Getting back on track...

Haven’t blogged for a while, but with starting a new weight loss and fitness regime, I feel I ought to have somewhere to record my progress, and this is what this blog was supposed to be...

A lot has happened this year so far… Far too much to put in one post. To sum up though:

• I got married. This was brilliant. I had the best day, the sun shone and it was just fantastic.
• We didn’t go to Tokyo on honeymoon. Bastard BA greedy scumbags… (don’t get me started on this, I’m still very upset about it)
• We did go to New York instead. Which was brilliant. We got upgraded at our hotel, ate in a couple of fantastic restaurants (including 3* Daniel), ate lovely cupcakes that we travelled across the city for, and had fun with a stuffed knitted green dinosaur at the top of the Rock…
• We moved. Three times. First Flâneur moved to a flat in a new city in January, then I moved to join him there in April when we got back from New York. Then we moved everything to one flat in June. At one point we were renting three flats at once, and I couldn’t recommend that less! This was all very stressful and expensive, but at least we now live in one flat together.
• I got a new job. And now commute for 50 mins by train every day… Ah well, at least I’m not spending every other weekend travelling up and down the country anymore.

All this has not exactly made it easy to keep off the weight and keep up the exercise. I can’t remember the last time I went to the gym and my weight has crept back up to X-1 stone and 5 lb! Not good. Not good at all.

But now things are settling down I can finally start to sort this out. Finally I can try and get things back on track! Thanks to RF mentioning it in an email, I have started to watch what I eat by keeping an online food diary with Nutracheck (http://www.nutracheck.co.uk/). I have toyed with doing this before, but hadn’t found one that was as easy to use or as cheap. It took a while to get used to, but they give you a five day free trial, which was enough for me to realise that it could work. It’s quite an eye opener if you give it a go. You may sit and think (like me), I eat quite healthily, I don’t over eat, why am I not losing any weight? And then you write it all down (you have to be very honest) and you realise that actually you eat far more than you thought, calorie-wise, don’t exercise nearly enough, and that there are definite areas where improvement could be found! The things I like particularly about this online food diary are:

• You can easily create your own recipes. So if, like us, you make most meals from scratch, you can find out how many calories they contain based on the ingredients, rather than guessing. We even did it for some oaty biscuits Flaneur makes (which are quite calorific it turns out…).
• If gives suggested Food Swaps. So you can find similar things that have fewer calories and fat. For example I like a biscuit or two with my morning coffee. This week I have ginger snaps rather than bourbons, thanks to the food swap! (this feature can be amusing however, when what it wants to swap is already pretty low in calories and fat, and what it suggests instead is something with the same number of calories!)
• It shows you (very clearly) how many portions of fruit/veg you are eating.
• It lets you copy stuff easily into another day.
• It lets you easily add in exercise from a very comprehensive list of options (including exercise DVDs and the Wii fit!)

One downside might be that the database doesn’t contain a lot of foods from M&S, which is unfortunately where we do most of our food shopping (not because we are posh, but because it’s closest and we don’t have a car). There are probably some other plus/negative points too, but those are the ones I’ve got so far.

So that’s the eating getting under control (hopefully). I’ve done my first full week using it and I have lost 3lb. So far so good.

Now onto the exercise! Taking the train early every day doesn’t help. Living where we do doesn’t help (not great for running outside as there are no green spaces nearby and not really gyms that close by). Gyms being very expensive also doesn’t help (the nearest one to us is a Virgin Active, and tragically I cannot afford their prices). I did try and run outside with Flâneur a few weeks ago (ok 6 weeks ago), but to get the right distance I had to work out a very convoluted route that took us through some dodgy looking areas, so we abandoned that. He has since worked out another route that involves running round the block 3 times (the block in question being about a mile). Me, I don’t enjoy this so much and always feel like I’m holding him back when we go together as he’s quicker and fitter than me. And then it hit me. I was actually missing going to the gym. Missing it! I didn’t realise it had had this effect on me, but I realised that I had to go back. So I did a lot of looking around and found that my best option was Pure Gym. There’s one in town that is only 10-15 mins walk from one of the stations and then only 20 mins walk from our flat. They’re quite good as it’s only £15.99 a month and there’s no contract to tie you in, so if it doesn’t work out I can quit whenever. So on Sunday, I joined. And then last night I went. And I must say, it was great to go back. It was hard, very hard, and I didn’t do a lot (don’t want to push it on the first go after such a long gap), but I did enjoy it and now today I don’t ache (very much) and have a great desire to go back. What I did was:

Treadmill:

2 mins walk at 5.5 kmp
5 mins run at 8 kmp
2 mins walk at 5.5 kmp
5 mins run at 8 kmp (oh. my. god. this hurt.)
2 mins walk at 5.5 kmp
2 mins cool down at 3.3 kmp
Total: 18 mins, 2.2km.

