Website of the day!

Today's offering will be of particular interest to any pagan readers.

http://www.greenwitch.co.uk/

I am delighted to say that Chris a.k.a The Greenwitch has a shop about 10 mins drive from my house which is excellent. She is extremely knowledgeable about paganism and herbal medicine and makes the most splendid lotions (Isis morning dew is fab), potions and candles. All of which are 100% natural.

This website contains a variety of interesting information and is updated regularly. With really useful sections on health matters and tarot I am sure you won't be disappointed. You can also subscribe to her newsletter if you would like regular updates sent to you directly.

Happy reading!

Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink part 2

Well I am still without bathroom and still relying on the kindness of others in order to remain clean. This whole episode did give me the perfect excuse to use my mum's bath though. She has one of these huge corner baths that you could practically swim, it's great fun. Mind you I think any bath would be great fun when you don't have a bath of your own.

Attended my second Slimming World class this evening and found that I had lost 1.5lbs. This is a great achievement considering the weekend of excess I had. On Saturday, I went to visit my cousin (no, not for a bath) who makes the most sinful caramel shortbread and truffles. She gave me a whole box of each to take home :-(

This is not good for a recovering chocoholic. I indulged probably a bit more than I should have then washed it down with some red wine. On Sunday, Mr B's parents came back from three weeks in the US. We went to visit them at night (taking the caramel shortbread & truffles with us in the hope that someone would take them off our hands). They ordered in Chinese takeaway (with prawn crackers) and then we had more caramel shortbread for dessert. This was not a good idea.

I can only try my best though. I don't claim to be perfect but I am still pleased that I managed to lose a bit of weight.

A girl can dream...................

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magician's_assistant

Website of the day

Here we go................

This is an oldie but goodie. I love it, it's not politically correct but it is down right hilarious. The drawings on some of the celeb pics are just so amusing as well as their use of word 'sperminated'.

To get your fill of celeb gossip all the nastiest possible taste check out http://www.perezhilton.com/

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink

The new bathroom saga continues..........

The plumber came on Monday night and ripped out my bath/shower and sink in order for the joiner to come in on Tuesday morning to start work on the floors.

Unfortunately about an hour after the plumber left with my old bathroom suite in the back of his van, the joiner got in touch to say that sadly his mother-in-law is about to die and he could no longer come along on Tuesday morning to start work. I have no idea when this work will be completed now but our problems are small in comparison to his at the moment and my thoughts are with him and his family.

However, every cloud has a silver lining as they say. The toilet is still there so we can be thankful for that and more importantly, I went to the gym yesterday in order to use their showers and did 45 mins or exercise whilst I was there (well, I thought it a bit cheeky to just walk in, use the shower and leave).

I also thought that it might be a good idea to join Slimming World last night in order to keep up with the weight loss. I went along to my local class and was pleased that everyone was so friendly. The class leader was really nice and seems to love food which is always important. You can eat quite a lot on the SW plan, it's all about the combination of food you are eating and making sure that you eat healthy as opposed to following fad diets. I am optimistic.
By the time the new bathroom is installed I will be a shadow of my former self.

Loving: My blog.

Loathing: Gym showers.

Website of the day

Hello lovlies,

Today's website is............................................. www.agentprovocateur.com

I love it!

There is a 50% off sale on just now as well as great pics of Catherine Bailey, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Daisy Lowe and the new White Wedding video of Kate Moss (whose shrine I worship at). If you go to the World of AP link on the left hand side and click on Peep Game, you can play Peep in Paris. It's all good fun.

Britney's new diet

Britney Spears has revealed to US OK! Magazine that she is following a healthy new diet programme consisting of no sugar (that includes fruit which contains natural sugar) but lots of chicken, salmon, rice and avocados. Britney is now eating 1,200 calories per day and working out at the gym five times a week claiming that she is healthiest she has ever been.

I hope that Britney continues to keep on track and maintain a sensible weight rather than falling into the size zero trap.

Good luck to her!

Website of the day

Drum roll.......................

Today Miss H recommends the wonderful www.condomcondom.org where you can download your very own safe sex ringtone.

Have fun folks and stay safe

Mwah x

Condom or Cascada - You decide!

I was rather amused to read today that a safe sex ringtone entitled 'Condom Condom' has been launched in India where it is estimated that around 2.5 million people are living with HIV.

I hope that it takes off in the UK too, it will make a change from the usual Cascada and Scooter ringtones we are subjected to on a daily basis.

Click the link below to read the article
http://tech.uk.msn.com/news/article.aspx?cp-documentid=9273447

Or, if you are really keen you can download your very own at http://www.condomcondom.org/

Loving: The safe sex message

Loathing: Big Brother (I don't even watch it but can't through a day without hearing, reading or seeing someting about it. When will this hell end?)

