Weekly Update

 A weekly update that is turning into a monthly update. I'm busy - no surprise there!

I started another FutureLearn Course.  Only 3 weeks long, a few hours each week - I've managed 1 week so far, so need to catch up on that.

My work with Educational Freedom is ongoing, as people are always asking for support, as well as the behind the scenes stuff that needs to happen.  I've been contacted by a journalist this morning too, so I need to write a bit for her.

And my working as part of the EHE Alliance is ongoing.  Thankfully I'm part of a bigger team there, but I still need to give my input and am unable to cruise along.

Have I mentioned on this blog I get cysts? Well, I do.  Went to the docs years ago about it and was told "you're just a cystic lady".  Gee, thanks.  This week one burst in my groin, so I've been unable to do any walking (which is reflected in my weight) as I've had an open wound.  It's finally starting to heal today though, yey!, so hopefully won't be too long before I can walk my dog again.  On the positive side, the nurse suggested I may have a condition called Hidradenitis suppurativa or HS, and has arranged a phone appt with a different GP next week, so I can be referred to dermatology.  There actually isn't much they can do, but if I have a diagnosis I can keep antibiotics to hand, so I can treat myself when and as needed, rather than having to go through the rigmarole of making doctor/nurses appointments.  This is another condition that benefits if you are not overweight, so yet another reason why I need to lose weight.

I have finished a couple of books since I last posted too.  Reading really does destress me, so I need to get around to writing those reviews.  Unfortunately, my kindle is still in my car from when I went to the docs last week and I cba to get it out when it was cold and wet.  A sunny day here today, though, so no more excuses.

So back to my weekly update.  Here's my graph for the past 2 months.

Very up and down, but (apart from this past week) there's a definite downward trend.  Once I can start walking again, I need to make sure I go out every day (especially on busy days where I'm tutoring!).

I am feeling strangely motivated this morning though, despite not being able to walk.  Over the weekend I binge-watched Strong on Netflix.  It's about 10 personal trainers and 10 fairly ordinary women who compete to win $500,000 by getting physically and mentally strong.  I particularly liked the fact there was one contestant who was my weight at the start, and she did really well on the show.
So, this morning, I did 1 sit up, 1 push up and 1 Russian twist; tomorrow I will do 2 of each and I will continue as it.  I didn't want to start with 10 or 20 of each in case I found it demoralising - and that was a good call!  The Russian Twist, I could do.  The Push-up I went on my toes (usually I do them on my knees) and managed it.  The sit-up, though.... the one exercise that I could do comfortably... Well, I could do a crunch (I got halfway up), but I don't think it qualifies as a sit-up.  I tried again, getting a bit more momentum into it, and still only got halfway up.  As I said, it's a good thing I didn't try and start doing too many.  Tomorrow I will do two of each, and my strength will improve.

3 Engineering Activities in 3 Branches of Engineering

As it is British Science Week this week, my local Home Education Group run an annual Science Fair.
Last year, this was the last thing we went to before Lockdown, and this year it's all online.  Due to my background, I was asked if I could do something 'engineeringy' and I've decided to share it with you in case you find it useful.

I've split this up into an Introduction to Engineering plus three dives into different branches of engineering.  I would guesstimate that each branch of engineering (Introduction Video, Specific Video plus 3 activities) would take approximately an hour each, but obviously it depends on the age of the child, their concentration/persistence levels and how interested they are; and I'd only expect you to watch the introduction video once. 

I anticipate that most KS2/3/4 can do all the practicals (KS1 can with help) and KS3/4 can do the worksheets (KS2 with help). Each video is only short, so please pause it after each section and come back to it before starting the next activity.

I am not a natural presenter, and you can see that talking to a screen is not natural for me.  I also had to learn some very basic video-editing skills, so please forgive the lack of professionalism.  Even simple things like keeping my hands in one place, meant there's various continuity errors, lol.  And finally, in order to publish everything on this blog, I had to learn how to attach pdfs to blogger and create a YouTube account!  Despite my engineering background (honestly, I do have a Masters from Oxford in it) I'm a bit of a technophobe and very old skool - I've only been using Google Docs for the past month or so!

As there are practicals for you to do at home, you may want to check that you have the necessary materials/supplies listed below before you start; they are all available at a supermarket, if you don't have them at home already.

