Back by popular demand, another blog post about my adventures in contraceptive medicine! As you may have previously read, I’d been having a year-long struggle finding a combined pill that I was happy with. The best brand for me, Yasmin, gave me rubbish skin and bad cramps; the worst, Dianette, gave me greasy hair and suicidal tendencies. Not one to put up with even the minor annoyances but still wary of the longer term forms of contraception like the implant and injection, I decided to ditch the combined pill and move onto the progestogen-only, or ‘mini’ pill, and was prescribed Cerazette. As I write this blog post, I’ve just taken the last of 28 pills in my first packet so I’ll tell you all how the first month has gone!

All in all, it’s been pretty sweet so far! Because Cerazette has a 12-hour window that you can take it in (unlike most mini pills that only have a 3-hour leeway) I’ve been able to take it exactly the same as normal with the added bonus of not having the sometimes confusing pill free week – you just take it every day, forever, and don’t get that random panic when your phone alarm goes off and tells you to take your pill when you’re actually not meant to because you’re too lazy to change the settings!  As far as the side effects go, most importantly, my moods are wayyyyy better. I’m not bursting into tears randomly or flying off into a huff at the tiniest little thing or just generally being an intolerable moody bitch and I feel considerably more relaxed/less anxious.

My skin is back to being almost-perfect, there’s a lingering red patch by my left nostril that just won’t budge but the spots on my forehead, around my hairline and around my mouth have pretty much vanished. My GP said that it was normally the progestogen in the combined pill (rather than the oestrogen) that causes skin abnormality so going on the mini pill wouldn’t necessarily work but – touch wood –  Cerazette seems to have sorted me out anyway. AND my hair isn’t the slimeball it was when I was briefly on Dianette as well which is A+.

Yes, okay, it has done what mini pills do to most women and fucked up my menstrual cycle somewhat, but I was totally prepared for and accepting of that. I’ve been tracking what’s been happening since I started Cerazette with Pink Pad on my iPhone which I found to be the best of the free period tracker apps (although every last one of them I came across, including Pink Pad, asks if you’ve been ‘intimate’ that day. ‘Intimate’. They mean penis-in-vagina-sex, so they should just say that. I consider oral sex quite, if not more, ‘intimate’ but I don’t think they’re interested in that).

Anyway, because I was at my wits end with Dianette I ditched it in the middle of a packet and so started Cerazette somewhere random in my artificial ~cycle~ which meant on the sixth day it I had a ‘normal’ period which lasted for five days. It was a bit heavier than I’m used to but it went away and I thought to myself maybe, just maybe I’ve lucked out and skipped the dreaded spotting associated with the mini pill! I was free of it for about a week, up until  day 19, then it kicked in and it’s been a constant feature until I started another period yesterday (day 27)… don’t know if I’m going to get it again whenever this period ends but we’ll see!

Like I said though, I was prepared to go through about three months of random periods and spotting before it settles down and the bleeding either disappears completely (please please please please please) or if nothing else goes back to normal. I can live with that. I have done for twenty four years after all! I’m sure more squeamish/prude couples would be rendered sexless for the first quarter on Cerazette as well but it’s just spotting, put a towel down if you’re that bothered but even then you probably don’t need it. That said if it never sorts itself out I think I’d have to reconsider my options but that’s highly unlikely and everything else has been great so far.

Thanks Cerazette, I can see this being a long and beautiful friendship.

I’m moving in with Alex!  

We’ve been together over a year now (since November 2010). I live with my parents, who I moved back in with after graduating from university in June 2009; he has his own house in the neighbouring town where he’s lived alone for several years. I spend every weekend at his and some week nights depending on roller derby and my shifts at work which involves a lot of travelling between houses so living together just seemed to make the most sense. Plus we want to spend more time together, and he’ll save a bit of money having a live-in girlfriend to split everything with! It does take away my cushy status of a) paying pennies to live with my mam and dad and b) living around the corner from work as I’ll now have to get out of bed more than half an hour before I’m due to start and travel in on the bus but it’ll be so, so worth the extra expense.

