Nov 3, 2008

Weight: 11st13lb or 76.2kg or 168lbs
Height: 5′ 4.9″ (I don’t think this is accurate because I know I’m nearly 5′7″) (edit: apparently it was accurate.. last time I measured my height I was taller by at least an inch and a half)

B.M.I. 28.0 (Overweight)

Body Fat: 33.5%
Body Fat Mass: 25.5kg

Both Tim and I will be doing this again in a month, so hopefully that reading will be better :P

Also, I laughed out loud when I saw this. Ohmigod. I can only imagine if Winnie ever did something like that.. in fact, I’m surprised she never managed it.

The week was pretty uneventful.. yesterday was Halloween but this is England sooooo.. haha. Our flat definitely does not get any visitors and we didn’t even carve a pumpkin. Oh well. One day I will have a nice house in Ontario to decorate like mad :P I ended up spending my Halloween evening playing Zuma and Hexic HD on the xbox.. :)

Today Tim and I got soaked again when we went into Oxford. I ended up getting some cheap skinny jeans from Dorothy Perkins - £15! Tim also bought me a new nailpolish - Dior’s Black Sequins! I am impatiently waiting for my nails to grow out so I can start polishing… :)

We have friends coming over for dinner on Tuesday night, so the plan is to clean clean clean all day tomorrow! November is our “Save Money” month, so we won’t be doing much.. I foresee lots of nights spent on the xbox :)

So that’s finally one thing off of my list of things to do while I’m living here. With the way finances are, and the economy, and all that crap, I don’t know if I’ll ever do the others.. like going to Paris, or even close by places like Bath. I have friends who have been here three months and they’re already going to see Paris :/ I’m screwed with vacations because it ends up costing me so much to go home to Canada, but I cannot give that up. I would go miserable if I didn’t have trips to Canada to look forward to. I am miserable enough reading my facebook feed, finding out all the things that are going on without me.

I miss dance so much. I would give anything for a million days of ballet, doing the splits, sharing a changeroom with girls whose jazz boots REEK, cleaning up the studio on a Thursday after Wednesday night’s annoying classes that never clean up after themselves.. ugh.. I would take it all right now. And everyone’s answer is to find somewhere to dance here. And it’s not even worth it, because it’s not the same. And I can’t make it the same. It’s not just about the dancing, it’s about the teaching, and who I’m teaching. People don’t understand that. Like there are little girls who I’ve taught since they were 5, whose parents sent me letters in July after their first year of dance, thanking me for teaching their daughter and telling me how much she is looking forward to dance in September.. letters that I have in a scrapbook because they meant so much to me. Those kids are now going into highschool and I feel like I’m missing out. It was like I was a big sister to like 50 kids, and all of a sudden I NEVER get to see them. And it sucks :/

And I feel like I have tried hard to fit in here. But I don’t fit in, and I don’t feel a part of anything except for my relationship with Tim (and I’m not belittling that.. if I didn’t care so much for him, I wouldn’t be in England, trust me.) I know we live on the complete opposite other end of Oxford from all of Tim’s friends, but they all see each other waaayy more often than we see them, and I sometimes wonder if that has anything to do with me. Sometimes I get the oddest vibe from some of them.. and I honestly don’t know how to react. Like when Tim decided to jokingly drape my shoulders in a Canadian flag during his birthday party.. to which some of the girls went “eww.. get that off of you!” I mean honestly, what does one say to that? I bite my tongue when people ask me how I like it here because I would never want to have someone tell me how much they dislike living in Canada. Or when they tell me to stop calling my purse a purse.. “it’s a handbag, this is your home now.” I feel like screaming “no it isn’t and it never will be!” but I would never be that rude. How can someone be so rude as to say “ewww” when you’re wearing your own country’s flag?

I guess I’m ranting too much but every day I feel like this and I don’t feel like I can talk to anyone about it because no one understands. I regret how much I took Canada for granted when I was living there, and I regret walking off the plane in March before I moved here and telling my Mom that i didn’t want to leave England and come back to Canada. Everything was awesome and I didn’t see it. I really thought I had nothing to lose by moving, so that’s why I did it. In reality, I didn’t have many friends but I had so much more than that. I got to dance every day if I wanted to. I got to go to an office every day to work, which is so much more better than working from home, I don’t care what anyone says. I was really bonding with my brother, not that we’re not close now because we are, but we used to hang out together for the first time in about 10 years. We can’t hang out now and that sucks. And I really miss my gym. I definitely took that place for granted. I would give anything for a GoodLife outside our apartment :/ And those are all the less-obvious things. I miss my parents shitloads. I miss having my Aunts next door, both of whom would do anything for me. I miss the safety of my city, the fun of it, knowing where to go to buy anything I needed. Knowing the city like the back of my hand. It’s underrated, really.

