Tony Le Mesmer

On that; the women in my office on Slimming World who complain they've not lost any weight, but refuse to acknowledge they're still grazing on biscuits and treats all day. Who then get upset at me when I point this out. 
I will admit I am on said diet, I have stuck to it and lost a decent chunk of weight this past month, what helps has not been eating a pack of biscuits every day! 

Made me laugh this. No offence Ewe Ram .
The last 5 years for me have been all that and more but minus the hair plucking.
 

Haha. My very first game at home to Brighton this season I got the phone out at half time to check scores (briefly - I'm not obsessed with the thing ) and couldn't get any sort of connection.
Never even bothered trying since. Now I just stand up and do 15 minutes of mindfulness taking in the magnificent views of Pride Park. What a superb ground it really is.

True. There was a time when you never thought much about your body apart from 'is it clean' and 'is it dressed impressively'. Now it demands constant attention, popping pills, X-rays, cameras up and down, health screening, tooth ache, random stupid hairs to pluck out, eye tests, moisturiser. It's grim 

People who get their phones out at halftime at Pride Park and get all frustrated that there is no network available, constantly hitting refresh. I see the same people doing it every game. Just accept it mate!

My failing body.
Eyes, ears, teeth, knees all worse than 5 or 10 years ago and all downhill from here.
Nether regions still working fine. In theory. 

People who say.... 'abbbbbbbsolutley'.
Yes... or agreed will suffice  

Motorists that sit at junctions waiting to join the road and you are approaching the junction on the main road so you slow down a bit and flash a few times to let them out.
Nothing happens.
You are getting closer to the junction now and you flash a few more times.
Nothing.
You get to the junction and flash one last time.
Nothing.
You begin to get level with the junction and decide to carry on as they are away with the fairies. THEN they pull out causing you to break suddenly.
Hand waving and gesticulating follows and what started out as a kind deed ends up with me being on the end of some minor road rage.
Like it's my fault!!
The frequency in which this exact sane scenario happens is frightening to the point that I can't really be arsed thinking about other motorists anymore.

Absolutely.

It says proudly on the bottle of milk I've just bought '6p from this bottle goes to farmers!'.
It cost nearly 60p. So the farmers look after the cows, feed the cows, milk the cows, bottle the milk and sell it and they get 6p per bottle from one that costs 60p?
Am i missing something here?
First thing tomorrow I'm sourcing a local dairy farmer / farm shop and always buy direct in future. Supermarkets p*ss me off. Greed. Unfair greed.

It says proudly on the bottle of milk I've just bought '6p from this bottle goes to farmers!'.
It cost nearly 60p. So the farmers look after the cows, feed the cows, milk the cows, bottle the milk and sell it and they get 6p per bottle from one that costs 60p?
Am i missing something here?
First thing tomorrow I'm sourcing a local dairy farmer / farm shop and always buy direct in future. Supermarkets p*ss me off. Greed. Unfair greed.

It says proudly on the bottle of milk I've just bought '6p from this bottle goes to farmers!'.
It cost nearly 60p. So the farmers look after the cows, feed the cows, milk the cows, bottle the milk and sell it and they get 6p per bottle from one that costs 60p?
Am i missing something here?
First thing tomorrow I'm sourcing a local dairy farmer / farm shop and always buy direct in future. Supermarkets p*ss me off. Greed. Unfair greed.

A few years ago a woman came to work in my wife's office, probably aged late 20's. The boss had to tell her off for spending so much time 'interacting' on social media.
One day,my wife made some jocular comment about 'we'll have to work an extra day this year' to which she replied 'Why's that?'
'Because it's a Leap Year'
What's a Leap Year?'
'You know, when there's an extra day in February'
'REALLY? I never knew that!'
I kid you not. Nice girl but thicker than the two proverbial railway sleepers.

Many of today's dimwit generation who have no grasp of anything other than celebrities and their antics..half of these people couldn't tell the time from a watch with hands,name the prime minister or even have an idea how many world wars there have been.
It's not just our lot though,the Americans kids are even worse.
 

it doesn't matter about the last few seasons (although theyve done us too) simply the fact that their ground was rocking last night in a way that you don't get that with artificial flag waving. They were louder than anyone I've heard this season we just can't compete with that. Since when have our fans been as loud as that through the whole game. Actually I remember playing them in the cup when they were in L1 when Delph ran the show and they were loud through out even though they were losing. Think they might have Austrian blood ha ha 

3 pounds a pint! Clearly that's not in London.

Back on the old favourite tonight.
Scarborough Fair IPA brewed in one of my old haunts, the village of Wold Newton near Hunmanby, Filey by Wold Top in the Yorkshire Wolds.
Gluten free and 6% vol.
Mmmmmmmm. nice
As the bloke from the Fast Show Jazz Club used to say.
If anyone could find a stock photo and stick it up it would be great!

Cheers mate, I have started counselling sessions regularly so hopefully I'll get myself back on the straight and narrow soon enough. Its amazing how much help just sharing your problems can be - even if all it is is just writing down how you feel on a forum like this

Don't hold back Juan, say what you mean.......

I am sick of 'journalists' if you can even bloody call them that these days reporting on bookies odds in relation to clubs signing players. "Derby county are second favorites to sign THIS player".
It has all the hallmarks of shoddy, copy and paste, terrible, clickbait journalism and it can **** off.

Hi Loughborough Ram.
Your story is very moving and I'm glad you have chosen to share it.
You have suffered a number of losses. I work for Cruse bereavement and in my time there I have learned that those who share their experience with trained bereavement volunteers can gain a better understanding of themselves in relation to their loss.
I know they have offices in Derby and Leicester should you wish to investigate.
I wish you all the best and hope you find a way through this difficult time.

