OK so I may have mentioned that I'm trying to loose weight. My aim is to be more healthy, and hopefully have more energy. Its not a new years resolution as I've been at this for the best part of 3 months. I was 14 stone 7 (BMI some where around 32) when I started and am currently 13 stone 11 (29.4 BMI). Today while setting up my Food Focus account I set my new goal of 12 stone 10. A few calculations all done by them and I now know how many calories I'm allowed and that I should, all going to plan reach that goal by 6th March. Its fab because using this site I know I can allow my self treats and excercise them off, not that I will (have treats) I'm very motivated at the mo and after 3 months am in the swing of things. So really this is me just upping my game a notch and seeing what I'm capeable of.

As for excercise I was doing 20/30 minutes of step on my Wii Fit most days. I'm hoping to up this too (today I managed 50 minutes), I have also purchased a set of wrist weights (2 x 1kg), so I hope this will help tone up my bingo wings as well as burn extra calories. I'm also hoping to swim once a week ( maybe twice if I can afford it and have the time).

Well not this past weekend but the one before I was away with cadets, the exercise was named as above and basically consisted of two groups of cadets going up against one another, one group defending the border and another trying to take it. I got to be Platoon Sargeant for 2 platoon which consisted of  47 junior cadets and 6 instructors. We had another Platoon of the same size as friendly forces, and then two smaller platoons made up of more senior cadets as our enemy (as a bonus these guys got to dress in dessert camouflage aquired from the regs). A great time was had by all, the weather stayed nice and everything went to plan (apart from a broken wrist! that happened at the very end.) I was really tired after lots of walking and very little sleep but really enjoyed it. Its so nice to get out and do something different. The cadets were really well behaved too, apart from being a little noisy! I didn't take a great many pics as there wasn't the time but here are a few...

I decided to try making a quiche yesterday. For a first attempt it went really well and the result is very tasty. The house smelt lovely while it was cooking and we couldnt wait to tuck in . If you havent made quiche before its a really easy recipe and I'd deffinatley recommend it.

Snurched from suekay_87 who snurched from.. Well to be honest I cant remember!

You scored as Either. You brain is neither specifically male, nor female in the way you perceive your surroundings. As bad as this may sound to some, it can easily mean that you are capable of combining both gender aspects to your advantage. Rather than being genderless you are possibly able think freely. This does not mean that you are bisexual or androgynous or indecisive, but it might. </td> Either 61% Female 61% Male 50% Neither 29% Should you be MALE or FEMALE?* created with QuizFarm.com

Have been a busy bee this past few days making Bones Icons and a Banner. Am Still learning so most of these were just me trying out various things. Some are better than others, see what you think...











Now If I can find some Heroes pics that I like I'll be making a few Icons of Hiro and friends next :D

Ok so it seems that I'm rubbish at updating! But I'm not even sure if any ones even really interested...hey ho! Ok that's two exclamation marks already. Well a ton of stuff has happened since the last post. We got a tent (haven't actually used it yet tho), Did a crazy two weeks away with cadets and have lots of pics, and had a fab week in Hastings with the two men in my life :D The first SI meet up was a blast, and since then have also meet up with Gatebee, ShelsFC and Irishchick again for lunch. There's been tons of other stuff that's happened but it would be a bore to try and list them all.

So more recently... I got a promotion at work, and a pay rise *jumps for joy* its nothing huge in terms of pay but am the first "Expert"(that's my new title) in our area and it should lead to some good stuff fingers crossed xx Oh and on the work front we have our Xmas party on Friday night, were going to TGI Fridays all 43 of us, should be interesting :S

I can't believe how fast this year has gone, and that Ive survived another one..eek! My mum moved to Derbyshire two weeks ago and so now is miles away, but the good news is we're spending Xmas at hers and my brother and his family are going too, am so excited :D Now the only issue at this time of year is money.. so am juggling bills like silly at the mo and starting to feel a little stressed. Add that to the stinky cold I cant shake and a bad back and you kinda get where I'm at right now. I really need to make some news resolutions that include sorting out my life and lack of money.

