Becca Jane St Clair

[copy of the facebook comment I left for Comet on their Facebook Page this evening. Please spread the word.]

Dear Comet,

Given that you do not permit people to post directly to your facebook page (I wonder why?) I am left with leaving you a comment on your most recent entry.

I wish to register a complaint in regards to your telephone customer service representatives who tell lies to their customers. I have been waiting at home all day for the delivery of my birthday present – a new netbook ordered via the Comet website. I rang your overpriced customer service number earlier today and was assured that my item was out for delivery and while she couldn’t give me an exact time, it would be before 7PM. I rang again at 6PM to enquire as to the wherabouts of my delivery as it still had not arrived. I was informed that I was scheduled for delivery from between 7PM and 8PM (which is news to me, as I was told delivery was by 7PM! and if I had known I had an actual slot I might not have wasted my entire day, but I digress), but if I did not hear from the delivery driver by 7:30PM I should ring back because THE OFFICE WAS OPEN UNTIL 8PM. I just rang 15 minutes ago to receive a recording that your office is now closed as of 7PM. This means that your customer service representative LIED TO ME. I cannot possibly trust a company who hires people to tell lies to their customers just so they do not have to deal with them. I do not have my laptop, and my birthday has now been ruined as I was unable to leave my house to go out to dinner due to being told my package would arrive between 7 and 8 when I was expecting it before 7PM.

And now what? I can reschedule delivery for tomorrow, only I’m not available all day tomorrow and no one is there to take my call to reschedule. I am sure that if I ring in the morning, I will be told that it is too late to reschedule delivery services for that day. In fact, the ONLY day I was available from 7AM – 7PM was TODAY, the day I scheduled and paid for delivery.

I would like a REFUND of my delivery charge, a REFUND for all the money I spent ringing up your “10p per minute” line, and an accurate re-delivery slot. It’s either that, or I cancel my order and I will no longer be stepping foot in your store or any of your affiliates (including your web site) and that’s a shame, as my husband and I need all new Kitchen appliances within the next 5 years.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Lockley

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Yes, I had to leave this as a comment on their most recent post as they have disabled the ability for people to post to their page. I am BEYOND livid. First, that they can’t seem to keep an appointment when the delivery slot IS THIRTEEN HOURS LONG, and second, that they would employ customer service representatives who LIE to the customers. Really? Do they not know what time is knocking off time? Are they sitting in a dark call centre for an additional hour after they shut off the phones? What on earth would possess anyone to tell a customer to ring back A HALF AN HOUR AFTER THEY HAVE GONE HOME FOR THE DAY, if not just because they did not feel like dealing with an irate customer? Oh, don’t they realize that all this does is make me even MORE irate?! If the drivers have mobile phones they are to use to contact customers, why don’t they ring up all their outstanding orders at 8PM just to let the customers know? How do I know my item won’t show up at 11PM tonight after I’ve gone to bed due to a late driver or worse — what if my item has been delivered to the wrong address or left outside the wrong address (which has happened before to me)?

Needless to say, this will be the LAST time Tim and I order ANYTHING from Comet or step foot in their shops. Fortunately, there is a Curry’s in the same shopping centre in Lincoln. It was my own misfortune that I decided to order my new netbook from Comet.

So, yeah. Birthday? Ruined. Netbook? Not delivered. State of the Becca? Extremely cheesed off!!

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/

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I have been obsessively checking the ticketing website for the Olympics hoping beyond all hope that I would find something….anything and not having much luck. Several times, Tim and I thought we ha tickets only to have the little ticker count down to 0 and “no tickets available”. So we bought Paralympic tickets instead for the two of us (and they were reasonably priced!) and Tim told me to keep trying for a single ticket for myself. Thanks to a twitter feed called 2012 Ticket Alert, I was able to keep an eye on things as they became available. The only downside was that sometimes an alert would be posted for a single ticket in the highest price range (£495!) and in the lower price ranges they went fast and I still missed out.

Finally, on Tuesday evening, Basketball tickets became available for the following day. I held my breath as I loaded the ticketing website, put a single ticket (at the £55 price bracket) in my basket and clicked on “check availability” and watched the countdown tell me I had 15 minutes left….14……13…12….then it kept jumping between 8 and 9 minutes remaining and I thought for sure I had missed out on tickets….so imagine my joy and surprise when it popped me through to the checkout screen and told me I had 3 minutes to book my ticket! Ticket booked, I ran outside to tell Tim I needed a lift to the station in the morning….I didn’t get much sleep that night.

Due to Tim’s schedule, he wound up dropping me off at Lincoln station in time to get the 0526 train. This was good because the information online stated if you had tickets for the same day you were picking them up, you should get to the box office as early in the day as possible. Instead of heading straight to the North Greenwich Arena (which I only learned the day before is actually the O2/Millennium Dome) to pick up tickets, I decided to go to the gates in Stratford because I wanted to get a glimpse of Olympic Park.

Travelling in London was very smooth! From King’s Cross, you just had to follow the pink signs across the street to St Pancras and onto the Javelin trains to Stratford. From Stratford, you followed MORE pink signs to Olympic Park. The queue was short for picking up tickets, so in no time I had my tickets and I headed to the Jubilee line, with the intentions of getting some photos of Tower Bridge with the Olympic rings (the rings will be replaced with the Paralympic logo when Tim and I go down). I got off at Waterloo station and while walking across Waterloo bridge I spotted the floating rings:

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I decided to take the Dockland’s Light Railway (DLR) as far as Royal Docks and then the Emirates Air Line (A gondola ride across the Thames). The Air Line was amazing, and I got a view of Olympic Park from the air:

[pardon the quality as taken super zoomed in through a window. Click for bigger]

And also of the North Greenwich Arena:

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It was lunch time. The ticketing website said to “be at the venue two hours before the event” and the first game started at 2, but I decided to take some time to eat before getting into the arena. I spotted a Subway, so for £3.59 I had a very decent sized salad! Can you get anything at the Olympics for less than that? (Maybe the pound range at McDonald’s!) Getting into the arena was a bit like going to the airport. Put your single bag* on the x-ray belt, take off anything metal (including watches and belts) and go through a metal detector. Okay, not bad. But then, once you got into the Arena and wanted to go to your seat, you had to submit to a bag search. This part I didn’t like, as I had packed my bag very carefully and very full and it was hard getting everything back in without causing a traffic jam. The ticketing website advised that you could bring an empty water bottle into the venue, so I went up to the concession stand and asked them to fill it for me. Fortunately, I had my filter bottle, though I wished the water had been a little colder! I watched many people buying bottled water and then pouring it into their reusable bottles, so it doesn’t sound like they are advertising the “free water” very well!

