Working on my Star Ramble

Badenweiler looking to the Vogese

We had a good weekend away and could see the mountains in France.

Pre-Anniversary Bouquet

As we plan on being away on our Anniversary I bought some flowers for the week before for us to enjoy. We had sunflowers in our wedding, so this is a reminder of the day for us.

Weekend Recap

It seems right now I only run about 6 km each weekend and not in between. For the moment I am okay with this though I would love to add one more run during the week. But for the moment stabilizing the one run a week is more important. Especially since Tai Chi starts up again this week and the indoor pool has opened again, so my Thursday swim can restart too.

I knit quite a bit on one of my current shawls. With the weather turning towards fall shawls are calling to me. I did not finish it, but hopefully this week will see me to the end of the Star Ramble.

With the cooler air food preferences change and we had Spätzle with mushrooms and maroni and I see pumpkin in our near future. Yam!

Sunflowers

Early morning pictures of the sunflower field near our home.

Weekend

We went for a spontaneous trip to Heitersheim this week-end. On Saturday we went to the Kurpark in Bad Krozingen and MyGuy took some wonderful pictures of the dahlias while I sat and knitted on my latest shawl. I finally finished darning in the ends on my Greyhound on Sunday. Now it needs a bath and a stretch.

Shawls

I finished my newest shawlette and as fall is coming it is a good thing that my starteritis is concentrating on shawls and shawlettes at the moment. Photo to follow, but I am pleased especially as I used most of a ball of old stash Wollmeise that was really colorful.

Sunday Run Recap

6.22 km walking and jogging. That is fine. It was quite humid for us, so my head felt like it would explode at the end. I probably did not drink enough, so that needs improvement for the next weekend.

And I need to figure out when I can do a second run in the week. MyGuy still needs transportation after his eye surgery, but that is not a real reason, just an excuse.

Looking forward to the 20th when Qi Gong will start again, however need to dig out my book and start practicing again. That will be Tuesday evening's activity for the next months.

Rose

Just another rose picture because the roses are still blooming like there is no fall coming.

Birthday Flowers

Beautiful roses from MyGuy.

First Run in a long time

From Runtastic.

Sleep Journal Day 4

I realized I spent probably an hour of my after work time with SIMS on my smartphone. Need to think about how to decrease that time. On the other hand I also knit on the balcony and the reason why I only went to sleep after 11 pm is that I read for about an hour after going to bed. Wanted to keep going, but good sense prevailed, so that I am not even more tired this morning.
Woke up at 5:45 before the alarm clock. Bit tired, but okay once I cycled to work.

Sleep Journal Day 3

Was really tired very early in the pm, but went to be at 10, read a few pages and out by 10:15. Trying to curb the smartphone time before bed to avoid the light. No TV at all.
Awake by 5:30, cuddle time until 6 ("official" get up time, e.g. when my alarm clock would ring), then up and about.
Feeling a bit sleepy today, but better after bike commute.

Sleep Journal Day 2

Went to sleep around 11pm after a nice bath and a bit of smartphone time (tsk, tsk, no screen time...)
Woke up about 5:30 before the alarm clock and snuggled until get up time at 6.
Slept well. Feel awake.

Sleep Journal Day 1

Trying to get the Hack your Sleep Quest done:

Went to Bed 10pm, knit a bit, slept by 10:40
Woke up about 5:20am before alarm clock, cuddled with MyGuy until 6
Slept okay, feel rested

I am sort of resisting the walk for 5mins in the morning as I will ride to work by bike.

Just a note

I didn't go for a run yesterday, but went to do some errands on the bike, so got some km in.

Ouchish

Since I did my elevated knee push ups on Sunday my shoulder is complaining. Stupid thing is I am not sure why as I was not pushing myself all that hard and had done other exercises before, so should not have been "cold". Oh well. I plan to go for a run this evening, if I get out early enough to pick up my stuff at the pharmacy and tea shop in town before that.

Weekend

I took the weekend off in the best possible way: no cleaning, no have tos just playing with yarn and reading. I have read 4 Novellas by Jon Rosenberg via Kindle over the last few days. This does not help in the least with my goal to read from the stacks, but it was very enjoyable. I also started winding some yarn I had from a yarn pool ages ago. I am thinking cardigan, but will have to check the gauge before I go further. It will likely be something simple as the yarn is untwisted 6 plies. The apricot color would make it a nice summer wear, but testing it on 4,5 mm and 5mm needles gives me a good fabric, so might be for a cold summer.

