Thursday 26 January 2017

#Veganuary #DryJanuary are OVER

So as some people know I have been doing the Dry January (no alcohol!) and #Veganuary (my own modified version I couldnt go from eating no fruit and veg to vegan like that so I did veggie January and allowed myself tuna and diary instead)

However today was my last day of the challenge - yes I am finishing early - because tomorrow I fly to Benidorm to celebrate my dad's 60th Birthday and I have no idea what the food is like but I am all inclusive  so will be enjoying it!

However I have learnt a lot from doing these 2 challenges:

1. I have a lot more energy and am sleeping better

2. I havent lost weight - dammit! But  my digestive system seems a lot healthier (dont worry I'm not about to describe my poo to you!)

3. I actually like vegetarian food - okay I am still not sold on vegetables in general but I actually like quorn burgers, linda mcartney veggie sausages, sausage rolls, pulled pork burgers and so on. I also really like vegetarian chili, pasta and curry. I've eaten  lot of things I wouldnt ordinarily eat and cooked more - today I ate quinoa - seriously me eating quinoa is like Trump hugging a Mexican! 

4. I've saved money - because I have been making my lunches for work I have saved a fair amount of money despite the initial outlay on the food shopping I still saved!

5. My blood glucose control has been better, I have been drinking a lot less fizzy drinks and a lot more water.

6. I've been in a better mood - this might be because I have slept more and have more energy but overall feel good levels are high!

So I m not going to continue with the challenges - but I am going to try and keep 4-5 meat free days a week - and keep the processed foods down.

With regards to drinking I am not a big drinker anyways so dry January wasn't a massive challenge for me.




Wednesday 25 January 2017

#Project 52 Week 3

This week's photo is a bit late being posted - oops! 

On Saturday I took my niece shopping to the Matalan outlet.  She has ASD and social anxiety so going out is a big deal for her. I managed to get her to try on silly hats with me and even take a picture! We dont do a lot of things together and I think the last picture of us together was around 6 years ago at my mums 60th. So even though I look hideous this is my photo for the week :D

Monday 23 January 2017

So relieved

I finally had my first proper dental checkup today in about 15 years! I'm not going to lie I was absolutely bricking it - the dentist terrifies me - waiting to go in to see the dentist and hearing the whirring drills and that horrible chemical smells freaks me out!

However as in the last 3 months I have had to go to the emergency dentist twice - once for a wisdom tooth extraction (which was surprisingly not that painful) and more recently to get an old filling removed, and some treatment plus a temporary filling put in (probably the most painful experience of my life - who knew that a dying nerve could make your whole head explode?) I knew I needed to go - not the least because the emergency dentist told me I had to!

I was lucky enough to finally get on the books of an NHS dentist there is no way I could have afforded to go private and today was my first appointment.

So I arrived early to give myself time to try and calm down but no such luck - I got there at 9.30 for a 9.45 appointment and within minutes of sitting down I was called in. The dentist only looked about 20 - that's a sign I am getting old though right? I swear my GP looks like he is 12 and now the dentist looks young too!

He took my medical history and then got about the business of examining my teeth calling out mystifying numbers and information to the dental nurse who logged it on the chart. He also whilst I was laying there helpless and terrified proceeded to point out as a diabetic I have a high risk of tooth decay, gum disease, having to have my teeth pulled out by gremlins with red hot pokers and so on and so on - I was starting to feel distinctly sick at this point - I'm not a fainter but it was deffo on the cards. So after making me khakk my pants and convincing me that I was going to need all my teeth pulled out he finished up with - apart from the root canal (which I knew about from emergency dentist visit number 2) and 2 old fillings needing replacing my teeth and my gums were in good condition! Jeez thank you very much Doc - you couldn't have saved the diabetics get bad teeth so brush properly talk until AFTER you told me I was all good?

A couple of x-rays were done and he showed me the results on the screen - damn my teeth look good in xray white!

All in all my teeth are good and strong  there is some patchiness to the enamel in parts - probably due to the fact I used to guzzle around 5-6 litres of fizzy drinks every day (yes it's a bad habit which I am mostly out of - now I only have 2 or 3 glasses at most a day and drink water the rest of the time). He suggested that my past addiction to pepsi max and juice drinks has caused some damage but it can be repaired by using a strong fluoride toothpaste once a day - he helpfully provided me with a prescription for it. He also recommended I continue with my awesome Oral B toothbrush - mainly because it has a timer so I brush the right amount of time and a sensor to stop me brushing too roughly! and continue to floss. So no changes there.

