Progress Report...

In my flight of whimsy yesterday I forgot to report on my progress with 'The Challenge', which technically has now ended. Well, in the 11 weeks I managed to lose (drum roll please):

Half a stone.

Yup, just 7 pounds.

That's not so bad considering I have done no exercise to speak of for the last 3 weeks as November has killed my will to do anything and December is brining me a cold. Poor excuses, but they're the only ones I've got and I'm sticking to them.

This is probably the best I have done in any challenge of this sort, but still not quite the target I was aiming for. Luckily everyone else seemed to gloss over the end of the challenge too, so I suspect it might well get extended. Phew! Flâneur would probably love to take our TV down to Manchester with him in January, but he wouldn't love it the way I do so it's probably for the best that it stays with me.

And now we are well into the festive season where food is a plenty and time to exercise scarce. I will have to be very careful not to put any of those lovely 7 pounds back on, but I will try. Wish me luck (again!).

Wishful thinking…

Renewing leases and taking up new ones makes me even more want a home of my own, that belongs to us (not someone else) and has all the things we want from a home. I’ve started mentally listing what these things are, and I’m sure Flâneur is fed up of me asking him what he wants from our fantasy home… But here are a few of the things anyway, because maybe by writing them down they might one day come true.

The basic is ‘I want a house with a garden’… The garden so I can grow vegetables and have apple trees and a dog. The dog is very important. As for the house, so far it should have…

• a large kitchen, with one of those large central islandy bits. In this kitchen I want a dishwasher (Flâneur’s not so fussed), a proper large upright fridge freezer, and proper sized cupboards. Oh and a gas hob. That’s extremely important.
• a large bathroom – big enough for a nice large, deep bath and (as well as the sink and loo) space for a nice comfy chair. And if there is enough space, a separate shower too.
• a dining room. I’m not so fussed if this is a dining kitchen, but space for our large dining table that’s good for entertaining is a must! If it’s a separate dining room, then it could double up as…
• a library. Or basically a room full of books as between us we have tonnes. This could be in the dining room (see above) or in…
• a study. For Flâneur. That isn’t also a spare room. That has room for his drawing board, his computer, a large number of his books, a place with good light that he can draw and paint by and that is properly heated so he doesn’t freeze.
• a large master bedroom with an ensuite shower room. Because I love our ensuite, I love not having far to go when I inevitably need the loo in the middle of the night and it’s great when you have guests. The bedroom needs to house a large kingsize bed and enough storage for both of us, at least!
• at least 1 (preferably more) spare rooms – for guests. We’re unlikely to be able to afford more than that 2 at most, but this is all about dreaming… And they would have proper beds, not futons, that were made up and didn’t have to be constructed every time someone came to stay (or taken down again when they left).
• Somewhere for me to sew – this doesn’t have to be a big room, but it would be great to have somewhere where my sewing machine was set up, with storage for all my fabric and other bits and pieces so they aren’t in a public space. (I'd also like the time to sew more, but that isn't so much about the house...)
• A nice living room – we’re not showy, this can be modest, but I suppose it should be big enough to fit more than the one slightly rubbish sofa we have now! Oh and an open fire.
• a garden – did I mention the garden? for the dog, and vegetables and apple trees…

I’m not sure if we will ever be rich enough to fulfil my dreams, but it’s good to know what you ultimately want… As for what the house should look like, as long as it’s an interesting building (not 1960s-present day suburbia), then I think I’ll be happy. Flâneur would probably want modern, I’d probably want old. But I think I’d be happy to compromise on an old exterior with a modern interior and that might make us both happy. As long as there’s a garden and a dog….

Cold, wet and miserable

...and that's not just the weather...

I came so so close to just coming home again after I left the house this morning. I think it was when the second bus went past only letting two people on. At least they were slowing down at the big puddle by the bus stop and only one of them splashed the waiting wet potential passengers. I did, however, leave my brolly at home and while I had on my waterproof coat this did not stop my glasses from needing windscreen wipers and my trousers from getting soaked. Urgh. So this morning I ended up in work a bit wet, cold and just a smidgen miserable.

Now I’m at my desk I have put the bad-for-the-environment electric heater under my desk on, have a fleece on and am hoping no people come in today - the weather should put them off right?

Have I mentioned that I dislike November?

I spent a great deal of the weekend getting wet and grumpy too. Wet, well obviously because of the rain (some of it torrential); grumpy because I was tired and London was full of stupid people who get in your way, bump into you, stop suddenly and crowd out the shops. Mostly, I should say, it was a great weekend, despite the rain and the ‘other people’. It started with a ludicrously early start on Saturday morning when both Flâneur and I got up at 4:50. Yes. 4:50am. A time when ordinarily I would look at the clock and think ‘magic, another two hours at least until I have to get up’. We had booked ourselves onto the first train down to London and got up when we woke up to stop ourselves going back to sleep!

The train was good actually, despite it being so early. We were in First Class so had loads of room and the carriage was pretty quiet. I tried to snooze some more but it wasn’t happening, so we watched the sun come up and got excited about our trip. It was pretty nice weather when we arrived, even verging on warm (!) and we decided to walk the two miles or so to the hotel as the tube was buggered. As usual! The hotel was lovely. Flâneur had won a free night in a Hyatt hotel, partly I think because he is a loyalty card holder (Platinum no less!). So we decided to take advantage of it at the Hyatt Regency London, The Churchill. We arrive before check in, but figured we could leave our bags and go and find lunch. The reception was really busy (check out time!) but we were delighted when we got to the counter to find that they had decided to upgrade us to one of their club rooms on the 8th floor, which has its own private check in area. Oooh, get us! Checking in up there we were also told there was a room ready for us immediately, that they served complimentary cocktails and canapés in the exclusive lounge between 6 and 8 and that there would also be a complimentary continental breakfast in the lounge the next morning. Hurrah! Our room hadn’t come with breakfast so this was great news! ;o)

I got very overexcited by the fact we had been upgraded. I never get upgraded for anything. :o)

The room was lovely, but we only stopped in it momentarily to change and then headed out to the shops, the other reason for coming to London. Ah… Selfridges, Liberty, Muji, independent design shops, Fortnums… Bliss!! We had a very pleasant (but enormous) lunch in John Lewis and then the rain started. It was not so bad on the Saturday and we did enjoy all our shops, but having got up so early we both went through tired-grumpy-hysterical several times while brollies hit our faces and people barged into us and we tried to keep ourselves going. We were pretty exhausted and wet by the time we got back to the hotel around 7, but we sorted ourselves out and headed through the lounge and gosh, it was lovely. It was so nice to just kick back, enjoy a glass of champagne or three, some nibbles and just relax. We’d pretty much been on the go since for 14 hours so it was very very welcome.

Sunday we got up in time to enjoy the continental buffet (never one to let something free pass me by…) and then lounged about our room sorting out our packing (all the lovely things we’d bought the day before!) before checking out. It was lovely that check out wasn’t til midday as nothing opens in London on a Sunday before then anyway. We were Knightsbridge bound on Sunday and decided to head across Hyde Park as it shouldn’t have taken us long to walk. The weather, however, turned our pleasant stroll through the park into a steely determination to find cover! It was not just raining, but windy and by the time we were nearing the Hyde Park Corner end the deluge started. We got soaked. Well and truly properly soaked. I don’t think my feet dried out until Monday morning!! I was glad when we got to Harrods (where I had wanted to pick up one of Flâneur’s Christmas presents) and thankfully it had died down a bit by the time we left. More walking (we worked out we had walked a total of over 13 miles over the two days!), more shops and then the last train back on Sunday. Boy I was glad to have yesterday off work. It was a great weekend, but totally exhausting.

And now it’s back to work and me stuck spending all day shivering without seeing any natural light (sit in a draft, heating not working properly, come to work in the dark, no windows near where I sit, go home in the dark). Everybody say ‘ahhhh’…

Hmm… I wonder if going to the gym tonight will improve my mood? Maybe I should get some Vitamin D to replace the lack of sunshine which is clearly getting to me now… Maybe I should just quit my job so I can stay under the duvet every morning like I want to. Hmm… maybe not so practical. Still, it’s nearly December and that means nearly Christmas and sometimes it stops raining a bit in December. Finger’s Crossed!

Hibernation Season

So, it's November again and getting darker by the day. Well, it's really been November for a while now, but it's hit me really this week with the wet blustery weather and my deep desire to stay in bed until it gets light and then crawl back to bed when it gets dark again. Which at present would see me getting up around 8, 8:30 and going to bed at 4, 4:30!! Not good... November (plus my cosy comfy duvet) makes it very hard to get up when the alarm goes off. Hibernation season. The wet blustery weather I don't mind so much, but only if I'm inside, curled up listening to it happening outside. Alas I more than often have to be out in it, either coming to or going from work. Bah!

I have been pretty lazy this week and have managed to go to the gym a total of zero times. I brought my stuff to work with me on Monday, I took it home again. I brought my stuff with me to work on Wednesday, I took it home again... I cut my losses the rest of the week and figured it wasn't going to happen and I would just have to be extra extra specially careful with what I eat instead (which I pretty much have, well I do anyway at the moment). I'm not sure I'll lose any weight this week, but I don't appear to be putting any on at the moment, so that'll do me for now.

I did go to the gym last Friday, which I've not blogged about, and did a pretty good work out:

Total work out time: 70 mins
Total calories burned: 818.9
Total distance walked/run/strode: 8.6km

Not bad, eh?? Best yet in fact, and I really didn't think I'd do that well. Perhaps I should have gone this week after all... I always seem to surprise myself the most on days when I think I can't be bothered.

In defence of my laziness this week, I have been extremely tired. Partly the darkness, partly the weather, partly not sleeping well and a small part not feeling great. Another 'non-cold' with some symptoms that never develop. Tired and achy pretty much cover it. I'm still feeling tired today, but a little better. However, as Flâneur and I are taking a trip to London this weekend, I couldn't really have gone this evening anyway. Our train is at the hilarious time of 6:15 tomorrow morning, so a quiet night and early to bed is all I can cope with, to ensure I'm able to get up at 5 tomorrow. Urgh... It seemed like a good idea when we booked the tickets...

