I was working at home on Friday so five o'clock came and went without much in the way of fanfare. I didn't as some people suspected I would do rush out and buy an industrial sized bag of doughnuts.
In the evening I went out for a drink with some friends, I drank Coke because I had volunteered to drive and as Dave has mentioned previously it is not much fun sitting there with a glass of water all night. The Coke was much as I remembered it, sweet, sickly and not really the most pleasant of beverages - On the other hand I was in bed, but still wide awake at three in the morning.
I also ate chocolate this weekend, its hard not to in our household considering the Tcho Tcho's consider chocolate one of life's essentials, one which in the scheme of things they rate as only slightly less important than the Wii. I can't deny the chocolate was nice, but I felt inherently guilty about eating it. I didn't buy a mars bar to keep me going on the trek back from the news agents which came as a shock to some family members.
None of this probably sounds like much to most of you, but to me its an interesting development. Much of my weight problem is simply down to bad habits. This weekend I had the opportunity to buy both chocolate and pastries, I didn't. I ate chocolate and drank pop this weekend but both in moderation, that for me is good news; I don't normally do moderation. It will not, I think be a bad thing to return to and continue this vow of abstinence at least until Christmas.
David has been keeping track of the figures and was no doubt fed up with me asking him what the total is every ten minutes. Apparently we've pushed over the £1300 with regards pledges, which isn't bad for two fat blokes who gave up stuff they probably should have given up long ago.
Then again the Alzheimer's Society needs every penny of that money to help people who desperately need it. So thank you, if you've donated and if you haven't, please don't think we won't happily take your money now if you are kind enough to give it to us.
All that is left for me to say is a heartfelt thank you for your generosity
Giles
Monday, November 16, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
5 Hours and 9 minutes to go...
Well the end is in sight. It's been difficult, but worth it.
(Almost) 33 days. 775 hours to be exact.
Way back at the beginning, while I was still huddled under my desk, rocking backwards and forwards and wondering how I was going to get through the next 30-odd minutes, let alone the next 30-odd days, somebody said to me 'You'll probably get to the end and find you don't want all this rubbish any more.'
What madness was this? Of course I'll want it!
But now...
There's a bottle of Pepsi in the fridge, and a vending machine full of chocolate just round the corner, and yet...
I feel thinner. I feel (moderately) healthier. I feel astounded that we made it through, quite frankly, for there were more than a few shaky moments along the way.
And quite a few people have congratulated us on our efforts. For we weren't kidding when we say we live on this stuff - we do.
Or at least we did.
So somehow, eating a bar of chocolate and drinking some Pepsi at 5.00 this afternoon will seem like I'm breaking something fragile that I've made.
And before I get all maudlin, let's be blunt - when I've lost another three stone, then I can talk about 'thinner'.
So having got this far, with the finish line in sight, I'm not sure whether I will eat that bar of chocolate or not.
I'll see.
Whether I do or whether I don't, the whole thing has been worth it because of the generosity of all you good people.
I've sort of lost track of how much money we've raised, as quite often, people have pledged us one amount, and when they pay up, they've added a bit more. We're still waiting on a few donations, but if everything we've been promised comes in, we've been given something in the order of £1250, which is far beyond what we expected. We thought we'd do well to get to £500. The Alzheimer's Society (and let's not forget, that's what this whole thing is about) will be able to put every penny of that money to good use, helping people who desperately need it.
So we've said it before, and we'll say it again - thank you to everybody who's donated, encouraged, cajoled and otherwise helped.
We couldn't have done it without you.
(Almost) 33 days. 775 hours to be exact.
Way back at the beginning, while I was still huddled under my desk, rocking backwards and forwards and wondering how I was going to get through the next 30-odd minutes, let alone the next 30-odd days, somebody said to me 'You'll probably get to the end and find you don't want all this rubbish any more.'
What madness was this? Of course I'll want it!
But now...
There's a bottle of Pepsi in the fridge, and a vending machine full of chocolate just round the corner, and yet...
