Feet don't get fat.

It's been a while...

A lot has happened. I'm going to blog about some of it, some day. 

I, like many humans am not happy in my skin, I can not remember a single point in my adult life when I have been. I'm trying to do something about this now, something other than drinking an obscene amount of cocktails to give me the confidence to even get out the door. There seems be an upsurge in getting super fit right now, fit camps, boot camps, metafit, insanity...or possibly, it's always been this way it's just a loop I've never been privy to before. Prior to a year ago the most exercise I had ever done during an evening  was putting my finger in the air and licking the DJ's face...or day time feverishly tidying my house, after a full day at work, whilst simultaneously running round after two kids, two cats and a dog with a Cadbury's Caramel melting in my pocket...melting in my hand...my mouth, it was melting in my mouth...because I'd eaten it. 

So now I do Zumba and Piloxing and am just about to start The Body Coach's 90 Day Shift, Shape, Sustain Plan. I have always had a very unhealthy relationship with food, I'm hoping this plan will change that. I've discovered a love of fitness already over the past year so I am really looking forward to the HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) I can't actually believe I know what HIIT means and am looking forward to it.  As part of the initial process you have to send three photos, in swimwear or shorts, or underwear,  front, side and back. It took me an hour to swallow back my anxiety and ask my 17 year old daughter to take them for me, then...then I had to actually look at them as I attached them to the form...

Shudder...

I really need to do the plan. 

Taken...

 

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you" - Bryan Mills (character)

R is for Ransom

Silence.

We are a family, and the loyalty of the family must come before anything and everyone else. For if we honor that commitment, we will never be vanquished-but if we falter in that loyalty we will all be condemned.”

- Mario Puzo, The Family

O is for Omerta

o·mer·tà

[aw-mer-tah; English oh-mer-tuh] Show IPA

noun Italian.

secrecy sworn to by oath; code of silence.

Apples

 "Can I have an apple? All I can think about. Apples. I love apples. Maybe I'm having a craving. That's new. Never had cravings before"

One of our families most watched episode of Doctor Who is the 'The Eleventh Hour' this is the introductory episode for the Eleventh Doctor played by Matt Smith. The Doctor has just regenerated and finds himself very hungry with new taste buds.  The first person our newly regenerated Doctor meets is a seven year old Amelia Pond and for the first fifteen minutes of the episode they try to find something that the Doctor likes the taste of, much spitting and throwing of food ensues...much to the delight of my 9 year old son.  I have to be honest I was quite disappointed when this scene finished, it is so perfectly written with brilliant comedic moments and a perfect introduction to this new Doctor who appears to be all flailing arms and legs.  

With regards to the apple, he doesn't like it, Amelia tells him that she didn't like apples either until her mum put a smiley face on for her, she does this for the Doctor and he puts it in his pocket and promises to eat it later...

Quartz

Photo copyright Lisa Hazlegreaves

My Small Child who is now not actually that small and is 8 years old puts me and everybody else in mind of a mad scientist.  This image isn’t helped by the fact he wanders round constantly wearing a bow tie (Matt Smith I have you to blame for this)  He, like his older sister is very intelligent but unlike his sister he has little concentration.  His brain is constantly popping from one idea to the other, he is forever drawing blue prints for various inventions, whilst sitting doing his school homework you can actually see his brain switch from homework to invention, you can see it in his eyes, he can actually be writing and mid word the switch will happen and he will animatedly turn to me and ask me whether this theory will work or what a certain electric particle is called????