Gym and shopping

Phew. Back from the gym and exhausted! It was a tough old session tonight and I questioned several times whether I shouldn't just give up. I didn't, which is a good thing in the long run, but I might pay for it later (or tomorrow!). And at least I went, which is better than not going, which is what I did on Monday! I had had a pretty exhausting weekend and I just needed to go home on Monday after work.

On Friday RF and I flew down south to spend a day and a half at my parents', essentially to go shopping! We were up bright and early on Saturday morning and along with mum and my sister we headed off to go bridesmaid dress shopping at Bluewater in Kent (picking up bridesmaid number 3 on the way). We got there by about 11 and I think by the time we left at 4:30 around 20 dresses had been tried on by the 'maids. With varying degrees of success... In fact, it was the very last one, that we ended up getting. Which is nice because it was nearly the first one! What fascinated me was the variations in sizing. T is a size 6, R a 10. T has a similar (but opposite) problem to sister and me in that a lot of shops do not do clothes in her size. So she was trying on a lot of 8s. Some of them fitted very well (the dress she ended up getting was an 8 as the 6 was too small!), others looked like they would fall down if it weren't for the straps... And yet, I don't think R had the same problem with the 10s... I still don't really get how sizes can vary so much not just between shops, but within shops.

Anyway... We had a brilliant, if tiring day, getting all that we had gone for (sister's dress was bought online when we got home). We had a nice lunch, with fizz, coffee and cake (much needed) and some great chat. We also had a terrifying experience in Hobbs where T and R were pretty much bullied into trying on some items (and looking like 'I'm going to a glamorous funeral' - R). But also very excitingly - I found my shoes!! They're fabulous and gorgeous and I'm very very excited about them... Would love to post a piccie, but that will have to wait until after the wedding. Can't believe I have to wait 4 and a half months til I can wear them. Pout.

;o)

Eek! Four and a half months!

On Sunday one of Sister's friends (who is a qualified hairdresser) came over to play with my hair, the intention being that she would show my sister the technique so she could do it on the day. The outcome, however, was the friend very seriously considering coming up and doing it for me herself. How nice is that? I'd love it if she did as I think she'd do a great job. I promised her an invite if she did. ;o) We then had to hightail it to the airport to fly back North, and so I was exhausted come Monday. On the plus side I managed to not eat too badly at my parents' (which is a miracle) and weighed in at X-2 stone, 8lb 3/8 on Monday morning. Hurrah, a little spot of progress...

But I did manage to go to the gym tonight (as I said) despite being tired, and (again as I said) it was bloody knackering. I came close to quitting a number of time on the treadmill, but managed to keep it up with a number of psychological games: must run for at least a mile, might as well make it to 14 minutes, can't walk to this song (Gold!) etc... I did have to take a break to stretch after 14 minutes as my legs were getting sore. I then walked for a minute and intended to run for the remaining 14 mins (this is what I did last Wednesday). It was just too hard though and I had to pause it again after 7 mins for another stretch. Better that than an injury though. And I did go straight back to running (all this at 7.7km/h). But I did only manage 6 minutes, not the full remaining 7 as, frankly, that last minute really would have been just a step too far. Urgh. I had a better session on the cross trainer, so wasn't so far off the totals I hit last Wednesday in the end.

Last Wednesday:

Total work out time: 68 mins

Total calories burned: 792.3

Total distance walked/run/strode: 8.38km

Today:

Total work out time: 68 mins

Total calories burned: 780.1

Total distance walked/run/strode: 8.3km

Which when I view it like that, doesn't look so bad today. Not so dissimilar to last week. Phew!

Latest update

After a slightly rubbish week for exercise last week, I am determined to make it better this week. After a good start last week at the gym, my life then ran away with me and I managed no other time to do any serious exercise. On Tuesday evenings I teach an evening class in Palaeography, so no chance for doing anything on a Tuesday night. On Wednesday I had an appointment with my dress maker (very very exciting. Fabric is all chosen, design is being finalised, and she wont really start work on it until the new year, giving me loads of time to shift a bit more weight). On Thursday there was a do on a work, which netted me some much needed flexi time. I had considered running home from the office as I had all my kit with me and it's nearly 2 miles, but after a couple of glasses of wine that was so not happening (did help me power walk home though)!! I suppose I could have done something on Friday, but I was way too knackered by Friday... ;o)

On Saturday Flâneur wasn't really up to going for a run as he's still pretty bogged down with a hideous cold. It was a beautiful day though (at that point!) and he had promised to get cheese for Wastrel and SAM who we were visiting that evening. So we decided what the hell, we'll walk to Waitrose. It's a good 5 mile round trip from our flat, but it was a really nice walk and we got some lunch in a coffee shop on the way home, so it wasn't so bad. And the walk will have done us both the world of good!! When we got home I spent the afternoon making apple chutney with apples from W&S's apple trees. There were about 2 or 3 different types of apple and it made a lovely sweet and tasty chutney. I was very pleased with it in the end. The last batch of chutney I made (with apples from their last house) I thought was a bit too vinegary, but this stuff was much much better, in my opinion!

Chutney made we then headed on up to The House (W&S's place) with BC and HH, armed with two jars of said chutney and a truck load of cheese. It was Halloween and Wastrel and SAM had done a wonderful job of making their house spooky and full of creepy things! It was really superb! A warm welcome and a tasty green drink (orc's blood, apparently) greeted us and a good crowd of guests. I was pretty tired and flakey and headed to bed around midnight (but did appreciate the brazier and toffee apples before going). Flâneur slunk into bed around 3:30, having joined in apple bobbing and poker and more wine, and declaring my friends a bad influence before snoring away... I'm sure he needed no influence or arm twisting to stay up! To say he didn't look so great on Sunday would be putting it mildly and he was nearly entirely responsible for us going to bed at 9:30 last night! Yes, I know, 9:30!

So, back at work today (boo hiss) and then was off in the gym this evening. Oh, and today was my weighing day... I was X-2 stones 9lb 7/8. Which is ok. Not great, but better than last week! And means I'm back to having lost 3lb in four weeks. Which is not so good... But hopefully it will pick up from now on. And if I really am going to keep weighing myself on a Monday (rather than Sunday), well I was actually X-1 stone 0lb on the Monday (the day after the official start day when I weighed X-2 stone 12lb and some). So that would mean I've actually lost 5 pounds, which would be much better. Who's adjudicating this thing??

Anyway, yes the gym. It was a bit quieter tonight (perhaps the students are away?) and I got to do both the treadmill and the crossramp without any waiting around. I was extremely pleased with my treadmill performance tonight. I didn't think it was going to be that great as the going was pretty tough at the beginning. I thought I was going to have to stop and walk at one point and decided I should at least try and do 10 minutes before walking, and as I wasn't sooo bad at that point, I just kept going. So after my initial 1 min of walking while I fiddled about with the settings on the machine I managed to run for a whole 25 minutes, straight! Go me! Over two miles... I was doing it at 7.7km/h too - gently upping the speed. I'm looking to get to 8km/h soon, but need to do it gently rather than ramp straight up to it. I think that's sensible. I don't want to go up in speed but loose my time in doing it...

So my stats for tonight are:

Total work out time: 68 mins

Total calories burned: 767.6

Total distance walked/run/strode: 8.18 km

Woo hoo! Better than last Monday, just, and when you add the fact that I walked to work this morning (in a good 35 mins), hot footed it to the gym (a good 20 mins) and then home again (another 20 mins) I ended up having exercised off a lot more calories than I had eaten today (before dinner). Which is good for weight loss at least!

Right, I'm off to stretch again now before my legs seize up!

Most bizarre

When I stood on the scales before my shower, after the gym, I mysteriously had lost those two pounds I was whinging about earlier. How did that happen?? This morning I weighed X-2 stones, 11 lb and 3/4. That was at 7am. This evening, I weighed X-2 stones, 9 lb and 7/8. That was at 7pm. How does one drop 2 pounds (or thereabouts) over the course of the day? Weird. I have eaten:

Breakfast:

1 muffin with poached egg

Mid-morning snack:

1 bag of Pret-A-Manger salted popcorn

Lunch:

1 Pret-A-Manger Italian chicken salad (which was delicious)

1 apple

1 pear

Pre-gym snack:

1 banana

Post-gym snack:

About a dozen mini twiglets (a great whole-grain snack!)

So it's not like I've eaten nothing today. I have, on the other hand, drunk over 2 litres of water. Perhaps, as I said earlier, this is the key. Maybe gone now is any water retention I had. Perhaps whining and getting a supportive boost helped? I suspect not, but I should look on the bright side that I am back where I was, and I suppose I should just be pleased.

Gave myself a pretty tough work out at the gym tonight. I wanted to see if I could run a distance this evening, rather than an amount of time. The answer? No. I am better trying to run a certain amount of time on the treadmill I think. I was trying to run for 2 miles, as I nearly did that last week. I managed 1 mile before I had to walk for a bit. It was too tough. I probably hadn't stretched enough when I got to the gym though. As I've said before, it's not a short stroll to the gym! But I did manage 16 minutes flat out at 7.6km/h, 1 minute of walking and then another 10 minutes of running, which is still pretty good (and 1 minute more of running, technically, than last week). With a five minutes walk at 5.5km/h and at 3% to cool down, it was tough, but good. I even managed the cross trainer too. And ramped that up a bit. Again it was a tough work out, but I felt I needed it and it felt good to do. Here are the stats (the boring bit):

Total work out time: 68 mins

Total calories burned: 753.4 (marvellous!)

Total distance walked/run/strode: 8.13 km (astounding!)

I'm pretty pleased with that, and generally feeling happier. Baked potato and salad for tea and today has turned out to not be so bad after all!

Disappointment

A definite set back. I stood on the scales yesterday and rather than seeing any sort of weight loss (or even plateau, I would have settled for no loss or gain), I found I had put two pounds on last week! Two whole fat pounds. To say I was gutted would be putting it very very mildly… What did I do so terribly wrong last week??