I feel like a bit of a bitch for writing all this on my blog, but it’s just like anything sets me off nowadays, so I have to hold it all in. I mean, just yesterday my Dad was talking about the dog and the fact that it was snowing there.. and I was thinking how I won’t be able to see Winnie come inside after the first snow of the season, all covered in snowflakes.. and I just wanted to cry.

Boo.. enough with the depressa-post. I’ve had a headache all day, and it’s rearing it’s ugly head again.. probably from staring at the screen. I have to be up at 10 to buy Oasis tickets for Wembley next July.. so I should probably head to bed now..

It has been a bit of an eventful last little while. I last posted on Friday night - it was a usual Friday night, we went out to get groceries, came home and had a late dinner, and sat in front of the tv till probably 2 am. Saturday morning we got up in a rush, we went to Kidlington and had breakfast on a patio outside of a little cafe. Tim had a hair appointment at 2, and I had an appointment to get my eyebrows waxed and tinted. After that, we searched around Oxford for a Bundt style cake pan (no dice), and then stopped at Sainsburys to stock up for Tim’s birthday that night.

I headed into the apartment with the groceries, leaving Tim to get the beer out of the trunk of the car and follow me upstairs. He came up stairs saying “my bikes been stolen!” and at first I didn’t believe him. I mean come on, we live in a gated community, cctv cameras everywhere, and all the bikes are locked up there metres from the main front door. But yeah, it was gone. Both of our bikes had been covered in black bike covers that velcro through the wheels at the bottom, and locked up through the tires. Unfortunately, there’s almost no room for bikes on the racks (seriously, there’s 4 rack spaces for 6 2-bedroom apartments), and we have to put both of our bikes on one side of a rack together, so we have to put them opposite ways. So the lock was going through Tim’s front wheel, and my back wheel. They removed his front tire, and took the rest of the bike :/

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and cooking, while Tim called the police, the insurance company, and went driving around to see if he could find anything. Then everyone showed up for the party, which went pretty well, it was a Britpop theme so everyone dressed Britpoppy. We listened to the new Oasis album for the first time as well. I made more Nanaimo bars, and I even made a Union jack on the top out of white chocolate coloured with food colouring. It looked really good! I also made an Angel Food Cake, which was okay for my first ever attempt, but not the greatest because I didn’t have an electric whisk, just my arm, which meant I was crap at getting air into the egg whites.. the cake came out a little dense but still tasted YUMMY :)

After everyone left, Tim and I sat around for a while, but I finally decided I was too tired and headed to bed. Tim was about to come to bed as well, but I mentioned to him that I was worried about my bike now.. what if the people who stole it come back? So he went downstairs at nearly 2 am, and locked my bike up through the frame. He came back inside, and told me he was just going to get a drink then come to bed. All of a sudden, he was rushing back towards the bedroom, whispering loudly that they were back, the bike thieves were back! We ran to the front window, and just then, Tim yelled really loudly at them. They took off, and we could see that they had been trying to get this other bike, that we thought was owned by one of the guys below us. We called the police, again, and stayed up because we could not fall asleep.

The next day we had plans to meet up with Tim’s Dad, Pauline, and Tim’s sister and her new boyfriend. On the way out, we stopped and spoke to one of the guys who lives below us. Tim wanted to let him know that someone had tried to steal the bike the night before. His first response was “Again?!” Apparently, they had stolen the front tire of the guy’s bike the same night Tim’s bike (minus front tire) got stolen. So now we know how they got away with Tim’s bike :/ But the part that gets me is when we all went downstairs to the bike racks. Not only was the tire back on our neighbour’s bike (they brought it back with them), but the bike lock was cut, and the bike was sitting there totally unlocked! So Tim scared them at just the right time that they had gotten the wheel on, and the lock cut, but hadn’t gotten on the bike yet to steal it. So, while at least this guy got his whole bike back, Tim’s is still stolen :( The only positive is that at least insurance are covering it, so he’s going to be able to get a new one. We’ve been in touch with the management company to get the cctv tapes for the police, and the guy downstairs is actually a forensic scientist, and has taken both his bike and the cut lock to the police to hopefully get tested for fingerprints.

