Spring has sprung...bong!

Well, the weather in the UK this week has been nothing short of fabulous!  Getting through the dark months of January and February most of the time feels like an endurance test.  At the end of January the Winter seems never ending and you are longing for warmer weather.  I dusted down my Summer clothes and shoes and have worn them and it is not even April, amazing.  The only slight sticking point is that in the morning the temperature has been dropping down to around 3 degrees.  Therefore, I was posed with a dilemma do I dress for the morning or the 20 plus degree afternoons.  Yep, you guessed it I dressed for the 20 and in the mornings my legs without tights were freezing on the playground.  I braved it though and by lunchtime I was warm.

Alas, tomorrow is said to be the last day of warmth.  Who knows when it will be warm again, but at least, I have already worn a few Summer dresses and shoes.  The weather pattern seems to have changed in the UK, we normally get good weather in April and May, June, July and August it is rubbish again.  If we are lucky September and October are okay.  I have seen a few headlines in the papers already claiming that we are going to have a heat wave this Summer.  I have heard that for the past 5 years and I am still waiting.  I will believe it when I see it.  In the meantime, on warm days I will wear as many of my beloved Summer clothes. 

Dukan do it!

A few friends of mine have done the Dukan diet.  My Husband said that he wanted to lose weight, yes, you guessed it, I put him on it and said I would do it with him.  The diet is to say the least very limiting but boy does it work fast.  Within a few days you can visibly see the difference, however, it does feel like you are going through torture.  Basically, all you can eat in the attack phase is lean meat or fish, eggs, fromage frais and cottage cheese (that is about it).  For the first few days I was starving hungry, but I perservered, after all, no pain no gain!

I never weighed myself in the beginning and I am now in week 3, but I can see a huge difference.  My Husband has lost about a stone and is much happier for it.  The strange thing it does is makes ordinary food you used to eat a treat, for example, a jacket potatoe.  It kind of retrains your brain as to what you eat and you realise being hungry is doable and won't harm you.  I am now following a low carb diet as we do eat too many carbs and don't get to burn them off.  In the beginning it was hard but it gets easier, at first you have to crack your sugar addiction.  I was slipping into eating a little bit of chocolate everday, but I have beaten it and I now don't even want any. 

So the message in my tale is Du know Dukan do it!

Mother's day - Breakthrough Breast Cancer

Make this Mother’s Day Matter and help in the fight against Breast Cancer

This March, Breakthrough Breast Cancer is urging to people to get behind their new campaign to  raise funds and Make Mother’s Day Matter.

It couldn’t be easier to spoil your Mum whilst also lending your support to this pioneering charity.  Just visit http://breakthrough.org.uk/mothersday and for a suggested donation download one of ten unique and stylish vouchers designed to make your Mum feel extra special. 

Each voucher, which can be personalised and printed, represents a promise from you to your Mum, and these range from making her breakfast in bed, to doing 3 hours of gardening, to cleaning her car, to giving her some peace and quiet.  As well as promising to treat your Mum to something special this Mothering Sunday, by making the suggested donation to Breakthrough Breast Cancer of the equivalent value of the voucher you will be  helping keep families affected by this terrible disease together for longer.

Breast cancer is a disease which devastates nearly 48,000 women and their families every year. By making a donation to the campaign  you will be helping Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s life saving research work and moving them closer to  their vision of a future free from the fear of breast cancer.

As a thank you for your support, when taking part and downloading a Mother’s Day voucher, you will automatically be entered into a competition for a chance to win an amazing spa treatment for 2 people at The Chancery Court Hotel, so you can treat your Mum twice over.

Helen Aithie, Product Development Fundraiser from Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said:

“We really hope that this Mother’s Day people get behind our campaign and help to make it matter.  By downloading a voucher and donating a small amount, not only are you giving your Mum an extra special treat, but you are also helping Breakthrough to save lives, so that more Mums can be around for many more Mother’s Days to come. I urge everyone to visit our site and get downloading, so we can Make this Mother’s Day really Matter.”

Me on you tube! Breast Cancer Awareness - Breakthrough

Hello Everyone,

Here is my video on you tube for Breast Cancer Awareness.  It is very strange seeing yourself on video, at first I could not watch it!  I hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-svlsI8oPOU

Have a great week!

