Category Archives: General thoughts

Enter New Term Here.

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Term time is about to start here in UCD. The campus is already very busy, with the many graduations we have going on as well. Car parking is a nightmare, but thankfully I’m a public transport girl, so I’m relatively unaffected.

I’ve seen this guy…

I always say I won’t write during this semester, or during September, but what happens is that the stories decide now is the perfect  time to arrive, and I find my head is buzzing with ideas and stories and scenes and all the rest. I am seriously considering getting up at 5.30am to do this, but I don’t think I would last. My good humour certainly wouldn’t.

And finally, I am 134 pages into White Feathers. Susan Lanigan makes all of us look like hacks. Yes, sorry she does.

The very last day without sugar

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A.k.a I have the willpower of a squashed gnat.

It has been a long and winding road, my readers. We’ve had highs. We’ve had lows. We have had questionable formatting and poor planning of texts. We’ve had continuous denial and repeated suggestions. One thing we haven’t had is weight loss. Nor, for that matter, have we had much improvement in character, which was the stated plan of all this in the first place.

So did I learn anything, from all this? A plan is nothing without an effort. An effort is nothing without repetition. And for each effort to be worth something, it has to be with the eye on the prize. Delayed gratification… always a problem.

So this particular trek is at an end. Here comes the new start of term and all that it brings. Will post away on all of that, and no doubt there might be some odds and ends along the way. Talk to you soon.

100 Days without Sugar – 32 days to go.

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New newbies be reading and stuff here; Our heroine had successfully made her way to the clearing, and is gingerly calling out hello. Shocked at the shocking state of her, she resolves to do without sugar for 100 days.

And that you all should hear about it, you lottery winning so and so’s.

Now read on.

Friday 18 July 2014:

I’m fried. The usual demands of the week plus zero carbs plus the kid having weird sleep cycles means that I was less than the fastest in the pool. Frankly, though, there is nothing to be gained by being anything less than impressed with myself, the days of giving out to myself are over. They change nothing and usually only make things worse.

So the change with the thunder and the lightening that we had this morning, heck I just went with it. I think that this kind of extreme weather is great, I love this short lived change. Makes life interesting.

But I’m on the merry go round so much these days I barely meet folk for coffee, or relax….I am not sure I would know how to do so if I had to. Relaxing sounds like empty space, not sure I do very well with that.

And here comes the weekend. Hope you all have a good one.

 

 

100 Days without sugar – 36 Days to go

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New newbies be reading and stuff here; Our heroine had successfully battled her way out of the giant cardboard box she was erroneously posted in, but has  left herself with a thousand  paper cuts.  Shocked at the shocking state of her, she resolves to do without sugar for 100 days.

And that you all should hear about it, you quixotic cray-cray people.

Now read on…

Monday 14th July 2014

The gritty streets of Dublin. I know these streets. I’ve walked these streets. I know this city’s mood, how it operates. That is the kind of person I am, the hard boiled, battle weary blogger you have come to know so well.  So get comfy, folks. This tale ain’t pretty and it ain’t all nice.

A hand goes up from the audience:

Excuse me? What is this?

Um…

We all know who you are and what you do. The only thing gritty about you is your poorly creamed scones.  Get on with it!

Oh, all right. So indeed there is less likeihood of me being hardboiled then there is of an egg in a poorly run B&B in Torquay, so I may as well revert back to normality. Which is that that all things are normal. I managed to go for a run this weekend on Sunday, which is nice because it will make up for the scones and cream I scoffed on Saturday. Swings and roundabouts people. I managed to continue the swimming this morning and received a drink of water from the lifeguard, which means either I am so impressive that he got me water in support or that I am so unimpressive that he got me water in concern. More likely that he was just being nice, and was bored, it’s pretty quiet in there right now.

I aim to have not one but two days without carbs this week, as well as going without sugar. I’m not sure I will be able to stand it. You will no doubt be full of support, and not post pictures of cake, or anything? Would hate to have that to look at.

100 Days without sugar – 39 Days to go

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New newbies be reading and stuff here; Our heroine had successfully battled her way out of the jungle, but has slowly eased herself over a waterfall. Shocked at the shocking state of her, she resolves to do without sugar for 100 days.

And that you all should hear about it, you random chance delightful vanilla favoring people.