As far as I’m aware, nothing. Ok, so I did have a few sweets and a pizza on Thursday night (we went to the cinema after work), but I had eaten very little for the rest of the day, so as to be able to eat a few sweets and pizza. Other than that everything was the same. I did two good work outs at the gym, I ate reasonably sensibly (sweets and pizza aside). The only real difference was that I was drinking less water than I might otherwise. I have found that if I don’t drink in the evenings I actually sleep through the night. Perhaps that’s it? Maybe I need to drink more water and just sacrifice the sleep? Why does it have to be one or the other?? Maybe I need to do EVEN MORE exercise, which is increasingly difficult to fit into my schedule.

Humph.

There are any number of excuses I could put forth for why this weight gain happened (maybe water retention, maybe muscle gain…) but none of that will help the fact that I have had a very disappointing set back. This puts my total weight loss over the first three weeks at 1 measly little pound.

I could cry…

When you try really really hard there is nothing worse than these set backs. When you think you’re doing everything right… It takes all my effort not to jack the whole thing in and head to the sweet shop. But I know that is a terrible, monumentally stupid idea and that I must persevere. It’s just so hard! I feel like a petulant child – it’s too hard and it’s just not fair!!

Anyway, I missed our long run this weekend as Flâneur wasn’t feeling very well on Saturday and I wasn’t really feeling in the mood either. He ended up going out on Sunday instead, but as I was away during the day, I missed that opportunity too. Not that I regret that. I was away because I was being a ‘Super Supporter’ (can I trademark that??) cheering SAM and SD on as they ran the Jedburgh half marathon. I call Wastrel, RF and myself Super Supporters (which sounds big headed) because we stood at mile 11, at the top of a hill, and cheered every single runner that came past us, individually, while handing out jelly beans and wine gums. And frankly there was no-one else doing that. We did, obviously cheer more loudly when our friends went past, but we did make sure we cheered loudly for everyone else too. In an encouraging way (not using any of the phrases runners hate, such as ‘nearly there’). And I must say it was brilliant! The enormous sense of well being when weary runners managed a smile because you were cheering for them, or the look of gratitude when they realised we were giving out energy boosting sweeties, was just great. And we’re sure we saw some runners pick up their pace a bit because there were folk cheering (no mean feat in the terrible wind that was blowing in their faces). I would recommend race cheering to anyone and everyone if you want to boost your feel good factor!

Seeing all those people getting ready to run and actually running really made me want to be doing it too. Not the 13 mile race, I’m not daft, but a bit of a jog at least. I am determined to go to the gym tonight, despite feeling like I am being hit by Flâneur’s cold. Even if I just go for 10 minutes, or just do half my usual exercise, at least I will have gone! And maybe a few of these pesky pounds will start to shift again… buggers!

Is this the start of something??

Last night I was at the gym again after work. That makes twice this week, which isn't bad. Probably seems like more because that's all I seem to talk about on here at the moment! A curious thing happened to me when I was both on the treadmill and then on the cross trainer though... I actually started to enjoy it. Properly enjoy the exercise, not just endure it because I know it's good for me.

Not sure what has come over me. I suspect it was the endorphins. It certainly was them when I practically skipped home (if my legs would have coped with that I might have!). I was very happy in that I ran for 24 minutes straight on the treadmill at 7.6 kmph with just 1 minute of walking to warm me up (note to those who believe in more warming up than this - it is a 25 minute walk to the gym from work that I do not stroll). My legs coped pretty well with this and where I usually detest running on a treadmill I found it not unpleasant. I still prefer running outside, with company, with some sort of pretty scenery to look at, but I found it not so bad last night. My ideal clearly for the treadmill would be to have some sort of screen in front of me with pretty scenery scrolling by. That would make it much much better. But alas, the ones in my gym don't have that. Do any?? For my cool down I walked for 5 minutes at 5.5kmph, on a 3% gradient. I figured just because it was the cool down didn't mean it had to be too easy. Pretty good stuff. I was quite surprised when I switched from metric to imperial (US) measurements near the end of my run to see that I had run around 1.9 miles. Good lord! Quite something. I'll be up to running 2 miles and doing about 30 minutes straight before I know it!

Flâneur and I will be going out for a long run on Saturday (weather permitting) so it will be interesting to see how I get on with running outside, with hills and people and all sorts...

I also decided I ought to work a bit harder on the cross trainer last night, so upped the ramping and resistance from 4 and 2 to 8 and 4 on the easier bits, keeping it at 10 and 8 on the hard bits (it's a 4 minute, 4 minute split between easier and tougher on the weightloss programme). It was tough, but I persevered. And find myself pretty pleased with my overall stats from last night:

Total work out time: 63 mins
Total calories burned: 709.6 (woo hoo!)
Total distance walked/run/strode: 7.62km

No wonder I was so pleased with myself! I think that's why I'm enjoying it at the moment - really seeing improvement and progress. Let's hope it helps me with my challenge and goal!

I was bloody knackered when I got home though. It's another 20 min walk home from the gym, during which time the endorphins wore off a bit. I still had the feeling of having enjoyed it, but just wanted to collapse and sleep when I got in! I suspect I hadn't eaten enough by that point for the amount of exercise I had done (I roughly worked it out as the gym having cancelled out everything else I had eaten during the day, which probably isn't good). I felt a bit better after dinner (Thai green chicken curry and rice, yum), but got increasingly tired and grumpy as the evening wore on. Having had to do dishes, make dinner and then sort out the washing when I just wanted to collapse probably didn't help! Poor Flâneur had to deal with my grumblings all evening. He's very good humoured about it (thankfully!) - I think he finds it funny. Thankfully I know it's just grumbliness so I don't mind. Otherwise... well, you can all imagine! ;o)

Today I started off tired, but am now feeling that joy of having exercised yesterday. For the sake of my health and my figure, long may this continue!

More Gyming...

Was back at the gym on Monday night, so I thought I should record my work out here, so I can keep track! It was pretty heaving and I had to wait a few minutes before a cross trainer became free. When did students get so health and fitness conscious? Even fit people I knew at uni didn't go to the gym as often as these lot seem to. Sign of the times I suppose, there wasn't necessarily the same gym culture back in the late 90s maybe... Does that make me sound old?

Anyway, on Monday I managed to do:

Total work out time: 63 mins
Total calories burned: 672.2
Total distance walked/run/strode: 7.43km

Damn. Not quite as many calories burned (ok, so only 4 less isn't so bad) despite doing the same time and same distance. And despite running for a whole 23 minutes without a break on the treadmill at 7.6kmph. Bah! Clearly I was working less hard on the cross trainer and I must rectify that this evening when I head off to the gym again. It's non stop! But it is giving me results so what can I do?! ;o)

On the plus side I ran a whole 23 minutes on the treadmill without stopping! Go me! I was most chuffed as I don't think I've done that since I was training for the GNR. And that was 3 years ago. If only I could replicate that sort of achievement when running outside... One day maybe!

Happy happy...

Back after a fabulous weekend away I was a little trepidations at getting on the scales this morning. We arrived up at the house on Friday night to lovely cooking smells as Wastrel was cooking up a delicious chilli. There were 10 of us for dinner and it was no mean feat considering her family had just departed that morning and both her and SAM were a little hungover and exhausted for entertaining a different 10 people the night before! I was mightily impressed with them both, I must say. Dinner was delicious and there was good chat and wine. I have become something of a light weight when it comes to alcohol as I don’t drink so much or so often any more, so I made sure I only had a couple of glasses so as to not over do it. (There are also a large number of calories in wine, which is not good for those of us watching our weight!). The chilli and rice was very filling so I didn’t feel that I was being virtuous when I had just a small slice of cake and single spoon of ice cream – I’m not sure I could have fitted more than that in! More chat and gift giving made for a very lovely evening and as we were all pretty knackered a fairly early night as we all toddled off to bed around 11:30-midnight! Oh, so old…

On the Saturday we were all up fairly breezily and out of the house by about 11 to go for a walk. We wanted one that was around the hour/2 hour mark and coincided with a pub for lunch. We had been recommended a pub (the Meikleour inn) by one of the neighbours and it had been suggested that there would be two walks for us to do – one to a Neolithic dyke and the other down to the river. When we got there, we found the first walk and set off. It was very flat and fairly pleasant, but nothing much to write home about. We did walk for about an hour, but it wasn’t quite the sort of walk we had been expecting. On enquiring at the pub we found that there was no second walk as you couldn’t get down to the river due to it all being private property. Bah! We had a little wander round the village (including taking in a very odd little craft fair that, in Flâneur’s words, smelt like a jumble sale). In the end we decided just to cut our losses and go to the pub instead, and get lunch earlier than intended.

It was a perfectly pleasant pub, with a nice local ale (which, to the scorn of some of the others, I had in a half shandy!), and the food was nice enough. I think those of us who went for the more traditional pub grub – the fish, the scampi, the burger – had a better eating experience as the meat for the others wasn’t quite cooked how it was requested. I had the battered fish and chips, which was very lovely, but a little naughty while I’m trying to lose weight!! Saturday afternoon and evening was then spent playing games before eating yet more food. They had got a lovely big bit of pork in to roast, and it was delicious (especially the crackling, hmm….). Having had a fairly big lunch I did make sure I just had a little of dinner, rather than a greedy amount, but I think I ended up not applying this to the roast potatoes. Which were yum. Ah well, in for a penny… HMcM had made a cake – her first – so we had that for dessert with yet more of the ice cream (which I passed on. Not the cake, I had cake and very nice it was too).

