Sunday 22 December 2013

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

A big thank you to my blog readers.  I wish you all a wonderful time with family and friends and everything that's good in the New Year.

I will be spending Christmas with my daughter, son-in-law and my two grandsons and New Year with my son and his wife.  So I don't even have to bid a turkey the time of day!  It will be nice to be spoiled, to watch the glow on the face of my eldest grandchild when he sees the Christmas tree and all the colourfully wrapped presents and to ring in the New Year with sparkling wine at my son and daughter-in-law's house.

As a child I loved Christmas.  We always walked to midnight Mass and I remember how magical the countryside seemed bathed in the light of the stars.  Being Ireland I am sure we had more rain than stars but all I can remember are the frosty nights and the lights on in all the houses across the valley as people got ready for Mass. I loved being allowed to stay up so late!  And then the singing!  My favourite Christmas song of all time is Silent Night.  It was (and still is, no doubt) the closing carol sung at Midnight Mass in Germany and I think it is even more beautiful in its native (German) language.  I will be attending Midnight Mass on Tuesday and I hope my grandson will carry happy memories into the future of a wonderful service with candles and stars and hymns.

Before all that there is the long journey to be absolved - bus, train, bus again then airplane then being collected at the airport.  Snow is not forecast, it is scheduled to be very mild and windy.

I wish each and every one of you a wonderful time.

Sunday 1 December 2013

Mirror Mirror

Help!  I spent yesterday shopping or at least trying to shop for a few sweaters.  No big deal, you might say.  That's what I thought until I stepped in front of the three-way mirrors in the fitting rooms.  Front on I looked OK, tolerable from the back but that sideways view was as deflating as ten burst balloons.  Deflating might even have been the best option.  My question then and now is:  how did I manage to gain so many unsightly bulges?  I have to go up one size in order to get anything to fit and even then.....

I can now understand Snow White's step mother asking that mirror on the wall the all-important question, only mine would have been "do I look big in this?" and the mirror would have no option but to answer "you sure do."

I didn't buy anything.  Instead I told myself I was going on the strictest of strict diets for the next 12 months.  Next question is of course:  how's my self-control? The answer is:  I don't have any.  I like cooking, I like food, I like sweet things like cake and chocolate and we're coming up to Christmas when all these things are going to be even more saliva-inducingly displayed (yeah, I know saliva-inducingly isn't a proper word but right now I have other things to worry about).  And I'm a great believer in the old adage "you only live once".
People with a bit of meat on their bones are usually cheerful, happy, outgoing people or they used to be until the advent of the super-skinny brigade.  Now I suppose they all agonize in private over the extra pounds.  I am trying not to do that.  At the same time I have to confess that when I came down with a bad cold last month (no blogs written as you'll have noticed) I actually lost two pounds in weight and I have been delighted with myself ever since - until I went shopping yesterday that is. I haven't weighed myself again for fear I've gained those pounds again. 

It's all a bit crazy isn't it?  If you meet someone for the first time do you automatically write them off because they are carrying a few extra pounds? I suspect you do what we all do, see them as a whole person and not as a load on a weighing scales. If we are healthy, get enough exercise, eat lots of fruit and vegetables and then have the occasional treat of chocolate or cake, shouldn't that be enough without worrying about being too fat?   That's what I've been telling myself since yesterday when those mirrors revealed the true me.  Of course, I'm going to cut down a tiny bit and eat smaller portions from now on.  With Christmas coming it won't be easy.

Let's look at this weight business again in June of next year, shall we?  In the meantime, a happy Advent season to everyone.