Well hope to have some more graphics soon, have been doing calendars for SI but there all a bit old now (take a look at http://www.stargate-intel.net/ if you want to see them) but am working on some other stuff for Xmas :D

Oh and before I go I have to mention all the fab shows Ive been watching at the mo SG1 Season 10 and SGA Season 3, Bones Season 2 (totally fab), NCIS season 4, Heroes, Threat Matrix and E-Ring. Am so addicted to all these but specially Bones I've even taken to reading all the Kathy Reichs books which again are addictive and very difficult to put down I'd definitley recommend them.

One last final note.. in the last year I have read 33 books!

Ok so I thought I'd drop on by and make a post. The only problem is I really have no idea what Im actually planning on posting...eek! I'm not witty enough to just ramble on about random stuff (wish I was), and so as Im typing Im thinking 'please dont let this be too boring'. I havent been here for Ooooh well over a month and I find my self thinking ' ok so what intresting stuff have I been up to?'. And at that point I go blank...

Ive done stuff plenty of stuff, but the problem is that Ive posted most of it already over on my Yahoo 360 blog. To repeat it would only bore me, and therefore you. For those of you who havent already read it and are wondering just what Ive been up to then drop me a line and Ill send you an invite.

So I cant be bothered to tell you stuff Ive done in the last month so how about I tell you about my plans, yeah that sounds like an idea. Well joy of joy tomorrow is my day off :D Have a few of the boring RL bits to do, but then in the evening we (the boyf' and I) are going into London to watch a TV show being filmed, nothing huge but should be fun. On Sunday we're going to see another TV show being filmed but this time in Teddington. Well they were free so we thought, why not! Sundays gonna be a busy day, were going off to a camping show in the morning. Yes were going to buy a tent and start camping, so we thought a show would be a good start. We think we've already decided on a tent after going to a tent show last week but never hurts to look around and theres other stuff we'll need too. Now heres hoping the dog will enjoy camping too!

Other stuff coming up, well Im off to annual camp with cadets in about 4 weeks, its getting a little nail biting cos I havent been for yonks, and all I kepp thinking about is how much stuff Im gonna have to take...I hate packing :S Then Im back a week and we're off to Hastings for a few days R&R which I think Im gonna need after 2 weeks with 300 kids :/ On a shorter time frame theres the first UK SI meet up at the end of the month, and Stargate S10 starts on friday Yeay :D *jumps up and down in excitement*

So I think thats about it, I hope I didnt waffle on too much. You are still there?...arent you?.... Hellloooooo

Oh well :P

Byesie bye xxx

Snurched from Suekay_87



Nokia - The easiest phones to use and reliable too
Yahoo - For keeping intouch with all my friends
GIMP - Easy to use graphics package that even I can use
Emule - Add free and Easy to use need I say more!
Google - To find all those random things
O2 - Always reliable
NCIS - Cool show with Michael Weatherly
Stargate - Fab show it has RDA & AT what more could you ask for!
Baileys - To relax with
Burger King - My fave junk food
Starbucks - The best coffee ever
N6230 - Love this phone

It was wet, we knew it would be. We told the kids it was going to be wet and we told them to prepare for it. But wet was an understatment! We got drenched and so did all our kit. But... it was great fun LOL. Maybe because Im a gluten for punishment, maybe because it's so un familiar to my normal life but it was great. The kids didnt have the same idea though. We ended up getting up really early as the kids couldnt sleep, some where around 4am!Thats not morning its the middle of the night FCOL! Anyway up we got, only to spend the morning desperatley trying to dry out the kit that hadn't been waterproofed. We errected a rather large tent frame and hung all the poncho's and sleeping bags from it, some of the kit dried some of it was far too wet. You'll be pleased to know that I managed to stay relatively dry, a little damp but nothing that caused to much grief. Nice to know all that training paid off. I still didn't get much sleep, the sound of rain hammering down was too much.