The real killer of Saturday night though was the booze. I haven’t drunk that much wine for a very long time… We were playing poker (10 of us again!) and my glass just kept getting refilled. And then there was whisky… Oh my poor head. I did not bad in the poker, getting in to the final four with Coco, HL and Wastrel. Coco and Wastrel had A LOT more chips than HL and I, who were down to our stake and about a pound. I had decided that I was going to just play with the winnings and not my stake when I got up to that amount, but a fit of bravado, a stupid thought and too much wine made me go all in on a pair of 9s and I lost it all to Wastrel… Ah well, it was fun and I don’t regret it! We didn’t get to bed until around 3, 3:30 and even though I had stopped drinking wine around midnight and had been drinking plenty of water all night, I felt pretty dreadful yesterday. It didn’t help that I barely slept due to alcohol headaches and period pains, but I have not been hungover for a while and yesterday I remembered why not. Urgh. Last night Flâneur and I went to bed at 9 (asleep by 10:30) and boy was ever an early night needed! I also haven’t slept through the night for a few months now, and it was bliss! If only I didn’t need to be totally exhausted to do that…

But, as yesterday was supposed to be a weigh in day on this challenge but I was away from my scales, I did it this morning. As I said, with a little trepidation after the excesses of the weekend. I was more than delighted when I saw the results:

X-2 stone, 9 lb and ¾

Hurrah! Happy happy happy… This officially means that I have lost a grand total of 1 & ½ stones over all so far, since starting all this in March/April of last year. Woo hoo! It’s taken me ages to get to this point, but it’s great to see it finally drifting down rather than the dreadful plateau I had been used to of late. It also means that so far in the challenge, after 2 week, I have lost just over 3 pounds, which whilst not being as much as I would like, is a really good start.

Off to the gym tonight, got to keep up the good work! (Especially as the weekend’s calories are probably just taking their time to distribute round my body!!).

Roundup

Well, it's Friday and I haven't quite managed to do as much exercise as I had hoped this week. Which is annoying. As well as going to the gym on Monday (good), I managed to not swim all week (not good), and take the bus to work (not good), but I have been walking home (good) and I did go for a run with Flâneur on Wednesday (good). It is getting increasingly difficult to get up in the mornings at the moment as it is dark out when the alarm goes off and I just want to curl up and sleep sleep sleep for at least 2 more hours. I feel like I'm constantly fighting the urge to hibernate! Not good when you have a job to go to that inconsiderately wants you there by 9 and not good if you want to go for a swim before said job starts.

But, as I say, I did managed to go for a run on Wednesday. I was pretty tired when I got home but had already made Flâneur put off his run so I could go with him so there was no way I could back out of going. I had a drink and a banana to try and perk myself up and decided we'd do our usual 2.4mile route backwards. I always hate the end of it because it's a steady uphill through people trying to get on and off buses and thought it might be more pleasant downhill. It started out ok, with a 4:1 ratio, and a steady downhill (hurrah), but when we reached the park I was fit to drop. I hurt, I was tired and I did not want to be running. The grass looked pretty inviting and I could have easily lain down on it and gone to sleep... So we had a faltering 2:1 and 3:1 before I got my stamina back to go back up to 4:1. On the 3 minutes running I had to keep chanting 'You CAN do it, you CAN do it...' over and over to keep me going. I think it kind of worked as Flâneur thought we were running a bit quicker at that point. I definitely picked up after that and our downhill(well, it's sort of downhill) back to the flat was done at top speed - I just got this sudden splurge of energy. Shifting my stride used different muscles which probably helped. And this sprint finish definitely must have helped our over all time come in at just under 30 minutes (29:42), which is some sort of record for me!

So while it blipped in the middle, it ended up being a pretty good run all in all... For me at least - I think I'm still a bit slow for my dear beloved...

I had meant to go to the gym again on Thursday as I wont be doing anything so strenuous over the weekend, but a mare with timing on a project I had to finish meant I had to go straight home instead. We're off up North tonight to celebrate Wastrel's birthday and we have been instructed to bring walking gear, so there should be a nice long walk on the cards that should help (yes, I know I could take my running gear and go for a run, but it's in the wash - I really need more than one set of everything...).

I have been very good with my eating all this week (like last week), but still sitting at a weightloss total of a couple of ounces for this week so far, so I shall have to be careful (but not in a boring way) whilst away. Don't want to find myself undoing all the work I've done so far... This weightloss malarkey is hard enough as it is! Honestly I exercise my butt off and I eat a lot less and a lot more healthily and what happens - 1 measly pound, that's what. That doesn't seem fair to me...

Anyway, I don't actually 'weigh in' for the week until Sunday so we shall see what the scales say when I get home.

More exercise (no wonder I'm knackered)

Was at the gym again last night. This is getting to be a habit (no bad thing!). Tried to push myself a bit, but didn’t quite work out – I think I was still recovering from the long run on Saturday! Rather than doing a full 22 minutes of running on the treadmill (which I was aiming for) I did 11 minutes, then walked for a minute, then did another 10 mins. All at 7.6km/h. Which is still pretty good. Had to stop and walk as the muscles at the back of my legs were seriously burning. A short walk and a pause to stretch them and they were back in fine fettle for the rest of the session. I also upped my resistance/ramp levels on the cross trainer. I don’t know what I was thinking! ;o)

I’m bloody knackered today though – was asleep by about 10:30 last night, and then vaguely awake by about 7:15, but I felt like I could sleep for at least another 2-3 hours. Not quite sure what’s up with that! Meant I missed my swim this morning (there was no way this carcass was being dragged anywhere at 6:20 this morning!), but there is always tomorrow…

So last night’s gym episode resulted in:

Total work out time: 63 mins
Total calories burned: 678.6
Total distance walked/run/strode: 7.43km

Which is an improvement on last week at least!

On the weight-loss progress front, I can report that after week 1 of the challenge I have managed to loose approx. 1.5 lb. not a bad start, but not quite the start I had hoped for! I should look on it a bit more philosophically though as I’m sure I put on a pound or two at the beginning of the challenge, after weighing myself on the Sunday, so actually I must have lost more like three last week. Or something… Hoping not to put any on this week and just lose them – otherwise why I am putting myself through all this??

Long Run!

Flâneur and I decided that we ought to go for a run today. I wasn't too excited about the idea of doing our usual route (I find the end leg really tough) so he suggested that we up our milage a bit and run round Arthur's Seat, something we had been talking about doing at some point. Seeing as I wasn't sure I was entirely up for a run today, I'm not entirely sure why I agreed... (possibly something to do with my new sports bra having arrived). This crazy tough route is not something that I have done since training for the Great North Run as it's bloody hard work! I did suggest that we walk to the park and just run round Queen's Drive and then walk home as round Queen's Drive is a good 5km (just over), and I'm pretty sure is what RF and I used to do when she was training me for the GNR. Flâneur wasn't so keen on that though, and said we should just run there and see how we got on, we could always abandon the crazy notion of running round the hill and do our usual route instead...

So we started off on a 3:1, run:walk ratio and, while it wasn't easy, it wasn't so bad and before I knew it we were starting to climb uphill. We went clockwise round and the stretch from St Margaret's Loch to Dunsapie Loch is bloody tough. Flâneur is a bit of a mountain goat and can do up-hills with little effort. I am not and therefore cannot. I found it very tough so we had to go down to a 1:1 ratio, but at least I was running half of it! We went back up to 3:1 when we got back on the flat round Dunsapie Loch, and then on the downhill stretch (which I'm much better at) we managed a 4:1 and a 7:1 and then a 5:1 and even ran home. Which was brilliant! I had initially thought that the whole thing would take us well over an hour as neither of us had gone that sort of distance either before or for a long time, but we managed a very respectable 1 hour, pretty much dead on. I was so chuffed I was practically jumping for joy when we got in (if my legs would have taken it!)

Overall we did:

Total distance: 7.52km (4.67 miles)

Total Time: 1:00:12

Total time spent running: 43:15

Total time spent walking: 16:57

Total calorie loss: 780 (according to mapometer.com who we map the route with)

Really happy with that. May even do it again, maybe in a couple of weeks when my legs have recovered!!

Gym

Mini extra post...

As I said, I went to the gym this evening. I had a good work out (despite it being so busy). I did my usual treadmill/cross trainer routine. Here is my run down:

Total work out time: 60 minutes

Total calories burned: 639 (according to the machines)

Total distance walked/run/strode: 7km

Not bad. And I managed a full 20 minutes of running at 7.6kmph, which is great. Creeping it up every time, little by little. Oh and this doesn't include the walk to work this morning and the very quick walk to the gym and home again, which totals around 4 miles. Woo hoo!

Knackered now. ;o)

Motivation

I was thinking today (as I sat unmotivated at my desk and then as I ran on the treadmill in the gym) about what motivates me, in particular to do exercise. In no particular order I came up with:

1. New kit - there is nothing like a new pair of running shoes or a new sports bra or other item of exercise clothing to make you want to get out there and try it out. In my case I recently bought some new running leg wear (Ronhill's Powerlite Capri, in the pink), which I tried out on Monday on my run with Flâneur and at the gym today. I must say, I love them. So light you barely notice you're wearing them, no chaffing, and just brill. It was nice not to feel the fabric against my legs that I would get with joggers. I am also awaiting a new sports bra, which will make me want to do more too. Hurry up Bravissimo...
2. Encouragement - the sort that comes from friends and Flâneur and comments on the blog. Today, for example, I knew I wanted to go to the gym, I had all my kit with me, but I was having a crappy day and by 4pm I just wanted to go home. Flâneur had been encouraging me all day, telling me I should go (even when I was saying that I'd do some desperately needed food shopping on my way home instead) and it was a great boost. Then I checked the blog and found an encouraging comment from Wastrel and I thought, right, sod it, I'm going to the gym no matter what. So I did. Yay! Thank you both. :o)
3. Guilt - if Flâneur went out for a run and I stayed at home and sat on the couch, I would feel pretty dreadful. He doesn't make me feel guilty, I hasten to add, I do that all by myself... If he's going to go out, then I'm going to go too as he only started running to encourage me!! There is also the guilt that comes from eating something not so healthy too...
4. Progress - seeing improvement is a powerful motivator, although you have to be careful that it doesn't make you complacent!! But starting to see improvement in my time when I run and in my swimming I am motivated to go again and keep improving it. Honest...
5. Music - I have a collection of upbeat cheesy and not so cheesy toons in a playlist on my ipod (labeled 'running') that just make me feel great and pick up my step and get out and do stuff. I have also used them to just dance around my living room on a Saturday night. They are great whenever I am feeling the need of a little pickmeup or boost in motivation. I recently rediscovered my ipod shuffle so that I don't get them all in the same order every time too. ;o)
6. Seeing other people doing stuff - I watched the World Swimming Championships when they were on and boy did it make me want to get in the pool and swim. I watch Strictly Come Dancing and just want to dance (and sometimes even do, see (5) above). I have even kept going and kept going because someone next too me was too, in the gym, on the treadmill. I get a great surge of joy and motivation to see other people doing active things and it makes me want to do them too.
7. And at the moment - Not wanting to lose TV for 3 months!!