Cross Trainer:

20 mins on manual setting, going around 6.5kmp, swapping from level 1 to level 4 and back every 2 mins. Around 3km total.

A good slow build up. I had wanted to do 30 mins on the cross trainer, but it hurt too much and I thought it best not to over do things. It also took me about 6 mins of relentless movement on the one setting to realise that it would be better to chop it up into chunks of different levels, and that really made the time past.

I shall try and ramp it up each time I go, but it certainly feels good to be back.

So Pis**d off...

I am more furious than I ever thought possible… Here was me having a nice stress free run up to the wedding, doing bloody well thank you very much not to get stressed by anything and then Unite go and ruin all that. Due to the potential strike action by BA cabin crew announced yesterday I am now turning in to a gibbering wreck about whether or not we’re going to get away for our long anticipated and looked forward to honeymoon on the 20th.

The most annoying things is that the strikes may not happen or may not affect us and then I will have done all this worrying and stressing for nothing!! If a strike does happen we are covered by insurance, BA will refund or change our flights and we can cancel our hotels with 24 hours notice, but that doesn’t stop me worrying about it now!!

It isn’t helped by the fact that I think the actions of the cabin crew are totally and utterly ridiculous and unfounded. I wouldn’t mind quite so much (or at least be as apoplectic with rage!) if I thought they had good cause. But I don’t. I tried writing the following rant on Facebook by was restricted by the amount of space they give you…

Do they not realise that their actions will eventually cripple the airline and then many of them will lose their jobs? Do they not realise that the economy is not healthy and that the airline is being hit by falling revenue?? Do they not realise that none of them are losing their jobs over this stupid issue or having their t&c changed (only new entrants are) and that the public sympathy is not really with them (according to comments I have read on the BBC website and the Times online)?? Do they not realise that their T&Cs and pay are better than any other airline's, even though they don't offer the best customer service anymore?? Why does the union not see that loosing two high court battles, the last of which stated that BA was correct in its course of action to try and save the company from going under (!), means that it should let this one go.... The Unite leaders behind this are clearly living in the past and have no concept of current economics or the necessary changes that have happened to business in the past 20 years.

And breathe.

Not exercising

Well, it's been a while! I didn't mean to leave it so long between blog entries. I think if I had actually done any exercise in the last couple of weeks I might have been more motivated to blog!! So, we'll get that out of the way to begin with - I haven't done any meaningful exercise since I last blogged, or, let's face it, this year. The weekends are better than the week days as I can generally find myself walking many (as in 5-10) miles over the weekends, but I have become chained to my desk and a desire to build up flexi time that the gym and pool are abandoned, along with my walk to work.

NOT GOOD.

I've had a bad cold this week too, so have been stuck in the house on my own, largely bored. Unfortunately when I'm bored I eat. And when I'm ill I don't eat well. So it hasn't been a good food week... Today was better (back at work and therefore no snacking at the desk!) - I had rivita and mackerel pate - my new favourite lunch - and an apple and raw carrots and a light yoghurt, all during the day, and then a light pasta of crevettes with chili and garlic, sugar snap peas and tomatoes. Very yummy. Just have to keep on with that sort of day I think...

I'm reaching the stage as well when I'm sure I should be obsessively dieting or exercising or something to 'lose a dress size' for the wedding... Just five weeks to go now. Eek! Thankfully I'm just not motivated in that way... And probably a good thing. While I could probably loose another half stone before the wedding, and that would be no bad thing, I'm not one of these crazy people who thinks that crash dieting is a good thing. I'd rather be plump than a crash dieter.

