Saturday, January 29, 2011

Happy Well Into The New Year

Crumbs, two months have shot by since my last missive. I have been meaning to scribble down something, but I guess I've been too tired, too out of time, and basically too lacking in anything interesting (not that that's stopped me before, as you'll know if you've read any of my past rubbish). OK, Happy New Year everyone, and with Groundhog Day almost upon us, let me poke my head towards springtime and see what I hope to be doing.

1. Continue to lose weight. I've hit the 36 lb. mark since joining Weight Watchers last September, and although I'm really scraping to lose a pound here and there over the past few weeks, I'm determined to keep on going. I want to hit the 40 lb loss mark by the beginning of March. Can I do it? I'll keep you posted!

2. Travel. I decided to celebrate my 25 lbs loss Weight Watchers Official Ribbon with a holiday featuring the Theme of Continuing Improved Health. I set my sights on Europe, specifically England and France, and began checking out airfares. It's pricey to travel at the best of times, but springtime travel was looking to be almost unaffordable. Suddenly, KLM appeared with a wonderful cheap airfare! Roughly $1,000 to fly to Amsterdam...but if I changed planes at Schiphol Airport and flew back to Birmingham, England, the price inexplicably dropped by over $300. Yippee! So I fly to Brum in early April, and can't wait to meet up with the wonderful Collins Family, featuring West Brom Albion guru Andy, fellow Weight Watcher Sandra, and their two lovely children Ben and Rachel. There WILL be fish & chips, but there will also be a great deal of walking about.

3. Walking About. I won't be spending six weeks wearing a ski boot thing for a fractured foot this year, and hope to assist my weight-loss attempts with some walking opportunities. England will present me with several rail trails worth trying out. The Nicky Line from Hemel Hempstead to Harpenden is about 7 miles in length. Nearby is the St. Albans Way, from St. Albans to Hatfield - about 8 miles in total. Weather permitting, I'll have a go at the Centurion Way from Lavant to Chichester, and my biggie will be none other than The Cuckoo Line which will see me tramping from Heathfield to Polegate in the south of the country. I really hope the weather is nice for all this. I have a couple of shorter rail trail walks planned for Paris as well. Yes, I'll post photos!

4. Paris FRANCE, that is. I've got my French Rail Pass, and have booked 4 nights for April in Paris. I plan on travelling a bit in the country by TGV (le Train Grande Vitesse, I think the spelling is), combined with trying out some Metro systems for the first time. Lille, Rennes, and Toulouse all have driverless mini-Metros which should be fascinating to explore. It sounds exactly like what Toronto should be building for its Transit City project, but don't get me started on THAT. I'm returning to Lyon as well for a day trip, and of course hope to actually explore a bit of the Paris Metro and see a bit of the city as well. To be honest, Paris isn't my favourite city - but I'm looking forward to giving it another try.

That takes me through the first quarter of 2011. Things to look forward to, and things to plan. I hope your New Year is off to a good start, and that there are fun things in store for each of you, somehow, somewhere, sometime.

NEXT: So What About July?