New Challenge

Or what Flâneur calls a ‘foolish bet’. I like to think of it as not foolish, but a kick up the backside… Which is why I call it a ‘challenge’ rather than a ‘bet’. Basically Wastrel has set herself, BC, Coco (CMcM), and myself a weightloss bet, as we are all desirous of shifting the pounds and clearly need some sort of incentive to do it! You may recall Wastrel and I have done one of these before and it didn’t work out so well for me… I think this is why Flâneur refers to it as a foolish bet.

Anyway, the bet (or challenge) as it stands, for me at least, (there are slightly different terms for the others who had already been partaking of one of these and are on a double or quits), is that I must lose 1 stone (14 measly pounds) in 11 weeks.

As I weighed in at X-2 stones 12lb and 7/8 on the morning of 4 October, by 19 December I must weigh in at at least X-3 stones and 12 lb (and presumably some ounces).

Eek!

I’m not very good at these things…

The forfeit, for not loosing 1 stone is to lose TV (hell, hell!) for 6 months! 6 months…. Swoon… I am lucky, that I do have a bit of lee-way in that if I manage to lose 8 pounds or more then the forfeit will be only 3 months. Well, that’s alright then. (Sobs quietly). Flâneur (unhelpfully) suggested that he could take the TV to Manchester with him. To say I was not impressed with this would be putting it lightly.

It’s quite an incentive to do well, I must say, particularly with my dear love away most of the week from January… Although I’m sure I will be all the better for relying only on the radio…. But far far better for losing that pesky stone!!

After consuming vast quantities of cake on Sunday (it was my birthday and lovely Flâneur made many fabulous items of baking for afternoon tea (for as many people as we could seat, so sorry if you didn’t get an invite it wasn’t personal, just practical). It was fab, and I got lots of lovely gifts and had a fabulous time), I am off to what I like to think is a fairly good start now.

On Sunday I was helped in that I was so full of sugar that we had barely any dinner (just some oven chips, which are surprisingly good for you). On Monday Flâneur and I both had a day off so we started the day after breakfast (two boiled eggs for me, a bacon sarnie for him) with a run. We did our usual 2.4ish mile route and managed it in 30 mins 29 seconds (well, 30 mins smack on for Flâneur who always sprints off on the final straight home). I was very pleased with it all as we were pretty much doing 5:1 run:walk ratio. Hurrah! Getting slowly better… Slow being the operative word! I think we’ll need to up the distance soon, but perhaps when we’ve upped the running time a bit more. We then wandered around town (at least another 3-4 miles of walking), getting some converse trainers and walking shoes for me, and a suit and some running shoes for him. Finally he has his own running shoes and will not be borrowing an old pair of mine. We went to Run 4 It on Lothian Road and the man in there was so lovely and helpful, making Flâneur walk and run on a treadmill to assess him and then suggesting some good shoes. He came away with some Saucony shoes and a hole in his bank account! ;o) We did have lunch out, which was not so good, but only a light dinner of salmon and spinach (in low fat crème fraiche) with pasta. Oh, and a slice of carrot cake. That’s healthy right? Oh… the carrot cake… hmmm…

Today, against my better judgement, I got up when the alarm went off at 6:15 (well, after 5 minutes of psyching myself up), had my poached egg breakfast and then went to the pool! For the first time in a month… And it was really really busy. Which I don’t like. Boo… There were a couple of annoying slow people in my lane, which made me think that people in general just don’t swim in the appropriate lane in that pool. I was swimming in the first slow lane, and to be fair to the slow people, there was no where else for them to go. The people in the other slow lane are much faster than me and should probably be in the middle lane. We should probably all just shift across one. I feel bad when I overtake people, like I’m hustling them or something. Anyway, I managed my 40 lengths, even though it was hard, and did it all in the very respectable time of 31.53. Hurrah! I thought it would be much slower than that. Checking back in my spreadsheet the last time I went was 1 Sept and my time was 33 mins. Double Hurrah! My time today was on a par with the sorts of times I was doing back in July when I was going much more regularly. Phew.

Anyway, I’m rambling today and this is long enough. Check back in on my progress reader(s), cheer me on, chastise me when I’m failing… I know Wastrel will be, well checking up on me at least!! ;o)


* apologies for all the asides and asides to asides… I’m very tired today and my brain keeps wandering off…

Getting there...

Well, today is the day I see the dress maker and how have I done in my challenge?? Ultimately not brilliantly. I did not get rid of the 5 pounds I had hoped. Boo hiss. I did however, put on a pound, lose it, put it on again, lose it again and then finally by today lose another two. So since I started just over four weeks ago, I am now:

X-2 stones 11 lb and 3/8.

Which, while not my target, I'm pretty pleased with, particularly I have essentially lost 3 pounds in the last week!! Or there abouts... That's what happens when you actually exercise I suppose. And eat reasonably too. I don't think not eating very much helps me very much - I think my body just hangs on to the fat and calories it is storing to compensate for not getting very much. Or something...

Flâneur and I were out for another run yesterday, geeing each other along. It was pretty tough for me as I'm not so good first thing in the morning. I'm better a little later in the day once my legs have warmed up a bit. But we went and we did our route in just under 31 mins, which is still a good time. He ran on on the home straight (the last 20 secs or so) as he likes to sprint the last bit and I'm just about fit to collapse and am lucky to still be running at all! It still felt pretty good though and we were basically doing our 3:1 run:walk ratio. We're slowly getting better! We then walked to the cinema (a good 50 min walk) to see 'Away We Go', which was a lovely little film I would thoroughly recommend. We also walked back, so yesterday was excise tastic!

Today is a random local holiday in Edinburgh that randomly we get off at work (I'm wondering how many customer type people turned up at the building not knowing today...), so I took the opportunity to have a bit of a lie in and then go to the gym. I think I'd do that more in the mornings if I didn't have to work. Great way to start the day. I did my usual treadmill then cross trainer routine, but was very pleased with myself getting up to 17 minutes of running at 7.5 kmph. I'm slowly adding a minute here, a minute there, but have already added 7 minutes since I started going to the gym. All good stuff and I'm sure the reason why the pounds finally appear to be shifting!

Not achieving goals...

Yup, I am officially rubbish at them. The appointment with the dress maker is on Monday coming and I have failed to lose five pounds (and am unlikely to do so by then). In fact, I've pretty much failed to lose any and mostly put one on. Harumph. I have now lost that one again, putting me back at my start point, and if I'm very good I may loose another one by Monday (finger's crossed) but that will mean I have lost a grand total of 1 measly pound in 4 weeks.

Ok, so I wasn't trying my hardest, I must admit, so have no-one to blame but myself. In fact even after the lovely meal Flâneur cooked for Wastrel, SAM and me last week (stilton stuffed pork wrapped in Iberico Ham with little boiled potatoes and aspargus cooked in butter, followed by lots and lots of cheese, wine and port), I managed to be 1lb lighter the next day. How does that happen?? Delayed reaction, I know, but even so... I have been pretty rubbish on the exercise front, failing to get up and swim, failing to go to the gym after work, even failing to get up in time to walk to work most days...

That was until this week! Ha ha! I realise it's only Wednesday, but even so, this week is already going better than the last two-three put together I think!! Admittedly I've had a bit more energy this week and not been quite so dog tired, but I also made sure that I just did stuff anyway as it always makes me feel better in the long run. So on Monday I managed to walk to work and went to the gym after work. At the gym I managed to run a whole 15 minutes on the treadmill without dying (at 7.5km/h), walking for 2 minutes at the beginning at 4km and 4 minutes at the end for 4. I was most impressed with how quickly I managed to recover, not just my breathing, but my heart rate too. The gym had great equipment that has integrated heart rate monitoring bits (I realise lots of gyms probably have these, but it's still fairly new to me for them to either work or be anywhere near accurate). I get a bit obsessive at checking my heart rate, partly to pass the time, and by the end of the run it was way up in the 160s. But after a couple of minutes back down to walking it went back down to the 120s. I was pretty pleased with this. Then it was on to my usual routine on the cross trainer. (See previous posts, it never seems to change!). In total I exercised for about 53 minutes and burned off around 550 cals. Pretty cool.

Tuesday was a bit of a wash out as I managed to neither walk to, nor from work, but we shall gloss over that... Tonight, however, was a lovely sunny evening. The sort that cannot help but put a smile on your face and a skip in your step (got to love September sunshine). So I thought we should go for a run. When I got in Flâneur was in the process of running a bath, but I managed to persuade him to come out for a run with me anyway (he could always put more hot water in when he got back). I'm glad I did as I think it probably did us both some good! He's still not had any holiday this year (I'm sure that's not legal) and it's really getting to him, so anything I can do to distract him helps. Even if it is going for a run! I felt really great on the run tonight and think all the gym work is helping. I certainly felt much much better than last time we went and we managed to up our run/walk ratio to 3:1 for most of the run. Hurrah! At one point we even did 5 mins of running. This is a big deal for us, so I'm very chuffed! I did nearly want to die on the next stretch of running (which is up hill in a gentle but steady and killing way), but who cares, I had just run for 5 whole minutes!

Yes, I know I can do more than that in the gym, but it's entirely different having your pace regulated and running on an entirely flat surface that is the treadmill. Anyway, I am extremely pleased with myself (and with Flâneur, who came out despite not really wanting to) and now just waiting for these endorphins to stop flooding my brain with that post exercise euphoria so I can collapse on the sofa in peace!!

