up with 1 ½ metre’s of the stuff! I opted for the sea food one, instead of a salad; my tummy roll named OZ wasn’t going to mind another layer and hey it was the last day – I needed pizza!

Pizza - Now you see it

...Now you don't

The two flights home went very well, I slept through the first, watched 6 films on the second, I even managed to act relaxed in the business lounges; or was I just too tired to care? lol!

Getting to Heathrow we had a moment of déjà vue when staff informed us they couldn’t find my wheelchair and that there was no note made of any in the holdall  (same thing happened last year – it had been taken to 1^st class - lucky chair!) Mike looked over the co-ordinators shoulder and pointed that in bold letters next to my name was – OWN WHEELCHAIR!

After some frantic radio communications it was finally located!

Sadly Mike and I had to say Goodbye at Heathrow, he was off to Texas the next morning for a conference; I admit that even after all that time in Australia together I found myself tearing up; what can I say 6 years and dozens of goodbyes and it still gets me.

My lovely friend Karen had arranged for our friend Frank to pick me up from the airport and he took me on a guided tour around central London; I was beyond exhausted at this point but as we all know I love old London and enjoyed my personalised trip.

Coming home I somehow forgot what we had done to the flat before leaving; half a kitchen, no carpets or wall paper and all manner of kitchen equipment stored in our bedroom. After 5 hours sleep in two days I just collapsed into bed.

For my wonderful time in Oz I completely deserve the jet lag, but the pain of coming home to cold damp England was dreadful, a moment crying at 4am, I thought “I’m not going on any more holidays – too much pain to come home to” which is of course completely ridiculous lol! I wouldn’t have given up this trip for anything. I just have to get used to home again and anyway being the jammy moo that I am I have 12 days until I’m holidaying in Spain lol! – A very lucky girl I know!

As for my weight and the extra tummy roll called OZ, he must have been a figment of my imagination as I did my 1^st official weigh in, in four weeks today and I’m exactly the same weight I was before I left, for all the pancakes, steaks, lamb, pizza’s, scones, wine, sushi and taco’s I ate I actually managed to maintain my waist line – who’d have thought eh? Certainly not me!

L x 

Following the (Unofficial) Leader

I’ve had a lot of messages regarding my Weight Watchers diet and whether it’s working; especially from a disabled person’s point of view and the lack of exercise. Plus one anonymous person asking if I’ve “fallen off the wagon and failed once again” – erm rude!! 

I've very happy to report I am a complete an utter diet bore; simply because it’s working! So far I've lost 18lb in 10 weeks. I’m feeling quite proud and even bought myself a hot pink, Kelly Brook endorsed bikini, not a swim suit an actual two piece set with my body, op scar’s and stretch marks on show (although proud; I do apologise to the male members of my family now in sight of our family holiday’s coming up... Mike on the other hand...). When I hit my first stone (14lb) in loss I bought myself new jeans and even they keep falling down – luckily I sit on my arse 99% of the time really!

LadyGoGo84 - Letting you into her pa.....life

I do minimal exercise as generally movement = pain, but my little contribution to my heart and circulation is this; I watch roughly two hours of TV a night which will have six ad breaks with an average of three minutes per break. So in every one of those I resist TiVo’s fast forward function and use 1lb weights to exercise my arms and will also attach them to my legs and do raises and mid air cycling. It’s not a lot but it means I’m keeping my old limbs going and resting for 15 minutes per every 3 so as not to hurt myself. 

An unexpected role that has come of being on WW is I’ve become an unofficial Weight Watchers leader. I had 5 friends who were already having wonderful results on the diet, especially my sister in law – if you’d seen her wedding photo’s – you would understand why I chose the plan over others. But from seeing my results 6 friends have joined and several have gone back to Weight Watchers and their new Pro Points plan and regularly I get texts/phone calls/fb messages/e-mails asking me for all kinds of advice and I’m no expert and regularly warn them of this but I find this little WW community of my mine a real help, especially since I can’t make the official local meetings. 

Those of you who have sent in questions I really do highly recommend the plan but would talk to your medical team/GP first! I shall keep you updated and no I don’t plan on failing either :P 

L x

Cake!

Ironic that my last post was about Weight Watchers when this one is all about CAKE beautiful, creamy, buttery, sweet cakes!

Mike bought me a day with The Gourmet Cupcake Company as a Christmas Present and I had been saving my weekly extra points on my Weight Watchers plan so that I could scoff with guilt free glee.

Mike’s Sister Emma also had a place on the course and drove from Sussex, getting up at 6am (Thanks Em!) to get us to the company’s base in central Chelmsford.

Following Em’s SAT NAV we arrived on an industrial estate, not where you would expect a bakery. But appearances are indeed deceiving; through the shop’s door was a baking heaven!

Decorated in pretty pastel colours of pink, blue and green the shops shelves were lined with all manner of baking must have’s like; cutters, piping bags, edible glitters and pens, cupcake cases in every colour, food colours/flavours galore and so much more!

