Hat-trick

No nothing to do with football or millinery, but rather a note to the fact that I actually dragged my self out of bed 3 times this week to go swimming before work. Well, on Thursday Flâneur tried to drag me, literally by the ankles, but I was getting up anyway, so it doesn’t count as coercion.

I failed to go at all last week while off on leave, despite us setting the alarm early one morning… I just couldn’t do it! Thankfully Flâneur didn’t try to make me and let me just drift off back to sleep. I did manage to put about 3 or 4 pounds on over the course of the week (1 week!!), but it seems to be edging off again. Why does it never come off as quickly as it goes on??

That’s the problem with weeks off though, you loose your routine and all your good intentions go out the window (well, mine do). Although we walked quite a lot during the week, it just wasn’t enough to counteract all the extra eating I seemed to be doing… And having done well with my Easter chocolate (not getting much and then making it last over a few days, rather than scoffing it in one go), this was then scuppered by the future sisters-in-law giving us more!! I tried to let Flâneur eat most of it, but still managed about 100 grams in one day. Urgh.

We did manage a good day on Sunday to try and make up for it though. The weather was beautiful and we decided that we should be out and about in it, rather than stuck inside in our dark flat. We had wanted to picnic during our week off, but the weather stopped us, so it was nice to have an opportunity to pack some sandwiches into our picnic bag and head into the park. We had fruit kicking about that we hadn’t been eating too, so we put that in to make it a more virtuous lunch. We had been intending to walk in the park anyway, but decided that rather than going our usual route through the valley between Arthur’s Seat and the Crags, we’d go up, and (taking frequent breaks for me to catch my breath, Flâneur is something of a mountain goat when it comes to this stuff) we got up there in not too bad a time. We were so near the top that I declared that it would be rude to come all that way and not get to the top of the Seat so up we went! It was a glorious view (through all the other folk up there) and very satisfying to get to the top. The picnic was eaten half way back down and a thoroughly good day it was.

And then back down to Earth with a bump on Monday as I was back up at 6:30 to go to the pool and then back at work. Man I was grumpy that morning!! Still, I managed a fast swim (very surprising as I felt like a lead weight for the first 10 lengths), which I kept up on Tuesday and Thursday of this week too! There were some annoying people in the pool, but it didn’t seem to make any difference to my times. There was one girl whose breast-stroke technique was really lovely, text book stuff, but boy did she swim sllloooooowwwwwllly…. I ended up nearly swimming on top of her twice and eventually ended up swapping to the other slow lane (the one with the scary faster people in it!) to stop myself getting truly infuriated! I think that’s why my time was so good on Monday – I was forced to swim harder and faster for the last 8-10 lengths by the pressure of other people!! She was back on Tuesday, but we managed to keep enough of a distance between us that she didn’t bother me so much. Yesterday was fantastic though. A really great swim. By the middle of my 40 lengths I really felt ‘in the zone’ and it was just me and the water and I was just cutting through it without much real thought. Beautiful. Another annoying person (who didn’t know what stick to the right of the lane meant and nearly crashed into both me and another swimmer), but it didn’t seem to matter. Just me and the water. Bliss. Rather than bore you with all the stats (which I buggered up on Monday anyway) here are my over all times for the three swims:

Monday: 31.54.82
Tuesday: 32.20.15
Wednesday: 31.52.53

Top quality stuff. Very happy. :o)

Easter Weekend

Easter Monday and the pool is shut. And yet I felt a bit listless this morning - I think I actually missed it! Heavens! Am off this week, so getting out to swim might be something of a challenge, but Flâneur is determined that I should head out at least one morning this week, if only so he doesn't have to put up with my tetchiness from lack of a good swim!!  ;o)

I'll need to do it though - I'm sooo close now to falling on to the other side of a stone number, sitting as I am around X-1 stone and 0-1 lb for the last week or so...  So frustrating!!  I really really want to get to that next number down.  Not sure I can afford a treat for getting there this time, but I'm so close now that maybe an incentive is needed!  Especially as I'm back on the chocolate now.

For the last 9 years I have given chocolate and sweets up for Lent.  Not for a particularly religious reason, but I like the opportunity it gives me to test my will power over a six week period!  Temptation is often put in my way (the year I was in Dublin the girls on my course tried to persuade me the St Patrick's day didn't count...), but it's important to me to not let any small slither of the sweet stuff to pass my lips regardless of the excuse for a 'day off' it.  We're talking will power here.  And every year it's quite hard, but I do manage it.  

