Still alive!
Still here - just had a week of economics at college. Never havng done it before I was expecting the worst - but quite liked it in a perverse logic kind of way.

During last week I met with G again and met QoB, his colleague. She seemed ok, but a little wet. Not an engineer (a good thing?) but more an environmentalist. Waiting now for a date for formal interview. In the meantime, an agency in London have been trying to persuade me to interview for a similar role for yet another company. The downside is that their offices are in either Manchester or Sheffield and I don't want the commute. All this activity makes me realise how my current company is NOT prepared for the gear shift that next year's legislation is driving. What to do? Do I abandon them completely or have a back-up plan in case the G thing falls through?

In other news, yet another healthy kick starts here - I have just under 8 weeks till I go on holiday. I have taken the focus away from weight or fat or inch loss. Instead I am focussing on the doing rather than the results. As I keep saying, consistency is always my problem and focussing on results doesn't help me. Don't get me wrong, I still have long term goals with respect to how I want to look, but they are maybe too far away and divorced from what I am doing, if that makes sense.

So the goals this week are to do cardio 3x20 minutes 65 - 75% max HR and 2 x weights. Weights are to be 2 sets of 12 reps, with as heavy as I can stand. I'm focussing on abs, glutes, shoulders, back and arms. Legs will be stretched rather than worked - a bit of yoga/stretches to keep me limber for the cardio. I'm keeping the exercise volume low this week and trying to keep food to manageable calories and proportions (30:20:50 F:P:C). Then next week I'll ramp the food up to really clean and continue with the exercise, adding some more cardio. Baby steps.

And I'll keep reading those blogs. Lots of good work going on out there and they keep me sane and realise I am not alone in my madness! Which reminds me, I still have a load to catch up on from last week...

Head wrapped in Cling Film

What fun! What mess! I am sitting here with Lush Caca Brun hair dye applied to my tresses, all bound up in cling film. I've given it just over 2 hours and might leave it another half hour before washing out.

I'm going through a natural phase when it comes to comestic products - I tackled my leg hair this week with

which again was messy and fun! Need a bit more practice, but easier than wax, and after my bitter disappointment over the Veet 3 minute razorless shave stuff (3 minutes my arse), I may have found the answer to the leg hair issue this summer. Watch this space.

Of course, all this mucking around with home beauty products may look like procrastination to those who think 'shouldn't she be finishing that bloody assignment'. Yes, you are probably right. But the word count is now 2285 (aiming for 3000) and I am about 30% through beating it into shape. 36 hours to go - no sweat!

Another cull...
Clearing out the blog roll, adding more in. Trying to keep it to a manageable amount. Half my morning is wasted by logging in and seeing who has posted. Which is usually a pointless exercise for the US blogs, especially if I've checked before I go to bed. They won't be up yet, you loon?

My feet hurt. I was a VERY silly girl today and walked 3 miles in unsuitable shoes. I have a massive blister on the ball of my toes on the left foot and a massive blister on the arch on my right, plus one on each of my big toes. Idiot. I have slapped Compeed on them, but failed to burst them first, so I have a great big bag of pus on each foot. Grim. Let's hope the swelling goes down by tomorrow morning or I risk pulling the Compeed and half my foot off to burst them. Urk.

Assignment is nearly there. Have been working on some graphic design stuff at work this week for a bid presentation. It's killing me not knowing what I am doing in the next few months. It's half-term, and loads of folks on hols, which is probably why I haven't heard from G. College next week, then who knows what...

Recently, I is mostly...
Topic: Recently, I is mostly...
...Reading

A fantastic account of university in London in the eighties (and not so far off my experience of uni in Leeds in the early nineties - just different music)

...Watching

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The more I watch this, the more I love it. I hear a second series is planned, so I'm happy. Bizarrely, they're showing it on FX channel in the UK which a very few folks who have Sky can get. It's the kind of thing I would once have expected Channel 4 to pick up. Oliver Platt is a genius and I can't help but like the obnoxious oaf. And I've always had a soft spot for Hank Azaria (yes, even through his bizarro south american accents he was so fond of a few years ago). Great writing, once you work out that the son is supposed to sound corny and geeky (it's a character trait integral to the story - why they didn't make this more obvious in the first episode, when I just wanted to chunder at his 'concern' over his father's mental health...)