Any how kit all sorted the games began. Exercise Flag Snatch.. Five detachments, five flags, the mission defend your own flag and capture as many of the others as possible. The training area was huge and so there was lots of walking to be done. Up, down, more up and more down and a bit more up for good measure..lol! Boy did my feet hurt. Oh and just because here in the UK it likes to be awkward the sun came out and it got hot. But only long enough to get us all sweaty and then the heavens opened again...grr. It was decided to end ex(ercise) at 5pm on account of the weather, the kit was still soaking and there was no way the kids would last a secound night. So 5pm came and Chertsey (my Detachment) had 3 flags and Addlestone had 2, making us the winners. Until that is it was pointed out that Chertsey had never taken there stretcher with them...eek! We were penalised one flag making it a draw. The winner would be decided with a shoot out between the two detachment commanders. We won... Hurrah :D Go Chertsey :D

We headed back to Farncombe and the training centre, beds, hot water and a solid roof...positivley 5*. The rest of camp was fairly bog standard, another BBQ was had thanks to Dave, Rob and Myself. We're getting a dab hand at wipping up burgers and hot dogs for 100. The kids loved it and didnt mind being dry and warm either. Any way heres a few pics of the gang...



The kids all ready to go.



With the three flags they captured

Today I made some Icons...







I think (hope) Im getting better at these. Im slowly figuring out how GIMP works.Text is still a bit of an issue but am kinda making do at the mo. Life is same as always pretty bog standard! Have started a Yahoo 360 blog so am kinda posting between here and there at the mo. When I finally figure out feeds I hope to have the two linked up :D

Test as snurched from suekay_87 who snurched from someone else LOL, all I can say is ...if only LOL.

The Stargate guys first impressions of you by kestrill
Name
Age
Jack O Neill	wanted you there and then
Tealc	was cautious but fascinated
Daniel Jackson	started believing in love at first sight
Quiz created with MemeGen!

So I just got back from camp with cadets :D Its been a busy weekend and quite tiring, but great fun. There were a total of 66 cadets and around 20 adults so was a bit chaotic at times! LOL

Well the weekend started for me at 3 pm on Friday afternoon, there was a mad dash home from work and a session of running around the house trying to find all the kit I needed. A quick wash and change, cook and eat dinner and off I went. I arrived at the drill hall at 6.30 and all the cadets were there already waiting to get away for a weekend of madness. The minibuss arrived late due to traffic but by 7pm we were away.

We arrived 45 minutes later at Deepcut (near Aldershot) training area E1, the kids were split into there various Star levels (those are their training levels) and assigned instructors, I was assigned 2 star cadre. They were then issued any kit they did not have and rations and given an area in the woods to basher up! (thats building shelters to sllep in) Next was time to cook rations which for some of them was first time so took a little while and then for 1 & 2 star cadets it was time for bed. The 3 star cadets had weapons testing and a night navigation exercise first though. While the kids tried to get off to sleep (there usualy so over excited and chatty that this normally take quite some time) the Instructors had a briefing about their duties and responsabilities for the weekend. Chatted to some of the other instructors for a while and then about 12.30 headed to bed.

Now getting to bed its self can be a bit of a chore considering the accomodation..
First you have to set it up and sort all your kit out then its a wrestle to get into your sleeping bag and wrestle all your clothes off in a confined space! then there is alot of tossing and turning till you get comfortable on the cold hard ground :S I finally got to sleep around 1.30am!

It wasnt to last!!! During the earlier briefing Id volunteered for duty female for the night... yup you guessed it, I was rudley awakened at 2.30 am by one of the male adults! One of the female 3 star cadets had tripped and twisted her ankle, it was very painful and I had to go assist. It was decided to take the cadet to hospital and have her checked out, so off we went... We arrived at A&E at 3 am and yes there was a wait (insert sigh). Finally after 3 hours and 15 minutes, an Xray and some tubi grip we were on our way, with nothing more than a twisted ankle. so at 5.30 am I arrive back at camp, the 2 stars are due to get up in 30 minutes so its decided its not worth going back to bed. The cadets get up and off we go for a run and some exercise...me thinks this is gonna be a long weekend.

Anyway PT over the kids go off to make breckie and our boss decides we really need to get some sleep, thankgod! so at 9.15am I climb back into my sleeping bag and try to sleep! Around 10.30 am I'm woken by the kids coming back into camp and then they go again. Thirty minutes later their back and they wake me up again, this time they dont go away as they are being taught a lesson by an unknowing instructor. I dont say anything and lay quietly finally dropping back to sleep, I wake up later after getting uncomfortable and roll over, the movement from my tent startles the poor instructor LOL and I finally let him know Im there and so the kids are moved away. I finally decide I cant slepp anymore and so decide to get up, it is 12.15 by this point tho!