Due to my being on a very strict budget at the moment I decided I didn’t want to move until my credit card is clear (which it now is!!!) and my overdraft is gone (just over £800 to go), which is scheduled hilariously for my 25th birthday, April 12th (just happens to coincide with a pay day this year, lucky!). I’ve got plenty of shit to get rid of before I can think of moving anywhere again anyway but now I’ve got a date set I need to get in gear – and up the game with my 30 Day Declutter, too. We actually discussed and decided on my moving in in the middle of January but I didn’t want to announce it until it was ~official~ which I decided it would be when I got my own key. Just got this cut this morning en route back to my parents’ from his, check it out!

A KEY WITH A KEY DESIGN ON IT. BRILLIANT.

So yeah, that’s my amazing news, I AM PRETTY MUCH OVER THE MOON in case you couldn’t tell. I’ll be blogging a lot about the money side of changing from living with my parents to living with my boyfriend over at my personal finance blog Every Tenner Helps, it’s going to be riveting stuff!

(and yes, before you ask, I am addicted to Instagram)

01/01/2012 – New Year’s Day at the giant spoon.

06/01/2012 – miniature Newcastle from Monument Mall

08/01/2012 – playing with the bubbles from Rebecca’s 1st birthday party

18/01/2012 – randomly beautiful sky on the walk home from work

28/01/2012 – Alex‘s knuckles, merby stylee

I know I said in the original post I’d be keeping my photos over at 365 Project but 1) that’s a misnomer anyway because there are actually 366 days this year but mostly 2) I remembered that Tumblr exists, and Tumblr is awesome, so I made my own separate Tumblr for this. You can check out all 34 photos so far and keep tabs on the coming 332!

Another weekend, another Saturday coach trip somewhere south – via Wetherby Services of course! We Newcastle Roller Girls have been quite spoiled these last two months as both the trips in December and January were for us to not skate, and for a lot of us actually do nothing but spectate as it was the Tyne & Fear lads’ turn to play! Last month we saw them smash New Wheeled Order in Manchester and two days ago we were off to Sheffield to see them face The Inhuman League. Of course just because you’re not skating doesn’t mean there’s nothing for you to do on bout day – there are NSO positions to fill, all kinds of merchandise to sell, photographs to take, tweets to tweet and somebody needs to announce for your team.

Wait, WHAT?

Yes indeed ladies and gents, the lunatic poser on the right is none other than myself! What the Dickens was I doing announcing a bout when I’d never done it before, I hear you ask. Well, our league only has one official derby announcer that travels with us to all away bouts, the now-AFTDA-certified Sven WillIBeFamous. But he was signed up to ref this bout and nobody stepped forward when the call went out so I decided to give it a go! Not going to lie, I was absolutely shitting it. For the men’s bout I was announcing with a lovely lady called Laura from Sheffield Steel Roller Girls and while she warmed up the crowd I kept my microphone firmly OFF, apart from one attempt at humour: “Who likes roller derby? Who likes MEN?? Well, you’re in for a treat!” I think one person pity-laughed so I just waited for the guys to start skating when I was actually obligated to speak. But before we get into that, can we all stop and appreciate how awesome Alex‘s iconic bout make up is?

Thank you. And check out his knuckles too!

Awesome. Not to be outshone by my super cool boyfriend were Tyne & Fear’s line up and bench folk, the ever stylish Rev Limiter and stunning Kalamity James. The bout was 1920s murder mystery themed, Murder on the Flat Track Express, and as always Kalamity pulled out all the stops to look the part. Ravishing!

And I just have to show you guys an excellent photobomb from Gay Fawkes, when I was trying to get a lovely romantic photo of me & Alex before the game. Gay blocked so hard during the game he ended up with a broken collar bone because he’s just that hardcore, hope you mend soon dude!

