The problem with weight loss is that as soon as you tell someone you have lost some weight, you go and put two pounds on.
Not exactly good, is it?
So another couple of weeks down the line I have still only lost the 11 pounds.......I am not really on a diet.....well, no that can't be true, because I am trying hard to eat less and walk more.
What I really mean is, that I am not on any
'planned diet'.......I'm eating my normal meals......though I have had more in the way of salads recently......I am also trying to curb my sweet tooth.
(I have a dentists appointment in about a month....I am going to ask him to see if he can take my sweet tooth out)
When I want chocolate....I have an apple......and sometimes...

Margaret Pilkington

I was thinking about my mother today. You know how it is when you're doing something and it triggers a thought that pops into your head, followed by another, then a whole load of them?

My mum was the youngest child in a family of 8 children. She was born on 4 December 1909 at Rochdale railway station, where her father was Station Master. Her oldest brother, my uncle Frank, was nearly 16 when she was born and welcomed her into the world with the words, "Good God, another mouth to feed", which didn't bode well for their future relationship, though he was a kind big brother until he married. After that, things weren't too brilliant, he lived in Norfolk for most of my life and I hardly knew him. Mum never got over the fact...

West Ender

Laura has had 2 clarinet lessons, up to now, and she's doing well. I've had a bit of a go myself and I can hardly make a noise but she can play E and D natural with only occasional squeaks. The sight reading's coming on, too, she knows how to count a crochet, a quaver and a semi-quaver. She's enjoying it and she's keen.

If Laura has a fault, academically and in everything else, it's that she's a perfectionist. She expects to be able to do things straight away and she can get very annoyed with herself if she doesn't get it right first time. Clarinet practise means that her mum and I have to praise, constantly, and reassure her that she's doing fine.

The other day I found a youtube clip of Benny Goodman and his...

West Ender

It seems that I have awakened a few childhood memories with my last blog episode.......And Mick talking about trolleys/bogeys/whatever you called them when you were growing up......there were endless arguments in our house.......there were five lads and only one trolley......so there were fights and falling outs over who was going to be playing on it......it was a longbodied trolley and would accommodate two of the lads comfortably....but the others were never happy to wait for their turn.
During the summer it was the first two to get home from school who would commandeer the thing.......and head for the top of Carter Street....they would then whiz down and try to turn sharply onto Marsden Street......any miscalculation and they would...

Margaret Pilkington

In a recent blog episode I told you that, as a family, we were poor.
In financial terms that is true.
Looking back, I now realise how hard it must have been for my parents to feed us all....provide us with clothes, and keep a roof over our heads.

At the time, which was just after the war, many families were in the same boat.
So going to school in 'hand me downs'...or clothes from the jumble sale, was the norm....or at least certainly not frowned on.
As children, we didn't hanker after branded clothes......and we wore what we were given...whether it was fashionable or not.

This, I think, is where the parents of that time had it much easier than parents of today.
There was no worry about...

Margaret Pilkington