30/10/15

Lets see how long I can come back for this time!

So, whats been happening in your world?  Mine has been busy with work and home and vikings and everything else kinda got lost.

I don't really know why, I still read blogs, so why do I not write anymore?  Maybe its cos I don't feel I am any good at this, maybe because I feel I have nothing to say, maybe because I have just been too busy living and had less time to write.

Either way, I am back now, for today anyway.

Nice to see you all.

:)

Gym, what to do when it all gets just too boring

Well, the gym is going, but to be honest I am doing the bare minimum that i feel I can get away with.  We have a minimum target every month to hit in the gym, the first few months I was trashing that target, now, meh, if I hit it I am happy.

The calm before the storm

I need something else to shake me up.

So, I thought about what I want from the gym.

Do I want to be super skinny?  NO

Change direction then

Do I want to be fit? YES
Is there a reason I want to be fit? YES
Whats the reason? The Shannon boat journey next year

Next year the Vikings are hoping to row down the river Shannon, I want to be part of that.  It will mean daily rowing for at least a week, possibly ten days.

I want to be fit for that.

So I thought, how can I do that?

The obvious answer was starting to row more, but with tides etc rowing isnt always practical.

So the rowing machine it is.

I started only being able to do 500metres before I got sore, I have worked my way up to 1000 X2, (I have a break of two mins in between)

I want to keep working on this so that I can manage to row for at least an hour without getting sore and tired, so far its about ten mins, so I have a way to go.

However I have found that I work better if I am training for something.  Now I know in my head why I am going to the gym, I feel better about it.

I am focused on an end result, not simply cycling away for nothing.

How do you train?  Do you train for a purpose?  Or are you a lucky one who actually enjoys the gym?

Well well well

Its been a super long time from I have been here, whats been happening?

Well I have been busy with Viking stuff, you know me, I love my Vikings!

Holidays?  Yes me and R were away to Majorca and it was luvly.  Pics to follow, and a wee post about that!

Gym?  Well yes, I am still going, but really hit a standstill, so have shook myself up a little and am trying something new post to follow about that too (if you are interested)

Coming up....Vikings next weekend, Sunflowerfest at the end of the month, more Vikings next month (a week long summer scheme), more holidays to Majorca next month, followed by more gym work, before yet another holiday in October.

I know I seem to go away a lot and I will explain that simply, I go cheap!!

Music video

https://youtu.be/kAiR8_liamg

Watch this for a laugh.  :-)

Weekend shenanigans

Ever have one of those weekends when you wake up on Monday morning questioning whether or not any of it actually happened? 

Saturday started quietly enough, a lie in, some netflix then a trip to gym to jump in the jacuzzi.  I went for lunch, and then got ready for a night in a castle.

Yes, a castle!!

With land around it, and deer roaming free.

And sheep.

And more deer.

I was picked up, outfit in bag, by two goddesses fully dressed in glitter, sequins, corsets and fancy tights!

We made our way to the castle to find a gaggle of girls already there and ready to party.

We got dressed in our finest and proceeded to the dining room (table sat 20 +) and then had a few nibbles and some champagne.

Then it was time for a burlesque lesson. 

We learned how to shimmy and shake, how to bump and grind.  We learned how to make an entrance into the room, and how to look suitably coy if people are watching us!

We learned the ancient art of nipple tassle twisting.

We learned striptease.

We laughed a lot.

We sang.

We lost all our inhibitions.

We put on a performance for each other with our new found skills.

We praised the other girls in the group for their performances.

We celebrated our inner goddess and our femininity and we revelled in who we are as women.

And we agreed to go to London and be in an amatuer show in Soho.

Then we drank more, feasted on venison from the estate and more excellent food.

Then we sat around singing, dancing, chatting and growing as women.

The party quieted down around 3 or 4 am, but the hardcore stayed up til even later.

I got home around 6pm, thoroughly exhausted and amazed at what I had learnt about myself. 

If you ever, ever get the chance to learn burlesque DO IT!!

I'm feeling sentimental today

Ever have one of those days when you start thinking about the past, and wondering if you made the right choices?

I'm a firm believer in the choices (good and bad) that you make in your life turn you into the person you are today.  That without those bad choices and decisions the person reading this blog (and the person writing it) wouldn't be the person they are.

So what if when I was 16 I had a kid?

So what if I trained as a teacher, but now work as a secretary?

So what if I invited a girl to stay with me for a month when I had never ever met her IRL?

We need to make choices then cope with those choices.

We can't make the decisions then go crying back to mummy saying that wasn't what I wanted. 

All decisions have consequences, some of them good, some of them bad.  But there are always consequences to our actions.  As adults we have to deal with those consequences.  So we should learn to deal with them early on.