Fabric

One other little post today. I received (thanks to Flâneur going down to the sorting office for me), a little bundle of fabric that I bought last week from Quilter's Cloth. It's 8 half meters (Lily Pond by Wendy Slotboom) and I just had to share as it's just fab (images not best quality, but hopefully you get the idea!):

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I do love it, it's so cute! I can't wait to come up with a project to use it for!

Manchester

For those who read this (is there anybody there?) who don't know, and let's face it, you all do, my dear lovely clever Flâneur has gone and got himself a new job. This is superb news on so many levels, not least because it means he can relax a bit to the end of his contract without worrying what he's going to be doing in January and how we are going to afford life without him having a job... It is also superb news because it's such a brilliant job. At last someone in the academic world has recognised his genius and that him being interesting is a good thing (not, you're really interesting, but we're giving the job to someone else). And the best bit: it's a tenured Senior Lectureship! Hurrah! No more short term research contracts and constant job hunting. All fantastic stuff.

The only downside is that this fantastic job is in Manchester. That in itself is not a bad thing - it's a great young vibrant department that he will fit in to well and the city's not bad either. However, my job is not in Manchester. My job is in Edinburgh. And I do not have a career that is easily transferred - I need to wait for a job opportunity to arise in Manchester in a suitable organisation (the uni or a business like Co-op, who I know do have an archive based in Manchester) that will pay me on some kind of equivalent level to what the Scottish Government pay me. Perhaps the problem of being a well paid archivist... Rules out the local authority as they are skinflints.

Anyway... I had never been to Manchester and we thought we should probably go down and have a poke about, so we did, for three days last week. The streets were hilariously familiar as they are currently doing works to the tram tracks, so there are road works and fences up everywhere, reminiscent of Edinburgh at the moment... We stayed in Malmaison, so as to make sure we had somewhere nice to stay while we were down there (it was our first holiday together for some time). We had a nice room (with a fantastic shower. I want that shower) and right in the city center - handy for walking everywhere. Which is what we always do when we are away! We had a nice weekend, exploring the city center and what it has to offer. We found a great little bar that serves good Japanese food and great cocktails (Walrus), a fab fab Japanese restaurant where we ate far too much but enjoyed every mouthful (New Samsi), but that also has a little Japanese supermarket in the basement, which will be handy for when Flâneur is in Manchester. I got very jealous of the fantastic looking fish monger in the Arndale Markets, and the butcher opposite, and we fell in love with Selfridges. (Or at least Flâneur did and a Paul Smith suit he spotted there! ;o) ). I also walked the length and breadth of the Trafford Center while Flâneur went to chat to some of his future colleagues. Quite exhausting!

And yet I managed to lose no weight while I was away - the discovery of Hotel Chocolat in the Arndale Centre probably didn't help... and thus my plan to lose five pounds is not going well. At all. But the shopping does look good. Similar to Glasgow but a little bit less spread out, which is good!! I'm quite looking forward to my weekends down there. For yes, we will be living between Manchester and Edinburgh, at least to begin with while my job remains up here. No ideal, but we're sure we'll cope.

Catch up

After a two week exercise drought due to my non-cold, I have been back at it with avengeance this week.  A fairly cultural weekend, reasonable weather (with the odd down pour to keep us on our toes), and our general propensity to walk everywhere in this fair city, saw me walking around 6 miles on Saturday and a further 2.6 miles on Sunday.  Then on Monday I was at the gym after work (the usual 12 1/2 mins run on the treadmill, with some walking either side, then the cross trainer), and on Tuesday I was finally back in the pool.  Very happy about this.  Having not been since 20 July (eek!) I was expecting terrible things.  While I was not doing my under 32 minutes that I had been in July, I did do my 40 lengths (1km) in 33 minutes, which I was pretty pleased with.  Yay!  This is not to mention walking to and from work (all but twice).

As for the culture at the weekend, this was great.  On Friday night we went to see the new dance production from Michael Clark (who I shall pretend I have heard of!) that was on as part of the Edinburgh International Festival (proper culture like).  Flâneur was quite keen to go as it was a mix of ballet and contemporary dance to Bowie, Iggy and Lou Reed tracks, all of which he is interested in.  I must say it was really really good.  In fact, as someone who is generally not interested in seeing ballet etc, I really liked it!  I think the contemporary mixed with the ballet helped here (not to mention the music).  Some of it seemed very yogic to me - a flow of strong movements - and it was quite hypnotic.  

Saturday saw us at the cinema in the afternoon to see 'Broken Embraces', the new film from Pedro Almodovar with Penelope Cruise.  It was also very good.  Almodovar's films really give Penelope Cruise a chance to show the world that she can actually act, or at least I think so, and I like them for that.  It was also an engaging story.  I am no film critic, so all I can say was I enjoyed it and would recommend it. 

After the cinema we were out at the book festival (festival season!) to see Raymond Blanc talk about his life and his passion for food and cooking.  I think it was supposed to be questions and answers with the guy chairing it, but Raymond was just too enthusiastic to talk and talk, so we'd get a question and then a massive long answer that was rambling, engaging and making some serious points all at the same time.  He couldn't sit in his seat, he was itching to get up and talk and gesticulate and show us his passion.  I loved it and could have listened to him talk for much longer than the hour we were given.  The three audience members who got a chance to ask questions all asked sensible ones (inlcuding: is there any food you don't like?  Mostly the answer was: well in Japan I had... this made me giggle).  Obviously he was there to promote his autobiography and on the strength of his talk, I really look forward to reading it sometime!  :o)

So, fairly cultural all in all.  But that's the festivals over for another year, the nights are drawing in again, the weather is turning and we're getting our city back from all the thousands of tourists.  Hurrah, I will be able to walk home again without getting stuck behind the meandering visitors.  Don't get me wrong, they are good for the economy and what do I expect living in a prime tourist destination, but during August it gets a bit much when you can't go about your usual business without wading through them.  But I shan't rant about this, I shall go back to the gym, back to the pool and hopefully, hopefully get fitter and healthier, and maybe even a little bit slimmer...  

Week One

Well, this week has not gone very well at all. I stood on the scales this morning and they declared:

X-1 stone 0 lb 3/8 oz.

I believe that is a total of having put on 1 lb, not lost one. Boo hiss. I thought I was doing quite well with the eating this week, but clearly not. Yes, I had a few lapses (the entire bag of microwave popcorn on Tuesday night was not exactly necessary), but generally I thought I did alright. God damn this is difficult…

Ok, so I pretty much did no exercise this week, except walk home from work a few times (which we must remember is 1.9 miles and does take about 35 mins). Oh, and I did a massive 5.5 mile hike to Waitrose and back last Saturday with Flâneur, which actually really only meant that we didn’t put on anything from the lovely dinner he made that night…*

Even so, it’s still pretty depressing to have not even lost a measly ounce or two and to have put on instead. Harumph. I will now have to work doubly hard in this coming week to lose 2lb to make up for having put one on and not lost anything. Damn, actually to catch up I need to lose 3 don’t I?

Crap.

*My excuse on the exercise front is that I have been feeling pretty rubbish all this week. Really tired and a bit coldy. I haven’t actually got a cold, but from time to time I suffer from these really annoying cold like symptoms – stuffy head, exhaustion, slight blocking of the nose. Never really come to anything and never bad enough to stay off work (more’s the pity), but annoying and a bit disruptive none-the-less.

A New Challenge

I’m going to be a bit more realistic this time. I think I set myself unrealistic goals by setting the bar too high! Basically I have an appointment with a dress maker on 21st September (very very exciting!). While I will not have to be at my slim point for the dress at this initial meeting, I figured it will give me a nice goal to work towards. By my calculations, that is exactly 1 month from today (that’s the sort of maths I like). Just over 4 weeks. I had initially thought it was 5 weeks, but that’s just stupid, so had initially been thinking, I’ll aim to lose 5lb. So a nice round 1lb per week, which really shouldn’t be so challenging, (but clearly is or I’d be a waif by now!). While it’s not actually 5 weeks, I’ll still aim to lose just over a pound a week as I like the idea of losing 5 of them.

I weighed myself this morning and came in at:

X-2 stone 13lb and 3/8.

Really, that was quite a relief because for some unknown* reason I had been back up in the early X-1 stone bracket for a good couple of weeks. Finally it’s gone back down (I don’t care if that’s only by a few ounces, those ounces are important!). So by 21st September I will attempt to reach the heady heights of X-2 stones and 8 pounds. A mere 5 pounds off my 2 stone point, 2 pound below the 1 ½ stone point, and a bloody good kick start.



*Not really that unknown, I spent one weekend pretty much doing nothing but eating…. I am a glutton, a greedy person and a lover of food. I am very sure that it’s only gone back down again because I have been pushing myself quite hard on the exercise front. This I intend to keep up. Last night I went out with Flâneur for a run, and we upped our run walk ratio to 2.30 : 1 (ish), which was ok. Actually it was pretty hard for me as I feel like my chest has been constricting all week and I was wheezing something rotten on some parts. Poor Flâneur can easily run at a quicker pace that me and probably could have kept up walking! So long as I don’t have some sort of chest infection or other malady, we will go out again at the weekend. The pool re-opens on Monday and I am rather taken with the gym. So hopefully I might exceed my target. That or use it all as an excuse to eat more. ;o)

Gym Bunny

With the pool closed (boo!), I have been hitting the gym instead. Well, I say hitting - does three times count?? I went twice last week (once early in the morning, which was great as there were only 4 other people there, and then again on a day off, which was great because 10:30 is a good time to go to the gym for me, if I didn't work...). I mostly just wanted to use the cross-trainer because I like the low impact cardio element, but when I went on the Monday I couldn't work out how to make it work at first! So I had to try the treadmill, which was more obvious. I was very very pleased with myself that I managed to run on the treadmill for 10 minutes straight. Go me! This was just at 7km per hour (super slow) on the first go, but I got it up to 12 1/2 mins at 7.5km today. :o) And it didn't cripple me the next day...

