ravcasleygera

1. How quickly the body adapts to eating less crap. I’m actually craving lettuce and tomatoes for lunch.
2. How FUCKING long cooking takes. I seem to have spent most of my free time in the last few days either cooking, eating or cleaning up from cooking. This isn’t sustainable. I either need to put in place a highly efficient freezing & defrosting plan, or find a way to rely on frozen and ready meals without piling on the sugar.

I’ve enjoyed my job, but it’s time to move on. I need to get out of legal journalism, and into real journalism. But this means I have to send out clippings, and “network”, and do a range of other pushy things that just seem like things only utter bastards would do.

Sigh.

African Development For The Completely Bloody Ignorant. I love it, but it’s killing me. I need to stick with it, do a little every week, and get it done by Christmas.

asking for help does NOT mean I want you to say the following things to me:

1. “Why don’t you just exercise?” (I do)
2. “Ooh, you can’t eat those boiled potatoes! They’re carbs!” (Atkins died)
3. “If you want to lose weight you should start eating meat.” (No)
4. “I think you look fine” (Thanks. But seriously, I’m obese. This is about not dying.)

GREAT things to say would include:

1. “You look like you’ve lost weight” (if I have)
2. “Do you want to come running/walking/to the gym with me?” (exercise is horrible alone)
3. “Do you want an apple?”

I’ve been going to Weight Watchers for a year and a half and I weigh more than when I started. This is plainly ridiculous.

So: help me, people. I have a new, clear goal: to lose an average of one pound a week this year. This will take me to 15 stones by my birthday in June, and 13 stone by Christmas, just a stone from my final goal. This will make me happier, sexier, and less likely to die an early death.

You’d think that would be enough motivation.

I really need help with this, so pester me to keep you updated on my progress. And don’t offer me cake.

The picture isn’t me, by the way.

it can’t be that dangerous. people do it for university rag weeks, for heaven’s sake. free, fun, friendly… what’s not to like?

Of course, I haven’t tried it yet…

i just found out about www.couchsurfing.com. what a great idea! The world is so much more open than we always think.

You know, I’ve lived on or near Holloway Rd all my three years in London – I lived right on it for a few months – and I’ve never really thought of it as a place to go; just as a route to somewhere else. Everyone talks about it as vaguely dangerous place, in that way which is basically code for “it’s poor and unpleasant.” A bloke at work – who is admittedly a self-professed Tory Snob – declared yesterday that it would do nothing but good if you stood at Archway, pointed a large flamethrower towards Highbury Corner, and pressed fire.

And yet, odd little things have been making me rethink it recently. At the weekend I was passing through on the 29, and I looked down the road as we crossed the Nag’s Head corner to see the blue Christmas lights stretching down the road. Now, the lights are crap, a dull-blue mess on every tree. But then it hit me, like a jolt: there are loads of trees. Every few metres, all the way down on both sides of the road. Suddenly, where previously I’d only seen a busy, run-down dual carriageway, I suddenly saw a tree-lined boulevard. My flatmate, who lived there for three years, confirms it looks quite lovely in spring.

Then, this morning, I found myself taking Holloway Rd partway to work, having taken a detour via a bike shop to fix a flat. As I whizzed (OK, trundled) down Hornsey Rd, I got my first proper view of the new Emirates Arsenal Stadium. It’s amazing; a real, 21st century sports stadium, like you see in any European city, but in the heart of north London. Behind it, I could see the strange new red-and-grey apartment buildings being developed as part of the Stadium deal. Then I scooted down a side road and came out onto Holloway, opposite several new flat developments. Now, ordinarily, new flat developments means dreary brick-heavy faux-industrial or faux-Edwardian blocks. But these are different: one has a network of interlocking coloured glass cubes on its frontage, another a large orange box offset from its side. I didn’t have time to take pictures, but it dawned on me that, free from the stricter planning rules of affluent Islington, developers were experimenting and playing in exciting ways.

And as I swung left, past London Met’s Libeskind-designed graduate centre, and scooted off down Liverpool Rd, it occurred to me that here, in my back yard, was some of the most cutting-edge modern architecture in London.

Which got me thinking – what else could I be missing? From Archway to Highbury Corner is probably less than a mile, but who knows what shopping, eating, drinking, and just plain sightseeing delights it could contain?

So, I’m going to find out. A whole day in January, devoted to exploring poor, maligned Holloway Rd. Anyone got anything I should check out, let me know.

Wow, I’ve completed my first goal. They weren’t beautiful, and only a select few got them, and there’s still glitter all over the kitchen table. But I did it. Next year, better, and more.

you know, like people in American sitcoms do. Then next year when I see a cool picture I can think to myself, “perhaps I’ll use that for my Christmas card.”

I am so doing this. Soon.

it’s more that my mum wants me to…

Albeit slowly. have a look at www.brasstacks.org.uk/africa to find out loads. Help welcome…

i think it’s a bit strange to want to do something that millions of people spend their lives trying to stop doing. and yet… I do want to. Just to feel at one with the city, or something.

This is a great idea, so much so that I’m completely stealing it. So many people in London are beavering away at their own projects, we need more sharing! I’m going to try to set up a night for people to get together, share ideas, share skills, theatre people, art people, university people, writing people, news people.

Thanks for the idea, Erinina!