Thursday, November 10, 2005

I did it again!!!

We've been to the gym last night and guess what????

I've lost another 4lb - 12lb in total in the last three and half
weeks!!!! Martin also lost 4lb too :) even though he said he cannot
see the difference (but I can). Getting personal trainer is the best
thing we have ever done - she looks at everything about us - our
lifestyles and eating habits - she then gives us advices on how to
improve without doing any drastic changes...

Am feeling much lighter and am walking much faster - feeling much
more energetic than I was a month ago. Gym has changed our lives for
good - just hope that we can keep it up though!

Sunday, October 30, 2005

I did it!!!!!

Been going to gym since Sept and began to have Personal Trainer few
weeks ago with Martin for an hour once a week.

The result is showing as I've lost 8lb in two weeks! I feel terrific!
Our Personal Trainer is not there to supervise how much activities we do
in the gym but she is there to supervise our whole lifestyle and our
eating habits through looking at our food diary.

Gym now is pure maths for me - the machine tells me how much calories
I've lost and I can work out how much calories I've lost through gym per
week - and I watch how much I eat - these two go hands in hands and its
finally working for me now. Years of fad dieting are now gone - its
pure effort - watch what you eat and exercise!

Feeling good about myself now and I hope I can keep up with the momentum :)

Thursday, October 06, 2005

It's been a while...

...since I wrote anything in my blog!

Ireland: it was fantastic - really enjoyed the Dingle Penisula and
Dingle town. Kerry was particularly beautiful especially off the beaten
track through the mountain passes. Cashel and Kilkenny - cute. Dublin
was fantastic! Loved pint of Guinness at the end of our Guinness tour :)

Its been work work work since we got back and I've got exams coming up
(next Fri - 14th Oct) *gulp* For me I finished my course when I did my
final assignment and can't bring myself to revise for the exams. I
suppose I will do some revision tomorrow and next week.

Autumn has started - its pitch dark at 8pm here. Sad that long sunlit
hours are gone - but I love crispy autumn air with sunshine - so cold
you cannot feel the sun. Christmas is coming up too - can't wait :)
but we can't start planning for Christmas until Hallowe'en is celebrated!

Sunday, September 04, 2005

SW Ireland

Visited Mizen Head yesterday - the most south western Ireland! Camping at Ballylickey near Bantry in County Cork. Either today or tomorrow off to County Kerry - yay!

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Ireland!

Boarded finally on ferry at Pembroke Dock - our Irish holiday begins! So so looking forward to relaxing for the next two weeks roaming the Emerald Isle!

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Holidays are here (well almost!)

Today was my last working day before the holidays! Yay!

I can't say how much I'm so looking forward to our Irish trip - its been
a while since we both had proper holiday! India was a lovely holiday
but it was more of an expedition rather than holiday (we indeed had
holiday from our work!) Sicily was lovely but Martin and I were ill
during some of the holiday! Now we're having a restful and relaxing
holiday this time and hopefully the emerald countryside will soothe us
and forget everything about our work! :)

However, having said that, I have endless of errands to do before our
hols - ho hum!

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Locked out!

Here I am - writing this email using my mobile phone. It's so fortunate that I put my mobile in my pocket as have just locked myself out - barefoot! All because i was doing something good ie putting rubbish out!

Just texted Martin and he'll be on his way to let me in again. So funny that it happened after we had this discussion just last night about getting our keys cut for our dear friends in Hemel should we ever lock ourselves out! Talking about cruel fate!

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

August - wet or dry?

The weather has been very interchangeable in the last month - fingers crossed for dry and warm weather for August AND Sept in Ireland!!

A huge project which I'm involved at work is soon coming to an end - I'm so grateful for this project for giving me opportunity to develop/learn and to gain confidence even more in my own abilities. However at the same time I'm looking forward to the end of this project and take a well-deserved holiday! Our holiday cannot come any quicker - still three weeks away *groan*

At least the weather is bright outside and I'm making a good progress with my study and not forgetting I'm reading a rather good book called "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. Three weeks shall fly past and before I know it, we'll be on our way to Ireland!! :)

Sunday, July 03, 2005

My birthday in Yorkshire

Had really lovely day yesterday. Martin joined me at York in the evening (he got the train from ALDC conference in Leeds). Last night we dined at co-operative Spanish/Latin cafe which we totally recommend! Today we visited Fountains Abbey - it was so breath-taking! Have added a picture here.Fountains Abbey ruins

We will definitely be coming back here again soon! We're in car now - Martin's driving the 2nd leg of our journey home!

Saturday, July 02, 2005

York Minster

York Minster

Old York! Old York!

York is cute, quaint, and beautiful! Can't believe I haven't been here before today! Can see myself visiting this city again and again! So many alleys radiating off the streets which lead to small secret treasures of the city! Just been to Richard III museum and the Treasurer's House. Now contemplating my next move! :)

Friday, July 01, 2005

Greetings from Yorkshire!

Drove up to Leeds as soon Martin finished work and the car serviced! Well I didn't drive all the way up - Martin did the most of the way!

