WeightWatchers

Yesterday I joined WeightWatchers as my mum said she'd pay for me to go. Part of me was and still remains quite sceptical about being told what is and isn't good for you, but there appears to be a bit more to it than that. Basically, one the basis of your current weight, height, age and degree of activity in your day-to-day life you are allowed a certain number of 'points' per day. They provide you with a booklet called 'Fast Start' which gives you recipes for each meal of the day which you can follow, which add up 16 points or 18 if you factor in a pint of milk for tea, coffee, cereal, whatever. The alternative is to use your own recipes and count the points using a little encyclopaedia telling you how much each food item is, which I think I will be doing more often. Whilst you don't have to be a genius to know that making a salad is healthier than getting an Indian takeaway, I'm already impressed by the information they give you about making changes on a smaller scale- for example, bagels aren't 'bad' for you, but pitta bread is better. I love both, so it's no problem for me to swap. Things like that are quite cool; that I can substitute minor things for others which I also enjoy, without it being a compromise. Also there are a lot of 'no point' foods which you can eat as much of as you want, so you theoretically should never be hungry, which is a big thing for me. As soon as I get hungry or emotional, food rationality goes out of the window. No point things include some foods I love, like artichokes, asparagus, all the classic salad ingredients, and thank fuck Diet Coke, so things look promising. If next week I have lost weight I will be back to trumpet about it. On a side note, it turns out our scales at home make me seem half a stone lighter than I really am, which was a bit annoying when I got weighed at the meeting. Sorry for going on about WeightWatchers so much, I know nobody cares, but hopefully I won't talk at my friends about it too much now.

Health implications of regular vomming aside, why is it not still socially acceptable to force yourself to chunder during meals like the Romans did? I often eat just because I enjoy the taste of things, not because I'm hungry. What somebody needs to do is invent that chewing gum from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory in real life; the one where as you're chewing you get the taste of a three course meal. Although a) in the book it implies that it is a substitute for a meal and must therefore fill you up, which is not the taste-only substance I was hoping and b) taste without texture would probably be a bit shit actually. I think I am thinking about this too much.

Today I have no lectures so am at home all day, and will be teaching piano this evening, although I should be at university for a staff and student representative liason meeting, but can I be bothered to pay the £15 train fare to go and repeat what I've sent them by e-mail already, and leave after an hour to be back to teach? Can I fuck. So I am pretending to be ill. I should probably do some uni work due in on Monday seeing as I'm going to stay at Dan's for the weekend, and e-mail the chap from London Zoo about my placement there, and make it seems like I know something about GIS. I don't know whether to be forward about things and ask if I am the only student in the runnings for this placement or whether there are a few of us that will be interviewed when he gets back from India. If so I should be looking for an alternative placement after another of my three applications was rejected and I don't actually want to work for the third now. I really only want this one at London Zoo though. I would be helping to develop a practical GIS programme for conservationists in Africa, which sounds very impressive and may stand me in good stead for jobs after I'm finished at King's. Also, I could get to go to Africa, which would be amazing. I am looking into going for my dissertation anyway, which looks like it's going to be mapping environmental change and human habitation in a region of the Sahara. Basically looking at climate data, like the hydrological record from lake sediments, and adding to it the record of when the area has experienced human activity by looking at other peoples' carbon dated archaeological finds. In short, being able to say that 'over time, people were able to live here at (x), when there was water available, but then the area rapidly became arid and then evidence for human habitation stops'. It might sound pretty boring but I am really interested in it.

Anyway, I should go, I want to practice some more guitar licks before my pupils start coming, and I have to write out a left-hand accompaniment for the melody-only version of 'Killing Me Softly' that one of my pupils has presented me with. How joyous. Oh, and I have to work out what I am allowed for lunch. I hope balsamic vinegar has no points in it.

Call Me The Breeze

Hello again. My boyfriend has just got a PS3 and is getting stuck into Call Of fucking Duty so I thought I'd take this opportunity to write on here.

Have discovered and re-discovered some excellent music lately, and listening to the same artists obsessively. They are...
- J. J. Cale
- Tony Joe White
- The Allman Brother Band
- John Mayer
- Eric Clapton
- Lynrd Skynyrd
- John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers

I am particularly enjoying the laid-back blues exemplified by the first two artists at the moment; that 'swamp blues' kind of thing. So simple and brilliant. As for The Allman Brothers Band, well, I don't think I will ever get tired of them. I am a sucker for that slide guitar. It's the Southern vibe that is in all three, I can't describe it very well, but it's a certain mellowness that apparently it seems you can only achieve if you've lived in a wooden shack in the middle of nowhere, wearing dungarees and going around barefoot in the sunshine for a significant part of your life.

I am going to see John Mayer in January, which will be awesome. I really hope he plays the bluesy stuff instead of the cheesy stuff (don't get me wrong, I love that too)- it's just that the friends I am going with mostly just like the blues era stuff, and are hoping for him to re-enact Where The Light Is, and if they aren't happy I won't be either. His new album has been leaked, but I haven't heard it yet. He does a cover of Crossroads on it, and it is with Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan, which sounds promising.