The rest of the day wasnt very eventfull, the kids had lunch and then I took a map and compass lesson which was only supposed to last an hour but dragged into 2 1/2 hours because it was difficult for them to get their heads around. A few more lessons for the kids which I helped out with and then I turned my hand tyo some food prep. The BBQ was set up and me and Dave started the cookin, well mainly Dave with me lending a hand. An hour later and 100 hotdogs and 90 burgers later we settled down to have our own dinner. The kids loved the BBQ and they were given some cans of drink and sweets too :D

The rest of the evening was spent preparing for our night exercise. The kids did more training and then camoflaged themselves up, of course leading by exapmle all the adults joined in too. At 9pm covered in brown and green paint we headed of on our little walk, telling the kids we were off to look for some information...(ok we lied!) after half an hour the 1 stars attacked our 2 star cadets and all hell broke loose :D The kids ran like mad, threw them selves on the floor and opened fire! Well they tried there were several jams and me and the other instructors had to run around in jamming them all, all the time there were Pyrotechnics going off (imagine hand held fireworks!). Finally the kids ran out of rounds, that was my que to lob a smoke grenade and under the cover of fire we bugged out (thats a technical/military term for runaway LOL). After that it was back to camp and clean up. Hot Choc was available all round and then it was 10.45 and time for bed again, well for the kids anyway. For the adults it was another brief for the next day and a debrief for the day gone.

Finally got to bed at midnight so not too bad and actually got a good nights sleep :D The night was uneventful thankgod! Got up at 6 again and more PT, followed by brekie. By now it was raining too. Then it was time to pack away all the kit, and continue with training. Alot of running around and throwing themselves on the ground and I had to patch up a cadets knee! He had hit a rock cut his knee and torn his trousers, to make things worse he'd ended up laying in a muddy puddle not long after. A clean up , some antiseptic cream and a dressing and he was fit to go again. :D We followed that up with an ambush, some more shooting and another smoke grenade, which the kids loved although due to the rain it was hard work for the adults as the rifles kept jamming and we had to keep cocking them.

As we hit 1pm it was time to stop training and start the boring stuff... weapons cleaning, packing up equipment and a litter sweep of the area. The end of Camp was nearly on us, a quick vote by the adults on best cadet for each Star Cadre and then time for parade. The boss handed out trophies to the winners, cangratulated all the kids on a good weekend and thanked all the adults for their hard work. Finally over it was just left for us to tell the kids what tests they had passed and then it was a mad dash to get them home to their parents by 3pm. A few minutes later than planned but we arrived back at the drill hall and the kids quickly got away leaving us instructors free to get away too :D

So that was it, a typical weekend away in the field! We get to do it all over again in a months time...Joy! No I joke its great fun, even if its hard work its really tiring and we end up cold, wet and hungry :D Its really rewarding, no really it is :D

Well am finally home, after a very long and enjoyable soak in the bath (during which I managed to fall asleep!) and some food I feel almost human now :D So as the advert went...."what did you do this weekend?" :P

Well as has become the usual of late money is scarce, very scarce in fact! Its getting so bad now the banks are beggining to chase us and have decided to give back my car. Its been off the road since last June anyway so its no big, I cant afford to run the damn thing!Am juggling bills like crazy and some days it all gets a bit annoying and I feel really down, but then to be honest of late have just tried blanking the whole money issue, not that it actually solves anything. Well am determined this is not gonna ruin my life and am just getting on with stuff best I can, I got myself here and I can damn well get my self out with a bit of sensible bit of thinking.Im grateful for everything I do have in my life and there are folks out there a whole heap worse off than me, so I will not get down about this! (Ok do I sound convincing? Im really trying to be positive about all this)

Have had several hot flushes at work today! No reason but they just happened, hope its not the menopause LOL!!!Other than that work is going well, have to work this Friday and Monday but its triple pay so not all bad :)Going on camp next weekend with cadets so the next week will be spent prepping for that, have to dig out all my kit and make sure it all ok! Not the most fun but I like to be prepared, will no doubt have to go buy a few bits, theres always something missing or broken.