Martin is now fast asleep - knackered from motorway driving and I'm here writing this entry (managed to find a wireless service - three quid for
30 mins. Expensive I know but I don't care!)

Tomorrow Martin's off to ALDC Conference (Association of Liberal
Democrats Councillors) in Pudsey - I'll be dropping him off tomorrow
morning there and then drive to York where I shall be on a shopping
spree!!! Its my birthday weekend and it's a perfect excuse :) Martin
will meet me up later in York and we'll go out for a birthday dinner.

Martin gave me his present to me this afternoon - there wasn't any point hiding a huge packaging in our car! Its a DVD recorder with HDD - 80GB
meaning I can record up to 227 hours on its hard drive - cool or what?
I'm so over the moon - but the downside is that I can't use it until we
drive back home on Sunday - heheh :)

Gonna sleep now - night night

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Yippee!!!

Martin passed his driving test yesterday!! :)

Am so so pleased for him and so proud! Hurrah to lots of driving-sharing especially when we plan to do driving holiday in Ireland in September! Been looking at ferries etc - still undecided where to catch ferry to Ireland. Prices between Holyhead/Dublin, Fishguard/Rosslare and Pembroke/Rosslare are all similiar - 200 quid for return. Hmmm.

Monday, June 13, 2005

New tent!


New tent!
Originally uploaded by dazissimo.
This is the picture of our new tent - Martin got this us for our 3 years anniversary last Weds :)

Tested this out last Saturday in Cambridge for the night - it is much more roomer than our last tent. We now have a boudoir, and a modest palour with space for our attire and canapes! If you look carefully in the picture - you should be able to see Martin (on his knees) clearing out our 'boudoir' before we took it down.

Can't wait to go camping again :)

Friday, June 03, 2005

Post Whitsun

Lots of things have happened since my last entry. I've been caught speeding in Dunstable area - driving 40mph in 30mph zone - I honestly thought it was 40 but it isn't the case and now I've got 3 points (first time ever since I passed driving 8.5 years ago!) and a fine of 60 quid. I've requested the photographic evidence and proof of camera calibration be sent to me before I proceed with the penalty. :(

And guess what - I was issued with two parking fines on two different days - the parking is rather crowded round here and I tend to park on double yellow lines late in the night and drive away early next day. I've been doing it since we moved here two years ago. Ah well, this means I have to find a legal parking space in the future - there are always a parking space somewhere in this parking zone but it sometimes mean couple of minutes walk away. I'm so lazy - suppose this is a wake up call for me :)

Weekend was lovely - saw Twelfth Night at Royal Stratford Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon - with open captioning. It was my first experience (using open captioning/stagetext) and it is fantastic - don't need to rely on incompetent interpreters or competent interpreters with different understanding of the play which influences their translation - for the first time I'm able to engage with performance on an equal footing with the rest of the audience and for the first time I was able to follow the humour/pun and share it with Martin. It was fantastic and I'm certainly coming back again to watch other performances with open captioning. Next one is on 25th June - A Midsummers' Night Dream :)

On Sunday we didn't want to come back home so we escaped to mid-Wales!!! Martin drove all the way to Llandrindod Wells and we stayed in an old (16th century) coaching inn which was nice (but dusty!!). On Monday, we went to Hay-on-Wye where they were holding a Book festival. It was busy but had lovely time browsing for interesting books. Saw Carluccio doing his book shopping - almost approached him and say how much I loved his breakfast (We have Carluccio's restaurant a stone throw away from where we live!) but fortunately my senses came back and I didn't make a fool of myself ! :)

Anyway I'd better get on with my studying before going to meditation group this evening...

Monday, May 23, 2005

Weekend's over :(

The weekend was nice - the highlight was Eurovision final last sat! We were at Alex's stuffing our faces with her delicious homemade pizzas! So Greece won - to be honest it wasn't the best song! Shows how the contest is ridiciously political! I suppose that's the fun part - one can't predict who will win! Sunday was spent with Mikeypops and gorgeous Melissa! She's so adorable and never cease to amaze me with what she's able to do at the tender age of 18 and half months! :)

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Contemplating about my academic future...

Hurrah to weekend! :)

But boo to weather :(

Its pouring down heavily with rain here at the moment. Had to drive to Enfield as Martin e-bayed a really good bargain for a massive server weighting 50 kilos! Just got back and Martin is now playing with his new toy! I'm supposed to be doing some studying and I will after typing this - I need to catch up with the study - we're going away in September possibly to Ireland when I should be doing my big final essay of the whole course on culture, power and identity of the Roman empire. Therefore I need to be ahead with the study schedule so that I can fit everything I need to do around our hols.

Have been contemplating of doing Masters in the last few days. I've been toying with the idea of doing Classical Studies at this level (Open Uni offers really interesting course which can be found here). At the same time, I'm really keen with the thought of doing Translation studies at this level as well and found really good course with the University of Birmingham who offers this course on distance learning basis (for a quick glimpse of this course, click here). To be honest, I'm torn at the moment as I cannot decide which! The translation studies is probably more useful in my current field of work as I am in the process of setting up BSL/English Interpreting training course/assessment. But I don't think I'd like to be stuck in this field forever though...