Getting very excited about the wedding now. Really really looking forward to it. Flâneur has got his suit, shirt, tie and fabulous shoes and boy he looks good. I know I'm biased, but he looks very handsome and I'm going to be the cat who got the cream with him on my arm (or on his arm, you know, whatever... ;o) ) on the day. I've had my first fitting with the dress maker where I could actually see what the dress is going to look like. That was very exciting (if not a bit daunting as she kept giving me options - don't give me options, I have no idea what these things would look like or if they'd look good!). We're also starting to get our RSVPs back - so nice to see that people are actually coming. It's nice to see people putting the effort in to let us know they're coming, after the effort Flâneur put in to the invites!! All hand painted by him, all different. He's so clever. We gave people til the 20th to RSVP and haven't had so many back yet - may have to start poking people soon, we have a seating plan to organise!! I am a bit disappointed that some people think it might be optional, the 'you know we're coming, right'... Well, we do now, but what ever happened to etiquette?? I have never considered RSVP (when asked to RSVP) to be unnecessary - why else ask for an RSVP if you don't want to receive one?? And they are really lovely to receive. We've even had some formal ones by e-mail, which has been quite funny, but there are still a lot of people to get back to us...

Anyway, don't mean to rant. The fact that people are coming is lovely, no matter how they tell us... and I'm really looking forward to the day more than anything right now.

2010 - Hit the Ground Running

What a start to the year! I’ve barely had time to do nothing, let alone the time to blog about it…

We started with one of those sorts of weeks that should make your head spin, if it weren’t that things would never get done if your head was spinning all the time. After Christmas and New Year were over with, it was a hasty finish off of packing for Flâneur and then pick up the van, drive across to his parents, realise the screen-wash in the van isn’t working properly, get very frustrated as the slush on the road made the windscreen filthy and then drive down to Manchester. The latter of which would have been fine if it hadn’t been freezing cold, mucky roads and no working screen-wash. It was pretty hairy at times as I found my vision seriously impaired while driving and I was very thankful (a) that the motorways were quiet on the first Monday after New Year and that (b) it started to snow on the outskirts of Manchester, just as the traffic was building up and that meant my windscreen cleaned itself for the first time ever!

We did get there in one piece and the flat wasn’t so bad (not as nice as our Edinburgh flat) but the snow unfortunately did not stop. It was pretty at first, until we woke up to 4 inches of the stuff the next day and a rising panic about how I was going to get to Sheffield for a job interview!! (Oh, yes, nothing like packing it all in in one week!). A hasty call to my colleague to get her to check the railway websites and a phone call from the people in Sheffield to see if I was going to make it and reschedule if not (very nice of them!) and I was on my way. It was very very pretty, but I just didn’t feel like I could really appreciate it while I was worrying about whether or not I’d get to Sheffield, get back or get stuck!!

As it was, it all went ok. I got there, I got the job and I could then relax a bit. Well for a couple of days until the drive back north! I kept scouring the sky for more snow and examining the roads for signs of ice and checking the van would actually move again… The drive back was no less terrifying as this time the screen-wash was actually frozen, not just broke. We got pretty far without having to stop and splosh screen-wash directly onto the windscreen, but after that we stopped at nearly every service station to clean the damn thing. Freezing fog (and no idea where the fog lights were) made things even more ‘fun’ and by Hamilton I was ready to give up and stay the night in a travel lodge, anything that meant I didn’t have to drive anymore. But I pulled myself together and we made it home (with one or two more stops) and I have never been more glad to see my flat as I was then…

I did manage to fit in a swim when I was down in Manchester, in their lovely Aquatic Centre – the first swim in a good few months! In fact probably the first proper exercise I have done in a good few months… (so much so that I am surprised that I only put 2 pounds on over the festive period and that they have gone away again – hurrah!). It was lovely being able to go mid morning for a swim, so quiet, I could really get used to that! It was at its full 50m (and took some getting used to that there was no shallow end) and I managed my usual 1km in a very respectable 33 minutes 33. I was very happy with that. I had time to kill so I did a few lengths of backstroke too, timing myself to see which I was quicker at. Surprisingly the breaststroke beat the backstroke by a good few seconds. I’d always assumed it would be the other way round…

Now we are firmly in January, Flâneur and I are also firmly into our weeks apart. I managed to fill my first week without him to the full, seeing my dress maker (she’s starting on the sewing now!), teaching my class, trying to build a new bed with HMcM (who I think surprised herself with how straight forward it was), and then a FABULOUS night with my FABULOUS friends at Hotel Missoni, where we drank cocktails, ate lovely food, drank nice champagne and wine and generally appreciated what greats friends we are.

