Frump to Fab 2016 - Lets make it AWESOME!!!

lessonlearned

Good morning lovely ladies

Ruby - sorry to hear you have lost your mojo. I think you can probably put this down to the car crash. Whilst you may not have been "seriously injured" it is still a shock to the body and it takes time to get over it.

Are you sufferering whiplash or any seat belt injuries. Even if there is no obvious bruising your body still had a "jolt" so it can take a few weeks to fully recover.

Yes I speak from experience.....:rotfl:

Anyway I'll join you on your challenge. We can get back on the wagon together. I just need a couple of days to rest and catch my breath first. I've had a fabulous time but I'm very tired.

Wedding no 3 was wonderful and once again we were really lucky with the weather. DS made a lovelyspeech, in which he made a very touching tribute to his father and I. Not a dry eye in the house::rotfl: the best mans speech was hilarious, he was a riot. One of my sons old school friends was the celebrant. It was his first wedding and he was teased about whether or not it would be like the scene from the film "four Weddings". Actually he never faltered and it was beautiful little ceremony, humanist not religious. He did a great job.

I did a reading from that well known Irish poet - er hem -Ronan Keeting (Life is a Rollercoaster) - to the congregations amusement and one of his best friends read a piece from "Captain Corelli's Mandolin". The "hymns" we're "All You Need is Love" (Beatles) and "God Only Knows" (Beach Boys).

God Only Knows is one of my all time favourites.i nearly chose it for my husband's funeral but the lyrics were just too emotional for that. I would have dissolved into a puddle at a funeral but they were lovely for a wedding.

so Maman as you can see - 3 very different types of wedding, one legal, one religious, one a bit less traditional and more in keeping with our family's beliefs and ideals.

The registry one was to comply with all the legal requirements, the Barcelona one was for religious reasons - for the bride but mainly for her family and the second UK one was technically a "celebration" rather than a "ceremony" - a more personal and relaxed day -and a gathering of friends and family - lots of fun, very personal readings and music, games, a magician and Ending with a hog roast and a ceilidh. A magical day.

Just as I wanted a humanist funeral for my husband DS and DIL wanted what I guess we could call a "Humanist" wedding, more spiritual than a registry office but yet not a full religious service in an Anglican Church.

I am not sure whether The registry one could have taken place in Spain, whether it would be covered under EU legislation or not. Tbh think they just wanted it in the UK.

Anyway it's all done and dusted now. They are now well and truly married and off on their honeymoon to the good old US of A. Her family are in their way back to Venezuela - don't envy them the journey - three flights to get home. And of course I have been given the task of sorting out the aftermath......took the hire suits back yesterday, props back to the florist today etc.and of course looking after their house whilst they are away.

Ds2 is unwell today - feeling rather sorry for himself - the cat is cuddling him better as I write and it's cold, wet and raining. I might leave the florist until tomorrow and just inside - dry, warm and cosy and keep My son company.

sugarbaby125

Hello Ladies,

I am still being more fab as time goes by and as my weight keeps decreasing. I do have more confidence even though my body shape is still a long way from where I eventually want it to be.

Ruby I did my Race for Life 5KM walk in 55 minutes and 40 seconds. I was dosed up with flu medication and a double dose of Piriton to prevent my hay fever being a nuisance. I was coughing and it did start to drizzle as I passed the 3KM marker and then begun to rain, but I did not let anything dampen my enthusiasm.

Wayne and I have parted ways. He seemed to think he could splash his cash around and that would turn my head. I do tend to be very level headed when it comes to male admirers, as I do get a lot of male attention, so have become more and more discerning as I have gotten older. I have high standards and they are not to be compromised just so that I am no longer single. I have not been very upset or lost even a minute of sleep, as I was simply taking one day at a time with Wayne, and was not taking seriously his constant declarations of Love. He hardly knew me, yet he was always talking about us getting engaged and married. I was reticent with him so he does not even know my surname or my address. I refused to allow him to take my 15 year old son and 23 year old daughter to dinner and would not allow him to take any photos of me as I had begun to think that I was losing patience with his high handed ways and his trying to dictate how I should behave with male friends I had known for 5 years or more. On our last date he treated me with casual indifference at Karaoke for 3 hours, then all of a sudden wanted to be all over me like a rash, which I was not having. He tried to insist that I had to dance with him, but I preferred to cut loose on the dance floor on my own. I decided that enough was enough and I would much prefer to be single and independent once again.

I had made plans for myself for July and August as it will be unpaid holiday for me. I realised that I had not included Wayne in any of my plans for the Summer, so unconsciously I had decided that it was unlikely we would still be dating by the beginning of July.

maman

Oh wow, that's interesting news about the demise of Wayne sugarbaby.