Anyway, the bout! And announcing! After the horror and somewhat mess up that was announcing the team during the skate out when I was RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRACK and it felt like EVERYONE WAS LOOKING AT ME (duh, they weren’t, they were looking at the skaters) we relocated to next to the sin bin, and something just clicked. Ahhh roller derby, I know how to talk about you! Da Little Waster stepped up to the jam line for the start of the game and suddenly I could barely stop talking – I was very thankful for my high level of rules knowledge, especially the referee hand signals (especially proud of myself when I picked up a jam ref signalling ‘no pass no penalty’, whoop!) as it was impossible to hear what was being called but I managed to stay on top of what was happening and let the crowd know what was going on and why.

I’m sure it’s hard to stay impartial when announcing in general, but I’ll bet you £100 it’s way harder when your boyfriend is playing a BLINDER of a game. Every time Alex – sorry, Tyne & Fear vice captain number 26 Chemic-Al – was on the track he did something to make me scream internally ‘OH MY GOD THAT WAS AMAZING I LOVE YOU, YOU MERBY LEGEND!!!’ but I had to translate it to something like ‘an amazing hit on the Inhuman League jammer by our vice captain’ or ‘black 26 Chemic-Al perfectly timing a shoulder check into the red wall there to let the Tyne & Fear jammer sail through on the outside line’. Of course I’m biased and think he’s ace in general but Saturday was genuinely the best I’d ever seen him play, and it wasn’t just me who thought so – check out what NRG’s vice captain Von Sleaze, who’d taken up the live tweeting post in my stead, had to say too:

Yeah! And it’s not just Alex that I felt biased towards but of course all of Tyne & Fear in general, who I skate with all the time and support at every opportunity. When captain Man Shaped Dog took a nasty block jamming and came up grimacing and clutching his neck I had to stop myself from running on track to see if he was okay! I wanted to jump up and down and shout and scream every time Dark Matter skated impossibly low and slipped past the opposition, every time Reanimated Gif fearlessly blammed (‘blocker-jammed’, essentially aggressive jamming) his way through the backwards skating walls, every time cherry poppers Pablo Diablo and Jace of Spades held their own against much more experienced players, every time Rubba Duk and Porky threw their full formidable force into the other blockers to help our jammers through.

They weren’t having an easy time of it either as the final score most definitely reflected, it was THE closest game I’ve ever seen. I can compare it with only one other, one I was actually playing in – when NRG played Hot Wheel Roller Derby last October. The last jams in both were particularly nail-biting. At Halifax last year, before the last jam the score was 112 to HWRD, 109 to us. In the final jam their jammer was sent off for a major false start leaving our Von Sleaze with a power jam which turned the score on its head and we won 112-117 at the last possible moment. On Saturday, the score was 110-109 in the lads’ favour with less than a minute left on the clock. The refs went over to check with the score keepers  whose work seemed to be spot on as those numbers stayed as they were but something must have been contested – I remember the Inhuman League’s Bollock Obama quite rightly pointing out from the sin bin that the period clock was counting down when it shouldn’t have been at one point – and one more jam was awarded….

My heart was in my throat, I could barely announce that for us it was Reanimated Gif on the jam line to battle against Jammie Dodger, not that I could have been heard over the crowd. I just couldn’t look, but unlike in my own game where I had the luxury of staring at the wall, it was my JOB to keep my eyes on the action. OH how my stomach dropped as Jammie Dodger made it out of the pack first… but what was that? HE’S BEEN SENT OFF FOR CUTTING TRACK? YES, HE REALLY HAS! All eyes were on Gif – just get through clean, get lead, and call it off dude! Which is exactly what he did, ending the game, and leaving the points exactly as they were. 110 beats 109. Amazing.

