C25K Week 5

I have been doing this beginners running program for 5 weeks now and its going remarkably well. I have never been a sporty person but I am determined to got rid of the last few kilos of ugly fat.

As I mentioned before, having children can have a terrible effect on your body and mine made me become the size of an elephant. I added a total af 35kilo from what I always was to my heaviest and it was really difficult to get rid of it.

I come from a line of larger women, some may say I am genetically predisposed to retain weight. Others in my family had children and lost the weight soon after, with me it took years.....My paternal grandmother was a large woman and other great aunts were too. I have always had the traditional tree trunk legs.....
But now I might actually getting somewhere.. dont hold your breath but you never know.

I am using Ullreys podcasts ( recommendation from a friend) and its all going OK. Today was my longest run ever at 20 mins so I am super pleased with myself.

Lets see if I get through week 6

Mobile Application Viira Helps People Get Things Done with Their BlackBerry Devices

Mobile Application Viira Helps People Get Things Done with Their BlackBerry Devices

Posted using ShareThis

I have just downloaded the Free Trial and from what I see so far its looking good and very like the book.

ll report back later if I find it really useful.

Blogging and other things

I have been playing with this blog for a few months new and at about the same time I discovered Facebook ( really quick off the mark me....). I like Facebook and I have managed to refind people from school. I have the Blog linked to my facebook account too.

There was a piece in the paper this morning saying that Facebook, Hyves, Twitter etc had  ( or will ) remove the need to Blog. It also claims that of the 133 million blogs only 1.1% are updated weekly. I certainly never have any more..

I have Facebook on my phone so its always there to be updated when I feel like it. The blog isnt, I have to prepare them.. this takes time and I just am wondering if I can me bothered.

I gave Twitter a go, it was tediously boring, what is the point of following famous peoples lives or the non famous........ I am clearly missing the point. I dont want to find it this time though.
I am looking far something to allow me to relax from my work. Facebook is currently doing a good job.

But while i am here.. Look what I found!! an intelligent coffee mug which keeps my coffee at the right temperature to drink ... no more cold coffee

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,643702,00.html

Dear Follower

Hi, you mailed me, my spam filter ate it. Ideleted it before I read it as I 'deleted forever' when cleaning out my spam...

ho humm too quick, butter fingers!!

if you mail again I will read it ...

I've been running!!!!

Some might call it a slow jog with intermittent walking but there isnt really a word for Jogging here so its all called running :-).

I hated PE at school, avoided it at all costs so what on earth am I doing???

oh yes thats right Mid Life Crisis here i come.

I want to got rid of the last few kilos I added when pregnant, cyclisg isnt doing it for me so here I go. Wish me luck!

http://www.ullreys.com/robert/Podcasts/

Travel musings, BMI have gone downmarket

The sights you see when you dont have a gun....as my Parents are known to say..

I went from Schiphol to Heathrow yesterday and its was ( as usual) a marvelous experience in people watching.

Schiphol has an unusual way of doing security checks, they let you go all the way to the gate with only a passport check and then make you queue. When I arrived at the gate its was open so I went in to have a sit down ( no nice wee cup o tea but never mind) After 5 mins the security people arrived and made us all go back outside to queue to be checked. But obviously because we had all been inside they first had to do a security sweep of the chairs, radiators etc.. what a waste of time. After what was obviously AGES we were allowed back through and we were all checked.

Everything you had, had to go on the plastic buckets to go through the x-ray machine, including belts. Its a strange site to see very over sized people trying to put their belt back on while gathering all their belongings and rushing to stand in another queue for boarding. I was one rather large person pick up his iPhone as soon as he got through security, he stood there fumbling with his belt, while on the phone for at least 5 minutes, after finally getting is to go back and hold up his even larger trousers (who wears walking boot like shoes in the summer, sweat sweat anyway??) after all this time he stands in the boarding queue - still on the phone - ands after another wait he shuffles off back though security as he must be at the wrong gate..... I wonder if he caught his flight, he gave no indication of being remotely aware of the time and clearly didnt know the correct gate/carrier/flight number...