I have been trying to learn to play lead guitar lately. I have never really ventured into soloing, I have always just played fingerpicking to best suit accompanying myself. However, when I started playing with the band, I realised how shit I sound when I'm just playing chords as rhythm guitar. So I have been picking up a few licks and really need to sit down and work at some of the studies in Guitar Techniques; I have a subscription but haven't looked at it nearly enough yet. Every time I'm on my own in my room for an extended period of time I always find other things that need doing (unpacking from university. I did move out in July...). Anyway, it has been really rewarding, and enjoyable. I can't wait to play with Tom and Dan again and crack out some sweet solos. Actually, I'm seeing them on Friday for a weekend of good old music and chilling, so I had better learn some new bits this week.

Which brings me to some excellent news, Tom is moving to London in January. And in my previous post I was writing about being worried he would move abroad.. How awesome is that? He's moving to Willesden, about 40 minutes from me on the tube, so an hour and twenty in total from my house. University is an hour and 15; and that feels like nothing. I am so happy, the three of us will be able to hang out all the time, I have really missed the two of them since I moved back from university. It has really sucked being separated from my two best mates. I have seen Dan more often though (although not as often as we should have done, seeing as he works about five minutes walk from university, and it really isn't a big deal to met up in London, even if I am coming from home). It doesn't matter what we do, I always enjoy their company, and have missed that group dynamic (if that doesn't sound too pretentious). So roll on Friday, and roll on January.

Uni is going pretty well, I got a piece of work back this week where I got an A, and 'excellent' on very point of assessment, I was so pleased with myself. I have been struggling with one module though; it's called Scientific Computing for Enviromental Investigation and is basically learning how to write basic programming with the aim of building climate models and things like that. I was seriously behind and hating it, but after speaking to my tutor I am going to switch to the 'policy pathway' instead of the 'science pathway', which has a different compulsory module than Scientific Computing, which doesn't start till next term, and I'll still be getting an MSc, not MA, so I am pretty pleased about that. I handed in my first proper essay this week, which I probably didn't do as well in as I could have, because I started it about 8pm on the night before it was due in. Some things never change.

I went to see Alice (and Chloe) and the weekend which was awesome, I love Brighton, I always have a fantastic time going to see them. It makes me wish I had done medicine though, almost all of their group do, and I am jealous. I do really enjoy Geography though so I shouldn't complain.

Going shopping with Ciaran tomorrow. I want to get a pair of Blowfish boots I have seen, but I fear that cycling has given me too big calves to fit into them. We will see. I might even start a bit of Christmas shopping, who knows.

OKAY BAI

Inertia

I thought I'd start a personal blog separate from the food one.

A few times over the last couple of weeks I've talked with my friends from university about life since we've all gone our separate ways. Of course there are positive changes, such as not having to pay rent, having a guaranteed supply of loo roll and not having to keep a secret stash in your wardrobe, getting to see Ciaran all the time, being cooked for, and actually earning some money for once (again, not me, I've embarked on another expensive year of being a student, except without the fun stuff)- but naturally there have been big downsides too.

The realisation is starting to sink in that this isn't just the holidays; we won't be seeing each other again in a few weeks, we won't be having any more jam sessions for the foreseeable future, and won't be leaving behind our little parental bones of contention. This is it. Perhaps it should be less true for me now that I have started on a new course at a new university, but I am living at home and commuting to London; I catch the train, go to my lectures and go home again, without any notable interaction with the other students. I think if I was living with Ciaran and not my parents it would be different; it would feel like I have made some kind of 'progress'. I guess I'm going have to wait until the Masters is over and I have a decent job before I can start thinking about that. I'm certain that it's completely normal for everything to feel so diluted after uprooting the life you've led for three years, but it doesn't make it any less difficult.

I think most of all I miss the band, and my friends in it. I saw them (sans bassist) last weekend and it felt so good to be playing together again, it's hard to describe it. We met up at Simon's house and launched straight into some of our favourites, and did a few new ones too. We played John Mayer's version of 'Everyday I Have The Blues' with me on piano, and even though it was a bit sloppy, I had a massive smile on my face the whole time. Playing on my own just feels so weak and unexciting in comparison. I suppose I could look for another band, but I don't think I'd be particularly happy with anything less than playing my favourite music with my best friends. All it seems we can do is keep meeting up and playing every few months and enjoy the time we do have together. That's another issue though; it's looking like Tom's going to move abroad, which throws a massive theoretical spanner into the works. Man, that upsets me, but it isn't something that I'm going to get into now.



Excuse my ridiculous 'guitar face'.


I've never been particularly embracing of change. I remember the period leading up to me going to university was full of dread and fear; the same feelings that took over the few weeks before it ended. So theoretically I have learnt that change isn't necessarily a thing to be scared of; at the moment though, I can't shake the feeling that I'm still waiting for something which isn't going to come.