Tuesday 26 August 2014

Diet continues but nothing to report yet...


No weight lost as such to report yet, its still early...I wanted to make more effort to get to the gym but something else is getting in the way...

I've had tennis elbow, or brachial neuralgia for a while now, it comes and goes but certainly it comes more than it goes.

Brenda has been on at me to go to the doctors, which in my usual, don't like doctors, I've avoided doing, since there really is nothing much that can be done, rest and keep it mobile....and I can do that without having a doctor tell me to do that.

But I had to give in and book an appointment, the pain multiplied by a factor of 10 today as the base of my bicep felt like it was about to explode....never felt anything quite like it. So even if he tells me to rest it but keep it mobile, I can at least ask him for some horse strength painkillers to avoid the agony I was in an hour or so ago... double dose of Ibuprofen has taken the edge of it but wow it still hurts.

Seeing doc on Thursday.




Wednesday 20 August 2014

94KG


Wow, that is my heaviest ever....admittedly with clothes on but still..that's ...fluffy.

So that's the start point, I must lose 10kg before Xmas...and if it goes well aim to get down to 75kG as a target weight




Ahthankyew

Tuesday 19 August 2014

Diet..yes really.

No, this time I mean it
I dunno who that fat slowly browning beached whale was that Brenda was taking snaps of on our hols but I certainly don't want to see any more pics like that

I've been paying for the gym membership for years now and not using it, so it is time to make something of it...Diet and gym, I plan to lose 10Kg, I will do a weigh in tonight.

I also need to go see the doc about my tennis elbow issues, as it will no doubt get aggravated by the gym work, but this has to be done... I have slowly let myself go to ruin and its got to be fixed.

Holiday was good in terms of weather but I have to say Gran Canaria has kinda lost its appeal now, The weather is all you can say is good about it. There was a lot of closed shops and a sense of decay about the place which it seems they have compensated for by vastly increasing the cost of everything.. We struggled quite badly with money despite having more than I've taken the last few times I went and that made some things hard. Food and drink in particular were much more expensive and not always worth the price...
So its adios to GC for me I think.. I've had many happy happy times there but the honeymoon is over

But its back to work now...Time to get things ready for the new group of 1st years..yeahhhh

Being a teacher means I can make fresh starts twice a year....:)

.



Ahthankyew

Saturday 16 August 2014

Need a holiday to recover from the holiday

Its been a fun 2 weeks, only 2 more days to go before we have to return to the Netherlands in the small hours.
I have lots of pics to post when I get home, but there just isn't the bandwidth here for much more than a simple text post so I'll keep you waiting.

It has been tiring though, trying to fit in a lot of things while struggling with the 30-35degree heat is no easy task, we've found ourselves sleeping in a lot and only coming alive in the evenings.
I got burned a few times, but am now pretty brown..

Funds have  been a little low on this trip so improvising things as we go. which does not really fit in well with Brenda's everything must be planned, and my lets just wing it, mind-sets, but apart from a bit of grumpiness we've managed to reach agreements and fit in a few nice trips and events.

The SeaCat trip in particular was lovely even though I screwed up totally and went to the wrong pickup points which meant Brenda had to call up and do some re-arranging to get a new booking. The plus side is we got to see a lovely sunset at sea since we have an evening trip rather than a morning one.

Yesterday we rented a car for 3 days to let us get out and about a bit more, but the trip inland and back left us bought with mega headaches, possibly from the thin air as well as exposure to the sun...despite a very interesting visit to an aboriginal canarian settlement/exhibition. Some stunning views too of course. But unlike my last trip inland a few yeas back I didn't take quite so many photo's so the mysterious lines will have to remain a mystery.

That headache did put a bit of a damper on my visit to my favourite Canarian steak house, but the succulent char grilled Tbone steak was still devoured and Brenda enjoyed the fillet Strogonoff.. Before we had to retire home to find a lack of paracetamol and no way to buy any.. Only Farmacia's can sell them.
Lucky for us after a bit of a rummage in the tardis of Brenda's bag we found a strip and managed to tame the worst of the headaches so we could sleep... It was pretty bad.