What I love about this thread is that although we've all come on here because we want to give ourselves a boost we're all quite strong and independent at heart. I so agree that it's important to get it right rather than just take what's on offer rather than be single. A bit of give and take is fine but not sacrificing your own principles. I think that's true even in a relationship.

chanie wrote: »

I've also bought a few other bits :
Wedge sandals (a few posts ago) - they are currently 20% off, so I took them back for a refund-resell and saved £9.

Pjs - picked some up from Sainsburys for £7.50 in the 25%off. I love them and will definitely buy more when they are next on offer - I realise I'm only saving £2.50, but I only buy clothes from there when the offer is on!!!

Very mse chanie. :money: Those Sainsbury deals do seem to come around frequently. It's the same with 25% off wine.:D I stocked up on one of my favourites last week and had to fight off people at the check out asking to come round for the party!:rotfl:


Glad you're enjoying the culottes. I like tops that are a bit flared on the bottom rather than skin tight vests. They're much cooler in hot weather but not super floaty IYSWIM.


I've had a frustrating couple of days. Some of you might remember we had a bump in the car last year when a deer ran out in front of us when DH was driving us back from Gatwick. We got back from Wales on Monday to find a letter cancelling our car insurance from this weekend due to an undisclosed claim when we changed companies back in April. After a massive amount of phone calls on Monday and yesterday speaking to a whole load of people who were talking a lot of waffle with all the hanging around and going through phone menus and security questions I got it reinstated PDQ. Apparently they had the actual claim (which I had disclosed of course including date, cost of repair etc.) down which was fine but also another but with me driving (as it's my car and my policy) on the same day. I spoke to a manager later to raise a complaint and asked what the likelihood of both my husband and myself being hit by a deer on the same day was! He said, they can't assume so it's policy to cancel. What about common sense and checking before they act!!:mad::mad: An apology and a promise to look into staff training was extracted. In case they trawl the internet the policy was with Lloyds Bank although I suspect other companies might be equally poor when it comes to Customer Service.


Weather here is indifferent, really stuck between two seasons. I feel as it's June we should be able to wear summer clothes but other than discarding socks and the odd short sleeved top I'm still in my jeans most of the time for casual wear.:( I'm out to lunch tomorrow with former colleagues so I want to look smart but I'll need to wait and see whether the sun shines before deciding what to wear.

lessonlearned

Maman - I agree Isn't it frustrating dealing with officialdom these days........endless phone menus and when you do get to speak to a human half of them come over as robots, unable to use their initiative or display any simple common sense.

I have been doing battle with the stair lift company who supplied mums stairlift. They have been hounding my father and threatening court action over an outstanding bill. We paid it months ago.

My dad has been getting really distressed. Despite me giving them dates etc they say they can't trace the payment. They were quite rude, insisting we owe them. I sent them a copy of his bank statement showing the transaction. Luckily I keep things like that. I have torn a strip off them and demanded they send him a formal apology.

Still waiting......:rotfl:

A friend was telling me that the best way to get customer satisfaction is to post something on the offending company's or institutions Facebook or web page. Apparently they will then sit up and take action.......naming and shaming seems to be the only thing that works these days.

Sugarbaby - sorry to hear about your relationship with Wayne coming to an end but I think you have done the right thing. No point dragging it out.......better no man than the wrong man.

chanie

sugar sorry to read about your relationship, but if it's not working for you. It's best not to stick around.

ll and maman I'll join you in the complaints club. We bought a new washing machine in January and its been leaking water. I didn't realise at first, ad I thought the children had spilled something. After a couple more times, I called the engineer and he couldn't find the problem. It started leaking a few weeks later and engineer 2 fixed it. It leaked again and now they want to send around another engineer. I've spent hours on the phone - the fault is intermittent, so I doubt it will leak when the engineer cones!

lessonlearned

Good morning lovely ladies.

Still cold, grey and miserable here. Slept well and starting to feel more human and less like a zombie. My wrists hurt so it's back with the copper bangle again. DS2 a little better but not going into work today so if he's up to it I'll get him to help me with a tip run.

RIght today is day 1 of "back on the wagon" so essentially it's time for BAck to Basics.

First I need to get back on the Paleo, did a shop yesterday and stocked up a bit, so starting with a breakfast of yogurt and raspberries. Then a soak in the bath to loosen up and then a walk. This Afternoon I will try and do 10 minutes yoga and a couple of minutes on the cross trainer.

It's a long slog ahead but essentially here's my goals for Christmas.;)

1. Lose 2 stones
2. Earn/save £5k
3. Buy a house

Not quite sure how I'm going to achieve all this - it's quite a mountain to climb but hey you have to start somewhere.

I will devise a plan of attack.

Very interesting programme about aging last night, ITV 1 I think. There was quite a lot about the benefits of exercise so, having recorded the programme, I will be able to watch it again for motivation when I start to flag.

