Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]

Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Lenten promises

I'm currently abstaining from alcohol.

I shall now give those who know me a moment to let that statement sink in.

It's notionally me giving it up for Lent (not that I've ever given anything up in the past), but in truth I'm using Lent as an excuse, well perhaps a prompt would be more accurate, to try to lose a bit of weight and get fitter.  I'm not so stupid as to think I'll get all the way through the six weeks to Easter without having a drink, particularly since I have a few pre booked events/parties along the way, one of which is today when RSCM Scottish Voices will be singing Choral Evensong at St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, and then we're going to the Lansdowne Bar for a drink or three.  If I get to Easter having had a 90-95% alcohol free Lent, then that's a good result in my book.

On another topic, we are getting new lockers at work soon and yesterday was the deadline to clear all the old crap from the current ones.  Aside from my old SLR camera, in the bag for which were orders of service for weddings at which the camera was used, the most recent of which was 1994, the most interesting things I found lurking on the shelf were a magazine pull-out and a train ticket.  Sounds boring, eh?  Yes, probably.

The magazine pull-out was from Mens Health, which a while ago I sometimes read, called "The Complete Total Body Workboook - All the information you need to build an outstanding body" and it's basically a book of exercises, mostly using free weights or the machines you find in gyms.

The train ticket was from Partick in Glasgow to a station near my work.  All very boring of course, but the point is that the ticket was lying on top of the magazine, and the ticket's dated 24th November 2000.

So here I am, almost 10 years on, and although I still haven't managed to build myself an outstanding body perhaps this is the year I'll properly get on the road towards it, starting with giving up alcohol for (most of) Lent.  We can only wait and see.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Review of 2009

Well the choir of King's College, Cambridge are on the radio performing Nine Lessons and Carols right now as I sit here starting to type this, so it must be time for my third annual review.  How was Lay Clerk's 2009?

A bit mixed, to be honest, but then again such is life.  Much of what occupied my mind throughout the whole year concerns another person and according to the unwritten rules of Blogging which are solely in my head, I choose to keep that topic to myself.

Another unwritten rule is that I won't Blog about work, so apart from saying that I'm still enjoying it and we continue to be as busy as ever, I'll leave it there.

On the subject of work, a close friend was unfortunately made redundant at the start of the year, a victim of the worldwide economic situation, and for a few months went through a difficult time during which I hope I was there to offer what little support or help I could, and thankfully a new, better job was secured after a while.  Onwards and upwards.

I still sing with Glasgow Chamber Choir, mostly enjoying it but sometimes having to fight against my inner dislike of certain types of choral music.  On the whole it continues to be good fun, good musically, and a good bunch of people.

In 2009 my presence in the choirstalls at the Cathedral occurred more frequently and more regularly, and more or less every week I sing Choral Evensong on the Sunday, which I am thoroughly enjoying.

In about May the administrator of RSCM Scottish Voices, which was started the previous summer, resigned, and I was subsequently asked to take over that role.  It's been an interesting 6 months, most but not quite all of it interesting in a nice way.  I've registered a Domain name for the choir, but haven't yet got round to uploading the website which is sitting on my laptop.  In truth, this is mostly because I've forgotten how to go about having multiple websites hosted together but kept separate, since it's been such a long time since I did anything with any of my sites.  At some point I'll get the finger out and do it.  And if anyone familiar with creating and uploading websites to 1&1 using Microsoft Frontpage is reading this and wants to remind me how easy it is, I'd be obliged!  In the meantime I've also started a Blog for the choir, which is linked from the sidebar on the left.  If any RSCM Scottish Voices members are reading this for some reason, and they fancy having a go at sometimes adding choir-related content to our Blog, email me.

In May I sang with The Biggar Singers in an enjoyable performance of Morten Lauridsen's piece, Lux Aeterna, which involved about a hundred mile round trip every week to rehearse.  The choir's conducted and accompanied respectively by two members of Glasgow Chamber Choir who live down that way, and my few weeks of excessive travel pale into insignificance when set against them doing it every week coming to Glasgow.  And indeed two other GCC members travel from Dumfriesshire every week to rehearse!

