Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, not the jobs, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these.

Today then I am resigning from the hurly burly of the company but I will take with me many memories of a role that was stimulating, challenging and usually far too relaxed.

I thank you for your kindness and your consideration.

I will leave you with a few of my favourite quotes that will hopefully help you get through your days:

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. Is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be. You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I hope that my achievements in life shall be these - that I will have fought for what was right and fair, that I will have risked for that which mattered, and that I will have given help to those who were in need that I will have left the earth a better place for what I’ve done and who I’ve been. ~C. Hoppe

The important thing is not to stop questioning. ~Albert Einstein

Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.

Attitude
You are optimistic and enthusiastic about your future. However, your impatience causes you to overlook details and ignore choices previously made. You are abstract and imaginative, and enjoy philosophy.

Mental Abilty
You learn slowly, by repetition. You begin with the most fundamental parts, skip nothing, and do not jump around. You make decisions very carefully.

Communication
You keep your inner-most thoughts to yourself. However, you enjoy discussions and are receptive to other opinions. You can be deceitful to yourself.

Goals
You set ambitious, long term goals, though sometimes vague. Fortunately, you have strong will-power, enthusiasm, endurance, and self-confidence, helping you to achieve those goals.

Self Image
You are confident and self-assured, and resultantly set ambitious, long-term goals. However, you are also sensitive to criticism and need approval.

Emotional
You are a cautious person who thinks carefully before acting. You keep feelings inside and do not express them openly, in order to protect yourself. However, you can be empathetic and sympathetic, and forgive and forget quickly.

Social Skills
You are a solitary person, and desire to work alone, and be alone most of the time. However, you do feel isolated sometimes.

I am sooo happy!

I saw my surgeon this morning and he is dead chuffed with me - i have lost half of my excess weight in 4 months - most of his patients take about a year to do that well - I actually eat healthily and exercise though!

So, I am soooo excited about it all, and plan on having a huge sale of clothes on eBay in the coming weeks.

I did mention that I have never dumped on sugars - and he says some people don’t. I have not pushed it more that 11 grams in a chicken sauce though.

He is sending me to get checked for gallstones - I occasionally get very nasty pains, but other than that, I couldn’t feel better!

These are two characters from television that SCARE THE BEJEEBUS OUT OF ME!!

The Burger King

Foxy Bingo

The character creators spent wwwayyyy too much time reading Stephen King’s IT. This is the kinda shit that gives you nightmares waayyy into adulthood.

Evil - EVIL shit indeed!

If you love makeup as much as I do, you MUST get over to home Ec 101 and share your secrets!

You getting F in English because{

You end sentence with a semicolon;

“You put quotations around your essays”;

“You”.” connect”.” words”.” with”.” periods”;

You end a line with \n.

You group paragraph in {braces}.
}

You express 2 squared in a strange way, pow(2,2).

You insist that 2^2 equals 0.

When solving the cube root of 5 to the 30th decimal, you hope you have bcpow() function. After a while, you kick the chair over and screams at the math teacher because you know that bcpow() does not allow fractional exponents.

You check the labels in the supermarket and tell the manager a variable can’t start with a number. $1.99

You echo a ampersand should not appear in middle of two words, but instead, numbers.

You never use the word “say” anymore, “echo” become your best friend.

You wondering if the art class installed GD library.

You ask to go to the bathroom for a var_dump during a art lesson, then you remember that will change the header.

You paint 2 fingers green(or gray) and suppose that sticking them out will comment anything in the right.

You exploded things in the lab and try to sort them like arrays.

You get annoyed when people don’t see you as a object in the middle class.

You thank a lot of people after getting a award. “I want to thank my parents who always supported me, and a lot other people,” include(’thanks.php’);

After inscribed these on a tree:
define(LOVE, ‘PHP’);

You said that LOVE will never change because it is an constant.

