Sweeties, Pies and Ginger

Karen and I live about 6 miles from where we work and it normally takes around 20 minutes to get to and from the office, traffic permitting. It took over an hour to get home last night due to all the snow that had fallen and the fact that most of it had turned to black ice. Everyone was being extra cautious and driving at around 10 mph, although they could have gone a bit faster and still have been safe.

It seems that a bit of snow falls and everyone round here looses their head and forgets how to drive, especially the lorry drivers. As I was coming into work this morning the A14 was still blocked eastwards, as it had been last night. The main reason for this was jack-knifed lorries blocking part of the carriageway amongst other accidents. It took one of the lads from the office all night to get home, evidently he rang up in the morning enquiring if he should just turn round and come back in, that's dedication for you.

The roads weren't too bad this morning, easily drivable, unlike last night's black ice, which was quite treacherous. The drive into work was rather uneventful, even when I overtook two four-wheel drive vehicles that were going way too slow for the conditions. It was quite a nice drive, with all the snow in the tress and fields providing a nice visual feast.

It's supposed to snow again today, although I think we'll escape a repeat of yesterday dusting. It does mean that we wont be going to London tomorrow, which is a shame as we'd been planning the trip for a couple of weeks. So it's early home today as they're shutting the office at 2pm, so a quick trip to the supermarket to get enough food for the weekend and then off to cuddle up under a duvet with Karen.

It's been snowing here since just after 12 o'clock, although it's a bit too warm and wet for it to have built up a decent layer. I'm sure both the cats are going to be well pissed off with us when we get back home this evening...

Got woken up at around 3 o'clock this morning by the noise of a walkie-talkie that sounded like it was in the house. Karen was justifiably a bit worried and by the time I'd come to, we both thought there was someone in the house. So it's pitch black, I'm half a sleep and the chances are there's a bunch of hardened criminals rampaging through our house, so I get out of bed to go and have a look.

I get as far as the bedroom door when I twig what's going on. I look after a load of the East Anglian Rocketry Society kit, amongst which are four of those PMR radios. One of the things I do during the winter is to cycle the rechargeable batteries and I just switch the radios on and leave them in the loft until they've run the batteries down so I can recharge them.

So the hoard of rampaging criminals was in reality just the noise of four radios belting out a conversation they were picking up. Needless to say I was a bit relieved and could unclench my bum cheeks without fear. So the moral of the story is that if you want to run down batteries in these radios, put them in a noise proof box...

Karen is away in San Diego at the moment, she's been there since last Monday. Even though I'm a bit of a loner, I can get by quite happily off on my own; I'm really feeling a bit lonely this time. I'm not really sure why, when she's been gone before I usually miss her, but I don't feel lonely. I'm getting home in the evenings and it feels like I'm bouncing around in this big empty house with nothing to do, of course I've got stuff to do, but it's just that she's not there.

I suppose in a long-term relationship, wither you're married or not doesn't really matter, you get used to the other person being around. It doesn't matter if I'm upstairs bashing away in the computer and Karen's watching Eastenders on the telly downstairs, I know she's just downstairs and I can go and have a chat or a hug whenever I want. With her currently a few thousand miles away I can't get a hug, or chat about getting into the top ten on the works foosball ladder and it's not the nicest of feelings.

It's at times like these, when she's not here that I realise how much I love her and what it means to just have her around. Sometimes it feels like I've lost a part of myself, that something's gone missing and I know I wont get it back until she comes home.

You know that feeling you get when things go fuber...? You know, the "No. Oh fuck no, No, no, no, no, no, fuck no, fuck no, fuck no,. No."...? I hate it when that happens.

Went to see the latest James Bond movie last night, Die Another Day. I'd heard mixed reviews about it, some said it was quite good, other said it was pretty woeful. Personally, I though it was quite good for a modern Bond movie that has to compete with all the other big action movies. It's certainly no Goldfinger or From Russia With Love, but the days of those kinds of Bond movie are well and truly over.

