[luton town]

Chapter 14 Burger It
Well with a good few miles walked and a few hundred feet climbed Cassie and i decided we deserved a night off …..well Cassie had already called it a day ,huddled at the back of her travelling cage she even tried to nip me when i went to get her out for a wander round the caravan we were staying in !! have you ever heard of a dog biting the hand that walks them ? retrieving my phone from my pocket i wrote in my notes ” i must let the dog know who is in charge” .

Well after all that walking i was ready to put the menu at the Blair Atholl Arms to the test ( well it was my night off) glancing down the menu it soon became apparent that the half pound Aberdeen Angus Burger with all the trimmings had my name all over it…..i did feel guilty ordering it though and in a vain attempt to erase any guilt from my mind i turned to drink , yep three pints of Blair Atholl real ale ,this stuff is like treacle and you can almost stand a spoon up in it…..not sure it erased my guilt but i sure regretted drinking it the next morning !!

When the long awaited burger arrived it met with all my expectations ; this thing was huge topped with onion rings and cheese, held together by a wooden stake and accompanied by a large portion of chips ,side salad and a pot of tomato relish !! in fact the whole dish was that large it was served on a bread board of all things! any thoughts of guilt at ordering this wonder burger were swapped by embarrassment though as other patrons in the restaurant turned round in ore at this huge plateful ( or should i say boardful ) ….in fact i heard someone on the next table whimper ” i wish I’d ordered that ” moments later he’s ploughmans arrived , poor man ! still at least he was going to be able to walk out the restaurant ! which would be more than could be said for me if i was going to consume all of my dish !

Still i collected all my thoughts together and concentrated on the job in hand …..could i eat all this ? would my addiction get the better of me ? well do you really think i would throw all my hard work away at this juncture when i had come so far and put the poor old dog through so much? of course not, i left the side salad !!

Later this week …could i recover from this relapse ? and could i get the dog out of its cage without losing a finger ?
Below a picture of myself with the for mentioned burger

[luton town]

Chapter 15 Caravan Issue Broom

So many times before i had allowed my attempts at altering my life style to become thwarted in these situations ; one burger would lead to another and so on if you get my drift .....I'm sure some of you reading this would have been in the same situation , not necessarily regarding food but with other addictions like drinking,smoking and i suppose even drugs ......"tomorrow is another day" i would say, or "next week or next year" or "i might as well restart my new life style when my holiday is over" we've all done it , surly it's not just me ?
But now things were different, yes i had pigged out the evening before but i had awoken the following morning chomping at the bit,ready to put myself and the dog through our paces ....worryingly my enthusiasm was not shared by Cassie and a broom handle was called for in order to coax the animal from her travel crate ( I'm telling you this dog has real attitude !! )
Anyhow after much nashing of teeth and some considerable damage to the caravan issue broom Cassie was persuaded to join me on the morning walk .
The Bruar Falls close to Blair Atholl Castle was our goal for that morning ,although its not a huge climb the views of these wonderful waterfalls and scenery were breathtaking and the walk was still hard graft ...very hard graft especially when you take into consideration i had failed to shift my half pound Aberdeen Angus Burger during my morning visit to the bathroom !!this problem however was rectified at the end of the walk and a word of warning here; avoid the excellent bathroom facilities at Bruer Falls for the next few months !! ( you have been warned)
The morning walk was followed by ( after a light lunch) an afternoon walk and then an evening walk ; we were back on track ....well when i say we were back on track Cassie had been given the evening off on the grounds that the broom handle was close to total destruction!!

Tomorrow .....all in the mind

[luton town]

The Last Chapter
Well just four short months ago the state of my health was nothing short of life threatening; well at twenty stone in weight and lacking the ability to breath if i so much as walked up a flight of stairs was not good was it !!
But now at the time of writing of this last chapter i am closing in on my next goal of sixteen and a half stone ...still not super model size i know, but a loss of four stone all the same! not that i will ever be a super model (well I'm a man) but wow the thought of trying on the underwear ...sorry i digress !!

I have walked roughly twelve hundred miles which by coincidence is the same distance from York in England (where i live) to Gran Alacant where my holiday home is in Spain and not one Kebab house on route (bugger)
I have learned some important lessons along the way as well ; the first is never totally trust spellcheck when writing stories such as this!! but there again who else does a total illiterate trust in these situations !
But the second lesson and perhaps the most important is never use force when persuading a Border Collie with attitude to go for a walk she has no intention of going on (it hurts trust me).
I leave you with one last all time favourite Kebab of mine which i always partake of when visiting my little grandaughter in Birmingham ....consisting of Kebab meat, chicken meat,finely chopped mixed salad served with garlic sauce,chilli sauce and a splash of mint sauce and then ( and this is a nice touch ) all wrapped in a huge nan bread .....this thing is huge and does not require a side of chips or a side of anything for that matter !! For professional Kebab addicts only !!
The End
Thanks for reading
Will post a video of some of our adventures in the next few days.