I get to go back in just under a month to get the fillings done (at £30 so not too bad) and then I have to make an appointment for the root canal :( which is expensive at £185 but is a 90% chance that they can repair it and that I wont need to have the tooth extracted which would only cost £45 but I would rather not lose a tooth.

Sadly I do actually need an extraction of a tooth which broke about 8 years ago - there is no way of saving it but as it's been like it for 8 years they have kindly offered to leave it until the rest of my dental work is done.

So all in all with today's appointment and the emergency dentist by the end of March I will have spent like £350 on dental care - and I prob need to see the hygienist for a scale and polish too - that seems a lot but it's nothing to what I would have to pay privately and I actually dont mind paying in to the NHS for treatment at  a subsidised rate. I think we take for granted a lot that we get for free or significantly reduced in this country from the NHS.To put it into perspective - I saw a Dr in the USA for a chest infection - I had a brief examination - it was obviously by the green gunk running from my nose, eyes, ears and chest and the fact i sounded like a train when i was breathing that there was an infection and most likely upper respiratory based. He spent about 10 mins with me. Prescribed antibiotics and was done and dusted in less than 15 mins at a cost of around £250 and then I paid another £100 for the prescription of 14 days supply of 2 antibiotics - so the same price for less treatment, time and so on.

Anyways I can say I am really relieved that my teeth are not about to fall out and that I dont need anything major done - phew

Saturday 21 January 2017

Happiness is....

I'm feeling pretty damn happy today.

Reason number 1:

Just bought myself a unicorn head - I seriously defy anyone to be miserable when they have a glittery unicorn head to mount on their wall! I saw a post about them on FB and was like you know what's missing in my life? a Unicorn head! They are on sale in Home Bargains for £6.99 but have pretty much sold out everywhere - I managed to get the very last one in the shop :) I tried getting another one for a friend but the woman told me they had sold out completely - and had in fact sold over 100 of them in the last 24 hours!






















Reason number 2:

Hit the Matalan clearance outlet today - I am pretty luck I live like a 20 min drive from one of only 5 of these clearance stores in the UK and OMG the bargains! So I got some black tidy jeans for work (not skinny fit cos I am going to be attending conferences and shit and my skinnies are not considered to be smart casual - neither are my irregular choice light up unicorn trainers) and some black trainers for my trip to Benidorm for £3 each - seriously! I mean I couldn't get those for that second hand! I also got a couple of tops for work - I basically spent £15 for over £60 worth of stuff that's 75% off - bargalicious!

Irregular Choice Light Up Unicorn Trainers - not suitable for work but I wear them anyways :)

Reason number 3:

Finalised the design for my next tattoo - I am super excited after umming and ahhing I am going with a Cheshire cat design with him sat in a tree and danging from the tree different playing cards - it's going to be amazing - I kinda borrowed the design from deviant art but am switching it up slightly as the design has a non Disney version of the Cheshire cat and I want the original Disney version.

Reason number 4:

Got tickets to go see La Cage Aux Folles - it's a musical based on a couple of flamboyant gay guys - one of whom is a drag queen who have to become more "normal" as the ones son is marrying a straight laced uber religious politicians  daughter - chaos ensues - the film was out in the 90s and based on the original French production. I haven't seen the actual theatre show of it so am really looking forward to it. I had to pay £4 deposit for the tickets but the actual tickets are free - they cost up to £45 each normally to buy from the theatre - but we get to go for pretty much free for opening night so we can provide feedback on the show. I'm taking my mum - I am in work before hand but I finish at 4pm and the show isn't until 7.30 so I thought I'd meet her before the show and we can go for  meal before heading out to the theatre

Reason number 5:

I've been doing veggie-january kinda like veganuary but not so strict - basically just gone meat free (although still eating fish) and I realised today that I have actually dont really well - 3 weeks of eating pretty healthily - it's a big deal for me to eat fruit and veg I am not good at it - I eat a lot of processed micro crap and much as I hate to admit it - I used to get mocked in my old work place for it - I tend to eat mainly beige coloured foods! I will be back on the meat next weekend as I will be in Benidorm for my dad's 60th birthday but I am going to continue with it and have 3 or 4 days a week where I skip meat.