Now read on…

Friday 11th July 2014

So, yesterday. Zero carb day. It wasn’t great, by any means. For one thing, I will need to be providing myself with something else to eat. Think about it, when there is no chance of any sugar, and no wheat, there isn’t much left that can be called a snack. Peanuts. Cheese. One thing I used to eat was Mascapone cheese sweetened, as it did silence the raging beast within. Will have to get some in.

I noticed again an angry woman I’ve been seeing on my way to work each morning. The bus I take stops at a particular stop that she waits at each morning. She is always there, arms folded, furious. I noticed how her chin will jut out and her shoulders give a micro-shrug as she stands there, eyes looking at something in the distance. She’s arguing with someone in her head, some person that she combated with the night before over the spaghetti ragu or the duvet cover, some soul who she takes with her each day and continues the argument. She is only slightly aware of what she doing, where she is, when she is standing there, and she is going over each word said, each word she might have said, while standing at the bus stop. Short pink padded coat, cut at the hip, with arms folded over in defiance. I don’t see her every morning, but when I do, she is always angry.

I wonder why we do that to ourselves. I don’t have any firm or clear faith but I have heard that hell is where we send ourselves; that if we could only open the prison of our repeated expectations of consciousness, we would be free from the pain we have placed on ourselves. It is patronising on my part, but I look at her and am reminded of that. I see in her my own tendency to have the same argument, to have the same expectations, and wonder what it would take for her to see what she is going. And what it would take for me to do the same.

Anyways. Happy Friday, people.

100 Days without Sugar – 40 exciting days to go.

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New newbies be reading and stuff here; Our heroine had successfully battled her way out of the jungle, but has slowly eased herself over a waterfall. Shocked at the shocking state of her, she resolves to do without sugar for 100 days.

And that you all should hear about it, you random chance delightful vanilla favoring people.

Now read on…

I think I will give this zero carb thing a go. But I will try for one day this week, and then two for next week.

So, no carbs.

That means

  • No wheat
  • No rice
  • No pasta
  • No bread
  • No crackers
  • No potatoes
  • No anything, really.

So that pretty much leaves me with my arms swinging when it comes to food. Between that and no sugar, fairly quiet around here.

This is actually a gif. Just a really boring one.

So, other than seeing the trailer for The Giver, I’ve very little to report. And how are you?

100 Days without Sugar – 54 Exciting Days to Go!

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New newers be doing something here; Our heroine had successfully lost over 60 lbs, but has slowly gained back a stone. Shocked at the shocking state of her, she resolves to do without sugar for 100 days.

And that you all should hear about it, you random chance favoring people.

Now read on…

Thursday 26 June 2014: I’ve been sick one way or another for most of this week. A flu-like stomach bug hit me on Sunday and I have only really recovered since yesterday. And when I say recovered, I mean it has now become a wet-nosed cold.

Like this fella.

I managed to keep the swims up bar this morning, as I can feel the cold moving to my chest and just didn’t need to add to that. But I’m here, I’m alive, all is well.

Speaking of all is well, can I direct you to the marvellous news? Re Susan Lanigan, the brilliant and marvellous and brave Susan? You can order it on Amazon, you know. Gwan gwan gwan, do. Be your best friend!

 

100 Days without sugar – 60 days to go

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New starters reading here; Our heroine had successfully lost over 60 lbs, but has slowly gained back a stone. Shocked at the shocking state of her, she resolves to do without sugar for 100 days.

And that you all should hear about it, you lucky starlight shiny people.

Now read on…

Friday 20th June 2014 – so yes, I fell off the sugar wagon (is there such a thing) while out to dinner on Wednesday. I had what was called a Nutella cheesecake. The first bite was heaven, the second was good and by the time I finished it, I found it too stodgy and rich. But of course I did finish it. If you’re given a plate of food, you finish it.

“I own y’all, bitches.”

I was back in the pool Thursday. I didn’t want to be there, I was tired, fed up with myself, etc. When a voice of reason I seemed to have from goodness knows where popped into my head.

“Don’t decide if you can. See if you can.”

It is actually very good advice, and not just for moments like that. It could be applied to a lot of life. Well, that seemed to do it. I finished up with the usual sprint at 40 seconds, and got on with the day. Same with today, finished with a sprint, and am now at my desk about to start the day.

One thing, though. I am boring myself with all this whining. It is not as though sugar is that fascinating a subject to begin with, and here I am going on and on about it. And there are another sixty days to go (you can see me breaking out with my Miss Personality Blogpost).

I’m at my desk, I’m going to get this day started and I’m going to come up with more interesting things to think about, and talk about, then sugar. So go me. tummy rumbles.