Well enough of me, hope everyone has a great Easter Holiday :D

xxx

'K so nothing massively interesting to report! Those of you who no me will no that me and the Boyf' are trying for a baby and so far after around 2 years still nothing!! Nothing is wrong with either of us it just doesn't seem to be happening, anyway am feeling particularly broody of late and the boyf' is covinced were eventually gonna have triplets!!LOL!!!So fingers crossed for us everyone:D On the Baby front one of my friends from work is pregnant after only one month...its just not fair...but its ok cos Im happy for her:D
So I continue to attend cadets with much difficulty as we now have 2 cars off the road and have had to resort to using public transport! Now you'd think I lived in the middle of no where buses only run once an hour and stop at 6pm and dont run sundays, oh and their damn expensive!
On a good note I finally got around to Downloading GIMP and have been working away to try and learn how to use it, have produced some half descent efforts and am planning on posting them on SI eventually, once those that are for bookmarks have been recieved by their new owners :D
Just read an awesome fic called Danny Day Care by Kate McCaye that can be found over at FF, I highly recommend it its soooooo funny LOL Talking of reading also finished SGA Reliquary great book and Id Highly recommend it to any SGA fan :D Love Rodney in this book:D
And my Bargain for this week....Dark Angel Season 1 box set £13.95 squuuuee cant wait for it to arrive :D
Anyway am off to go watch Nothing with David Hewlett:D


Oh and most importantly for today..............Happy Birthday Shipaholic :D

Yup today it rained LOL lots of rain, we walked the dog for 2 1/2 hours and got completely soaked! But it was actually a really nice afternoon, took lots of pics with my camera and posted some of them over at SI :). Harvey got very wet and dirty and we had to give him a bath when we got home, he's been very good today and is now sprawled out on the floor being quiet for a change!Oh well back to work tomorrow roll on Thursday, next day off :)

Well RL sucks! Actually no thats not really true, RL is fine, money sucks (or more acurately the lack of it!)Have got a stinking cold at the mo and so feeling sorry for my self. Got the afternoon of work yesterday but still had to go in today, and god did I feel like crap my mid after noon! Anyway home now taking it easy, boyf' has cooked a lovely steak so alls well.

Anyway the strangest thing happened at work this morning. Firstly let me explain I work at a shop called Mothercare! For those of you not in the know its a baby shop, we sell everything to do with babies, its a very big shop! Any way customer comes in with a breast pump (yes Im sure some of you can already see where this is going!)Claims it does not work on the highest setting!! So off I trundle to test it, and that in its self is funny enough..
out comes fake boob (bit like a stress ball if you can imagine it! Caused many jokes when it first arrived in the building, good for winding up male members of staff..anyway I digress). Pump is tested and found to be working perfectly well! I go back to tell customer I cant find a problem (can you guess whats gonna happen yet?, she asks me how I tested it so I take her into our hallway to demonstrate..no it gets worse! She is still not happy!!! So what do you think she did next..yup she proceeded to take her own boob out and demonstrate...eek! Well fortunately I am not bothered by this kind of thing otherwise it could have been a rather embarrassing moment. I think her husband was most embarrassed tho! Anyway I wont go on, Ill let you make your own judgment.

Soooo its been yonks since I posted!! Thought Id get my butt in gear and get back to it. Lots has happened in the past few months. I'm now back at cadets as a sergeant after completely flying through all my induction process, it was death by power point!! made worse by the fact that most of what we had to learn is the same as when I originaly joined cadets 9 years ago. Its been good fun and Ive been on 4 camps in the last few months, am enjoying getting out and about and the best thing... its not costing me a penny.

Xmas passed by quickly as usual, boyf' bought me a very nice digital camera which Ive taken loads of photos with and am looking forward to taking more. Got into a load of new shows Threshold, Invasion
and Bones as well as catching up on some old ones including JAG, NCIS and my newest favorite Dark Angel. Which I'm totally obsessed with :)I watched all two seasons in about 2 weeks flat and was thoroughly down when I ran out, so decided to buy the books as well, which BTW are fab, am just waiting on one more from Play (they're out of stock at mo, hope its not gonna be too much longer am getting with drawl symptoms..eek). Anyhow in the mean time I'm thoroughly enjoying watching season 3 of NCIS and its helped by the very good looking Michael Weatherly being in it too, not that its not got some other fab people in it, it has to be one of the best shows around at the mo.