I was in Section 115, Row Q, seat 74. ROW Q. Does that sound as crazy close to the court to you as it did to me? Well, it turned out I was TWENTY ROWS BACK. I think the only reason the ticket was going was because I was nearly dead center with one of the baskets, so it had a partially obstructed view. I didn’t care.

I sat next to a man from Stratford-upon-Avon (I forget his name) and he and I had a great time talking and commentating on the games. The games I was going to watch were Russia vs. Lithuania and France vs. Spain. The first game was good, but a little slow. And there were loads of Lithuanian fans in the arena who booed anytime Russia had the ball! I decided I would cheer on Russia, and was glad I did because they won the game 83-74. During the break, the Lithuanian and Russian fans left, and the French and Spanish fans arrived. The second game was at a much faster pace than the first. France and Spain seemed to be fairly evenly matched and the score was kept close until the fourth quarter where Spain started to sneak ahead. The last 25 seconds of the game took at least 15 minutes to play out because the French team was obviously sore losers and kept fouling the Spanish players, so we would have a few seconds of play, a foul called, 2 penalty baskets by Spain (which was only increasing their lead!), a few seconds of play, foul, penalty baskets, etc. etc. Spain won 66-59.

I left immediately after the whistle, as I was going to be in a time crunch to get back to King’s Cross for my train….and I was so lucky I got to the ticket barrier just as they were announcing my train!

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Ironically, while I’ve been writing this, the gold medal match is being played out….USA vs. Spain. Who do I root for? The team I have been following since 1992 (when my dad and I were obsessed with the Dream Team) or the team I watched? Oh, who am I kidding? USA! USA! USA! USA! (and USA won!! 107-100!!)

If you’d like to see the rest of the photos I uploaded (I took over 500, uploaded a little over 100), you can check them out in my facebook album.

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* You may bring in ONE backpack of up to 25L or a “medium handbag” because you have to put your bag under your seat. Fortunately, they don’t say anything about having things hanging OFF your bag, so I had my raincoat and lunchbox attached to the outside.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/

[Nuggets, shown with a big pile of Ranch dressing made from powdered ranch dressing mix and creame fraiche]

[please excuse the mobile phone quality and half empty plate!]

I’ve been whipping these up for the past few months, and I realized that I hadn’t shared the recipe, so I thought I would remedy that. This recipe works well with diced chicken (for nuggets), mini fillets (for fingers), and even with boneless chicken breasts if you want to make chicken Parmesan.

You will need:
-Boneless, skinless chicken (breasts can be used whole, diced into nuggets, or sliced into fingers)
-Equal parts ground almond and grated Parmesan cheese. Depending on how much chicken you have to coat, start with 50g of each and use more if you run out. (or do what I do, and just dump some in a bowl. LOL)
-100ml single cream or milk (if you run out, use more)
-1 egg
-1 tsp paprika
-1 tsp oregano
– a sprinkle of salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180C and line a baking tray with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.
Pour cream or milk into a bowl and whisk together with the egg. Combine the ground almonds, Parmesan, seasonings, salt and pepper in another bowl.
Coat each piece of chicken by first placing it into the bowl with the egg/cream mixture and then into the “breading” mixture.
Bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of your chicken (breasts will take longer, nuggets might only take 15 minutes). Topping should be golden in colour and if you poke a toothpick into the chicken the juices should run clear.

Serve with your choice of dip and a side salad. To serve this as Chicken Parmesan, you don’t need to pre-cook the chicken, just add it to a dish with some sauce and top with a little grated cheese, then bake!

Tim has decided these are better than the frozen ones from the grocery store. If you’re feeling ambitious, you could try frying them in a few centimetres of oil or in a deep fryer instead of baking them. I’m too chicken (hah!) to attempt to fry things in oil on the hob!

These are diabetic friendly as they do not contain any breadcrumbs or flour and are also suitable for a low-carb diet. Other recipes suggest using coconut flour, carbquik, ground flaxseed, and other non-flour options. Before using low-fat Parmesan cheese, read the label to make sure they are not full of sugar, as is the case with many low-fat cheeses.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/

If you’re going on holiday to Wales, don’t forget to pack some reusable bags for your shopping, including souvenir shopping! If you want a plastic bag, you will have to pay 5p for each bag. Everywhere. From Tesco to the corner shop, farmer’s market stands to tourism sites. There is no escaping the plastic bag “ban”, though there are some exceptions. Using very small plastic bags with no handles or small paper bags is still free.

There are also certain items that you can put in a plastic bag and not be charged, such as fruits and vegetables….however, those have to be the only items in that bag when you walk away from the till. From their informative website:

“You could have loose apples, potatoes and pears in one bag and not have to charge. If you then placed a box of tea bags in there too, you would need to apply the charge.

This is to prevent a loop hole in the law. A person can not put an apple in one bag with lots of other shopping, a potato in another bag with lots of other shopping, a lettuce in another etc. and get all their single use carrier bags for free.”

Which is quite clever, because I could see someone attempting to do that!

The plastic ban also brings up a different kind of disposeable bag…what about fast food? Here’s what the website has to say:

“If you went to a fast food restaurant and purchased a packet of fries and a burger then the fries can be placed in a free bag as they are only part wrapped and you would not be expected to place these in a reusable bag as there could be some food safety risks. If the burger is also placed in the bag, then the bag would be charged for. This is because it is safe to place wrapped food into a reusable bag and the purpose of these Regulations is to change customer behaviour every time they shop and in every situation.”

Wow. Tim and I didn’t eat any fast food while we were away, so I hadn’t thought about the impact of ordering fast food at all. Imagine being charged an extra 5p each time you ate at McDonalds!

