Gingerjo’s Blog

I was wanting to go to the full three days of the conference in Blackpool, but the first two days clashed with the North Wales HE Fairs.  I just went as a day delegate for the final day, today instead.  It wasn’t quite what I was expecting (I’ve never been before).  It was definitely more relaxed than conferences I’ve been to in the past - or perhaps I was just more relaxed.  I’ve only really been to science conferences before, where I always felt very self-conscious just in case I upset, offended or made an idiot of myself in front of a big load of professors who I then might want to work for one day. Since Admissions/Recruitment staff aren’t quite so mobile (they don’t move from university to university and country to country to find work) I think the pressure was off. 

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Well, the two North Wales HE Fairs pretty much demonstrated the best and the worst of what HE Fairs can be like.  On Tuesday I went to the North East Wales fair in Wrexham.  The organisers were really friendly and helpful, all the information I received in advance was complete and well-organised, on the day the flow of potential applicants was steady so they had plenty of time to chat with university reps if they wanted, they stopped for lunch to give us all a rest, they fed us a fantastic buffet meal and there was an unlimited flow of free tea and coffee.  Just brilliant.

On Wednesday, I went to the North West Wales HE Fair in Llandudno.  The information they sent in advance was incomplete so I didn’t know what times the fair would be open, nor did I have any contact details so that I could find out. At least finding the place and parking was easy, but I had to hike all the way in to the building and back to get the free parking permit which added 10 minutes to my set up time.  The flow of students was all over the place so stands were mobbed for half an hour, then there’d be no-one for ages so it can’t have been a very useful experience for the students.  Then there was no-one after about 1pm so we all had to sit like lemons for an hour until the organisers would let us pack up.  Worst of all they didn’t close for lunch.  I think the idea was that you would grab a quick buttie from the coffee bar, but having tasted their foul and disgusting coffee I decided to give it a miss.  We were given two free coffee tickets (which is really stingy) but I doubt if anyone used both.

The students themselves though were quite well informed which is always good to see.

Phew.  I’m not sure if it’s a good idea after my miserable failure to complete the last 10 week OU course I enrolled on but I have just joined the new T189 Digital Photography: Creating and Sharing Better Images course at the OU.  It doesn’t start until May and I’m hoping that work will have quietened down enough for me to have time to complete this course.  It’s only level 1 so I’m hoping it won’t involve quite as much homework as the last one.  It says you do photography exercises every week.  At least in May/June the weather should be nice with long evenings so maybe Mark and I can combine the exercises with evening walks while I look for things to take photos of.  Knowing my luck though it will involve setting up still life images in the living room with fruit and sheep skulls.  That was all we ever seemed to do in Art lessons in school. Deeply uninspiring.

Since it was such lovely weather today we went out for a bit of a walk in the sunshine.  Mark suggested that we should go to Heaton Park.  I had always just assumed that it was a big load of fields with some woods and lots of druggies laying around or intimidating people.  Turns out I was wrong.  I can’t believe I’ve never been! It’s lovely, if a little run down.

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It all went a bit pear-shaped on days 10-14 really, especially over the weekend.  There was a serious incident with a large bag of crisps and a pot of humous for a start.  Then there was the fact that I ran out of Oatibix at work so had to have a buttie for my lunch one day. Then there were a couple of episodes where a third bowl of cereal somehow found it’s way into my digestive system. However, at the end of the two weeks I have officially lost 3.5lbs.  I think that’s a fantastic result for so little effort. 

As diets go this one would be great if you’ve been on holiday, put on a few pounds and just want to get back to the weight you were before. I’m not sure it would continue working long term, or that it would be healthy either, but I reckon two weeks on, two weeks off or one week on, one week off is worth further investigation.  It’s the easiest (and cheapest) diet I’ve ever done.

I’ll certainly be eating breakfast from now on too - I feel so much better for it.  Initially I felt a bit bloated after every bowl of cereal. I don’t think my body knew quite what to do with it - I hardly ever ate wholegrain. It seems to have got the hang of it now though.  I definitely found the Oatibix most filling for longer - I think it’s because oats contain a lot of soluble fibre.  I also like the taste of Oatibix the best too. 

That’s my recommendation - 60g Oatibix with 200ml skimmed milk twice a day.  It’s dead easy and I didn’t really get hungry.  I also ate whatever the hell I wanted (within reason) for my tea, nor did I skimp on the portions.  I have noticed my portions getting smaller though, I just seem to get fuller quicker.  Maybe that’s a happy side-effect?

At last! It’s only taken me 10 months but I’ve finally finished my webpages on our holiday to Wiltshire last May.  We had a brilliant time visiting Avebury, Stonehenge, Salisbury, Longleat Safari Park and Lacock Abbey and village.  I’ve only got the pages on the holidays to Wales and Prague to finish now (well start actually) before we go off to Norfolk in a few weeks.  I can’t see that happening really.  Anyway, if you’re vaguely interested you can see our holiday snaps at my Wiltshire Holiday pages.

The crew of Bolton fire station have been holding a charity car wash today to raise money for Red Nose Day.  I’m afraid the idea of getting my little zebra car all soaped up by 6 burly fellas was far too tempting an opportunity to miss so I joined the queue and handed over a hopefully generous amount of cash.  To start off we got thoroughly soaked with a fire hose and then drove inside the station where the guys pounced on us with their sponges and gave us a thorough going over.  I confess to a little guilty delight, but hey, it’s for charity.  I love RND is all I can say.  How long is it till next year?

After the crisis on Sunday I decided to try a day of recommended portion sizes to see how I got on.  My colleagues were as horrified as myself at the miserly crumbs in the bottom of my bowl.  Needless to say I was starving only an hour after eating.  And you can imagine what happened what I went to do my weekly shop after work …

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So yesterday afternoon was my first volunteering session for the Made in Africa exhibition at Bolton Museum. It was great the see the exhibit in all this glory - with the finished perspex cases displaying the tools and images on the walls.  I was there, with a member of the museum staff, to man the handling table. The table has a rubber mat on top so that if someone drops one of the artefacts it would land on the soft rubber, limiting the possibility of damage.

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Now I realise I should have done this at the start, but better late than never I guess.  I bought small bowls from Ikea last weekend - these bowls are half the size of normal bowls.  Everyone at work has commented on how small my cereal bowl is.  Not unreasonably I thought that one of these little bowls filled up would be about the right portion size.  Not so.  I’ve just weighed the various cereals I have at home and found that a recommended portion only half fills my small bowl.  HALF FILLS IT!  How small does the bowl need to be for Christ’s sake?  And why don’t they sell bowls the right bloody size? The consequence of this is that I’ve been eating DOUBLE the amount of cereal I’m supposed to be eating.

Moreover this explains why I’m overweight in the first place.  If you have a bowl you tend to fill or nearly fill it.  You assume that bowls are made to hold a portion of about the right size.  However, if all the bowls and plates you can buy hold twice as much food as you’re supposed to eat you are going to get fat pretty quickly.

Weight Watchers are missing a product opportunity here - they should sell a slimmer’s range of crockery and possibly cutlery too. Specially designed so that it’s difficult for you to fit too many calories on your plate.

I have to confess I’m rather annoyed and upset by this.  Basically now I need to start the diet from scratch again, weighing out all my portions and putting them in little plastic bags to take to work.  I thought this one was supposed to be an easy diet!