#PostPost Week 3

Week 3 of January :)

This week I had a few bits and pieces arrive mostly review bits from vipon

1. A set of 10 chokers from vipon - these are pretty cool lots of different styles - I'm going to give a couple to my niece in her birthday bundle and keep a few for me - they are very Buffy the Vampire Slayer-esque!




2. Tree of Life costume jewellery from Vipon - this is going to my big sis for her birthday she will love it and s a natural red head the colour will match her very well


3. Jangly coin anklet from vipon - finally something for me :) will be wearing this on my hols with some sparkly sandals


4. Jewellery making beads from vipon - these are going to my mum - she makes jewellery for a hobby - it can be expensive but this great little bundle of beads was only £1.25

5. pack of 12 lip liners from vipon (only 11 shown as my work colleague nabbed one when they arrived :D ) - again some of these will go into my nieces birthday bundle and I'll keep 1 or 2 to add to my make up stash too


6. WIN from Organix  - a little Goodies snack chest - had 2 packs of sweet biscuits, 1 pack of cheese crackers and 2 oaty bars plus a money off coupon - these went to my niece H



7. These super cute safety pin brooches came from vipon - they came in a pack of 10 - it would have been even better if they were all different designs! So far I have given away half of them - the remainder will go into gift bundles for the nieces and sisters


8. A cute sparkly blue and clear crystal bracelt (costume jewellery) from vipon - this is for my niece to go on our hols - she has an Elsa costume so it will match when we go out to Disney


9. Eyeshadow / Liner pencils - pack of 12 from vipon - another great addition to my make up stash in a rang of great colours


10. Freebie - some vaping juice



Tuesday 17 January 2017

Tattoo's

I have been thinking a lot about my next tattoo - originally I was going to go for The Cheshire Cat but have since decided to go for something different - mainly because it is taking a long time for my wrist with the red ink to heal - the red ink on my other tattoo healed fine so I am not sure why the wrist has taken so long but I am concerned if I get the Cheshire Cat which is mostly pink (red) based then it will not heal properly as I want it as a largish piece.

So I have been going through my options - I definitely want something Disney related - I am a huge Disney geek - not only have I been visiting the parks for over 30 years now, I also worked out in Orlando in Epcot, collect various Disney memorabilia and love the movies and shows. Disney has been such a huge part of my life that I feel comfortable with getting something related to it inked on me. I'm not a big princess fan myself (although I do like Belle and of course Anna and Elsa) but to be honest generally I prefer the villains the badder the better. One of my fave villains is Ursula the SeaWitch from the Little Mermaid so I am currently playing with the idea of getting her, I also like Malificent from Sleeping Beauty and Jafar from Aladdin (the problem is there are just too many awesome Disney characters - villains or otherwise).

I'm also a huge Tim Burton fan and love the Nightmare before Christmas and the Corpse Bride - so something from both of those are contenders too!

I am currently scouring deviant art and google images and book marking my favourite designs - so far I have about 30 saved which is clearly too many oops.

I also want an infinity symbol done with villain and hero scripted into it - I am actually going to draw that myself and scan it as I haven't been able to find one ready done anywhere and I would quite like the Disney text for the script.

My next appointment is booked for the 2nd February so I really need to make a decision on the designs I want and tweak them so I can send them to the tattooist to review.

The one thing I do know though is I need to make sure I really love the design - I am (unless I opt for laser treatment at some point) going to be keeping it for life so I want something that I am never going to be bored of looking at - I love my other 3 tattoos and each one has a different meaning to me - other people may not like or get them but I didnt get them for other people I got them for myself :)

Sunday 15 January 2017

#PostPost Week 2

This week has seen some nice bits and pieces arrive in my post :)

1. A sweary cushion cover - got this from vipon for £1 :) Will make an awesome birthday gift for my big sister



2. Bayliss and Harding Star gift set - won this from Mojo Mums - will be donating it to my works raffle later in the year as they are raising funds for the Welsh Air Ambulance



3. 2 fabulous educational pop up and interactive books - won these from walker books - they are going to be put away ready for H for her birthday in August (yes I am the sucky relative who gives books or every birthday and special occasion - I cant help it I love books and really want H and D to learn to enjoy reading - hopefully starting them young will bring them a lifetime of joy - it worked for me!)




















