Staying Alive – 85 – Wk 2

For people who are wondering about the title, it is the effect of watching the programme called “The Chase” sponsored the Gala Bingo. I love those bingo calls that is shown in those adverts. It is also very relevant to the current post.

Week 2 of my swimming lessons went well. Nothing too dramatic, sadly. One of the best investments I have ever made in my life is 20£ which I spent on a silicone based ear plugs and a very good pair of swimming goggles. Saved my life to be honest. I went in a little early for my lessons so that I can get a bit more familiar with the water and make sure it knows who I am. There were other lessons going on for kids, but I stayed on the other patch and tried to remember to float. Didn’t get very far, I should say, but at least I did not cry for help.

I got a noodle and tried to hold on to the edge of the pool and float on my back. It was good, I was getting comfy, but I couldn’t get myself to get back in the water and stand. I still have to practice it a bit more on my own to identify the small trick that will help me do that. Thanks to all the efforts of hitting myself on the pool edge to get back up, I have got a shiny bruise on my wrist. I am OK with it as long as I get somewhere with floating.

Since the sectioned part of the pool was open to everyone, three young kids decided to show off and annoy me a bit. This has happened in the past and I am sure it will happen again. But thanks to the super cool ear plug I didn’t hear what they said, even though one kid did come to me and said something in Welsh which I decided to ignore because I don’t think he said anything nice anyway. An instructor came around and asked them to behave because they were mucking about in the water dragging each other down. They were just being kids, may be a bit mean, but kids nonetheless.

When my lesson started I was still not able to float on my back and I was still not able to get my leg up to kick, but at least I tried very hard without panicking and was able to put my face inside the water and breathe out. I did drink and inhale a few pints of it in the process which has triggered my sinus to go berserk, but it is part of the process I guess. The funny part was when my instructor came around to remove my goggles. I was wondering why. Well, I had worn it the wrong way around. 😀 I didn’t even realise that. I didn’t place it correctly and I realised that when I went into the water. I have got a red eye to show for my mistake.

But hey, at the end of the day, I survived even though she made try the kick so much that I was exhausted and started looking at the clock and counting the minutes. I didn’t panic, I didn’t feel like bawling my eyes out, I was able to feel the water, see the water and came out alive with some bruises and red eye to show for my efforts. Not too bad, I should say. I ain’t gonna cross the English Channel any time soon, but at I am trying to keep up the effort to learn.

On and Off for a while

We recently moved home to a new place which feels a lot bigger than the tiny studio apartment, even though it is just a one bedroom flat. And we do not have an internet connection at this new place as of yet. We are managing with mobile data and a temporary WiFi connection which isn’t always great but at least it helps us with our day to day activities to the most extent. So I might be on and off for a while, even though I try to keep up with my regular posts through my mobile, which isn’t always my preferred mode of blogging.

One would assume that living in a studio flat, with very less space, you wouldn’t have much to own and so the move should be a breeze. But we found that to be incorrect 😉 Since we rent only furnished flats, we were able to complete the actual move from place A to place B which includes the moving of all the items from a second storey flat to the van + transport of 20 mins + moving the items from the van to the car park and then from the car park to the flat all in about 2 hours. Which is pretty incredible I should say and it felt like I have worked out enough for a week at least. Even though the actual move just took two hours, the preparation for the move took 2 days and the post-move installations took 2 days. So you can imagine the amount of stuff we had to move.

For almost a week it is all we have been doing and now almost after a week, we rest easy. The new place now looks and feel like a home with things in their places and places not crammed with boxes. It does feel like a luxury, with all those extra space and central heating and hot water at the turn of a tap 😉 We do have a very good view of the city from out here but unfortunately, there are some building works going on and so the scaffolding is up which means the view is blocked. It is enjoyable none the less. Some of my regular habits have taken a hit during these holidays and I have to work on getting back on track and that includes blogging 😉

Unexpected challenge

When I went into the gym today, little did I expect to take part in a Challenge that was going on. I knew about it, but decided to give it a miss because of the set of exercises that they had advertised. I am not good with full push ups. Knee push up – OK. And my arm strength isn’t good enough for pull ups. I am working on it. There was a total of 6 exercises and we were supposed to do them in serial fashion and see how long we took for all 6 of them. Now, why would I go and sign up for this when I have joined gym after a long break and still working on my arm strength?

My gym instructor thought otherwise. When I went in today, all mentally prepped for my dumbbells workout (today is the arms day, y’all), she comes in with a clipboard and a paper and says ‘Lets do this challenge’. I was like ‘why ?’. She was like ‘why not?’ And then she says ‘I have belief in you. You can do it’. I did a eye roll and one more for good measure and told her that not to expect me to excel in it. I know all about their BS of positive and motivational talks. Been there, heard that a lot with my other instructor, and have done that to others too. There is no kidding me with that line, girl. Since the push ups were an issue for me, she replaced it with burpees. Now, I had no choice as to give it a try.

25 knee pushups

10 burpees

25 box jumps

50 full sit ups

50 skipping or jump rope

500 m running in the treadmill at 9 kmph speed and no gradient

I completed them all in 8.55 mins. She was very happy about that, even though there were better results than that. I told her that I am going home now that my workout for the day was over 😉 Once I got that done, I felt good. That wasn’t bad compared to the standard I held myself. I could have done better, if I had done some more practice at home or the previous day. But that’s all right. I made sure I maintained my form too. Box jumps literally tired me down and I had to slow down a bit when I was doing those. I used to hate burpees. May be still do, but at least when it came to this challenge I got that done. All in all I felt good after being challenged so suddenly and especially when I wasn’t mentally prepared. After that she told me that this was just my warm up and I had to do the day’s workout. 🙄  I had to cut two of my exercises from my day’s workout to be able to complete it on time and be back for work. Anyone want to give it a try? If you do, let me know how it went for you.

When I reached home, may be it was the feeling that I did good, I was craving for something very sweet. Like a Pavlova which was available on a fresh food site to order. But every single time I tried (and I tried for close to 5 times from different browsers), the page would error out the moment I select the sweet. Divine Intervention, you think ? I had to settle for some dates to satisfy my sweet craving for the day.

This photograph was taken during one of our Zumba workouts in a Music bar. Photo credits to a friend of a friend who was using my camera to try his photographic skills.Will be doing Zumba this weekend after a very long time. Getting excited already.

Sometimes, you just have to reward yourself

After what felt like a whole day but in reality was just an hour and a half of window shopping for a particular kind of dress that I had in my mind, for a special occasion, I thought why not reward myself for putting in so many hours at the mall, all by myself and without actually getting any positive result for the purpose I was there. I am a go-to-a-shop-and-just-pick-a-dress-that-captures-your-eyes-and-better-priced-and-get-outta-there kind of woman. I don’t like choosing, trying, wondering if it would be OK or not etc etc… I would go mad. But this occasion demands it and moreover, I promised someone that I will try, really really try. So I had to keep my promise. Some promises are so not easy to keep. But I also needed a pick me up after that effort. My eyes were going hazy after all that time. So went into the Sapna Book house in one of the floors on the way back, picked up this book, billed it, and got out of there. Didn’t even loiter around for anything else. I am half way through another book now. So this would have to wait for the three day long weekend  that is coming up.

I still have my reservations about this book, because it is more of a play format than a book format. But then I wouldn’t have not read it. It might have taken me time to do it. But eventually I would have. Now once I read this, I am sure I won’t be bothered to go to that play, unless and otherwise someone is gifting me those tickets 😉 (AM: I hope you read this post)