I’m also curious as to where the 5p you pay for a bag goes…and the answer is that the shops can do whatever they like with the 5p, though the Welsh Assembly expects “that the proceeds should be passed on to charities or good causes in Wales, and in particular to environmental projects.”. So…any time you need a plastic bag in Wales and pay 5p for it, you could just be lining the pockets of the shop. Or, you could be donating 5p to a worthy cause…hang on a minute, if I pay 5p for a bag I’m helping out charity? That actually doesn’t sound too bad….is this really going to prevent people from asking for plastic bags and bringing reusable bags?

I didn’t know about the charge before we went to Wales, but fortunately, Tim and I always carried folding reusable bags in our rucksacks, and our house at home is loaded with canvas, burlap, and plastic shopping bags — Tim would probably say I collect them, and he might be right. I like to pick up bags when we are on holiday because it brings a smile to my face when I pull that one out to use. For example, when we were in Austria, the local grocery store was called “Billa”. We purchased one of their extra-large shopping bags we affectionately call “BillaBag” and I can take that bag into town for a shopping trip and not need any other bags. I also have a bag I purchased in Walt Disney World on our honeymoon, a bag I bought on my first visit to Stonehenge, and the familiar blue IKEA tarp bags, which always remind me of my time working there. I purchased a bag from the Vale of Rheidol Railway on this trip!

I’m also glad I stuffed a bunch of carrier bags into the caravan for rubbish, or we would have had to purchase rubbish bags!

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/

Wow, what a holiday! Tim and I have been in Wales for the past three weeks with his parents caravan (thankfully!) and what an amazing time!!

I meant to write up blog posts on Tim’s laptop while we were there, but of course, I never seemed to find time, so here’s what you will get glimpses of in the coming weeks…

~Multiple visits to the Talyllyn Railway and Llechfan Garden Railway….including Have-A-Go where I drove a steam train!

~Massive walks…Dolgoch Falls. Nant Gwenol and Dolgellau to Barmouth

~Vale of Rheidol (still too wet to do Devil’s Bridge!)

~The Welsh Highland and Ffestiniog Railway….NINE HOURS of travel by steam!!

~Welsh place names with no vowels

~Machynlleth Market, Aberystwyth, Portmeirion, Harlech Castle

~LLangolen Railway, Bala Lake Railway, Llanberis Lake Railway, Fairbourne Railway

~Snowdon Mountain Railway

and much, much more!!

I personally have over 2500 photos to go through, who knows how many videos, and whatever Tim has that he wants me to publish…

This could take a while!!!

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/

Yesterday brightened up so we went to the beach! Lovely day for it! Even splurged on a scoop of rum raisin ice cream as I told Tim I was only going to have ice cream once on this trip, and then only good ice cream at the seaside!!

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Just a photo from yesterday taken on my blackberry of dolgoch falls.

We spent the day at the Tallylyn railway riding the train and getting off to do some hiking. We hiked to the top of the falls and then hiked up the river at Nant Gwernol to some more waterfalls and abandoned track and we even saw the winding house at the top of Alltwyllt incline.

Much more when we get home. I just wanted to post a quick update!!

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

I’ve now had diabetes for three months. Or at least, I was diagnosed three and a half months ago. I probably had diabetes for a little longer and it was going unmonitored. I’ve learned a lot since my diagnosis, and I still have tons to learn. I thought I would share with you some of the things I have learned in the past 90 days. When I had my check-up with my diabetic nurse at the three month mark, she was proud of me for losing a stone of weight (14lbs), dropping my Hb1ac to “safe” levels, and for not having high cholesterol. I also at this point, have no need to go on medication, which is something I am VERY pleased with avoiding. At the end of the appointment, Karen told me “keep up the good work, I’ll see you in December”!!

By no means is this post meant as a definitive guide to diabetes, it’s just my personal observations and what’s worked for me. You can feel free to add comments with what works for you, but I would appreciate it if you don’t post negative comments. Like I said, what is working for me might not work for everyone. I had to wade though an awful lot of “you should do this/you shouldn’t do that” before I decided what was right for me. You’ll probably have to do the same.

+There are loads of different symptoms for Diabetes, but they also can be symptoms for other illnesses and you might not have any symptoms at all. I know, that’s not very comforting. The worst thing you can do is go through the list of symptoms to try to convince yourself you do or don’t have Diabetes. In the end, the only thing that can prove you do or don’t have it is a blood test.

+ Not only are there Type 1 and Type 2, but there also are people who are pre-diabetes, and women who only have gestational diabetes. I also just found out it’s possible to be both Type 1 and 2 at the same time.

+ All Type 2 diabetics are not alike. Some might take medications to help control their diabetes (pills), others might have insulin shots, and some like me don’t take any meds and are just on diet control.

+ To further complicate things, the same foods don’t trigger everyone, nor does the same diet/eating plan work for everyone. a lot of diabetics use a simplified Atkins diet, a South Beach diet, or a Low Carb, High Fat (LCHF) diet. What’s been working for me is reducing my carb intake, and changing what kind of carbs I eat.

+ Refined sugar is bad any way you slice it, but we CAN allow ourselves the occasional treat at birthdays, weddings, Christmas, etc. As long as you’re not going to a birthday party every week, that is!!

+Related to the above – I’ve learned to carefully think about “treats” before I have them. For example: Do I really want to eat that piece of grocery store cake or would I rather eat a homemade slice of sponge? Would I rather have Walls ice cream, or hold out for the local dairy?

+”White” foods shuold be avoided — white bread, white flour, white rice, potatoes, etc. The only white food I can think of that is okay would be egg whites…. and salt. Yeah. White = bad. LOL

+ “brown” bread, rice, and pasta really isn’t that much better for you, but you can get away with eating them. I apply the same rule to flour-based products that I do to treats above. I consider if I really want to “waste” my carbs before I eat. I wind up eating a lot of Ryvita instead of bread because I have decided not to spend my carbs on generic bread items.

+ Fruit = sugar. Not that I didn’t know this before, but the sugar in fruit isn’t something I’ve ever thought about before. Even the fruit that is supposed to be “good” for you can mess with your blood sugar levels. HOWEVER, some fruits contain “good sugars” or contain fiber, which means it’s slow release. Apples can be had in moderation, as they are full of fiber. It’s still better to eat a piece of fruit instead of a piece of chocolate.

+ Some vegetables contain sugar and are just as bad for you as a piece of fruit. Corn is bad. Potatoes are bad. Peas are ehhhh.