4. A little make up organiser - again from vipon for £1 - I dont actually have a tonne of makeup mainly because I cant put it on myself ha! but this will be great for storing the bits I do have an it will look super cute on my desk too - its a win win



5. Some Socks - again from vipon at a massive cost of like 3p (seriously!) - I'm going to be putting these in with my nieces birthday pressie bundle for Feb



6. Light up kitty ear headphones - from vipon - quite pricey for me I actually paid just under £10 for them but I wanted some new headphones and these really appealed to me


Saturday 14 January 2017

#Project 52 Week 2

This week has been a bit up and down for me.

It didnt start very well due to having tooth ache, seeing the emergency dentist, having even more and worse toothache after my "treatment" and having to take time off work and spent a lot of time slumped in bed with my head on my hot water bottle or dosed to the eyeballs sprawled in my arm chair watching brain dead telly!

However the tooth has settled down (as much as it can still need a root canal boo :( ) and the end of the weeks been good, plenty of laughs, some good tv, took my sister and uncle shopping and so on

Prevailing theme this week everywhere has been how cold it is and the weather (and whether the weather will turns snowy or not!)

I have spent a lot of time this week snuggled up in my mermaid blankie surrounded by snoozing kitties - so it seems fitting that this weeks photo is of the gorgeous LadyCat taking a nap on my mermaid tail blankie enclothed legs :)

She is adorable!


A wintry poem & comp entry

Safestore.co.uk currently have a competition running to write a poem about your favourite things about winter - the prize is a paperchase voucher - as I like stationery and have been known to occasionally string together some words in a rhyming manner I thought I'd give it a go - and to top it all off I decided to do it as an ode to one of my fave all time films (and stage productions) The Sound of Music.

I give you...

My Favourite Things ... the Limited Winter Edition

Crisp crunchy sidewalks and Christmas lights flashing
Parties and pantomimes, everyone dashing
Christmas and new year and all winter brings
These are a few of my favourite things

Windswept cold landscapes and white snow topped hills
Sledding and sleigh rides and quick downhill thrills
Snowmen and snow angels showing their wings
These are a few of my faourite things

Kids dress in costumes as angels and stars
Sheep and goats and kings from afar
Carols and songs that everyone sings
These are a few of my favourite things

When the wind howls, when the rain pours
When I'm feeling sad
I simply turn on the heating and close all the doors
And then I don't feel so bad







Tuesday 10 January 2017

Ouch!

So I have had quite bad toothache for  few days and finally went to the emergency dentist yesterday - he gave me an anesthetic and removed my old filing - then he pack the tooth with some anti-inflammatory and anti-biotics and capped it with a temporary filling and told me I need a root canal long term.

I don't have an actual dentist as getting one on the NHS seems harder than winning the lotto but someone told me that one near my sister was taking on NHS patients and feeling brave and still numb from the anesthetic I called and got an appointment for an initial check up in a couple of weeks.

Fast forward a couple of hours and my mouth was no longer numb - in fact I was in agony (still am) my cheek is swollen, my cheekbone, eye socket and jaw all hurt along with the tooth! Eating anything other than yoghurt and soup is a no go and cleaning my teeth is like someone sticking sharp needles into my eye balls - actually that would be preferable!

I had to call in sick to work today which I didn't want to do but after being awake pretty much all night there is no way I would be able to function and not cock up.

Overall right now I am feeling pretty damn sorry for myself!

So I am off to cwtch up with my hot water bottle and dose myself on pain killers and hope that it starts to ease off soon!






Sunday 8 January 2017

#Project 52 - Photo 1

My first picture of the year to sum up my week is this:


So basically a couple of months ago I got my daith pierced in the hope it would help with my migraines.

I've been getting migraines on a fairly regular basis since I was 14 - so that's 21 years of suffering with a migraine at least 3-4 times a month - some of which last only a short 12-24 hours and some of which can last up to 3-5 days!