I did eventually work out the cross-trainer (when it looks like it's off, it's not obvious that it will come on when you start moving your feet) and did the 'weight loss' programme. It was good and I enjoyed it. 4 minutes of a low resistance, 4 minutes of a higher resistance, etcetc for 28 mins. The whole gym experience was actually great and I felt great. I think it helps that it's a really nice gym with tonnes of equipment, so even this evening, when I was there around 5, it didn't feel too busy. I may even keep going after the pool re-opens, to supplement my swimming! And seeing as I've put a few pounds on lately and am trying to get an appointment with a dress maker I think that's no bad thing!

Update!

Have been neglecting the blog for a bit too long... And as always I am prompted by recording the efforts of some exercise!

Since the last post I have spent a week in Perthshire looking after two of my favourite pooches, who were absolutely adorable the whole week (despite a bit of whinging from Baff...). We walked quite a bit and read and it was generally very relaxing. The only annoying thing being Flâneur having to work the whole week. His boss is the most annoying man I have ever come across, he really is... When we got back from Perth though we had approximately four hours before being descended upon by my parents and two of their friends (who I've known forever, not just random friends of my parents). I had a nice week with them too, but was grateful that their stay was only til the Thursday so I could prepare myself for going back to work!

On the exercise front I managed to go swimming twice when I was on my holidays, on both Mondays, and again had great swims. In fact on the second Monday it was my fastest swim ever clocking in at about 31:15 (can't remember the exact figure now). I have subsequently not been swimming, partly because I was just knackered last week... I'd been working over the weekend and suffered two very annoying migraines, so I was left pretty tired during the week. I did try to go this week, but was scuppered by the pool being closed! Which is the most annoying thing when you've made the effort to get up and are quite psyched about going for a swim. I stood there for ages trying all the doors, perplexed about why I couldn't get in. There were no notices anywhere, and I didn't remember having seen any when I was last there, admittedly two weeks before, but even so. I had no choice but to just head to work and grab a shower there and start my day an hour earlier than intended. I was pretty cross by this point. When I got to my desk I immediately went online to see what was going on and found their website declaring the pool shut from August 3-23. They are apparently improving the reception area to make it more accessible, which is a good thing, but it's annoying that that causes the whole pool to be closed! Gah! So that's it, no swimming until the end of August... I'm not sure what I'm going to do... And I know I could go to the local council pool, but it's just annoying and expensive, particularly when I've already paid for a gym membership! It works out at about £6 a go, once you take into account the bus fare to get there...

So I might try out their gym, try the cross trainer first thing. I don't think it will compare at all favourably with swimming, but it's worth a shot. Can't do no exercise just because the pool is closed. 

And in this vein, I went for a run today. To be fair, I only went because Flâneur made me. He'd just had the all clear from the physio to do any type of exercise, provided he started off slowly, and so decided that he might try this running malarky, if it made me go out... He ruptured his achilles many years ago, which had always put him off most exercise, but having just, finally got some physio and being good at actually doing his exercises he can now give it a go. I must say it was a great thing for me (let alone him!). It was lovely to have someone to go out with, to motivate me, and to keep me going!! We did my usual route and my usual 2:1 jog to walk ratio, and did really well! Despite not having been out since June (really, this is just the third time this year that I've been out 'running'), we did the 2.4ish mile route in 31 minutes 14 seconds. I think that the fastest I've ever done it. God, I love that man.

Holidays!

Yippee... I'm off work for two whole weeks. Whatever shall I do with myself...

Well, this morning, I still got up and went swimming. I know, on a day I didn't have to get up and everything! ;o) I did have a lie in, the alarm going off at 6:55, rather than 6:20, but I'm glad that I went. Quite often I get out of the pool, knackered, but energised (the way that you often do after exercising), and want to be going off and doing anything other than going to work. So today I did. I did my 40 lengths (1KM), got out, showered, got dressed again and then headed home for breakfast. Lovely. (I did make sure I had a banana before going to the pool in case anyone is concerned that I exercised without eating). It was a good swim again today too, despite some very annoying people again. I'm beginning to suspect that all other people in the pool are annoying and that I will only be happy if I get the place to myself, or at least the lane! I don't want to constantly moan about other people at the pool, but there was this one guy who always seemed to wait, wait and then go off just as you were about to turn. Thankfully he wasn't a slow one, but the second time it happened I just turned and shot off, forcing him to hold back. Ha!

And my new technique must definitely be working, even though I'm not sure I am swimming any faster on my fifth lengths. But yet again, today, I was under 32 mins. Yay! Having been under 32 mins on each swim last week (I went on Friday as well and clocked 31.57.81), I was not convinced that today was going to be as good - there was no way I could keep that up consistently. But for some reason, I'm not entirely sure what (!), I did. And not just that, my time was practically the same as last Monday, just 3 milliseconds slower at 31.28.70. Woo hoo! I was very happy.

And then it was home to pack the hire car that we picked up yesterday. We're dog sitting this week for Wastrel and SAM in the countryside, so it was goodbye city, hello the gentle sounds of not so far off gun fire... Ah, the countryside! Am looking forward to a nice relaxing week, perhaps a spot of antiquing, some walks, some reading, and possibly even some sewing (yes, I brought the sewing machine with me, when else am I going to get the time to start anything new?) Bliss.

So far so good...

This should have been written yesterday, when technically that was true. I had a great start to the week, getting up both Monday and Tuesday to go swimming before work. I got up this morning too, but ended up fannying around too much that it was quite late when I was due to leave the house and I would have ended up making myself late for work. I got as far as the front door onto the street intending to go to the pool, but so harassed and reluctant was I to go that I turned back round, went back upstairs, showered and went to work instead. Not so good, but at least I have managed two great swims this week despite this morning’s hiccup.

The pool has been pretty busy this week, which is annoying, and on both days I found I had to switch lanes during my swim. Perhaps I am getting faster after all… I have been trying my new approach of swimming a bit harder every 5 lengths, and with two great times this week, I think it might actually have worked. It’s pretty difficult to do, particularly on length 5 as I’m always sluggish in the first 10, and I’m not sure I was swimming that much faster… But I did break a few personal records over the two days… On Monday I managed my Fastest Average Time per length (47.22) and my Fastest Overall Time (31.28.67) and then on Tuesday I managed my Fastest Fast length (38.30). Not bad at all. And sooo sooo chuffed with the 31.28 overall time on Monday! Sometimes I think it’s just swimming in the other slow lane – it motivates me to swim faster and harder because psychologically I think it’s a faster lane… I didn’t expect to do so well on Tuesday because I was feeling it from Monday, but again managed a pretty fast overall time: 31.42.06. Hurrah! My second fastest time…

I did get stuck behind some pretty annoying people on both days and wonder if I would have been faster if I hadn’t been. The one who annoyed me most was a man I refer to as ‘Saggy Pants Man’. He wears a pair of black trunks, which I can only describe as looking like big pants (any girls out there should know what I mean by big pants, we all own a pair somewhere). They’re (thankfully!) snug around his waist and at the tops of the legs, but sag around his arse – too much fabric in them I think… Anyway, we swim at a very similar pace, although I would say that generally I swim a little faster at times than him. Mostly he swims in ‘the other lane’ so I don’t encounter him much but on both Monday and Tuesday when I had to switch lanes, I got stuck behind him and his saggy pants. And I mean right behind him. I kept creeping closer and he could see I was getting closer, but still every time he came to the end of the length he turned without letting me pass. Miserable sod. Grr… He’s a very inefficient turner (which is saying something coming from me), so I just kept getting closer. Eventually I was practically on top of him and just had to overtake – for my own sanity if nothing else! I always hate doing that, especially when it’s busy, and I had to swim for my life as there was someone coming towards me. Thankfully for all his other faults, he did slow down a bit to let me pass, but I don’t think he was very happy that I passed him. I suspect it helped with my overall time because I pushed off very fast after that to make sure there was plenty of water between the two of us for the rest of the time, so I felt justified in overtaking! He didn’t look very happy when I switched lanes and fell in behind him again yesterday… And I wasn’t very excited at the prospect of staring at his saggy pants while I swam either.

I am very tired now today – all this vigorous exercise is just knackering me!! But it’s probably good to have the odd day off. I’ll be back there tomorrow, fingers crossed!

Sometimes you just can't plan...

Things didn't quite go to plan this week...

It started off well enough, getting up and going to the pool on Monday. It was another nice quiet morning in there and I had my lane to myself for most of the time. I started off ok and tried not to do those dreadfully slow lengths of last week and got on ok. Not brilliant, but ok. If the lane had stayed empty of all but me, I would have done my backstroke at the end again, but with about 4 or 5 lengths to go one of the Chinese girls I sometimes see in the pool joined me so that option went out the window. On the plus side, she's very nice and always waits so as not to hold me (or anyone else in the lane) up. She's a fairly new swimmer so starts off just swimming up and down the part of the pool before the floor slopes away. About 10m I think. If you're coming down the lane towards the shallow end when she's about to turn, she hangs by the side and waits for you to go past, which is really very lovely and considerate! This then makes me swim this bit faster as I don't want to hold her up for too long... On Monday this proved to be something of a revelation as I got considerably more hot and out of breath with my heart beating faster. Hmm... I thought... I should perhaps be swimming at this pace more often! The knackering sort of pace, rather than the comfortable one. That way I might actually lose some more weight as it will be having a better effect!!

So that will be my challenge for next week. I might start just by doing one power length every five or something, see how I get on with that. It means only 8 power laps (if I've got my maths right), but that might prove to be 8 too many!! It'll have to be a challenge for this week coming because I managed to fail to do any exercise the whole rest of the week just gone. And I had planned to try and go as often as possible last week, hoping to make it to the pool four or five times...

