2 to the power of 177 and falling....

.... the measure of improbability aboard the starship 'Heart of Gold'; or for the uninitiated, from Douglas Adams fabulous book the 'HitchHikers Guide To The Galaxy'. But in this case, my weight approaching the mostly improbable stage of twelve and half stone in only a few weeks of trying; yes I'm at just 2 lbs short of my next target!

Over this last week there's been the release of a study of accident figures involving women on cycles. Of the cycling community, about 72% are men, the rest rather oddly enough are made up by women. But the interesting fact comes out with the number of women cyclists involved in accidents with large articulated lorries; in London, of the 8 fatalities that occurred, 7 were women. The study puts it's findings down to that women don't take as many risks as men, effectively women won't go to the front of the traffic queue at traffic lights where a lorry can see them; opting for the mistaken safety of the space between the kerb and the side of the lorry - so when the lorry turns left.... it just doesn't bear thinking about. The full article can be seen here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8296971.stm

I finally had my own face-to-face exchange of words with 'white van man' the other day; it had to happen, it was only a matter of time with cycling to and from work so often. I was quite civil, I didn't swear, I just suggested he should 'WAKEY WAKEY'! as he attempted to run me over from a side road I was passing to my left (he actually didn't look). But he didn't take too kindly to what was clearly a good piece of advice, because exactly like the logic of the Great Bugblatter Beast of Traal which spends most of it's life with it's head in the sand in the belief that 'if you can't see it, it can't see you' he simply abused me. So after that, I made Blind Pugh proud and left him the mark of the black spot right on the bonnet of his van - another one to add to the growing list.

Stay safe out there girls!

Oh eckie-thump!

I've just checked the NHS website for what my ideal weight should be; they say 11 stone! (158 lbs). Now that's what I call a target! And is this realistic and achievable? - by me? .... yeah, right! ... and probably the day after Lucifer skates to work!

Lucky 13 (for a change)

I did it! I did it! I did it!

I've reached (below) my target weight of 13 stone (182 lbs). I was rather surprised to find myself to be exactly 13 stone on 3 consecutive days in the run-up to, and over the weekend. Today, I weighed in at 12 stone, 13 and 3/8 pounds (181.375 lbs) which means it's still on the way down... yay! (check out the picture - taken 4 days ago).

But was this a realistic target,?... was it too easy?.... are you kidding!!!! only last week I was getting disheartened at the lack of any real progress and suddenly (woof!) it started dropping off again as I smashed through the imaginary wall. A little over 12 months ago, I was at 14.5 stone (beached whale); now I've reached my first target. Back then I sometimes couldn't sleep 'cos I felt so uncomfortable (big fat tummy!), and I was getting out of breath just walking up stairs. And hot days.... better that we don't go there!.

But back to 'if this is a real target'... hmmm yes! I think quite often we set ourselves something that is quite unrealistic to achieve in what we want to do. Sure, it's good to have dreams, but we must have a plan that is realistically achievable with milestones that give us those little wins to keep us amused and satisfied that we're making progress. After all, Rome wasn't built in a day....

So what IS my actual target; well, as a dream... to get beyond my recommended best... something to do with being the right-weight-for-my-height sort of thing. Casting my mind back to when that was last described to me ... I would just love to be better than 12 stone... but I know that isn't achievable in one go so my next target is 12.5 (175 lbs). As long as it keeps going the way it has over the last week, I'm certain I'll make it, but still with one eye on the real trophy - 12 stone or less!

There's only one drawback with losing weight though, I'll need a new wardrobe - I only discovered on Friday that my favourite white jeans needed an extra hole in the belt ... much to Mrs Kates disgust!.

Blogs like buses...

... nothing for ages and two come all at once.

I've been trying to lose weight; there was some promising activity during the initial stage of my 'market research' but I've since kind of hit a wall - I can't seem to make it below 13 stone, with my weight sort of moving up and down by a couple of pounds around the 13.25 mark.

I'm trying really hard not to snack or have such indulgences whilst out (although I do have a weakness for chocolate Salvas in Velvet!); I've even been sticking to 'just soup' for lunch in the works canteen. So I've tried cycling to work for the last couple of weeks; an impressive 'round trip of about 15 miles, come rain or shine.

Apparently I seem to be gaining weight in leg-muscle whilst losing a little off my waist. Net result - no change!

But let me tell you about the lunatics us cyclists have to endure...

Drivers that don't give you enough room - especially 'white van man', one of whom got 'the' bang on the side of his van as a result - getting one of those off a cyclist means you're marked for life; a black spot that Blind Pugh would be proud of.

Taxi drivers who get offered guidance about perhaps signaling left before coming to a stop in front of you; that one is also associated with 'I-can-just-overtake-you-and-turn-left driver' who often receives very exceptional guidance from a cyclist.... I really live for those (NOT!).

Some dog owners don't escape special advice - especially those that like 'Rover' to have the freedom of running around the designated cycleway... I'm quite pleasant in that I ask them to 'Please put it on a lead' as Rover tries to feast on my rear wheel.

But my all time favourite is 'Mum on a mission'; she really couldn't give a flying fig about other road users let alone cyclists. 'Mum on a mission' can often be found outside schools, blocking other road users whilst they're dropping off little dorrit, opening doors in front of cyclists, pulling off without signaling whilst you're passing them.... and the list goes on; suffice to say they're worse than 'white van man'.

Ok I'll stop now... grumpy old woman mode off.

