There's always a drawback..

I've not been well this year...since my trip to India in January where I caught a nasty bout of india-belly I've struggled to regain any appetite or eat more than a small child in any one sitting.  Those of you who understand my love of food will know just how terrible this has been for me!  Many people have commented on the plus side of it however...that I have dropped about 4 stone (and still counting at present) without even thinking about it. I've even taking to eating higher calorie foods in order to take in a decent amount!  It's not been a  fun and healthy way to lose weight but it has had that outcome. 

So, I'd be happy about that right?...Surely thats every womans dream, to be able to eat chocolate and still lose weight..

Kinda.

Theres always some huge downsides to losing weight like this...

1. I've had to buy new clothes...OK so to most women this isnt a chore, but I'm terribly picky and have a very specific style, so clothes I like aren't always that available (or cheap!)...and I'm still shrinking so the ones I bought six months ago are already a size too big.  That sucks when you do get something you really like!

2.  It's baltic all the time! I just can't get warm and stay that way, I've been wrapped up like a yeti since the weather turned and everyone around me thinks I'm crazy...I also haven't gotten around to buying many winter clothes that fit me yet either so more shopping required! (boo hiss!)

3. I have bones...they stick out and hurt when I bump into things.  I'm pretty sure they were there before but with a helpful squishy covering to soften the bumps!

Don't get me too wrong, I'm not completely hating the weight loss, I do have a nice figure thats emerged from beneath my old insulation...I'm just writing this post as a warning to all those people out there desperate to lose weight thinking that it will be the answer to all their problems...just remember, once the weight has gone you have more fun to look forward to!

Travelling Barbie

I've never been much of a traveller.  When I was very young my parents took me to the states a couple fo times but other than that I dont remember any other family holidays.  This last year has kinda made up for that though!

At the end of august I went to Colombo in Sri Lanka.  It was pretty amazing, and I hope that I get to return at some point and see a bit more than I did this time.  It was a work expedition so time off was pretty minimal, but I managed to make the most of it anyway.   I get rather spoiled when I'm away with work as its all posh hotels and high class restaurants (not that I'm complaining at all!) but it does mean that you can get an slightly skewed perspective of a place, so I try to get out and see a little for myself too.

View from a hotel walkway...

Rainy season wasn't quite what I expected...10-20 mins of heavy downpour and then back to wonderful sunshine

My Uncle asked me to visit a temple for him...this one.  apparently it was a favourite of my grandads when he was in sri lanka...(I never knew about this until he asked me to go.  It felt kinda special to follow in the footsteps of my grandad like that)

It was a big temple!  Unfortunately closed when I went but work the hours walk anyway, I got to see a lot of local culture during that trip!

Sickening isn't it? this was the view from my hotel room iteself

The hotel gardens were beautiful too..

and I love these trees...I took more photos of trees that anything else!

I took a trip out in a tuk-tuk round some local temples, the driver took me round as a guide and it made for a really nice afternoon, one of my only real touristy moments!

The baby elephant kept at the temple was in Kandy, but they have the old one still there for prosperity...(it was stuffed but still a tad daunting as you can probably tell by the look on my face!)

This is one of my favourite photos from the trip...on the way home I decided to open the window blind when we were somewhere over the middle east and was greeted by this amazing sight

Don't Panic...Yet

Apparently the zombie apocalypse is not yet upon us.  Says the CDC.  Has the panic and rumour really been enough for them to make an announcement like that?...well, personally I'd say no, the stories of the recent outbreak of bizarre crimes and hazmat team investigations across the US (mostly centered around Miami) haven't been widely reported or hyped in the media.  There has been some viral activity of the stories, but nothing anyone was really taking that seriously...so are they really trying to tell us something different?

Fear not however dear readers!....I think that thanks to a recent TV ad that I have already identified the "lead zombie" (they have those right? ;-) ) .......this woman has not aged anywhere near enough in 30+ years that she's been popping up on my TV screen!

Ester Ranzen when I was very young...

And today! 

Olympic confusion?

 Don't panic, I'm not going to drone on about the olympics, but they do seem to have caused quite a lot of geographical confusion.  The olympics are being held in London..right?  I don't live in London.  I don't even live in England.  Yet so many local shops in the centre of town seem to be trying to convince everyone that we do! These photos were taken in the centre of Edinburgh...

London buses, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace...not a usual Edinburgh sight

At least they're not charging too much for them...

Bizarre Signs

It's been a while...I've been crazy busy and not had time to really sit down to blog....but that hasn't stopped me from seeing some odd stuff lately.  So here a small collection....

A new Chinese Takeaway.....I think.

A "special" kind of driver wanted...

I'm not sure whether the fruit and veg are supposed to be slippery, or if you're not supposed to run on them?

Blatantly lying shoes...

No dunking babies

I think the Fire Brigade are getting kickbacks from Burger king...

Isn't this the setting for a bad horror movie?

Toilet/Waterslide...mmmm

Negative...positive...negative?

I stumbled across this article online tonight.  Its titled: 10 jobs you can get with just your GCSEs.  I read it out of interest as I am one of the (seemingly unusual) people who has a brain but no degree - you may remember me talking about this is a previous post - I was hoping that someone was trying to show some positive news for those of us without this magic piece of paper...but alas, wrong again...the article basically reinforces the idea that in order to get a decent job you need a degree.  The jobs they list are:

Accounts Clerks
Receptionist
Medical Secretary
Customer Service Assistant
Waiting Staff
Engineering Maintenance Fitter
Fitness Instructor
Sales Representative
Care Assistants

Whilst this may dispel any concept that you must have a degree to even be considered for any job, these probably aren't the best selection to make someone really confident...they are only a step away from listing Binman and Street Sweeper (both of which probably pay equal or more than those they have listed!)