A personal high point of the year was when I was asked to sing the tenor solo in a performance of Stainer's Crucifixion on Good Friday in Paisley.  My initial reaction upon being asked was "no thanks, I'm a chorister, not a soloist" but when I thought about it, knowing that I can actually sing the notes if not necessarily perform them as a "proper" soloist would, I thought why the hell not.  And so I did.  And it went well.  First time I've ever had my name on a poster! I have no ambitions to be a soloist, and while I'd possibly say yes if asked again, equally I am not at all bothered.

I paid another visit to Paisley later in April, but this time to the Paisley Beer Festival, which was most enjoyable and having been there two years ago is likely to become an annual pilgrimage, albeit I missed last year as I was in Calfornia.  I only went on one evening, but a fellow Cathedral chorister, Neil, took holiday from work and went every day.  Now that's dedication!

In July four of us from Glasgow Chamber Choir, having coincidentally and enjoyably sung solo parts together during a recent concert, decided to get together and sing together some more.  We've met twice so far, it's as much a social event as a musical one, and despite some (hopefully tongue in cheek) remarks from another couple of friends about "the elite group" it's just a bunch of friends singing, drinking and eating together.  We've performed together under the name The New Quartet in public once, a few days ago in a branch of a bank for charity, but who knows whether we'll do it again or whether it'll stay purely as a social event. 

After a break of 29 years, I met up with former schoolfriends at a wee reunion in Motherwell in April.  It was as though we'd only had a break of 6 months and we all got on great again.  An unexpectedly tremendous evening.  Another one, on a bigger scale, is planned for next year when it'll be 30 years since we left school.  And I foolishly offered to co-ordinate it.  It shouldn't involve much more than a few emails though, so should be OK.

On the subject of school, there is a sobering time in one's life when one's schoolfriends start dying.  In August Kenny Stewart was the first of us to go. Admittedly the lovely, intelligent, caring person Catherine Fellowes died in a tragic diving accident soon after we left school, leaving her massive potential unfulfilled, but Kenny is the first to die without having an accident.  He was one of my closest friends at school, and despite us having some differences in later years, you can't take away the fact that we grew up together.


In July RE and I made a weekend trip to the north east of Scotland to see friends, Stephanie and Martin, and to have a wee tour about.  It's an area of the country I happen to really like, and it was good not only to show RE round it, but to catch up with old friends at their barbecue. I've known Stephanie since the mid 1980's when she was a student at Glasgow University and joined the Cathedral Choir, so she's probably one of my oldest friends and although we don't see each other terribly often, it's good to catch up when we can.


In August my brother, his wife and daughter moved back to Scotland. They've been living abroad for about a dozen years, first in Dubai and then in San Diego, California.  For some reason they decided to come back to the Scottish climate, and it's great to have them here.  My niece, Jess, has joined the Cathedral Choir trebles, and seems to enjoy it I'm glad to say.  I was immensely proud to be asked to present her with her surplice at Evensong when she passed from being a probationer to being a chorister.  They hosted a Halloween party in October (on the 30th, funnily enough!) and the fact that they live in a castle (yes, really) made it all the more spooky!  Great fun.

August also saw a return visit to the World Pipe Band Championship at Glasgow Green, with RE, her cousin and his German girlfriend who were visiting Scotland.  It rained.  But it was a very enjoyable day despite the weather.

In September RE hosted one of her sisters, visiting from New Zealand, and I joined them for a trip to Linlithgow, their ancestral town.  It was the first time I've been there, and I can now recommend the Four Mary's pub in the main street.

In a much previous life I was a roadie and mixed the sound for a local band.  All very enjoyable, but in an amateur way.  A friend, Ian, does it for a living though, well, the sound engineer bit anyway, and ages ago I mentioned to him that if he was ever needing some semi-skilled labour (i.e. really unskilled!) then I'd happily come and lift and carry stuff around for him.  In September he called my bluff, and I found myself for two days being a roadie working on the sound crew at the Merchant City Festival in Glasgow.  With three outdoor stages and an indoor venue to be covered, it was hard work, a bit physical sometimes, and a lot to take in, but it was great.  I even ended up twiddling the knobs for one act, while Ian was called away to deal with a change of venue for another group.  All very basic stuff of course, but I'm glad to say Ian trusted me enough to leave me on my own, and I'm even gladder to say I managed to avoid fucking it up!  I'm looking forward to the next time, although I don't expect a change of career is due anytime soon!

