Dalyan – 15th & 16th January

I woke early on Monday 15th January, and stayed in bed for a bit. I’d took to writing in my 2024 diary everything I spent (as well as having a list of everything I consumed). I’d temporarily set myself a budget of £10 per day which was probably the tightest budget I’d tried to stick to in quite some time. In the first week of January I had spent 1,436 lira (£38) then in the second week I’d spent 3,847 lira (£100). I was impressed to be £2 under budget at almost halfway through the month and it reassured me that I could manage on very little, if I had to.
As I had my cup of tea, I had to explain to the dogs that it could be a sofa day, as it was raining. I finally got a passport photo with ears to Captain Caveman, without a radiator in the background and he would apply for my Vietnam visa before he went to Son Doong. As I was waiting to get paid, I was not doing any work today and I’d be having Mondays off from now on. I had a healthy day; overnight oats, more of the pasta bake for lunch and another wrap pizza for dinner. For snacks I had chestnuts and some pistachios which meant I was already on 271 syns for the week so far.
I had a call from Captain Caveman, 3 in a row! He’d been to his briefing and he was looking forward to his trip to Hang Son Doong tomorrow.

I finally got paid on Tuesday 16th January for the work I did in November and December. It was 6 weeks and 6 days since my last pay so, as you can imagine, it was very welcome. I decided, though, that I wouldn’t go out spending it all today and would be very careful.
When Norman and Edna went out in the morning, it was still very overcast and chilly. Norman wasn’t impressed and was soon back to the sofa for snuggles while I drank my tea. I had toast with butter for breakfast as I’d forgotten to make my overnight oats and a healthy banana. Captain Caveman had gone in to Son Doong but would be back out on Friday with some days off.
I wished my sister, Gayle, and my oldest friend, Ingrid, a happy birthday and looked up some recipes that were Slimming World friendly.
The never ending SW Hunters Chicken pasta bake was for lunch again, but I wasn’t yet sick of it, which was fortunate. The afternoon dog walk wasn’t a long one and I had to take Norman in his pushchair which he loved. For dinner I had cabbage rolls, which had been defrosted, they were surprisingly tasty and I was getting used to using lots of lentils in my food. I had more chestnuts as a snack while watching a bit of TV with the dogs.
Tomorrow was weigh-in at Fat Club and, although I had consumed fewer syns (43) than the previous week, I’d still totted up 291 which wasn’t good. Only 56 of those were alcohol so I couldn’t blame that as a reason, either.