I shall miss them very much when I move south. Even though we don’t all get together that often, I like having them nearby, just in case an emergency night out or dinner is needed… ;o) But there will be fabulous weekends to be had in the future, and I’ve not gone yet…

I’ve had my first weekend trip down to Manchester (arriving late on Friday and leaving early on Monday), which was lovely – it’s a bit like dating again. Only with fewer meals out because we’re very poor having to run two flats in two expensive cities! It was nice to wander round the shops – Manchester is cracking for shops – and generally hang out with F. With a realisation that the wedding is only two months away now we also got a lot of the little niggly things sorted, on paper at least, if not in reality!

I find myself exhausted now though and looking desperately forward to the first weekend where I don’t have to go anywhere or do anything in particular. A real bum-about weekend with no travel!! I think I’ve got just two weekends to wait, maybe??

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!

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)

Busy, busy, busy

Phew. So starting with the exercise, which is the boring bit. I'm still going to the pool, which is good, but I still haven't got above twice a week. And last week I only managed to go once. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as I only got a five swim voucher for the pool and want to join the Sports Center when I get paid in April. So no point in getting another one really when pay day is tomorrow! So, I went last Monday and was pleased with my times. Quicker than before and I even overtook someone in my slow lane. Not ideal as I'm not fast enough for the other lanes, but the other people in my lane kept stopping at the shallow end and then setting off just as I was about to turn! Grr... So, the stats for last Monday:

40 lengths (1000m)
34.13.74 (nearly a whole minute faster!!)
Average time for length: 51.34
Fastest Length: 1 at 43.12 (the slowest for a while, but it didn't seem to matter)
Slowest Length: 28 at 55.38

So not too bad. My Flâneur went off to Jakarta on Tuesday so I didn't want to get up early and bugger off to the pool when we could spend a bit more quality time together on Tuesday morning before going to work. I meant to go on Thursday instead, but when the alarm went of at 6:30 I just curled up in bed and refused to get up. There being no-one to either make me get up or lure me out of bed with breakfast, I just stayed there until I had to get up to get ready for work. On Friday I was a bit hungover so that was definitely out!!

But I managed to get my backside out of bed today and head off to the pool this morning, which was pretty impressive as Flâneur isn't back yet... I think a little habit may be forming, which is no bad thing. The pool was really quiet this morning, which was nice. Just me and one other girl in my lane for most of the time, with most of the other lanes pretty much the same. Usually there are between 20 and 30 people in the pool, but today it was probably 12-15... Must be University holidays or something.

And today was my best day yet at this pool. It didn't seem like it was going to be when I started off. I felt slow and the swimming felt hard work. Well it is hard work I suppose. I felt so good when I finished and checked the time on the SportsCount for my total. That's partly why I do it, I must say. So (just to bore you some more) today's stats:

40 lengths (1000m)
33.35.28 (that's nearly at the time of my first swim in the local pool at the start of the year! Yeah man!)
Average time for length: 50.38
Fastest Length: 1 at 40.84
Slowest Length: 10 at 53.24 (nearly my fastest slow length of the year!)

So really really pleased.

Other than not swimming this past week has been pretty busy as I try desperately not to miss Flâneur too much (didn't quite work). Everyone has been very sweet at making sure I'm ok and not too bored without him! Very lovely... He left on Tuesday last week and that evening I was out having dinner with TS who I teach palaeography with. We had a great time, but I'm not used to drinking half a bottle of wine on a Tuesday and it went right to my head!

On Wednesday it was the last of my Japanese classes of this term. It's gone really well and I can't believe how much we can now do! It was Japanese 1, Course 2, so we're talking beginners stuff here, but I don't think that at this stage in any other language that I have learnt have I been able to say what I have done/will be doing/am doing using past and not past tenses. It helps make me feel like I'm getting somewhere! I was even able to construct the fairly complex sentences of: "Yesterday, R-san went to Jakarta by plane. He is doing research work there. He comes home on Friday next week." I'm not sure if this will work but:


きの　ラエイさんは　ジャカタに　ひこきで　いきました。レセチャの　しごとを　します。　ラいしゅ　きにょび　うちに　かえります。

Cool. I think I might have got 'Jakarta' wrong, but otherwise it's not bad!! Impressive, no?? ;o)

Thursday I was out again, this time at HMcM's for dinner and chat. We were joined by RF and HAL and talked about all sorts of grown up things that made us feel very old... Again, too much wine was drunk and my head was sore on Friday morning. I'm lucky if I have a few glasses of wine on a Friday/Saturday these days, but at H's I had two glasses of Prosecco and then the best part of half a bottle of white! Urgh... Made me feel totally out of it on Friday and I ended up leaving work early because of the stinking headache. That'll teach me. I was very glad of a night in to myself on Friday night. It's lovely seeing people and having company (eating alone is miserable), but it was good to have a night off!!