I feel thinner. I feel (moderately) healthier. I feel astounded that we made it through, quite frankly, for there were more than a few shaky moments along the way.
And quite a few people have congratulated us on our efforts. For we weren't kidding when we say we live on this stuff - we do.
Or at least we did.
So somehow, eating a bar of chocolate and drinking some Pepsi at 5.00 this afternoon will seem like I'm breaking something fragile that I've made.
And before I get all maudlin, let's be blunt - when I've lost another three stone, then I can talk about 'thinner'.
So having got this far, with the finish line in sight, I'm not sure whether I will eat that bar of chocolate or not.
I'll see.
Whether I do or whether I don't, the whole thing has been worth it because of the generosity of all you good people.
I've sort of lost track of how much money we've raised, as quite often, people have pledged us one amount, and when they pay up, they've added a bit more. We're still waiting on a few donations, but if everything we've been promised comes in, we've been given something in the order of £1250, which is far beyond what we expected. We thought we'd do well to get to £500. The Alzheimer's Society (and let's not forget, that's what this whole thing is about) will be able to put every penny of that money to good use, helping people who desperately need it.
So we've said it before, and we'll say it again - thank you to everybody who's donated, encouraged, cajoled and otherwise helped.
We couldn't have done it without you.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Hmph!
I shall rise above the scurrilous accusations. He's thinner, healthier, less twitchy, and what thanks do I get?
None!
Anyway. 3 days to go. 56 hours and two minutes to be precise, but who's counting?
Well I am, for one!
So we're well in to Charities week at work now, and there are various other things going on. So what do I get nominated to run? The Cake stall! Had to spend a couple of hours surrounded by chocolate cake, sponge cake, almond slices, fairy cakes and Ben's special Frosties-marshmallows-and-melted-Mars-Bar cakes. It was murder.
And clearly my lack of sugar has affected my gaming skills. There was a MarioKart charity comp running alongside the stall. Now not so long ago, due to rather too much time spent playing games, I would have stomped anyone at MK. Sadly, yesterday I could only scrape into the top 10 in the time trial. At No. 10.
Clearly I'm not mis-spending my youth properly.
The other thing I'm not doing is losing weight. I seem to have levelled off for the last few weeks, so my good friend Matt offered to be my personal trainer. This seemed to consist of him emailing me from the safety of his office in Chelsea, saying 'Climb more stairs you fat porker!'
So (only 4 weeks after Giles started), I have begun eschewing the lifts in 171, and taking the stairs. Yesterday alone, I estimate that if you added up all the floors I walked up, I would have reached THE MOON!
This has had the added benefit of convincing me that my lack of weight loss is down to all the fat in my body being converted directly into muscle. In fact, as muscle weighs more than fat, I'm expecting to put on weight in the name of healthy living.
Finally, a huge thank you to Stephen, who's astoundingly generous donation has put us over the £1000 mark.
In fact, thanks to some other recent donations, plus Amy's 'I'll pay you for writing this rubbish blog', we're very, very close to £1100. STOP PRESS! Amy's just taken leave of her senses and presented us with a very large Blog cheque indeed. We are speechless! Thank you, Amy! £1250 here we come.
So thank you all.
We've just started discussing what we might do next year.
I'm voting for the 'Eating a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts every day for a month' challenge.
Other suggestions are welcome...
None!
Anyway. 3 days to go. 56 hours and two minutes to be precise, but who's counting?
Well I am, for one!
So we're well in to Charities week at work now, and there are various other things going on. So what do I get nominated to run? The Cake stall! Had to spend a couple of hours surrounded by chocolate cake, sponge cake, almond slices, fairy cakes and Ben's special Frosties-marshmallows-and-melted-Mars-Bar cakes. It was murder.
And clearly my lack of sugar has affected my gaming skills. There was a MarioKart charity comp running alongside the stall. Now not so long ago, due to rather too much time spent playing games, I would have stomped anyone at MK. Sadly, yesterday I could only scrape into the top 10 in the time trial. At No. 10.