Video Transcript, if needed, HERE

**Please Note: Some mobile devices are not showing the videos correctly or at all.  You will either need to switch to the Web Version (there's a tiny button at the bottom of the post) or watch the videos directly from YouTube: https://youtu.be/Rp4kgGoukKY

Introduction to Engineering

Print out Word Search HERE

Civil Engineering

(a) spaghetti and marshmallows or jelly tots

(b) 50+ straws, sticky tape, sheets of paper, glue stick, pen

(c) print out worksheet and separate answers HERE

Mechanical Engineering

(a) 2 kitchen roll tubes (or more toilet roll tubes, to make it taller); 1 straw, string/ribbon, yoghurt pot or paper box

(b) print out picture of cogs HERE, stick to thick cardboard (as thick as possible - it will be even easier to do if you have 3 or four sheets of card stuck together) and cut out shapes; 4 kitchen roll tubes, 2 straws, string/ribbon, yoghurt pot

(c) print out worksheet and separate answers HERE

Electrical Engineering

(a) print out sheets of paper circuits HERE and cut them out, or make your own plus print out of Video Answers HERE

(b) D batteries (perhaps taken from a torch), aluminium foil, electrical tape, light bulb (perhaps taken from a torch)

(c) print out worksheet and separate answers HERE

I Spy, I Saw Her Die by Ian C. P. Irvine

I have read a few of Ian C. P. Irvine's books before, and this one didn't disappoint.  In fact, though I only had the first book, I had to immediately buy the second and read it all, so I could get to the conclusion of this gripping story.

I Spy, I Saw Her Die is a book about cyber crime and how a man's life is turned upside down when he remotely sees something he shouldn't have done.  Her death could bring down the British government and he finds himself on the run from the secret service with nowhere to hide.

The blurb says:

When Ray Luck - a top cyber security expert - accidentally stumbles upon a devastating secret while surfing the web, the lives of girlfriend and himself are immediately put under threat!

Forced into hiding, and given only three days to live, Ray is a man with not one, but several missions: to save the life of his girlfriend who has been kidnapped by the security services; to prevent a terrorist cyber-attack destroying London; and to bring one of the most powerful men in the world to justice for the savage killing of an apparently innocent woman - a murder powerful people in the British Government are determined to cover up at all costs!

Only Ray can stop them all.

But as the clock starts to tick, he discovers that nothing is as it seems. Who is the real enemy? And who can he trust? Unless he finds out soon, will Ray’s luck finally run out?

I could not put this book down.  I read books 1&2 over a weekend and it was time wisely spent.  This thriller, not only makes you think about whether what you see is real or not, it also makes you think about the government and whether they are indeed the ones who hold the power in this country.  Finally, I like the open-ended question as to whether Ray Luck was intentionally shown what he saw???

If you like books that are thrillers, and are about crime, cyber crime, politics, secret service, secret membership... this is the book for you.

Happiness is a Smoking Gun by Alaine Allister

This is H in my list of A-Z of Fiction Titles.

Happiness is a Smoking Gun is a cosy murder mystery about a woman called Clarissa who decides to start her own newspaper and her first story will be solving the murder of the town mayor.

The Blurb says:

Out of work reporter Clarissa Spencer is being stalked by a stray cat. She can’t cook to save her life, her garden is an overgrown mess and her chocolate chip cookie addiction is out of control. Then to top it all off, she gets struck by lightning!

Clarissa thinks she has it bad - until she learns the town mayor has been shot to death and his widow has been falsely accused of killing him. Okay, so it could be worse...

Clarissa makes it her mission to expose the true killer before her arch nemesis - an infuriatingly handsome reporter from the city newspaper - can. Unfortunately, solving a murder is easier said than done...especially with the lunacy in Clarissa's life!

This wasn't a bad book and story, however (as you can see by the front cover [and which I didn't see when choosing the book on my kindle]) there is a witchiness about the book.  Now, you know if you have read my other reviews, I don't mind a bit of paranormal or supernatural, but in this book it just seemed unnecessary, and her new powers didn't actually help her solve the crime either.  I'm guessing, because this is the first book in a series, it will be a bigger part of the plot in future books, however, for me, I don't feel inclined to read the rest.

A good book to while away a few hours, and (unusually for me), I didn't predict who the killer was going to be.

 

Weekly Update

Today: 93.8kg
Last Week: 94.4kg
Weekly Difference: 0.6kg loss
Starting: 94.2kg
Total Difference: 0.4kg loss

Going in the right direction this week!

