[Dujon] Not quite in the new flat yet, so will probably still be a bit intermittent since we have no idea how long it will take to get a phone there. Until then, I'm making good use of what I have access to :-)

well, i am hoping my bruises will go down and am currently thinking of a long weekend maybe in Les 2 Alpes in late April for a bit of a glacier ski, then an unlikely but very tempting week or two in Chile in the summer for some S Hemisphere skiing and then a race camp in Austria in October. :o) All unlikely but fun to imagine....

No-one has said anything today. So I thought I might as well mention that the BIG DIET starts on Monday, and there should be a difference in me by the time we get to the Rugby pilg in May. :o)

[pen] Difference? You're not having the sex-change operation are you?

[pen] Woo. I hope you'll feed back your technique to me.

I have a great diet! Just eat less. (Please ignore the mars bar in my mouth.)

[Projoy] 'Feeding' is a word that is henceforth banished from my vocabulary. I will be existing on a series of meal replacements, (courtesy of that nice man at herbalife), caffeine tablets and cigarettes in a desperate attempt to prevent myself looking like a fat, shelf-bound spinster older sister at my younger sister's wedding in October, to be able to find something to wear for aforementioned wedding that doesn't have to come from the 'plus sizes' department, and hopefully to be able to fit into the £170-worth of linen trousers I have bought for the summer. (That's three pairs, by the way - I'm not into the huge-spending league just yet). I don't care that it relies on caffeine and soya. I just want to be smaller.

[pen and all reducers] I've just finished a 60-hour week [I know it's not a lot by some standards but it was very intensive sort of work] so it's great to have time to catch up with the Morniverse. It's also quite exciting to see a reference to Rugbypilging in May. I'm going to cut out butter for the next six weeks in an attempt to rid myself of this blubbery lump around my middle. Oh yes - I'm also aiming to drink a couple of litres of water a day.

As it happens, I'm also on a diet, and so far I've lost a little over a stone.

Although I am drinking a remarkable amount of water, I am not on a diet, and you really do NOT want to know how much oil there is in a biryani, as taught to me by a nice Iraqi woman. Further investigations of regional cuisine will be undertaken soon.

Here's a cheering thought: when the Allied forces liberated the concentration camps, they found no fat people. Therefore, it is possible.

As symptoms of too much online MC go, I think starting a page of notes with the title "Slap this jammy factor" must count as one of them.

[Raak] Yes, I guess it's all a matter of concentration. Where do you find a Japanese or Nazi prison guard when you need one? (And if I might say so, you speak like the enviably skinny person you are... :op)

I just found The Encyclopaedia Morningtonia here: http://www.satiche.org.uk/satiche/sat-0207.htm. Have I not been following the chat, or did anyone know?

[pen] It was mentioned in the Morniverse a while ago. It seems to have added an acknowledgement of its source since then, but the URL of course doesn't work.

I was looking at an old marriage certificate (circa 1942) at work today, and noticed that the the bride (aged 18) was described as a "spinster"! I never realised that applied to any unmarried woman (unless she was thought old to be unmarried at 18).

All first time brides were known as 'spinsters' [and possibly may still be so - but I haven't got married for a while so I don't know] and their age had nowt to do with it. It's interesting how the word now [to those aged 30 and younger]conjures up an image of a a lady past her prime.

... whereas batchelor, the gender opposite, conjures up an image of the footloose and fancy-free young blade. Life's a b*gger really, for us girlies.

Surely not! A spinster, just like a bachleor, is someone of marriagable age (definition liberal) who isn't? I have never thought of it as otherwise.