My appraisal went well, albeit starting slightly late. Another good year it seems - just a shame its not reflected as a whopping big payrise or similar! oh well...

I've been getting up early every day this week (and two days last week) to do fitness DVDs with G. Its been fun, although as this week has progressed I have got more and more tired, and this morning it has to be said I was a little ratty. Its good for my fitness (I'm not really focusing on losing weight or anything). In a sense, I just want more stamina (wink!).

Saying that, I have been cutting down on junk food lately (although I did have a whopping McDonald's meal last night to celebrate my appraisal). I have not had full-fat coke for ages - probably before Christmas when my tooth started playing up. I have definitely cut down on snacks, chocolates, sweets and cakes etc. I've also taken to eating a breakfast in the mornings before going to work in an attempt to control my blood sugar a bit better - no doubt that is a healthy move. I do struggle between lunch and dinner though. Dinner is usually a hearty affair - something nice G prepares through the day - and often followed by a desert. Also, I struggle a bit at night when I am always tempted by yogurts, crisps and sweets.

I have discovered I can manage quite happily on some low-fat products. Asda do a really nice low-calorie cloudy lemonade that I really like (I resorted to their Bitter Lemon for a while before realising quite how bitter it was!). I've also discovered Muller Light yogurts that don't seem to have an aftertaste anymore (I'm sure I tried them once before and they tasted foul!). Now the Muller Light yogurts come in scrummy chocolate flavours too! mmmmmmmmm! Add to that a healthy lunch (no Coke and no puddings) and some exercise most days of the week and I'm hoping I'm doing good things for my general health. I feel good, if a bit tired!

I really do love G you know. I've come to realise how much I take her for granted, and just how lovely she really really is. We celebrated her birthday recently and we had such a lovely time - I took her out for lunch - I think she really enjoyed it. Sometimes she seems to get a bit bored of me and starts to be a bit contemptuous of me (although I know I can be a bit annoying). It saddens me really because its like a chink in the relationship. I, on the other hand, have rather fallen in love with her again lately. If only we had more time we could really enjoy each other's company and do some interesting things together. Hmmmmm....

Memories: R, H and C all crawling out of bet at 6am to sit on the sofa and watch mum and dad make themselves look like idiots doing aerobics in front of the TV! Sweet!

Every few months I have this call with a colleague from abroad... its a 'mentoring' call. all-in-all they are pretty useful, but before each one I get all bent out of shape because I don't want to do the call and I'm afraid I'll have nothing to talk about! I mean - a whole hour of having nothing to talk about. Scary. Anyway, one is about to start in 3 minutes, so I'm writing here quickly to record this sentiment... I'm feeling a bit nervous ('cos this guy is a senior guy in this company) and I am planning to play the call by ear... no (or very little) prep... just, hopefully, 1 or 2 topics of conversation to raise when the call goes quiet...

scary.

Well - I'm no doubt reading this after the event and laughing! Until next time, that is ;-)

Oh, and an hour after the end of this call I have my annual appraisal (rescheduled from tomorrow morning!). That'll be fun, especially since I have this new found value for my job in the current economic climate. Lets just say I cannot afford to be made redundant!

I write as snow falls outside my office at the end of the corridor. Nothing that will settle I don't suppose, but still a seasonal pleasure. Following on from my last post, it is quite anticlimatic as the new year starts. I wonder what 2009 will bring? I resurrected the old pastime of including a letter to myself in the Christmas decorations box, summarising 2008 and anticipating 2009. We'll open that next year to find out what, if anything, has changed. We did something similar with Center Parcs too. These are the sorts of things kids remember and take with them as they grow.

This morning at 6am my alarm clock woke me. I prodded G to rouse her and together we dragged each other out of bed to stand in the lounge jumping around to an aerobics DVD. The very thought of it was exhausting as I lay there at 6am but I remember back to when I was a paper-boy as a youngster. I routinely got up at that time - and earlier - to do numerous paper rounds. They got me out of the house and kept me fit (to an extent) and I know that the thought of getting out of bed is usually much worse than actually getting out of bed. Anyway, once we were downstairs doing our thing everything was great. The preparations were not to tricky either - I made lunchboxes and prepared the breakfast table the night before, so we were all set to exercise and shower in the morning. I think things worked out fine. G and I are resolute that we will drag each other out of bed every weekday morning like this, to do some sort of fitness routine. I am not planning or scheduling any sort of anal routine, just 30-60 minutes of brisk exercise each morning to raise my level of fitness (and perhaps shed a few pounds or just a smidgen more!). Food wise I will be making a few changes. I've done this so many times in the past that I know I need to keep my changes to a reasonable and not anal level. For example, I'll be eating some sort of breakfast in the mornings now, after my shower. I'll be avoiding coca-cola like the plague, only having diet-coke where all other options are unavailable. Trouble is, I quite like a fizzy drink - so I've found low-calorie fizzy bitter lemon... quite a good substitute for Lemon Fanta actually! but without the sugar or the pricetag (and a bit more bitter!). I'll make my own lunch for work, and will not supplement with puddings or coke. If I buy anything it will be crisps, and preferably the baked variety. I found today that taking a muller fruit corner to work is quite effective too - much cheaper than they are at work and they serve as a perfectly adequate dessert. Otherwise, I'll eat a normal evening meal and then comes the hardest part... not snacking at night! I know (from past history) that snacking at night is the hardest part of my lifestyle to change. I'll try going cold-turkey with my only back-up plan being early nights in bed! I don't really want to eat rubbish before going to bed because I will probably just put on weight that way. hmmmmmm... I got G Wii Fit for Christmas this year, so we'll both be using that to monitor our energy levels and weight. Its got some good games on it too. Doing this exercise with G is working quite well actually - it gives us a bit of couple time (!!) and we have a common objective. I think it will do us both a bit of good.

As I sit here and ponder life, I look forward to going home and cozying up with a good movie in the evening, having a rest and gorging out on a great big bag of Peanut M&Ms!!! Of course, now I know I'm trying to eat more healthy I can't be doing that of an evening... except that if I stopped doing it altogether I'd become a pretty miserable sod and I would probably get so sad that I'd give up on eating healthily altogether and I'd 'fall off the wagon', reverting to eating crap every evening of the week! So I have a plan.... how about I allow myself one evening of eating crap and watching movies every fortnight? To have such a binge weekly would probably affect my overall consumption too much, and any less than fortnightly would leave me depressed. Once a fortnight I should have a good old-fashioned cozy-night-in-with-binge-evening!! Yeah - now that is a motivator! Its a bit like waiting for the weekend! Lets see if it works.

Anyway, as the new year starts I start to concentrate on the drudgery of life once again... same old work... same old life... same old money worries... same old same old...

What's 2009 gonna bring?! Economic crisis is inevitable. Will it affect me? Almost certainly.