I am obsessive, I check everything a million times. I had booked Lufthansa, but it was a BMI flight so i had to make sure it was all OK, I could never be so casual. I would never talk so long on a mobile either mind.

I went back to playing Crayon Physics on the ipod, I am now stuck!

The flight was fine but BMI have started SELLING refreshments, thieving swine. When did they become a budget airline? I paid ( well my company paid) a full price and I didnt even get a coffee. I alos thought I was flying Lufthansa with German efficienfy , I ended upo flying BMI efficiency.... cabin staff must not be allowed to have tattoos as one of the crew had a tonne of cover-up on hers, it just made it more noticable.



The taxi trip to the hotel...I was picked up by a Caddillac monster. It was a silver grey colour, inside there was grey leather!, grey carpets, grey plastic door trim(!) and what I can only hope was real wood handle, I doubt it though. alltogether a YUK car. They would have been better with a Mercedes. There was little room in the back for peoples legs...

Enough of this, off to breakfast...I wonder if they have porrige

Printers & networks

I bought a new printer yesterday and was obviously dead keen to get it installed. It came with a WiFi printer server and this was the start of my problems. I consider myself IT savvy but it took a considerable amount of my time and effort to get all 3 networked PCs to be able to see the printer and print to it.

Why is it always so difficult? I installed via the software provided and it went OK for the first one until I tried to install the server. After much heartache and firewall fiddling, I could see the server and it all worked via WiFi.. Marvellous!! or so I thought.

Next was the HP machine which recently came back from being fixed with the language settings in Dutch. Everything is Dutch. It went to be repaired with all English settings, somehow managed to transform itself to Dutch when it came home. When bought new I could choose, when HP fixed it they chose for me and there you have it. It is OK most of the time as I do understand it but when instructions are in a different language than the system, menus don’t always contain the same things. Everything started out in English anyway ( at least Vista did) which makes trying to work out what the Dutch term would be a challenge…..

I installed the server and all was well until I realised I had installed it to access the printer via my laptop......;-(... start again with laptop switched off to avoid the same mistake...

Finally its all OK them upstairs to daughters room. Hours later.... finished here too.... what a day.

This is the culprit

I have never had an Epson printer before so lets see how it goes. Its a scanner too so KR can draw her pretty things and get them into her PC without the need to take a photo!!!

Onwards and Upwards

Cricket..who knew??

I know you were as surprised as me to discover the Netherlands played so much cricket that they had professional cricketers. Then to hear the stunned reports that they had beaten England in their Twenty20 match was a bit surreal. Its all too much for me, next I'll find pipe bands and kilts. Its all too scary.

http://www.novdb.nl/

http://www.schotsewinkel.nl/winkel/winkel.html

My family and other knitters....

I came from a long line of knitters... for years I had to put up with every jumper I had being knitted and (sometimes) a bit scratchy.... I saw all these women knit, crochet, sew and all I could cope to do was knit a square. I have no patience for this stuff. My sister was creating crocheted blankets at 14, I was thinking it was all boring. After many attempts I finally found something I could do too, which was knitting toys. I made loads. They were perfect for me, they didnt take long and you rarely had to make the same thing twice... What gets me about knitting a jumper is the fact that after all the effort of creating a front or an arm with a Raglan sleeve was that you just had to go and do it again.... what a pain...so I never did.

My toys were stuffed with cut up old tights.... I cant still feel the pain in my fingers from cutting them all up.. none of your Kaypok here.. we had to make it ALLLL ourselves.

Today my daughter showed me her new socks which had been sent by my mother. They are fantastic. I am amazed its possible to make something so marvelous with only 5 pins and 2 balls of wool.

Good isnt it!

I wonder now if I should dust off those pins and try to make some myself. I can knit and I can follow instructions all I need now is the patience and practice. I will post if I ever do it.

So, kudos mother you did brilliantly

Mind Maps

I have been using this type of software for a few months now and cant imagine what I did without it... oh yes I can.. that was when my life was ruled by lists. I had lists for everything. I book called 'things to do today' kept them all for me. Then, horror of horrors, my book was used up and there were none left in the stock cupboard.... so I reverted to lists again on anything I could write...

