January 2025 Starters - Onwards and Downwards

[meatyryvita]

Thread 12 right here losers!

It’s November!
I have some shoes to return/swap for a larger size. I also need to find somewhere to get alterations done - I have a size 14 leather wrap skirt, which was also an investment piece, and if I can get the snap buttons moved I could wear it again.
Going to cook an aubergine parmigiana for dinner tonight. And prep some stuff for tomorrow.
Sun is shining so better get a move on.

How was the Halloween party @PenelopesPursuitPrevails? Amazing news in the duffle coat!

@Jinsyour day sounds fab, I was born in Liverpool, but left when I was 8. We used to go back regularly when my grandparents were alive but haven’t been for about 10 years, I really want to go back. Have a great day! How the side effects aren’t bad. I need to jab, will do that on Monday, I’m on 7.5 but it doesn’t appear to be doing much atm. I need to sort my head out!

@DGonMJskirt sounds beautiful! I have some leather culottes in a 16 , I need to find someone too, I love them, there are no belt loops or anything..

@MJalltheway so glad you’ve had a brilliant time and your day today sounds wonderful, enjoy and you know that whatever had gone off will come back so be sanguine!!

@2025istheyeari well remembered! It was very impressive, they had obviously invested hugely in people, props, decorations. I could see that the ticket cost had been invested in the event.

But ..... it wasn't for us really. The people in costume and stage make up were very very loud, shreiking, swearing (a lot) and doing things like grabbing your coat, getting really close - right in your face. There must have been 30 of them along the way. Both of my DC are ND so they were glad when we reached the exit. The route was through woods and a yew maze as well as up and down turrets, emerging onto ramparts.

It was such a contrast to the thing we went to last year, in a stately home with a travelling theatre company which was fun, funny and very genteel by comparison. Dinner en route was the highlight tbh 😂.

I have an unexpectedly free weekend so I suppose I should get on and sort out my cupboards ahead of Christmas.

Might do a bit of Vinting, bundling up items that haven’t sold.

I had considered spending the weekend applying for a promotion at work. I am being leant on to go for it. I could do it. However, it would only work out about £200 a month net pay increase for a whole load of extra responsibility. I am sitting very comfortably at the moment with a lovely manager and a fantastic work life balance. I’m sixty but still learn new things every day in current role. On the other hand, the higher salary would improve my Final Salary pension payout significantly.

Happy weekend! Have just been for a 9km run with my friend in the autumn colours! So beautiful out there! Have a Halloween dance festival to go to this afternoon, so expecting my steps to be high today!!

Another who has had a tough week food wise, but am clinging on to my maintenance weight. Does anyone want to be a little accountable on here with me for a few weeks? Sounds like a few of us who need to refocus.

I'm going to go back to no booze during the week - that's crept in over half term and no chocolate at all for a few weeks. That is it really - it's not difficult, just about making different choices. Mainly because eating chocolate doesn't actually make me feel good but I'd also quite like to get below my maintenance low ahead of Christmas.

@Thelittlestranger count me in on the accountability challenge! I think I’ve got complacent although this little gain has come out of nowhere as I’ve been pretty sensible over the last week.

@2025istheyeari there’s something special about Liverpool. I’ve championed it for ages, all through the years when people wouldn’t consider visiting. Now of course it’s hugely popular, with Liverpool One, the Baltic Triangle and all the changes around Pier Head making it a completely different experience. I’m not keen on the new stuff personally, I love the old buildings and passageways and most of all the Georgian Quarter. That is a significant improvement - it was burnt out cars and prostitutes back in my day and now there are pavement cafes and smart bars. 🤣. Luckily some of the old haunts are still there.

We survived Halloween unscathed. Not even one tiny witch appeared. It’s DS2’s birthday so we always used to go overboard but now we can’t even be bothered to bring the motion activated life size dancing skeleton downstairs 🤣

@Thelittlestranger me too. I'm still only drinking on social occasions and don't have a sweet tooth, for me it's portions and the snacking.