...Listening

Over, and over, and over again. I LOVE this tune - it's beginning to drive Mr LMG a bit mad (he he he)

...Eating

I'm not keen on meat at the minute, so I've been munching down on veggie delights such as the humble falafel, served in a wholemeal pitta, with shredded lettuce and tzatziki. Mmmm. Look at that low GI loveliness...

...Drinking

No surprises there - I do have an assignment due...

...Doing

I did this DVD last night for the first time and was pleasantly suprised. Very much in the spirit of Iyengar, very slow and controlled and it uses the ball as a prop, much like Iyengar uses blocks and bricks. Many of the standing poses are done straddled over the ball for support, so they turn out as sitting poses. I think the ball I have was slightly too big for the purpose (you need one you can crouch over on all fours with some support, but not so tall your hands can't reach the floor), but generally a good workout. The space needed isn't too big (about 3 yoga mat widths and 1 yoga mat length would do it), and there's no leaping about, so no strains on your legs if you have concrete floors, or worrying about the neighbours if you live in a flat. I only have a couple of reservations. Firstly, you have to raise the ball above your head at one point - if you're tall or the room is short, the ball will touch the ceiling (but not a deal breaker by any means). The worst thing is Lucy's accent. She drops the 'g's off all her words, which is very annoyin' when she's tellin' us to keep breathin' and movin'. Grrr.

...Wearing

They haven't left my feet yet...

So Doctor Who was great. Christopher Eccleston is just the right combo of cheeky and funny, and the CGI effects blow away the original. Now, growing up in the late 70's early 80's, my 'Doctor Who' was Tom Baker and then Peter Davidson, but I always preferred Tom Baker. Chritopher is almost as good, and I think the BBC have really pulled it off. Purposely haven't read any other reviews yet in case they all say it was shite, but I loved it.

After watching Dr Who, Mr LMG persuaded me to go out on the razzle in the local bars. I would have been perfectly fine curled up on the sofa, but he was getting cabin fever. So, plenty of red wine was consumed. Bad idea. Woke up on Sunday morning with a raging hangover combined with the worst PMT I have ever experienced. It was not a good day. I had a leg of lamb which I was cooking for friends. They both let us down, so I was left with an enormous leg of lamb and just 2 of us. Argghhhhh! Plus Mr LMH hadn't bought all the ingredients (the recipe needs 6 carrots, 3 red onions, 3 parsnips and a head of celeriac - he totally forgot the celeriac and came back with 4 carrots, 2 onions and 2 parsnips???eh?) so I had to try and find a shop that was open on Easter Sunday. Finally got all the ingredients together and made Jamie Oliver's 5 hour braised leg of lamb from The Return of the Naked Chef. Excellent as always - top tip though - remove the foil for the last 20-30 minutes to get a crispy caramelised finsih to the veggies. Whilst waiting the unfeasible 5 hours for dinner to cook, we watched Baz Luhrmann's Romeo And Juliet, one of my fave raves with PMT! A good old weep was just what I needed, and now I really have to go find that Des'ree song now.

Then we watched Anonymous Rex which was a TV movie of the fabulous Eric Garcia book. Both me and Mr LMG have read the books so were a bit perturbed by what they had done to the storyline. They made the best premise of the book, the latex human suits, into a high tech computer thing, which didn't really work for us. Also, they invented a new character in Ernie's daughter, which didn't really work. The whole thing had an air of extended pilot and I could see how they might turn it into a proper series. A slightly disappointed 6/10.

As you can see, I didn't do a spot of work on the assignment - oh crap. So, knuckling down to it any minute now, honest...

New computer
The time has come. I have looked into my options and if I try to upgrade my poor wee 'puter it will cost me virtually the same as a new one, especially when you factor in the time it would take me or the cost of getting someoone else do to it. The new one is more than twice the spec at less than half the price I paid for the old one over 3 years ago. Plus I can then either sell the old one to somewhere for a fiver or donate to a charity scheme (which I couldn't do if I started to try and butcher it). Amd with that decision made, I can now go back to the assignment...

