Okay society you win- Diary of a fat boy

[tikay]

End this Diary? Strewth, that hurts. But you must go with your gut instinct Phil.

I sometimes think the same- end the Diary now, but I'm obsessive compulsive, & just feel a need to write sometimes. Waffle, but writing waffle.

Either way, thanks Phil, it's been such a wonderful & edcational read - mind-over matter, psychology, the Jewsh ways, selling ale, & clothes - a genuine magical mystery Tour.

You should have called it "Diary of a Gentleman".

Your wife & kids are very lucky. They chose well.

[turny]

End this Diary? Strewth, that hurts. But you must go with your gut instinct Phil.

I sometimes think the same- end the Diary now, but I'm obsessive compulsive, & just feel a need to write sometimes. Waffle, but writing waffle.

Either way, thanks Phil, it's been such a wonderful & edcational read - mind-over matter, psychology, the Jewsh ways, selling ale, & clothes - a genuine magical mystery Tour.

You should have called it "Diary of a Gentleman".

Your wife & kids are very lucky. They chose well.

+1

[cia260895]

End this Diary? Strewth, that hurts. But you must go with your gut instinct Phil.

I sometimes think the same- end the Diary now, but I'm obsessive compulsive, & just feel a need to write sometimes. Waffle, but writing waffle.

Either way, thanks Phil, it's been such a wonderful & educational read - mind-over matter, psychology, the Jewish ways, selling ale, & clothes - a genuine magical mystery Tour.

You should have called it "Diary of a Gentleman".

Your wife & kids are very lucky. They chose well.

+1

+2 

you cant stop it Phil its the only time in my life i have actually enjoyed reading about religion so it must be "the way you tell em" 

[Snatiramas]

So I finally took the plunge and spent some of my hard earned on a little netbook laptop. After much research I went for the Asus running XP and spent a happy evening playing sit n go’s on Sky in my room in Nijmegen which if my memory serves me right is the bridge one before the bridge too far at Arnhem. Some of you may have seen the post asking for help but I did manage to sort it out myself in the end

So we all sat back  and relaxed and ate  and chatted and laughed and lunch moved into the afternoon service and then the concluding service. At this moment in proceedings the most amazing sense of calm takes over. My mother and I have a lovely chat about stuff and nonsense and we are both in the same mood. I can’t quite find the words to describe it, it is something like nothing is really important other than what we have just done. By being shomrei Shabbat the whole focus has been on the service and praying and sharing time on what is important such as family. That concludes the Shabbat and we pack our stuff into the cars and head for home.

We just relax on the Saturday night and that brings us to the Sunday, and the party……..

Now I have spent this week in Germany doing budget work for next year, and I have learned some new things. Firstly forty five years old is too old for playing five a side football. Secondly I still get to the tackle too late, but don’t care and take various lumps out of various people. Thirdly Germany is a great place to be when the England team win, shame about our so called supporters though. Too many excuses for this type of behaviour and none, and I do mean none, of them are valid. I have been all over Europe watching rugby and never had a problem and let me tell you we all got very very drunk. I haven’t really done very much writing on the diet recently, probably because it is too painful a subject and it seems that we are just going round again. I haven’t given in or stopped entirely but as you all know I have not reached my goal. I find myself in a combination of slight frustration, fear that I might go straight back up in weight, and self loathing for not being the strong person I would like to be. Anne Marie last night told me to list all the things that I love now that I have lost some weight. Here are ten in no particular order

1.   Buying new clothes
2.   Being able to wrap a hotel towel around my waist
3.   The tray not touching my waist on an aeroplane
4.   Walking round the village
5.   Running round the block
6.   Playing energetically with the kids
7.   Flirting even more outrageously (don’t worry darling I know the rules)
8.   Writing and making a whole load of new mates
9.   Playing five a side football
10.   Feeling like I want to stop trying to kill myself


The tenth one came out of nowhere. I mean I had to switch the PC off for a bit and go away and analyse what had flown across my brain. Scary thought and way too deep was I really trying to kill myself through food abuse. Did I really not care before? Was my self esteem really that low? It would appear that it was but it is not that low right now. In some weird way that has really enabled me to get through the day and once again I feel moderately confident.