He came to Doctor Who mid way through Tennants reign, he was a little too young prior. Doctor Who really excites his scientific brain, about six months after he started watching Who our weekly trip to the Library no longer consisted of retrieving story books but became a search for books about electronics and how stuff works.  This theme continues, I can not get my Small Child to read story books now but he will sit for hours with his head in a book about anything factual.  For about three years he has been designing his own time machine, I have no doubt in my head that this small person will eventually invent one that works. (That would make me a very proud Whovian Mother) Small Child has drawn many blueprints over the years and we scour markets and small treasure troves of shops for crystals.  My Small Child believes that the perfect piece of Quartz is the key to time travel and we have bought many pieces of Quartz to try and find that one piece of crystal that will absolutely, definitely power his time machine.  Hopefully one day Small Child will find that perfect Quartz and hopefully one day he will travel back in time so that his older self can give his Whovian mother a kiss. 

Father

 Photo Copyright Lisa Hazlegreaves

In our house there are three massive Who fans, Daughter, Small Child and I.  Now I have been into Science Fiction in all its genres since my teens.  Sparked by an early love of Classic Who and discovering Terry Pratchett at the age of 15. (Totally different I’m aware but the fantasy element remains the same)  I have eagerly awaited every single Terry Pratchett release for nearly 30 years...30 years that’s incredible really, to be able to keep readers interested in a fantasy world for that long is an amazing feat.  It would appear that Science Fiction/Fantasy can run and run, look at Who.

I have known Father since I was 14, we both attended the same Drama group.  We were in regular contact through Drama until our late teens when we lost touch for many years.  When he came back into my life when we were both adults (I was going to say mature, but I fear we don’t fall into this category) we hit it off and so began our relationship.  That was 14 years ago.  Now Father and I have very differing tastes in most things but especially in this.  He used to poo-poo my science fiction/fantasy novels in favour of Captain Corelli's Mandolin.  In fact he bought me this book ten years ago and I still haven’t read it as a matter of principal.  I refuse to read it until he reads a book of my choice, a classic like Lord of The Rings or The Hobbit.  This is a stand off I feel will run forever, as Captain Corelli’s Mandolin sits on one of my many bookshelves the pages browning and gaining that wonderful smell that old books have, un-read, teasing me every time I pass.  Father laughs at The Matrix, one of my very favourite films, Father in fact can not tolerate any science fiction at all, he believes it foolish and comedic.

When Doctor Who returned to our screens in 2005 Father was still promoting and djing at a clubnight in town and was therefore never here on a Saturday evening when The Doctor was gracing our screens.  Daughter and I would regale him with anecdotes about the previous days episode over Sunday lunch, he would try to be gracious but eye rolling would commence and the corners of his mouth would turn up in that hint of a smile.  It wasn’t until he stopped working on a Saturday night that he began his Doctor Who journey half way through Tennant’s reign.  The first few episodes he watched found him chuntering under his breath at the ridiculousness of time travel, tutting and mumbling through pursed lips.  I felt I needed to have a strict word with him, I told him that he could watch with us but he couldn’t criticise.  During this conversation, Father said although the programme didn’t really cut it for him he found the whole experience of sitting together as a family a most wonderful thing and he would try really hard not to laugh.

Over the past few years Father has softened to Who, mainly I think because of our love of it.  He loves us and when you love someone you cannot help but be influenced by their excitement.  As I have mentioned on more than one occasion, I love nothing more than glancing at my children during an episode, watching their faces go through the same emotions as mine.  It’s charming in the extreme.  Now during these moments I will glance at Father and catch him looking at us and we have a shared glance, a look of love for our children. Father also plays the most important role, he is the protector of Small Child when it all gets a little too scary for him (small child not father) when my cardigan is not protection enough, and Father will take Small Child out of the room and distract him with cake and stories of Pirates.

If we go anywhere as a family and Doctor Who is brought up, I find people talking to Father, they automatically think that it is the male who is the massive Geek, Nerd, Whovian or whatever term you care to use.  When we attended the Doctor Who Convention in Cardiff I know that people were thinking...aww look at that poor woman being dragged round with her partner and kids.  However if they had paid close attention to our faces they would have seen that ridiculous smile of excitement on mine and a slight look of boredom on his and the secret would have been out.  It’s Mother who is the Whovian and Father who is simply there to carry the sandwiches.