Some of the set pieces were pretty amazing and the stunts outlandish, as you would expect. The cars were fast and full of gadgets, the Aston Martin Vanquish was gorgeous, although in real life it's probably just a tad out of my price range. As for the women, well they were nice to look at, but I though Halle Berry was as wooden as a railway sleeper.

If you're a fan of Bond, then you'll probably like it, although it is a bit more of an action movie, rather than a classic Bond flick.

A while ago I was contacted by my doctors asking if they could send my details off to a diabetes research group. It turns out that there has been an ongoing diabetes research project in Ely for over 12 years. Based on that research they are exploring new areas, one of which they contacted me to be part of. The ProActive study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention to increase physical activity among individuals with a family history of type 2 diabetes.

So at half past eight this morning, I found myself at the Princess of Wales hospital in Ely waiting to start part of the research programme. It started off with a blood test, they're going to check for stuff like glucose and cholesterol, and then moved onto to general heath checks. So I had my weight, height and body fat checked before being hooked up to an ECG machine to check my heart. It was like being in Casualty or something with all the sticky pads all over my chest, I just kept thinking someone was going to charge in and shout Charging to 300 Joules. Clear!

After all the bodily checks it was onto the more physical side of things, lung capacity and heart rate during moderate exercise. So to start with I had to blow into a tube for all I was worth, the trace lasted six seconds, but I was generally out of breath by three or four seconds. So my peak was just under five litres and my maximum just over five litres of air, I've got no idea if that's any good or not though.

Next up was the treadmill, walking on the flat then a five percent gradient and then a ten percent gradient, all at two and a half miles per hour. The idea is that you do warm up on each level for a minute or so, then they take readings for three minutes and then you move on. They're trying to get your heart rate up to one hundred and twenty beats per minute, where they'll stop you. I was just over one hundred beats per minute at the end of my cycle, so she put my speed up to three and a half miles an hour for a final three minutes. My heart rate just tripped one hundred and twenty beats per minute at the end, so I was quite chuffed I'd gone all that way.

One thing I forgot to say was they I also had to wear a mask that was fitted so that they could measure who much air I was breathing in an out. It was getting a bit sweaty and smelly at the end of my stint, but it made me feel like one of those top athletes you see on the telly as they get put through a physical. When I finished on the treadmill I was told that I fitted into their super fit category, which made me chuckle just a little.

So I've been sent home wearing a heart rate monitor and a motion sensor and have to wear then for the next four days. This is so that they can measure my energy expenditure, with the help of the treadmill data, and presumably then work out if I need to do more exercise or not. The study last's a year, so I'll have to go back about four times and will probably have to wear the heart rate monitor and stuff again at some point. Hopefully the end result wont see me getting diabetes.

Went to the cinema to see City of God yesterday and I must say it was well worth it. What an excellent film, a good story, some interesting acting and some excellent camera work all made for a very engaging film. It was at times funny, emotional, sad, uplifting and it was all based on a true story. I left wondering what's become of the central character, has he made it, I think I might just have to go and find out. So if you've got an inkling to go and see ya film this one it top banana, quite literally.

The Cambridge & District CAMRA Winter Ale Festival is on at the moment and last night I managed to get along for a couple of hours. I was quite late getting there as it was Jilly and David’s birthday night out, so I had to go and have a pint with everyone before hand. This meant I didn’t get to the venue until just after nine o’clock, which left the only option of working so that I could get staff beer and try a few more fine ales that I would have if I didn’t work.

As in previous years the festival was held in the refectory of the Mumford Building at Anglia Polytechnic University. It’s a bit like being back having school dinners really, as it’s not the most appealing of venues. The bar is quite short, but this year they opened up the back of the stillage so that they could fit even more beers onto the programme. What a programme it was too, I’ve not seen that much Scottish beer down here in a long time, I was really looking forward to getting stuck into some of it, especially the newer breweries.

