Day 1784 & 1785 (15 & 16/11/2014)

Busy weekend, with Thomas making an early start off to Football and my wife covering someone's shift at Asda, so no lie-in for her on what was supposed to be her day off.

I was doing lots of stuff in the office and then tidied the garden again.

Bloody leaves.

In the afternoon I went to the gym. I was only planning on having a swim but unfortunately it was family swimming time, so the pool was full of kids, so I went to the gym for my new work-out routine. 15 minutes cycling, then the weights and sit-ups, doing 15, 10 then 5 reps (or whatever it is called) then 10 minutes on the cross-trainer then 5 minutes on the running machine, where I went from walking to actual running, twice but admittedly for only short periods. I have always hate running, even when I could run 8 or 9 miles without too much difficulty and I know it won't be great for my knees but it might be effective at helping me lose weight and get fit, so I shall slowly increase the running.

Then I went into Lidl to see what they had as I planned a nice meal for my wife. We started with some small scallops in parsley & garlic butter, yum yum.

Then some pork chops with some other things.

I know this is sort of wasting the point of going to the gym during the week but I really love food so I look forward to the weekends and this keeps me going thru the week.

On Sunday I seem to have knocked my good leg.

I now having matching plasters on both legs and am still taking antibiotics just in case.

Lovely Sunday dinner, with another bottle of bubbly.

Three bird roast from Lidl, very tasty.

Day 1783 (14/11/2014)

The day started with the phone call I always dread. Don't worry my wife & kids are OK, it was my Dad to say something had gone wrong with his computer, AGAIN.

Apparently it was nothing to do with my Dad but somehow some software had got installed on his machine, which was now stopping it from working as it had before. After deleting a few things a running some anti-virus & anti-spyware software it was back to normal - until next time.

Lots to do in & out of the office.

Then off to the gym, where I did 20 minutes hard cycling, 4x 10 lots of weights for the arms then the legs, then 4x 15 lots of sit ups (getting easier), then 9 minutes on the cross trainer and 5 minutes on the treadmill, where I actually broke into a trot, not quite a run but it was a start.

Unfortunately I was quite knackered after it all and slightly unsteady on my feet and I bashed my leg on a machine, which ripped the skin off of my ankle.

It wasn't that bad and wouldn't have been an issue if it had been on my good leg but unfortunately it's on my bad leg, so I had to take a few antibiotics and now I'm hoping that it doesn't get infected.

Day 1782 (13/11/2014)

Lots to do in the office.

Then off to the gym in the afternoon, today I did 20 minutes hard cycling, 4x 10 lots of weights for the arms then the legs, then 4x 15 lots of sit ups (getting easier), then 8 minutes on the cross trainer and 8 minutes of fast walking (I even thought about going into a trot, not quite running).

Will do swimming every other day.

Day 1781 (12/11/2014)

An early start with a meeting about a new database at the Hilton in Aztec West.

Then went shopping and bought some shirts for the courses then off to the gym, where today I did 20 minutes hard cycling, 4x 10 lots of weights for the arms then the legs, then 4x 15 lots of sit ups, then 7 minutes on the cross trainer and 7 minutes of fast walking. Then finished off with 20 minutes in the pool.

Not so knackered today, so I'm probably getting slightly fitter and hopefully slimmer.

Day 1780 (11/11/2014)

More stuff to do in the office and I still have to prepare for some up coming courses.

As I had been so busy during the day I went to the gym in the evening with my wife, whilst she did a class I did 20 minutes hard cycling, 4x 10 lots of weights for the arms then the legs, then 4x 10 lots of sit ups, then 6 minutes on the cross trainer and 6 minutes of fast walking.

Still totally knackered.

I'm building up the amount I do, so I can carrying on losing weight, whilst eating a bit more.

Day 1779 (10/11/2014)

It's wet & dark, quite frankly its like winter and I'm just not enjoying it.

Stuff to do in the office then in the gym. 20 minutes hard cycling, 4x 10 lots of weights for the arms then the legs, then 4x 10 lots of sit ups, then 5 minutes on the cross trainer and 5 minutes of fast walking.

Totally knackered.

Day 1777 & 1778 (08 & 09/11/2014)

A very wet weekend.

On Saturday I went to a get-together in Bristol for past members of Avon & Somerset's  Task Force / Support Group, which were the vans that drove around and used to deal with things. In those days we dealt with things in a fairly positive but fun way,

but mostly only after we had finished out tea and a game of cards.

If I had had a camera phone in those days I would have some great photos now; but one of the reasons they don't have such great fun nowadays is the fact that everyone else has camera phones.