I am determined this year, however, not to fall off the wagon with the huge whump that I usually do once Lent is over. So no cheap chocolate for me now... or something...  I don't miss chocolate so much after the first couple of weeks, especially as most of it is just so sweet and sickly. But what I like is some good quality chocolate and all that I really need is a little of the good stuff every now and again. So out with the Cadbury's and in with the specialised stuff!  Particularly Amedi. Yum! Flâneur was given the instruction just to get me a small Easter egg, preferably not one of the sickly usual ones. He always tries to get me a nice one anyway, so my little Charbonel and Walker egg with three of their champagne truffles was just superb!  I did eat it all yesterday, so maybe that stone marker will be a little further off yet...

I got him some mini eggs from Coco de Bruntsfield, a lovely little Edinburgh chocolate shop.  They do some lovely lovely interesting flavours in good quality chocolate, and I picked us up a bar of their rose and cracked black pepper 64% chocolate too, which was tasty. It's nice to just have a couple of squares of something really nice rather than stuff my face with something that is largely unsatisfying! But I'm sure there are readers out there who will disagree with me...

Chocolate is not the only food that has been consumed lately though (and I've still not finished all my Coco champane truffle mini eggs that Flâneur also bought me, so spoiled!). On Friday we had HAL and BC over for dinner, where I cooked (for once!). Knowing that we wouldn't have an Easter dinner on Sunday, I did roast lamb, cooked to the recommendation of the Butcher, who was much nicer than the last one I dealt with. He suggested rather than stuffing it, which had been my intention with the lovely piece of shoulder than I bought, I marinaded it over night with fresh garlic and rosemary and salt and pepper and a little oil. So simple, so tasty! And a really lovely piece of meat... Did the good old roast spuds, with asparagus and green beans...

Hmm... making myself hungry here!  It all worked very well and we finished it off with a Lemon and Prosecco cake that Flâneur had made (and will make again! God it was good... and light!) and some dessert wine that I had been given as a birthday present last year (Quady Elusium Black Muscat, just delicious!). We had good chats on a variety of topics and had an all round good evening! HAL and BC left after midnight, so I think they had a good time too!  

On Saturday we were out at RL's for dinner - and it was a proper dinner party! With people we didn't know so well and everything!  As well as meeting the fabled G, RL's boyfriend of 6 months, we were joined by two other of her friends, one whom I had met before briefly when living with her and the other who I had not. We'd not been to R's flat either, which I really liked.  It's not massive but has good character. Loved the living room (which will be R's bedroom when the flat's owner comes back from NZ next month, which is almost a shame as it's a great living room) and it's nice to see her somewhere with central heating again!!  We'd been expecting a heavy dinner again (hence no plans for a big Easter Sunday dinner), and were pleasantly surprised to be served fish! Both as a starter and as a main. It was all so good. She'd gone to so much effort, and we had a really good time. The company was great, the conversation flowed and so did the wine.

God my head was fuggy on Sunday morning. I really just can't drink more than a couple of glasses of wine anymore... Especially not white! I can't remember how much I had, but I wasn't much use to anyone on Sunday!  We didn't get home until after 2 either - can't do those sort of late nights either! urgh... Still, it was a great evening and we really should do it more often...

Swim little fishie, swim…

Yes, I’m still doing it, I’m still getting up early and heading out to the pool to get my kilometre of breast stroke in before work. Phew, but it’s hard sometimes I can tell you. Not necessarily the getting up, I’m getting used to that and going to bed earlier certainly helps, but, oh, ok the getting up… Some mornings it’s just impossible. But thankfully, I seem to do ok on enough mornings to make a difference at the moment…

Last week I managed to get my backside out of bed and go to the pool twice. Monday I already blogged about, but I went on Thursday as well. This was not such a good swim time wise (I’ll put all the stats at the end so as not to bore you), doing the km in 34.00.97. But the important thing was I went. Flâneur was back on Friday morning and I went to meet him at the airport at the hideous hour that his flight got in, so Thursday morning worked as training for getting up early too… ;o)

As well as having missed him tremendously and wanting to see him as soon as possible, I always like to be met at airports when I travel alone and therefore believe that other people might also want a friendly face waiting for them when they’ve just come off a long and boring flight on their own. He’d also had a nasty twist to the ankle while away, so I thought it might cheer him up to see me at the airport when he got back and I could also help him with any bags if the ankle was still bad.

