16lbs and dropping

Well last weekend was a lazy, but interesting one. First as the title suggests I have now lost 16lbs, and Ian is well ahead with around 22lbs. It is very rewarding fitting into old clothes, and when I rest my chin on my hand at work….it feels smaller! Anyway, after watching many episodes of ‘Who do you think you are’ about US celebrities researching there family trees, I finally got around to starting my family tree, and wow is it addictive. I started with the grandparents and progressed from there, my Granddad’s side was luckily already there from another long lost relative doing the research. Interestingly on that side of the family we found that my granddad had 12 brothers and sisters (although some died very early, and some during World War I – their births spanned over a long period). I also found a photo of my great grandma, which was amazing – I later decided she spent her life pregnant, she couldn’t write and obviously liked birds from the photo. Now, the Scrimgeour side of my tree started off more difficult to find, until I found a Scottish ancestry web site that you could view the full images of births, marriages etc. So I got back to 1700 with the Scrimgeours, but only on the ‘Scrimgeour’ side, so still lots to do. I found out that there is a history of ‘gardeners’ in the family (my granddad was a gardener – worked for the Queen you know!), the photo shows the estate where my great granddad worked (shame he didn't own it). From looking at dates, my great granddad married his wife 2 months before their first child was born……Scandalous! What was also nice, a lady from Oxford contacted me telling me how her mum was evacuated to Skipton, North Yorkshire during WWII, where her best friend was my grandma (Nana)……small world. She is hunting for more photos. So after around 10 hours of researching, and many calls to my mum with exciting snippets of information, I left the ancestry alone. I actually suggested Ian play on his Xbox for once!

Unfortunately this week, Neo has not been well. We shall be talking him to the vets on Friday, as he was grumpy, and has now progressed to dribbling a lot, and struggling to eat food (although that is not stopping him from spending 15 minutes licking, slurping and drooling food everywhere). So we have prodded his mouth etc., and there is no sign of pain, so let’s hope it isn’t anything neurological related, and he has a sore tooth somewhere.

Ian and I were even more impressed this week, with our second attempt at a milk tart! Unfortunately it was for Ian to take to work, as he had promised everyone……so none for me. This time we bought a new flan baking dish (with a removable base – recommended), and it looked fantastic.