A bit of this and a bit of that

I’ve switched to FatSecret to keep track of my diet. The main reason is that they have an app for my Android phone. When I buy something from a shop, I can just scan the barcode and it appears on my food diary (assuming it’s a product if knows about), which I thought was really smart. Anyway, it does everything you could want from a diet tracket; keeps track of foods you eat, lets you define your own foods if they’re not in the database, keeps track of exercise, calories and most importantly weight.

Now that we’re back from Butlins I’ve started going to gym more regularly too, spending more time on the treadmills and less time on weights. So I’m really focusing on calorie burning with the aim of dropping a couple of kilos a month. We’re off on holiday again in a few weeks, so I just want to drop a few so I don’t have to be too careful on holiday.

I’ve just downloaded the photos of our trip to Butlins and knocked up a quick video to show friends and family what a great time we had. I must say, it was a pleasant surprise; I didn’t really know what to expect, and we ended up having so much fun with loads of different activities we could take part in. There are different things aimed at all ages groups, with entertainment throughout the day and throughout the evening. There were also some great surprises, like finding chocolates and wine waiting for us in our apartment, small things like the ability to borrow DVDs for free from their library to watch when everyone was asleep and the impressive selection of food that was available for breakfast and dinner. Do you have cereal for breakfast? Toast? Fruit? Yoghurt? Pancakes? Kippers? Bacon and Eggs? Sausages? Hash Browns? Well, you could have anything you wanted, or mix and match what you wanted, or all of it if you could manage. Dinner was even more impressive with so many choices to pick from you didn’t know where to start.

Arthur was in heaven, there’s no other word for it. He was getting up early every morning to make sure we were up and about before anything started. His favourite area was “Bob’s House” as he called it; an entire area devoted to kiddies, with a giant Bob the Builder standing outside. They had a mini fun fair in there, with live shows depicting stories about Bob and his friends. He even got a photo with the gang. Here are the photos, check out how much fun he had:

It wasn’t just Arthur who was having fun. Butlins in Skegness have a huge pool packed with slides and rapids and all sorts of fun water fun. We spent a good proportion of our time there, jumping in the bubbles, sliding down the slides (it was Arthur’s first time in a big slide) and messing around in the wave pool. It’s probably the biggest pool I’ve been to in the UK and definitely one I’d recommend if you’re after any water fun. But the fun didn’t stop there, there were loads of things to do all around the complex, from crazy golf to panning for gold, from slot machines to video games, from live shows to entertainment for the kids. Arthur even joined a circle class and got to rotate plates and clown around.

The one thing we didn’t get the opportunity to try was the Spa. Yes, there’s even a Spa at the complex offering massages and all sorts of treatments. There was a pregnancy package I had my eye on for Camille, and would have booked her in, but as it was our Father’s Day trip, Camille preferred to spend the time with me. I would have liked her to enjoy the luxury of it, but was quite pleased she preferred to spend the time with me and Arthur. So we went to the fun fair instead, rode a carousel and went bowling.

There were so many different things to do that we didn’t even leave Butlins to explore Skegness. I wouldn’t have minded a walk on the beach, but we just didn’t find time for it. Again, there were all sorts of live shows that we chose not to go to, just because we had to choose, and always chose something that Arthur would have enjoyed more.

I just wanted to say thanks to the team down at Butlins and FuelmyBlog for setting up the trip for us. It was a pleasure to try out Butlins and we’ll certainly be going there again in the future.

We’re off to Butlins this weekend; after deciding we wanted to have a weekend away for Father’s Day. I must say, the family camp holiday is totally new to me; my only exposure has been old movies, of the Carry On type. Not that I’m expecting that sort of thing; I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be totally different. Anyway, we’re off to Skegness and really looking forward to it.

It will be interesting to see if I manage to stick to my diet while I’m away. I tend to be okay when I’m keeping track of what I’m eating, but when I go on holiday, it all goes to the wind. And I’m not going to be taking any sort of top rated diet pill, just watching the calories; so it could be interesting. Anyway, we’re looking forward to loads of frolicking and fun. I’m positive that Arthur is going to positively love it.

We’re watching Doc Martin at the moment, series 1 all the way through to 3. We’ve watched the occasional episodes, but never quite in a sequence; so it’s quite refreshing to watch them all in the proper order. I quite enjoy the series to tell you the truth; it’s the sort of humour that I find refreshing, and the characters in the show are rich are full of life. We’ve been going through these phases of catching up on series by watching them all from start to end.

