Measuring up for size

It may have taken me three months, one big scare and a number of subsequent smaller fears, but I have finally had a chance to take my engagement ring back to be resized. It’s now two sizes smaller, and it’s perfectly snug-as-a-bug.

            This means that I can finally leave it on while sleeping, cooking, cleaning, washing and exercising without having to panic about whether it’s going to go flying off my finger at any moment. Sorted! 

Pizza Monday…sort of

We had a newbie starting in our office today, and as such the full team emptied out of the office for lunch to officially welcome her to the team. It turns out that it’s another Singaporean who doesn’t drink and doesn’t like to go out. When the MD leaves this Thursday I am going to be the only one left who likes a cheeky glass of wine every so often. It’s going to be very, very strange!

            Still, for the welcome lunch I booked us into an Italian restaurant that it nice and close to the office and does a great set lunch of either pasta, pizza or salad. Whilst the rest of the team ordered huge bowls of carbs, I made my way through a slightly depressing roasted vegetable salad, promising myself that I would work out something for dinner that was as close to an Italian treat as possible.

Welcome our slightly bizarre, but actually surprisingly tasty dinner of cheat pizzas. Rather than making pizzas on a dough base, sliced grilled aubergine became the base of the mini-pizzas topped with homemade tomato sauce, a very small amount of grated parmesan, rocket, peppers and one or two with bacon (but only a couple).

            It wasn’t quite as amazing as a giant plate of deep dish pizza, dripping in cheese and meat, but it was close enough, and just about did the trick to power me through one more day of no cheating. Well, it was Monday after all – and hot cross buns are on their way!!

Farewells and Skype

This Sunday, following a morning at the gym, cleaning and working my way through a mountain of laundry, we made our way to Big Mikes house for a final farewell BBQ before he heads back to the UK to get married, and then on to Dubai to start a new life in the Middle East without us.      

            The BBQ had been advertised to us as a “Drink the Bar Dry” BBQ to ensure that there was no wastage when Mike had to put his final possession into boxes to shift. I didn’t mention that I wasn’t going to be drinking during this visit, but as he makes the best BBQed steak imaginable, I didn’t need wine to know that I needed to be there. I just made sure that there was a very green, very health salad on offer, and topped this up with as much steak as I felt able to justify throughout the evening.

            It’s a real shame that Mike is going to be leaving us, but we hope that in the next few years he’ll be making his way back to London, and sooner or later we’ll have another London buddy to play with once we finally make it back.

            Leaving the rest of the guys to continue the BBQ and drinking with what turned out only to be four other people, I excused myself for around an hour to find a quite corner to Skype the girls while they were enjoying eggs and croissants for brunch at Lizzy’s house back in the UK.            

            It’s always lovely to have a proper catch up with the girls. It was slightly hectic as always as both of Stephie’s babies where there so there was plenty going on and a lot to keep an eye on, but it was amazing to see then, and it really did feel like I was just another person sat around the table – although admittedly a very unhelpful person!

            We had a lovely catch up, chatting about everything from bridesmaid dresses, to new houses, babies and plans for when I’m back in July. It feels like July is still way too far away, but I suppose I am just about getting there, slowly! 

Back on plan

It was only one night of bad behaviour, but it was more than enough for the week, so by Saturday I was right back on best behaviour to try and reduce the impact of the steak and wine overload.

Back on good behaviour for the weekend 

First thing in the morning I made my way to the gym for an early morning Pilates class, before wandering to Cups & Canvas to meet Jules for a coffee before waking up Nick and kick starting our weekend.      

            After a quick 10k wiggle on the treadmill (it’s just way too hot for me to walk fast or far out in the real world here) the rest of the day was spent mooching around town, buying leaving gifts for the departing MD, making sure that we had some healthy delicious treats for the evening, and checking out Nick’s new favourite shop to ensure that there were no new, brightly patterned shirts that he needed to add to his collection.            

            Feeling as though we had done most of the essential jobs for the day, we then luxuriated, spending the rest of the day scoffing chicken salad and watching Paddington, whilst recovering on the sofa with mugs of tea.

            Maybe it wasn’t the most exciting Saturday, but it was glorious!

Steak and wine, feeling fine!

So today I fell off the good behaviour wagon, badly!

            The actual day at work had been perfectly well behaved – all veggies and water, but by the time I made it out of the office in the evening to meet up with Mike and Tilly, the best intentions were well and truly finished for the day.

            I arrived at the brand new restaurant called Fyr (like ‘fire’) where all food is cooked in their wood-burning oven, and all their drinks are either wine or beer. My good intentions for sticking with low calorie drinks very quickly went out of the window the minute I arrived to find that Mike had decided to leave work a few hours early, and was already working his way through a very sweet bottle of wine. I figured that if I was going to have one day off this week, this would have to be it, and so I just decided to join in.

Floral shirt and green trouser combo tonight

We hadn’t seen Mike and Tilly in months, having to cancel our most recent plans for work and travel, so it was the first time that we had caught up in 2015. Mike took the meeting seriously, and as such his wardrobe was one step more impressive than normal. He always goes for coloured trousers, but today he had combined green trousers with a very floral shirt. It was both bold and a bit of a shocker, but still, it’s always good to see him!

            Over the next few hours Tilly and Nick finished work and came to join us, and as we sat catching up a number of friends also wandered past the restaurant and stopped in for a couple of drinks on route to their evening plans. By around 9pm it was just us left, and so we then got involved in the amazing steaks and delicious mash potatoes.

            It wasn’t healthy, and it certainly wasn’t on plan, but it was delicious, and sometimes that’s all that really matters!