+ Reducing carbs is good. Like, amazingly good. And it’s been pretty easy for me, IMHO. For me, personally, I’ve cut out ALL rice. I’ve limited my bread intake, and now ONLY ever have brown bread/grainery bread/seeded loaves. I’ve limited my pasta intake by LOADS – down to once a fornight instead of several times a week and only use whole grain or spinach pasta. I didn’t eat potatoes for the first three months, then I was told an occasional potato was fine — as long as it’s no bigger than the space between your fingers if you take your thumbs and pointer fingers and make them into a circle with your fingers and thumbs overlapping at the nail. I also was told it’s okay to have three small egg-sized boiled new potatoes. Again, it’s all ON OCCASION, and depends on what else you’ve eaten in the day or with the meal.

+We’ve also cut out a lot of fast food. I think we were probably at the chippy, chinese, or pizza at least once a week before. Now, we go very infrequently, and usually only if we have other people over. At the chippy, I pick chicken nuggets or fish (and then don’t eat the breading) and Tim will get a large chips so I only eat a few chips instead of the lot. Chinese is pretty much ALL bad, but ours do omelettes, so I order one of those…I’ve found the Chinese/Oriental buffets are better options for me because there is such a large variety to pick from. We’ve only had pizza I think three times in the past three months…and again, that’s something I used to eat and make a lot!

+Don’t believe everything you read, because there will be conflicting information. Don’t believe everything your nurse tells you, either (particularly concerning the NHS diet guidelines if you want to go low carb). Go with what works for you. If you have a daily meter, use it and as they say on DAUK “eat to your meter” — that is, if something spikes you, either eliminate it or eat it less often, and if something doesn’t spike you, add it more often to your diet. I don’t have a meter as Karen told me I did not need one. I debate on and off about getting one, but it’s just one more thing for me to forget to do every day and if I can put off having to do it for a little bit longer, I will.

+Losing weight makes an immense improvement. Even just 5-10% of your overall body weight. My recent weight loss was more than 5%, but less than 10% of my original body weight. My goal is to lose at LEAST up to the 10% mark by August. The BMI chart claims I should actually lose about 50% of my original weight. However, I’m not going to stress myself out over it. If I drop 30-40%, I’ll be pretty darned happy.

+BMI charts aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Don’t ignore the BMI charts, but at the same time, don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s a good guideline, but if you can’t meet your EXACT target for your height, don’t stress about it….

+Stress is bad for diabetes. Which is kind of ironic, because if you’ve just been diagnosed with diabetes, your stress level is probably sky high! But do try to eliminate the causes of stress in your life, or invest in learning some relaxation techniques.

+Let’s get back to sugar. You don’t have to avoid ALL sugar, just consume less of it. When you look at the nutritional information for items, look at the per 100ml or 100g and check the sugar content. Less than 10g of sugar per 100g is okay, but under 5g per 100g is even better. I also was told if an item has a higher sugar rating, but most of the sugar comes from fruit, it’s okay to have. Fruit juice is okay, provided you don’t have a lot of it (100ml) and you drink juice made from fruit not concentrate (the innocent juices are great!).

+should you count carbs? That’s up to you. So far, I haven’t sat down and done an exact count on how many carbs I have per day, but I do know that I am having less carbs than before simply because I have been eliminating items I formerly ate daily. But I still look at the number of carbs in what I eat, and just like with bread and cake, I decide if it’s worth spending my carbs on. I just got myself a Collin’s Little Gem carb count book (used on Amazon UK for 1p!) so I can look up food while we’re on holiday. The carb book doesn’t list sugar, however, so you’ll have to use your judgement there.

+You CAN still have alcohol, just less of it. A half pint instead of a pint, a single rum and diet coke, etc. I’ve chosen to eliminate alcohol from my diet, though I probably will have a few diet shandys (from a tin or made by me with diet lemonade) while we’re on holiday.

+You also don’t have to give up chocolate! I was told that two fingers of a Kit Kat bar are okay, eating 2 Cadbury’s Heroes/Celebrations/Roses/Quality Street are okay, etc. But like anything else, I consider what I’m having first. I’d rather get to eat a small square of dark Lindt or Ritter Sport over something more generic.

+Foods labelled as “Diabetic” are not the end all and be all. Did you know that Frank’s Diabetic ice cream actually has MORE sugar in it than regular Wall’s ice cream? If you read labels, you can tell which items are better for you. In many cases, the “full fat” versions of items actually contain less sugar than those labelled as “diet”, “low fat”, or “fat free”.

+Just because something says it’s safe for diabetics or is sugar free doesn’t mean you can gorge yourself on it. Some of the artificial sweeteners can cause a laxative effect, something you don’t want!

I think that’s everything I’ve learned from various sources in the past few months. If I think of any more, I’ll add them! I hope this post can help other people.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

One thing I really like having on a cold evening (like the ones we have been having!) is hot chocolate….which at first, seemed like it would be a huge no-no for me, but I’ve figured out TWO ways of making diabetic friendly hot chocolate….one that can be used as an “instant” with hot water, and one that requires milk. No photos for this entry….I think we all know what a mug of hot chocolate looks like!

Milky Hot Chocolate
3 TBS Cocoa (plain, unsweetened)
3 TBS Splenda or other sweetener (or sugar if you’re a non-diabetic)
Warm milk

Combine cocoa and Splenda together in a small bowl, then measure out a few teaspoons and add to a mug of warm milk…use as much or as little as you need to get it to the consistency you like. I tended to use about 3-4 teaspoons of the mixture for a large Cath Kidston mug. This mix can be made ahead of time and stored until you want it, just use equal amounts of both!

Instant Hot Chocolate
2 TBS Cocoa (plain, unsweetened)
2 TBS Splenda or other sweetener (or sugar if you’re a non-diabetic)
2 TBS Skim Milk Powder (Note this is NOT non-dairy coffee creamer/whitener)
Hot water

Combine all three ingredients in a small bowl, then measure out a few teaspoons to add to a mug of hot water. Use as much or as little as you’d like. Again, I used about 3-4 teaspoons for a large Cath Kidston mug. This mix also can be made ahead of time, again with equal parts of each item.

You also could easily make it a cappucino by adding in some instant coffee, or using instant coffee, cocoa, splenda, and coffee creamer (instead of powdered milk).

