Thomas John Williams

The baby arrived this morning by C-section. Mother and son doing well. He weighed 7 lbs. I've been with Harry today so have not yet seen the new prince. I'll go tomorrow with camera and re-post. Alison has taken two pictures with her iphone and posted them on Facebook - Alison Williams

January

We are almost finished with January. It has been a good month for me. My self improvement projects include
-continuing with meditation course
-acupuncture
-talk therapy - finished for the time being
-regular walking
-food intake reduction otherwise known as diet
-gardening
-SAD lamp

I decided I was fed up with being depressed so I would pull out all the stops for self help. Of course it is not a controlled trial but I'm not a scientist. So far my mix 'em up method is working and that's all that matters.

The ongoing WLC

WLC stands for weight loss challenge. There are five of us in this group; all family and international. We have each logged a starting weight and we weigh in once a week on Friday mornings. We started on Jan 1 and plan to continue until the end of June. After two weeks, everyone is doing well but it is early days. I think the companionship will be a great help. We each have little tricks that we can share. Mine is to have a dinner party on Friday or Saturday evenings (after the weigh in) and throw caution to the wind then spend the rest of the week making up for the party and trying for a pound or two down.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELISABETH

Although we were three weeks late, we celebrated Elisabeth's 96th birthday yesterday. We couldn't do it on the day because of the snow. Elisabeth is fantastic. She still works and maintains a busy schedule. She teaches Alexander Technique and was originally trained by Mr. Alexander himself. She is slim and energetic and puts me to shame. It is a privilege to have her as a friend.

Christmas

I missed out on Christmas and New Year but let me report that they were great, especially Christmas. We went to John and Pat in Eastbourne and they provided a wonderful Christmas day. I came home on the 27th. There had been a lot of snow in the couple of weeks before Christmas so I went to Brighton on the bus. It works quite well - coach from the corner of my street down to Gatwick and then a second coach from there to Brighton. The only drawback was not being able to take Harry's present and the case of wine for John and Pat. I will have to make a second trip to Eastbourne with the wine although I used some of it a couple of evenings ago for an excellent dinner party. The dinner was a great success although it threw me way off track for the weight loss challenge. I had decided that January would be a dry month but faced with the coq au vin and other yummy food plus having spent the day getting everything ready, I succumbed to the call of the grape. It was worth it. It is hard to beat Chateauneuf du Pape. I'm back on the wagon and the food deprivation thing again although I had Rosie round today and she begged for a trip to MacDonald's so I ended up eating chicken McNuggets. Whoops. I'll have to starve for the rest of the week. We do our weigh in on Friday morning so I have five days. I won the first week and I would like to keep up the good work.

Roger

My friend Roger died today. I am very sad. I went to his house each week to read to him. I will miss him.