Psychology of the Quiet Coach

Off the T-girl topic for a change and doing the grumpy old woman bit... prompted by Janes recent posting about train seat chivalry, it reminded me of some of those situations I so often see on trains; or to be precise, from the comfort of my reserved seat in the quiet coach - well... nearly my seat.

Quite often, by the time the intercity service reaches our humble town, most of the quiet coach seats are occupied, - but not quite enough to oust the lout, or usurp the business man from yours.... but you can tell these folk are quite practised at giving out the hidden psychological messages of 'bog off and don't hassle me' when they occupy your reserved seat.

Like for example, there's 'sleeping guy', who occupies the unreserved seat next to yours but thinks his brief case has it's own busy life to lead and cares for it by giving it your seat. This is especially annoying when your seat is the only reserved seat in the coach, and apart from 'sleeping guy' the coach is empty.

Then there's 'railway worker guys' who have a medical need to sit next to each other and discuss how well United faired in the previous evenings match - and yes, you guessed it, they occupy your seat.

And there's proffesional dude and dudess who travel the same route every day; they really don't care where they plant themselves 'cos they're only going to the next stop so it doesn't matter if they occupy someones seat.

Ladies don't get away without an observation from Ms Kate - in the quiet coach, they are the absolute the worst for using the phone... they're also the ones mostly likely to shout, if someone else uses a phone! On a recent journey, a girl got on for the last 20 minutes of the service and she managed to make 7 phone calls - I was impressed... normally us girls can only make one call in that time; perhaps she was 'business dude' in drag....

But if you're sat in my seat on the 16:20 out of Birmingham, you take your life into your hands.... unless you're a lovely old lady from Falmouth in which case I'll sit in the seat next to you, have a nice chat about gardening and treat you to tea and cake!

Boring

Mrs Kate has accused me of having a boring blog - so what do I care?

Alcohol-free wine what's that all about?.... now that's boring - but Mrs Kate thought it would be nice to try.... yuck! - trust me, give it a wide berth unless you like flavoured grape juice. I told her that it would taste like that before we tried it.... gee... was I right! It's labelled and looks like it's real counterpart, but .... I can't quite put my finger on whats missing?... no happy feeling... no compulsion to do some mad girlie dancing around the house... totally pointless!

Here's another one.... directions to the RNIB conference centre in Birmingham that a blind person can follow; I had to rely on looking up the address on Google maps so I could find it.

Not boring was meeting up with Kay Denise a couple of weeks ago, it was nice to see her out.

Not boring was getting out with Mrs Kate and Di at one of our favourite establishments in the Village, followed by some attempt at mad dancing at Naps. 'Boring' was the 'da management' letting in just about anyone to just moomin-troll around the dance floor - we gave up after only a few minutes.

Actually my blog IS boring... I'm just bored writing anything on it at the moment - it's good job life isn't like that!

Dear Diary

Dear Diary, why do you look so neglected? could it be I've haven't posted anything to you for over a month now....

Quite often I find myself thinking about some of the little gems of our T-life as I stare out of the commuter train window that occassionally takes me to far away exotic places like Birmingham; only to forget about them when the opportunity arises to post them on here.

Life is far from boring and the pressures of work are just the same as they were over Winter when I was quite depressed about them, but I just feel I'm coping better with those; but I've already seen some of the questions on the company stress survey due out in the next week or so - I have a feeling my matter-of-fact responses to those will only set the alarm bells ringing. But I'm resolved with a determination that I won't ever 'come out' to any of my work colleagues; sensitive as we often are to picking up on any small references to the LGBT world, there are one or two in the team that I feel will be uncomfortable .... not to mention the issues of whether the masses in the organisation would ever take me seriously again!

My closest of friends and Mrs Kate know of personal thoughts on my T-self; for everyone else it's simpler to say that I think I've found most of the pieces of the big picture that represents my life and life is pretty full, relaxed and good - although I am a little dissappointed that I hardly have the time (or perhaps the patience) to get around everyone elses blogs - sorry girls!

So what have we been upto? - I also find a little dissappointment in that we haven't been getting out as much this year, although a trip out on a recent Saturday evening made me chuckle a bit when we were kind of refused entry to a 'girls only' event that was taking place at Eden - translate this to being actually a Lesbian-only event and they were charging the 'non-girls' £3.50 entry - including Mrs Kate. I guess it's the flip-side of the coin where non t-girls are charged entry to get into Naps; so a sort of balance is brought to the Kharma in all things.

And let us not overlook Sparkle.... yeah, another year; sure, I enjoyed it but don't missunderstand me by the fact I'm not writing or raving about it much here; Mrs Kates 5 part blog-essay says it all - I would only contribute to the growing blog-litter that is being posted about it!

Oh okay so here's my small contribution..... seemed like there were more folks there this year but I wore my feet sore dancing in Naps on Friday night (which only confirms Di's observation that when I dance, I really go for it!). Which meant Saturday night my feet were too sore to do any dancing and I was too tired from being out late the night before - which was just as well since it was very crowded where ever we went; so we were back at the Atrium for around midnight. I found I had a flare for giving out leaflets for Teela on Saturday afternoon; and she kindly had t-shirts made for us with our pictures on with the caption 'Teelas Angels' - which was kind of nice.

But there are possibly two mental pictures from the event I doubt I will never forget :-
(1) Saturday evening - the (real) girl with a spikey collar being lead past Naps on a lead who bid us 'evening all' as she passed us by.
(2) 'Those shorts' worn by Emma. Mrs Emma said she'll forward the details of good therapist should we need it!

Some pictures appear to the right of this page, replacing last years. Other than that, take care dear diary, girls and friends alike.