An Teallach (4.2%), Atlas (Kinlochleven)

I though this one was absolutely smashing, a lovely fruity sort of beer that left me wanting more. I recommended this to so many people that it sold out, that just means I’ll need to keep my eyes peeled so that I can have it again next time I see it. Definitely recommended.

Wayfarer (4.4%), Atlas (Kinlochleven)

I wasn’t sure about this one as there seemed to be a subtly yet distinctive metalicy aftertaste that was just taking the edge of what I think would normally be a lovely beer.

Turkey Stuffing (3.8%), Bridge of Allan (Bridge of Allan)

This one was a real puzzler, as I just couldn’t describe what it tasted like. Some of the punters reckoned it really did taste like stuffing, but it certainly didn’t taste like onion and sage to me.

Bronwyn Festive Blonde Ale (4.2%), Bridge of Allan (Bridge of Allan)

The programme said that this beer was smooth, full bodied blonde ale with a rich, fruity aroma and rewarding aftertaste. Personally I wasn’t to enamoured with it, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. Having said that you could really taste the spices they’d during in the aftertaste, so it was certainly distinctive.

Good King Legless (4.5%), Harviestoun (Dollar)

My notes only have a one-word description for this one - excellent. I must admit to not really remembering what it tasted like, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad Harviestoun beer,so for one to be excellent, it must have been good.

Black to Front (4.5%), Harviestoun (Dollar)

If the Good King Legless was excellent, then this one was off the scale as it was definitely the best beer I tried on the night. Dark, roasted and so moreish it was unbelievable; I could drink beer like this for the rest of my life and die a satisfied man. Awesome.

Forest Gold (3.8%), Iceni (Ickburgh)

I had this one during staff beer, so I didn’t really note much for it to be honest. It was nice, but that’s about as much as I can remember. I should really get one of those little tape machines so I can record my thoughts at the time, or maybe that would be a bit on the sad side...

Centurion’s Ghost Ale (5.4%) York (York)

This was the last beer I tried before heading off the met up with Karen and share a taxi home, so unsurprisingly I’ve not noted anything for this beer. It was dark and went down a treat, but that’s about all I can tell you.

So I managed a few, but there was still about another four beers I wished I’d tried. It’s a great wee festival, but it’s just a nightmare to get to in the winter as it’s too cold to cycle all the way home on a bmx during the early hours of the morning and getting a taxi each night would be too costly. So I think I’m just going to have to console myself with getting the occasional visit in the future.

Argh! Nae Bru, I forgot to get some more yesterday. The peanut butter sarnies this morning just wont cut it without the can of Bru...

Our friend and ex-work colleague Shazzie was on the telly last night, totally bizarre seeing someone your know on national TV. The programme was called Diet Another Day and was supposed to deal with the journalist and actress Maria McErlane who went in search of inner cleanliness when she said goodbye to wheat and dairy products, coffee, tea and alcohol for a month.

The first half of the programme was more of a this is what people try when they diet and detox, than full description of what Maria's detox was goiung to involve. This was also the only part of the programme that Shazzie appeared in, normally followed by someone else going "Eh...?", "Not good for you..." "Bonkers!", you get the idea. They introduced her with the on screen caption Extreme Detoxer, which was when I started to get the feeling that they were lining her up as the programme's weirdo.

Apart from Shazzie, they also had a load of other serial dieters (the vast majority of which were overweight women) and a load of magazine editors and reviewers, who all had a chance to mutter something or other. They did all seem particularly scathing about detoxes and diets in general and some of the points they put across, while being true, weren't fully expanded on.

So picture the scene, some woman is muttering something about people who do detoxes as just being attention seekers, and then she mumbles something about cutting out types of food and raw food, etc. etc. They then cut to Shazzie, who is explaining that she now follows a raw food diet, do they give her a chance to say she's been doing it for three years, so it's not exactly a fad or attention seeking? No, of course not, they cut immediately to someone with their face screwed up making a disparaging comment about a raw food diet.

