Thursday 11 June 2009

bored with being sick so posting a stream of consciousness, hope you don't mind!


okay, this is getting tiring, and not just in the physical sense!

I've been ill for over a week now, as has my friend featured in the pic the other day. We've decided it's swine flu, but are yet to convince anyone else! Basically, I started noticing I had an awful sore throat on Tuesday... then woke up Wednesday realising I couldn't go to work and slept the whole day! I woke at 5.30pm and then went to bed around midnight and slept the whole night again (so obviously needed the sleep!). Since then, my sore throat has dissipated but I've just turned into a huge snot monster from planet phlegm!

my tickly cough is now a full blown chesty rattling one and my voice is several octaves lower, true story

all in all, I'm an attractive sight to behold!

hmm


okay so I will console myself by showing you a few pics of my party, telling you about my new toys and my great lower body workout yesterday in my paltry work gym... it's amazing the results you can get with the minimum of equipment... and trust me, my gym has the absolute minimum of equipment!!

Party Party Party!!

It was amazing!

Of course there were the usual flaky people who didn't show despite promising they would, and there were about 10 people I really wanted to come who were out of the country, but all things considered I actually had quite a few people turn up in the end (which was a relief as a) would have been a pretty shit party if no-one did and b) there was a minimum spend of £600 - which incidentally was decimated given the high prices at the bar, but hey ho!)

so, to start you off, here's me blowing out the candles on my cake, what a star my boyfriend is, not only did he go all out with the cheesy balloons (even bought an entire helium canister, which we had great fun with later... probably didn't help the sore throat thing, hmm) he got me the most awesome birthday cake I've ever seen - go Joe! If you look closely you'll see that it's a picture of me in a mask from Secret Garden Party 2008 on it :-)



and, here's a collection of a few of the best pics from the night, lots of people made the effort to bring a mask so was uber chuffed at that. Some were beautiful, some eerie, some just a bit odd! And everyone that didn't have one was able to wear some from the collection I brought.



as you can see, Joe didn't wear the mask I bought him which was a good decision in the end... I liked the camp pirate look ;-)



New Toys

I'm going to have to rein my spending in a little I think... need to start saving for a bigger house. Our place is a really nice size, but Joe won't let me convert the dining room into a gym/study/music or games room >:-( I'm thinking our breakfast room could probably serve a better use than being a 'stuff' room where bikes are put as are items that don't fit in the kitchen!

I'd *love* a big house, arranged over at least 3 floors with a big garden for my son and the cats, separate room for a study, gym etc, en suite bathroom, walk in wardrobe (I have a lot of clothes), wine cellar... ahhh

still, reality prevails, and if we want to continue living in our rather lovely area and not move into the more edgy parts of south london like our neighbours, Brixton and Camberwell, then I might have to rethink my plans a little.

in any case, we need more rooms! So I need to start doing something totally alien to me - save!

enough of that boring stuff though, here's my latest purchase/project:



isn't it awesome! this bread was ready this morning when I woke up, I added the flour, water, yeast etc, punched in a wholewheat setting, fed the linseeds and sesame and sunflower seeds, as well as mixed chopped nuts, into the top dispenser which automatically tips it into the mix when required, and left it to it!

the house smelled fantastic when I woke, apparently, I can't smell anything at the mo, grumble grumble :-(

I'm very pleased actually as I decided to be healthy (well, healthier) and substituted the sugar and butter from the bread recipe I had with honey and olive oil and it turned out okay! My son is loving the fresh bread in his sandwiches every day (yes, at 13, his mother still makes him a packed lunch every day!)

my other new purchase for the house is a Tefal Ultra Compact Steamer



Joe's not as enamoured with this as the bread-maker, understandably I guess... but then he hasn't tried anything steamed in it yet (he was busy cycling up mountains when me and my son had steamed cod and puy lentils last week - yum!)


And my last big purchase was what I've been aiming to get for a while... a pair of MBTs. I've always been keen to try a pair, despite the ridiculously large sole on them that make them look more like a correctional device than a pair of normal shoes! I tried on a pair of my friend's the other day and found them really comfy so I did some research into the latest models and found my ideal pair. They're a nice brown colour and have a gore-tex lining so are 100% waterproof... typically, they're the most expensive shoe they produce!

I have bought the Chapa GTX in Coffee. They look quite similar to the off-road Nike ACGs I wear every day, though without so much of a rugged sole.

