Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts

Spreading the love

I'm really chuffed that Joy thought of me for the Beautiful Blogger Award, so thank you Joy for sharing that warm fuzzy feeling with me and I'll gladly pass it along to a few other amazing women whose blogs I've been following.

First for the 7 things you don't know about me...

1. When I was 6 years old, I flew over from Shetland to visit my grandparents in Belgium all on my own. On the way back, the last plane did a stopover in Orkney and I got off, thinking I was home already. When the airport personnel realised the mistake, they had to stop the plane at the end of the runway and get me back on board.

2. As if that wasn't bad enough, they'd overbooked the plane, so when I got back on it, the only seat left was in the cockpit, between the pilot and the copilot. I was so impressed I didn't dare ask if I could get up and go to the loo and I ended up peeing myself. When my dad asked me what had happened, I told him it was raining in London (!).

3. I could probably fill these 7 points with embarrassing stories of things I did whilst drunk. In my uni years and for a few years after, I collected quite a few memorable drunken moments. Throwing up on a guy I'd just met and whose birthday it was was one of them, throwing up in the bathroom sink at my boyfriend (now husband)'s place then having to unblock the sink at 6 am in the nude was another. And I think I'll stop at that.

4. I haven't touched an iron in about 15 years. When my parents separated (I was 10), I had to iron my dad's shirts and I think it put me off ironing forever. When he got a girlfriend and she started doing his washing, I vowed never to touch an iron again. For about 10 years I just wore my clothes as they came out of the dryer and now I have a cleaning lady who does the ironing.

5. I can't let a shopkeeper or a waiter undercharge me. If they make a mistake and I notice, I'll point it out to them, even if it means paying a lot more than they were asking. If I don't I feel guilt-ridden and am absolutely convinced that something terrible will happen to me. You know, karma and all that.

6. As a teenager I was obsessed with blood and other morbid stuff. Once at the doctor's office, I needed to give a blood sample and asked him if I could get an extra tube of blood to take home with me. For some bizarre reason, the doctor agreed, and I kept the tube of blood in my pencil case for several years after, occasionally taking it out to impress my classmates.

7. According to my mother, when I was little I ate a bit of sheep's poo, thinking it was a raisin. The neighbour's kid used to sit in the garden and eat worms though, so I don't feel too bad about it.

Okay, after that fun trip down memory lane, time for my own nominations. I tried to only nominate people who as far as I can tell from their blogs haven't been nominated already, and they're all blogs of amazing women I have encountered during my WW journey, who have inspired me, made me laugh (often), cry (sometimes) and who I admire very much.

Tina is a big inspiration and has lost an amazing amount of weight. I love how bubbly and cheery her blog is, it always brings a smile to my face.

Starfish's is another blog with a high feel-good factor. I'm always amazed (and a little jealous) at how active and determined she is...

Mel can really get me in stitches of laughter with tales of her work, family (especially the sabotaging brother) and ups and downs with food.

Shaz is another amazing woman. She looks absolutely gorgeous after losing over 5 stone and seems to always be busy raising money for charity.

Lana's blog rings very true to me - I can often relate to things she says and she paints a very realistic picture of the ups and downs of weight loss. Nevertheless, she's managed to lose a whopping 6.5 stone, very inspiring!

Emma is another inspiring "loser", looking gorgeous and keeping it real. I like that her blog is about so much more than just the weight loss too.

Mandy's finally is another blog I've been following from day go, another lovely lady on the bumpy road to shedding the extra pounds. I especially like her blog title, so true!!

Week 17 WI

Goodbye 10 kg!!!! Yay! A week later than I hoped I made it past the 10 kg lost :) On to my 10% which I will achieve by next Monday!
I am really pleased to see the scales going down again as I have been really good. Okay, I had a few glasses of wine last Thursday, but apart from that I've been angelic ;)

So the results are:
Loss this week: -0.9 kg / -2 lbs
Total loss so far: -10.2 kg / -22.5 lbs

It's weird because it seems like a lot and not a lot at the same time... I mean, 10 kg is heavy... more than a 6-pack of water... and that's all weight I'm NOT carrying around with me everywhere I go anymore. On the other hand, I'm only a quarter of the way there... it seems like a long road ahead.

Which brings me to mention what an inspiration my fellow bloggers have been to me so far. It is great to see people who are 60 or 100 lbs down the road and are living proof that it really is an attainable goal :) You rock, girls!

Adding some colour to my life

Spring is in the air - well, actually, the weather's crap, but at least the days are getting longer - so I decided it was time to brighten up my blog and play around with a new colour scheme. What do you think? I like it, minty fresh and summery :)

The header picture was taken while I was lying in a park in Oslo last June and reminds me of the freedom I felt and sense of peace, so it's a very soothing image for me :)

I also finally fixed my blog post from a while ago with my before pictures on it. The text and images wouldn't align the way I wanted them to, so I solved the problem using a table. Then discovered blogger does some weird stuff when you use tables, adding a massive white space in front of it. Aaaaarg! Luckily I found this blog post about the problem and the code fixed it. I replaced all the line breaks in the text with paragraph breaks and with a bit of tweaking it finally looks decent - well, on my computer at least!

Procrastination... or the art of diversification

It's not that I just lie in bed all day, comatose. I actually get up, with a long list of things I could/should do.

Well, "list" isn't exactly accurate, seeing as I rarely make lists unless things have really gotten out of control. It's more like a vague cluster of random thoughts and unspoken possibilities (put together bathroom cupboard... fill in time sheets... read book... take table down to basement... wax legs...), a seemingly endless ocean of things I vaguely believe require my attention.

So how do I manage to not only do none of the things I considered doing when I woke up this morning, but actually spend most of my day absorbed by some compelling new activity (in this case an adventure through the fascinating world of blogging, trying to discover all the cool features you can add to your blog, signing up to multiple sites, testing, debugging...)?

My life is an endless collection of similar behaviour. I always end up adding more "to dos" to my list, by embarking on some new hobby or discovering some new gimmick.

And I suppose one new thing being added automatically means something else gets left behind. I'm sure it would be cool to see a visual representation of the whole process. And how my mind actually decides what to "keep" and what to discard.
I don't think anyone would believe how many half-read books are in my bookshelf, how many hobbies I bought supplies for that are sitting in some cupboard, half used up, how many amazing plans I have spent time exploring but never actually put into practice.

So, am I really a procrastinator? Or can I actually make peace with the fact I will always take more pleasure in starting something that I will in finishing it? Can I accept that I will probably never become an expert in anything, but will continue to know a bit about everything, which -for lack of any other purpose - can always come in handy at boring dinner parties?

A blog about blogging

What are blogs and where do they come from?
More importantly, who writes them and who reads them?
How do you find blogs you want to follow, and how on earth does anyone ever find your blog?

If, like me, you're not too keen on advertising your blog on your Facebook or MySpace account (because you're boss is a "friend" and you well, just really don't want him reading here, for example), does anyone ever find their way to your blog?

Is it acceptable to be asking these questions? Should I save face and pretend I actually have a clue how any of this works? Do "real" bloggers know the answers to these questions and will they laugh when - if - they stumble across these words? Will I be considered a blogging pariah?

Why is it everyone else always seems to know what they're talking about, what they're doing, what things mean and how they work? Am I really that stupid, or do I just need to learn to pretend I'm intelligent?

Well, if you do stumble across this - and I can't for the life of me figure out how that could happen - be a good sport and let me know how you did it, okay?