But it wasn’t over for me, oh no! While our boys were off to shower and change, I had only a small break before announcing the next bout, Sheffield Steel Roller Girls vs Big Bucks High Rollers. Yes that’s right, my first day announcing and I was covering a double header – the second game featuring a team I hadn’t even heard of who I ended up announcing ‘for’ as The Inhuman League’s skater and Hot Wheel Roller Derby legend Jerry Attric was alongside talking for the home team. It was quite hard work -although I didn’t have to reign in my emotions as much for the first few jams it was pretty much a case of ‘and now jamming for Big Bucks it’s… hold on let me just check the number on her arm… and now check that against her name in the programme… why of course it’s number 99, Rocky!’ or what have you, cringe! I picked most of them up by the end, typically when I didn’t need to actually say their names any more. The game was great too – sometimes women’s roller derby falls flat after the audience have just watched the men play but these ladies in orange and black really put on a show, especially in the second half when Sheffield came back from a major points deficit to almost winning but the High Rollers came away in the lead with 144 to 113.

After the second game we just had to quickly wrap up the raffle and do the skater awards which seemed like a walk in the park despite my previous crippling nerves about talking when people were actually, you know, looking at me. For Tyne & Fear, Da Little Waster picked up best jammer (duh), Jams T Kirk was named best blocker and the Most Valuable Player was Dark Matter – well done lads! As for me, I think I quite like announcing! I’ll definitely do it again as nobody came up and said I was terrible (far from it, you flattering people!), whenever I can for Tyne & Fear games, home or away – and maybe I’ll get a chance to do it for my own team when I’m not on a roster.

Just depends what wor Sven is doing really. He’s the certified one!

(@ photobooth outside ASDA, Manor Walks, Cramlington)

As you may know, I suffer from IBS. I tried giving up dairy products in the hope that I had a sensitivity to them but it made no difference, and my symptoms are nowhere near bad enough to make me want to give up gluten. Although I’d been on the look out for some kind of medication for it, it somehow never struck me to look into all those yoghurts and drinks that have ‘good bacteria’ in them and make your stomach happy and all that.

But when Alex was on the plane home from Toronto after the Blood & Thunder Roller Derby World Cup, he was reading a magazine article over his mam’s shoulder about how Yakult can help people with my condition, and being the lovely thoughtful boyfriend that he is he made a mental note and told me about it as soon as he saw me! Not being one to question in flight magazines and being a lover of all things Japanese, I decided to try it.

1) It tastes NOTHING like I expected it to. The words ‘fermented milk product’ instantly make me think of ‘rotten cheese’ and the opaque pus colour doesn’t do it any favours but it actually tastes quite fruity? It’s not the tastiest drink in the world, kind of like the water that collects on the top of some yoghurts I guess – but it’s certainly not bad and there’s only so much in a tiny bottle anyway.

2) It works like a charm!

It’s sort of weird how instant my reaction to drinking Yakult every day has been, my bowels are the most ‘normal’ (reliable) they’ve been in years. I’m talking daily here, people. Outstanding.  Of course it isn’t going to work for everybody but if you suffer from constipation type IBS like I do or any mild digestive complaints I’d certainly give it a chance, it’s not that expensive (around £2.50 for a week’s supply) and easy enough to keep up with every day. Live on the edge!

I’m not sponsored by Yakult, just so we’re clear. I wish I was though… email me, fermented milk product people, yeah?

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of being in my room, you’ll know that it’s a complete bombsite and full of crap I don’t need/read/watch/wear/listen to/etc. Add to this that I also have boxes upon boxes of shit from university sitting in a storage place in the industrial estate round the corner and it becomes quite clear that I need to lose around 75% of my belongings (this also relates to some VERY EXCITING NEWS that will be revealed in the near future, oooo!) I made a very well meaning attempt at kick starting this project last year when I sold some CDs and DVDs to my friends (and made about £30, get in!) but it just sort of… stopped there. Particularly when I looked at the mountains of clothes that I need to get rid of as that’s a good solid week’s work right there, wow.

