Like me, I am sure you are huge fans of irony. So here I was, just preparing for a verbal outpouring of interestingness and wild, flamboyant ponderings when I notice that the clever, keyword content-driven Amazon adverts at the bottom right of the page are full of BT phones. Very clever guys. I moan about BT on my blog and I end up giving them advertising space.

So what did I learn and do since last I dribbled on in a verbal fashion?

Well, in diabetic-friendly cookery news I learned that Gram flour is flour made from ground chick peas and is a good replacement flour for me to use. I also learned that you can’t buy Apple & Pear puree for love nor money anywhere in the Plymouth area. I came ridiculously close to buy Apple & Pear puree babyfood but thought better of it. So the fruit flan with wholemeal pastry wasn’t perfect – barely a 5/10 in fact but I made it all myself so there.

My flapjacks are now the stuff of legend in the Buxton household. Despite making them for my dieting sister, the whole brood polished them off in two days. It’s nice to be useful.

Oh yes, the whole cooking thing today was conducted at a caffeine-induced double-time thanks to my accidental use of full caffeine coffee twice this morning. If I am lucky, I may have calmed down by tomorrow afternoon which will be at about the same time that my wholemeal pastry makes it through my digestive system. A healthy bowel is a wonderful thing but it’s barely worth sitting down in there. My reading is really suffering.

One Pic Per Day 2007

OK. I finally caught up. There are gaps, mostly due to work being a bit predictable and routine these past few months. Hopefully I can be a bit more regular with my postings from now on. Hear that work colleagues? Be interesting and provoking and remember to smile…and give your permission of course. Thanks to a recent Email at work I should point out to my senior colleagues that all work photos posted are never done so without the express permission of those involved. Ok, so Hayley isn’t too happy about it but she hasn’t had a close up…yet.

MyTunes

My name is Neil. I am male, 39 years old and this week I have mostly been listening to and liking very much, the Dixie Chicks, Marc Almond,Billy Currington and some very old Depeche Mode. So there.
L8r

No more whingeing about work stuff, I promise. No more excuses.

I am back.

Woohoo.

How can it be possible to go from humid to cold in two blog posts? Well, it’s quite easy when you blog about once a month. It does seem that winter is on it’s way. The first car ice-scraping was on Tuesday and the first flooding of a cold engine took place the next day in Morrison’s car park on Wednesday. So used was I to the fierce reliability of the new vehicle, that it’s unwillingness to start came as quite a shock. It amused the old guy sweeping the car park no end. I half expected a round of applause when I finally spluttered and coughed it’s way into life. I spent the short trip home terrified of stalling at traffic lights and junctions in a way that I hadn’t done since my first car, an orange Allegro back in 1987.

Finances

Quite a lot happened this week now that I think back. One financial worry was lifted and another, less imminent replaced it. I can’t really elaborate on either, but as all good agnostics are often heard to say, the lord giveth and…

Treadmill

I told you all about my 12 months diabetes checkup a few weeks ago. I still need to lose weight but realism got in the way of ambition. The idea that I could fall out of bed every morning and go for a run was always going to be a non-starter. So…I bought a treadmill. A mighty fine thing for £35 (second hand) it is too. Slightly larger than I imagined, it now lives in my walk-in wardrobe and ensures a good start to the workout every time I set it up simply by being do damn heavy. Once it is all clicked into place, I can watch how little distance I have actually covered by a helpful, if mocking LCD display. After much research on the InterWeb, I worked out that it taking account the traction,resistance and angle of the treadmill, it’s pretty much like walking up a 1:4 gradient. It certainly feels like it. My calves may never be the same again. I walked 1/2 a mile yesterday and fell off the thing feeling like I had just run up Ben Nevis carrying a sofa. Still, I did managed to burn 145 calories.
More news on that as and when it happens. Unless I die first.

Pulses

I have been cooking. No, don’t laugh. Last week I made my second lot of sugar-free flapjacks and some lentil soup. In the process, I managed to use every pot or pan in the kitchen. I have never done so much washing up in my damn life, but it was probably worth it.

I am so proud of the bacon and sausage casserole I made yesterday. I had seconds even though I was full. I watched Strictly Come Dancing looking and feeling like a bloated whale. I was still full at 8.30am this morning when the I put the porridge on the hob.

I also can’t believe I didn’t take a photo of it. Another opportunity missed.

Must dash now, I have 45 photos to upload.