Physio

I have physio for pain in my lower back and the lady is showing me exercises to do. Sure feel all the weaknesses, so must be spot on. Will try to do them every evening.

Back to the gym

I finally made it back to the gym. As I came by bike I skipped the cardio warm up, though I might need to reconsider this for next time, at least do some jumping jacks.

The workout went ok even though I could feel my back still a bit. One exercise I had to skip because the dude there was just not moving on and I was not feeling social enough to ask him to share, but I am okay with that.

I did a bit of standing on one leg with various movements as recommended by my physio therapist to help with the imbalance that is a cause for my back pain. I keep forgetting to balance when brushing my teeth which was the recommendation.

Rhyfall

As there was a lot of rain the last couple of weeks and the snow is still melting in the mountains the Rhine Falls in Neuhausen had a lot of water and it looked quite impressive.

There is a statue to remember the first aluminium production in Switzerland. I used to work in Schaffhausen and go for walks during my lunch break along the Rhine. In a bout of nostalgia I decided to run the path from the Rhine falls to the Munot. After weaving my way through the tourists at the falls I started running and for the most part I was able to run up to the spot where the bridge crosses below the munot. There were a few breaks due to crossing the Rhine on a bridge and ups and downs (which my knee prefers for me to walk rather than jog), but overall I ran. Happy! Up on the Munot I met up with MyGuy who had been happily taking photos of the lovely roses in bloom up there.

Weight

I weight 67,1 kg on Wednesday. So I am up from last week, but not worried as the general tendency is going the right direction. My goal weight is 63 kg or thereabouts, as I am 1.64 m tall (or short) that gets me in a normal range, nothing too crazy. I just want to help my knees stay healthy and be able to move when I get older.

Nerd Fitness challenge is to keep a Food Log, but so far that just annoys me, so for the moment I have shelved the app approach. They are also suggesting taking photos of all you eat, which I am considering, but think is embarrassing in the cafeteria at work. Hmmm.

Nerd Fitness

I have joined the Nerd Fitness Academy and as it is one suggestion to keep a daily log on for example a blog, I thought I would use the blog I already have.

Makes sense too, as there are already trackers for my weight loss and for the journey to Mordor at the bottom.

Rising Water in Dissenhofen

Preparation?

Not sure if this is motivation for Saturday, but it was fun fooling around with the sculpture.

Plan for 4th of June

I have registered for  a race: Bodenseelauf. Let's see if this year I actually make it. Usually when I register I am then no longer motivated to run in preparation.

Bad Wildbad again

Sun-day

Not such a nice week end, but what a sundown on Sunday.

Alpirsbach

A bit of fun at the brewery in the Black Forest this weekend.

Bad Wildbad

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

Today my Dad is turning 80. 

Luckily he is healthy and can fly via internet with people from all over the world and enjoy being the Red Baron or other Aces.

Weekend Excursion

We went to Bieberach this weekend and had three nice visits in the hot pools of Bad Saulgau.

Great Library Design

Library

Grave yard tree

This weekend while idly cruising around on our bikes, we came across this tree. It's even prettier in real life.

Love this shirt

Book T-Shirt

A little bit of fall

Yesterday MyGuy took this picture. Finally colored leaves and sunshine.

And up

74,5 kg today. Dominosteine are going directly to the hips, sigh.

Gym

Got a new training program yesterday, let's hope my knee and ankle like it.

More helmet pics

As you can see we had fun at yesterday's outing with our bikes. Hope we can get a few more rides in this fall.

Weight 12/10/15

Down to 73,8 kg. But if I do not eat more disciplined this will never go down.

More Flowers

Flowers in Bad Krozingen

MyGuy had a lot of fun taking pictures of the flowers in the park in Bad Krozingen with dew still on them.

Sunday

After a nice breakfast in the restaurant Blauer Affe in Ludwigshafen, we walked for a bit along the lake. Luckily in the afternoon it turned nicer and we could go for a bike ride and sit on the balcony soaking up the October sun.

One of these days

One of these days I will overcome my fear of heights and get in a balloon.

Weekend Getaway

This is a view of our favorite weekend getaway bed & breakfast. But this time we also got to see the balloon coming up over Mühlheim, which was exciting.