Clearly I'm not mis-spending my youth properly.
The other thing I'm not doing is losing weight. I seem to have levelled off for the last few weeks, so my good friend Matt offered to be my personal trainer. This seemed to consist of him emailing me from the safety of his office in Chelsea, saying 'Climb more stairs you fat porker!'
So (only 4 weeks after Giles started), I have begun eschewing the lifts in 171, and taking the stairs. Yesterday alone, I estimate that if you added up all the floors I walked up, I would have reached THE MOON!
This has had the added benefit of convincing me that my lack of weight loss is down to all the fat in my body being converted directly into muscle. In fact, as muscle weighs more than fat, I'm expecting to put on weight in the name of healthy living.
Finally, a huge thank you to Stephen, who's astoundingly generous donation has put us over the £1000 mark.
In fact, thanks to some other recent donations, plus Amy's 'I'll pay you for writing this rubbish blog', we're very, very close to £1100. STOP PRESS! Amy's just taken leave of her senses and presented us with a very large Blog cheque indeed. We are speechless! Thank you, Amy! £1250 here we come.
So thank you all.
We've just started discussing what we might do next year.
I'm voting for the 'Eating a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts every day for a month' challenge.
Other suggestions are welcome...
Saturday, November 7, 2009
J'accuse!
I may have mentioned before I am the happy[1] father of twins, their birthday despite my wife's best efforts falls on Halloween. For the best part of six years the two tcho tcho's [2] have believed 31st of October is when a large portion of the UK and almost the entire United States celebrates their birthday [3].
Needless to say Saturday before last was birthday party time and in keeping with the typical six year old party theme[4] lots of cake and chocolate were on show. I hasten to add neither cake or chocolate passed my lips, mainly because the tchos have decided to be the defenders of Dad's honour by making sure he can't succumb to temptation.
They take this task very seriously, by which I mean with the same level of seriousness as practiced by the East German Stasi or the KGB, though with slightly less reliance on torture and more on sleep deprivation techniques. While I make their lunch in the mornings there is always one pulling security duty to make sure I don't sneak an extra penguin out of the treat drawer. The sound of a drawer being opened in the kitchen will inevitably draw some kind of response, normally a simple warning "Dadeeee are you eating chocolate?" from some corner of the house. Alternatively, the sound of an opening drawer is swiftly matched to the sound of of a small herd of elephants[5] charging down stairs, and the “J'accuse” moment as they silently observe me from the bottom of the stairs as I put the cutlery away.
If I'm honest their efforts to keep me on the straight and narrow are pretty unnecessary. I'm past the cravings stage, these days if I think about any of the "forbidden fruits" its nearly always in the context of "it would be nice to have one right now" rather than any sense of desperate need.
So life goes on, we inch closer to our target of £1000 and are only a little way off. This means you could be the person who helps us finally get there, or more likely you could be the person, who persuades one of your mates to be the person who helps us finally get there! Think how warm and rosey inside you'll feel if that happens.
Oh and I'd just like to add a little comment about a conversation David and I had last week about the things we gave up. For three weeks I've been under the mistaken belief we agreed to give up chocolate, pastries (by unspoken agreement pastries to include sweet biscuits) and fizzy pop, why mistakenly? Well, someone asked David what WE'd[6] given up, "chocolate, cakes and pop" he answers, "does that include booze as well?" they respond, "Umm, yes" says David without I might add consulting me in any shape or form. So now apparently, I've been and still am giving up drink as well. Now, if I sound a bit embittered when I say I am giving up booze, it because well I am. David you see doesn't actually drink alcohol in any shape or form so he's not actually giving up anything!
David Parry j'accuse!
[1] For a given value of happy, which is whenever they are asleep, definitely out of trouble or not a risk to life or limb either to themselves or any passers by - which is surprisingly often.