This week has been busy again - when is it not - but I did manage to find some time for myself.  I finished one book, and read two more (that were a 2-book series) over the weekend that had me gripped.  I hadn't planned to stay up reading, but all of a sudden the book had finished and it was 2am this morning...

General HE stuff is still on going.  I chaired the meeting last week that I was worried about and it went well, so I won't be so nervous next time.  'Normal' helping people continues as it does every day.  And I said I would do some videos about Engineering for British Science week.  The organiser has started asking for info and resource lists etc, so has given me a kick up the backside to actually get around to doing them.  I've done my intro video, and planned what I'll say for the other 3 vids, and now I just need to get all the resources together and actually film them.  I also said I'd do a brief worskheet of the theory, so I need to put a few questions together about them too.  But I've started, and that's the main thing.

DD1 had her Spring school report today, and that was really good.

And DD2 made this cake at the weekend, so both girls are doing well.

Recommendation: Out of the Box Catering

Valentine's Day came and went at the weekend, and I like nothing more than an Afternoon Tea.  If you ever want to get me a 'special meal', the poshest afternoon tea, preferably with cheap bubbly (I don't like champagne, would much rather a big bottle of lambrini) would be me happy for ages.

Rather than wait for my other half to pick up on the million of hints, I decided it was easiest if I booked it myself. I have seen Out of the Box Catering recommended on Facebook, and though the food looks fab, it has always seemed on the pricy side.  I have considered it for catering events as that seems more reasonable to me (I'm planning my 40th birthday next year, but all the venues that have got back to us so far, have said we have to use their in-house caterers).

Anyway, I don't usually make a big fuss about Valentine's Day - my husband and I love each other, and don't ned a special day to say it - but in Lockdown, when this past year has been a bit rubbish, I wanted to do something a bit special.  Out of the Box Catering were doing a Valentine's Day hamper, and I decided to go for it - and I was very glad I did.  I also bought the kids' hamper for my girls.

First of all, when it arrived, it came in these lovely hessian bags.  I was not expecting that at all - when I have ordered from other places, it has always been boxes, or maybe boxes in a paper bag.  This delivery was presented really well, and we have a reusable bag to keep.

Then, when I opened the bag, not only did it contain boxes of food, but it also had a cake stand for the afternoon tea, and individual place settings of plate, cutlery, napkin, salt and pepper - everything you could need!  It made me dream of warmer weather when we could order a hamper, and then go for a walk with the kids and the dog, and take a picnic.  (Picnics are another thing I love - I chose to have a picnic with friends to celebrate my 21st birthday. I don't know why I love them so much? I suppose I'm a romantic at heart - either that, or I read too much Enid Blyton as a kid!)

Even within the individual boxes, the food was presented beautifully, with a fresh side salad too.  Inside the kids' boxes were simpler flavours of sandwiches and instead of vegetable crisps, they had a bag of cheese puffs.  We also had separate boxes with canapes, sweet treats and a cream tea.  I laid it all out on the table, proper fancy like, and it looked a feast! 

So would I recommend? Unequivocally, yes.

It is on the expensive side, compared to other Afternoon Tea Deliveries, however, it is definitely worth it.  The taste of everything was beautiful, and all the little extras (I forgot to mention earlier, that there were also individual heart chocolates with the cutlery!) make it worthwhile.

Weekly Update

My weight has gone up this week.  Which is a bit annoying, as I've been getting better at eating mindfully and stopping before I'm too full.  Yesterday we had an Afternoon Tea for Valentine's Day and I was able to stop eating (though I could have eaten more) when satisfied, and then was able to eat the rest for tea.  I only needed a yoghurt to supplement it and I was done for the day.

However, I haven't been out for a walk as often as I should, and perhaps that is doing more than I thought.  We think our pup is in her first heat, so have kept her inside (and it's been soooooooo cold that I cba to go for a walk by myself).

I also had a lot of fried food on Friday.  DD1 was doing a project for French about Djibouti and wanted to make some food from there - sambusas (bit like less spicy samosas).  I don't deep fry very often, so was going to make the most of having my deep fat fryer out, so DD2 decided she wanted to make doughnuts.  So, Friday and Saturday ate lots of food that I don't normally, that didn't seem to have an impact on the individual days, rather made my weight jump up this morning.

Our veg box is due this week, so hopefully I'll start eating Veggies Most again.  I am doing well with the water.  I'm using my smaller 70oz/2litre bottle this week, and seem to be refilling it all the time.