There is no doubt that right now I have way too much to look forward too but I am also painfully aware that my head sometimes plays tricks and tells me this is not always the case so I am writing down the important things, in case my own version of a Black Dog should descend. ~I have not done this enough during the diet and intend to do it more from here to the end.

There were some great moments this week but my favourite went like this.
Mobile phone rings whilst sitting on bed in Holland….
“we’ve had a letter from the school”
oh swear words says I
Anne Marie starts reading it……it went like this

[Snatiramas]

Well it kind of worked.....anyway it was a really great letter............so now a couple of pictures of Ads and me the Thursday before the Bar Mitzvah...........and also my favourite picture of me from the whole weekend because there is something in my expression that is just so me.......there will be loads of pictures as I go into the party story next week and beyond

[Snatiramas]

I needed a bit of a warm. I was on security at the Shul yesterday which was cold. I then drove up to Leicester for the rugby, old habits die hard and then I went to Adams rugby training which started off in the changing room but progressed to a match in the sleet for the 30 odd boys who turned up. Let’s be honest they must have been fairly odd to have turned up having seen the weather in the first place. So tonight I find myself next to the pool in St Albans and I have shed two layers of clothes already. Rachel can now tumble turn which I think is really cool and a defining moment for those who can swim seriously or is it seriously swim.

So the Sunday of the Bar Mitzvah is mild and dry and we are going to party as though there is no tomorrow. Now you need to understand that in general Jewish people do not drink. They drink so little that your average Kosher caterer throws in the alcohol for free. I often thought it might be fun to book a kosher caterer and turn it into a Blonde Bash for the function. The food costs so much though that they would probably still turn a profit. Anyway the Sunday morning dawns dry and bright and those with hair go off to have it washed and blow dried and I go off to Bushey cemetery for a stone setting. It is a very good reminder for me to be mindful that although in my own world it is a golden happy time, for others it may not be. I have already mentioned previously that Adam and I had been to synagogue in the morning to enable him to put on tefillin for the first time. I do not feel that religious today though, my Snat character is in full swing and we are going to dance……a lot.

So we all meet up around lunchtime and start loading the car with our outfits, with presents and presentations, with speeches each meticulously listed on a to do list which I am totally ignoring as Anne Marie is in a bit of a Hyacinth Bucket and telling us what to do. I can’t help it but I just hate people telling me what to do regardless of who they are. I know this is Amma’s way of letting off steam but today it is sending me up the wall. Eventually the car is fully loaded and we drive to the Royal Majestic Suite.

Now I am not sure which Royal celebrated at the Royal Majestic suite to give it the moniker but the title of the venue always makes me smile. I mean the thought of any Royal traipsing through Willesden and pitching up at the Majestic Suite would indeed make for a great comedy sketch. Anne Marie and I got married at the Majestic and it seemed like the right venue for the Bar Mitzvah and the photos that follow show
1.   The outside of the Majestic 
2.   The order of play – which you can’t read anyway, but that does not matter
3.and 4      The inside of the room before the party

[Snatiramas]

Now you may have noticed that there is a lot of orange in the room. There was no particular significance for this other than it s a nice warm colour but everybody tried to come up with some significance so I played along. I believed I came up with a number of reasons, closet Wolves fan, a supporter of the ultra right party in Israel etc. etc. The real reason is we just like the colour.

Now there is a nice story around the attached pictures which I  will expand on next. It is a story of great friendship. Remember ladies and gentlemen friends are there for a reason and you gain far more from helping a friend than that friend does from your help…….

[Rod Paradise]

Now you may have noticed that there is a lot of orange in the room. There was no particular significance for this other than it s a nice warm colour but everybody tried to come up with some significance so I played along. I believed I came up with a number of reasons, closet Wolves fan, a supporter of the ultra right party in Israel etc. etc. The real reason is we just like the colour.

Now there is a nice story around the attached pictures which I  will expand on next. It is a story of great friendship. Remember ladies and gentlemen friends are there for a reason and you gain far more from helping a friend than that friend does from your help…….