I also used Outlook and any other task list manager I could find and it helped. My problem was still that I went over everything in my head at 4 in the morning.  Not good.

I tried Mind Maps because people at work had been on a BrainTraining course and they thought they were good. Me, ever the impatient and not at all artistic, decided that drawing them would be no use so software had to be found. I tried Free Mind and that was OK but I wanted something a bit more colourful. After much 'googling' and trial versions of MindManager & iMindmap I decided on NovaMind.

www.novamind.com

I have V4 but cant wait for the upgrade in the autumn. It looks like its going to be a good improvement.  The current version is easy to use and intuative.

I sound like an advert. 

I also have MindBerry on my BB. Its great for creating on the go.

I now have a better overview of what I need to got done and it helps me plan projects. I find it much more useful than MS Project. I dont have resourses to apply or work to a real date & time plan and thats what Project needs. With my Mind Maps I can keep my overview and play at the same time.

Here's one I made earlier, as they say on Blue Peter

Liberty Park Overloon

We went today.

It has an enormous collection of machines and its all set up in a huge display. 

There is a large exhibit on the build up to the war, the occupation and then the liberation of the Netherlands. We were there for 5.5hours and I didnt see all of it. I only saw the history display till 1942 so we need to go back to see the rest. As it is part of the Museumkaart scheme entry was free too.

Well worth a visit. I didnt visit the War Cemetery, next time I think I will.

Tomorrow, something not related to the war I hope.  

Eu-ro-vis-ion !!!!!

Its such a great laugh the song contest. I remember listening to it on the radio when I was little in the 70's. I always liked it even when the UK entry was DIIIIIRE, as it was for years. Last night they improved the standard enormously! Well done to Lloyd Webber. The song was a ballad and not just bum-chink bum-chink EuroPop froth as has been churned out before. Given that I hate these talent programs like Idols etc and didnt watch the selection of the singer I was impressed by what came out of it. I admit to voting for us too. I also voted for the Sweden entry as I was blown away with her voice. What a set of lungs this girl has. 

The other entries were varied. I hate to say it but the Dutch entry was boooooring. Why do people insist on singing in English? a good catchy song is one irrespective of the language. All these summer sun hits tells you that... never mind the fact that I have never understood ( or wanted to) Opera words or the things we sang in a choir in Latin. The melody and the exprossion get you, or they dont. Understanding the lyrics is not essential to a good song.

I saw a comment on a website that said Frans Bauer wanted to go to Eurovision with a Dutch language song HE SHOULD or Barsato or Blof... why not. They are hugely popular here, nearly always sing in Dutch - more power to them. 

I am probobly ranting with the convicton of the converted.. I am surrounded by people who use Nederglish  and hate it. Why use combination words when you have perfectly good words of your own. Good  example is ''geforward''  As in Ik heb de email geforward........

Anyway back to EuroV- last night was a great show, Graham Norton did very well and Tel was fading after all this time anyway, Shame he went off in a strop but it allowed others to get involved. I hope he got to speak to the backing dancers from Ukraine at the after show party cluck cluck.

See them at the dress rehersal image 19.

http://www.eurovision.tv/page/multimedia/photos?gal=2585

As for the winner last night... if he could just stop himself yelling down the mike it would be fine .. I seems to have forgetten he is singing not shouting.  Apparently my opinion is not a common one.. good that I have a day job.

http://www.eurovision.tv/page/home

Go see the videos, enjoy!!

Poken

I bought one! There I admit it, I am a gadget freak and I bought one. I have little use for this as my social life revolves round work but I couldnt resist.

I hurried home, raced upstairs to get to my PC, typed in the page you need to go to to activate it and register your info ...

www.DoYouPoken.com

and.......

nothing.... site must be down. I am going to have to wait!!!!!aaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhh

I bought the green 3 eyed monster right up there at the front!

Nursery Rhymes as they should be...

Little Miss Muffet sat on her Tuffet

Eating her curds & weigh

Along came a spider who sat down beside her...

So she whapped it with her spoon...