I spent a lot of last week feeling really horrible and crappy about myself. I’d been pigging out like crazy since Tim’s birthday party.. like you would not believe. It did not help that my Mom sent me a bunch of chocolate the day before as well.. :S I weighed myself on Friday and I was 173lbs :( I’ve decided I’ve had enough.. and I’m kicking my ass. Tim and I have plans to take up badminton and also go swimming on Thursday night. Hopefully we will start this Thursday :) I’m back down to 170.4 now, so hopefully it will keep dropping. I’ve been drinking more water, and less of the crappy, sugary drinks. I’ve also got my eating back on track.. I’ve been trying to cut out a lot of the carby stuff I was eating as well, and instead eating more fresh fruits and veggies. We went for a walk on Saturday, and then into town on Sunday so I could shop (:D), and that was about 10km in total, not including the walking around inside the shops ;)

And speaking of walking around in the shops, I must post what I bought :)

Pink Knit Beret - Miss Selfridge, £12, Brown Wide Stretchy Belt - Dorothy Perkins, £8,
Turquoise Stretchy Ruffle Scarf - Dorothy Perkins, £10, Brown Opaque Diamond Knit Tights - Primark, £2, Black Opaque Tights, Primark, £2

I’m still on the hunt for a knit dress, and a black skirt that I can wear all these awesome tights with!

I went shopping in Oxford last Saturday, hoping to pick up a few things but it was a bust. I really want a brown or tan or oatmeal coloured sweater dress, and a big belt to pair with it.. but I am having trouble finding anything I actually LIKE. I also wanted more tights, and a few sweaters for winter. I am still intending on planning a shopping excursion to Birmingham with all the girls, so I might find something then.. hopefully!

Sunday, Tim and I went to London to see a Chelsea game with his Dad and his Dad’s wife. It started out as the day from hell, honestly. We got the taxi at 10, to the station for a 10:38 train. Now, let me point out that trains are usually AT LEAST 5 minutes late. So we had MORE than enough time. Of course, we ended up getting the worst taxi driver ever, who was the most passive driver ever.. letting cars in front of him and slowing down for yellow lights. We got to the station at about 10:30, but we had no cash, so I ran in to use the machine. The only cash machine in the station was out of order! So the taxi driver had to drive us to another cash machine. We got back to the station and purchased our tickets at 10:42. If the train would have been late like usual, we would have been fine. But no, it was already gone :( The next express to London was in an hour, but there was a slow train at 11. So we decided to get on that one, even though it was 20 minutes late!!!!!!!!! We were planning to get off at Reading and get a fast train from there to London, and when we were like 10 mins from Reading, the 11:38 express went speeding by us :| We ended up getting to London around 12:40, an hour later than we expected. It was SUCH a pain. We had enough time for a few drinks at Paddington and a Pasty, then get on the tube to Stamford Bridge. We watched the game, which was fun, I never enjoy watching football on the tv but live it’s not bad. After the game, we went back to Didcot and had dinner at an Indian there. Still haven’t found a place that both Tim and I agree on though!

Monday was Tim’s birthday, but we didn’t do much. We got KFC because he wanted it for dinner, although I am trying to eat healthy. I got him two Ben Sherman tshirts, tickets for the Stamford Bridge stadium tour, and a Tefal pan for him to make scrambled eggs in. He wanted it! We’re holding a party tomorrow night, which should be fun. I have some baking to do for that.. so I have been eating salads and Special K in preparation for pigging out!

This week at work has been nuts. I went from having tasks reassigned to me so that I had something to do, to being swamped between tasks and helping my brother (over the phone) set up Fedora on 4 Poweredge 2650s and a 1750. We’re not done, so we’re behind schedule, but what can ya do?

I would love to make this post longer, but my head is a-pounding. More tomorrow hopefully, if not, Sunday!

Lacy bubble top - Primark, £4

The elastic doesn’t look like it’s very stretchy in the picture, but it does indeed fit tightly around my hips, covering all the bad parts in nice jersey fabric that doesn’t touch my chub!

Cable knit cardigan - Dorothy Perkins, £28

Love this cardi, it’s actually a size 10 and it fits good.. I usually wear EUR size 16, but the 16 and 14 were so huge and frumpy.

Bomber jacket - Dorothy Perkins, £40

I have been looking for a cute, casual winter jacket for a while. I have a peacoat that I love from Benetton but I don’t always want to wear it cos it was $300+, so I needed something more “everyday”. It was a bit more than I had originally wanted to spend, but in the end I only paid £37.75 shipped - £5 voucher and £1.25 back through Quidco! Saved the gas money + parking charges if I went to Oxford to get it :)

Flat boots - Dorothy Perkins, £45   Fake Uggs - Primark, £4

My new winter boots! The ones from DP were an impulse buy, but totally worth it as I am in love with them and they will be perfect for any winter activities that involve lots of walking (like, perhaps.. shopping! :D) The fake Uggs from Primark were too cheap to pass up, they’re always good for running to the grocery store or to get takeout or whatever. And I wanted dark brown ones because EVERYONE has tan.

Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion, Clinique £27   Kaleidoscope nail colour - Chanel, £15
Diorshow Blackout mascara, Christian Dior, £18.50

This was my little Selfridges spree, on two different days. I needed new moisturiser, decided I was going to go back to Clinique for skincare. I wanted the new Superdefense moisturiser but they didn’t have it yet so I’m using Dramatically Different again until next time :) I also picked up Diorshow Blackout, which I have been lemming for over a year :D And also, of course, the coveted Kaleidoscope polish :) Not pictured, but ordered and on it’s way: Essie First Base base coat, Seche Vite Dry Fast top coat, China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea nail polish, China Glaze Midnight Ride nail polish, Misa Candy Girl nail polish.

Bracelet, Christian Dior

My beautiful Christian Dior bracelet, a birthday gift from my wonderful boyfriend! :D :D :D It’s silver with Swarovski crystals all over the Dior logo. You can’t see how much they shine in this picture because I used no flash and it’s inside it’s little box, but it looks gorgeous when it’s on my wrist :D

We had a really good weekend. Friday night we went out for dinner at the Thai Orchid with friends, although in my opinion it was less than stellar. They brought out the the wrong dishes, forgot to cook one of our friend’s salmon dish and so had to cook it very quickly while we had the rest of the dishes sat on the table. I ordered spring rolls to start, and the sauce that came with them was very gelatinous - not my cup of tea. I ordered pad thai, which was listed on the menu as “with chicken and prawns” and requested no prawns - it arrived with prawns. And the portion size was half the size of the pad thai at Oxford Thai, for pretty much the same price. So needless to say, I will be avoiding that one and sticking to Oxford Thai. They are A+ there, we’ve eaten there many times and it’s amazing and the service is really good.

Saturday we were supposed to be getting up early to go to London, but our plans were thwarted by Tim having an upset stomach (I’m convinced that the thai was to blame.. haha).. so we didn’t end up leaving until the early afternoon. It was a really nice day, and we got to London pretty quick and parked under Hyde Park. I love driving down Park Lane and seeing the Corvette dealership :) Anyways, we headed to Selfridges, where I got some new moisturiser from Clinique, and Diorshow Blackout mascara from the Dior counter. Then we headed to the Dior boutique in “The Wonder Room”, where I tried on a bunch of bracelets before I decided on one and Tim bought it for me :) It’s a silver chain, with “Dior” in Swarovski crystals. I loooooooove it! We went to a few more shops down Oxford Street, and I bought some new flat boots :) I also tried on a jacket, because I have been looking for a nice winter jacket. I didn’t buy it though, so I ended up ordering it online last night!

Saturday evening we had tickets for The Dark Knight at the Imax, so we got on the tube to Waterloo station. We walked around for a while trying to find something to eat, but nothing seemed appealing.. so we finally ended up going to Pizza Express. I enjoyed it, because I ordered extra cheese and tomato sauce on my pizza - I always feel like the pizza over here doesn’t have enough of either of those! Then we headed back to the Imax, which is oddly in the middle of a roundabout - you have to go into a tunnel that goes underneath the road in order to get inside! TDK was really good, and I’m really glad we went and saw it at the Imax instead of seeing it in a regular theatre. Some of the city shots that were filmed with the Imax cameras really made my stomach do flipflops.

Sunday we went to a buffet lunch with a bunch of friends. I could only eat two plates, which I guess is a good thing because I need to lose some weight. They were mostly starters that I ate as well! It was nice to see everyone and have a day out, instead of spending Sunday cleaning and grocery shopping like we usually do. I talked to the girls about going to Birmingham to go shopping on a Sunday, so I am looking forward to planning that!!

We’ll be back to London next Sunday, with Tim’s Dad and his Dad’s wife to see Chelsea play.. they day before Tim’s birthday :) Then the next Saturday is Tim’s birthday shindig. October is looking to be a busy month.. so I think before I know it, it will be November. That’s one month till Canada :)

That is, until Tim got home from work. We had plans to go out for dinner, so we got all dressed up and headed out to Coco for insanely expensive, strongly alcoholic drinks (on empty stomachs). We had a reservation for 8pm at an indian restaurant in Oxford and I actually turned 28 while sitting at the front of the restaurant, waiting to be seated to our table - 8:06pm here is 3:06pm in Niagara Falls. :) I had my usual chicken tikka masala, but it just wasn’t creamy enough. Other than that, dinner was nice. They even gave us free veggies! After our dinner, we met up with Janel and Jon and went to George and Delila’s. I decided to make a special order for my birthday since I hadn’t had any birthday cake - a huge chocolate brownie, with a scoop of super chocolate ice cream and chocolate hot fudge on top. It was amazing, but I felt like throwing up after. It was worth it though! Then we went to the Cape of Good Hope for drinks, where a bunch of Tim’s work friends had congregated.