Saturday saw me in Glasgow with RF trying on actual bonafide wedding dresses! God, it was terrifying... Mostly the hideous monstrosities that these places sell (we saw one girl trying on a Jordan-esque poofy thing that had a sky blue top and too much netting on the bottom. Eek!). It was all very eye opening and confirmed that that is definitely NOT what I want. I just didn't look right in them. So we came up with a good list of dos and don't to take to a dress maker and I'll get what I want, not what someone else thinks I should wear. So there. ;o) Two things though that the woman said that had me raising my eyebrows:

'when you find your dress, you'll know' - hmmm...
'Is your mum coming up to help you dress shop at all?' (answer: 'no') 'so she trusts you then...' Err? sorry? I love my mother and respect her opinion but wtf? Did she think I wasn't able to chose a frock without mummy?? That she had any say in what I wear on my wedding day?? Anyway, I know there are plenty of mothers out there who do hold that kind of sway over their daughters, but mine aint one of them. I would take her opinion (at a pinch), but other than that, she'd be the first to say that it's my choice not hers.

Anyway... it was a great day with RF and it was really nice to go back to her gaff in the country for the night so I didn't have to spend the weekend at home on my own. AB made us dinner, which was yummy and 'all organic, all local' as he'd been at the farmer's market in Edinburgh that morning. Hmm... It was a lovely chilled evening and much appreciated. RF dropped me back in Edinburgh on Sunday around lunch time, which gave me loads of time to get the (much needed) housework done. Phew. All this stuff going on though and I've not yet finished the quilt!

It's been great while Flâneur's been away. I've missing him like crazy, but my lovely friends have made sure it's not made me too crazy. ;o) Thanks guys!! More to come this week...

The last few days...

Well, I did pretty well this week - I was up and at the pool again on Tuesday morning, which is pretty impressive after going on Monday...  This could be the start of something!!  Getting up was a bit easier but the swimming was still tough.  I think I still ached a bit from Monday.  I should probably build up to doing it more often... On the plus side I'm clearly using my legs properly in the new pool as my thighs and gluteus maximus were really quite sore on Wednesday/Thursday.  In that, using muscles you don't usually, kind of way.  It was good, but hard on Tuesday and for most of the time quite satisfying as it was just me and this one other girl in the lane and we appeared to swim at roughly the same pace, passing each other in the middle of the lane and turning at roughly the same time.  Then she left and I was joined by this big Polish guy.  I saw him come in as I thought - gosh, he looks like he swims aaaallllll the time, all muscly and stretching himself out quite thoroughly.  All professional like.  And then he got in to my lane!  Not the fast one at the other end of the pool, mine.  And I was quite surprised as he wasn't that fast at all.  Faster than me, which isn't difficult in that pool, but not the super swimmer I took him to be.  Just goes to show you shouldn't judge people based on what they look like!!

So, the stats, the stats... Slightly slower overall on Tuesday, but not that much and I went which was the important thing:

40 lengths (1000m)

35.09.10 (only 26 seconds slower than Monday)

Average time for length: 52.73 (the reason for the above)

Fastest Length: 1 at 40.80 (quicker by 15 milliseconds!)

Slowest Length: 26 at 56.52 (also quicker)

It's funny, my fastest length is always number 1, which makes sense, but the slowest one changes every time!  No consistency what so ever...

Anyway, didn't go again this week as have Japanese classes on a Wednesday evening, which makes for a long day anyway, and I was off work on Thursday/Friday for a bit of leave.  This new regime isn't crazy enough to get me up to go for a swim early on days when I'm not then going to work...  Not yet, anyway...  ;o)

Had a very lovely lazy day on Thursday, sleeping in, picking up a car for the weekend and pottering about.  We dropped some old electrical bits that still work off with the Bethany charity shop on Leith Walk, and then headed to Portobello for a stroll along the prom.  It was a beautiful day and nice to be out and about enjoying the sunshine.  