The Institute of Advanced Motorists has taken more of a back seat this year, pardon the pun, although I did complete the necessary number of observed runs to continue as a Qualified Motorcycle Observer.  It remains to be seen however whether I'll continue next year.

I've started to get the flat a bit more sorted.  With the benefit of hindsight I realise that when I moved in I wasn't really in the right emotional frame of mind to do the decorating necessary, and as time went on I stopped seeing the faults.  I have now got as far as getting a quote from a decorator, and getting the hallway replastered.  Soon after Christmas I'll contact the decorator again and get him to come and do the business in the living room and hallway.


My general level of fitness continues to improve as I take advantage of the gym a few hundred yards from my house.  I even made it onto a running track with RE a couple of times, but that was very hard going at that time!  In the past few weeks I've slipped a bit, but my main New Year's resolution is to redouble my efforts.  And I WILL do it.

On a fitness topic, in 2009 I did something I never thought I'd do. I climbed a hill.  Not only a hill, but it was in fact a Munro. I've never ever ever been interested in hillwalking, and have been vocal about that opinion all through my life.  But RE persuaded me to try it.  Well I say persuaded me, but not proactively.  I just mean that her influence, unbeknownst to her, made me want to do it.  So she kindly agreed to "babysit me" up a hill.  I'd be lying if I said there weren't bits I didn't enjoy.  I slipped and fell up to my knees in a very cold stream; I slithered and slid my way down what was allegedly a "path"; I fell and staved my finger, but I bloody enjoyed it!  And I know that thousands of people do it every weekend and think nothing of it.  But this was me doing it.  Me who about a year ago looked as though he was about to expire after a very short climb up a set of steps to a scenic viewpoint in the Scottish Borders.  Me who a year ago hadn't taken any form of exercise for God knows how long, apart from when I tried badminton and spectacularly ruptured my achilles tendon.  Me who is a city boy who has always said he didn't mind walking as long as it was on a pavement.  This was me who walked up that Munro.  And it is still me who is immensely proud of having done it, and proud of his friend RE for having the patience, skill and perseverance to help me all the way.  Others may do it more often and with less effort, but we all have different abilities and different goals, and this particular achievement ranks highly for me.

So that's a potted history of Lay Clerk's 2009.  A mixed year, but generally a good one and ending better than it started.  Much of the above was Blogged about in depth at the time so if you've read this post in isolation it must seem pretty sparse of detail, and of course I've missed things out.  Not just deliberately missed things to protect other people's privacy, but simply because things will have slipped my mind.  Something which will hopefully never slip my mind though is to mention the love, friendship, and support of my closest friends, some of whom have been such for the thick end of 25 years, some for only a couple of years, but I value them all and thank them for their continuing friendship and support.  I won't name them, but you know who you are.  Thank you one and all.

Happy Christmas folks!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The new me

Not only did I go for a very brisk half hour walk at lunchtime (in the blazing sunshine), but I left work early (flexitime) and went to the gym for the first time in about five weeks. Forty five minutes of sweaty exercise. I don't dislike the gym, I have just found it incredibly difficult to get motivated and get back into the habit after A LOT of years of not doing it.

I had a long sometimes difficult conversation with a close friend last night. That friend put things into startling, stark perspective for me, and that has given me the boost, no, the hard kick up the arse I needed to get a grip of myself and my life and make things happen.

So now I have a specific goal, which will remain private, sorry, but part of which, a bloody big part, involves me changing my physical condition, and my physical shape. And my psychological outlook on life.

This is the new me. I NEED to do this. I NEED to lose weight. I NEED to get fit. I NEED to cut down on alcohol. I NEED to eat a better diet. I WILL do it. I WILL achieve my goal, because it's the most important thing for me.

Please think positive thoughts and project them towards me. Your help is appreciated.

And to that friend, you know who you are, thank you. Thank you for your continuing friendship and honesty and support.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

The dog's

I've just taken delivery of a pair of Aqua Sphere Eagle prescription swimming goggles, a snip at only £31.50 including postage!

I could have gone for cheaper ones, but they mostly had the same prescription in both eyes, and these ones looked good when I read the spec.

Now that they've arrived they do seem to be the complete dog's bollocks, but I wish on the Website they had made it clear that what I was being sent was a normal non-prescription pair of goggles, with two replacement lenses which I had to change myself. The goggles are made in Italy, and the instructions for changing lenses are printed on the outside of the small box containing the new lens in 6 different languages (all translations I guess, apart from the Italian one) so concise and slightly strangely worded is perhaps the politest way of describing them.