Blauer Affe

Read about this restaurant in the Slow Food magazine and as it is not far from our place, I am looking forward to trying something new:

Blauer Affe

Weight

21/9/15: 74,1 kg

Attitude

I love how this article presents a way of looking at life as an adventure:

Adventure as an alternative to weight loss

European Week of Sport

Last week was the European Week of Sport. I only realized this on Sunday, but one strength training, yoga, swimming and daily cycled commutes should see me through.

Joined

As we are cycling more now I have joined the ADFC, this is the German cyclist club.

Lazy Sunday

Yesterday we enjoyed a couple of pleasant hours in the hot water, here:

Bad Saulgau

Mustard

Yesterday at the evening market we tried some mustard by an almost local company:

Senfmanufaktur Mattes

We tried the Pirate and the Aladin one and bought Aladin and grape mustard. Looking forward to having some this weekend with cheese.

New Look

MyGuy and me after he bought a bike last Saturday on our first outing.

Our town at night

My guy had some fun taking pictures the other night.

Full Moon

Just a few minutes before the moon was really red, an interesting effect.

Alpaca Visit

Sundown near Ueberlingen

A visit to the herb garden center

Another Photo

Flower from Sunday outing

Reading Mojo returned

Still overweight at 75kg, no wonder with all the lovely ice cream and last weeks eating out days.

Still knitting my cardigan and my shawl.

Finally got some reading done: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt read completely and almost done with Bäume reisen nachts. So happy to finally feel like reading again.

Hot hot hot

While we have not managed to break the heat record this weekend it was still quite hot. So not much going on. However I did join the sleeves of my Picea to the body, so hope to finish this some time soon. Because with 38 degree Celsius you need a warm grey cardigan with long sleeves.

Here a pic of the week before:

Summer is here

On the scale: 75,4kg.

Knitting like crazy on the sleeves for my Picea, I would love to finish this. Of course it now is warm and I am not likely to wear it, but I want to start something new and need the needles in this piece.

No reading to talk off.

However I finally got around to throwing out old computer equipment and am happy with that.

Cactii in Germany

Weight Management Rebooted

According to my scales I am at 75,2kg (feels like more), so I need to get back to walking, gym and swimming as well as drinking less alcohol and eating less sweets.

First goal: go for one walk/run this week.

Otherwise I am considering if I need to rip the sleeves of my current cardigan project and add a bit more ease. In the meantime I am knitting the current shawl from Ysolda's shawl club. Sweet!

Short Update

I had given up on the weekly weigh ins for the moment, but now that my job search is coming to a close I will try to put more energy in health issues as weight and sport again.

I am also not reading a lot these days, though I have enjoyed "Small Blessings" and started in on "The Gospel of Loki".

However my new cardigan is coming along nicely and I am enjoying knitting with Diabadu's Cool Merino.

Time flies

Not weighing myself currently, too depressing.

But I undid the cast off on my Fintry and did another ring yesterday and now I love it.

No reading going on these days.

Yesterday we had a wonderful sunny day with lots of chances for MyGuy to take photos and for me to knit.

Poppies already

Calender Week 19

Too little exercise, too much food: 73,4 kg. Oh well.

On the more positive: knitting. I have finished weaving in the ends for my Bergweihnachten and continued to knit on the sleeves for Fintry, so that moves along nicely. However I have also been bad and oredered Wollkenschaf and Dibadu yarn... so I better keep knitting.

Not much reading going on, especially if you do not count knitting books and magazines.

Calender Week 18

Weight at 72,9kg, not bad for the little movement over the last weeks.

Finished knitting my Bergweihnachten, but still need to weave ends in and block it before considering it done. This is my WIP for the HabitRPG challenge for April which runs until end of May.

I finished reading A Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller and it makes me want to grab Tolstoi and see if I can get a handle on it. However I cannot find Anna Karenina which I am sure I own. Oh well, will try to finish a few books that lie around half read.

Calender Week 17

No weigh in, the scale was blocked by a blocking shawl. I finished my Flukra and love it, though I could have made it larger. On to Ostermond socks and then I want to return to my cardigan.

10 years after

10 years ago we got together, today we are married and still happy to be together.

Calender Week 16

Weight is back up at 73,2kg, not a big surprise, too much wine, too little excercise.