Your friends taking about they don’t know what’s wrong with their relationship. You suggest them try this :
error_reporting (E_ALL);

Your friends look at you with the WTF look. You said:” DUH! ever read the PHP manual?”

While attempting to get a list of tunes together for my upcomming wedding, I put together a list of great love songs - in no particular order.

Add yours to the comments section - I need more ideas please!

All You Need Is Love / Lyndon David Hall
Don’t Change by Musiq Soulchild
Fade Into You – Mazzy Star
“In Your Eyes” (Peter Gabriel)
You Do Something to Me - Paul Weller
Kady - Kenny Rogers
Anything by snow patrol
Lifehouse - Everything
Jeff Buckley - So Real
Anniversary - Tony! Toni! Tone!
One - U2
Angel – Massive Attack
Sia – Breathe me
Lifehouse - You and Me
Beck – Girl
The Cure – Love Song
Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah
John Mayer – Your body is a wonderland
D’Angelo – How Does It Feel (untitled)
Jill Scott – He Loves Me
Hold my hand - Hootie and the Blowfish
Freddie Jackson – You are my lady
Sign Your Name – Terence Trent D’Arby
The Roots with Eryka Badu – You Got me
Daniel Bedingfield - If you are not the one
you’re still the one - shania twain
Linger - The Cranberries
“No Ordinary Love” (Sade)
Paul McCartney “Maybe Im Amazed”
Amazed by Lonestar
“Kiss Me” (Sixpence None The Richer)
Lover, you should have come over by Jeff Buckley
Ice Cream by Sarah Mclachlan
You Were meant For Me - Jewel
jon bon jovi - ALWAYS
“All Of My Love” (Led Zeppelin)
A Woman’s Worth by Maxwell
“You Got To Let Love Rule” (Lenny Kravitz)
Christopher Cross and Dudley Moore - Arthur’s Theme
“Secret Smile” (Semisonic)
“How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You” (Marvin Gaye)
“Let’s Stay Together” (Al Green)
Savage Garden - Truly, Madly, Deeply
James Taylor…Fire & Rain
“she will be loved” (Maroon 5)
corrs - only when i sleep
Complicated Melody - India Arie
Give A Little Bit- Supertramp
“Kiss” (Prince)
Baby, I Love Your Way - Peter Frampton
Faithfully - Journey
everlong - foo fighters
Dido - Here With Me
Snow Patrol, Chasing Cars
Love To Love You Baby - Donna Summer
Three Times a Lady – Commodores
Never Tear Us Apart - INXS
Do That to Me One More Time - Captain & Tennille
Barry White’s “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe,”
“Happy Together” (The Turtles)
Your Love is King - Sade
Honeydrippers - Sea of Love
“Suddenly” (Billy Ocean)
“Sign Your Name” (Terence Trent D’arby)
“Nobody Does It Better” (Carly Simon)
“Wonderful Tonight” (Eric Clapton)
“We Go Together” (John Travolta/Olivia Newton John, from the Grease Soundtrack)
“Thank You” (Led Zeppelin)
“She” (Elvis Costello)
are you gonna be my girl – jet
get Up – James Brown
INXS - Never Tear Us Apart
You’ve made me so very happy – Blood Sweat & Tears
Mercy mercy Me – Marvin Gaye [Detroit mix]
I want you – Madonna
Wicked game - Chris Isaak
“Truly” (Lionel Richie)
“The Sweetest Thing” (Lauryn Hill)
“I Belong To You” (Lenny Kravitz)
“Tonight I Celebrate My Love For You” (Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson)
With or Without You U2
“Sometimes When We Touch” (Dan Hill)
“You’re My First, My Last, My Everything” (Barry White)
“It Had To Be You” (Harry Connick, Jr.)
Come Away with Me- Nora Jones
“From This Moment” (Shania Twain & Brian White)
Heaven by DJ Sammy (candlelight remix)
Let Forever Be - Chemical Brothers
“Crazy For You” (Madonna)
“Every Breath You Take” (The Police)
“Just The Way You Are” (Billy Joel)
“Kiss From A Rose” (Seal)
“She’s Got A Way” (Billy Joel)
“Songbird” (Fleetwood Mac)
“Take My Breath Away” (Berlin)
“Truly, Madly, Deeply” (Savage Garden)
“You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” (Stevie Wonder)
“You’ve Got A Friend” (James Taylor)
“You’re Still The One” (Shania Twain)
“At Last” (Etta James)
“True” (Spandau Ballet)
“We’ve Got Tonight” (Bob Seger)
“Woman” (John Lennon)
“You Are So Beautiful” (Joe Cocker)
“Crash” (Dave Matthews Band)
“Ice Cream” (Sarah MacLachlan)
“Let’s Get It On” (Marvin Gaye)

