Friday food and the musings of Mick

Another ridiculously early start for me on a Saturday. I seem to have an inability to lie in unless I have consumed my body weight in wine. Oh well, at least I get to catch up with a few things before the brothers surface. Matt's Brother is down for the weekend so we ended up taking him out last night to our local, where we met my friends Alex and Rory and then off we went for Thai.

Now, Matt's brother - Mick, is a really nice guy. He is however, fairly stuck in his ways. He's 10 years older than Matt, doesn't undestand why people have relationships and his life revolves around work, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Beer with a Friday night Indian Curry thrown in.

Imagine the trauma of trying to persuade him to try Thai last night for the first time instead of Indian. He spent ages looking at the menu - I kept telling him it was the Wine Menu, but he persisted. Eventually he piped up "Does this place only sell booze?? There's no food on this bloody menu." Oh dear.

Once he did in fact have the correct menu, he was aghast. No chips on the menu, no Chicken Balti. He eventually decided to try Chicken Satay (just chicken in funny sauce apparently) and after much persuasion, Beef Massaman. He doesn't like a beef curry as beef should only be served with Yorkshire Puddings and gravy by all accounts. But he decided it wasn't bad, a bit like Beef Stew (potato in a curry??) but not enough spice. Not sure he'll be going for Thai again in a hurry.

Mick is also rather blunt after a few beers. Some of our conversations have gone like this:

Him: So are you and Matt getting wed then?
Me: No, you know he's not overly keen on the marriage idea given he tried it once and it didn't work.
Him: Well you're obviously not the one for him then.
Me: Thanks Mick.

Him: So, how do you and Mom get on?
Me: We get on quite well, I like her.
Him: Yes, but she only likes you because she thinks you like her.
Me: Thanks Mick.

Him: How do you and Nicola get on? (Nicola is one of Matt's friends who I get on really well with)
Me: Yes, really well, she's a nice girl.
Him: You know she wants him don't you, don't leave them alone together.
Me: Thanks Mick.

Him: How do you feel about Matt working long hours?
Me: Well I don't really like it, but I know its only temporary so it's not such a big trauma.
Him: I don't see why you bother, you should leave him.
Matt: Thanks Mick.

Fortunately I don't take too much notice of most of this anymore, I did the first time we met and Matt got a right ear bashing after a few of Mick's revelations. But now I've come to realise it's just the way he see's the world. He seems happy enough with it!

Yesterday I managed another fairly good day on the food front. Taking pictures of everything I consume is definitely keeping me in check.

Breakfast - 1 sachet of Oatso Simple with 180ml of Skimmed milk and 14g of raisins, cup of Red Bush Tea - 2.5 points


Lunch - 1 bread roll with 1 tsp of pesto, 1.5 slices of Parma Ham, Spinach, 15g of Les Kol and 1 tsp of extra low fat Mayo. Packet of Pickled Onion Monster Munch from a multipack. Bottle of Dr Pepper Zero - 5.5 points.

This is my new favourite sandwich - it is my attempt at the Pret Italian Proscuitto Artisan Baguette, which I love, but not for 10 points. Not quite the same, but fairly tasty for 4 points.


Mid Afternoon - 1 apple, 750ml of water - 0.5 points


Dinner - 5 Smirnoff Vodkas with Soda water and fresh lime (1 with tonic - thanks Matt!) - 4.5 points.



In the pub we had some Bombay Mix between 5 of us. I had 3 pinches of it (3 points?)

Thai Restaurant - Spicy prawn crackers, I had about 6 crackers with some sweet chilli sauce (1.5 points?)


Main course - Half a portion of Chicken stir fried with mushrooms and cashew nuts (5). 1/4 of a portion of Pad Thai (2) and one spoonful of rice (1) . You can see the rest of my dish on the plate behind, but I gave that away (even though I could have snaffled the lot).

1 chocolate toffee that came with the bill - inhaled by me before I even thought about it (I had to photograph another one once I realised it was in my gob!) - 1 point


So 18 points in total I reckon - fairly handy given that's how many I had left after Breakfast and Lunch. I really think this food diary is helping me stay on track. It's all too easy for me to forget what I eat after a night out or to stuff things in my mouth without giving it any extra thought.

So 26/26 points - leaving me 10 points still in the bank.

Not sure what the plan is for today. The aforementioned Nicola is coming over from London which will be nice. We'll meet her in Reading and see where that takes us. Better be careful not to leave Matt alone at any point - just in case :)