[2] I'm not explaining this again, go back a few posts and read my footnotes...OK, look, its a nerdish literary reference to an early 20th century horror writer.
[3] The number of presents my wife buys them, would seem to support their thesis so its not really their fault.
[4] Actually, the tcho's 'traditional' party theme, involves skulls, bats, witches and other assorted horror tropes along with chocolate, cake etc.
[5] very loud pygmy elephants, but still elephants.
[6] Emphasis mine. You'll understand, why I need to emphasis it if you finish the sentence and understand the injustice.
Needless to say Saturday before last was birthday party time and in keeping with the typical six year old party theme[4] lots of cake and chocolate were on show. I hasten to add neither cake or chocolate passed my lips, mainly because the tchos have decided to be the defenders of Dad's honour by making sure he can't succumb to temptation.
They take this task very seriously, by which I mean with the same level of seriousness as practiced by the East German Stasi or the KGB, though with slightly less reliance on torture and more on sleep deprivation techniques. While I make their lunch in the mornings there is always one pulling security duty to make sure I don't sneak an extra penguin out of the treat drawer. The sound of a drawer being opened in the kitchen will inevitably draw some kind of response, normally a simple warning "Dadeeee are you eating chocolate?" from some corner of the house. Alternatively, the sound of an opening drawer is swiftly matched to the sound of of a small herd of elephants[5] charging down stairs, and the “J'accuse” moment as they silently observe me from the bottom of the stairs as I put the cutlery away.
If I'm honest their efforts to keep me on the straight and narrow are pretty unnecessary. I'm past the cravings stage, these days if I think about any of the "forbidden fruits" its nearly always in the context of "it would be nice to have one right now" rather than any sense of desperate need.
So life goes on, we inch closer to our target of £1000 and are only a little way off. This means you could be the person who helps us finally get there, or more likely you could be the person, who persuades one of your mates to be the person who helps us finally get there! Think how warm and rosey inside you'll feel if that happens.
Oh and I'd just like to add a little comment about a conversation David and I had last week about the things we gave up. For three weeks I've been under the mistaken belief we agreed to give up chocolate, pastries (by unspoken agreement pastries to include sweet biscuits) and fizzy pop, why mistakenly? Well, someone asked David what WE'd[6] given up, "chocolate, cakes and pop" he answers, "does that include booze as well?" they respond, "Umm, yes" says David without I might add consulting me in any shape or form. So now apparently, I've been and still am giving up drink as well. Now, if I sound a bit embittered when I say I am giving up booze, it because well I am. David you see doesn't actually drink alcohol in any shape or form so he's not actually giving up anything!
David Parry j'accuse!
[1] For a given value of happy, which is whenever they are asleep, definitely out of trouble or not a risk to life or limb either to themselves or any passers by - which is surprisingly often.
[2] I'm not explaining this again, go back a few posts and read my footnotes...OK, look, its a nerdish literary reference to an early 20th century horror writer.
[3] The number of presents my wife buys them, would seem to support their thesis so its not really their fault.
[4] Actually, the tcho's 'traditional' party theme, involves skulls, bats, witches and other assorted horror tropes along with chocolate, cake etc.
[5] very loud pygmy elephants, but still elephants.
[6] Emphasis mine. You'll understand, why I need to emphasis it if you finish the sentence and understand the injustice.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Defying gravity
"So how's it going?" asked my beloved wife the other day.
"Not bad, though the weight loss has levelled off a bit." I said.
"You should let people know how you're doing," said MBW. "give them an update."
"Well I've told them how much I weigh, several times…"
"How about something else then? How about I measure your waist?"
"Er, no."
In my mind, my waist measurement in still 28", and as long as I'm not faced with incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, I can keep believing that. Heck, I still believe I'm only 27…
"Ok," continued MBW, "how about…"
She then got that look in her eye that said 'What follows will probably appeal to one of us more than the other.'
"…how about you take your belt off, and then I'll time you while you run around and we'll see how long it takes for your trousers to fall down?"