I can't wait to try them out! I'm walking into work tomorrow as I'm leaving my bike overnight so will test them out :-)

Training

well, cardio wise it's a big fat zero, unless you count biking to work and back which has really only been out of necessity especially given the bloody tube strike, russen fussen russen >:-(

I did manage to get down to do some lower body work yesterday lunch time and was quite pleased at my efforts... although it's hard to sit down or stand up today - which is good in a sick way as if I don't ache after weights I feel inadequate!

I did 5 exercises in total, in sequence:


1)
Exercise: Dumbbell Step-up
Weight: 2 x 12.5 kg
Reps: 10
Sets: 3

2)
Exercise: Dumbbell Forward Lunge
Weight: 2 x 12.5 kg
Reps: 10
Sets: 3

3)
Exercise: Dumbbell Squat
Weight: 2 x 12.5 kg
Reps: 10
Sets: 3

4)
Exercise: Dumbbell Straight Leg Deadlift
Weight: 2 x 12.5 kg
Reps: 10
Sets: 3

5)
Exercise: Dumbbell Split Squat
Weight: 2 x 12.5 kg
Reps: 10
Sets: 3


by the end of all the sets my heart was pounding away! felt good though. I do the step-ups on a reebok bench which I place on one of our treadmills... the one that's been broken for months (told you my work gym was poo!)

my butt is looking so much better, as are my arms - much better than in my birthday party pics! they're back to looking slim again which is fab and the definition in my triceps is starting to show through, just need to strip through more fat and it'll all be more obvious!

I had a bloke say to me "hello beautiful" while I was card shopping earlier... I didn't hear him as I was plugged into my iPod as per... so he made a point of stopping me and repeating it so I heard, very funny, especially given that I have zero makeup on and a big red nose from all the blowing! maybe he was just referring to my arse ;-)

better get on now, I hope you're all well, looking forward to a good upper body session either tomorrow or Saturday. I had a great one last Sunday, 2 hours of upper body weights! I'm upping my machine weights (lat pulldown, low row, vertical traction etc) to 40kg on the weekend... will keep my free weights at 8kg dumbbells for the seated shoulder press, biceps curl, upright rows etc though

more about that another time though, don't get me started!!

Bye for now :-)

6 comments:

  1. What a fab blog entry! Sorry to hear you are feeling pants, hope you get better soon.

    My son adored my fresh bread too, yet he won't eat shop bought brown seeded bread - amazing!

    I absolutely love the idea of putting the reebok step onto a treadmill - why the hecky peck did I not think of that? That way, I don't need to hog a weight bench to do them - thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hope you get better soon - I wish I could write so amusingly when I feel ill, lol!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love your masks - where did you get them? I have a party to go to soon and they are fab!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks guys! :-)

    I woke up with a clearer head this morning, still got annoying chesty cough (scared everyone on the train this morning, should have started making piggy noises too, that would have gotten me a seat!!)

    I tried the bread last night... OMG it's the best ever! It was this one: Allinson Country Grain Brown Bread Flour

    recipe

    for the mix

    1 1/4 tsp yeast
    550g that flour above ^^^^
    360mls warm water
    2 tblsp olive oil
    2 1/2 tblsp honey

    (mix the oil with the honey in the warm water, stir well, add the flour and yeast to the bread pan and then pour on the water, honey and oil mix)

    for the seed dispenser

    2 tblsp sunflower seeds
    2 tblsp sesame seeds
    2 tblsp linseeds
    2 tblsp mixed chopped nuts


    I think that's it, off the top of my head! I would have used poppy seeds but couldn't find any... pumpkin seeds go really well - the 'you are what you eat' range have little snack packs of mixed seeds, you can add a whole one of those instead, tastes yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  5. ooh, well the masks I got from a place called Pantaloons which is near where I work. However there's a great online site called Masquerade Magic which does both authentic and budget (which are really nice!) venetian masks... as well as lots of other styles.

    here are some more links from the party invite I sent people:

    http://www.partypacks.co.uk/masks-cid13656.html

    http://www.fancydress.com/costumes/All-Masks/2~85~8

    http://www.partydelights.co.uk/themes/masks.asp

    http://www.partybox.co.uk/catalogue.asp?pageid=159 (men's masks)

    http://www.partybox.co.uk/catalogue.asp?pageid=158 (women's masks)

    http://clothes.shop.ebay.co.uk/items/Masks__W0QQ_sacatZ116724?_npmv=3

    that should keep you busy a little while, happy hunting! :-)

    ReplyDelete