More nights oot...

Tuesday 17th we were off oot again, this time to Phil Cunningham's Christmas Songbook at the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh.  Had a brilliant time, singing along to some great songs.  Phil's jokes were as bad as ever and Karen Matheson and Eddi Reader were brilliant.  Surprise visit by Santa himself....

Someone else has posted a clip on youtube from the gig the night before we went - enjoy ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ1rWlFT0go

Friday 20th was Christmas lunch with my new colleagues at work.  We started before lunch at Bar Kohl, Edinburgh and enjoyed a cocktail or two before moving on for lunch at Maxies Bistro.  Relaxed atmosphere, great food and plenty of wine, what more do you need?  No photos this time and I was quite restrained for once, they are new colleagues after all!

Busy week

Well, it's been a busy week.

Monday,  I started a new post at work, back to being the new girl learning the ropes rather than the old hand who knows the issues inside out.  Spent most of the time trying to look busy, while masking the fact that I don't have a clue what I should be doing.  I know from past experience though that before long I'll be so busy I won't have enough time to do it all in.  Two meetings on Wednesday, including a trip to Glasgow.

On Wednesday I also took my mum to the new SSE Hydro in Glasgow to see Andre Rieu.  I knew nothing about him, but my mum's a fan and it was a birthday present.  I could appreciate the musicianship and the showmanship, but it's not really my cup of tea.  The audience loved it though, he really has some serious fans.  I thought a woman was going to faint when Andre was first waiting to enter the arena!  Here's a picture of the man himself (from the big screen)...

As for the Hydro, there was plenty of legroom but boy are the seats uncomfortable.

Saturday, I went to the Christmas Market in Edinburgh, got there early so it wasn't too busy and the weather wasn't that bad.  Had a good look around, but didn't buy anything.  I did have a Bratwurst though, what's a trip to a Christmas market without one!

This week, I also finally managed to get a picture of Charley where he's almost smiling...

Out and about

I've not been stuck at home with maths books and a whiteboard all month.  Hubby and I paid a visit to the National Museum of Scotland, not been since it's been done up.  Very impressed I was too, spent an enjoyable few hours wandering around the exhibits.

Light and airy inside thanks to this ceiling 

Interesting way to exhibit artefacts

We also visited the palace at Linlithgow.  Another interesting building, ruins unfortunately, but one of the few that you can walk through all the rooms on one level so that you do a whole circuit of the building.

The Great Hall - with its large fireplace

M208 - Pure Maths

Well, how's the maths going you might ask.  Ok, first assignment went well - 97% - but included a very silly error where I said the cube root of 64 was 8!  Second block of the course is on group theory.  No idea what it's used for but I much preferred all the talk of groups, subgroups, symmetry, Caley tables and cosets to the content of the first block.  Second assignment sent off, result should be back in a couple of weeks.

Someone on the student forums talked about how useful they found using a whiteboard during the course.  I thought, what a good idea so here's my whiteboard...

Focussed so much on M208 though that I've been neglecting the stats course M346.  So I'm switching to stats for the next week with an assignment due on 10 December.  Wish me luck!

No. 48 Go to a fireworks display

Another one of my 101 things to do in 1001 days achieved - went to a fireworks display for bonfire night. Cold, but a good display which lasted 30 minutes.

Hobonichi Techo

I'm a bit of a stationery addict, well I say a bit of an addict - I have secret stashes of stationery hidden around the house and smuggle it in so my husband doesn't see it!  I don't know what possessed him but he sent me a link to a popular Japanese planner, the Hobonichi Techo that is now available in English.  Well I couldn't resist and ordered one.

After an impatient 5 weeks, it finally arrived this week (the less said about parcelforce's worldwide clearance fee the better).  It's small, but feels lovely and I like the tartan cover I chose (well what else would a Scottish lassie opt for).  Here's some photos...

The box

The cover

The planner itself

The planner in its cover and a plastic cover to protect them

Daily pages on grid paper

The planner starts in December 2013 and runs through 2014, so I can't actually use it yet, but I'm looking forward to it!

London souvenirs

Been a bit quiet on the blog front this week, so thought I'd post some pictures of some souvenirs from our London trip. Of course, this included fridge magnets, even if I've had to make some room for them on our already overloaded fridge (see earlier post!)

You'll notice they are both from historical sites.  I am interested in history, the Tudor period in particular. So while we were at Hampton Court I also bought this Ann Boleyn figure which now hangs in my car...

Diabetes update

Well the diet continues - in 11 and 1/2 weeks I've lost 37 lbs and reduced my BMI by 6.  Best of all, this week I got my latest HBA1c results back (had to get it taken again after 3 months because it had gone up so much!). HBA1c down from 9.7 to 6.1 and I think it would have been even lower had it not been for the London trip. Cholesterol and blood pressure also down. So, everything is going in the right direction. I'm going to continue with it for the next wee while.

Charley

Charley our chocolate Labrador continues to grow, he's now 7 months old...

Cold

Well, I've not got much maths done.  Full of good intentions, but I didn't bank on my darling husband passing on a cold.  I've been under the duvet for a couple of days and am now feeling a lot better. Tutorials still not on the OU website, but my M208 tutor emailed to say the first tutorial will be this Saturday!  I'll need to go because the first assignment is due in by 17th and it has to be posted at least 3 days before...

Open University

Well it's been a busy week since getting back from London.  Had a lot of work to get on with in the office. Also went to see Dunsinane, a kind of follow up to Macbeth, thoroughly enjoyed it apart from the queen's accent which occasionally sounded Caribbean...