We stayed out for as long as I could handle it, then I decided I really needed to get home and open my presents!!!! Tim had wrapped some things he had bought for me when we were out shopping together - a coat and some tights from Primark. He also got me a Chelsea shirt.. I think he wants me to love football as much as he does but I just can’t seem to get into it. It feels like I’m cheating on hockey or something :( haha. He also told me he will buy me a bracelet from Dior, I just have to pick it out.. he didnt know which one I wanted. I’m not even sure, I am going to have to try them on when we’re in London this weekend ;)

I also had presents from my Mom, brother and Aunts that they had sent over earlier in September. They sat in our living room staring at me until I finally got to open them. My Mom and brother got me an xbox 360!! I also got a second controller, 2800 points, Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise, and Uno. I am already addicted to playing Carcassone on xbox :( My Aunt also got me a sweater that is horrendously too big. :) After I opened everything, I called my Mom and talked to her, then talked to my brother for advice and etc on the xbox and how to set it up and everything. I ended up staying up till 3:30am, setting up my xbl account and such :S We still have to get an hdmi cable, so it should look pretty sweet when we get that. It’s running at 1080i now which is pretty nice.

Saturday was a crazy day. I had to get to the bank before 1, which thankfully I did, and then went on a hunt through the shopping centre to find a muffin tin to use to make buttertarts. Went to Sainsbury’s, picked up chips and pop and stuff for the party, then headed home. Tim spent like an hour steaming the slipcovers for our sofa because we had washed them on Friday and they were soooo wrinkled. Then he hung balloons out the windows and blew up tons of balloons that are still floating around the house :) I baked, and while things would be in the oven, I’d clean. It was insanity. At 5:30 I hopped in the shower, and by 6:30 I was arranging the nanaimo bars I baked onto a plate for my lovely spread I put out! Tim and I stood in the kitchen at 6:50, eating pizza - our first meal of the day.

My birthday party on Saturday night went really well. The nanaimo bars were a hit, if only with Mark (who has been to Canada many times and loves nanaimo bars). Everyone seemed to have a good time, and we played some Guitar Hero 3 and Mario Kart Wii. I got some really nice gifts, Heather even got me a ‘Carrie necklace’, except mine says Laura and it’s silver!!!! I have always wanted one of those :)

Sunday was supposed to be recuperation day, but we ended up going for a little bike ride to the pub. That totally killed me, plus the fact that I was up late Saturday night playing xbox again, and woke up at 9:30am on Sunday (no idea WHY that EARLY!) I think I am still recuperating actually, and I attempted to go to bed tonight at 11:30 and here it is, 2am. And with that, I think it’s bedtime. :)

While walking past Selfridges, she saw the large Louis Vuitton logo in the window, we both had to go in. I myself had never gone in Selfridges - I honestly thought it was just like Debenhams, which is boring to me because it’s like The Bay in Canada (great if there’s a MAC counter, but I don’t care for much else). Boy, was I wrong. We wandered around the “Wonder Room”, a room filled with handbags and accessories from every designer imaginable - Mark Jacobs, Prada, Gucci, D&G, Chanel, Dior.. the list goes on. It was heaven. Then we headed to the cosmetics, where I spied Chanel’s Kaleidoscope nail polish on a display unit. I figured it was no use in asking, I’d been in a Boots on Kensington High Street earlier and they had told me it was sold out anywhere and everywhere. Kaleidoscope is THE colour for fall 2008. With some urging from Lisa, I asked the girl working the counter, who told me they in fact DID have quite a few bottles. She also told me that the girls working that counter had been hearing that it’s sold out everywhere else. So, as the story goes, I am £15 poorer, but my nails are trendy. And really, that’s what matters :P

That day, I discovered that I LOVE Selfridges. Of course, I need to be at least 30 pounds lighter before I will buy clothing from there. But for now, I am gaga over the Chanel handbags. And I have decided that if I ever get out of debt, I will reward myself by getting back into debt by buying a quilted Chanel flap handbag.