Where is everyone?
No-one posting this weekend? Must all be having lovely Easter weekend entertainments. Personally I am trying to finish this bloody assignment - and now I know what is wrong with my company and there is no hope - we're all doomed.

In between, I am downloading music and then realising that somehow in the mp3 player fiasco I have managed to lose contact with my sound card. Eh??? What have I done? The computer desperately needs to go and get a good seeing to - more hard drive etc, and fix this annoying problem with the Zen. I'm almost tempted to revert to Windows 98, but that just sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn't it? I could wimp out totally and buy a new computer, but I've been looking at my finances. I cannot afford a retirement. Yes, I'm only 31, but the future looks bleak unless I start saving some serious dosh. The house is Mr LMG's, so I have NO EQUITY - Yikes!

Tonight, the fantastic Dr Who is back, and I am SOOO exciting it's untrue. So we're going out to lunch to Little Tokyo, just for a change (not). As in, rather than go out to dinner tonight, which we normally do on a Saturday. Just so I can watch crap tv. Sad, isn't it.

Then this afternoon, Mr LMG is watching the footie, and I'm back to the bloody assignment. Grrr. The only saving grace is the stack of CD's I have waiting to listen to. Yay.

Getting there...
Heard back from G - he wanted to know position and salary, so I upgraded myself straight past senior engineer to principal, also stating that when the MBA is finished I'd want to be associate. Salary wise, I think I was fairly conservative (but still a 10% increase on what I'm on now). Maybe I should just have blagged it and asked for associate and #10k more? Will sit and wait now and see what he puts on the table.

Last night I had the worst gym session in years, which I put down to hayfever. I could scarcely lift any weight at all, so stuck to about 60%HR cardio for 30 minutes. Hardly worth going at all. Food has been better over the past couple of days. As I keep saying - why is it that I seem to be able to do one or the other, but not food AND exercise together? I need something like Food Doctor meets Fat Girl Slim meets BFL meets Jamie Oliver. Anita Bean was promising but the recipes are dire. Fat Girl Slim would be excellent (great recipes) but no accounting for exercise. I can see an opening in the market - 'LMG's gourmet diet for runners and lifters'. I'll add it to my list to do before I'm 40:
Finish MBA
Get a book published
Finish a 4:30 marathon (New York?)
Visit Japan
Find our perfect house

Actually, I could make it the book to be published, couldn't I? I was hoping for a novel, but my prose is probably too abrupt and I would have to come up with some really good ideas. I have 9 years left, but I should think about these things now.

That's given me an idea for a future post - 'Our perfect house'...

Stuff
Lots of little things (and big things) keeping my head busy today. Firstly, we managed to save the photos but it took till 11pm! Good grief.

Harry Hill was ok, but not really my thing - I prefer my surreal a bit more surreal and less silly.

Lunch with the outlaws was dreadful - carvery. Grim.

Still haven't heard back from G and I am getting more and more irritated by work. I've definitely lost my va va voom. It doesn't help that I am writing an assignment n why my company is bad at giving feedback - so I'm having constant negative thoughts about how things are done round here.

To pull me out of this fug, I have packed a healthy tuna and blck olive salad with wholemeal pitta, plus my gym kit. A good session should sort out my head.

Mr LMG has a job interview today. We both need a bit of a change career wise I think.

Oh, and belated St Paddy's days greetings. I had't realised that I changed the blog to green on the day! Silly me. I didn't even drown the shamrock this weekend. Getting far too sensible in my old age.

Must knuckle down to some productive work now - my 'to do' list is beckoning...

Tech Trauma
We are in the midst of a gigantic technology trauma. Mr LMG may just have deleted 40% of the photos from his Antartica trip. Arghhhhh! A little knowledge is not a good thing. Top tip - copy the images to an online album before trying to burn to CD - this may save your Saturday evening. We still haven't eaten, and it shows no signs of improving...