From now until June, however, I'm going to have to focus again on my open university studies.  I'm part way through a BSc in Mathematics and Statistics, love the statistics not so good on the maths.  Last year I completed two level 2 statistics courses, but this year I have to do a 60 point level 2 maths course (M208) and have chosen to do a 30 point level 3 statistics course (M346).  I struggled with the last maths course I did (MS221) so I'm in for a tough time.

The first unit is on real functions and graphs, and I'm struggling already with only vague memories of sign tables, odd/even functions and differentiation. I'm having to look up lots of extra help to get me through the unit.  1 week = 1 unit, so I have to just press ahead and hope it gets better and the first part of the 1st assignment (TMA) is on this unit!

London

Well I'm on the train on the way back from a fun filled weekend in London. Been a tourist for a couple of days - visited Tower of London (really enjoyed tour by Yeoman Warder); Hampton Court Palace (enjoyed the Palace and the gardens but really disappointed with the maze); went to Wembley and watched the Minnesota Vikings beat the Pittsburgh Steelers (American Football) and today took a walk past Houses of Parliament, Downing Street, Horseguards, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square.

Managed to get my new iphone 5s before I went and pleasantly surprised by its camera and loved 4G.  So here's a few photos I took...

Photos

I said I'd post some more up to date photos of Charley, so here you are...

I'm off to London tomorrow. I'll blog on the move and maybe get one or two more of these....

Moving on

Well as expected I didn't get the job.  But I did get some very nice feedback, lots of positives to take away.  So, I'm moving on and busying myself planning a weekend away in London this weekend.  Off to Wembley to watch Steelers v Vikings and going to fit in a couple of days of sightseeing.  Plan to visit Tower of London and Hampton Court, hopefully photos to follow and not do too much damage to my diet...

Time passing

This is Charley, my chocolate labrador puppy, taken when he was about 10 weeks old.  This weekend I've been telling everyone that he is now 7 months old.  But, I noticed that I'd marked different dates on the calendar so I checked and he was actually born on 2 March 2013, so he's not 7 months old for another week or so!  Of course, he doesn't look the same now and I'll try and get a more up to date photograph of him for the blog.  He is a mischievious, active, adorable little dog who will eat just about anything, in other words a puppy...

Fate

Well what a couple of days it's been. Remember that interview I was telling you about? There I was a few minutes early nervously waiting when I was told that the interviewer was on the phone for me. I wondered what had happened to delay them. But it was me that was in for a shock, I was at the wrong building on the other side of town. I couldn't believe it, what a numpty! But, maybe it was fate, given my last post. Anyway, they were very nice about it and managed to rearrange the interview for today.  I started off by apologizing profusely and thanking them for taking the time to interview me today and then ruined it by waffling for the next hour. I don't think a lassie who loves to blether is what they were looking for. I'll find out next week....

Lacking ambition?

I read an article earlier this year that said we lose our ambition at work when we hit 35.  I think that may be true for me, I certainly don't have the drive that I had when I was younger.  So, why have I applied for another post at work?  That's one of the questions I'm asking myself, but with an interview tomorrow it's a bit late.  It's been 5 years since I had any sort of interview and I'm not looking forward to the grilling on what I've achieved or the 5 minute presentation I have to give on how I'd take the role forward!  Mmm, better do some preparation then...

Fighting back against diabetes

Well I said yesterday that I'd write about my very low calorie diet (VCLD) journey, so here it is.  You might be asking what is a very low calorie diet?  Well, it's one of those shake and bar diets that gives you all your daily nutrients, but where you don't eat 'proper' food.  I have been a real sceptic about such diets in the past, they are not 'real' are they and you are bound to put all of the weight back on the minute you go back to eating normal food.

What changed, well I'm diabetic (type 2) and my last check up didn't go well.  My HbA1c had gone up from 7.9% to 9.7%.  I knew why, I was eating all the wrong food and my carb addiction was out of control.  So, I was prescribed more medication and insulin was mentioned.  Metformin doesn't agree with me and I didn't want to take more pills but the status quo clearly wasn't an option.  Not if I want to avoid diabetic complications in the future.

Looking about for alternatives, I found the Newcastle Diet and while the patients in the study had all been diagnosed in the last 4 years and I've been diabetic for a decade I figured that if nothing else at least I'd lose some weight.  There are lots of different shakes out there, but I decided to go with Exante and their Total Solution VLCD.  Their shakes are nice and the bars are convenient for work.

Well, I hear you say, how's it going.  OK, 7 weeks after I started I'm still taking the shakes/bars with only a couple of slips to celebrate family birthdays etc.  I've lost 27 lbs and my BMI has reduced by 4 and best of all my diabetes control is much improved.  My daily blood sugar tests are typically in the 5-6 range, as you can see from this chart.

Some think that this type of diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, but I don't think that's the case with me.  If I have carbs my blood sugar level goes up as a diabetic's would.  I'm still diabetic and I still have to avoid the bakery section in a supermarket!  But, my diabetes is currently well controlled.  I'll find out how well when I get my HbA1c done again in October.  Until then I'm going to keep going.  I'll let you know what happens.

No. 53 Make pancakes

Well, I said I'd make pancakes and I did using this recipe.  I'm on a very low calorie diet at the moment so I didn't try them (more about that tomorrow).  They're maybe a bit peely-wally but hubby seemed to like them, he even had seconds!  Challenge achieved.

Where does the time go?

Almost 2 years ago I created a day zero project of 101 things to do in 1001 days.  The list includes things like bake a souffle, take a first aid course and toast marshmellows over a bonfire.  Nothing impossible you might say, but here I am with 10 months left to achieve 59 of my 101 goals.  I'm clearly going to need to get moving.  So, tomorrow I'm going to make pancakes (number 53 on my list).  I don't cook much so I need to build up to that souffle...