Tracey

Baking fever is taking over!

Everyone seems to be going a little bit bonkers for baking at the moment.  That includes me!  There is a sea of TV shows all dedicated to dare I say it "Baking".  Let's face it everyone loves a nice bit of cake or a cheeky muffin. 

I baked a lemon sponge cake with double whipped cream and lemon curd in the middle.  I took it into work and gave my work colleagues a piece.  One person said it was the best cake they had ever tasted.  I have made that cake twice before and they do take a little bit of perfecting, but they are so simple to make.  I felt really humbled at the response I got.  However, I was a bit nervous when I sliced into it, what if it is not cooked in the middle?  That is the thing with cakes you never know until you have to slice it up.  I must admit it did look really quite magnificent.  I tasted a bit and it was good.  Was being the operative word as it was gone in a flash.  When good cake is in the building the word spreads fast!

I am new to this baking lark and I have not got much experience.  A few years ago I would have never even had the inclination to do it.  I think it was when I realised my Daughter enjoyed doing it with me things seemed to click into place.  My Husband loves my cake too, it is definitely the way to a man's heart.  There is something theraputic about doing it.   To me it is another way of spreading the joy and I felt very humbled to get good feedback, plus I knew they were not lying as I tasted it!

Move over Mary Berry there is a new chick in Town!

My Husband has got a new bird!

My Husband has got a new bird, she is about 7cm long and called a pacific parotlette!  I am not good with animals mainly because I am allergic to most of them.  I am very allergic to dogs and extremely allergic to horses.  When my Daughter comes back from a riding lesson I cannot even go near her clothes without getting an itchy throat and sneezing.

The shame of it is that my Husband loves dogs and we did have a dog called Marmite until baby number two came along.  He was bought up with always having a dog.  With having two young children and my Husband commuting we could not give her the quality time she needed.  We gave her away to friends of ours and I still love her, however, me living with a dog made me asthmatic.  It is horrible not being able to breath in your own home, I was constantly weezing and having to use inhalers.  In the end it broke my Husband's heart to give her away. 

I was unsure about having a bird in the house and feared I would be allergic but so far it is okay.  She is cute.  On the first day she came to our house she looked petrified, she hardly moved.  I felt sorry for her.  Slowly she is getting used to us.  I just hope I don't do something stupid like leave a door or a window open when she is out of her cage!

Whitney Houston RIP

It was very sad that Whitney Houston died at the weekend, however, I cannot get over the fact that she was a drug addict.  I remember dancing to her hits back in the day, but for me unfortunately her erratic behaviour and drug addiction in her later years is what I will remember her for.  I feel desperately sorry for her Daughter, she must have witnessed some horrid scenes at the demise of her Mother, that must have been incredibly painful.

What I do not understand is why someone with the world at her feet goes down the drugs route.  It appears that when you get to mega stardom and have lots of money to spend, you make the stupid decision to spend it on drugs!  Obviously, over the past year she is not the only one who has gone down this route, too add to the list is Amy Winehouse and the great Michael Jackson.

Is it the fact that when you get to that level of fame, your friends and family sell you out and you are left with friends that are on your payroll.  Possibly, they cannot cope with that level of scrutiny and feel they live under a microscope.  It is not like they can lead a normal life style.  Does this make them feel the only route they have is to take drugs?  Having personally had to fight for my life through Cancer I find it tough to get my head around why you would do this to yourself.

The Hollywood bubble seems to have moved on that instead of doing illegal drugs they go to their Doctor's and get prescription drugs.  I wonder whether we will see another Doctor on trial for providing Whitney with drugs.  Everyone, is now quick to honour her and her amazing voice.  Yes, she did have a world class voice, but tragicially in her later life it bought her a life style of unhappiness.  There are too many kids these days who want to be famous most of the time for not doing very much, so take note of what happens to these stars, does it truly bring them happiness?  The simple fact is that the body cannot take drugs illegal or legal (including alcohol) for a long sustained period of time.

My thoughts and prayers are with her family, particularly with her Daughter.  I wish her strength and hope she has a strong family behind her to help her through.