Parents stop making things so easy for your kids...its ok if they mess up and get a bit embarrassed.  Its ok if they fail a test.  Thats how we learn.  Let then say sorry.  Let them go back to the shop and bring back that chocolate bar that "fell into their pocket".  I feel if we learned earlier on in life that its ok if everything doesn't go our way we will be much better adults.

I look back over my life cursing some of the decisions I made.  But I know that without them, I wouldn't be me. 

Holiday blues

Well yesterday I was down in the dumps.  Everyone and their dog seemed to have a holiday booked and I was all "nope, no holidays for me" and being VERY Debbie Downer.  Today I grabbed that holiday bull by the horns and just booked a holiday.

EEEEKKKK nine weeks tomoro I go off on my hols with R.  A week in the sun (hopefully) with all inclusive food (and drink). 

So now its the exciting time.

I need to sort out a holiday wardrobe.

I need to plan a few things I want to see and do when I am away.

I want to day dream about the sun, and the water and the lazy days by the pool.

I want to think about what type of food I might eat.

I need to calm the heck down!

I am bouncing now because I have booked my holiday.

So, have you been to Majorca?

What do you reccomend I see and do?

I was there in October last year, but we got as far as the beach (it was a girls holiday). 

This year its just me and R, so we will do a bit more exploring.  EEKKK

We saw Caves of Drach last year.  Which scared me!

And we went to a pearl factory

So, what do I see this year?

St Patricks Landing

This is what I did on St Patricks Day.  What did you do?

https://youtu.be/-ca_g7sn_BE

York Viking Festival

So I go to York next week to a big viking festival.  I have been getting my kit together as I want to be warm, and well, we aren't wearing ordinary clothes!

I have a fine linen dress, a heavier linen dress, and last night I made myself a wollen tunic. 

I was going to make a wollen overdress, but I decided to try and kill two birds with one stone and make a tunic I could theoretically use when in the battle arena.  (I haven't done this yet, but I hope to one day, so it won't hurt to be prepared!)

So in York I am going to try and buy some new kit.  I have been told that anything and everything viking kit can be bought there.  So I have to decide what I will buy.

Should I buy a sword or an axe?

Do I want a leather quiver?

Do I want new boots?

Would I like a viking vanity set of earcleaners and tweezers?

If you have been, please feel free to point me in the right direction. 

I need to find a way to save money

How does a person save money?  It seems all I do is spend it.  Between Christmas and going out for NYE etc I am skint, and I don't get paid for another fortnight!

I'm trying to spend as little as possible, I have avoided the sales, but I'm still watching my bank account details going down and down.

I can only keep going, trying every month to save a little bit more, and hopefully next year I won't feel so behind in my savings.

I want to be able to have 3 or 4 months worth of money saved for "just in case".

I already have a holiday fund started.

So its another account I need to set up for emergency.

Every little counts, and if I can even put in £50 a month minimum standing order, with any additional money left at end of month put into the acct I think it will soon build up. 

How do you save?

Do you have any emergency fund?

OUCH

I have been hitting it hard at the gym.  I have been four days out of the last five.  I am sore.

My legs hurt in places I didn't even know there were muscles.

My shoulders hurt.

My tummy hurts.

And I am complaining a lot.

HOWEVER I will be there again tomoro.

And on Saturday I am doing 2 hours in a charity spinathon to raise money for Women's Aid.

My resolution is to work harder (and smarter) at the gym this year.

That and I want to get a 50,000 MEPs T shirt.

Are any of you using Myzone?  Do you have a belt?

I love mine.  It records my heart rate, tells me which zone I am in and gives me points as to how hard i worked out.  It rewards effort and not fitness.  Each person's belt is fitted to them, and to their fitness level.

I have 20,000 or so MEPs so far (I started in May 2014) and I want to have 50,000 by the end of the summer.  I WANT MY T SHIRT.

Its one of those "I earned it" T shirts, like an Insanity T shirt.  I can't buy one, I only get it if I earn it.

Well I will!

I hope.

What are you doing?

Serendipity

I just had a luvly conversation with a gentleman in work, an ordinary conversation about his next appointment, and the conversation got round to other topics (as it sometimes does) and we started discussing reading and special needs children.

It seems he does some volunteer work in America with a young lad with special needs, and I have done some reading with children in the past too.

I was able to put him in touch with the organisation I went through before and hopefully they will be able to give him some more help and advice.

Ended the conversation with a big smile on my face.

Count your blessings, make the most of every opportunity and remember to smile

People can hear the smile in your voice when you talk to them on the phone.

You never know where a conversation can end up.

Happy New Year

I hope your friends are as good as mine. 

Look back

I know everyone says that we shouldn't look back because the past is the past for a reason, but sometimes it is good to look back.