Website of the day

http://www.magicalillusions.org/

It's pretty interesting in a weird sort of way. This story is my particular favourite: http://magicalillusions.org/new-case-of-pareidolia-man-sees-jesus-in-his-shower/

Goodbye Percy, Norman, Edna and Gertrude

According to research commissioned by mother and baby social networking site gurgle.com, old fashioned baby names are on their way out.

Unpopular names include:

1) Norman and Gertrude
2) Walter and Edna
3) Percy and Ethel
4) Harold and Irene
5) Ernest and Ada
6) Herbert and Norah
7) Clifford and Olive
8) Frank and Agnes
9) Arnold and Elsie
10) Leonard and Mabel

Personally, I quite like Frank and Agnes but obviously I am in the minority.

Loving: MSN news stories

Loathing: The fact that Mr B has been given a box of Baci chocolates and I can't have any.

Amy Winehouse & Faux Bacon

Last night, I watched some footage of Amy Winehouse's performance at the V Festival. I am a fan of Amy and have to say that I found it incredibly sad that she was in such a state on stage. She looked emaciated and under the influence of some drug (prescribed or otherwise). She is so talented but looked as though it was an effort to stand up never mind sing. What were her management thinking sending her out to do that performance? She should be recuperating somewhere, getting looked after by people who genuinely care for her instead of being made a spectacle of on stage in front of thousands of people. It was car crash television. For more on this see http://www.nme.com/news/amy-winehouse/38996

On a lighter note, since giving up eating pork some months ago I have on occasion missed a bacon sarnie. I decided to purchase some pretend bacon whilst doing my weekly shop the other day. I bought the Quorn variety. I must admit I was a bit dubious at first. Upon opening the packet, it certainly smelled like bacon but looked a bit precarious with several strips all exactly the same colour and size which didn't look anything like proper bacon. Anyway, I fried the strips lightly on each side and gingerly took a bite. I was pleasantly surprised. It tasted like real bacon. Great!
I would highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't eat pork or to anyone who is thinking of giving up pork but doesn't want to ditch the bacon & eggs or bacon sandwiches. Yum!

Loving: Faux bacon

Loathing: My bathroom

About

A few weeks ago I decided that I no longer liked the way I looked any more. Actually, I had decided that long before then but despite various attempts at improvement I hadn't actually managed to succeed in doing something about it.

With thirty fast approaching (in six months to be precise), I have decided to embark on a life changing healthy eating (dare I say diet) and exercise programme. This started about four weeks ago and I am pleased to say I am now 16lbs lighter than I was then. I plan to continue with this without killing myself in the process although I have indulged in a couple of large white wines this evening.

One of the things that I find particularly interesting is the way the media constantly berates the obese in our society, particularly women. According to them we cannot do any of the following:

• Have a successful career or a good job (because we are either 1. too lazy to work or 2. completely undesirable to a prospective employer)
• Be in a happy, loving relationship (well....a bloke doesn't want to be seen with a fat girl on his arm does he?)
• Have sex (we are clearly too fat to be able to manoeuvre into any position successfully)
• Have children (obese women apparently find it more difficult to conceive and carry a child successfully)
• Be a good mother (apparently being obese also means that we are unfit roll models for our children. Hmmm........it seems that drug addicted, alcoholics are making better mothers these days. Well, they are thin after all)

For the record, I have a good job and am in a happy, loving relationship with a man who adores me. We do have sex and enjoy it although I admit that it is not as uninhibited as I would like to be. I know plenty of obese women who have managed to conceive and have given birth to healthy babies and went on to become great mothers however, this is one of the reasons I have decided to lose weight permanently and become healthier. With the aforementioned 30th birthday looming, I am scared of the effects my weight is having on my health. Admittedly, when I was younger I was more concerned that I didn't look as good as my friends or that I couldn't get the latest fashions because I just looked like a sack of potatoes in them. As I get older I do worry more about the health implications. I would like children and I don't want people judging them because their mother is overweight. Sadly, people do and other children can be so cruel as I often found out when I was growing up. Anyway, more about that another time when I feel more able to talk about it.

While I am on this subject I noticed this article in the newspaper (I use that term loosely) today entitled 'Triplets Joy of 40st Mum: World's fattest mother of three tells her story'

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/article14491.ece

The article talks about how "A enormous 68-strong team of medics weighed in to deliver 40-stone Leanne's three healthy babies.
And the total bill to the NHS added up to a hefty £200,000—four times the normal cost of a triplets pregnancy"........

Yes, I realise that 40st is a lot of weight to carry and it does mean serious health risks but what about the hundreds of babies that are born each year to drug addicted mothers. The babies who are born addicts themselves and have to be treated for heroin withdrawal. What about their cost to the NHS and then ultimately, the cost to Social Services when their parents are too drugged up to care for them.

I mean no disrespect to anyone who has substance abuse problems, I know that everyone has different circumstances to deal with in their life but come on! Isn't it better to have a baby born to an obese mother who loves and cares for it than born into the unhappy, chaotic world of substance abuse and all the implications that go along with it?

Loving: Gwyneth Paltrow's legs

Loathing: Tabloid trashpapers