Not a particularly well made bit of TV in my opinion, especially as they started on some of the side effects of detoxing, lethargy, lack of energy, actually getting more toxic, but didn't allow any come back on them. So some woman's sitting there and says something along the lines of "and do you realise that when you detox you actually make your body more toxic!", of course she has a look of feint surprise on her face as she says it. While this might be true, it's only because your body is burning fat cells that have toxins in them, once they cells are gone, your toxicity drops again. Did they mention that...?

It seems to me that the word detox is the new word for diet, they seemed to using it interchangeably at points. For me, if you say you are on a diet then you are trying to loose weight. If you say your on a detox, your trying to cleanse your body, of which weight loss is a side effect, not the goal, if your goal is to loose weight, then go on a diet. It's quite simple really, watch what you eat, do some exercise and you'll loose the weight, it wont happen overnight, but as long as you stick to it, it will happen.

This brings me on to another point that they managed to gloss over to a degree, the reason why people generally all the weight, or more, back on after they stop a detox or a diet. Again it's pretty simple really:

1. You've either got no self-discipline or will power and can't stick to the diet or detox that you've set yourself.
2. You didn't do it for long enough, as you thought you were going to loose 4 stone in a week.
3. You ate the wrong things and too much of them, thinking that they were good for you.
4. You didn't do any fat burning exercises.
5. When you finished, you went straight back to eating all the foods that made you fat in the first place.

A diet or a detox isn't something that you should do for a month, as that just leads onto serial dieting and the yo-yo'ing of your weight, which isn't good for you. The only true way to loose weight and keep it off is to permanently change what you eat and how you exercise. That doesn't mean you can't have the occasional poke of chips, or fry up, it just means that you can't eat chips every night or have a full English for breakfast every day.

Since doing a detox at the start of last year, I've changed what I eat, although I still don't do any meaningful exercise. At the end of 2001 I weighed in at 14 and a quarter stone, I'd been cultivating a rather fetching beer belly. Immediately after the detox I weight in at just under 12 stone, which was always going to go up, as I hadn't had any solid food for a few days. Now, just a year since we started that detox, I weighed in at 12 and three quarter stone this morning, I've put on half a stone through out December.

I don't go to a gym, go running, do aerobics or any of that stuff, and I've still managed to keep my weight down. If I was still eating what I had been before the detox, I'm sure I'd be pushing 14 and a half stone by now. I eat the occasion poke of chips, the odd curry, Green & Black's dark chocolate and far too much beer, but generally I eat good healthy food. It's not rocket science to loose weight, or successfully complete a detox, but it does take will power and determination and to truly succeed a permanent change in diet is required.

Programmes like the one on channel 4 last night, don't really do any favours by portraying perfectly healthy people as nutters who're really just attention seekers. They could have made quite an informative programme about detoxing and what not, but choose instead to go down the easy route and debunk it all as just another fad. I shouldn't be surprised really, but it would make a refreshing change if just for once, one of these programmes concentrated on someone who's changed their life after a detox, rather than using some tired old 40 a day chocoholic, who's got no intention of ever changing.

I'm a bit down in the dumps today, which is understandable with Makucha passing away and everything else I was told yesterday. Just when I thought everything was getting back to normal and I was starting to look to the future, I get brought back down the earth with a bump. Sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it.

Makucha, ? - 6th January 2003, R.I.P.

Makucha was our first cat, we got him from the Blue Cross rescue centre in Cambridge. I've always liked cats, but it was really Karen's idea to get one once we'd moved into our current house. He looked so small and vulnerable sitting in the big cage and unlike lots of the other cats, he came up a rubbed himself over your fingers as you poked them expectantly through the bars.

We were told that they didn't know his age, only that he was definitely over ten years of age. He also had a problem with his paws, if they got a cut, he wouldn't stop bleeding; evidently this had put some people off, but not us. When we got him to our local vet for a check up, we discovered he only had one tooth; it was about this time that we started to think of what he must have been through during his life.