@PenelopesPursuitPrevails I really love how seasonal supermarket selection is over here. Not the American style everything available all the time flown in from across the world. But when it's asparagus season, it's asparagus season, every shop full of asparagus. And then suddenly it's finished and replaced with something else. Now of course it's pumpkins and all kinds of root vegetables. I'm waiting for my favourite one, https://www.princedebretagne.com/en/our-vegetables/turnip-rooted-chervil
Saw some but they were not too nice yet. It's delicious roasted. This evening we will have home made sweet potato gnocci with funnel chantarelle sauce.

Those look interesting @HeidiLite . I like the description - chestnuts and potatoes. I don't think I have ever seen them here.

I really try to buy seasonally and always try not to buy things shipped a long way. M&S are very bad at buying in things from a long way away when they don't need to. This week for instance, tenderstem brocolli was from Kenya - not in my life.

I've made a big effort in the cooking dept this week, seasonal soups and slow cooked things in the oven for hours (because I am wfh). I've made roasted cherry tomato soup this morning because I had loads of tomatoes and a focaccia stuffed with Emmental, dolcelate and parmesan (some of the cheese needed using up). Fortunately DS is at home and a couple of his mates will no doubt pop in and polish off the bread at least.

Lots of very autumnal plans. @PenelopesPursuitPrevails that Halloween thing sounds like something dh and dd1 would
love and me and dd2 would hate. Dd1 is out for her third Halloween party in 3 days (oh to be 16 again).

@Zempy job is a tough one. Would the stress levels be much higher? The boost to the pension pot is not nothing and if you are being strongly encouraged to go for it then me personally would look at it from a risk vs reward pov. I was asked if I wanted to still be on promotion track the other day (it would be a 2/3 year lead time) but the pay rise vs the stress wasn’t worth it and my pension is dc so impact of that would be minimal.

I appear to be ill again - just another cold. Poor mr Jane has had the same thing for 3 months and he’s usually pretty hardy. So after 3 lovely days I am sofa surfing and feeling blah. My mums family bday party tomorrow so I need to be better for that as I am the hostess with the mostest.

I did have a little teary moment yesterday as we unexpectedly got dd2s prom dress - she is my anxious introverted baby who hates being ‘girly’ and hides herself from attention. But we saw a dress which was exactly her thing and she tried it on and she looks beautiful and more importantly comfortable and happy - her grin was massive. And it was dead cheap ;)

Thanks @myladyjane. Yes, the new role is two grades higher and I would be managing staff, which I don’t have to do atm. It’s more of a “the buck stops here” strategic role, whereas right now I am in a professional but operational role.

I think I have talked myself out of it. I have a side hustle that I could step up to earn more, and might not be able to continue with that if I were promoted.

@Thelittlestranger I’m in for accountability too please, great idea!!

@PenelopesPursuitPrevailsoh no, what a shame, sorry to hear that. It sounds pretty brutal…

@HeidiLiteooh they do sound amazing. I’m making pumpkin soup tomorrow, I try to buy seasonally where I can but like Penelope says, some of our supermarkets are shocking. Ooh the soup and bread sound delicious .

@Zempydefinitely worth thinking about and weighing up pros and cons, good luck.

@myladyjane not again, poor you😣, hope you feel better for the party tomorrow. Aah that’s so lovely, bless her, bet she looks fabulous!

@Zempy speaking as someone who is now drawing her LG pension I wish I’d been a) full time and b) gone for the promotion that was in the bag as it had been offered to me before I left. Mine was based on final salary though as I froze it and it may not help the career average funds as much.

As I’m now nearing 62 I can also say that after turning 60 I escalated my ‘fuck it’ approach to virtually everything and if the same happens to you once the shiny new 60 badge has faded then you may end up taking early retirement and living your best life. So follow your gut instincts.

@myladyjane sorry to hear you’re unwell again. It is such a drag, I hope you’re feeling better tomorrow.

I’m also feeling sub par, I wonder if whatever bug is going around is one that has a second wind. Dizzy, sinus headache, knackered and generally achy here. I also keep getting very hot. I got very hot at this thing last night and then very cold as I was clammy and it was outside.

My bread is in the oven, all plans of productivity abandoned and I’m under a blanket with my book.

I must sort out my settings on mnet. When the box to post actually loads it keeps taking me to post no one rather than post no 681 so I can’t see other people’s replies.

Sorry @myladyjane and @PenelopesPursuitPrevails are poorly. It’s that time of year I think.

