Diets

I have been having a bit of trouble with my knee so I bought a book about the 7 Day Arthritis Diet. The first day is a fast and then gradually adding fruit and veg - you know, the usual rabbit food. But I thought it would be worth a try so I fasted on Friday and this meant, in addition to no food, no coffee; ditto for the 7 days. By Sat. evening I had a ferocious headache and then Leo invited me for dinner so, guess what? End of 7 day diet. Lots of coffee this morning - feel great. This morning I was surfing around the net and I stumbled upon the diet for me. See below.


Man loses weight eating sugary snacks
A nutrition expert has managed to lose nearly two stone in 10 weeks by just eating sugary snacks. How?

Apparently what he discovered during this research was that it is the calories that count not the type of food. (Do you think someone actually funded this research?) Anyway, I like his approach and I'm willing to give it a try. Today is the perfect day to start since I am having a friend and her friends around for a birthday supper for her. She is a celiac so I offered to make a gluten free birthday cake. The cake is baked and looks okay but the proof of the pudding is in the blah blah blah. Of course I have a fridge full of healthy food for the now defunct arthritis diet and I should eat that before I go out and stock up with cake, crisps, pizzas etc. I will post updates on this scientific investigation.

My first fire

I had some people round for dinner on Wednesday and one of them offered to come a bit early to light a fire for me in my big old stone fireplace. I had the chimney swept two years ago but never took the next step; i.e. firelighting. I provided the wood and he set to work. Unfortunately, the chimney failed to draw properly and we soon had a room full of smoke. I opened the doors and waved a towel around but when the rest of the people arrived, they had to sit in a cold room watching a smoking fire. James rushed across the road to the Baptist Church and borrowed a fire extinguisher just in case. The one thing that worked perfectly was the fire alarm. In spite of this excitement, it was a great evening. We moved into the smoke free back room and enjoyed dinner.

Adam

Adam came yesterday afternoon and spent the night. We usually go out for a film and a meal but he was all worn out from having been at a birthday party so we stayed home with the telly and some sausages. We are up and at it this morning although 'at it' in our case means cartoons for him and blogging for me. Apparently he had a better night last night by which I mean that he only had to leave my room once for a snoring interlude (me, not him). We took the battery out of the clock so he didn't have to listen to it ticking. When I am with him, I am reminded of what it used to be like when I had good hearing. We will get dressed pretty soon and hit Starbucks.

Down to earth after Halloween

This is no trick. It is Sian with her treat.



The boy with his best girls

More Halloween

Carving pumpkins is a hoot. Mummy Ali looking good as a witch!

Weekend in Brighton

I love Halloween especially when there is a kid involved.

Sunday morning in bed with the Mummies (Grandma behind the camera)