Alas on Monday at some point, I'm thinking in the evening some time, I ate something that should by all rights have been in the bin. I suspect it was some hummus I had bought the week before that smelt and tasted ok, as that was the only think that I ate that Flâneur didn't. My gut started grumbling after dinner, but I thought it was just a general grumble as I'd eaten healthily that day! It woke me just after 3, however and refused to let me get back to sleep. By morning proper I was sick as a dog, knackered and there was noway I was going anywhere. Thankfully the sickness only lasted one day, but I was off work again on Wednesday with exhaustion, and probably should have stayed off on Thursday too (it's not like I managed to do anything and everyone kept telling me I still looked ill!). So no exercise for the rest of the week while I carefully looked after myself so as not to overdo it while I still recovered from being sick. Bleugh.

On the plus side (or not) I got down to X-2 stone 10 lb and some ounces by Wednesday... That's a nice and unhealthy 3 1/2 pounds in one day!! Oops... I have managed to put most of it back on again (shame!), but was still at a respectable X-2 stone and 12ish lbs by the end of the week. Not so bad...

Being off did mean I got to watch more of the tennis than I would usually, even if I did keep falling asleep at key moments. It's slightly disconcerting to be watching an Andy Murray match one minute and then waking up to see Hewitt and Roddick playing without a scooby about what happened to Murray... But it's been a pretty good Wimbledon, from what I've seen.

So it's back to the grindstone tomorrow and I'll have to make sure I make this week really counts. We're off up to Perth the week after to house and dog sit so there will be no swimming for me. Hopefully lots of nice long walks instead, but it's all so easy to just eat when you've got a week off and not exercise it off as you go along! I will have to be careful of that.

Failure!

Well, that’s probably a bit harsh, but I have managed to entirely fail to lose 6 pounds in three weeks. In fact, I pretty much failed to lose 1! Which is pretty shocking… After a good start, it all slipped away after the (much enjoyed) excesses of last weekend. I am, however, pretty pleased that I did not go completely backwards and only put on one pound from last week, weighing, as I did this morning, X-2 stones 13lb 1/8. It could have been soooo much worse!

On a more positive note I found my old notebook in which I noted my measurements (another scary thing!) back in March last year when I started this weight loss drive. I am so pleased to report that I have managed to shift a grand total of:

4 inches off my waist
3 1/2 inches off my hips
2 inches off my boobs
2 inches off my back measurement

Let’s face it, it’s not all about the weight, but also about healthiness and clothes fitting not only better but getting too big as I drop sizes… So I finally had to ditch some jeans that were too big for me and have found that some of my skirts, that hadn’t been fitting properly for about 2 years, I am now able to wear properly (not fooling myself that they fit and thus creating a hideous muffin top…) I think this technically means I have dropped a dress size or so, but seeing as I had become one of these deluded women who think they still fit into things that they clearly don’t, it’s difficult to tell… ;o)

I also went swimming three times this week. Yes three! And all in a row… Tuesday and Wednesday I have already covered, but I also went out on Thursday morning too (and considered it this morning, before going back to sleep…). It was sooo lovely and quiet with only 7 other people in the pool. Bliss. I got my lane to myself the whole time and I really really enjoyed my swim. I think I may have enjoyed it a bit too much, however, as my time was really shocking when I got out! I thought I had been going really well and fairly fast and was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I had tried to work on my technique a bit (cue the excuses), but I think this just served to slow me down… Coming down the home straight on length 40 I thought, yup, this has been good, should be a good time, I wont be happy if it’s over 33 mins as it should be pretty fast. I then touched the wall, stopped the SportsCount and looked at the total. 34.18.86!! Ok, so only 30 seconds slower than on Wednesday, but I haven’t clocked over 34 mins since the beginning of April!! I was so shocked at it that I kept looking to check. When checking the other stats (fastest lap was about average) I saw what I think was the reason – a length of unutterable laziness that is unmatched in all my adventures in the Uni Pool. Yes, length number 28 clocked up a whopping 57.01 seconds!! My slowest lengths weren’t even that bad when I first started at this pool. Clearly I was entirely unarsed in that length. I was very disappointed. But, hey, I went, that’s what’s important, and I managed a whole 100 metres of backstroke after my breaststroke too (4 lengths). I did consider doing more but time was ticking away and I still had to get myself to work…

But all these adventures in swimming mean that I have also managed to walk over 7 miles this week (it’s a round trip of about 2.4 miles to and from work via the pool), not including the walk at Little Glen Garr on Monday. So all in all a good exercise week. Let’s just hope I keep it up next week and manage to get the old weight loss back on track too.

Sister Act 2

Yep, I’m back in the habit (boom, boom). After a fabulous weekend where I ate far too much (more later) I was back at the pool both yesterday and today. Phew. Partly this is in reaction to the large amount of food eaten and partly this is because I really needed to get back at it having been away from the pool for two weeks.

It was tough going and I felt like a lead weight for the first 10 lengths or so, both yesterday and today… Yesterday was worse as I thought ‘I’m never going to get through all 40 of these...’ so difficult it seemed. But as usual it picked up around the 20 mark and soon the 40 were done and not in too bad a time, either (32.55.94). It was very quiet in the pool, which is lovely, with just a few other slow swimmers to start. A couple of them looked like they were just about saving themselves from drowning, so dreadful were their attempts to do front crawl, and one old chap joined the lane, forcing me over to the next lane as he swims so sloooowwwly… But luckily the other slow lane wasn’t so busy and I even had it to myself for the last few lengths.

I had to stop myself from slowing down because of this (no-one else there to push me to swim faster!), but by the end of the 40 I felt pretty good and because there was no-one else in the lane I thought I’d give myself two lengths of backstroke to finish off. These weren’t recorded in my time, but a nice way to wind down after the 40 lengths of breaststroke. I swim backstroke faster (and possibly better) than the breaststroke, but can be a little erratic as I fail to swim in a straight line. This is why I will only do it when there is no-one else around… I do enjoy it though and it can be quite a work out so it’s a good thing to add on when I can. Today was pretty similar and again after my 40 lengths I was able to fit in the two of backstroke, which was great. Not such a good time (33.40.93), but I figured the important thing was I went.

I did want to stay in the pool yesterday though. It was partly a general reluctance to go to work after a nice long weekend and partly a love of the water and an enjoyment of what I was doing. It was so sunny yesterday that work was the last place I wanted to be going when I got out the pool. Particularly, as I said, after a nice long weekend.

Wastrel and SAM had decided to mark the longest day by holding a BBQ on Sunday and a vigil (of sorts) on Saturday night to see in the longest day. Flâneur and I imposed ourselves upon them on Friday night, along with RSL and Wastrel’s brother and thus the feasting started. Wastrel and SAM’s neighbour but one had seen a deer nibbling at his garden and, we were told, ‘shot it out the bedroom window’. Their direct neighbour then butchered said deer (you’ve got to love the countryside) and a chunk of it was then given to W&S. This was lovingly cooked for us into a Venison Wellington, which was delicious, accompanied by yummy roast spuds and asparagus. Yum! I tried to not eat too much of it, but failed by taking seconds and eating goodness knows how many of the little crispy potatoes. Hmm… Ah well I thought, it’s all tasty…

On Saturday Wastrel had organised some activities for the six of us and up early(ish) we went off to the Hilton at Dunkeld for a spot of shooting. We were split up into two groups, Wastrel going with the boys as the tallest girl, and RSL, SAM and I in the other group. We had a really great instructor who was patient and made sure we knew exactly what we should be doing before loading any shells into the gun. My brain still freaked a little every time I went to pull the trigger, but we all managed very respectable scores from the 25 shots we got.

Next was lunch in Aberfeldy (a huge venison burger and chips for me) which was surprising quick… followed by boating and fishing on Loch Tay. Mostly this was boating with line dangled out the back (with a good 20-30 mins of poor Wastrel trying to untangle the lines that RSL and I had managed to mangle good and proper) as we failed to catch anything at all. But it was a very pleasant afternoon and lovely to be out on the water. I’m just a water-baby me.

Wastrel’s brother had declared earlier (and whenever asked what he wanted to do) that we should have afternoon tea so we piled off to Kinnaird Hotel after handing the boat back. It’s a beautiful country house hotel and very relaxing. We had to wait a bit for tea, but it was worth it when it came. It really put some of the Edinburgh hotels to shame. Between two there were 6 fingers of sandwich, about five different types of cake and shortbread. I think we should have had scones too, but were told they were all done for the day. It was all delicious and (nearly) all demolished too. Definitely recommended.

(Image taken from Kinaird Hotel website)

We hightailed it back to the house from there to meet HAL and BC who were joining us for the next bit of the weekend. BC stayed all too briefly, as he had work stuff to do, but it was nice to catch up with HAL who has had a manic few weeks with work. A brazier was lit and more food put out (cold foods this time, which I really should not have looked at let alone had two helpings of having already eaten 3 meals that day… Urgh) and we sat outside enjoying the warm night air, the warmth of the brazier and each other’s company. There was chat, singing and eventually we all turned in after a lovely, tiring, sunny day.

Sunday, then, was the BBQ itself. We awoke to a beautiful day and I helped SAM in the kitchen with salads and stuff while Wastrel, HAL and Flâneur made an effigy out of bread and hay to be burned later (a sort of wicker man who was named ‘Woodwood’ for obvious reasons). The party proper started at noon and we were soon joined by an assortment of friends and neighbours of Wastrel and SAM’s (where it was nice to finally put faces to names). There was more good food (we are always so spoiled when we visit), piñata to bash, and an effigy burned. The sun shone, my back burnt and a good time was had by all. Thankfully just when we were all getting just a little too roasty toasty with the heat of the sun (we live in Scotland for crying out loud, not the South of France) the clouds came over to cool us a little. Most folks left by 6 and those of us remaining wandered down to the pub in the village for dinner. Like we needed dinner…. By this time my poor stomach was groaning from all the meat I had consumed over the weekend (we live a relatively meat free life usually) but that didn’t stop me having lasagne for tea…

I was quite surprised when I got home on Monday (after a lovely walk in yet more sunshine at Little Glen Garr and a delicious lunch at Gleneagles Hotel) to find that I had only put on about 2lbs with all this excess. And while that sort of puts me back to where I was two weeks ago, a healthy dose of swimming and vegetables this week will hopefully put me back on track. No regrets though – I’d do it all again without hesitation! ;o)