Finished the socks for MyGuy's physio, so we can gift them tomorrow. Knitting on Flukra and enjoying it.

Finally started a book again, Aloha Quilt.

Calender Week 15

Good news for my weight curve, after having higher weight all week today I saw 72,7 kg on the scale. Yeah!

I have after several false starts finally gotten a good start on the socks for MyGuy's physio. I am also still enjoying knitting on Flukra, the yarn is so soft and the colors are cheerful. Bergweihnachten is my WIP for the HabitRPG group challenge for April, so hopefully that will get done this month, too.

Not much reading going on, just prefer knitting at the moment.

MyGuy is back at work and so far taking it ok. Let's hope he can keep that up.

I need to get my bike checked, but this weekend it was used bikes at both dealers, so I will try for next week.

Calender Week 14

73,1 kg, ok. Finally I am moving down again. Otherwise knitting on Flukra, started the two sleeves for Fintry and decided to knit socks from the April Wollkenschaf Sockenkalender, aber Ostermond statt dem Muster aus dem Kalender.

Finished Accidental Athlete, not enthused by the book. Pity.

Calender Week 13

Last week without MyGuy. Finally he came home on Tuesday. Yeah!

Weight at 73,7kg is ok, but will need to decrease it, my knees keep aching.

Started Djinn and Golem, great read so far. Otherwise enjoyed more of the universe of Old Man's War.

Calender Week 12

Feeling shitty, so forgot to weigh myself and to take my bell peppers along. gah!

Made nice progress on my Fintry while watching the last ski alpin races of the season. Not much else to report.

Calender Week 11

Yet again forgot to weigh myself. Last Tuesday ended up at 74,4 kg. Drat.

I am knitting on on my Fintry and think it might look ok. The colors are still worrying me.

A visit to MyGuy kept me from doing much else on the weekend, but it was good to catch up in person. Easter cannot come soon enough this year as that will mean he will be home again.

I added some habits to my HabitRPG and hope that will finally get me moving again.

Terry Pratchett

I was sorry to hear that Terry Pratchett, best know for his discworld novels, die at 66:

NYPost

Time to reread some of the DEATH books.

Calender Week 10

Forgot to weigh myself this morning. Cannot be good news with no sport and lots of sweets.

I am reading the sequel to Old Man's war and am enjoying it. I suspect my dad will like them too once I get there again.

I finished the first clue of the Kamelia mystery from Vera Sanon just in time for clue 4 to come out. Now I need to find my 2mm needles for the pick up of the sleeves, but while I have found anything from 2,75 to 5 mm, so far no luck with the 2mm. I have also done my swatch for the Rangel Kal that starts tomorrow and because I needed something brainless I have cast on another cardi in the meantime. However brainlessness was overachieving and I had to rip 297 stitches times 5 as I had used totally the wrong needle size. Duh! Restarted, I love Simply Merino, just hope the colors work out.

Calender Week 9

Weight: 73,3 kg. Surprised but happy. Now I am actually more motivated to go back to working out. Luckily it seems that walking to and from the railroad station already helps with a lot of it. Happy!

Still knitting on MyGuy's socks, but expect to have them finished by next weekend at least as I hope to go to St. Wendel and see him then. The knitting meeting this Saturday was small, but nice and I have made nice progress on the back of the Spring Mystery Camellia. As I am knitting eastern uncrossed and my hands are not used to that it takes longer and more concentration than stockinette usually does. On the other hand it does not row out, so well worth it.

Not a stitch sewn.

Small progress on decluttering, but every little bit counts.

Calender Week 8

No weight (likely still up) as we were away over the weekend. No fitness units either, but at least I picked up walking again to and from the railroad station.

Knitting on some socks for MyGuy and eyeing the newest mystery from Vera Sanon.

No patchwork progress at all last week. Need to get on to it this week.

I finally read An Old Man's War, a book that I have owned since 2007. I am also continuing on with Tiger Queens, might have to read some non-fiction on Ghengis Khan to put this in perspective.

Slow Blogger

As I cannot seem to get to the meetings of the local Slow Food group, maybe I have more luck with this one:

Irish Chain Twist QAL

A bit behind, but I have socks inspired fabric in hand and can start this one:

Calender Week 7

Back to 75kg, drat. No wonder since I have not moved much the last weeks.