The piercing has worked really well and since having it in I have had like 2 migraines and they have been short and less intense as well!

But

I had an issue because I have little teeny weeny ears that the top bar of th piercing pressed against the top of my ear - it was uncomfortable and a bit difficult to clean (which you should be able to see in the first pic)

When I went back to the tattoo /piercing studio to get my wrist tattoos done I asked the piercer about changing the bar for a small hoop and he said that he could do it but advised me to leave the original piercing in place for a bit longer in order to let it heal more fully on the inside.

As I am away at the end of Jan to Benidorm I decided to get it done this week to give it time to settle before then as I plan on swimming and stuff.

He offered me a choice of hoops and the horseshoe in different colours and sizes. In the end I decided to go with the horseshoe as it would be easier to clean and less likely to come apart.

I was a little bit nervous about changing it because the original piercing hurt so much and for quite a few days afterwards too! However there was no need - it was a little bit uncomfortable with a pinching sensation whilst he was taking the top ball off the bar - but when he removed it I didnt actually feel it - phew!

Threading the new jewellery into the hole was quick and pretty much painless as was attaching the ball.

Since having it done my ear feels a lot more comfortable and even though I didn't get it for vanity reasons I have to say it looks pretty cool now - before the jewellery was hidden from sight and couldnt really be seen because of the ear - now you can see the little balls and it looks cool :)

I chose it for my photo because I currently have horrendous toothache - literally it's making me feel sick and I can't even bear touching it! I need to get an emergency dental appointment tomorrow and I am terrified - yes the dentist scares the crap outta me! But like with the earring I think the fear of the pain will hopefully be worse than the pain itself and that I will feel a lot better once it's done!!!!



Saturday 7 January 2017

#PostPost Week 1

So the first week in January is always quiet for me mail wise - I dont do freebie hunting, reviews or much comping over Christmas and New Year because I am pretty darn lazy and want to sleep in until noon, eat my body weight in chocolate for breakfast and just chill out.

Therefore the first post of my new #PostPost is a pretty short one :)

We had 3 items arrive this week

1. First Aid Kit

So I got this from VIPON (formerly amz reviews) - it wasn't free I actually paid the whole of 10p for it :) New amazon rules means that sellers cant ask for a review in return for a discounted or free item but I like to do the review anyways after all I am getting something for 10 thats worth £10! seems only fair right?

This kit is going to go in my car - it's a really nice piece of kit with your basic first aid kit items but also some extras you dont normally get like a night stick, emergency poncho, whistle and space blanket.



2. WIN - La Roche-Posay 50+SPF Comfort Anthelios XL sunscreen

I won this in the Ginger Advent competition that was on over Christmas. Really pleased with this - my mum has had skin cancer on her face 3 times and has to use a really high level good quality sunscreen daily - she used to get it on prescription but with the NHS funding issues they cancelled her prescription and she has to buy it herself which can be quite expensive, so this is perfect for her to use :)


3. FREEBIE - Regenerate Toothpaste 

I got an e-mail a couple of weeks ago about a free toothpaste sample - I always sign up for these because  I often do weekends away and short trips and these are perfect to take with you and use for 2-4 days before binning - means there is more room in my bag for shopping :) Will be keeping this one for my £800 weekend away in July :)


Wednesday 4 January 2017

Veganuary & Dry January

Is anyone else doing Veganuary?

I am doing Veggie-uary - I do not eat enough fruit and veggies and am often found slumped in front of the telly with a kebab or indian that I have had delivered - I dont eat a whole lot of fruit and veggies so I thought this would be a good challenge for me for the new year.

Whilst I would love to go the whole hog and actually do veganuary I just know that I would completely fail at it so the compromise is at least achievable for me (see I did learn something from my PADR - SMART goal setting!).

So far so good - breakfast has been porridge or fromage froi and fruit, lunch instant veggie cuppa soup with a pack of crisps for a snack and dinner veggie pasta, veggie curry, veggies sausages and sweet potato fries and cheese, sweetcorn and pineapple pizza.

I dont think my body is a huge fan of this diet change though!

First day back at work yesterday and I came home with a giant headache and an even bigger ZIT!!! I never get zits :( I mean I may have been the short ugly fat weirdo in school but my skin was always flawless!

