A Humdrum Mum

A year ago, some bright spark decided we should dip in the sea for fun. I blogged about it here . A year on, what have we learned? This is what we'd learned three weeks in - let's update! We have learned that you need to boil the kettle before setting off to swim. Yes, that's a habit now. We have two cups of tea (she a lemon and honey tea, me a Dorset). You need a hat afterwards, Ms Humdrum needs to remember!   I haven't worn a hat for a few weeks, but yes it is important to keep warm. Even when you think the sun is out. We also have rugs, courtesy of my mum, to keep our legs warm. "Old lady slipper boots" are excellent too. Whatever the weather.  You need gloves as it's FREEZING and your hands hurt like HELL. Luckily, my friend bought us gloves and we have worn them ever since, except in high season. No more pain. You also need to remember, from yesterday's swim, not to gossip too much on the way and have to make a triangular reroute on the wa...

Hmm. I took a week or so out of the plan when we had to visit family. It was such a difficult time that I wasn't really bothered. But, and this is the big but, I didn't get back on plan when I came home. I continued eating wildly for another week. I then found I'd put on 6lbs in three weeks aarrggg. I've since lost half that, but because I'm on Easter hols and off school, being out of routine has meant I've put that back on (I think). I just can't focus when I'm not in my normal weekend. Today, I've tried to start off well - poached egg and avocado. I'm liking my group more and more because there are some real people there, people like me, people who exercise (more than me obviously!) but don't want to eat the crap that SW puts out there (with Quark, Frylite etc). I actually heard someone in group suggesting another member eat avocado as a good way to use up syns (that person wasn't losing weight at all despite being very strict). I ...

Mr Humdrum said he couldn't see how it could work. He sees now.  Saturday afternoon. How to resuscitate your 13 year old son from asphyxiation from XBox? Tell him to get ready to meet up with some of our friends for a games afternoon? Hmm let's see. Board games. Now don't get me wrong, we play board games. We love a spot of Would I Lie To You  and Killer Ludo is always a favourite with his grandparents (his grandad cheats and usually wins). But to meet up with friends, who have a teenage daughter, yes a GIRL, to play boardgames in a cafe on a Saturday afternoon, well that's just not cricket.   I can report that the said teenage boy smiled and, yes, laughed within ten minutes of arriving. We had booked ahead and were taken to our table, introduced to our (what do I call him - not just a waiter, gamer? Instructor?) "helper" who said he could not only take orders for food and drinks, but also recommend any of the 500 games that are available there. We saw...

Don't mention the mountains! After a friend announced that she "just wanted to do stuff", the usually irritating Facebook algorithms threw up a Let's Paint Pompey advert and I signed up immediately at the Wine Vaults.  Having just celebrated its first anniversary, Let's Paint Pompey is a fun, relaxing painting evening set in various pubs for a reasonable fee, where you need neither experience nor materials, and you get to bring home your creation and, hopefully, a budding new skill.  We pitched up slightly early as my friend wanted to grab a bite to eat first. I drove, so there was no partaking of alcohol that night. Looking around at the other painters, you couldn't specify a particular "type", but we fitted in. Some had been before, and some were newbs like we were. I admit I was nervous. I'd never done anything like this, well not since my CSE art in 1987! I love to think I'm creative and I do have a sketch pad, but I don't ...

I'm a little late with this one this month. We've been all over the place metaphorically speaking, well and physically as well. My mother in law passed away and we all had quite a difficult month or so, what with nipping down to visit plus feeling guilty that we were all up here. Anyway there were some nice moments. Master Humdrum and I stayed in a local hotel and spent two nights together on our own. We managed to have fun despite it being a really sad time. We watched a whole (rather inappropriate but what the heck) series on Netflix, plus reviewed the whole range of fast food eateries in the area. It was, in fact, quality time spent together which we rarely get these days. And I know his grandma would've liked that very much. We Humdrums love our live music. We've decided, as it's our 25th year together, to attend 25 music gigs. This is number 5 so far. (For our own benefit as much as yours: 1 Shiiine Weekend, 2 Don Letts DJ set, 3 Fantastic Fug Ban...