Wedding

My cousin got married on Saturday.  Which required us to travel away for the weekend, staying over two nights in a hotel - which meant eating out half a dozen times.


The wedding was great.  Good fun, light hearted and great opportunity to catch up with some family I've not seen for longer than I would like.  The speeches were funny enough, and nothing awful happened with regards the weather.


However, I gained nearly half a stone over the weekend!  A months worth of weight loss piled back on again in the space of a weekend!


I'm really throwing myself at it now for the next two weeks to try and get the added weight back off again before it has chance to really take hold.

Weight loss

Just a quick update - I weighed myself this morning and found I was 13st 13lb.  I cannot tell you how happy I am to be under 14 stone!


I can't even remember ever weighing myself and being 13 stone something.  I remember being 11 stone as a teenager, and I remember being over 15 stone some years later - and then losing some weight before I got married.  But don't remember ever being under 14 stone consciously in the last 15 years or so.


Because I've lost three stone in 6 months I've gone from a 36" waist on my jeans being far too tight but reluctant to buy anything bigger, to now all the 36" clothes actually falling off me.  I've got one ancient pair of jeans that are a 34" waist, which are a little loose but comfortable enough.  So I've just ordered myself two pairs of 34" waist jeans that were cheap on ebay.  They will do a few months until I probably need to buy some decent clothes again that fit me - probably being a 32" waist by then! 

I ended 2015 the most overweight I've ever been.  I weighed myself and found I was 16stone 13.5 pounds.  I wasn't entirely happy, to put it mildly.


And so - weight loss ensues.


By the end of January I was down to around 16 stone.  A good start.
We booked a holiday for mid May... so I set myself the arbitrary target of 14st 7lb by then.
Towards the end of March I was around 15 stone.
The day before we went on holiday I was 14st 7lb.  Yes!! 


Now, for my height I think the upper end of a healthy weight is something like 13st 7lb.  So that's my next significant target.


I'm now, mid June, around 14st 0lb.  Luckily I didn't gain any weight while we were on holiday, eating like a pig and loving every mouthful of it.


I feel so much better.  I look so much slimmer.  I've lost around 4 or 5 inches around my waist.  The new suit I bought last summer is now far too big - I think I've probably lost 3 or 4 inches from my chest too!


The challenge continues.  Ideally, by the end of the year I would like to be 12st 7lb so I am right in the middle of the healthy weight range for my height.  But we will see.

Long overdue update

I've not blogged anything here for about 5 years. I've been missing it a bit recently so lets get caught up shall we?

The exam at the end of 2011, I passed it, but not in 2011. Eventually. At the fourth attempt. In November 2012! I hated that exam.

On new years eve 2012 I had a scan that confirmed I had testicular cancer. I then had a meeting with a urologist on 2nd Jan 2013 leading to an orchidectomy on 10th Jan. Then exam results arrived on 13th, some good news! Then chemo. Then recovery, then more surgery. Full details can be found on www.andrewjam.es where I blogged throughout the cancer story.

I was out of work for pretty much all of 2013, just a brief return to work in the summer between chemo and surgery. Then finally back again in February 2014. Cancer free. Phew!

I moved out of finance into sales, still with a similar role, just a different focus. Then in 2015 I returned to finance for maternity cover, keeping aspects of my role too.

This week we have been told redundancies are necessary and volunteers have been requested. I put my name forward, requesting about 9 months gross pay as a settlement. We should find out in a couple of weeks what will be happening.

That, I think, is the last 5 years in a nutshell.

Not long now

Confidence is building by the day that I might actually manage to pass this exam on the 24th. I've booked a hotel room for the night before to get a decent sleep.  I've got this weekend, and then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off work to revise and the morning before the exam on Thursday for last minute prep.

It's all starting to come together and make sense at just the right time.

I'm knackered though. Can't wait for this one to be over.  A 4 year old and a 6 month old and work and a pretty hard exam are quite difficult to juggle.

Pink Party

Today was Chloé's party. A Pink Party. It includes having hair done, nails painted and face painting, along with a little disco and some food etc.

She absolutely loved it.  I was wondering what the three boys would make of it, but they got faces painted up like pirates so were really pleased with it all too.

Bumped into a few of the women who work at the nursery we used for Chloé and will use for Sophie next year. Nice to see they recognised her, and us, and took the time to say hello etc despite them just being out with their own kids for the day.

Got some family coming round to the house tomorrow to drag on the birthday celebrations for another day.  I think I might shun half of that to get more studying done. Time is running out really fast now.

Birthday girl

Happy Birthday Chloé

Chloé is 4 today. 

She was soooooo excited this morning opening all her presents, and i'm excited too, so I'm taking a half day today so i can pick her up from school, then we're all off to pizza hut :)

Liverpool

I've been working at our Liverpool plant for the last couple of days. I say working, its not really work. I got ropes into doing the stock check reconciliation, which is ridiculously easy... Just tell other people what's wrong and make them fix it.