Friday we headed up to St As for a look around and to stay in the Guest House that I want to use as a base for the wedding next year.  Decided that it was better to try it out before booking it.  Had only seen it on the web, and while it looks lovely, you never know until you try it out...  We were not disappointed at all.  Brooksby House is a lovely little house set away from any noisy streets, tucked away near my old hall of residence from my Uni days.  We were met by the proprietess Caryn, who greeted me by name.  It probably helped that they didn't have many other guests staying, but it was a nice touch.  We had picked Friday night to stay there as it marked a year to the day before the wedding, and it was nice that she also remembered that I had mentioned that when booking back in November.  We stayed in the Nicklaus room, their luxury room and it was just lovely.  Very clean, great sized bathroom (with long bath), super comfy king sized brass bed and a view over the garden.  We were very pleased.  

It was another beautiful day on Friday so after checking in we went for a wander round St As.  We popped in to the Chapel and found ourselves in there spookily at the exact time at which the wedding is booked for next year!  I found my heart racing with the anticipation and we've still got a whole year to go!!  We also took a nice long stroll with ice cream from Janettas (essential) and enjoyed the late afternoon sunshine.  It really was just lovely.  To the point where I was getting a bit fed up with people saying 'oh, I hope it's like this for you next year'.  Honestly.  It's not going to be.  It will rain.  Guaranteed!  But having been there on a 20th March will beautiful weather, it's difficult not to hope...  ;o)

We dined in Pizza Express that night, both of us feeling the pinch by all the saving for the wedding and honeymoon that meant a more pricey meal somewhere else was not really an option.  But we didn't care.  We like PE and the most important thing was spending a nice evening together.  It was a bit cold after dinner for a walk, so we headed back to Brooksby where I practically fell asleep as soon as getting in!  All these early morning are getting to me I think!

Had a good nights sleep in the comfy bed and woke early as usual.  Breakfast was between 8 and 9, so we headed downstairs around 8:30.  It was another beautiful sunny day and we chose to sit in at the window in the dining room, thus roasting ourselves in the sunlight!  This is Scotland in March, for goodness sake....  Breakfast was served up by Chris, the proprietor, who was just as nice and friendly as his wife.  They have a good range of items on their menu and both deciding that a full fry would just be a little too much, we both plumped for tattie scone and bacon.  With a fried egg added at the suggestion of Chris!  Hmmm... it was great.  The tattie scones (2) were great and the bacon (2 large rashers) cooked perfectly.  Not overdone with lovely crispy edges.  And a perfect fried egg too.  Yum!  

You can tell we liked the place, yes?!  Well on leaving I asked if it would be possible to book it in it's entirety for next year.   For the bridal party.  I could think of no better place away from home to have as my base when getting ready etc.  Chris said he'd confirm in an e-mail, but that he didn't think it would be a problem.  They do exclusive bookings quite often I think, and can cater to your requirements when doing so.  They have a golfing group coming in the week before we want it, but he was pretty sure they were staying only til the 18th.  Finger crossed, crossed, crossed!  It will just be too disappointing if he comes back and says it's not possible...  As they only had one other couple staying he was able to give us a tour of the rest of the guest house and show us the rest of the rooms (other than the one in use).  They are all finished to a really high standard and I can't see any of the party being disappointed with any of the rooms.  They look even better than they do on the web.

Seriously people, I thought this place was great!  Pricier than you would expect from a B&B, but I think it was worth it.

We pootled back to Edinburgh after a long walk along West Sands, enjoying the morning sun.  We decided to take the coastal route through Crail, Anstruther etc, to enjoy the best of the day.  We stopped in Anstruther to stretch the legs and have a chippy lunch.  You can't pass through without going to the Anstruther Fish Bar...  Hmm...  We're not very good with the grease of f&c anymore, but it was good.  One fish and a portion and a half of chips between us was quite enough!  So nice to be able to enjoy the sunshine while we have it.  Great to have a car too, even if the Ford Fusion is basically quite an ugly car.  ;o)  

Good to be home and we still have one whole day of the weekend left.  Phew.  Need to recover from all this galavanting!