I recently bought myself a nice little hardback notebook, so last night I started a journal to jot down my ideas, plans etc and to record my progress. Hopefully writing it all down and recording my progress will help me stay focussed.

When I was looking after my husband and things were really rough I found keeping a journal helped me through it. Hopefully keeping a journal will help me achieve my goals.

Today it begins........:rotfl:

Ellsbel

Just popping in to say a quick hello as I've not had a chance to post for a while.
Wow, you've all been busy! Sugarbaby sorry it didn't work out with Wayne; I could sense from some of your recent posts that maybe he was going a bit to fast for you - I'm glad you're independent enough to walk away from something that's not right for you.
LL I'm so pleased the celebrations went so well:)
Rubysorry about the car accident; totally understandable that it shook you up - hope you're feeling a bit better now.
Love that dress maman - looks like a keeper:)
Chanie that lip oil sounds intriguing! I'm now trying to resist searching for it as I've spent far too much money this past few weeks:D
I've just got back from a city break with OH and DS2 - we went to Rome, where the weather was very hot (so the sunglasses earned their keep *Maman*;)) and we had a lovely time - lots and lots of walking done so good exercise too:)
I'm absolutely freezing now we're back though and have had to put the heating on this morning - crazy!!
Hair is newly highlighted and have booked in for a Brazilian blow dry in a couple of weeks to hopefully give it a smoother finish, so I'm keeping fabbed and looking after myself.
Well - that wasn't such a "quick" hello after all was it?!:D
Have a good day all.

ETA - I can vouch for naming and shaming on social media when companies are being frustrating

maman

Lovely, upbeat post LL. There's something about notebooks that helps motivation. I need some goals myself as I'm getting a bit bored with life at the moment. I have a strong work ethic and find it hard to just relax and do very little so I need to find a happy medium. I feel I've swapped my stressful time consuming job for similarly stressful volunteering. I'm cutting back on that but replacing it with trash TV isn't fulfilling!:rotfl:


Hopefully I'll do some reflection on my holiday. I might even take a notebook with me!:D


Glad the Raybans got an airing ellsbel. Don't need them here at the moment. We've got the heating on too.:eek:


I'm out for lunch in a while. Sun is just trying to peep through but I think it'll be jeans and long sleeves.

lessonlearned

Maman - I agree it's easy to get bored and let the days slip by with nothing much to show for them.

I have found this blog https://www.sixtyandme.com and found it quite good. It's American but quite interesting articles on retirement and it has got me thinking about what I actually want out of life. I am very aware that I will probably be a singleton now so I need to build a new and - hopefully more exciting - life.

I agree about the need to make good use of time, otherwise we will be pushing 90 before we know it.:rotfl:

My new Plan includes less trash tv. In fact I have started reading again instead.

I'm also going to look for language and dance classes for next winter.
In the meantime I aim to spend the summer gardening, decluttering, decorating and seeing friends.

I am seeng a friend who is over from the states on Sunday and have booked our trip for the Lion king for later in the month, hopefully Belguim in August so the diary is starting to fill up nicely.

sugarbaby125

lessonlearned wrote: »

Sugarbaby - sorry to hear about your relationship with Wayne coming to an end but I think you have done the right thing. No point dragging it out.......better no man than the wrong man.

Hello Ladies,

I am very sanguine about the break up with Wayne. He will regret deciding not to try to resolve our major disagreement over his treatment of me, but I am mostly feeling relief that I will not be rushing around after a tiring shift at work to get ready for a date with Wayne. I did have a lot of fun times with Wayne and he could really make me laugh, so I will miss his good points, but my life is moving swiftly on.

I have so many positive family occasions to look forward to and a very, very special adventure for myself.

After a very long application and interview process, I have finally received written confirmation that I will soon be a contestant on a TV Quiz Show!!!! :j I am not at liberty to say which show at this stage, as it has to be recorded and aired before I can discuss the finer details. I am mega excited! :T

My younger son turns 16 on 28th June and I have booked a family meal for 11 of us at Pizza Express. I have been buying presents for him and will give him £160 in his birthday card. We are all really looking forward to celebrating his 16th birthday. I have been very MSE and used £45 of my Tesco clubcard vouchers to get £180 worth of Pizza Express codes to use for the meal. :beer: That will cover most of the food cost if not all and I will then only have to pay for the drinks bill.

LL I am so pleased for you and your family that all 3 Weddings went so well and both your family and the bride's family had such an enjoyable time at all 3 Weddings.

You sounded so determined and focused in your last post. Your goals are very admirable and I hope you achieve them all.

As the College where I am a cleaner is closed for 8 weeks for the Summer break, I decided I needed to save £1,000 to be able to really enjoy myself in July and August. I have already saved £940, so only another £60 to save to achieve my goal. I live in London and will do some of the more touristy pursuits like an open top bus tour and a river boat trip, visits to Museums and Galleries. I will also go on local walks and on visits to local parks.