The Shop

We were greeted by El our course leader who made us welcome with hot drinks and an introduction to the day’s activities. There were 8 of us on the course, all round a big table covered in a rose printed tablecloth and sat on white wooden chairs – very country, very cosy! Because of such a small group El was on hand to help us all with any problems or questions without feeling that she was rushing from person to person.

First up was the cake sponges; in groups of four we mixed large batches of vanilla sponge (I have added an Artisan food mixer to my wish list – although starting at £300 – I’ll be waiting a while for one of those!) – if you’ve ever baked a cake from scratch you’ll know this is the easy part, making a cupcake beautiful  is all down to the icing and sugar craft.

One Day!

El demonstrated how to make butterflies, daisy’s, blossom flowers, hearts and star’s  all using simple plunge cutters, but gave us ideas on how to make the 2D sweets into interesting 3D creations with flood colourings, paints, glitters and how to build the icing up into layers. These were all done with Sugar Florist Paste a tougher icing perfect for moulding more stable decorations.

I was a little worried the mild Cerebral Palsy weakness in my left hand might hinder such delicate work but most of it was easy enough to do with one hand. I later found making the sugar paste roses harder, but I think that was the case for all of us there – it just needs practice!

Sugar Art

For lunch Emma and I popped into Chelmsfords town centre which is a 5 minute walk from The Gourmet Cupcake Company. After a Veggie Delight at Subway (still saving those Weight Watchers points!) we tackled the above mentioned roses which included making Florist Paste rose leaves which we shaped with a cutter then moulded in a little gadget called a viner which you put your sugar leaf into and it creates really life like veins imprinted into the icing.

To marry cake and craft’s; El showed us how to make a simple butter cream topping and a fondant icing. Once we had coloured and added flavourings to these we were shown how to pipe and level each icing and then it was time to decorate our cakes with our creations and an abundance of glitter and hundreds and thousands in all colours of the rainbow.

This was probably the quickest park of the whole course but seeing the day’s lessons come together in what I can only describe as edible artwork – it was the most satisfying!

My Finished Cakes 

Emma and I both had a brilliant day, both learning some great new skills (or in my case – a whole new skill set) our course leader El was fun, chatty and never made you feel daft for getting things wrong. The course is a wonderful gift but I would have happily paid for it myself.

Emma's Cakes

We were presented with course completion certificates (no matter how old I am I love getting these!) and recipe cards and sadly it was time to go home! 24 hours later there are amazingly still three cupcake’s left out of my 12 – a bloody miracle, but I have earmarked one for after my Weight Watchers weigh in tomorrow – yet more irony!

L x

The Gourmet Cupcake Company - Is well established company bakery with previous client including FireFox, FedEx and Nintendo. For cake quote’s you can e-mail info@gourmetcupcakes.co.uk . For information on the 6 courses they currently run click here.

2011 A Bad Boyfriend?

Hey,

How are you all? Is January treating you well? I hope so! It’s hard after Christmas, the New Year kicks in so fast it’s almost as if the festive season was mince pie filled dream!

The initial flourish of resolutions, diets and general optimism for the better person in us all, is usually starting to deplete at a rapid rate by now, but this year I feel different.

As I mentioned in my last post 2011 was a hard year for my family and there were events through the twelve months that seemed to keep pulling me down, and I felt like I was teetering on the edge of another depression bout.

Despite the usual pain I’m in, I have been suffering with hip and knee pain that wasn’t in my normal portfolio of ailments. I hit my biggest weight over Christmas and after telling a friend about these problems, she remarked that these were the pains she had whilst pregnant. Now regular readers will remember this (CLICK HERE - to read my shame!) and the remark from my niece and again it’s taken for me to be told that my body in some way relates to that of a Mum to be, before I do anything about – stupid really isn’t?

And although some months ago I declared no more diets I feel if my fat is causing more pain on top of my usual ones I would be stupid to ignore it.

I joined WeightWatchers online two weeks ago, but since Christmas I’ve lost 6lb. I’m in what you would call the honeymoon period of the diet, but that’s just it I don’t feel like I’m dieting at all, I find point counting almost fun, finding as many ways of eat as much as I can without going over my allotted points – yesterday I even had mince pie ice cream with 3 points still left over by bedtime! 

But do you know what I think I’ll succeed this time because unlike last year I only have your average run of the mill problems or worries not court cases and heartbreak. And in hard times I’m your classic comfort eater. My friends are sick of me and my weight issues but so far I cannot say a bad word about WW. 

I almost feel like 2011 was a bad boyfriend who I’ve dumped. I’m in a “New Me” phase and I’ve thrown out half my wardrobe, got a new bed and duvet sets, we’ve started preparing for a new kitchen plus I’ve got 2 hen do’s, 3 weddings, 1 holiday booked (with two more in the pipeline), a family reunion party already booked up for this year – it’s looking fun (and expensive – less money to buy junk food with I suppose!).

I hope this optimism lasts, as well as my will power, I’m sure you’ll hear all about it soon enough. What about you guys? Are we all still feeling positive and fighting off the January blues? Let me know!

Right I’m off to go count weight watchers points, I have a cupcake course on Monday I need to calculate how many points per cake I bring home, I can eat and still enjoy Nando’s tomorrow – simple things!! Will let you know how I get on.

L x