We're planning a trip to a cave based Canarian restaurant later for a nice meal and hopefully a few more events before home time...

Harvey has had a bit of a rough time though his dog sitter had to take him to the vet as he seemed to have problems with his anal glands....she said he was too fat for her to clean them out..oops... I will call later to find out. Financially it could not have been a worse time for vets fees but we'll have to work something out, his health is important to us, but I just can't do much about it while I am 2000odd miles away.

I have to go straight back to work, when I get back...and also straight into rehearsals as I have gigs due with both bands, especially a last minute Starrcase gig on the 30th... hope I don't fall asleep in the middle of my numbers :





Ahthankyew

Saturday 2 August 2014

The internet is full of sickness and stupidity

Its a bit of a shock to the system, when you realize how easy people can be manipulated, twisted and desensitized to the world they live in.

Ask any Daily Mail reader what the no1 problem in the UK is and more than likely it'll be the EU or immigration, though it does rather depend on when you ask them, it might be GMO's and cancer next week. They'll trot out this weeks reason to rant at the drop of a hat but seldom give you any actual facts beyond, I know a mate who knew.....and heres a graph that shows it...all unverified.

The media manipulates and alters opinions constantly, in some ways that's not a bad thing if it educates and informs you towards a viewpoint you had not considered, but more often than not it just indoctrinates and brainwashes you to see their particular viewpoint.

For whatever reason, I have spent most of my life struggling with seeing  both sides of a story, I'm easily swayed by fact, and occasionally opinion, of those I trust, but mostly facts.

I read the news voraciously, its part of the reason I'm shit hot at trivia quizzes...I digest news, I digest facts and I form options based on those facts, not on the views the suppliers of some of those facts want me to share.

I can spot blatant propaganda bullshit on Russian media,Chinese media,  US media (dear god, the bullshit is strong with those people), and also sadly in UK media,  bullshit radiates with flies hovering about and I just know when something isn't right.

When all said and done, if someone tells you something and a little voice in your head says...is that true? There is never any harm in checking it out....when you then discover its not true, or its been exaggerated or somehow undermined by emotive or misleading language, you can assess how much of the bullshit might be worth taking on board.

Recently I have come to realize, my surprisingly keen insight into the world as it truly is,  is not shared by the rest of you mere mortals....this as always, causes me to doubt...am I the one who's seeing things wrong...let me check...nope...let me check again and again...time and again I keep seeing the same thing...people taking a view, mostly indefensible, and then defend it....with faulty logic, faulty facts, hearsay, rumor,  and then sometimes just plain old stubbornness again.

They seek out confirmations of their views, but only their views, and proudly wave them at me as if this incredible find from a source that gave them their views in the 1st place is the only source worth using..

But what about this, these, all these contrary viewpoints, with evidence and facts....bias propaganda they say, ignoring the irony that all they are spouting is the opposing propaganda....No one wants to see the truth in the middle, because that means admitting you are wrong.....I don't mind doing that...when I am wrong...I really don't. It's just that is not very often, because I take time to form my views by looking at both sides and I am always open to change that view, always....that puts me in conflict sometimes with both sides...but shit happens.
I can't help but question something I perceive as a lie, sometimes its because I want that lie explained to me, in case its true....and then when I realize its not, I try to show that...but no one really wants to listen. Sometimes its because I have read some trivia new story which has tucked away in the back of my mind and I know the resulting fable needs to be exposed...once I've checked it a bit more.

People guard their views strongly, its theirs, you can't have it, and there's nothing you can give them that will change it..even truth. Because your truth is not a truth they want to accept.


I've seen this a lot recently, I've sunk a little into a abyss and slowly climbing out of it, but finding so much about the world and the people in it to be hard to take. There is some amazingly blinkered and irrational viewpoints in the world. I know everyone is different, but why do so many have to be so blinkered and downright stupid that they refuse to do that little bit of self doubt that makes them check the other side.

There's far too much hate in the world and all it really needs to combat it is just to think about the other viewpoint...can you be wrong?

The world is a very very scary place right now, I wonder if we'll make it through the next 20 years without mushroom clouds.





Ahthankyew