So not much else to tell really, will try to update a bit more regularly as things happen and then I wont forget, like now! Hope everyone is off to a good start this year and all your wishes come true, stay safe xx

Well thought Id best report in on my day with Gatebee, it was so fab :) We met at 12midday in Harrow outside M&S and as usual for me I was late (the M25 was chocca so had to take the back roads). Gatebee as promised was wearing her yellow coat so was easy to spot. I waved so she would know it was me as she didnt know what I looked like, we greeted each other with a huge hug which was really nice. Not having any real plans we started to have a wonder round Harrow and it was so nice just chatting with her, it was so natural and I felt very comfortable and relaxed, Gatebee is such a lovely Lady. After a while we decided to grab some lunch at the local Pizza Express and spent our time talking about RDA and Stargate, this was such a novelty for me as I never talk stargate or RDA with anyone in RL. Next we moved on to Baskin and Robins Ice Cream where we continued our stargate chat at length. Then Gatebee had a great Idea and we payed a visit to the library where we logged on to catch up with our friends from SI, we only had 45 mins and it seemed to go fast. We took a few pictures and had another wander around Harrow before going for a drive in an attempt to find somewhere to have a coffee and continue chatting, after a while we ended up back in a coffee shop in Harrow LOL! There was cake, coffee and more Stargate/RDA talk what more could a girl ask for in one evening. We finally bid each other farewell with more hugs around 9pm, it was such a shame to end a fab day but I had an hours drive home still to go. The day went so fast but then it always does when your having fun, I cant wait till the next time we can meet up and hope its not too many years before I see her. Thank heaven for the internet to keep in touch.

So apart from a wonderful day with Gatebee not much else has really happened, it looks like Im getting the Flu! But am doing by best to put it off :)The Dog has had a haircut and is all proud of himself, he looks so cute! Doing lots of overtime at work to get some money for Christmas and Cadets is going well. I have this week off work so hope to have more to report soon if we go somewhere. Anyway thats all for now folks!

Oh I Cant believe its been more than two weeks since I posted! Well Im finally back at cadets YEAY! :) I spent a weekend at the training centre, where it was death by power point lol. Nothing much has changed in the five years Ive been gone and so it was two long days of being taught stuff I already know. I understand they have to do it but it doesn't stop it being boring (still have two more weekends to go aarrgghh).Had to do some tests for safety, and because its working with children, they let me take my weapons test straight off with no lessons and I passed no problem first time (I suppose when you've been doing something for ten years it tends to sink in). The good bit though is that because I was a sargent before I get to go straight in as one again, unlike the other bods on the course who will have to do a probationary period and loads of other stuff. All of my courses are still valid too so I wont have to re do them. I have started parading on Mondays and Friday evenings at the Chertsey unit and I get my uniform some time next week hopefully, then Ill be all stressed about getting my berry shaped!!! Hope to be going on some Adventurous training courses, really want to do Archery and some more Kayaking.

Work wise I told them I no longer wanted to be a supervisor and so I'm being back to being an ordinary sales adviser, its great my shifts are set so no more late nights unless I volunteer, and I get overtime at time and a half for anything over 40hrs so am actually better off money wise, and I only have to work every other Sat and no more Sundays :). Mandy our manager is really nice and she asked me if I would still keep on some of my responsabilities, I told her as long as she doesnt give me anymore thats fine. I have also been allowed to keep all my management functions for tills and stuff so thats handy.

I have another week off coming up and then its into Xmas as far as work is concerned. Have planned to meet up with Gatebee from SI on Friday next week so am really excited about that as I speak to loads of people on the net and never met any of them before, unless I knew them before. Am gonna be doing loads of over time to save for Xmas pressies and hopefully put my car back on the road. Harvey is in deperate need of a haircut so need to remember to book him in at the groomers, he turns into a big fluffy teddy bear otherwise (which is so cute but not really practical...eek).

Oh nearly forgot...most exciting I have been made a mod on SI :) Squuueee. Im so thrilled :)Speaking of SI I have also written a bio for Daniel Jackson which SueKay has posted on the site so Im dead chuffed, am now working on a bio for Janet Fraser and hope to have it finished tomorrow all going to plan (never thought Id actually enjoy writing stuff I so hated English at school).

Well thats enough waffle for now lol, am gonna go watch some JAG ready for the Jag marathon on FX tomorrow afternoon.