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

WOWEE am I ever excited. We’re having a garden party steam-up on Sunday and we are serving food. Lunch of course, includes a few sweet treats and with my new diagnosis, I knew I’d be out of the running for eating cakes….and there’s nothing worse than making something you aren’t allowed to eat. So, I decided I was going to figure out a cake recipe I COULD eat, and then decided since I needed it to be taste-tested (by my husband and mom who’s visiting from the US and by my friend H who also has diabetes), I would do fairy cakes (cupcakes). This recipe is in US measurements. I wouldn’t try converting it down to grams due to Splenda being lighter than regular sugar weight-wise, but you can use a regular mug for measuring as long as you use the same one for everything. This recipe uses the low-carb baking mix, Carbquik, which can be purchased online from several retailers in the US and UK (I buy mine from AvidLite). You can use regular flour, but there will be more carbs (and sugar if you use white flour) in it. Carbquik has 2g of carbs per serving (one serving is 1/3 cup, which is approximately what is in one fairycake).

You Will Need:

2 Cups Carbquik
2 tsp Baking powder
1 1/3 Cup Splenda (regular Splenda, not the baking blend sold in the US)
1/2 Cup butter (or margarine/Stork/suitable substitute for baking)
1 Cup Milk (skim or semi-skim is best)
2 tsp Vanilla
2 medium-sized eggs

-Preheat oven to 175C (350F).
-Sift Carbquik, baking powder, and Splenda together.
-Add butter and beat until fluffy.
-Add eggs one at a time and beat after each addition.
-Slowly pour in the milk while mixing and add vanilla.
-Fill cupcake cases 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
-Should make 18 regular-sized cupcakes.

Cool on a wire rack.

For the Chocolate Buttercream:

1/2 Cup Butter
3 Cups Powdered Splenda (recipe to follow)
1/3 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa
1/3 Cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla

-Sift together powdered Splenda and cocoa and set aside.
-Beat butter until fluffy.
-Add milk.
-Slowly add Splenda/Cocoa mixture and beat well. Add vanilla.

Your icing should be nice and creamy. If it’s too runny, add more powdered Splenda or cocoa. If it’s too thick, add more milk a teaspoonful at a time.

To make Splenda Powdered Sugar:

Combine 3/4 Cup Splenda and 2TBS corn flour (cornstarch) in a blender and mix until it is a fine powder. You can use this in any recipe that calls for powdered sugar/X-10/confectioners/icing sugar.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

Last Sunday, Tim and I were lounging in bed having a lie-in and reading. I was in the middle of the first Hunger Games book, and without giving too much away I’ll say that the protagonist was on a train. This prompted me to say to Tim that I “wanted to ride on some trains”. Since we were in the middle of Tim’s long weekend and he didn’t have to be back at work until Wednesday AND since when we write a date on our priv passes it’s good as a 48-hour pass, AND since we had a few passes to burn before the end of June….we decided to do it.

Loads of ideas were flowing – what direction did we want to go in? Did we want to do something new or visit an old favourite? Did we want to ride steam trains, too? Did we want to pre-book accommodations? What about a sleeper train* or an International destination**? We finally pulled out an RPG 4-sider and tossed it giving each number a compass position (North-South-East-West). Our roll turned up South, but we had already agreed London was out (yes, I know there’s a lot of South that’s not London, but for a lot of it we’d have had to travel through London) and so Tim rolled it again and I think we wound up with “East” that time, but we kept tossing the ideas back and forth and finally Tim had a list of 8 different places for us to consider so we pulled out an 8-sider and it spit out the number we assigned Norfolk (which also happens to be South and East of here).

As it turned out, in order to make the most of our days, we needed to be on the 0520 train out of Lincoln on Monday morning. Ouch. Considering that I didn’t get to bed until past 2AM and Tim had to shake me awake at 4:30 with “We have to leave in 10 minutes”, I was not a happy camper. But the night before I had packed us both Breakfast and Lunch, so all I had to do was organize the cold stuff into a cooler bag and add an ice pack. I also had showered around midnight, so I didn’t need a morning shower. By the time we reached Norfolk, I was exhausted, but the weather was glorious and we were enjoying our time hopping around on various trains and riding up and down the same lines multiple times to get in multiple routes.

Tim booked us a B&B at in Sheringham. He found the place on a website called Direct Rooms. We’ve had great results every time we’ve used that site, so I highly recommend it! Our B&B host texted Tim to ask what time we were arriving, and when Tim wrote back that we were travelling by rail, he offered to come get us at the station! The room was gorgeous — all decked out in purple and mauve (they knew I was coming!) and they really went the extra mile for being just a spare room in someone’s home (seriously!). There was a carafe of water on the bedside table, all manner of hot drink options next to the kettle, packets of biscuits and chocolates, and even shampoo, conditioner, bodywash, and soap — things that I don’t usually expect from a Bed and Breakfast place! The following morning, our host cooked us made-to-order breakfasts, and then offered to drive us back into town for the train! This place gets 5 stars in my book, and we WILL be booking in again next time we go!

After we settled in on Monday evening, we walked back down into town and had dinner at a pub called the Robin Hood Inn. The food was good, and the décor wasn’t bad. We decided to walk around the town and I window shopped in some of the small shops. We made it down to the sea and stood less than a foot away from the water, trying to skip stones until I could no longer feel my fingers. We got back to our B&B at around 10PM and I had every intentions on having a cup of tea, relaxing, and then showering but I wound up dropping my Kindle and was fast asleep by 11.

for Tuesday, we decided to take in a little bit of steam railing and after a quick trip around the gift shops of Sheringham, we boarded the North Norfolk Railway. The trip up and down was lovely with lots of sea views and we even had our own compartment. When we got back to Sheringham, we headed on the regular train down a few stops to ride on the Bure Valley Railway, a 10-inch gauge line. 10-inches is about as small as I am willing to go on (even though you can ride 7-inch and 5-inch, I just don’t like them and find those a bit too small for my taste). And really, get your minds out of the gutter as I was talking about RAIL GAUGES!

After Bure Valley it was back on the train to Norwich, Norwich to Peterborough, Peterborough to Newark, and Newark to Lincoln. We arrived back at 2000.

What a lovely way to spend a few days!

Photos coming later!

