Food, non-food, and its repercussions.

Ok, so I've recently drastically changed my diet.
Much less cheese-centric, and a lot less carbs and meat.
It's not a particular diet, more just sensible healthy eating.

I'd put on a bit of weight that I didn't feel happy about, so I figured a change was worth a shot. Now, I don't weigh myself. That just makes me fixate on my weight, and is most likely to make me slip back into harmful eating habits (or non-eating habits). Which is, obviously, not helpful. So I tend to go by how I look, and how I feel.

Well, I've definitely seen a difference with this change. I'm looking better, and I have a HELL of a lot more energy. These give me more self-confidence, which makes my general mood better. All in all, it's going well, and I'm happy with it.

Which leads me to...
Whilst reading the Metro newspaper yesterday, I stumbled across this article.
I have three words for you, readers:
WHAT. THE. HELL?

Up to 97 per cent of women consider a size 12 to be fat and 58 per cent are convinced men also find size zero women attractive.

Now, I'm telling myself that they have to be using the US sizings here. Because no fucking way is that the UK sizings. Either way, WHAT THE HELL?

I didn't realise that 'up to' 97% of UK women were brain dead.

I have so many problems with this attitude. This body-hatred. This food-hatred. What is WRONG with us that emaciation is seen as a goal?

Yes, the irony is not lost on me - me who has a history of eating disorders, me who has been talking above about eating more healthily in order to feel better about my body. But all things in moderation. I have no problems with people's body sizes. I don't mock people for being large or small. But when women - adult, full grown women, with adult brains - are ASPIRING to become malnourished? That's when it gets scary, in my opinion.

It seems to me that these women don't want to be teeny for attractiveness sake, in and of itself. They have convinced themselves that men will not find them attractive if they're 'fat', and have created for themselves ever more rigid interpretations of the word. And that's really disheartening.

Bastards!

I had a long post all typed out, then saved it to make sure it was safe whilst I uploaded some photos.
When I went back to it, the post was gone. Damn blogger. This one is being uploaded from an internet cafe, because either my computer or blogger hates me. Does anyone want to buy me a laptop?

So, just some pet news for now - I can’t be bothered to retype the rest.

I’m trying to teach Whit some tricks. Sure, you may scoff at the idea of this particularly dim (but particularly cute) hamster being able to learn things - after all, he’s not yet learnt how to climb the bars of his cage. However, with a bit of dried coconut in my hand, I can get him to turn his head, turn in circles, and stand on his hind feet. It’s pretty impressive for a hamster of such little brain, even if he only does it to get hold of the food.

Hob’s begun to look like a proper rat, and less like a bag of skin and bones. She gets fed very well, and is learning that classic pet trick of taking the food, hiding it, then moping around pretending she’s starving, in the hope we’ll think we’ve forgotten to feed her. She also produces the most impressive stench from her cage if we haven't cleaned her out in a few days. We suspect it's because 1) it's an enclosed cage, and 2) she has an open water bowl (she prefers it) and spends a fair amount of her time splashing water about the cage. This morning, I discovered that she'd dragged all her lovely clean bedding out of her nest, and dropped it into the water bowl. Living up to her slightly mental reputation, there.

Hastings had a good day on Saturday - we let her go for a jaunt around the garden. She tried to eat a pebble at one point, and ate dirt at another, and she generally had a marvellous time running free.
These photos might be a tad blurry...

Nerdfest 2007

AKA: Conversations between Matt and me.

1) The Napoleon conversation: spending the entire walk back from Sainsbury’s with Matt being Napoleon and me being a soldier.
Me: “Can I have some juice?”
Matt: “I’ve told you before, we don’t have any juice! You’ll have to wait until we get back to France.”
Me: “But I’m thirsty! And I need to do a wee.”
Matt: “Well, you should have gone before we left Russia.”

2) When cooking together, we tend to pretend to be presenters on Ready Steady Cook, talk to the imaginary audience and answer the imaginary questions from the imaginary viewers.
Me: “Now, we have a very interesting question here from Margaret in Surrey. Hello there, Margaret! Now, she wants to know how to make the perfect roast.”
Matt: “Well, I have to say that, personally, I think you can’t go wrong with a good drizzle of some quality olive oil, some garlic and some rosemary. It’s really just a matter of experimenting to see what flavours work for you.”

3) If either of us say “Stop!”, or “...it’s (whatever) time.” then we launch into the musical intro to Hammer Time and do a little dance to go with.

4) On Saturday we went to a little tea shop to get paninis for lunch. I can’t remember why, but the conversation gradually changed into an interview regarding pimpin’.
Me: “It just seems to me that it’s a very labour intensive career path...”
Matt: “Here, let me give you some informative literature. This is Yo and Yo Ho, which is really a more informal look at how to deal with your girls.
Me: “Well, I’ll take this away and have a look at it, and I’ll be in touch soon.”
Matt: “Excellent. Our phone number’s on the back of all our pamphlets.”

5) Our slotted spoon is called the slotted pig, due to Toy Story 2. This leads to conversations starting "Could you pass the slotted pig? I need to get the bacon pieces out of the frying pan."

Yeah, yeah. I know.

Reading / Re-reading.

Travels With My Aunt - Graham Greene
I'm only halfway through this, but I'm loving it so far. Very well written, with characters you'd love to meet.

The Tarot Cafe Part 1 - Sang-Sun Park
It's more of a graphic novel, featuring four little stories of supernatural characters dealing with love and loss. It's very nicely drawn, and it's a sweet little book.

Millions of Women are Waiting to Meet You - Sean Thomas
Hmmm. This book confuses me. This is the story of a single man who tries internet dating. There are two parts to the story - the current events and the past events. The current bits are reasonably funny, and can hold my interest. The flashbacks... well, he seems to find it necessary to graphically talk about all the amazing sex he's had in the past, as if he's concerned we'll think he's unmanly for dating online. Now, you know me, I'm happy to talk or read about sex. But, if I'm to be honest, it just got very, very tedious.

The Man in the Rubber Mask - Robert Llewellyn
Very funny, with a lot of background and behind-the-scenes looks at what it's like to play 1/4 of the Red Dwarf cast.

Colony - Rob Grant
A darkly funny read from one of the writers of Red Dwarf.

Is it Just Me, Or is Everything Shit? Volume 2 - Steve Lowe and Alan McArthur
The perfect book for a grumpy person like myself. It's one of those books that have you laughing out loud and reading snippets to people. The first one's good, too.

After the Funeral - Agatha Christie
One of my favourite Poirot mysteries.

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
I'm never sure about this book. On one hand, this is about the third or fourth time I've read it, and I like parts of it, but I'm not sure that it deserves the hype it got when it came out.

The Children of Green Knowe - Lucy M. Boston
A child's classic. I loved the Green Knowe series of books when I was a child. They're so magical and haunting.