It was great to catch up with people, many of whom I shared so many fun times, talking about the past and what we are up to nowadays. It was also great to hear some other things but I very much doubt that I will be taking up the offer of joining the Masons.

Day 1776 (07/11/2014)

A very busy start to the day, with stuff to do in the office, doing the recycling, paying in cheques, buying cakes, going to the gym and having a business meeting then dropping papers off with my accountant.

Then we all went out in Clevedon for Gary's Birthday.

 

What a great night, as always.

Day 1775 (06/11/2014)

Normally I wear a t-shirt to breakfast, as I always make a mess when I eat but today I thought I would be careful, so had the shirt on that I was going to wear to do my video'd presentation.

Oh well, thankfully I had a spare shirt.

The presentation went well and I got back nice and early.

Day 1774 (05/11/2014)

Arrived at the venue last night and checked out the set-up.

There was no beans on toast on the menu, so I eventually settled for a prawn cocktail followed by scampi & chips.

I have stayed at the venue, The Rothley Court Hotel a few times before and usually have overly large rooms but this times it is quite a small room, with a very very small bathroom, that was a real squeeze.

Today's talk went OK but I don't know how the video will look.

 Nice buffet at lunch-time.

And went out for a curry in the evening with the people running the event.

Day 1773 (04/11/2014)

Today is a bit of a mad rush as I have lots to do and then I have to drive up to Leicestershire to give a couple of presentations.

Today is all so my much older but much nicer brothers birthday.

Happy Birthday Mate.

Day 1772 (03/11/2014)

Today I changed my routine at the gym and did 20 minutes of hard cycling, then 4x 10 lots of weights and sit-ups, followed by 20 minutes in the pool. Totally knackered.

Our main thoughts of the day were for Kim and what would have been her birthday.

Still miss her loads.


 

Day 1770 & 1771 (01 & 02/11/2014)

November all ready. The only thing that makes the passing of this year so bearable is that every month I get a new picture of Kylie to look at.

Obviously I only look when I need to know the date.

Despite only tidying the garden last weekend I had to do it again as it was covered in leaves.

The wheelie-bin is full now, so I must remember to put it out on Tuesday, then I can do it all again next weekend.

I even finished covering the plants with their thermal blanket, so hopefully the expensive nice ones will survive the winter (although its nice and suny today).

I think I have become incredible middle aged, as I never used to care about the garden.

Deciding to have a Chinese this week.

Obviously that is two days worth, so I wont be doing a Sunday roast, which means I shall be spending a few more hours working.

Day 1769 (31/10/2014)

Totally knackered after the gym, really throwing myself into it.

As it is Halloween and as my wife is thoughtful, she bought some chocolates for any children that called doing trick or treat.

However because I'm probably known as the aggressive thug with the cricket bat (don't ask but it was defiantly called for) we didn't get any trick or treaters.

Apparently I'm not allowed to eat the chocolates but there are mini Cadbury's Flakes & Crunchie's, my will power is not that strong.

Day 1768 (30/10/2014)

An early ish start as we had to make sure we were up and ready for the boiler being serviced.

As the boiler is only a year old the service only took about 15 minutes and everything was fine. Fingers crossed it stays that way and we should have a nice warm winter.

I went to the gym and my diet is back on course, with my weight going down very slowly but now that its winter I seem a bit hungrier.

Miked beans tonight, with a bit of sausage left over from last night.

Day 1767 (29/10/2014)

Fruit & yoghurt followed by a session in the gym.

After my efforts to tidy my garden the other day, it seems to be full of leaves again.

How does that happen.

Day 1766 (28/10/2014)

I went for a meeting at a local Harley Davidson dealership,

which actually wasn't that weird as I knew they had a coffee shop there.

The meeting was with an old colleague, who had a very interesting life after we stopped working together. He had clearly become quite a scary expert at computers, telling me a few things he had got involved with.

We both shared the opinion that you should never trust people in the security services, with him saying they don't mind burning you after they have used you. Then he did me a favour and put some useful stuff on a memory stick for me.

Now this was really useful stuff but I had to put it on two other systems before putting it on my main computer, scanning it for every known virus, malware, spyware, as clearly he was a friend / colleague but I'm still sceptical as to his offer to help me.

The may possibly help me in my copyright fight and will not doubt cause discomfort to some police officers who I hate.

Day 1765 (27/10/2014)

Monday and back to the gym with a vengeance as I have slacked off the last couple of weeks. When I was at the gym I was also looking forward to my lunch of fruit & salad stuff.

And it was lovely.

Getting to grip with work as well.