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*If we had wanted to, we could have ridden a sleeper train to Cornwall, provided we were ready to leave the house about 2 hours after this discovery (on Sunday night)…which we couldn’t do. It also would have cost us £70 extra to take a sleeper in addition to staying Monday night in a B&B.

**We also discovered it was quite possible to travel all the way to Köln and back in the two days time, but it wouldn’t have given us much time in Köln and we would have been paying full-price for European travel since we hadn’t pre-applied for European travel coupons (yes, I love my husband’s job and it’s perks!).

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

Yesterday was my Father-in-Law’s birthday. Each year since I’ve been part of this family, I’ve made my FIL a rum cake for his birthday, so even though I’m not allowed to have it, it doesn’t mean I stopped baking.

My aunt makes a fantastic rum cake called the “Bacardi Rum Cake” that uses a cake mix and a packet of Jell-o pudding, neither of which is available in the UK, so I had to create this recipe on my own several years ago. It’s withstood plenty of testing, so I’m ready to share it with you all!

You will need:

For the cake:
2 cups (250g) plus 2 teaspoon self-rising flour
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c (113g) room-temperature butter
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 c. (80ml) rum (I used dark/navy rum)

Preheat oven to 175C. Grease/spray a bundt pan or an 8″ square.

-combine flour, salt, and baking powder in one bowl and set aside.
-cream together butter and sugar. add eggs one at a time. Slowly add in flour mixture.
-add vanilla and rum. Spread mixture into preferred cake pan and bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Optional – Top with crushed pecans before putting in the oven.

While the cake is baking, make the following glaze:
1/4 cup (60g) butter
1/2 cup (100g) brown sugar
1/2 cup (120ml) rum
2 teaspoon vanilla

-Melt butter and sugar in a thick pan on the stove. Add rum and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

When the cake is done, cool on a wire rack in the pan for about 10 minutes, then gently flip over onto a serving plate. Using a skewer, poke holes in the top of the still-warm cake and pour on the glaze. This cake doesn’t need any icing, but if you want you can sift some icing sugar over the top.

This is always a hit with everyone I make it for, though I will caution that it is in fact possible to get tipsy off of a few slices of this!

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]
1/2 c rum

There’s been something weighing on my mind for the past several weeks and at fist I didn’t want to tell anyone — not even my family — but then Tim convinced me that I should tell my mom and his parents and then I branched out and told a few local friends who I thought could help me, I told one of my cousins, and I told a close friend who knows what it’s like to deal with this. I haven’t told any of my other close/best friends, for which I apologize. I should have come and told some of you sooner than now, but I just didn’t know how to word things and I didn’t want pity, and even with just the small group who know I’m already being given loads of (often conflicting!) advice.

When I went to the GP a few weeks back for the results of a blood test (done for unrelated reasons), my glucose level came back high. Dr Howard wanted me to do another Glucose tolerance test (the last one had been done in August 2010), so I had that the following Monday, and my results appointment with Dr Howard the following Friday.

My glucose level was 11.4. Under UK guidelines, I have diabetes (Type 2) (the cut off is above 11.1).

I had to wait over a week before I could see the diabetic nurse, and it was an AWFUL week. I didn’t know what to do and I spent the week cutting out as much junk from my diet as possible, and switching a lot of my habits around. I eliminated all white flour from my kitchen (my MIL got a huge bag of things), most of the white sugar (I left a little for guests who need sugar in their tea!), and anything else I knew was now on my “nono” list. I researched and picked up a few diabetic cookbooks and talked to my friends. A plan started to form.

On Monday, I saw the diabetic nurse. She confirmed that I was “barely” diabetic, with my Hb1ac level at just below 50 (which I understand is about 6.7%). If it was above 50, I would need medication, but as it’s just under, I’ve been advised to work on controlling my diet for the next two months when I’ll go back in again for another review. While it’s not possible to reverse diabetes or never have it again, it IS possible to eliminate actively having it provided I change my diet and stick to it.

I have decided to go low-carb and have eliminated bread from my diet. I now have lots of wholewheat wraps for my sandwiches and no longer have toast in the morning. I do my best to have breakfast every day – Weetabix, yoghurt with fruit, or an Atkins bar.

Baking is going to be the toughest thing to handle, but I’ve found low-carb flour (Carbalose and Carbquik) and I’ve also replaced my white self-rising flour with whole wheat self-rising flour.

I’ve also had to eliminate potatoes from my diet, which has been really rough!

So that’s where I’m at right now. My primary GP would like me to lose 2 stone (28lbs) in the next 6 months, but then he mentioned August to me, so who knows? I have managed to lose about 5 pounds so far in the two weeks since being diagnosed, so at least I’m on a good start.

Advice, products to get, and recipes are more than welcome, but if I start getting conflicting advice, whatever the GP and nurse say will always win.

The above will be cross-posted to my blog, facebook, and LJ. Anything appearing below this paragraph is specific to that page.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

One of my favourite foods has always been Lasagne, but our family recipe uses three types of cheese, meat, and of course, white noodles. I’ve re-created the dish using foods that are a little more waist-friendly.

You Will Need:

Packet of wholewheat lasagne noodles
500g pack of Quorn mince (or other vegetarian mince or turkey mince)
300-500g cottage cheese (can use more or less, depending on size of dish and how cheesy you want it)
1 carton tomato passata (sauce.)
Herbs – basil, oregano, thyme
Cinnamon
Pepper
Parmesean cheese (optional)
Weight Watcher’s grated cheese (optional)

1 – preheat oven to 200C
2 – cook noodles according to package (optional if you are using the “no cook” style of noodle, but I like to pre-cook those too*). Before I cooked the noodles, I layered them out in the bottom of my dish to figure out how many I would need.
3 – Place Quorn in a microwave safe container and cook for 5 minutes or until no longer frozen. Add passata,herbs (to taste – about a tablespoon of each), cinnamon (just a sprinkle), and pepper (a few turns of a grinder) and combine well. Microwave for a further 5 minutes (you can cook this on the stove too). Adjust your herb and spice level to your individual taste. For a spicier lasagne, you might consider adding chilli powder or red pepper flakes.
4 – Spray your lasagne dish with cooking spray and arrange a layer of noodles. Top noodles with spoonfuls of Quorn, and in between spoonfuls of Quorn add spoonfuls of cottage cheese. Lightly sprinkle the entire layer with parmesean and add another layer of noodles. This time, try to put the cottage cheese where you had the Quorn in the previous layer and the Quorn where you had the cottage cheese. Add another layer of noodles (or make some whole wheat penne if you’ve run out of noodles like I did!) and cover the noodles with alternating spoonfuls of sauce and cottage cheese. If there is any noodle still showing, you can toss on some WW grated cheese. If you leave any of the noodle uncovered, they will get crispy.
5 – bake for 25-30 minutes until bubbly. The cheese should be melted and the no cook noodles should be soft.