Yet again, MSN article authors must try harder!

Barbie WIN!

 

A score like that just couldnt be kept quiet!!

Good cover or Good song?

I like music.  I don't like to be elitist and stick to the same genre constantly, instantly shunning any other forms however. (some people may have gleaned this from my previous music related posts!)

A few days ago I found myself humming along to a strangers ipod on the bus.  People leaking music from their headphones is a huge annoyance usually, but this time I recognised the song...kinda.  I only realised on my way home that night that what I'd heard was a cover of a song I quite liked performed in a different style.  It made me think of other good covers and I thought I'd share some here...If you don't know the originals I'm sure you can look them up!.....

First, the song that started all this...(Although I still prefer the original!)

Seven Nation Army


and a selection of what I think are some pretty good covers!...

Creep


Smooth Criminal


Sweet Dreams


This could go on forever...you get the idea!

Weightloss extreme?

In today's usual Internet wanderings I came across this article.  For those who don't want to read it for themselves, its basically about a new extreme diet...ironically called KEN.  It's not something that this level headed barbie would ever try though...the "diet" is that you stop eating for 10 days and feed yourself special nutrients through a tube.  I've tried some crazy things in my time to lose weight but that's not a diet. That's more like torture. 

Unfortunately there are people out there mad -or desperate- enough to try this but its basically a crash diet and they have never been considered a good idea...and if you really think about it, who really wants to cuddle a stick figure?

Barbie goes a'travelling

I've never been much of a traveller.  Don't get me wrong I do enjoy it and I love seeing different places but I've never really had much of a chance.  I've been lucky this year so far though as I got sent to India for a week for work in January!  (I know, everyone now wants my job...you can get to the back of the queue!)

I wasn't really looking forward to the 11 hour flight but I discovered that flying business class seems to be a very good way of getting over my fear of flying...I think was the glass of champagne that you get handed as you board that helped most. 

Then we arrived...oh. wow.  I was working all week, so sightseeing wasn't really high on the to-do list but we had managed to fit a day off into the schedule and several evening dinners that we had to attend so we did get to see a bit of Kolkata (Calcutta) and we were staying in the plushest hotel I've ever even seen (never mind stayed in!)

I've never stayed in a hotel with palm trees inside before...

My Humungous room!

the turn down service tray left every night 

Obviously I was a bit messy for the housekeepers...everytime I went out I'd come back to find more of my things neatly sorted and laid out on white cloths...My colleague even returned one day to find her earrings neatly sorted into pairs instead of heaped in a pile as she'd left them!

This was a downfall...every day fresh chocolates, fruit and wine left in my room..my waistline did not thank me!

Is this the biggest windchine ever?..(It reached down 5 floors)

 The small flower display in the lift foyer..

So, I think you get the idea that the hotel was huge and lovely, I found it difficult to be treated like such a VIP by the staff, but it certainly made for an enjoyable stay.

One our day off we did a little bit of sightseeing.  Kolkata isn't a highly tourist based area but that doesn;'t mean theres not an amazing number of things to see...

We went to the Birla Mandir Hindu Temple, made of the same marble as the Taj Mahal..No photos are allowed inside, but heres a taste of outside...

Then we went to Parshwanath Jain Temple, where we became a tourist attraction ourselves as people came up and asked to have their photos taken with us.  It was a lovely calm place and we unwittingly arrived on an important day so there were a large number of visitors

Yes...he is cutting the grass with scissors...He turned around so we could get a better shot of him!

 I think they knew I was coming.. the colour scheme was very barbie!

Then to finish off the sights we went to Mother Theresas Tomb.  It was an odd yet lovely experience, and one I could appreciate even though I have no affitiation to the catholic church.  Photos were only allowed in the tomb itself, but there was a small museum and up some steep stairs you could go and see the room she lived in as it's been preserved the way it was left. 

 The tomb itself..

  Fresh flowers are laid out every day.  A small pot of them was left on the windowsill from the day before that were left there so people could take them home as souveneirs

We disovered that we were visiting during the wedding season, two of the dinners we were invited to also conincided with weddings being held in the same venue so I saw some amazing clothes and highly extravagant parties. 

This does make Kolkata sound like a very happy and lovely place...and it is, for some...I thought I was prepared for what I was going to see while I was there, we see pictures on TV of the poverty in countries like India all the time, but trust me, they don't.  I can't even start to describe how conditions I saw people living in, at every point in every street was someones living space, whether they were lucky enough to have a tarpaulin strapped across two trees or whether they just sat in the street with a candle.  It puts a whole different perspective on what we in the UK class as poverty and what we consider as "having nothing".  This side of India certainly leaves a lasting impression, but it also helped in many ways to make this an amazing trip, and I'd certainly be pleased if I got the opportunity to go again. 

Signpost to Nowhere

I was away at the end of last year in Sheffield when I spotted this signpost. I would guess that all of the places listed are a little obscure as the one pointed to in Scotland is Balerno (for those who don't know its a small village that has become a suburb of Edinburgh)

Happy 2012

We made it!! Another year successfully completed! (Yes, I know, my mind IS convinced I live in a sims style computer game)

B-Man had a celebratory tub of haribo at Chez Gurn ....

and a game of Vampirology... (I was so excited to see that they provided a purple playing piece specifically for me!)

Happy New Year!