Star Trekkin....'cross the universe

I went to the pictures today.. to see the long awaited new ST film. I have to admit I loved it.. What a geek I am. All the reviews I had seen had been good but it really was!! I am an avid fan... Voyager is my fav, of course, with the female captain & chief engineer. I like TNG too though find the original series a bit out of date. I watched it when I was young in the reruns in the early 70's. Deep Space 9 lost its appeal in the huge story arc in the last series or two..I never did manage to see the end..... I digress

The film today was really well done.  I didnt know what to expect for an ending, obviously they survive etc but there could have been a weird time travel ending which would have been just as acceptable. I thought the Scotty accent was well.... OK, mine is better ;-). I imagine its not supposed to be original.

The entire thing will constantly be compared to the original series - it lives up to the hype. 

Where this film wins over other ST films is that it didnt seem like a long episode, it felt like a film. I always feel that TNG films come over like they were really the 2 part series ending episodes but on a large screen.

Well done to all involved. As the entire storyline can now be changed I cant wait to see if they keep it going.

One last thing, I was delighted to see the Youngs Tap making its reappearance in the ear of Uhura. 

  (The image was lifted from the Sigma Aldrich Website - thanks)

Imagine (if you dare) , my lab in the 80's.. a certain chemist who looked less like Uhura than the rest of the world prancing about with this in my..ermm  HER ear announcing to any who would listen that Captain, Captain, Star Fleet command was on the line... what sense of humour that girl!

It had been cleaned (honest!, I wasnt a proud member of the Safety Committee for nothing you know)

Wallace and Bruce

We were visiting places normally reserved for school trips ie Bannockburn and the Wallace Monument. We started too late to add Stirling Castle too....

 Bannockburn. Brilliant. The monument was the same as I remember. We went to the visitors centre and the weapons demonstration. The guy who did this was marvellous and had the children captivated with tales of gore... my son bought a single handed broad sword.... thankfully not a Claymore!! and thankfully plastic! After the demo we tried on chain mail.... 

 

We have all been cut into tiny pieces loads of times since then. kchiiing!!swooooosh....k-plats!

Wallace Monument: I have never been here before ( or that I can remember) and this time we climbed all the steps. Some of the party wimped out at level 1 but the boy and I went all the way to the top. Here is my video proof!! Filmed on my trusty BB Bold.

Been Away and am just back....phew

I was away visiting the homeland... weather surprisingly sunny  (have more freckles) but cccccold. 

I dont understand how some people can walk around with little on and I am in my fleece and mac.

More surprises to follow, among which the story of the Wallace Monument climb!!

Not too ikky not to skate

Sure I felt a bit weird but onward and upward!! This was taken on the boat over the river IJssel. I skated to the motorway.....climbed the hill to get on to the bridge and skated home...phewwwwww

The ferry takes 3 mins max to cross, it took me an hour to skate home..... It was fun though.  The boat in the picture caused great waves ond it was a bumpy 3 mins. The skates on at the top of the path and off I went. Non stop to the motorway ( big improvement, typical is puffed out half way there)

My Podrunner in my ears helps.  http://www.djsteveboy.com/mixes.html

Found it on iTunes and its great for helping releave the boredome. Dont got one too fast though....

Been a bit ikky

I don't know what it was, but I am sure I ate something which disagreed with me..... that's what you get for eating green cheese....Roquefort ... yum but I am sure it muddled my tum ;-)

Skate 2 of the 2009 season

As yesterday was taken up by finishing the gardens great clean I didnt go out for a skate. I felt suitably guilty this morning and off I went again. This time I did some warming up!! but still felt my legs sore from last week ... That shows you how bad I was last week and I only skated for about half on hour.

Today I went out for an hour and went much further, it was great. It was the first time I have dared to listen to music while skating and in a public place ( Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!!). I didnt even get run down by swarms of mad cyclists out on a bank holiday morning!!!!

Some people give you loads of room - the clue to them is the fair amount of arm movement which goes on in my constant attempts to keep upright.. others give you no room at all and it will serve them right if one of these days they get 12 stone of fast moving Scot on the bonnet of the car.....