So much for trying to be careful with money for a month or so - I’ve just booked a holiday for May 2026. We’re off to the glitz and glamour of Lara Beach. Normally we look for a smallish hotel with limited entertainment, no water park and no kids club but there weren’t many of them to choose from so we’re going to have to make do.

It feels good to have something to look forward to. Heading off to Liverpool shortly so watch out phantoms - I’ll have my stick with me!

I cannot function properly if I don't have some holidays to look forward to. Just finished summer holiday bookings (AirBnB and 2 different hotels), we're going to Corsica. And now looking for options for next October half term.

Ooh have found my people again with holiday talk! We’ve booked next summer too, off to Brazil! Next Oct half term we want to go to South Korea, just waiting for flights to come out

Ooh always wanted to go to Korea. South. North would be interesting for sure but not brave enough for that, may not get back out.
I'm thinking Cyprus for October if we just want to have a week in the sun. Or maybe some city trip, Rome or Firenze or Sevilla.

Woe. Brazil! That sounds amazing.

I’m looking at Cyprus for next autumn as I’ve never been but won’t be booking yet. We may be able to squeeze a week in June and it’ll probably be a Greek island. Possibly Crete.

Why am I up so early? Side effects hit me around 3.30 am. 😢. At least I was ok for my ghost walk which was amazing. It’s one part of the city I’ve never seen as it’s always seemed so creepy. Might brave going back in daylight

We've been to Cyprus before, it was our worst holiday ever and the only time in my life I wa actually checking plane tickets to come back early.
Nothing to do with Cyprus, the place was lovely. But DS was 15 months old and a total pain in the backside. He literally whined every second, refused to sleep. Refused to eat. Wanted to walk around but could not walk that well yet, so we had to even eat in shifts while the other walked with him. Hated the sand. Hated everything.

He loves when we tell him this story now. Ooh mum tell me again how I went waaaahhh the whole week 😂

But we thought that we should go back and get some more pleasant memories.

Morning losers, nice to read about 2026 holiday plans.

I like to have something booked to look forward to too, currently I’ve got Sweden in December and Venice for the carnival in February. I’ve been to both places before, been to the carnival three times over the last 20 years. DC are coming with me for both trips and an Italian friend is joining us in Venice. We met about 20 years ago when I lived in Italy for a while and I haven’t seen her since before COVID so I am really looking forward to it.

Beyond that I have no idea, partly because I don’t want to assume that my DC will want to holiday with their Mum in the summer, no pressure at all but I don’t want to broach the subject yet tbh. I quite fancy an Italian yoga retreat somewhere luxurious if it is just me. I did one years ago in Umbria and loved it.

No scale movement here, according to nutracheck I have lost 1lb between 2nd October and 2nd November, I have no words really. None at all.

I hope you’re feeling better @Jins

My holiday plans so far include two city breaks to Salzburg and Cologne (with each DC separately) and five days in Marrakesh with a good friend in April.

I have been looking at Nile cruises - anyone done that?

@Zempy we went to Cologne last October and loved it! The brauhauses have a lovely atmosphere and great food. The staff are really welcoming too. The cable car across the river is worth your time, and DD and DH both climbed to the top of the cathedral and enjoyed that.

Morning all! Lovely to see the holiday plans, you got me thinking… we’ve got skiing booked at Easter, but nothing else so far. I really want to do more travelling, we’ve not been doing much in the last few years. Skiing is just so expensive! We all love it, but it does deplete the holiday budget so much.
We've been tentatively talking about doing the 3 peaks next year - not the 24-hour challenge, I hasten to add! In 3 separate trips instead. But I am finally in a position again that I can do things like that, so I’m very keen! Alternatively, I’d love to go on a horseriding holiday… Also wondering about going further afield, now that the kids are older… so much to do/see!

For next year we have Abu Dhabi for February- my sister is diplomat so living there for next 3 years. I am not a fan of the region but it will be nice and sunny and of course no hotel costs. Then for April we are thinking of Firenze, just a long weekend. And at some point a girl's weekend somewhere with a friend, probably London.
Summer Corsica, have booked Porto Vecchio for a week, then a day near Corte and will finish in Calvi.
Oct probably Cyprus then but easyjet flights not bookable yet for end of October.