Gingerjo’s Blog

Given that I’d eaten uncontrollably for 4 days last week it didn’t come as a surprise to me that I’d put on weight. But I have to confess I hadn’t expected to have put on 1.5lbs!! So now I’m back exactly where I began since I joined. Fortunately I know that I’ve lost lots more weight prior to this, but I’m still now 2lb behind where I planned to be.

However, when I arrived to weigh in I discovered that I’d won £14 on last week’s raffle which instantly made me feel better. I never win raffles, but I’d purchased lucky number 7 so it must have been fate wanting to keep my spirits up. So I bought a WW spicy cookery book and a oil dispenser pump largely because Mark likes to cook with oil and this way we’ll know exactly how much he’s used so I can point up recipes more easily.

I’m also thinking of trying the core plan next week, but I’m not sure I can give up my chocolatey weetabix minis in a morning. It’s the only chocolate I get!

On the subject of food I promised myself I’d write a quick review of our meal at the Goat Inn, which is on the Caernarfon-Porthmadog road at Glandwyfach half a mile from Bryncir (LL51 9LJ). We’ve eaten there several times before and it’s been great, but the meal we had on Saturday afternoon was just the ticket. Saturday was horrible, cold and raining heavily. By the time we’d got to the car from the house we were soaked.

Fortunately the pub was nice and warm and the menu perfect for a cold autumn day. I had braised steak in onion gravy with new potatoes and vegetables, and Mark had the gammon steak with chips. Usually with gammon you have to choose between egg and pinapple, but not at the Goat - you get both and it’s proper gammon steak too not that horrible reformed stuff. The bowl of chips that came with it was humungous. My steak was completely fat free and melt in the mouth and there was lashings of gravy. We got a big bowl of vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and savoy cabbage) to share (although I ate the lot) and my new potatoes were lovely. I would thoroughly recommend eating here and this was easily my favourite meal of my weekend food splurge.

There are other pubs on the same road with a good reputation but I’ve eaten at those too several times and been disappointed. Next time we’ll be making an evening reservation - the number is 01766 530237. I’ve no idea what the puddings are like though because the main meals are so large that we’ve never had room to even contemplate afters.

I’m really very disappointed in myself. A few days on holiday and I’m back to my old self - stuffing my face. It would appear that half the year on weight watchers has taught me nothing. From Thursday to Sunday all I did was eat. I REALLY enjoyed it though. I had a steak pie followed by black forest gateaux at a Table Table in Dudley, quite a few Lily O’Brien chocolates, traditional fish and chips at the Black Country museum, some more chocolates, creamy mushroom pasta (which was quite grim actually) at a restaurant in Llangollen, lots of crisps, sticky toffee pudding, pea and ham soup with loads of posh bread, braised steak in onion gravy at the Goat Inn on the Caernarfon-Porthmadog road, and some more crisps.

Of course it was nice while it lasted, but I’ve totally scuppered this week’s dieting and may well have put on several pounds. I’ve got my WW meeting this evening which I’m not looking forward to, but Joy is nothing like Majorie from Fat Fighters so I’m hoping all I’ll get is a disappointed/sympathetic look.

I’m back on the diet with a vengence now though. Vegetables all round tonight then.

I never thought I’d see it again, but the price of petrol has dipped to 99.9p a litre. Even better I couldn’t be bothered filling my car up yesterday for 103.99p a litre so my tank was almost completely empty when I filled up today. Nice.

Result! Debenhams in Bolton had a pair of my shoes left, the last pair, in my size - so I’ve bagged them. They’re perfect, apart from the fact I can’t walk in them yet… but I’ve got 6 months to practice. I’m sure I’ll have mastered it by then.

They are silver 3 inch heeled strappy sandals made of a see-though mesh peppered with little silvery-white crystals. They don’t sound great described this way but they really are lovely. I’m so pleased.

And by the way, happy birthday Cathy Wyse whereever you are these days!

Perhaps I shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t help it, honestly I couldn’t. I saw this dress in Debenham’s yesterday and fell in love with it. So I went back and bought it today.

I can’t even do it up, but I’m sure it’ll fit perfectly once I’ve lost another stone or so. (Or however much I have to lose for it to look fabulous - I’ll starve myself for a month or more if I have to). It’s an empire line midnight blue satin full length evening dress with a silver and peacock blue bead and sequin pattern on the cups and straps and waistband.

It’s exactly what I’d imagined. I’ve never considered a white or ivory wedding dress. I’ve always wanted something spangly and blue. With sparkley shoes and a sparkley handbag. And a crystal tiara and jewellery. I might have to lose my glasses for the day though.

I also found some Roland Cartier shoes that I thought would be perfect but they only had them in a size 8 and they won’t be getting anymore in because they are summer shoes - end of the line. I guess it’s coming up to Christmas though so sparkley shoes shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Mark has a hatred of limousines, stretch limousines, hummers or stretch hummers - he thinks they are chavvy, which of course they are. So when I asked him how we were going to get to and from the church (I’d ruled out walking or getting a taxi), Mark suggested we look for something big, classic and American. With wings!

After a quick google (ahh glorious google) we found Voyager Classics Car Rentals who wll let you rent a classic car for five hours and sort out a chauffeur for you. As soon as we heard the music on the website we knew we were in the right place. We’ve booked Chelsea, a bright red ‘57 Chevy as our ride. It’s going to be fab. She’s beautiful.

We had to phone up to make the booking but the staff were really friendly and helpful. That shouldn’t really come as a surprise though because the car and chauffeur are actually costing more than the wedding itself. Still we’ve got the car for 5 hours - the wedding is only 6 minutes so it’s probably a bargain!

After a lot of deliberation, viewing of websites and emails back and forth to America we’ve chosen the Little Church of the West as the venue for our wedding.

It will be a very plain affair - we’ve watched the sample service on their website so we know what to expect - about a 6 minute wedding. One reviewer said their guests had travelled 3000 miles to see their wedding but had turned up 8 minutes late and missed the whole thing. I thought that was quite amusing.

The Little Church has mixed reviews, but anywhere that performs 30-odd weddings a day is bound to make mistakes from time to time, and to be honest, their website was really the only one that offered clear information. All the others were very vague about what you actually got for your money and I didn’t want to phone them and suffer the hard sell. Besides it has lots of history, or at least as much history as you can muster in 60 years. It’s been moved 3 times - how many other churches have toured the Las Vegas strip?

We weren’t tempted by an Elvis wedding, but Mark is toying with the idea of turning up in chaps and a stetson (I think he’s kidding but I’m not 100% sure).

We’ve ordered the 30 days of webcam viewing and a couple of DVDs so everyone who wants to see us get hitched can, safe in the knowledge that they’ll only have to sit through a few minutes of ceremony.

I’ve asked my sister to give me away. She says she’ll cry so it’s a good job they’ve invented waterproof mascara.