One of us thought this was hilarious.
One was less keen.
For now, the belt stays on, and the trousers stay up!
Talking of up, our totaliser-o-tron keeps creeping in the right direction. Our webpage has now passed the £500 mark (and thanks to Gift aid, you can add another £104 to that), and our total pledges overall currently stand at £942.79.
By the way, that includes the money from the website - it's not 'as well as'. Basically, some people have decided to donate straight away, and some people are thinking we're not going to make it, fall at the final hurdle and that their money is safe.
Not a chance. Despite some major temptation issues in Waitrose* on Saturday morning, Giles & I are hanging in there.
12 days to go.
Can we make £1000?
Tune in next time to find out!
*Other supermarkets are available. But they're not very nice.
"Not bad, though the weight loss has levelled off a bit." I said.
"You should let people know how you're doing," said MBW. "give them an update."
"Well I've told them how much I weigh, several times…"
"How about something else then? How about I measure your waist?"
"Er, no."
In my mind, my waist measurement in still 28", and as long as I'm not faced with incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, I can keep believing that. Heck, I still believe I'm only 27…
"Ok," continued MBW, "how about…"
She then got that look in her eye that said 'What follows will probably appeal to one of us more than the other.'
"…how about you take your belt off, and then I'll time you while you run around and we'll see how long it takes for your trousers to fall down?"
One of us thought this was hilarious.
One was less keen.
For now, the belt stays on, and the trousers stay up!
Talking of up, our totaliser-o-tron keeps creeping in the right direction. Our webpage has now passed the £500 mark (and thanks to Gift aid, you can add another £104 to that), and our total pledges overall currently stand at £942.79.
By the way, that includes the money from the website - it's not 'as well as'. Basically, some people have decided to donate straight away, and some people are thinking we're not going to make it, fall at the final hurdle and that their money is safe.
Not a chance. Despite some major temptation issues in Waitrose* on Saturday morning, Giles & I are hanging in there.
12 days to go.
Can we make £1000?
Tune in next time to find out!
*Other supermarkets are available. But they're not very nice.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
A significant milestone...
Midday today actually. That marked the halfway point.
16 1/2 days gone, 16 1/2 days to go.
Chances are that you're fed up with reading 'Oh it's horrible living without chocolate.' I think you probably get the point by now. So I'll give that a miss this time.
Since we started this, I've been genuinely surprised by the number of people who have said to me 'I know somebody who is suffering / has suffered / is affected by Alzheimer's.'
I always thought it was a relatively rare condition, but I suspect it's just that it doesn't get a huge amount of publicity.
I've not had direct experience of it (though a close friend's Dad, who only passed away a few months back, had it), but I've gone through something similar.
We lost my Dad to cancer some years ago, and towards the end, due to a combination of the disease and the medication, he hadn't got a clue where he was, who he was, or who we were.
To look at someone you love dearly, and to get a blank, uncomprehending stare back is heartbreaking.
I'm not trying to play the emotional blackmail card to try and squeeze a few more pounds out of people - you've all been tremendous.
But it's just a reminder that while Giles and I are going through what we laughingly describe as 'hardship', in 16 days, on November 13th, the hardship just goes away like *that*.
But for all the people affected by Alzheimer's though, it doesn't just 'go away'.
Thanks for helping.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Patently Unfair
OK this patently isn’t fair. Yesterday was a day off work in order to take Tcho Tcho #1 to the Natural History Museum where he could look at dinosaurs to his hearts content. Needless to say the lack of chocolate and caffeine has been affecting my thinking else I wouldn’t have been quite so stupid as to take him on the first day of autumn half term.