Today I noticed I have another zit coming on my chin :( and again I came home with a headache :(

My friend is a veggie and she has told me to stick with it - apparently after a few days of hell my skin will become clear and the headaches will go - she insists this is my body detoxing itself from the processed crap I have been eating over Christmas and the copious amounts of alcohol - and she may well be right but damn I hope my body kicks itself into gear and sorts this!

For the last 2 nights I have been meaning to pop to the supermarket to buy some fresh veggies and fruit to go in my juicer/smoothie maker to get myself a kick ass start to the day fresh fruit drink but because I have had a headache all I have done is come home,nap, and watch tv which is really not great - tomorrow I dont care if I have a crater on my chin and someone playing the bongos in my head I am heading to get the fresh fruit and veggies.

I'm also doing dry January - not that I am generally a massive every day drinker but I do tend to binge drink when I go out which is not that often maybe 1-2 times a month. The dry January is a lot easier than veggie is!

The real challenge is going to be at the end of the month. It's my dad's 60th Birthday on 28th January and I am heading to Benidorm for his birthday weekend - staying all inclusive. The veggie options are very limited according to my dad (he goes to the same place every year for a couple of months over the winter) so I may have to stop my plan for that weekend and extend it into Feb for an extra week instead.


Sunday 1 January 2017

Meeting people on the net & online dating

Online dating seems to be the in thing - lots of my friends have met people through online dating sites and done really well at it.

To be honest I have never really taken it seriously - I mean it's always been up there with people who send in the ads to lonely hearts columns in the paper for me (do they still do that?) however I have actually met people off the net from forums, facebook and other sites and have pretty much always done well with it.

Years ago, back when the internet was slow and whiny (hello dial up!) and chat rooms were basically mIRC, aol or yahoo and I was a fat and ugly (but not spotty go me and my perfect skin) teen I actually made loads of friends through chat rooms - I also made loads of enemies - sorry aol for crashing your chat rooms and servers with smiley bombs! (I'm using a LOT of brackets in this post - for those that dont know - back in the day you could crash a chat room by using smileys - it worked like this - smileys are graphics, graphics are large, the internet was dial up and could only cope with so much data being uploaded at a time - to create a smiley bomb you would  copy and paste in notepad :) :) :) a few thousand times (it was important to do it in notepad as notepad would leave it as text rather than convert it into smileys - afterall you didnt want to crash your own machine) then copy and paste the whole lot into a chat bx for a chatroom. You would hit enter and as soon as it was sent x out of the room. The deluge of yellow smiley faces would kill the chat room and crash it out and it would usually take a few mins for it to reset) anyways, the whole crashing chat rooms aside, I made lots of friends online.

In fact I pretty much spent all my time online late at night and into the early hours chatting to people in the USA and Oz who shared  my love of pagansim, horror movies, emo music and buffy the vampire slayer! It got to the point that I remember my mum dragging me to the GP when I was 15 and demanding he do something as there was clearly something very wrong with me as I would stay up all night on the internet and then skip school - she was convinced I had some sort of autism (to be fair she still thinks I have Aspergers or autism but I like to think that I am just a socially awkward fuck up!) he told her I was just a typical teen and she left it at that.

Things were okay until I announced at 17 I was flying to Nashville in Tennessee to stay with some people off the internet I had met for a few weeks - went down like a lead balloon, my nanna was  convinced I was going to get abducted or killed, but I had a job (thank you ASDA) and a passport and I booked it all myself and I went off and survived - in fact I had a pretty bloody amazing time - Nashville is fantastic, I went to Memphis too and Graceland, Dollywood (hilarious!), the Smokey Mountains in fact I went all other Tennessee and it was just a load of fun. The people I stayed with were really nice, I went to their church where I was like the second coming - a strange alien being from Wales - they LOVED my accent, other people form the chatrooms came to join us we had parties it was just the best time ever! I was kinda gutted when I had to come home again to people who didn't recognise who awesome I was.

