Virgin Radio ran a competition this morning asking the question ‘would you rather?’.

My friends daughter actually won this competition and her prize is an electric guitar signed by Snow Patrol! Needless to say she is very pleased!

Her winning question was - ‘Would you rather Jeremy Clarkson for Prime Minister or Gene Hunt (Ashes to Ashes) as Head of the Police?’

So my question is, which would you rather? It’s a really tricky question and to be honest I can’t decide!

I haven’t lost a pound this week but neither have I gained any either.

So what’s gone wrong? Well I have no idea, I have been sticking to my 1400 Kcals a day, I went to the gym twice and I did some walking. I did go to a party on Saturday night which had a free bar and a buffet but to be honest I hadn’t lost any weight before I went.

Any ideas anyone? Surely I should have lost something?

  or  

The gym I attend provides you with a free copy of the Daily Mail so recently I have been reading it. Now normally the Sun would be my newspaper of choice but now I am quite enjoying the Daily Mail.

Does this mean I am getting old and turning into my parents?

I am finding the Daily Mail particually interesting as I agree with all they are writing about the state of this country. What with the cost of food and petrol ever increasing and the state of our prisons. However that is a whole different topic all together!

So at the tender age of 32 should I be enjoying the Daily Mail so much that I would prefer it to the Sun?

St. George’s Day is celebrated on April 23rd. The life of St. George, the patron saint of England, is shrouded in legend and fable.

Most famously he slayed a ‘dragon’ in Libya, and saved a sacrificial maiden. He distributed a reward amongst local villagers.

St. George held a senior post in the Roman Army, before being executed for protesting about the treatment of Christians under the rule of Emporer Dioclesian.

His popularity spread throughout Europe from the 10th Century onwards, following stories of his chivalrous actions.

English Heritage has launched a campaign to dispel the apathy surrounding St George’s Day and encourage more people to celebrate their patron saint.

A survey by the Government agency revealed that 82 per cent of the public knows that St George’s Day falls today, but fewer than one in five actually celebrates the occasion.

I think we should have a bank holiday just like the Irish do on St Patricks Day.

It was good to see the English spirit alive and well walking to work this morning. I saw vans with the England flag hanging out their windows, my local sandwich shop had England flags and banners outside and I saw a pub covered in England flags.

I am proud to be English and I wish we would be given the opportunity to celebrate it as a country.

Thank you to Burkes Peerage and The Telegraph for some of this post.

I broke one of my most important dieting rules today, it was beautiful sunshine outside and I didn’t go for my walk….. Bad Nici I hear you all cry….BUT……I did something far more exciting…..

I got a new phone! A nice shiny Nokia N95! I had a pay as you go phone and was getting fed up with running out of credit and not being able to access my voicemail and also having no credit for an emergency so I decided to go back on contract.

It does everything you can imagine! I can access my googlemail very easily, I can chat on MSN Messenger and Skype and even visit my favourite websites.

It’s the most beautiful phone EVER!

I have lost 3 and half Ibs!

I have strictly stuck to 1400 Kcals a day without any real problems. I have been eating a lot more veg and salad which of course hardly has any calories at all in them so I have then been able to eat something slightly less healthy with them like fishfingers! I have been keeping a food diary so I can keep an eye on my calorie consumption and this has really helped, although a few of my friends have laughed at me when I got my pad out of my bag and wrote the calories a cup of tea has down!

I didn’t manage the walking five times like planned, I only went twice purely because the weather has been so rotten but I did go to the gym twice.

I am really pleased with my progress this week and hopefully next week will be just as good!

Synopsis from Amazon:

“The Pillars of the Earth” tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known; of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect - a man divided in his soul; of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame; and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother. A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett’s historical masterpiece.

My thoughts:

What a wonderful book!

Set in the twelfth century, Ken Follett tells what it would have been like to live in this time. The poverty, the living accomodations, the fighting were all told in great detail.

The characters were brilliantly written and the book flowed from one character to another very well. Some of the characters you couldn’t help but love but some, including one in particular was pure evil and another was very cunning in the worse possible ways.

Even though this book was a mammouth 1,075 pages long, I was still turning the pages as if it had only just begun. Ken Follett keeps your attention right to the last page and to be honest I didn’t want this book to end. I am going to miss it!

10/10

My son went out to the shed this morning to check on the mouse and unfortunately he had died.

My son came in crying his heart out, he went to school with big puffy red eyes.

So sad, poor little thing…..(the mouse and my son!)

Today is bin day and that is my son’s job so out he went this morning with the black bags from the dustbin. He keeps forgetting to get the bag right at the bottom so this morning I told him he really had too. He complained that it had lot’s of holes in it and had to put it in another bag.

When I got home from work I found a field mouse on my back door step where my cat had caught and killed it, I disposed of it and thought nothing more.

Later on I realised that my cat had set up camp watching the dustbin, she had been sitting there for around 3 hours when I decided I would go and see what the big deal was. I pulled out the bin, looked under it and found nothing. I then opened the bin and what was sitting there but a field mouse. I quickly shut the lid and ushered the cat indoors. I got the mouse out and set it free however he kept coming back in my garden and he was really shaking and looked like he had something wrong with his leg.

So I got a little tub and put some bird seed in it, put the mouse in there and covered him with tissue paper. He didn’t even try to escape. He was still shaking so I put him in the shed so the other cat’s close by couldn’t get him.

I really hope he is ok and won’t be there in the morning but I have a horrible feeling that he was injured and may die in the night.

They must have made a nest in the old bin bag at the bottom of my dustin when the bin was full and lid was open. I will make sure that the lid is firmly shut in future!

Yesterday I decided that the new me was long overdue so last night I had a bath and used my lovely smelling bubble bath and used my delicous vanilla body scrub, I then used a face scrub on my face and felt so much better after.

Today was the eating and exercising plan. I am now keeping a food diary of everything I eat as I have put on a bit of weight since giving up smoking and I am determined that 2008 is the year I am going to lose it!

I have also decided that on top of going to the gym twice a week I am also going to walk five times a week as well. So I strapped on the pedometer and started to walk my usual walk around the block but instead of turning left at the end of the road I decided to turn right and walk a way I haven’t walked before and I am so glad I did. There were beautiful houses and country lanes and beautiful countryside to look at. I really enjoyed listening to the birds and watching the squirrels climbing the trees.

I walked for 40 minutes and walked 3091 steps, I don’t know how this equates in calories but my legs and bum certainly ached when I arrived back home!

I am feeling really pleased with myself and weather permitting I am looking forward to my walk again tomorrow.

Next as I mentioned on Kell’s blog is the skincare and after hearing about her succesful day at Debenhams I think I may follow suit! Unfortunately it won’t be until pay day but it gives me lots of time to research!