ZOWIE!!!

This week, folks, I want you to meet some of my dancing llamas. I talk about them a lot.  And they will be doing some quite extreme dancing today.

This is Miguel.  He's the joker of the pack:

This is Ricardo - my lead dancer and leg-warmer designer:

And this is Enrique - he's the brains of the outfit and the real llama in charge.  He is the llama version of Perry from Diversity.  Put simply - don't mess with him:

You know why they're all dancing like mad eejits today?  Well.  I'll tell you.

I've lost 5lbs!!!  Get your maracas out, people, this calls for a real celebration!!!  AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIBBBAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honestly, don't even ask me how it happened.  Something funny's going on.  I haven't really concentrated too much on dieting this week and I was poorly over the weekend so I did absolutely no exercise.  There's no reason at all why I should have lost more weight than normal.  Or, indeed, any weight at all.

My biggest surprise was that, upon learning of the tragic news of Wednesday, I didn't even attempt to consume my body weight in chocolate.  This is progress, ladies and gentlemen.  I took it on the chin, I held it in, I dealt with it - I channelled it somewhere slightly more productive (let's face it, that's why I started this blog in the first place) and I feel oddly better for it.  It's a bit peculiar.  But there you go.  5lbs.  That's a lot of uneaten chocolate.

For those of you who are interested in cumulative weight losses, I've lost 1 1/2 stone in eight weeks.  Which, eight weeks ago, I wouldn't have believed was possible.  In fact, I'm still not totally sure how I managed it.

There was a chap there tonight - Dave the Bloke has either moved groups or he's quit.  I hope he's moved groups.  He really seemed to be focussed and motivated.  But there was a chap there called Lee.  He looked like a sort of lovechild of Antony Cotton off've Coronation Street and Andy Bell off've Erasure.  At first I thought he was either new and one of those skinny people who don't need to lose any weight - but then as I saw him chatting to a load of the girls I thought perhaps he was just  a friend who'd tagged along before they all went out.  How wrong was I?  During the meeting, Andrea the Consultant handed him a special award, for having 100% attendance over the last twelve months - and for losing 8 1/2 stone!!!  Eight and a half stone!!  That's 119lbs to my American readers, and... ummm... just over 54kgs to my metric-loving readers.  She went on to ask him how losing weight has changed his life, and he said that he'd been accepted to do a 13mile charity walk over the summer, and also that he'd been accepted to do the Preston Guild half-marathon.  When she asked him what he'd have said a year ago if he'd been told he'd be running a half-marathon, he just said he would have laughed at them.  He also said that it had taken losing 8 1/2 stone for him to build up the confidence to start learning to swim, something he'd always wanted to do but been far too self-conscious to be seen out in public wearing so little.  Which oddly echoes the exact words I've said to my sister for years whenever she tells me I need to learn to swim.  I felt a bit emotional.

What a guy.  Let's hear it for Lee, everyone.

Oh, and just before I go, I must tell you about Mr Syn Free Sausage.  Officially the most camp butcher I have ever met.  Really lovely, dead chatty fella.  His business is called Ye Olde Sausage Shop.  Which cracked me up.  He turned up yesterday and I decided to go a bit early to make sure I got a pound of Cumberland for the weekend - and he'd almost completely sold out.  Apparently he'd stocked his van full to bursting and thought he'd definitely have too much and was amazed how quickly it all went.  So he's coming back next week - I'll have to make sure I get some stuff ordered before then if he's going to sell out!  I bet he had no idea his business would be so lucrative when he first took it on the road!!!  I got the only packet of sausages left, garlic ones - not my snorker of choice, but I have a feeling they'll go quite nicely in a pasta-y thing.  My sister is the best cook in the whole wide world, so if anyone can turn them into a work of art, it's her.  Can't wait!!!

Join me again on Monday, when hopefully I'll have something to report about something...!!  I hope you all have a lovely weekend - and, please, if you get chance to over the weekend, either stick on a couple of Monkees tunes or get an episode watched.  You won't regret it.