Learn to spot the warning signs in time - you know you’re becoming a design geek when:

1. You giggle whenever you use the colors F0CCED, EFF0FF and 44DDDD
2. You’re in the sun and you look around for a Drop Shadow to sit under.
3. You give your relatives a lecture about color spaces and profiles when you email them your vacation photos.
4. Seing someone use Lens Flare or Comic Sans adversely affects your blood-pressure
5. You maintain a grid system for your refrigerator magnets.
6. You organise your CD collection according to the Pantone chart.
7. You sit at work for eight hours straight just looking at your monitor, waiting for a spark of inspiration that doesn’t come.
8. You’re up ’til 5am because you came up with the best idea ever while brushing your teeth.
9. The hottest dream you ever had was “Trace contour… Find Edges… Pinch… Extrude… Smudge Stick… Motion Blur…. Sprayed Strokes…”
10. You know Lorem Ipsum by heart.
11. Your kid knows Lorem Ipsum by heart.
12. The preschool teacher complains your child won’t color inside or outside the lines – only indicate colors on a separate sheet.
13. Activating your entire font collection makes your computer crash – and you’re running OSX.
14. You deliberately butcher your perfectly cross browser compatible site in IE by placing a “Too Cool for IE” banner on it.
15. You prefer a Layer Style of 50% Opacity (or less) on your wife’s Satin.
16. You spend £200 on a font for your personal website because “it’s the only one where the lower-case g is just right…”
17. Looking at a menu make you go “hmmm, ITC Baskerville italic” rather than “mmmm, lunch!”
18. And when you finally order, you go for Layer Based Slices with Grain Texture…
19. You use words about fonts you dislike that other normal people reserve for fascist dictators and serial killers.
20. Apple+Z is the first thing that goes through your mind if you drop and break something.
21. You refer to colleagues as Strict, Transitional, Loose and the Future Unemployed.
22. You refer to your privates as “the Magic Wand”.
23. You actually understand this post and pass it on to your friends.

I had my surgery on 31 Jan, which was 10 weeks ago.

I have already lost 56 pounds (UK 4 stone), and I still cannot believe it!

Is this too much too fast?

I am noticing some extra skin, but its a small price to pay.

I am learning wonderful and interesting things about my body all of the time now - like I have a mild dump if I have too many carbs - it starts with random itchiness, massive sweating, and tingling in random bursts all over my body and drives me crazy!

I have also noticed that I don’t lose during menstration - in fact I feel as if I could eat loads more during that time. I don’t, but I definetly crave carbs - see mild dumping above - and feel hunger - which may be head hunger.

I am noticing that my smell and tastes are slowly coming back, so I will be adding some chilis to my cooking.

I haven’t had any hair loss as of yet, but I know that it very may well be just around the corner, so I am waiting (im)patiently and expecting the worst but hoping for the best.

I am having the best attitude about it all - lots of wonderful changes in my life right now - and although some of these things are irritating, they are a very small price to pay in the bigger picture of life. Without being given this wonderful tool, I doubt I would be here in 20 years time.

Watch this space!