Thursday Things

aka a random blog title for a random post!!

I'm finding that, without a camera phone, I am forgetting to mention a lot of things as I haven't taken photos.

Take today - these are the photos I took at home in the morning...

And the story behind the photos - would you believe that this is a winning hat??! Haha. Izzy's school had an Easter Fayre today, and years R, 1 and 2 did a hat parade. There were lots of hats - clearly made by the parents - with nests on top/super tall/pink and fluffy etc etc but the majority of Izzy's class had bought hats like the one above. Anyway, 2 children from each class were chosen as "winners" and, much to my astonishment, Izzy was one of them. Her teacher said the reason Izzy's hat was chosen was that it was clearly made by the child...well you can say that again!!! Last year Liam helped Izzy to make a hat from scratch, and she then refused to wear it. So this year I just gave her the bonnet, some Easter stickers and the sellotape and left her to it...clearly the way to go in future!! She was happy that she won a bag of little chocolate rabbits anyway, and it meant I got out of queueing for the tombola - the queue was so long, and standing still in the heat was really uncomfortable, so as Izzy already had some chocolate, we went to the ice cream shop instead. One mango yoghurt cone for Izzy and a raspberry tub for me and Toby...we then headed to the park for a bit before coming back home. We also walked along the seafront - such gorgeous weather, so pretty - I wish I'd taken the camera with me!

In other news today, I lost 3.5lbs at Slimming World this week, whoop! Obviously I won't lose anywhere this much each week, but it was a nice 1st week boost! Afterwards, *ahem*, Mum and I went for cake. She has made a "deal" with me that each week after the meeting we'll go for coffee, and if I've lost that week, she will treat me to coffee & cake, whereas if I stay the same or gain then I have to pay but - more importantly - we will only have coffee. Motivation right there (!!) Today I had marmalade bread and butter pudding with (lots of) double cream, mmm! Next week I think I will have some kind of cake instead though - this was delicious but quite stodgy. When the lady first poured the double cream I thought it was loads, but the pudding soon soaked it all up!

On Monday evening I placed an order with Cream Supplies which arrived on Wednesday morning:

Chai tea syrup for a friend's birthday present, gingerbread syrup and raspberry iced tea syrup for me (but I'm resisting opening them until Sunday in case my friend has already bought the chai syrup in which case she can have one of the others), salt and kale chips. I wish I'd taken a photo of the inside of the kale chips, because they are already all gone. De-licious! :)

During the day on Monday, my sister and I went shopping. No photos of the food I ate as I didn't take the camera - times like those are when I'd always have used my camera phone. I ate way too much but it was all delicious - iced coffee and (divine!) emmental and mushroom toastie in M&S for breakfast, and lunch in Cafe Rouge. I ordered a small houmous with crisp breads and a small salad with chicory leaves, walnuts, blue cheese and pear...but then I also ended up eating most of Toby's macaroni cheese and chocolate ice cream! Needless to say I was stuffed after this, but I still managed to fit in an iced chai latte from Starbucks...I don't live near a Starbucks so I have to make the most of it when I'm near one!! ;)

As well as lots of food, my sister helped me choose quite a few new clothes to buy. The closest I get to an OOTD photo:

No idea where the jeans are from, but new top is from the Mantaray range at Debenhams. I tried on four tops in Debenhams and this one was the one I liked the least, but was the only one I ended up buying! I really like it now though - the shape actually seems to fit me properly for once :)

In Debenhams I also bought a pair of exercise trousers as I currently only have one pair which limits how often I can work out (well, that's my excuse anyway!):

I also bought a few strap tops in H&M to go under other tops, plus the pink one might be acceptable to wear on its own once I've lost a little bit more weight - I bought it tight as the next size up was already baggy and would have (hopefully!) been way too big by summer!!

And finally, we stopped off at M&S where I bought a pair of black leggings (to wear under dresses that I haven't actually bought yet!) and two more tops...

Hopefully these will last me for a while! I deliberately tried to buy slightly longer tops as they are so much more comfortable, especially for the bending/twisting/picking up etc that is involved with spending time with Toby! Because I don't have a huge number of clothes that fit me/I feel comfortable in, they get worn so quickly. The tops I bought last summer for my honeymoon are already super faded!

Final thing in this random post, Liam and I made plans today for our wedding anniversary weekend. It is still 3 months away but I am so excited - we're going to London for the weekend!!! :-D We're going to be there from the Saturday lunchtime until the Monday afternoon, so any recommendations of places to go/things to see/places to eat etc are very welcome! I can't remember the last time I went to London...not since I was about 12 I don't think. When I was growing up we only lived about an hour train away, so we used to go several times a year for shopping/theatre etc, but now we live more than 3 hours away so never go...sad times but it does make this trip extra exciting! We haven't actually booked anything at the moment - thetrainline.com hasn't even released tickets for the dates we want yet - so I imagine I will be mentioning it even more as we get closer and our plans start happening a bit more. In the meantime I already have a very long Word document listing all the things I want to do - I imagine the 2-3 days are going to fly by!!

So, obvious question...have you ever been to London? If yes, where were your favourite places to go/eat? And if no, what would be at the top of your list? Wholefoods Kensington was the first thing I wrote down, haha, but I'd also need to include some non-foody things in the plans for Liam, and perhaps some sightseeing as well as eating!! ;)