Good luck mate

This week marks the 2nd anniversary of a very close mate going missing and eventually being found in a river. The intervening period has been tough for so many reasons and I've never really aired my true feelings until recently. 

To put it into perspective I caught the school bus with this guy every day for 7 years, played football and cricket together even after we finished school, went to gigs together and went on many nights out together - even born on the same day in QMC would you believe it. He introduced me to my then girlfriend and we were always kind of close. Then one January morning in 2015 I get back from a lecture to my missus sat on my bed telling me she has some news and I'll need to take a seat. Even though I knew what was coming, nothing ever prepares you for that news. Obviously this rocked me quite a bit having never really had anything like this happen to me before but over the next few months I kind of managed to get a grip on it. 

That autumn I moved to Germany for 6 months on a placement for my course at uni and this is where things began to get difficult. Earning very little it was hard to properly get out and about, especially when you're in a massive country where you literally know nobody. This was the beginning of my depression - nothing to this day quite compares to the loneliness I experienced and it was during this time, when I was alone with my thoughts that I began to think more and more of my friend. I was lucky in that I had a caring girlfriend who'd Skype me every night but once those calls ended I was alone again and even during the calls I began to feel like she wasn't there and that she was just on a screen and that I was hundreds of miles from anyone I knew and loved. I got through those months by telling myself that it would be over soon and I'd be home in a couple of months and it would all be ok. Wrong.
Once back in the UK I had another internship lined up - unpaid except my expenses, meaning I had to work a second job to earn some sort of income. This meant long days leaving the house at 7am and getting home at 1am with 30 minutes to get ready for my evening shift. I also worked weekends as it was a busy pub/restaurant which meant I had no real free time. It began to put a strain on relationship with my long term girlfriend and after 4 happy years together, stress drove me to ending it. At the time I guess I didn't realise the state I was in but looking back I can recognise how empty and soulless I had become. Again I got through this period thinking it would be fine and I'd be back at uni soon and I'll be able to relax. Once more I was wrong.
I pretty much immediately realised I had made a mistake ending things with my ex (who is also the same uni as me) and tried to reconcile things after she had spend a good 2 months trying to change my mind but I was too stubborn at the time. Unfortunately so much time had elapsed that she was no longer interested, despite my best efforts. She insisted on wanting to be friends but claimed to not want a relationship at the time, meaning we spent loads of time together on what I feel was false pretenses in many ways. This wasn't helped by my issues of inferiority and self confidence (its fair to say I was punching with this girl) which was one of the causes of me ending things as I was convinced that sooner or later she'd sack me off for someone else. All this at the same time as trying to handle an insane workload on my course which is notoriously heavy in terms of the workload dragged me further down into a pit of despair.
It was a this stage that I began to realise I was at my lowest point. I was failing assignments or behind in some aspect and began to have really negative thoughts. I'm a fairly rational guy and always manage to find reason which prevents me from doing something daft but there has been a couple of times when I've quite literally been peering over the edge. I decided to get help and see someone (this was in November) through my university counselling service but they couldn't sort me out until the new year. I ended up having the worst Christmas ever, I just felt so alien and lonely even though I was with my family etc I just felt like I didn't want to be there. I came home between Christmas and New Year (being half Danish we spent Christmas in over there) and hoped I'd maybe be happier but nope, still felt awful and alone.
I'vended up having to take a break from my studies to get my head straight as the way I was going I'd have wasted my degree and most definitely found myself in a darker place than I am currently. Loneliness is such a killer, no one really seems to understand how it truly feels - the same goes for depression. People seem to think it's just a phase and that it'll pass but it doesn't work like that. Two years ago before my friend passed, I was an upbeat and optimistic person in every aspect whereas now I rarely manage to see the positives in many things. At that time I would've laughed anyone out of town who suggested I'd be in the situation I'm now in because I was so naive when it came to stuff like this.
Sorry for the essay just needed to get that off my chest.

I've had talking therapies. First time i didn't really 'get it' and just went away having not really benefitted. What's important is that you arm yourself with a load of books about CBT, depression etc and really get an understanding as to how your brain works effecting your thinking patterns, mood and indeed mental AND physical health. Without this prior knowledge underpinning your awareness then you'll struggle to gain any benefits. You have to be open to learning and understanding how the mind works IMO.
I've had good and bad therapies but i have to say that Derbyshire offers the best and most varied services I've encountered. If you live in North Yorkshire or Doncaster then best of luck with that.
Having said that I feel the therapy is too short lived and it's easy to relapse back into old patterns without the ongoing support. Once a week for an hour or so for 6-12 weeks is not a comprehensive and ongoing supportive time period to combat and challenge deep rooted behavioural thinking and therefore I would hazard a guess that many people who have had some form of CBT or / and counselling have certainly needed to have more than one block of sessions.
As I've said though, reading around the subject can help so so much and allows you to take things in in your own time.
My anxiety is gradually decreasing due to the fact that I'm not giving myself a hard time anymore. It's my brain and it's thinking patterns that are the problem and not me as a person and it's not my fault. It's the fault of my brain interpreting a situation as dangerous when in fact it isn't and therefore my body is kickstarted and primed for a battle when in reality I'm simply stood in a long queue getting agitated as it's one of those that wind round so you have to face people on either side. I hate those and they make me nervous so my body gets me ready to run away from all the zombiefied people in the post office queue when in reality i am in no real danger.
Situations like that happen all the time and therefore i am constantly living on cortisol overdose which makes it difficult to lead a normal life when in actual fact you are pretty 'normal' anyway.