Five great things that happened to me in 2012.. 2013 has a tough act to follow Part 1

So it's after midnight and if you've read my previous post I should be asleep... however I can't so here's five reasons why I loved 2012 so much.

Part 1 : I had lunch with the Queen

First up what has to be hands down my favourite thing from 2012 attending the Queens Jubilee Lunch at Westminster.

I should start this by telling you that for my Masters degree last year and currently for my PhD I have been fortunate enough to be sponsored by the Dyer's Company who are one of the larger Royal Livery Companies of the City of London.

Thanks to this whilst on tour in sunny Salou and full of sangria with the cheerleaders (more on that later) I received an email from the Dyers asking if I would be willing to attend the Jubilee lunch. Now I have to admit I had to have my friend and room mate for the week Simon read the email again for me because I couldn't quite believe my eyes. Cue calling my girlfriend and entire family from Spain at an extortionate rate to excitedly tell them.

The day quickly came and Michelle and I travelled to Reading the day before to stay with her uncle so I could quickly dash into London first thing in the morning. I'd never seen the trains and tube so quiet it was really quite remarkable and I had an interesting conversation with an older couple who proudly told me they were going to the ceremony at Westminster Abbey which was "not the sort of event people like I could attend" I took great pleasure in telling him I was instead going to the far more exclusive lunch event.

Before lunch at Dyers Hall

I arrived a little early so wasted some time looking at BBC news and was horrified to find the menu for the day would feature salmon and lamb.. two of my most disliked menu options! Luckily they turned out to be delicious. After wasting a little time at the station I headed to Dyers Hall to meet the rest of our party a mixture of students and members of the company, we were later joined by a serviceman serving with one of the units sponsored by company. We were treated to hot pastries and coffee before getting a coach down to Westminster.

Big Ben from inside the grounds

Stepping through the visitors gate at Westminster was surreal, plenty of armed police and the sort of scanners you might see in the airport, this was only made more surreal by stepping out the other side on the other side of the fence especially so with the huge crowds outside.

The hall itself was incredible especially considering the history building knowing for hundreds of years it was used for coronations of the monarch as well as lyings-in-state for the Royals and a number of distinguished individuals such as William Churchill. We were treated to canapés and British sparkling wine while we waited for everyone to arrive and were treated to music from the a national children's orchestra who played a good deal of music from Harry Potter making it all feel a bit Hogwarts!

Inside Westminster Hall

Before long the Queen and a number of senior Royals had arrived an we were seated for lunch, I was astonished to find I was sat no more than 10 meters away from the Queen herself with the rest of the family spread throughout the room.

To start we had salmon and white crab meat (unexpectedly tasty) with a glass of white wine to match, with the exception of the Queen who had what appeared to be coke! This was followed by lamb stuffed with mutton (again delicious  and a red wine with a trio of desserts to finish. Now I've heard a lot of people say the Queen is not much of an eater after this I would have disagree.. with the exception of desert.

It was unfortunately over all too soon, after the Queen and family had left the hall we were allowed to mingle for a while before it was announced that we were free to take the table decorations. Moving with a pace I'm not sure I've ever moved at before I bolted to grab the flowers from the Queens table for my grandmother.. a steadfast Royalist.

My nan with the Queens flowers

Upon leaving we were subject to quite some attention, I felt almost like a celebrity indeed 3 separate sets of tourists asked for pictures with members of our group.. I'm not sure who they thought we were but I enjoyed it!

Bar a tube and train trip back to Reading then a drive back to Leeds my day was all too soon over.

I had intended this to cover the five things that made my 2012 amazing, however I think lunch with the Queen itself is enough for one post! The rest will follow shortly!

The Dryathalon and shifting enough timber to tire 100 lumberjacks

So I expect everyone in the blogging world has already unleashed a blog about their New Year's resolutions.

I would do the same but I've never really been one for making them, there are some thing however in my life I need to sort out my one of which is my oversized gut and distinct lack of fitness. This is something that I'd made a start on last year shifting a not too unrespectable 7kg, however then came some birthdays and Christmas, attendance at the gym and eating well soon went out of the window.

So this January see's a reinvigorated stab at sorting myself out, the necessity of which is pretty clear when looking at some of my graduation photo's like this one, oddly the same photo which has made the girlfriend want to drop a bit of weight too!

In the last week I took the first step and hopped on the scales, the result wasn't pleasant but at least it didn't tell me to get off. I came in at a strapping 114.3kg with a horrifying 49.1% of that being fat! This was quickly followed by breaking out the tape measure with the equally shameful results below..

Waist 46"
Hips 44"
Shoulders 47.5"
Chest 46"

With all of the above it's clear something has to change should I want to dodge heart disease diabetes or some other horrific result of staying the shape I'm in!

So I've decided a few things...

1. I need to get back to the gym before uni meaning a 6am start! This also means no more 2am bedtimes!
2. Eat more protein.
3. Eat less processed carbs, I still need to get the carbs into me but I'm trying to get them all from fruit and veg while trying to dodge things like bread and pasta where I can.
4. Lay off the booze.

Number 4 brings me onto my attempts to raise a bit of charity money. Cancer Research UK are running a Dryathalon this January, essentially this means no booze for the whole of the month and hopefully people sponsor me. They even gave me this snazzy wristband so I don't forget. If anyone wants to offer up some sponsorship money then you can go to http://www.justgiving.com/dryathlete-andy-brown its all for a very good cause!

This I think helps us both it lets me raise a bit for a good cause and it helps me shift a bit of unwanted timber! I'm 7 days in and truth be told its pretty nice I'm more productive and I sleep a lot better without the odd tipple here and there!

I think that's me done for now, I'll be back with my progress sometime around the start of February when I again brave the scales and tape measure and I'm sure I'll have plenty more to share before then!

Here comes a new character... Round 1... FIGHT

I've never written a blog before, so hopefully the internet will be gentle with me!

I'm currently a videogame loving, dSLR learning, overweight and under fit 1st year PhD student in the department of Chemistry at the University of Leeds.

I'm hoping that I can use this as a means to ramble on about my exploits, and I'm hoping that it will last longer than my forays into social networking that isn't Facebook (I've tried Twitter three times and I still don't really get it!) It seems to work for my girlfriend Mich so I guess its worth a bash!

Hopefully my first proper blog will come soon.. Is that what you calling blogging? Is it doing a blog?