I think as women we focus so hard on where we want to go, and what we want to acheive that we sometimes forget to look back at what we have already done.

We think, I haven't lost that stone I wanted to loose, I still haven't got a boyfriend, my job sucks, my house could be nicer, I want better hair, etc etc etc

We forget to see that every single step we take along that road gets us further than we were before.

Yes I didn't lose all the weight I wanted to this year, in fact I only lost about 1/2 stone, but I did get fitter.  I can lift more weight than I could at the start of the year and I can now do push ups and am getting much better at pull ups (assisted ones still at the minute, but I'm getting there!).

I have made some lovely new friends this year, and strengthened some relationships.I didn't fall out with anyone.  So thats GREAT!

I learned new skills.  I joined the Magnus Vikings, so I learnt how to row a viking longship, I am learning how to fight with a sword and sheild, I learnt some battle training, I learnt some self defense/fighting skills, I learnt how to make a sheild wall.




The Magnus Vikings out on Strangford Lough

 

I passed my archery leaders course, and can now teach archery.

Archery!  Look at me go!!

I travelled a lot this past year too.  I went to America, to Portugal, to Majorca, to Scotland.

DunCarron Village in Scotland





Portugal

   



Chicago

 





  

The Caves of Draque, Majorca



Portugal




Majorca



I celebrated my second wedding anniversary.

Cheers

I watched my daughter grow up and secure herself a permanent job, and thrive at that job.

I completed my first 5k race, then learned that I shouldn't run as I have problems with my knees.

I completed the Color Run.

I went to Sunflowerfest (the best festival in Ireland).



Facepainting at Sunflowerfest

 

Lets play dress up

I spent a weekend a few weeks ago in Scotland, playing dress up with a whole bunch of other people who like to dress up, play with swords and shields and shoot with bows and arrows.

And it was fun!!

Yes, there is an element of being embarrassed when the general public (the ones not in full kit) see you, but that gets old pretty quick.

The kids have so many questions, and its a blast to encourage them to think about the past, and why the world is the way it is now.

It was a Viking weekend and after passing my Archery leaders course last week I was finally teaching 'officially'.  I have been taking "have a go" archery for a few months now, but its only this past week that I have qualified!

There was camping for those who wanted it (but not for me, I stayed in a friends house) and plenty of socialising.

What do you do for fun?

#DiabetesDay

Check this out.

It could save a life

http://www.womenwithdiabetes.net/

How do we chose our profile pictures

Checking through Social Media (Facebook) I see lots and lots of profile pics.  I have a mixed age range of friends from teenagers right through and it amazes me the pics that we chose to put forward for the world to see.

From the teenage girl with her "selfie" looking pouty and possible showing cleavage, to the twenty something with their "look at me I'm in a couple" pose, to the family person with pics of their kids, to the "I love my pet" person.  This is the image we chose to show the world, the first one they see when they see our name, and how much effort goes into picking it?

At the minute I have a cartoon up on my profile.  Usually I have a pic of myself, or a random collage of a few pics I really love.

What am I saying with this?

At the minute I am declaring my love of Christmas, and possibly trying to annoy those baa humbug people out there! That is why I picked my profile image.

When I put up a collage its because these things have happened recently and I want to share them with everyone.

Or a pic of my wedding day when my anniversary comes round.

In all of this though, I try to pick images when I look good, and anyone else in the pic looks good too.

But I wonder sometimes does anyone else care about that.  Look down the side of your facebook wall.  Look at all those pics, that the individual has personally chosen to have as their profile image, are they looking good?  Would you have chosen that image if you were them?

Just a thought.

4th September

Food:

Breakfast:
Wholemeal bagel with jam
Lunch:
Cheese salad, two slices wheaten bread, chutney
Dinner:
Chilli, two slices wheaten bread

Exercise:
Half hour walk
Half hour weights
45 minute spin class

Yesterday

Food:
Sausage bap, can of sugar free energy drink
Tomato soup, 2 slices of wheaten bread
4 chicken goujons, 2 handfuls of chips, 2 slices of wholemeal bread, glass of wine

Exercise:
Half hour walk
Walked stairs instead of taking lift every time in work

There is no time like now, no better day than today

Thats it!

I have been FAR TOO LAX this summer.  I looked back at pics from last year and I haven't changed a bit.

NO MORE.

I want to be fitter, be stronger, be healthier.

So I am commiting to exercising every day at least a half hour.  Whether that is a class at the gym, a workout with weights or a run/walk I will be doing something every day.

I am committing to eating better.  My diet has been terrible since the start of the summer and I can feel my clothes starting to get tight again.

I do not want that.

So from today I will be posting everything I eat and the exercise I do for the next four weeks.

It will be the kick up the ass I need to get me back on track.

Feel free to shout at me to encourage me, and to kick me when I slip.