In Glasgow they'd have thought you were a Protestant Jew.

[Snatiramas]

Now you may have noticed that there is a lot of orange in the room. There was no particular significance for this other than it s a nice warm colour but everybody tried to come up with some significance so I played along. I believed I came up with a number of reasons, closet Wolves fan, a supporter of the ultra right party in Israel etc. etc. The real reason is we just like the colour.

Now there is a nice story around the attached pictures which I  will expand on next. It is a story of great friendship. Remember ladies and gentlemen friends are there for a reason and you gain far more from helping a friend than that friend does from your help…….

In Glasgow they'd have thought you were a Protestant Jew.

I know a story that went along those lines and involved a friend who when asked by the man with the gun as regards his religious persuassion came up with the answer Jewish. He always kept a skull cap with him just in case........bloody lucky they didn't ask him to lower his trousers

[Rod Paradise]

Now you may have noticed that there is a lot of orange in the room. There was no particular significance for this other than it s a nice warm colour but everybody tried to come up with some significance so I played along. I believed I came up with a number of reasons, closet Wolves fan, a supporter of the ultra right party in Israel etc. etc. The real reason is we just like the colour.

Now there is a nice story around the attached pictures which I  will expand on next. It is a story of great friendship. Remember ladies and gentlemen friends are there for a reason and you gain far more from helping a friend than that friend does from your help…….

In Glasgow they'd have thought you were a Protestant Jew.

I know a story that went along those lines and involved a friend who when asked by the man with the gun as regards his religious persuassion came up with the answer Jewish. He always kept a skull cap with him just in case........bloody lucky they didn't ask him to lower his trousers

Billy Connolly did joke about a guy walking about Belfast who avoided trouble twice by claiming to be Jewish - then an Arab jumped him.

[boldie]

Now you may have noticed that there is a lot of orange in the room. There was no particular significance for this other than it s a nice warm colour but everybody tried to come up with some significance so I played along. I believed I came up with a number of reasons, closet Wolves fan, a supporter of the ultra right party in Israel etc. etc. The real reason is we just like the colour.

Now there is a nice story around the attached pictures which I  will expand on next. It is a story of great friendship. Remember ladies and gentlemen friends are there for a reason and you gain far more from helping a friend than that friend does from your help…….

I take it the lovely lady in the picture is just humouring you and pretending to laugh at your story?

[Colchester Kev]

Looking more like Bilko every day snatty xxx

[Snatiramas]

Looking more like Bilko every day snatty xxx

Harsh but undoubtedly true

Theo Dalton five years ago when I first walked into the old Luton called me Bilko and still does. When I went online for rthe first time Bilko was one of the names I tried....it had already gone........

[lazaroonie]

maybe this doesnt belong here, but to me it seems kinda appropriate - I just came back from a weekend in Berlin, of which the highlight for me wasnt the fantastic food, or the great beer, or even the teutonic efficiency which which everything just works (I like that)...it was my afternoon spent in the Jewish Museum.

This place is vast. It has literally thousands of exhibits, but the highlights are the more in the way the place is designed - three intersecting axis representing, continuity, exile, and the holocaust. There is a 'garden of exile' the effect if which is to make you feel disorientated, and a holocause tower, a vast empty space.

definitely worth a visit if you are ever in Berlin.

[Colchester Kev]

maybe this doesnt belong here, but to me it seems kinda appropriate - I just came back from a weekend in Berlin, of which the highlight for me wasnt the fantastic food, or the great beer, or even the teutonic efficiency which which everything just works (I like that)...it was my afternoon spent in the Jewish Museum.

This place is vast. It has literally thousands of exhibits, but the highlights are the more in the way the place is designed - three intersecting axis representing, continuity, exile, and the holocaust. There is a 'garden of exile' the effect if which is to make you feel disorientated, and a holocause tower, a vast empty space.

definitely worth a visit if you are ever in Berlin.

Did you have a wander through the Holocaust memorial Laz ... Its a mass of concrete pillars and blocks right in the city centre, but yet step in it and you cant hear a thing ...