We had a nice relaxing weekend, chilling out on Friday (gave me a chance to get started on his washing), until he fell asleep on me around 8:30pm… Saturday started out relaxed and then we headed out to LS’s wedding in the afternoon. They had decided on a Humanist ceremony, which I must say I had had my reservations about. Stories of hand holding, hippy type affairs (God that makes me sounds old) had me wondering what to expect, but it was actually really quite lovely. The celebrant was very charming and warm and it was frankly miles better than the dreadful civil weddings I’ve been to in Scotland which can be extremely unromantic and legal (By this particular law of Scotland of this particular date blah blah blah). Maybe it’s just one bad experience, but they always seem short and sharp and just a bit of a let down to the romantic in me. There were two readings and we all said a Celtic blessing to them at the end and it was all about mutual trust and respect. The bride looked beautiful in a very classic style sparkly gown and very simple hair arrangement and both were beaming the whole day (which you’d hope!). There was plenty of bubbly sploshing about and the food at dinner was much better than I had either expected or it looked! We did spend most of dinner just talking to each other though, as everyone else at the table knew each other and didn’t seem to want to engage us in conversation, even though we did try. Ah well, it’s often the way when you don’t know so many people at weddings… but a bit of an effort from the other people at our table would have been nice.

Poor Flâneur’s ankle had swollen quite considerably with all the standing around before and after dinner so he was unable to join in the dancing, but I had a good boogy with TS and a couple of other collegues before we sloped off home around 11… It seemed a shame not to stay later but some of the other people we knew had left and poor Flâneur was still jetlagged and sore.

Quite a busy end to a busy week. As well as my swims I went out for dinner to The Kitchin with Wastrel and SAM, a lovely lovely treat from Wastrel. Tom Kitchin was in the kitchen too, which seemed like a special treat, and the food did not disappoint! I had new season asparagus wrapped in parma ham with scallops, followed by saddle of rabbit with stuff…. and then an apple sorbet with champagne sauce. Hmmm….all sooo sooo tasty! Good food, good chat and a good time had by all. Thursday night I was out again this time with all The Girls to La Favourita, which is a nice Italian restaurant, when it isn’t full of lots of very loud people. Which is was on Thursday. Lovely company, nice food, but a shame I couldn’t hear most of the conversation. I was also bloody knackered, so happy to sit and listen to what I could hear and join in when I wanted to. I sloped off home when they all went for a drink after dinner as I needed to do a few bits and pieces before bed and then get an early night for the early start on Friday.

And so on to this week and back to the swimming. I managed to get out of bed both yesterday and today for my morning swim, today being randomly easier than yesterday. Going to bed around 10 last night probably helped… I have now joined the university sports centre too, so don’t need to worry about having enough swims left on my voucher (got Thursday’s last week free as the girl didn’t check my card when I went it, result!). I certainly am still enjoying it and was delighted yesterday to see my quickest time yet (33.07.81, nearly the same as the first swim of the year, which was in a smaller pool, you will recall).

The pool is a little quieter as the university is on holiday and I managed to get into a nice rhythm with another girl in my lane so that neither of us was bothering the other. I like it most when it’s like that. Today was a little different as it was mostly me and this bloke who swims at about the same pace until we were joined by this deeply irritating guy who I’ve seen there before who swims with a float and just kicks his legs. He is the most inefficient swimmer I have seen in a while – rather than neat, steady kicks he almost thrashes in the water which means that he not only goes quite slowly, but if you come up behind him you get tons of spray in your face. Which is what happened this morning. Most of the time he’s ok because he’ll wait and let you turn and go off ahead because he knows you are quicker, but on at least two lengths I was trapped behind him, forced to go a bit slower and to tilt my head away from the massive splashes. Sigh. I ended up swapping lanes to the other slow one, which was a bit quieter, and finished my lengths in peace. I don’t usually like to use that lane as it tends to attract faster slow swimmers than me, but it was just one other girl who was not so fast, so it wasn’t so bad.

I was a bit sore this morning and seemed to be going quite slowly so I was extremely surprised when I looked at the final time on the SportsCount and saw 32.47.81! That’s the first time I’ve been under 33 minutes in this pool and coming close to the times I chalked up in the local one. Woo hoo! I had been trying to improve my technique a bit this morning, having found a few tips online yesterday and maybe it actually paid off! Goddamn, get down to 30 mins and I’ll have to add another 10 lengths… Knackering!!

So the tedious stats for the last three swims are:

Date: 02.04.2009 / 06.04.2009 / 07.04.2009
Lengths: 40 (1000m) / 40 (1000m) / 40 (1000m)
Time: 34.00.97 / 33.07.81 / 32.47.81
Average: 51.02 / 49.70 / 49.20
Fastest: (1) 40.11 / (1) 38.88 / (1) 39.30
Slowest: (32) 54.77 / (14) 53.94 / (10) 53.27

It’s not quite the table I would have liked (quite difficult to make out sorry) but if you squint you can really see the progress over the last three swims. Very excited about getting my first lap in at under 40 seconds now, but I should probably aim at consistency over the 40 rather than a very speedy first lap and then slowing down through overexertion! Something to work on…

Hmm… I really ought to blog more frequently, then you wont be stuck with massive posts like this!! Ah well...