This is me nearly at my turning point and another one from the same point...pretty isnt it?.. and flat ( thankfully)

Next week I might venture to the other side of the river.....This requires a very clumsy ferry crossing.. but if I go early enough, there will only be the ferry man to laugh at me..

The great Egg Chariot race

Its tradition, Easter means egg races. At home this meant rolling them down a hill... but now I live in the flat lands there are fewer hills to come by ...so we roll them in the garden or inside the house. Normally down a plywood ramp........

This year we had 2 contenders made from Lego bricks. Given the tidyness of the children this meant swapping the back axel as we appear to only be able to find one set of wheels.....

The timing was done by me as official timer and judge using by trusty BBBold. ( I'll stop going on about it soon I hope - it is such a great little device)

The contest consisted of 3 rolls - best run won.

We had Speedy! against Gonzalez ( guess who choose the name first and then KR came along with an appropriate name for hers)

The results are:

Speedy 2.75s, 2.49s 2.29s ( disallowed due to pushing at the start, the result stands after a stewards enquiry)

Gonzalez 4.43s, 3.48s,  crashed no time recorded.

As will be clear there were design faults......

The winner is.... Speedy

The runner up :

So when designing your Egg Chariot remember to have 4 wheels and not build a Box! but a racer!!!

I admit to being a total gadget freak. I have had many phones ( hardly use them to phone but do loads of other things with them.) I love my current BB Bold and have hated others most notably the LG Secret, but thats an aside...

One of my gadgets is an Ipod Touch. Its my first Ipod. I had hoped it would be possible to have 1 machine to do it all, but I have not yet found the holy grail of devices. Instead I decided to get an ipod and a separate phone to see if I would be satisfied with a dedicated machine. I am, its great.

This is a photo of the very thing:

Hide al

l

I was in the car last week and the radio was playing "If you cant give me love" - I was singing away, as ever, but couldnt remember who sang it. As it was a Dutch local radio with very few people on air, there was noone to tell me who this was.  I got home and searched for this on my Ipod and there she was.. Suzi Quatro. It was like going back in time. I remembed listening to her at school. I am now the proud owner of her greatest hits album.

One particular memory suddenly appeared....

me listening to SQ in kitchen ( I think) at home, mum appears... is that, that Suzy Cointreau you are listening to hen?............

And speaking of Malapropism.... a conversation at work years ago.....

We were talking about dogs.. cant remember why... suddenly someone announced that her neighbours had 2 of those Doberman Spinsters. 

Laugh? I nearly choked on my tea!

And not forgetting another co worker, she commented that an idea had gone down like a 'wet balloon'....

Jings would you look at the time.... dinners to be made and eaten.

Ahh the memories and Tea

Just got off the phone with big big sis and we remembered a story about an ex work colleague of hers and the events at one tea break.

to set the scene....a Glasgow hospital, all present are from west central Scotland (apart from one from the North East of S'land) and are having tea..... cakes had been bought to supplement the precious brew....

One of the company is looking slightly down, she is questioned by another-'who stole your scone?

Answer from only Aberdonion in the room - 'well it wisny me, mine wis a Paris Bun'

Note to any non WCSers among you: when someone has stolen your scone you look sad or depressed. It is a saying, an idiom if you will... it doesn't actually mean you are now without baked goods!

oh the happy times....

Link for the curious

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_buns

And here are some scones as everyones gran used to make. My gran's were always better than my mums... I dont know why......;-)

This may also be related to my earlies Jokes post... which caused great hilarity when I read it out to Sis tonight... told you it was funny!

What parents do when the children are having fun at the fun park

Its called drinking coffee and waiting....

And there's more.....

Is it me?

Ever since I have been here it has been a constant surprise that so many women wear trousers that only go half way down their legs. There is usually a pair of boots underneath. All strange, especially if these are not extras from Star Trek TOG.