But I’m back on it, and I’m going to DO THIS THING. I’ve set myself a challenge of selling/donating/binning as much as I humanly can over a thirty day period – you can see what A Thrifty Mrs got rid of here, amazing! – and whatever’s left to get rid of after that, well, that can wait ’til I at least catch my breath. So yeah! I started this on Monday (January 16th) when I donated 4 Harry Potter books in French to my old high school, so the project will end on Tuesday February 14th (aww!)… tonight I managed to sell another ten books to some league mates (and made a cool tenner in the process, sweet) and I’m in the midst of a crazy huge Music Magpie offering so I’ll let you know how that goes. Keep your cursors on the operation: get rid of stuff and 30 day declutter categories to follow my progress!

COMING UP ON THIS BLOG!
Posts about something other than contraception, I promise! Particularly a very exciting development in my life (gee, can you vague that up for me?) AND a super awesome but terrifying roller derby event next weekend. Stay tuned guys…

If you’ve ever written a blog you’ll know that you probably spend at least three times as much time reading other people’s than writing on your own. Since I started Every Tenner Helps, I’ve been reading a lot of other personal finance blogs and came across an awesome challenge on Newlyweds On A Budget that’s right up my street! As you’ve probably guessed from the title of this blog post, the challenge is to lose 10 pounds in 12 weeks, with a financial incentive! There are some great prizes up for grabs so check out the challenge (and while you’re there give the whole blog a read because it’s pretty damn good!). It starts today, January 16th, and will run until April 9th (ending just before my  25th birthday, PERFECT).

I’ve just weighed myself now and I’m coming in at 147lbs, or 10 stone 7(!). This is not a healthy weight for me, for the past 4 or so years I’ve hovered anywhere between 9.5 and 11 stone so I’m at the heavier end at the moment, and I can tell just looking at myself. I know, I know BMI isn’t the be all and end all of anything and can be highly inaccurate and blah blah blah but at 10-and-a-half stone I’m definitely overweight, and even when I lose these ten pounds I’ll only just be in the healthy bracket for my height at 9 stone 11 (137lbs).  I could actually lose three stone, a whopping 48lbs (!!!) and still not be underweight, medically. I don’t think I’d look very good at 7-and-a-half stone and I’ve no intention of getting anywhere near there but it just goes to show you – if you’re thinking oh Big Smack you don’t need to lose any weight you look great, sorry but you’re wrong!

So, 137lbs, that’s my target for early April! There are official weigh-ins for the challenge in February, March and at the end so I’ll try to post my progress on here at the same time, if not more frequently. How am I going to do it? Here are my three key strategies:

- More exercise on top of roller derby. I think my metabolism is sadly now accustomed to skating for 2 hours three/four nights a week so I need to step it up, hopefully when the weather’s better I can get out on my bike again and in the mean time there are always places to walk and weights to lift. I was thinking of attempting Couch to 5K this year, could be the perfect opportunity…

- Stop eating food from work (again). Enough said. Bring soup!

- MyFitnessPal. A great site but more handily a great free iPhone app where you can track calories, exercise, water intake – the lot! You can add people on it as well and see how they’re doing, give encouragement etc. so if you’re on there please add me, I’m bigsmack199.

Are you trying to lose weight (New Year’s resolution, about to be a bridesmaid, been told to by your doctor, getting fitter for your sport, anything)? What changes have you made? Any hints and tips are greatly appreciated & if you’re another blogger taking part in this challenge, please comment and let me know how it’s going for you too!

I’ve decided to move my personal finance related posts over to a whole new site which you can find at Every Tenner Helps. This site will still be here and updated about pretty much everything else going on in my life but as I’m really focusing on getting out of debt this year I want to spend a lot of time and effort blogging about it so I thought it deserved its own place, plus it means if you’re not interested in my financial situation you won’t have to scroll past posts and posts about it on here to get to the good shit about roller derby, IBS and contraception, hahaha!

I do hope you will check out my new blog but keep reading here too!