Both Karen and I have thought about it at length and we reckon he was originally a Granny cat, either his owner died or was taken into a home, either way, he was cast out onto the street. Being used to his home comforts he wasn't used to the rigours of being a stray, but he lasted long enough to loose most of his teeth and luckily for us be rescued.

I can still remember his first night in the house; he hid under a clothes horse covered with a load of damp clothes. I suppose this was the easiest dark cubby hole to get to, although he quickly progressed to hiding under the bed and bath for extended periods. I wouldn't say he was the friendliest cat to start with, as naturally, he was wary about these two strangers who had taken him in.

To start with he would go near anyone but Karen and I, but over time as his confidence increased, he would jump up onto the lap of even the most hardened cat hater. I don't think we've ever had anyone to stay who Makucha didn't ended up being friendly to. Only a couple of months ago we had friends to stay and even before they had a chance to properly settle on the sofa he was up on their laps vying for the comfiest knees.

In the early part of last year we knew something wasn't quite right with Makucha, he wasn't himself and we was loosing weight. After a short stay at the vets, he was diagnosed with kidney problems and put on special food and tablets. He made a marked improvement and was doing well even at the start of November, although you could tell from his fur that he wasn't in perfect health.

To celebrate the New Year, Karen and I went to Edinburgh of six days, leaving Karen's brother, Robbie, to look after the cats. When we got back we knew instantly that there was something wrong, the fact that Robbie told us he hadn't eating was just the confirmation of what our eyes were telling us, he wasn't well. We though we'd give him the weekend and see how he got on, but this morning it was obvious that we were going to have to go to the vets. When we got home from work, it was pretty obvious what was going to happen when we got there, as he could hardly stand up.

I'm shedding a few tears as I write this, remembering all the things that he's got up to, all the things I'll miss about him. I'll miss the fact that when I wake up tomorrow and get back into bed after going to the loo, he wont have crept into the bedroom and be settled down on Karen's pillow. I'll miss him more than I can describe here, he might be gone, but he won't ever be forgotten.

Happy New Year! Went out to the Street Party in Edinburgh last night with some of my friends and my wee Brother. We started off at my Sister's flat and got a bus into town and then the hard job of finding a half empty pub started. As it turned out we found a pub really easily, they had free tables and Deuchars IPA on tap.

We were a bit on the late side leaving the pub as it turned out, we should really have made a move at around quarter past Eleven, but we ended up not going until half past. Coupling that with the fact that I was trying to flog our eight extra armbands, we got to the gates to find them shut. A quick scrabble round onto George St and then down Castle St. saw us inside the barriers, but the worst was to come.

I think most people had got there early to avoid having to get an armband, so there were tens of thousands of people wedged into the confluence of Fredrick St. and Princes St. Because of this they were trying to shut a sub barrier that would have stopped us getting any further down than Rose St. Luckily my Brother, Stuarty, Karen and myself all managed to squeeze through, but Mark and Graeme weren't so lucky. We didn't see them again until around 2 o'clock when we eventually got back to my Sister's flat.

So we managed to get ourselves into a good enough position to see the fireworks, which were pretty amazing. There set off something like 7,000 in three minutes, it was just non-stop. When they were finished we all had big grins on our faces, it could only have been improved if there had been a Paul Birch big bang finale.

Instead of wandering down onto Princes St. and doing a bit of mingling, we decided to try and find Mark and Graeme, although after about 10 minutes we gave up and just headed off to get a poke of chips and the bus home. We did find chips, although they were a bit on the ropey side and we amazingly caught the bus which must be a first for all the years I've been going out in Edinburgh, we've always ended up having to walk miles back to the place were staying.

Karen went to bed quite early as she was shattered, but the rest of us stayed up drinking waiting for my Brother to bring my Sister home from where she's been at a party. The both got back at around four o'clock, looking slightly the worse for ware. I'm not sure what time I eventually got to bed, but I'm amazed that I don't have a worse hangover.

You can see what we got up to as I've uploaded the photos I took to the image bank.