Apologies for the absence of a blog post last week but I was having a short break in Keswick and despite my good intentions of taking my laptop with me… I forgot it. Never mind though. It was a lovely week, although a trifle too hot, and the views from the cottage we were staying in were gorgeous. Plus, I had a smashing time on the trip boat on Derwent Water on the Thursday. Nice to feel the breeze in one’s hair.

But its back to business now and do you recall me telling you that I would give an update on my progress with Slimming World? You do? Great. Well, here it is.

Despite having an unhealthy quantity of choice food and wine on our mini-break I still managed to come in at two and a half pounds lighter than I was before we went. How, I do not know. Well, I kind of know. We got home on the Saturday morning and since then I have been almost zealous in my determination to drop some more weight.

And so, I’ve been eating tremendous amounts of fruit and salad, without a single drop of alcohol passing my misshapen lips, since then and it’s worked! I’ve now lost 10 ½ pounds in total and am noticing it in my clothing a lot more. It’s the best feeling ever, well, apart from you know what, and I’ve had people remarking on how much better I look already and, with that in mind, I am absolutely determined to press on and reach my one stone target by next Wednesday.

One other thing about our break that was dear to me was that we took a short trip down the A66 to Penrith for an hour or two. Why is Penrith so dear to me? You ask. In a nutshell – Withnail & I. One of the best and funniest films ever made, part of which is based in Penrith itself. So it was kind of a fan pilgrimage of sorts.

Penrith itself is nice enough without being remarkable but I was struck by how friendly and welcoming people were. There was a lovely bookshop, appropriately called Withnail Books, which sold second hand records in excellent condition at amazing prices. Heck! I’m almost tempted to go back there this week and fill my boots. In the end though I just bought two LPs – Bob Dylan and Boston. In truth I could easily have gone raving mad and bought half the records in the shop but common sense managed to raise its wise old head before that happened

If you haven’t seen Withnail & I then I urge you to do so at the earliest possible convenience. Every single line in that film is utterly quotable, my favourite one being when Uncle Monty, over the dining table (pictured), says – “Oh my boys, my boys, we are at the end of an age! We live in a land of weather forecasts and breakfasts that set in, shat on by Tories, shovelled up by Labour, and here we are, we three; perhaps the last island of beauty… in the world.”

There are dozens of others I could have used but that’s the best one in my opinion. But you do need to watch the whole film to grasp the meaning in the quote.

As for Penrith, yeah, nice enough place and we will definitely go back for another pilgrimage at some point. Just need to find out if there is a Slimming World group there so we can stay for a few days and be encouraged to not overindulge.