There's a subway and a McD two minutes walk away. I've been to McD twice. Large big mac meal yesterday, large big tasty meal today. Both with chocolate milkshake. Today with onion rings and sweet chilli dip.  Serious calorie consumption!

I'm taking the extra travel time (an hour each way) back, as well as two hours overtime yesterday, tagging it onto a couple hours owed from budget work and having an extra study day for my exam, which is the week after next.

In other news, Chloé is 4 tomorrow!! Four years old. That's gone FAST, especially this last twelve months.

Where to start?

It's been nearly 5 months since my last update. God, where did that time go, eh?

Sophie, (that's what we called her) was born on May 27th at some silly hour like 5am, the exact time I can't remember as I sit here on the toilet in work.  She is a healthy, happy baby, and has been a fantastic addition to the family.

Chloé has been a perfect big sister... Taking to her noisy new friend with no problems at all.

I passed the exam. Yay! That completed the diploma, and I have an exam in a couple of weeks to finish off the advanced diploma before moving up to the really hard stuff next year.

That'll do for now. ttfn.

Due Day +4 (yes, this was 26th May)

Baby was due Sunday. It's now Thursday. Exam was this morning, anxious as hell throughout in case baby was coming.

Contractions have started around 4pm. Bit erratic. But about 20 over a couple of hours.  Looks good for tonight or tomorrow morning.

New Fridge Freezer

Yesterday our new fridge freezer arrived ... Which I'm reliably informed was delivered by two totally useless delivery man with a shabby van.

After tea I set about the task of switching it so the hinges were on the opposite side to better suit our kitchen layout.  One word. Hassle.

Firstly, the supplied instructions were nothing more than a few diagrams. No words. Secondly, I had to actually drill into the front to make new mounting holes for one of the hinges. Thirdly, all the screws were philips heads except for the bottom hinge which used torx.  And then finally, the trim at the bottom had no hole for the hinge on the left, so I had to cut it out.  Yet strangely they supplied a spare blanking plate to cover the old hole.  Not what i had expected from Hotpoint.

Anyway, that all sorted we cleaned it out with bicarbonate of soda and powered it up. But someone (Mel) didnt follow the instructions properly so it took ages for us to make it stop its repetitive beep beep beeping.  A full shut down, unplug and reboot according to instructions finally did it.  Hoorah!

So, plenty of room for mummy, daddy, Chloé and baby2 in the fridge now.  Would have struggle for space in the old one as it was nowhere near as tall.

Ok, so its now mid May

Study is finished and revision is in full swing. 2wk 3days to the exam. 1wk 6days until baby is due.

Study went well. I've passed both course exams... Better marks than some who started studying much sooner than I did too, which is nice.

The house is all prepared for the new arrival, Chloé is excited, Mel's a bit anxious and I'm super keen to get a couple of weeks off work for my paternity leave.

Mum and grandparents fly out to Spain again in the next 48 hours... That's sure to indicate the baby will be here sooner rather than later. Hopefully.

Diva

Nom nom nom

Here comes summer

I'm absolutely thrilled to bits that it'll be summer soon. Teaching chloe to ride a bike is just one awesome thing that can happen with good weather

hoorah

WELL... it's been quite a month!

I sat the exam, which was a mixed bag really, some questions i felt very confident about, and others i knew i would score relatively poorly on.  At the end I flicked through it and gave myself a rough idea of marks i thought i had gained on each.  I reckoned being generous i might score 54% ... maybe as low as 45% if I had stuffed up some of the points I thought i had made well.  I scored 52% ... PASS!!!  Over the moon about that.  This was an exam I suspected might take me a good three or four attempts to get through so to get it out of the way at the second attempt is a major boost... especially as i scored an additional 23 marks compared to the first attempt.

My decision to relax and wait for the arrival of the baby, taking my next exam in November has gone out of the window.  I'm now sitting my next one in May... four days after the baby is due.  I've entered the exam, signed up to the course and have completed 3/19 tutorial lectures online already ... will do the fourth later tonight.  I'm basically cramming like mad trying to get as much knowledge in as possible early just in case the baby shows up several weeks ahead of schedule.

Everything is looking good at the moment.  Hoorah!

10 days

Ten days to go until the exam resit ... still not ready for it.  But, i've realised today after this coming weekend I wont have to study another weekend for about six months.  Which is nice.  That'll be the longest break from studying that I've had since 2005 when i started studying accounts.  It can't come soon enough.  Some quality family time will be had this summer.  Finally.

Bargain

Only £899.99

Crisps

About eight years ago I was supposed to post a packet of crisps to my mate down south, i didn't, and he's been moaning about them every since. So, last Friday I told him I posted a pack to him. I didnt. I ordered a box of forty packs from the manufacturer. They arrived today... brilliant.