Oh hum - there's no hurry anyway :) I'd better get back to studying now and try to be ahead of the study schedule.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Eurovision's getting closer...

Woah - what a day! Just finished! Am so happy that the day at Herts is all over as I've been dreading it since couple of weeks ago. Now i can put this aside and get on with things. Things like Eurovision tonight! :)

It's lunchtime!

Am at University of Herts leading drama workshop for Teachers of the deaf today and it's lunchtime now which gives me a bit me a breather before this afternoon! Am so looking forward to finishing my working week as I don't work on Fridays! Yippee! Means I can catch up with my studies :)

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Oh what a beautiful morning!

Well its Tues morning - bright and breezy. A beautiful way to start the day! Am on train to Moorgate - working at the RNID today. Like last Thurs its going to be a selection day but for a different course though. But it still means report writing for every single applicants :( Ho hum that's life for me!

Monday, May 16, 2005

Bleary eyed - update!

Wow - what a day! The shoot went well but it was rather complicated requiring some re-takes to get it right! Rather tiring but I managed to get all my lines across in right mood and context (i.e. lines delivered in right way with appropriate actions etc.) Well, am now on train home and won't be arriving at St Albans until an hour later so will use the time to reflect the chaotic day and unwind before going home to my adorable Martin :)

Bleary-eyed

Goodness me! I'm doing some presenting for CoI (a governmental dept aka Central Office of Information) and the shooting location is at Wimbledon! The good thing is that there are direct trains from St Albans but the downside is that I had to catch 06.05 train :(

Here I am, typing this away at Coffee Republic at Wimbledon - just opposite the departmental store where I'm filming all day. Haven't learnt my script and I hope to wing it today! Should be okay - I keep telling this to myself! Just hope everything will come together today and that I don't need to retake too many for each PTC and that I remember everything.

Better make a move now - the crew is meeting at 8.00am at staff entrance of this dept store - hope I can find it! Bye!

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Another picture!


Close up of my altar
Originally uploaded by dazissimo.
Here's another picture of my Buddhist altar which now is in its new home - in one of the new shelves in our bedroom (the top shelf at far right). You can see an incense burning away - shame this blog can't do 'stratch'n'sniff' cos this incense is my favourite smell :)

Bookcase cum chest of drawers


Bookcase cum chest of drawers
Originally uploaded by dazissimo.
We've been working our arses off all day yesterday doing some of DIY. We finally decided that we need a chest of drawers and took ourselves to IKEA yesterday afternoon. After trying to find a good chest of drawers - we decided we didn't like what they offered but spotted a bookcase. We decided to experiment it with adding some boxes that could act like drawers and hey presto - look at the picture! Looks good or what? :)

Thursday, May 12, 2005

The day of Jupiter - Thursday!

Thank goodness I'm currently working four days per week - so therefore today is my last working day of the week! Hurrah!

Work today is going to be heavy going - selecting a number of prospective candidates to go on NVQ course - which isn't too bad but this always mean lots of individual feedback report for every single of them which is rather time-consuming. Ah well!

Its beautiful outside - I hope it stays like this for the rest of the week so that I can hang up the washing! Oh listen to me - I sound like my own mother! :)

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Liberty under threat

I've just had a look at Liberty website (you can find them at: www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk)

We, in Britain, have definitely taken our civil liberties for granted... Under the Labour Government we can't any longer assume that our civil liberties would be left untouched. With the prospect of having ID card bill introduced in the Parliament and the thought of having trial without jury makes me shutter - I think I'd better do something and join Liberty to support their campaign.

Election 2005 afterthoughts

Some good - some bad.

The good thing is that the Labour Party has reduced majority - they cannot override the House any more. However, for me, the best thing is that the number of Liberal Democrats has gone up to 62 - but unfortunately lost five seats to the Tories, notably Guildford.

However the frightening thing about the election results is the increase number of Conservatives - and the fact that Labour lost St Albans seat to the Tories. Its good that we got rid of Kerry Pollard - pretty useless MP if you ask me but we ended up with Anne Main - Conservatives. :( I don't know who I would choose if I had to choose between Kerry or Anne - this probably would be the only time I choose to not vote or spoil my ballot paper.

Thank goodness for the REAL alternative - Lib Dems! Without this party I probably would be very disillusioned with UK politics.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Surprise surprise!

Who Should You Vote For?

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Liberal Democrat


Your actual outcome:



Labour -8
Conservative -95
Liberal Democrat 125
UK Independence Party -36
Green 68


You should vote: Liberal Democrat

The LibDems take a strong stand against tax cuts and a strong one in favour of public services: they would make long-term residential care for the elderly free across the UK, and scrap university tuition fees. They are in favour of a ban on smoking in public places, but would relax laws on cannabis. They propose to change vehicle taxation to be based on usage rather than ownership.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For