Serve with a side salad and veg. This makes enough to feed 4-6 people, or just two people with plenty to freeze for another 2 meals! The nice thing about this recipe is you can adjust the measurements to fit your crowd and sized container. If I was having more people over, I would have used my large 9×13″ pan for this, but since it was just for Tim and I, I used a smaller casserole dish that is only about 4×10″. Since I used a smaller dish, I had some of the “meat” mixture leftover and I just froze it to have over pasta at some point in the future. I’m allergic to onions and garlic, so none of my recipes contain either, but as this is an Italian recipe, it probably wouldn’t hurt it if you added some of either or both!

This meal is appropriate for ovo-lacto vegetarians as well as diabetics and those on a low-carb or low GI diet, though please make sure to check the individual nutritional information on the ingredients you purchase first if you have specific dietary needs. The specific products I used not previously mentioned:

Tesco Organic Wholewheat Lasagne sheets** (Not available on website)
Tesco Light Choices Natural Cottage Cheese
Tesco Organic Passata*** (not available on website. This comes in a glass jar and I used half the jar)
Napolina Grated Parmesean (not available on website)

*I dislike the no-cook noodles because I feel they are very chewy, even when pre-cooked, but sometimes it’s the only option available! You also could substitute in any wholegrain pasta and make this into a pasta bake.
**100g contains 63.2g of carbs, of which sugars 2.1. So a bit on the high side for carbs, however, one noodle weighs in at 20g and a single serving would only contain 1 – 1 1/2 noodles.
**There will be sugar in this, however it is all naturally occurring sugar from the tomatoes.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

[This is a re-post of an entry written for LJ Idol week 15 – preoccupied.]

My husband says I have butterflies in my head. It’s not meant as an insult, it’s said with fondness in his voice and is a reference to my ability, or rather, my lack of an ability to pay attention.

It’s not ADD or ADHD, and in fact I always did well in school and paid attention to most of my classes as I was generally interested in most of them. It’s more that I seem to have too many interesting things to look at, read, listen to, and do.

I’m a housewife, but my house is usually an organized mess of chaos. Tim and I know where things are…for the most part. Every once in a while I’ll get this grand idea to organize something and I’ll start on it and feel the excitement blooming as I come up with a plan….and then I’ll spy a cookbook I haven’t looked through yet, or I’ll decide to check my email. Email leads to Facebook, Livejournal, Twitter, Google Reader, Pinterest, and Sink into Your Eyes. If the story is good on SIYE, there’s an entire afternoon GONE.

And let’s not forget my Kindle. Last week, one of my favoured chick-lit authors released her latest spy/suspense novel and I immediately downloaded it and spent most of the afternoon reading it. I’m also in the process of re-reading the entire Pratchett library, and sometimes I’ll stop just until the kettle boils to read a bit and wind up spending hours and retuning to a cold kettle!

My brain doesn’t stop. I used to use some Guster lyrics on the front page of my LJ years ago and I never knew how perfect they fit me until recently — I’m the center of attention in the walls inside my head / and no one will ever know it if I keep my mouth shut tight — Boy, does that ring true. Even while I’m doing the washing up, my brain is thinking, thinking, thinking. Dreaming up ideas for stories (that never get written), imagining what I would do if I had a bigger kitchen, planning out the redecoration of the upstairs, dreaming about having children, creating new designs for felt crafts….anything and everything goes on in my head.

You know what the say about the best laid plans and all, right? Every week, on Monday morning (sometimes afternoon) I say to myself “this week will be different”. I tell myself that I will get on top of the laundry, including putting it away, I will keep the kitchen clean and do the dishes daily, I will tackle the big pile of mending that’s been waiting for “a few spare minutes”, and I might even get a head start on preparing the spare room for my guests, the first of which arrives in April.

Each week I fail. I spend so much time thinking about what I planned on doing with my week, that I wind up not doing any of it.

So here I sit, Monday afternoon. It’s a new week. What am I going to do with it?

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

[this is a re-post of an entry previously posted to my LJ for LJ Idol Week 14’s prompt was “twitterpaited”.]

I’ve always disliked dogs. Dislike feels like it’s too weak of a word, but hate is too strong, so let’s say I strongly disliked dogs. Maybe a large dog tried to jump on me when I was little, maybe a dog bit me, maybe it was just their loud bark or being growled at, but I have never liked dogs and have always been scared of large dogs.

Until the day I met my in-laws dog, Ebony. Ebby was a large, black Alsatian who weighed more than me and was taller than me if she was up on her hind legs and by all means I should have been afraid of her…but she was soft as butter. I was nervous the day Tim took me over to meet his parents and their dog because I knew I didn’t like dogs, and I was worried that this would come out, or that Ebby would somehow be able to sense my fear and do something. Ebby was a beauty. She softly nudged my hand with her nose and wanted me to pet her between her ears, and then she laid down on the floor next to the chair I was sitting in as if to say “right, you’ll do”.

I spent many afternoons walking Ebby with my mother-in-law. Sometimes with Tim or my sister-in-law, but often it was just the two of us walking around the farmer’s fields in the village with Ebby. My mother-in-law didn’t use a lead with Ebby, as Ebby would always respond to commands and never acted up. She even permitted the school children who called her a “wolf” to fuss her and would always sniff the dogs we walked past, but rarely barked at them, even if they barked at her first!

A few months after I moved, my in-laws went away on a holiday and didn’t take the dog with them. My sister-in-law was staying behind, but she would be at work during the day and they didn’t want to leave Ebby alone all day, so I was asked if I could take care of her. I would need to go over to their house mid-morning to let Ebby out, bring her back to our house, take her on her afternoon walk, and then bring her back home. I was nervous. What if the dog didn’t respond to my commands? What if she ran away from me? What if she snapped at another dog, a child, or me?

