Weight a minute…

I’ll explain the title of this week’s blog in a couple of minutes, but first I wanted to share with you how happy I am that I managed to get the WULI:LUU jumper I had been craving in the pink option. It had sold out in my size while I was on air with it, but someone must have forgotten to confirm their order within thirty minutes, and it popped out of their basket. There are two morals to this story: remember to check out, don’t miss out, and perseverance pays off!

That brought a smile to my face, as did my two very important health appointments last week, which I forgot to mention on my blog with all the reminiscing over the past twenty-seven years of QVC.

The first was with my physiotherapist, who I hadn’t seen in person since March. She was very pleased with the strength of my ankle following my operation in January, so now wants to focus her attention on building up the muscles in my left calf. To that end, one of my new exercises is to raise and lower my heel while seated with 20kgs of weight on my thigh!!

Like I say in the title; weight a minute! Fortunately, I have Chris to help me lift the weights, but I think even he would struggle with a single 20kg weight, so we have ‘borrowed’ two 10kg weights from Sophie’s partner’s son, Taylor. I will gradually increase the weight load over the coming weeks… apparently. I have other exercises too, which I’m slowly getting to grips with – sometimes I think she forgets I’m sixty-four.

My other health appointment was via the telephone with my Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia specialist, following my blood tests two weeks previously. My professor had told me back in January when I’d last had my bloods done that I would almost definitely have to start on the new medication, having been on a treatment break for over two years. Well… I’m delighted to report that the levels of the disease are exactly the same as the January levels, which is minimal, so he has deferred putting me on the new meds for at least a further six months. Such a relief and not just for me – my whole family is on tenterhooks waiting for the results each time.

I got the news on the QVC birthday, so it was a double celebration which obviously required a cake! I arrived home after my shift last Friday to this delightful treat that Dan’s girlfriend, Katie had made for me, with a little help from Dan as her sous chef. It’s a Baileys white chocolate cheesecake and was very yummy. We made it last for three days between the four of us, so I don’t feel too guilty indulging.

I was just thinking that I hadn’t put any photos of Wilfie on my blog recently, when he decided to jump up on the table and ‘help’ me with the aforementioned blog. He’s properly ‘posing’ isn’t he?!

You might have noticed that along with my Filofax (yes, I still use a Filofax – I’m so old school) there is also the Rush Charger waiting to be photographed. It’s tomorrow’s Today’s Special Value, launching on-air tonight at 9 p.m., and comes in several colours. James Murden thoughtfully provided me with a sample in purple, as he knows it’s my favourite colour.

It’s a clever little unit that you can plug in to charge while it charges your device at the same time. It holds charge so that you can recharge your mobile devices when you’re not near a power source. It has four LED lights to indicate how much charge it has and three different connectors if your household, like ours, has different makes of phones. A thoughtful and useful Christmas gift idea, as we are now in full-on Christmas shopping mode at QVC with lots of sparkly Christmas bauble decorations. Do remember, anything you’re buying as a Christmas present has an extended money back guarantee until January 31st, just to make sure the recipient is happy with your purchase.

Speaking of sparkles, I hope you can join me for some, if not all, of the two-hour Diamonique Christmas special show on Monday from 2 p.m. Although I don’t know the show line-up yet, we have some fabulous new designs on the website, some of which I’m sure will feature.

Then I have more sparkles for you on Thursday at 5 p.m. when I’ll be on air with Simon Wilson for an hour of Butler & Wilson jewellery. There are several Christmas designs, but how cute are these guys? There’s a silver tone option with the more traditional coloured Santa hats, or we have a more colourful gold tone option.

Before I finish, let’s skip back to this weekend, which you could well be doing in these Skechers lace-up hiker trail boots, the Today’s Special Value this Sunday. They are available in six colour options and they come in half as well as full sizes for the perfect fit. I don’t know what I would have done without the comfort of my Skechers post-surgery, and these are one of the styles of this Autumn/Winter season, with lots of brands doing their own version of them. I have them in the Cognac colour, although tempted to go for a pair in Gold as well. I’m due to have them in my afternoon show with Evey at 4 p.m., provided we still have stock!

Well, that’s about it for now. I’m pleased to report that I’ve typed this on my newly repaired MacBook Air with no double-spacing at all, which is a relief as I have the final bit of line-editing to do on my latest book, due back with my editor on Monday. And if you enjoy my reading sessions, do join me for a bit more from It’s Never Too Late to Say on Instagram Live (juliagroberts) and my Facebook page (JuliaRobertsTV) at 8 p.m. tonight – we’ll move on to Alice in Theatreland next week.

Have a great weekend.
Much love,
Julia xx