For the Sicilian Oranges I have decided on 117 blocks and have cut out the remaining 13 blocks. 100 sewn now.

Cast on a new pair of socks for MyGuy on Valentine's Day, hope to get them finished by next Tuesday, so he can have them when he is away. The brown ones are on hold because they are annoying me.

Read Memories of Running and have now started Winding Ways.

Additional Habit to establish: write down something I am grateful for each day.

Habits

Inspired by a post from A Stitch in Time I have started using Habit RPG. I like the idea, but will have to see how much I am going to stick to it. I have added some stuff that I want/need to do, like finishing Sicilian Oranges with substeps in the checklist, walking and not drinking coke, doing my dishes daily etc. Of course I am still exploring the site, but it looks like fun.

Calender Week 6

No weight this week as I was already in the Netherlands on Monday morning.

No fitness update because the damn cough came back. I want to get out and to the gym, so get lost cough.

I did sew a bit on my Sicilian Oranges, but I am now considering if I want to add another column to it to make it wider. It would then measure 170 * 220 cm. Maybe I will leave it at 153 * 220. I need to cut a bunch more blocks (either 13 or 26 depending on what I decide). I am also still sewing on my Star Struck blocks. And I had this idea spinning around in my mind for green liberated frames on white. I made a few test blocks, but am not sure they are all going to end up in the final quilt.

Started a new pair of socks for ski world championship watching and traveling. Brown for MyGuy.

Calender Week 5

Surprisingly enough I weighted in at 73,8kg this morning. Surprisingly because I had not moved a lot, the sniffles could not keep me indoors, but the coughing was no joke. I am sure my work colleagues were happy when I finally went home on Thursday. Friday I had a fever on top of the cough and stayed home. Still better off than MyGuy as he is now on sick leave for pneumonia for the second week.

Luckily sewing kept me from eating even more sweets than I did. The good thing about this is that I have now 90 of the blocks for Sicilian Oranges, however I am considering making it one row wider than the brothers' quilts as MyGuy is a bit more substantial than those lads. That would mean I need 130 blocks. I have another 14 cut, so might sew those up first. In addition for every two orange blocks I make one for my star quilt. I laid out a couple of blocks yesterday and I am sure now I am not going to put the sashing from Bonnie's book version, I like the interplay of the triangles and the secondary stars too much. Might mean I need more blocks there, I will have to check. And of course with the sewing of those blocks figured out my brain was off entertaining itself with the idea of green frames. I made one test block yesterday and think I need to make a few more to see if what I am seeing in my mind is what I will get.

Not a lot of reading, but I did start three new books and finished one of them last week, Night Broken by Patricia Briggs.

Calender Week 4

I finally finished the Georgette Heyer biography, but now am not finding any book that captures me. However (2/10) read.

I lost another pound and now weigh under 75 kg again (74,7 kg).

Gym got a bit lost due to my cold, but I did take my first few running steps for this year over the weekend. It does not amount to any real distance, but mentally I have a good feeling because I got started. My knees are not too keen on it, but hopefully the weight loss will help with that and I am not going to have to go to the doctors.

I restarted sewing on MyGuy's orange blocks and think of calling it Sicilian Oranges to remind us of our nice vacation there. 64 done, 117 needed altogether, so more than half way there. I have also sewn a few star blocks for my quilt using them as leaders and enders.

7 Continents Reading Challenge

I am also considering taking this one on:7Continents 7Books

Reading Challenge

To keep the reading mojo, I am going to participate in the Lucky No.15 Reading Challenge. This runs from 15th of January 2015 to 15th of January 2016.

Reading at least one book from the following categories:
Here are the 15 categories:

1. Chunky Brick: Grab that book with more than 500 pages that you’d always been afraid to tackle. You know you can do it!
2. Something New: Just purchased a book lately? Don’t let it buried in your stacks, read it now!
3. Something Borrowed: Read a book that you borrowed from someone else. Don’t make the owner waiting forever for you to finish it. (Books borrowed from friends, libraries, or even rental places, are allowed)
4. It’s Been There Forever: Dig your TBR pile and read a book that has been there more than a year. It’s time for you to appreciate it :)
5. Freebies Time: What’s the LAST free book you’ve got? Whether it’s from giveaway, a birthday gift or a surprise from someone special, don’t hold back any longer. Open the book and start reading it now :D
6. Bargain All The Way: Ever buying a book because it’s so cheap you don’t really care about the content? Now it’s time to open the book and find out whether it’s really worth your cents.
7. Favorite Color: Pick a book from your shelf which has your favorite color for its cover! Is it pink, red or black? You decide.
8. First Initial: Read a book that has been written by an author whose first initial is the same with you (Example: My name is Astrid, and I can read anything written by Agatha Christie, Aesop, Arthur Conan Doyle, etc)
9. Super Series: Read one (or more!) books that belong in a series, it can be trilogy, or tetralogy, or anything.
10. Opposites Attract: Read a book that’s been written by a writer whose gender is different from your own.
11. Randomly Picked: Ask someone else (a friend, your spouse, even your kids!) to randomly pick a book from your TBR pile. Don’t complain whatever they choose for you, just read it :)
12. Cover Lust: Grab a book from your shelf that you bought because you fell in love with the cover. Is the content as good as the cover?
13. Who Are You Again?: You’ve never read a book from this author, maybe you haven’t even heard his/her name before. But who knows? Maybe he/she will become your new favorite author!
14. One Word Only!: Read a book that only has one word for its title (number is allowed as long as it’s only consisted of one word, e.g: 1, 2, 11).
15. Dream Destination: Read a book that has setting in a place you’ve never visited before – but would like to if you have a chance. Could be real places or even fictional 

Number 6 might be a bit of a challenge as Germany still has fixed prices for books and I do not normally shop the remainder bins in department stores.

Calender Week 3

I went to the gym twice, actually three times if you count the evening my personal trainer gave me my new training plan. I don't because I did not do the whole plan as I usually do after the trainer session, but instead went home to see how MyGuy's appointment had gone.

I only lost 100gr this week, but at least I did not gain any.

I also managed to read a whole book this weekend. The End of your Life Book Club was a fascinating read, though it increased the list of books I want to read quite a lot. That does not help with my book reduction resolution at all, but oh well. I have some of them in my stacks anyway, so I am starting with those. (book count 1/10)

DKMS

This is the year I am finally going to get registered. I ordered the kit from DKMS today.

Reading

I am in a bit of a reading slump and have lately only read (make that re-read for a lot of them) fitness and cook books. However the unread books are threatening to take over the flat and thus I pledge to not buy any new book until I have read at least 10 of the ones I have. I might have to find some reading challenges to kick me into gear again, but the off side of that is that I always find new books that way.

Exempted are only the ones I have on pre-order at amazon as of today. And if I stick to my two habits for January I get to buy one additional one.

With this said, I better get on with my biography of Georgette Heyer which is the one book I am reading (on the train) right now.

Calender Week 2

Been to two different gyms for a total of three times, been for a lunch walk twice and walked with hubby a few rounds around the block. Walked from and to the workstation to/from work.

Also following my two goals for habit forming for January alright.

Lost 800g this week.

Will continue to try cook more, especially since I bought a whole stack of yummy cookbooks.

Fitnessgoal

As I cannot seem to get of my butt, the goal for the moment is to establish a minimum gym visits quota: 2 per week for the next 7 weeks.

Been yesterday, check. The good thing was they had downhill skiing on, the slalom of the men, so I was on the elliptic trainer while that lasted without being bored.

Back to Fitness and Weightmanagement

On Monday I weight myself and this is where I am: 77,3 kg. Too much for a 1,64 m person. So I need to lose some of that over the next couple of months. If I loose a kilo a month by next year christmas I would be at the low weight range that I have achieved.

I have canceled my Weightwatchers membership some time ago, because I was not using it, and I will not renew it. I might go for an analog food diary, but if so not before next year.

Yesterday I finally went back to the gym. Not a long session, but at least I went. Now just need to get back in the habit. Immediate goal: Wednesday is gymday. If you want to see more of my fitness you can also visit at Tribesports

Butterfly

Austen in August

For a bit more direction in August I plan to participate in Austen in August.

The Truth about Melody Browne

I am only half way through The Truth about Melody Browne by Lisa Jewell, but am enjoying it. I got it from a neighbour who was culling her books. I expected chick lit and it might be in a way, but while there is a romantic interest, that is not what the book is about. After reading the latest Bridget Jones earlier this year, I find this one a much better read for me.