Travelling Kiltman

There has been a slight shortage of posts here recently due to my work commitments, and my vacation time over the past three weekends. I hope to have some time in the next couple of days to write some about my recent adventures around Europe

Valentines Day

Yet another Hallmark holiday, designed by the greetings card industry to extract money out of all of us. Except those of us who are alone for Valentines. Thank you very much world, I am painfully aware that I am all alone and dateless for Valentines. I really don’t need to be seeing all these hearts and banners and exclamations of love everywhere I go just now. Wheres my holiday, the one that celebrates being sad and alone!

Like meals for two at the supermarket and single person supplement on hotel rooms, Valentines day is the enemy of single people everywhere. Nobody likes to be reminded of their shortcomings or their failings, or things about themselves that they don’t particularly like. Imagine if you were constantly told all the time that you were overweight. It’s not pleasant is it? We overweight people know we are, and don’t need the reminding. And because of that, most reasonable people in society don’t go around telling people, ‘Hey, you look fat’. Yet this same society has no problem making fun of people who are single, like you are not a complete person unless you have a significant other in your life.

I’m telling you, World, that it is okay to be single, and it doesn’t make me any less of a person…

Hadden Must Go!

I’m back at work today after being away for a long weekend to Edinburgh. The RBS 6 Nations kicked off again this weekend, with a surprising victory for the Irish over the French, and not so surprising victories for England and Wales. It was the latter game I was at, to see my Scotland beat by the Welsh. The game itself was pretty disappointing, Scotland never looked up to competing with the Welsh. We were devoid of ideas, and seemed to lack basic rugby skills. Too many times they ran it straight at the Welsh, only to be snuffed out by the big Welsh pack. Plan A doesn’t work, and they have no plan B or plan C! Frank Hadden, the Scotland coach, survived the fall out of the Rugby World Cup, he survived a less than impressive Six Nations 2008, he didn’t meet the targets in the Summer against Argentina, and we couldn’t beat a South Africa team in the Autumn who were all but begging to be beaten. Time is up Frank, Hadden must go!

Edinburgh as ever was a fun trip, with the Welsh making for a great atmosphere both in the city and in the stadium. Most amusing sight has to be seeing two Welsh boys trying to throw snow up my mates kilt!! Yes, it snowed! It fell for hours and hours after the game Sunday. I wasn’t brave enough to go with the kilt this year, partly due to the weather, and partly due to last years experience with the Welsh!

Second most amusing sight was seeing pubs packed with people at midday on Sunday, all sober, all drinking coffee or soft drinks. Due to some rather archaic licensing laws in Scotland, alcohol could not be sold until 1230. Which results in lots of people in full rugby battle dress sitting around quietly in a pub waiting for a drink. Good times!

Paris next weekend, things can only get better. I’ll be the one holding the ‘Hadden Must Go’ sign!!

I think we’re alone now…

…doesn’t seem to be anyone around

There seems to be a recurring them in my life just now where people I know and like depart my life never to be seen again. It’s the nature of the work that I do now that people are around for limited periods of time, and then they return to their home country, or move on somewhere else. People that I get to know well, and become good friends with leave, and I’m left with a hole where they once were. It has happened countless times to me over the last year, and the sad thing is that they are never replaced. It is really difficult when you get close to people, enjoy their company, where they make you laugh and feel better about yourself, and suddenly they’re gone. With each departing person, I find it gets harder and harder.

The problem I can see at the moment is the conflict between spending as much time as possible with someone you know is leaving because you know time is short, or recognizing that they are leaving and standing off a little. I know that the more time spent with people I like, the more I get to know them, and the better a friend they become. And then I loose them. And sometimes I think it’s just too painful. I know however, that the right thing to do is to enjoy the moment, live for now, hang out, spend the time, because we do not know what the future will bring.

It just gets lonely being alone all the time

Vanilla Ice

This past Sunday I went ice skating. Now I know from past experience that I can’t skate, be in on ice or on wheels. Rollerblading in particular brings back painful memories for me. I was a beginner, and trying to skate along the beautiful Charles River in Boston. Being unsure on my feet, I wobbled quite a bit. Well, I came in for all kinds of abuse and nastiness just because I was a beginner. So, heading into the ice skating, I knew that I’d be all over the place

I went because I have spent many Sunday afternoons alone in my apartment, and it can get depressing. The outing to the rink had been organized as a group activity amongst people I work with. Some of the nicest people I know were to be going, so I knew I’d have great company. I didn’t do very well at the skating, but it was fun to hang out with everyone, and see the guys learn how to find their feet on the ice.

We had a great meal in Utrecht afterwords, at a place called ‘Broadway’. This involved a plate overloaded with many, many types of meet. It was so good!! The only downside to the day was the trains. Ongoing track maintenance had seen me take an hour and a half to get to Utrecht, and it transpired that I would take the same amount of time to return home again.

Home to bed for a few hours before, then up at midnight to watch the Superbowl. Those damn Steelers stole it………

It’s a Start

This past Saturday was two weeks since I first weighed myself and realized what I was doing to myself.  I weighed myself again and found that I had lost two kilograms, which is four point four pounds.  So that was encouraging, it’s nice to see that the effort I’m putting into this new regime is working.  It’s the start of a long journey, and I hope I can keep it up.

