Sitting on a train

Hello! I’m sorry it’s been so long since I last wrote. SO much has happened and I haven’t been able to find time to bring you fully up to date… In fact I’m not going to have time now but I can drip-feed some teasers for the moment and follow up on them shortly.

I’m currently sat on a train coming out of London, having given a presentation on my analysis of pathways to Net-Zero carbon emissions in the UK Energy sector (that’s the kind of stuff I do for a job by the way…). I’m sat next to my best friend of about 16 years (we’re both laughing that it’s been that long). We’ve also just found out that after 4.5 years of working together, that is to be no more. Unfortunately the company we both work for have decided that there is no scope for sub-team managers in the new structure of the team and so he is (criminally, in my opinion) surplus to requirements. If anyone finds themselves in need of a power analyst, model builder or all round good egg; do let me know…

I guess the upside is that it does mean that I’ve managed to keep my job, although the scope of the role will change a bit as a result. I’ve also managed to get a job offer from another company because I started looking when I knew I was at risk and so now I have to make a decision between the two. Longer hours in London for more money or more time at home with my family for less, any suggestions? If anyone has ever managed to put a £/h value to spending time with their 3-year-old son they’re a better analyst than me!

Christmas is also approaching and we’re all quite excited about that. Although having very little sugar at home (for both healthy eating and PCOS reason) limits, severely, the number of Christmas items I can write about compared to last year. I do intend to review the NOMO advent calendar if anyone has any views on that.

Rehearsals for Seussical The Musical are going well although I’m feeling pretty stressed about it. There’s still so many lines/songs/dances to learn. We’ve managed to sell well over 200 tickets so far though so it’s going to be exciting. I’ll be honest the rehearsal schedule has been one of the main reasons I’ve struggled to find blogging windows recently. Please do have a look at this website ( https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/st-peter-players) if you’re interested to come along and haven’t booked yet! One of the most exciting aspects is it looks like Piglet will be getting his own cameo in the show, as my son naturally. He’s very excited but he’s completely in love with the theatre groups and I can only imagine what it will do for his self-confidence (not that he really lacks any) to get comfortable with ‘performing’ in front of ~100 people from the age of 3! We’ll have to see how he copes with the discipline to be in the right place at the right time, especially coupled with the late nights!

In other news, we had a unfortunate incident with an Indian takeaway where both Piglet and I struggled with a milk reaction for several days afterwards. It was my local Indian restaurant and although we haven’t eaten there many times, I’ve been happy with the experience in the past. Obviously I don’t know for certain exactly what was in it and how the mistake happened, but it seems fairly clear that I hadn’t eaten anything else that I hadn’t made from scratch in the days either side. I feel guilty that I haven’t done anything about it yet. I don’t really know how to address it with them but while it was a pain for us; I realise it could have been far worse for someone else. Also I’m sure they’d rather that I flagged it up to them than some health and safety inspector.

I need to do a proper review but Oatly have released an ice cream selection. I’ve only tried one of them so far but I’m very impressed! Other things we’ve been eating a lot of so far is buckwheat. The low carb seed alternative to grains such as quinoa and couscous has given us a list of alternatives (from bread to salads etc…) to meals we’d been having previously.

Losing weight it turns out is expensive. I’ve had to buy almost an entire new wardrobe! I knew I’d made progress but I think it’s taken me by surprise how much I’ve physically changed in the last few months. I don’t think I look that different. But when I look at my shirts from 6 months ago they look like tents on me now. It got to the point where both my work trousers and shirts were hanging off me. I always started the new eating regime to feel better in myself rather than with an aim to get to a certain weight or end goal. As a result I didn’t weight myself at the beginning and I haven’t weighed myself more than once in the last 4 months. Despite that, I’m pretty sure I’ve lost about 2 stone from where I used to regularly fluctuate around and I’m buying trousers that are about 4 inches smaller around my waist than what is otherwise in my wardrobe. So I guess I know it has worked. I think I’m probably at around about the level I’m happy with now so next I just need to find a way to maintain it.

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On the other driver of the diet: my wife’s endometriosis, the surgery has helped but we understand a bit more about what’s going on now. Especially from a post-surgery MRI. As it turns out, she’ll need more surgery which is scheduled in for early 2020. She’s been referred to a specialist who’s area is in surgery of this kind and the first appointment was very encouraging. So I hope that means things will get better. One of the things we’re dealing with, it turns out, are endometrioma which are cysts of endometrial tissue within the ovaries. This starts to explain some of the fertility issues but also gives us a very clear step forward in helping with the pain and helping with future fertility. I’ll write more about this at some point.

I think that will do for now. I’m sorry that it’s been so long since I’ve been able to update you all. I will get more time to write once we get to the end of this rehearsal schedule and there are definitely some updates around Christmas that I’d like to do.

Toodlepips x