Welcome to London

Broccoli and cauliflower

I've been on the Cambridge diet for the last 10 days as I have been lax recently and allowed my weight to shoot up. I could feel my clothes tightening but avoided the scales. I was a bit horrified when I did eventually step on them to see 17 stone!

Thankfully I have not found going back on the diet very hard and my weight is now down to 15 stone 12 lbs. I decided to come off the diet yesterday and may go back on it after the weekend I still need to get my weight down a stone or two but would like to do this without resorting to the Cambridge diet if possible.

I had a bag of broccoli and cauliflower for dinner yesterday topped with half a tin of chicken in white sauce. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a plate of broccoli as much!

Here's a photo of breakfast which was equally tasty.

Post Apocalypse Fiction Freebies

I cashed in the Amazon voucher that I received for doing a Lovefilm free trial and also a thank you voucher for parking privileges that I was given by a friend. Now I've just got to find the time to read them!

Canal Walk (Part Two)

A bit of the local dialect for this boat name


I managed to gather the energy to do a circuit of one of the lakes in the nature reserve. A meeting of dog packs in the photo below, which I stopped when "Hendrix" started getting amorous with Milo.

The dogs did their usual trick of ignoring my command and diving in the river, followed by a roll in the muddy riverbank. The picture below shows them dripping dry back at the marina.

I shlepped into Beeston town centre (where I bought my first house)on my way back home. I stopped for lunch (cambridge bar number 3 of the day) at the beekeeper statue bench. The beekeeper is modelling Rosa's recycled thermos which came in handy on it's first outing with me. (In your face Cafe Nero (the shop behind the statue) - I've got a thermos!)
I was all tuckered out by this stage, and so was Milo, Bruno still had a little energy in the tank. I decided to get the bus rather than do the additional 4 miles or so back home.
Here's Bruno at his masters feet on the bus. I'm noting a theme in my dog photo's - they all seem biased towards Bruno . This isn't intentional it's just that Bruno seems to be clingier, always staking his place at my feet. They got a lot of oohs and aahs from people today and are sleeping like lambs now.

Canal Walk (Part One)

I was thinking about heading to the Lincolnshire coast this morning, to walk the dogs on the beach. Sanity prevailed however (it would involve a 170 mile, 4 hour round trip in the car) and, instead, I left the car at home and followed the canal out to Beeston Marina and the Attenborough nature reserve.


I joined the canal opposite the Magistrates Court, it's a canalside bar area.

I followed the canal for a few miles, passing a couple of eccentric boat moorings
I'm not sure how clear this is but there's a forest of dolls heads on stakes, shop mannequins and assorted treasures, it's been there for years.
This is a new one - the owner was at home, he looked like Catweasel, two barges covered in rubbish, a ramshackle shed and a pack of dogs - living the dream!

I stopped for a rest at the Beeston marina - a nice spot on a sunny day, next to the wildlife reserve.

The granny and grandson in the foreground were having an entertaining spat, whilst grandad parked the barge.


Bruno, ready for more, waiting for me to gobble my Cambridge bar and shift my aching bones. I have been on the Cambridge diet for a week so didn't have a great deal of energy and the circular walk back to my house seemed a bit ambitious at this point.

My camera battery needs a recharge so will post the rest in a little while.