We quite like watching TV together every now and again. Not that we’re going to put a TV wall mount and flat screen TV into the bedroom any time soon, but we quite like watching TV in the evening before retiring. Obviously, there are other things we do too, like reading, or in my case coding, or just surfing the Web. I’d love to be able to go out for a walk sometimes in the evening too, but with Arthur fast asleep, we’re not going to just leave him on his own. Still, it’s great that there are just so many choices of what we can do!

I know I’m running the risk of sounding like a broken record, but I’ve decided to start calorie counting again. When I’m not doing it, I start eating rubbish and that’s what causes me to lose control of my weight. It’s not that I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, I guess it’s a problem of caring about the right thing at the right time. When I’m counting calories I care more about my totals than snacking, so it sort of works for me. I’ll be using My Calorie Counter again, as I was quite successful with that in the past.

It’s a choice really, I know I could take a fat burner or two when I need, but I don’t think that’s a sustainable, long term alternative, so it’s back on the counting and trying to stick to less than 1500 calories a day. I’ll keep you posted!

It’s that time of year again, and the TT races are back on in the Isle of Man. The races have been held for over 100 years and every year the races get more and more competitive; as bikes get more powerful and new records are set. It’s a pretty dangerous do, but it puts the Isle of Man on the map and thousands of people come and visit us for a spot of excitement and fun.

Here’s a video from a couple of years back showing some of the fun that i to be had on the island during TT:

And if you want to get a bit more fun, check out the live webcam stream down at the Bushy’s tent. You don’t need high speed satellite internet to enjoy the feed; anyone with broadband can enjoy the feed, but don’t expect a decent viewing if you’re on a dial up connection!

It’s impressive to see how good Arthur’s reading is becoming. He’s currently working his way through the Peter and Jane series on Ladybird and seems to really enjoy reading them. He’s also reading the occasional word in stories that we’re reading him, just to try and get he reading that little bit more and he’s quite happy to oblige.

I’m impressed at how quickly his vocabulary is increasing, and the more he experiences different things the more varied it gets. It’s pretty cool to see him using terms that didn’t exist when I was a kid. Words like “monitor”, “download” and “website” are already pretty key terms in his vocabulary; which I find pretty impressive.

We have a big pile of books for him to work through but there are loads of others we can get once he’s done those. We can get him charity shop books, Amazon books and second-hand books from friends. He’s enjoying reading, so why not encourage it?

I’ve had the opportunity to help a number of people this week, from people who had problems with the anti-virus on their computer, to others who’s phone had just stopped working. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fix everyone’s problems, some were just too great. I like the fact that I can help people sometimes, not that I’m a miracle worker, just that sometimes I can bring my experiences to bear. There are a number of computer services Orange County all the way to Madagascar, but sometimes it’s not an organisation you need, it’s someone who’ll listen to your problem and try their best to help you out.

The thing about computers is that they’re pretty complicated pieces of machinery, more complex than a car is. Yet, when your carburettor blows up, you don’t really expect to fix it yourself do you?

It’s been great to watch Arthur start learning to read on his own over the last few months. We started with a few words that he could interject when we’re reading a story and thanks to the Ladybird books we’re moving down a path where he’s learning to read all on his own. As you can expect, he’s learning as he goes along and it’s going to be some time before he can read words like jodhpurs or mesothelioma; but as long as it’s about Peter and Jane and they’re jumping, walking the dog or playing; he can pretty much manage on his own.

In other Arthur news, we’ve decided to move him out of his nursery after he told us that he’s been slapped, smacked and called lazy by one of the teachers (who incidentally owns the school). How can they treat a 3-year old like that? You can imagine how worked up we are about it. He’s been getting more and more upset about going to school, which we thought was out of place; as he’s usually happy to go and be left anywhere. We quizzed him over the weekend and managed to get the details out of him, though he was reluctant to talk about it at first. So, now it’s off to look for a new place for him. Who would have expected such treatment out of a Montessori school?

And in our “you’ll find anything online” corner, here’s a great snippet from Gizmodo; a bra that changes shape based on your body temperature. Here’s how they describe it:

The upcoming Smart Memory Bra by Lisca lingerie senses a woman’s arousal through her body’s heat, then squeezes her boobs together accordingly. We ask, does a pushup bra really need an off switch?

The integrated memory foam bra reshapes under the influence of heat to enhance cleavage, making a woman more desirable when she’d like to be desirable. Or, you know, when she’s just a little sweaty.

They then describe an interesting scenario where the plan can backfire ending up with everyone at the party fighting over each other and hanging from the ceiling fans. It will be interesting to see if this makes it to market. At least it’s a better idea than the Husband Hunting Bra …