I don’t get many comments on the blog website but I did get one this evening from my friend the little Red Fraggle herself. She basically said “come back to updating, Pip x”. 

I’ve been considering a blog post for a while although there’s not much good news to relay, especially when I consider what’s happening with my weight.

The last four months have been a bit of a living hell and the only way that I feel able to cope with it has been to eat junk. Bread and butter, chips, takeaway, biscuits, chocolate, crisps, everything I had been so disciplined with has come back into my life. The result being that neigh on three stone has been put back on. 

I feel so disappointed with myself and so stupid for letting myself go back to the old ways that I had hoped to banish from my life.

My last post said that I wasn’t going to perform an autopsy on the reasons for this as it’s quite obvious as to why. I do perhaps need to look at the reasons why.

1) Covid.

Probably a bit obvious this one. Covid has been with us for about a year now but since Lockdown in March it’s accounted for the removal of Slimming World from my life.

Okay, yes I know it’s gone virtual and that others have still done massively well through lockdown and have lost weight and continue to do so. Congratulations to those people you are doing unbelievably well and I applaud your efforts. 

Covid has also accounted for me working from home for the last 8 months with very little sign of returning to the office. This results in less that 1000 steps per day. Walking to the bus and the office, taking a walk at lunchtime and then walking back to the bus usually accounts for 4000 steps in a day. I’m not doing that and I’ve not been for a proper walk since August. (That time I tried to run/walk type thing). However, I have bought a bike!

Working from home does have its benefits though. I’m working from home and while I don’t see my colleagues it does mean that I don’t spend hours commuting every day. I finish at five or thereabouts and I’m home. 🙂 

I realise as I type this that it sounds like I’m making excuses. There’s no reason why I can’t get in the car now and drive down to Roath Park spending an hour just wandering. I don’t even need to get in the car. I could just get the boots on and head out for a quick wander now. But it’s nice and toasty in the house and brass monkeys out there tonight.

I did go.

2) The Mum

Again, an obvious one if you’ve been following the blog. If not then a quick recap. Mum has been diagnosed with dementia and that’s along with her lupus, mobility and other issues.

She had a fall in August and waited for nearly 8 hours before calling for help. The ambulance was called and she was taken to A&E. That’s the last time that I saw her.

Thanks to Covid (see #1), the hospital wards and the Care Homes are closed to visitors. Despite English homes being open to visits, Welsh care homes have different ideas. 

Mum’s place emailed last week to say that a member of staff there had tested positive for Covid. As such, the doors have been closed for four weeks. 

There was me looking forward to seeing mum for her birthday on the 13th. That’s not going to happen and then there was the prospect of spending Christmas Day alone.

I’m 51 and in all that time I think I may have missed out on one Christmas when I was in my late teens. We’ve always done Christmas and New Years day although NYD is usually me feeling as rough as ten bears! It’s going to be a strange day without her. I hope that I’ll at least get a video chat.

Luckily my wonderful Cousin has stepped in and offered me a place at her table with her family on Christmas Day. She lives locally to me (Well, about a 50 minute walk away 90 minutes if I’ve had a rum or two!) so I will be with family for the day. She’s done a bit of genealogy for the family so I’m hoping that I can see some of her research and add some perhaps for Mum’s side which she may not have.

The house is now on the market and I’ve started to move some of the tech out and the filing which I need to go through to shred anything that’s not necessary.

Someone made an offer on the house but it was £30k less than the asking price so that was never going to be accepted. We will be dropping the asking price in a few weeks but there have been no viewings in the last week. Let’s hope that the New Year will step things up a gear and get the place sold so I can relax a bit.

3) The Future

Where am I going to go from here? Well, apart from getting fatter and fatter, I’m probably going to wait for the New Year. I’ll get Christmas out of the way. Gorge myself on mince pies and the usual Christmas fare. Once that’s out of the way then I will concentrate on 2021 as part two.

No plans and no promises but by Christmas 2021, I won’t be alone.