I didn’t have to worry. Ebby and I walked down to the end of our street and all I had to say to her was “wait” and she stopped before going into the street. I told her “sit”, and her bottom went to the ground. “Go on, girl” was her signal that it was okay to cross the street, and “are you a thirsty dog?” gave her permission to jump into the beck (US: stream) and have a drink and a swim if the water was deep enough. We would go around the fields and the village church and Ebby was always by my side as soon as I called her to me. She followed me around he house all day, trying to squeeze herself into the small rooms until it was time for her afternoon walk, and her return home. Once we got home, she would flop herself onto the living room rug and be content until my sister-in-law came home to feed her dinner.

Many days my mother-in-law’s visit would be announced by Ebby nudging the front door open if it was ajar. I would turn around from washing my dishes and there she was a full five minutes ahead of my mother-in-law because all you had to say to her was “go to Tim’s” and she would start walking over to our house.

I fell in love with the big black dog and would often offer to take Ebby on her walks to give my mother-in-law a break. Evenings spent with my in-laws always included the dog. She would walk around from person-to-person getting petted and fussed over before settling herself in a corner.

Sadly, Ebby is no longer with us. A few months ago the vet found lumps in her leg that turned out to be cancerous and Ebby was put down a few days after Christmas. We were all saddened by the news and I sobbed into Tim because we had just seen Ebby two days before at the family Christmas celebration and we all thought she was okay.

My in-laws have a new dog. She also is a German Shepherd, but her colouring is different and her manner is different to that of Ebby. Bonny (the new dog) is two-years-old and hasn’t had much training from her old owners, so she sometimes scares me when she tries to jump at me or bark, but I am willing to try to get to know Bonny for Ebby’s sake. If I could fall in love with Ebby, surely I can give Bonny a chance.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

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I posted a teaser pic on facebook a week ago, and have since been asked for the recipe, so here we go…

I first discovered the idea on one of the food blogs I regularly read. It was either Serious Eats or The Kitchn and was called “Italian wedding soup”. I’ve previously also seen recipes for “meatball soup”. As my recipe wound up being completely different from either recipe previously posted, I decided to call mine Italian Meatball Soup.

You will need:
-a pack of ground turkey (usually sold as 500g or sometimes 630g)
-3 teaspoons fresh or dried thyme
-1 egg
-50g breadcrumbs
-50g parmesean cheese

-2 TBS olive oil
-3 carrots, chopped/diced
-3 stalks of celery, chopped
-1L chicken broth/stock
-200g fresh or frozen peas
-200g fresh or frozen corn
-100g baby spinach
-100g small pasta
-a handful of fresh thyme, or a few TBS dried
-1 TBS dried basil
-juice of half a lemon
-bunch of fresh parsley, chopped

To make meatballs:
-combine turkey mince, egg, thyme, breadcrumbs, and parmesean cheese and form into small meatballs. Flatten the meatballs slightly (they should be about the size of a 50p). Place the meatballs in the bottom of a frying pan or griddle pan and brown meat on both sides. It doesn’t matter if they are cooked through, as they will finish cooking in the soup. This is just to keep them together. You also don’t need to flatten them first, I just found it easier to work with in the pan this way! Another option would be to start with frozen meatballs or even leftover meatballs as that would cut down the amount of time this takes to make.

To make soup:
-heat olive oil in the bottom of your soup pot and add carrots and celery. Cook until vegetables are soft, about 10-15 minutes. (this is an optional step. You can start by bringing chicken broth to a boil and adding both fresh and frozen veg at the same time, but by cooking the carrots and celery first, they get very tender.)
-add chicken broth/stock, thyme, peas, and carrots. Bring to the boil, add basil, then simmer about 10 minutes.
-add meatballs, cook for 10 additional minutes.
-add spinach and small pasta, bringing soup back to the boil and cook just until pasta is tender (the pack of pasta I used said 5-7 minutes). Squeeze in half a lemon (optional).
-test a meatball to make sure it’s cooked through before serving. Sprinkle with parsley just before serving.

Tim loved it, and he’s not a big fan of soup as a main meal, but this soup was hearty enough to satisfy him. It made enough for us to have this as our Dinner plus enough leftovers for Tim to take the following day. I had to add some more chicken broth to the leftovers.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, Networked Blogs, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog. If you are reading this through an e-mail subscription, you might need to go directly to my blog to view videos and images.]

If this works, you should see the Facebook Album “Profile Pictures”. If this doesn’t work, I have no idea what you’ll see!

From Profile Pictures, posted by Rebecca Jane Lockley on 9/02/2010 (40 items)

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

From a visit to the NRM in July 2011:

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog.]

I finally cleared off the video camera this morning and discovered videos taken LAST March. Oh my.

Here’s a vlog I made while we were visiting Edinburgh in November 2011.

As it turns out, I never actually blogged about the trip, either. Probably because I was waiting to edit the vlog! Whoopsie. So, let’s get back in our TARDIS and go to November 2011 when Tim and I travelled (finally!) to Edinburgh for a few days. I booked us into the Travelodge near Haymarket station for £20/night thanks to a room sale and we decided to go for two days over Tim’s autumn break, which also happened to be a few days after our wedding anniversary.

The train ride was long, and we didn’t arrive in Edinburgh until the early evening. After checking into the hotel, we decided to go on a wander to take some photos and wound up near the castle. We trudged back to the hotel and went to bed, for we had lots of plans for the following day!

We got up bright and early and after breakfast headed out to re-trace our steps from the previous night to visit the castle. After we toured all the buildings there, we headed towards the Royal Mile and walked down it as far as the St Giles Cathedral, which just happens to be the church of John Knox, the man who founded Presbyterianism, my family’s religion. I spent loads of time walking around the church and we were given permission to take photos, so I took plenty for my family back in PA.

The light was fading, so we made our way back to the hotel,had some dinner, and went to bed. The following morning we headed back to Haymarket station and the long trip back to Lincoln.

We had a fantastic time, and I look forward to spending more time in Edinburgh!

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, the RSS feed(s), or through an e-mail subscription, please notify me.

[LJ readers reading this on the LJ RSS feed: Please click on the link at the top of the entry to go directly to my blog to leave a comment, as comments left on the LJ RSS do not get seen by me. Facebook users reading this from my Networked Blogs link can either comment on facebook or on my blog.]