My eating has got out of hand.

I’m eating way more than I’m burning off (despite all the daily walking) and coupled with enjoying several bottles of ale a week, when I jumped on the scales yesterday, although shocked, I wasn’t surprised to see the needle where it was.
Everything has been feeling tighter, my joints are aching again and I’m feeling tired.

I’ve put on 27 lbs since I last weighed myself back in Nova Scotia before the weighing scales broke!

I’m back up to 270 lbs

I know I have to give myself time to grieve, but life has been so full of immediate challenges these past few months that it is hard to sit and take time to make sense of things. All I know is that we need to move forward, get jobs, build a home, feel safe.

I get moments where the grief pushes through as I think of many things. I’ll have a little weep and move on to the next chore. It’s all part of life.

I miss my life in Nova Scotia and my friends. I miss my dog.. (oh but he has landed on his feet and has just spent a week on the beach on Prince Edward Island)

Trams in Nottingham the other day..

BUT let me tell you that those feelings are counter-balanced by my exciting new life here in Nottingham. I love my new home, I’ve got some awesome friends who have helped me a lot (thank you Ben and Bertie) and I have a bit of a social life too! I can hop on the bus to the city and enjoy wandering around the town and soaking in the vibe. It’s rather an exciting one…

Just joined Nottingham Hackspace– lots of plans!

I’ve started meeting people and going places and enjoy weekly pottery sessions with my friend Bertie and have just joined “Nottingham Hackspace” which I’m really excited about.

My small container garden is growing well and soon I will have tomatoes and zucchini. I’ve harvested my rhubarb (to make a wartime rhubarb wine recipe) and soon I will be cutting and drying my herbs. It looks like I have a crab apple tree and very soon I will have elderberries and rose-hips and my cupboards are full of jam and chutney jars waiting for harvest time. From now until the spring I will be clearing the back area of the garden to put in a proper Victory Garden and I’m really excited about that.

Em Hobbit now has a school. She’ll be attending Colonel Frank Seely School in a neighbouring village called Calverton which specializes in Maths and Computing. She already has her school tie and blazer badge and it’s going to seem strange seeing her in school uniform.

Last week much of the Midlands had flash flooding after weeks of no rain. Just a few houses down from us our local community centre’s retaining wall collapsed under the pressure. See the video I filmed below..

Over 10,000 views in 2 days.. I guess a collapsing wall is big news!!

Yesterday I sent out my CV and reference letter’s to the Editor of the Nottingham Post, Mike Sassi. I enjoyed my time working for Lighthouse Media Group in Nova Scotia and I’d love to continue my career in this area so I’ve asked him to keep my details on file.

I started back to eating 1940s today and weekly weigh-ins will resume. As tempting as it is to just keep eating and comforting myself in this way I need to be fit and healthy and mobile and happy. I have a wonderful opportunity to build my life again and a challenging but exciting future.

I won’t let that slip through my fingers, not this time…

C xxxxx

PS Made an awesome malted loaf yesterday- recipe to follow!