A big part of my healthy eating is cooking my own meals, so I know exactly what I’m eating.  I was given a Jamie Oliver book for my Christmas, and I made my second meal from it this weekend.  Last week I made a beautiful curry from scratch.  This week I picked something that I knew would really stretch my skills.  I made Lasagne!  It was a lot of work, and involved a lot of cooking time, but I did it.  And it tasted great too!  I was most proud of the fact that it all stood up after cooking, and actually looked like a lasagne, and didn’t collapse out all over the plate.  It was soooooo goood!!!  I had a second portion of it tonight, and it was just as good second time around.

I need to look at the book, and see whats up next.  But I’ll need to be doing really well to beat my Lasagne!

Enter Kiltman

Today has been a long tough day. Didn’t get off to the best of starts with two very crowded trains, so I had people in my pocket all the way down here today. Doesn’t help with my mood much. I knew that it was going to be a Metallica day. Angry music for an angry person. Its been this way really since I came back after New Year. Not sure how much longer things can carry on this way. I’m going to explode, or blow up or something. I have some training days next week, which will hopefully help.

Home again to be by myself, find something healthy for tea, and attempt to entertain myself so my evening doesn’t drag along as badly as my day has.

I took a photo out my office window today, which shows that my window is really dirty, but also that I have a reasonable view. I have a window, which is more than most can say here.

View from the window

Frozen Raspberries

As part of my new healthy regime, I have taken to eating muesli for breakfast. I have a bowl of Quaker Oats muesli, topped with raspberries. Now, it is the raspberries that make the dish! I buy them frozen, and defrost them in the morning. It only takes thirty seconds in a cup of hot water, and they are edible. So, and handful of these on the top of my muesli, and I’m all set. I’ve even found myself craving these raspberries! I find this quite filling, and it certainly helps keep hunger more or less locked up until lunch.

I feel sorry for the poor humble raspberry. Overlooked for years as the red fruit of choice by the strawberry, it’s always been on the periphery of the fruit front for me. Now, it’s right at the top of the list! Hmmm, so good!

In the afternoons, I have a kiwi fruit. I eat it like a boiled egg, cutting the top off and eating with a spoon. No soldiers though!! I’m about ten days into my new regime, and so far, I’m finding it easy to stick with, and I do feel better for it

I had a first meeting last night with a personal trainer. I’ve tried to loose weight before myself with moderate success, but I’ve never been able to sustain it. The weight loss kind of hits a plateau, and no matter what I do, I can’t get it to go down any further. So then I kind of get disgruntled and loose a bit of interest. So I’m hoping that by getting someone involved that knows what they are doing that I can avoid this. And also if I have someone to report my progress to this should hopefully act as motivation

I got the Kiwi Fruit blues

I’m having one of my down days today. Everything seems to be bothering me today and getting me down. I’ve not felt like this for a few weeks, and this is definitely the first time this year. I had hoped that I’d kicked this, but here it is, still here.

Four days into my ‘healthy’ regime, and I already had my ‘bad’ day yesterday, mainly I think because Monday and Tuesday had left me so hungry. So today I brought into work a yogurt pot for mid morning, and a kiwi fruit for mid afternoon. Kiwi fruit sure don’t taste as good as a Galaxy Caramel Chocolate Bar.

I ate the kiwi fruit like a boiled egg, lobbed off the top and dug in with my spoon. Feels so strange. I’m going to have to get used to them I guess

I’ve got to like Green Tea over the last few weeks, so hopefully I can do the same with this fruit nonsense

And another thing, I think I need to stop being interested in and thinking about woman, they only make me depressed. From now on, it’s just me, the green tea, and the kiwi fruit

Patriots And Puccini

This past Friday was a good day. I successfully purchased two tickets to see the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play at Wembley, London, in October this year. I went to the NFL UK match this past year, and had a fantastic day out at what was my first official NFL game. I had been to Foxboro back in 1996 to see a preseason game of New England and my Redskins, but this real deal game was superb. So when I’d learnt that the Patriots were coming to London, I was delighted. Then I was anxious. I had missed out on the ticket lottery the first year, and then got lucky in the second year. And I really wanted to go. So the club seats went on sale for London, and I was lucky enough to get myself one! Being a Boston sports fan, and seeing the Rays triumph over the Red Sox in 08, I am hopeful to see the Patriots give the Buc’s a good old-fashioned thumping!

Saturday night was about as far removed from football as you could imagine. I went to a movie theater in Amsterdam to watch Opera. The Opera was La Rondine by Puccini, and was performed by the Metropolitan Opera in New York. They were having a Saturday matinee performance in New York, and this was being broadcast around the world. So some friends and I sat there on Saturday evening, and watched our very first opera. I really had no idea what to expect. I had no idea whether I would like it or not, I just saw it as a good opportunity to soak up some culture. As it happened, I really enjoyed it. The music was beautiful, the singing was amazing, and it was a really good show. What I think made it was the English subtitles at the bottom of the screen, which meant that if you weren’t an Italian speaker, you could still follow what was going on. It was a really nice story, and made for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. I might even go back and see opera again! So, if like me you are sitting out there being skeptical about opera, I really recommend that you give it a try, you might well be pleasantly surprised!