I must put my amazement, that this is the look people are after, down to my childhood. I was always tall and found it difficult to get leg length in jeans. There was always that chance that there would be a questioning shout of Your Cat Died???from someone in the school playground. ( For those not familiar with common parlance of West Central Scotland this is a negative term aimed at those whose trouser legs missed a few cm off the bottom. Your trousers were therefore at 'half mast'.... the Dutch equiv being Hogewater)

I have an obsessien that trouser legs MUST go all the way down to you ankles......apparently many others disagree.

While this is fine for those with legs to carry this off, if this fashion is seen on women shorter than normal or even a bit wider than normal, short leg trousers make then look like they have rather large backside and tiny fat legs.

My humble opinion of course....

I will upload some more ..

LGs worst kept Secret

LG Secret- all my own opinion for what its worth.

 

Overall impression  - not worth the money

 

Features:

Phone - OK apart from the ringer

Internet  -Using the STD browser - poor, Using Opera Mini  - better but input is still cumbersome and slow. Adding the .extension yuk, so sloooooow.

SMS - poor due to hideous input method- v slow and non-intuitive. Adding a @ symbol takes for too many clicks as you need to access a separate menu to add symbols….rubbish.

Camera - OK for 'snaps' awful for real photos. Even though its 5mega pixels, its still hopeless IMHO.

Video camera - good

The overall size is great and the black screen is pretty, I dislike the white theme.

 

The music player is very slow to load. I had a 4Mb card and half  filled it with music. This took a very long time to activate and allow access to the music. Then there is the Touch mode…….hopeless.

 

If what you need is a neat, sexy phone this is fine. If you are looking for functionality, look somewhere else.

The entire thing is great to look at but with such a cumbersome input process it is very annoying  to use. I used mine for less than a year before I couldn’t cope any more. 

 

I also have an issue with the so called LG service…….

I have  updated software on many  phones and for Orange and Sony Ericsson the online help is great. SE is esp good. LG have a hideous Q&A with no downloads ( that I could find) you get directed to their email support… what about people who want to do it themselves?

 

I will not buy another LG phone, no matter how pretty.

This is as link to another review - they appear to like it even despite the pitifully slow response , there is no accounting for taste

LG Secret Review

Well thats all for now ..... CUL8R

Jokes

Why is it that when I tell a joke (which is officially very funny) all humour is lost in the 30 mins translation for those who either didnt grow up with my dialect or my eejit children.

eg Q Is that a fairy cake or a meringue?

A  no yer right enough its a fairycake.

hahahahahahahaha ( at least for me)

http://www.chocablog.com/recipes/chocolate-spread-fairy-cakes/

Here we go again

I have tried this blogging lark before and gave up as it only encouraged spam email so lets see how long this lasts..

So post 1. hmmm what to talk about....Gadgets!! my fav subject. i am the proud owner of many, too many if you ask some people, but never mind... where to start??

My Favorite gadget ever WAS my BB from work but now its my own BB. My machine (I should call it 'my device' but that too geeky, even for me)  is a BB Bold and in the month I have had it, it has become my best pal.

Like I said, my first BB was my work phone and I loved it from the moment I managed to convince someone to give me one. I can now read emails at all times of the day.  Sad, very sad...

It is a Curve 8300 in corporate grey. Although its impossible to adjust much and no extra software can be installed, thats OK. It works really well, battery life is fantastic and it was really easy to learn what to do with it.  

This is why I finally decided I had to have one of my own.

My Bold has rubbish battery life especially if you use wifi, but the rest is great. I have installed apps galore and use Pocket Informant as the PIM. Its not as good as PI on WM6 but its pretty useful. The preinstalled BB Maps is no where near as good as the Googlemaps App. This is very quick to identify where you are using both GPS and the telephone cell. A really smart combination of the two technologies.

The camera is fine for the typical quick photo and the geo positioning is fun too.  BBMaps shows you where the photo was taken.

 

The keyboard is good and much easier to press that the Curve. Its also slightly bigger so is easier on the RSI wrist and arms I have.

I bought the charger stand and have it as my bedside alarm clock.

The ringer is very loud so I am even able to hear it. What can I say, its great!!!!

So I will leave it here and am off to compose my rant on the LG Secret. I bought one last year and hated it from the moment I opened the box.