Anyways since then I have met loads of people online and in real life too - through Uni I met up with fellow Neopet players who lived in Scotland, I went to a handfasting on the Orkney Isles of friends from a pagan forum, I spent many wonderful weekends in London with a random guy who loved Placebo, I met up with  french guy who I met on a Disney forum in London and spent the day oozing our love for Disney (we remained friends and both actually worked at Disneyworld in Orlando together - he's nw back working at DLP and we remain in touch) as well as lots of other people with shared interests.

I personally love chatting to people online because I dont have to fake anything I can be as obnoxious or weird as I like and so can they then if we actually met up 9 times outta 10 we get on super well because we already KNOW each other from our crazy online chats and yes I have even ended up dating a few of them too!

So as we go into the new year I find myself thinking why havent I really considered online dating? I think it's because there used to be such a stigma about it - and you get all those stories about people lying or using old picture of themselves and so on and so on - but the stigma does seem to be lifting - people will happily proclaim they met on tindr or match etc so I have decided to take the plunge and put together an actual coherent profile and see what comes of it.

I have to be honest I am a bit nervous - I am not exactly Angelina Jolie and therefore I decided that Tinder is not for me! I am also cheap so have decided to try out a free site.  My profile is written - its not particularly witty or bright but then neither am I so thats fine! So fingers crossed I get some messages and see where this goes :)

Happy New Year - Welcome 2017!

Happy New Year :)

So today is a brand new year - goodbye 2016 hello 2017!

I have big plans for this year:

1. Lose weight / get healthier - okay I say this every year and last year I wasn't very successful I didn't lose weight but  did drop  a single dress size :/ but I did get healthier in that my diabetic control was the best it has ever been since I was first diagnosed back in 2002! This year to kick start the whole thing I am taking part in veganuary (or rather veggieanuary as going vegan is too much of a system shock for me!) I'm not good at eating veggies so this will be interesting but hopefully it will help put me on the right track for the rest of the year. I think if I eat more veggies then I will eat less other stuff so hopefully s well as being better for me it's going to help with weight loss! Also going to be back to weight training - I really enjoyed it but it fell by the way side a bit through Nov/Dec. I have my own small weights at home now so I can keep on top of it and hopefully will be back to the gym from Feb onwards. Fit not Thin #GOALS

2. Save money - again another yearly goal which I never really achieve - this year I will finally be debt free - I started off at the end of 2013 owing over £13k in loans, credit cards, overdrafts, store cards etc I set up a DMP and have been paying it off and this year is the year when I finally pay it all off - okay my credit is like poop but I've paid off over £11k in 3 years and started off with around 8 companies I owed and now there is just 1 left to pay! It should be completely cleared by July - go me! I plan to put the money I would have used for the bills into my savings account. I want to move into my own place at the end of 2017 so I will need money for a bond, for the first couple of months rent, for furniture and so on although I will prob get the furniture second hand for cheap or free from freecycle and then just replace it as I can when I am able to save the money for it.

3. Sort the blog out - last year I got really lazy with the blog - 2015 I blogged a lot as I was doing a 365 day challenge - with the exception of the new layout and name I haven't done a huge amount this year. There are a few things I want to introduce and do:

- more info on comping and reviews and update the info I already have - this is going to be ongoing and my goal is going to be to do at least 1 post or page (update an old or new) a month - it's not a lot but it is achievable which is something I need to be realistic about - working full time plus family commitments doesn't give me a huge amount of free time.

- #Project52 - A photo project for me - 1 photo a week for a year to sum up my week :) Will run this on my instagram account / twitter / facebook and with a mini-blogpost

- #PostPost- A new weekly post to replace the freebies/reviews/wins pages - I plan on putting up a post once a week with all the items I receive in the mail - except bills - no-one wants to see my bills :D

- Random posts - I am going to hopefully update the blog with 2 posts a week with the #Project52 and #PostPost which will be regular posts but that doesn't mean I can't post my usual random crap - in fact I think my random posts are prob more fun for me anyways as I get to have verbal or rather typed verbal diarrhea all over the blog page (nice mental image isn't it!)

4. Dating - yes I am totally going to get myself a new partner this year - or at the very least try not to be such a complete douchbag that I remain single! I've signed up to an online dating site so will be sure to share my 'wonderful' haha experiences with it and who knows next year I might actually celebrate the new year as a couple rather than singleton? (although prob not)

So that's my goals for 2017 - I think they are achievable :)