There were queues, not your common or garden queues either, but brain numbingly long queues of almost Alton Towers like proportions. After the queuing there was the walking and lots of it, there was also the running; whenever Tcho Tcho #1 caught site of some exciting exhibit in the distance and dashed off to disappear into the crowd, giving dad another opportunity to practice his sprint starts and vocal projection. [1]
Actually, Tcho Tcho #1 was incredibly well behaved, but whereas I have the experience of age, he has the energy of youth and literally didn’t stop all day. Now my normal answer to long term exposure to children is to neck a sometimes, as I’ve mentioned before more than one. Highly caffeinated I’m quite capable of keeping up. Yesterday resorting to an energy drink was obviously out of the question.[2]
In the normal scheme of things then I’d be on top form come the end of the day, although vibrating at a high frequency and with an irregular heart murmur. Yesterday though, I felt Tcho Tcho #1 might actually have me beat. In a desperate last ditch effort to slow him down I took him to a pizza restaurant and loaded him with carbohydrates, while studiously keeping it light and sticking to the proteins myself. Result, almost instant carb induced stupor, well until he got home that is at which time he bounced right back into action in order to recount the days events to mum and Tcho Tcho #2 [3]
Anyway, the day with Tcho Tcho #1 made me think about a couple of things. Firstly, if nothing else I need to drop more weight in order to keep up with these two, I can still beat them over the long and intermediate distances but their acceleration off the starting block and over the short distances is extremely worrying and will only get worse.
Second, I will not be giving up caffeine drinks after this little exercise, they’re just to damn useful when faced with children who act as though they are naturally caffeinated.
Oh and why “Patently Unfair” well after an active day on my feet I had expected to have knocked at least some weight off but apparently I’ve put a pound back on!
Anyway £922.79 raised so far
[1] Naturally as a six year old boy Tcho Tcho #1’s idea of an exciting exhibit almost always involved death, bloodshed, big teeth and claws in some shape or form.
[2] weirdly the sense of guilt I have thinking about these things is always worse when there is no chance anyone would ever find out.
[3] Tcho Tcho #2 had spent the day decorating the house for Halloween - incidentally the Tcho Tcho’s birthday - which if nothing else argues higher powers are having a laugh at my expense.
There were queues, not your common or garden queues either, but brain numbingly long queues of almost Alton Towers like proportions. After the queuing there was the walking and lots of it, there was also the running; whenever Tcho Tcho #1 caught site of some exciting exhibit in the distance and dashed off to disappear into the crowd, giving dad another opportunity to practice his sprint starts and vocal projection. [1]
Actually, Tcho Tcho #1 was incredibly well behaved, but whereas I have the experience of age, he has the energy of youth and literally didn’t stop all day. Now my normal answer to long term exposure to children is to neck a
In the normal scheme of things then I’d be on top form come the end of the day, although vibrating at a high frequency and with an irregular heart murmur. Yesterday though, I felt Tcho Tcho #1 might actually have me beat. In a desperate last ditch effort to slow him down I took him to a pizza restaurant and loaded him with carbohydrates, while studiously keeping it light and sticking to the proteins myself. Result, almost instant carb induced stupor, well until he got home that is at which time he bounced right back into action in order to recount the days events to mum and Tcho Tcho #2 [3]
Anyway, the day with Tcho Tcho #1 made me think about a couple of things. Firstly, if nothing else I need to drop more weight in order to keep up with these two, I can still beat them over the long and intermediate distances but their acceleration off the starting block and over the short distances is extremely worrying and will only get worse.
Second, I will not be giving up caffeine drinks after this little exercise, they’re just to damn useful when faced with children who act as though they are naturally caffeinated.
Oh and why “Patently Unfair” well after an active day on my feet I had expected to have knocked at least some weight off but apparently I’ve put a pound back on!
Anyway £922.79 raised so far
[1] Naturally as a six year old boy Tcho Tcho #1’s idea of an exciting exhibit almost always involved death, bloodshed, big teeth and claws in some shape or form.
[2] weirdly the sense of guilt I have thinking about these things is always worse when there is no chance anyone would ever find out.
[3] Tcho Tcho #2 had spent the day decorating the house for Halloween - incidentally the Tcho Tcho’s birthday - which if nothing else argues higher powers are having a laugh at my expense.
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