In a spin

You know how the other day I was all fitness-mode, ‘I’m looking for a challenge’…? Well, guess what! I started spinning. Yeah! Me!

The idea of spinning has always slightly terrified me. I was always hugely impressed by anyone who did it, thinking, ‘they must be super fit…’. One of my mates went quite a lot when we were doing our Masters’, but I met any invitation to join her with a trembly head-shake and apprehensive ‘Me?! Nooooo…’, convinced I’d be the one puce-faced in the corner, fighting to keep myself on the bike after the warm up.

But since the 10K I’ve been quite into the whole fitness thing – I genuinely impressed myself with how much I could actually do. So, the other day, I thought I’d give it a try!

I started typing “feeling brave”, then, but that wasn’t even it – I was honestly really quite up for it! And you know what? It was actually really, really fun. And while it was hard, it was hard in the really good workout way – my lungs felt about 3 times the size by the end of it! I’ve been twice since 🙂 .

For the uninitiated, it is pretty random. It’s just cycling, mixing between low-resistance sprints and higher-resistance climbs. With the lights off. To pounding music! I’ve definitely never felt more like a hamster, albeit a hamster trapped in a disco. I had heard horror-stories of mental instructors (not unlike the woman I once dubbed the Aerobics Nazi – bloody hell), who just scream at you as you try not to throw up (nice)… but the guy was really nice! It’s very much go at your own pace. You control how hard or easy it is, and you can definitely fake-move the lever when he shouts “Turn it UPPPPP!”… though I promise I won’t cheat quite so much next time. Maybe. And I want a bike even more now – first Holland, now this! 2013 is turning out to be quite cycle-centric.

Genuinely loved it. I’m One Of Those People now! And I actually kind of love that too…

Stroopwaffel weekender

I finally made it out to The Hague last weekend to see the boyf – regardless of the fact that he moves home on, err, Thursday! Plans are afoot for a bit of a welcome home party – but first, a little weekend round up.

Just having the day off work was exciting enough in itself. I got up late (my plane wasn’t til half 4), pottered around cleaning, and discovered Bulging Brides, simultaneously the best and worst TV programme ever invented… ! I kind of love journey-days; having an excuse to buy a fancy prepacked M&S lunch and the new Cosmo, and planning the contents of your handbag around things you will actually need, rather than just the junk that’s always rattling around in there. Train tickets, plane tickets, duty free lounges; all weirdly exciting.

Tell you what’s not exciting – flying to Amsterdam, on Easyjet, on a Friday. Probably shouldn’t have been surprised about all the stag dos… Was sat in Starbucks at Bristol Airport and suddenly there was all this yelling from the bar upstairs – genuinely thought there was some kind of trouble going on (yelling + 21st century airport paranoia = definitely something bad happening) until there was a smash, a pause, and a “whaaaaaay!”. Lads lads lads. To be fair, they weren’t too bad on the plane – there’s a lot that having a comedy West Country accent can make up for.

The Hague’s pretty different to how I thought it would be – bloody cold though!! I kind of thought it would be quite small, and had just sprung up around the courts. Yeah, it’s huge. It’s like Manchester, but with people who speak better English… (jooooking, Northern readers…). Seriously – I kind of like the fact that often, abroad, people assume I’m Italian or Spanish or something. But nope, they had me at 20 paces. It’s kind of embarassing how incompetent I was at their language, compared to them!… Must try harder.

We just spent the weekend chilling out, cycling around – I really want a bike now!! – just seeing where he’s been all this time. The bike I had borrowed was a real clanky old thing, one of those sit-up-and-beg things that made me feel like I was in Call the Midwife. We went up to the ICTY (hung out with Big Nelson on the way), stopped off for some stroopwaffels (deeelicious), got lunch in the cafe he’s been hijacking for wifi, people watched… Argued about how many musketeers there were… (Wikipedia has since revealed that there were in fact four, though I maintain Albert the Fifth Musketeer should be up there).

Then of course, the rugby. The rugby! So glad we watched it, and the pub we were in was a really good laugh. We went for Indonesian food afterwards – spicy but amazeballs. A lush bottle of wine and pandan (pandan!) ice cream. We didn’t do much on the Sunday as I had to leave for the airport at 2, but we did a bit of sight seeing at the Peace Palace, which was genuinely quite interesting! Then got caught up in some unexpected St Patrick’s Day celebrations in the main square. I know, I know – how did we not manage to be in any of the countries that were culturally relevant this weekend!? More stroopwaffels (seriously – so good), then time to go 😦

Had a good old wander round Schipol airport – that place has a spa and a museum in it somewhere! Mental. It’s huge. I only made it to the H&M though 😉

Can’t believe how quickly 10 weeks have gone. In a way I’m glad I’ve had a bit of time living by myself… It’s not something I’d really have had the opportunity to do otherwise, but looking back it has been an opportunity. I’ve done quite a lot in 10 weeks! I’ve coped with plumbers and power cuts, trained for a 10K, made scones. Read books and written bits and bobs. Landed my first major client at work – and my second. Replaced my hot chocolate habit with an even bigger tea habit.  Watched a WHOLE series on TV – first time ever. Trained myself not to eat cereal for dinner all the time (but still sometimes). Seen my friends and my family – but also enjoyed being by myself.

Do you know what I think sums it up? I bought red lipstick. Confidence. I’ve been OK. And I think when he’s back, I’ll be better at being a little bit more independent – doing things for me, or with my mates, rather than only ever doing things together. I think that’s important.

Not to say I’m not excited, of course… 3 more sleeps and he’s back 🙂