It is not easy to remove and replace the lenses, and I have a scraped knuckle to prove it! For obvious reasons, the silicon rubber surround has to be pretty tight to ensure watertightness, and you have to pull it apart to release the lens, then put the new one in, and pull it apart again to seal it in place. I managed it after about 15 minutes of trying, and despite the instructions it was pretty much trial and error.

They're done now though, and I'm looking forward to trying them out, probably later today.

And I should mention too that the service I got from the supplier was damned good (apart from not mentioning on their Website the bit about self-assembly!). When placing the order I was trying to work out from my prescription what combination of Sphere and Cylinder readings (short sightedness and astigmatism) to add or subtract from each other to get the right strength. A quick call to the supplier, Butterflies Healthcare, and five minutes later the optician, James Sutton, (in fact, I suspect he's the owner of the company) called me back and worked it out for me, explaining what he was doing as he went along. That was three days ago, 12th January, and they arrived this morning. Well done them.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Round 2, and furry things

My plan was to take advantage of being off work to get the gym attendance well kick-started. Oh, didn't I mention? I have 10 days annual leave left from my 2008 allowance which must be taken by the end of January, so I'm off for the first two weeks in January. Aren't you? Shame!

Anyway, back to the point. I had thought that maybe I'd go to the gym and/or swimming pool every day after my good start on Monday. But then for no particular reason I decided to take Tuesday off, and that afternoon I started to get a bit sore in the left leg. The one the achilles tendon got broke on. And yesterday, Wednesday, was pretty much a write off since I was limping around with the feeling of a dead leg in my left thigh. Although yesterday I did get the bus into Glasgow city centre and walked (ie limped) around for an hour or so, meeting RE for lunch when we went to Wagamama. The first time I've been there, but I suspect not the last.

But this morning my leg feels much better, and so at 0930hrs I got to the gym for round 2 of the fight to fitness. Hey, that's not a bad slogan! I didn't do so much this time, but I think I should probably realistically not keep going beyond the time when I initially think "that's enough" otherwise I run the risk of starting to not enjoy it. In all I was there for about 50 minutes.

This time I stayed away from the cross trainer and rowing machine, and spent 15 minutes on an exercise bike, 10 minutes on a hand bike (no idea if that's what it's really called, but it describes it reasonably well), and 20 minutes walking fast on a treadmill. On the treadmill I covered just over 2km at a maximum speed of 6km/h.

I suspect these might become my default machines, at first anyway, until I get a bit fitter and feel able and willing to spread my wings so to speak.

The other difference this time was that I took my MP3 player (note, not iPod, it's an iRiver which when I bought it I considered superior to the iPod albeit it's now a bit, well a lot, dated). This meant that I could ignore the semi-ubiquitous MTV, and instead I exercised to choral music including parts of a William Byrd Mass, the one for four voices, and some Tallis. Turned up REALLY loud!

On an unrelated matter, when I first moved from my hometown of Motherwell into Glasgow in about 1985, I lodged with JC, one of the other members of St Mary's Cathedral Choir in his flat in Hyndland in the fashionable west end. He moved away a while later, including a spell as a doctor in the Antarctic, and over the years I've lost touch, but thanks to Facebook I've just been in contact with him again, which is great. The benefits of modern technology!

On an equally unrelated matter, when I was in the city centre yesterday I decided to buy some new jeans, so went to Slater's Menswear. As I walked in I saw a sign intimating they were selling off ex-hire kilts, so I went for a look and, to cut a long story short, I walked out with a Prince Charlie Jacket, full dress sporran (furry, see right which is pretty much identical to the one I bought!), and dress sgian dhub.

And no jeans.

A total of £158 onto my Slater's account, and perhaps the strangest impulse purchase I've made for a long time! But at least now I have the full dress regalia and can decide whether to wear the kilt with big boots and a tee-shirt, semi formal with the Argyll jacket I bought (and Blogged about) in March last year, or fully formal with the Prince Charlie jacket and waistcoat.

Now, I must get back and buy some jeans!

Monday, January 05, 2009

At bloody last!

Today, (cue drum roll) I was at the gym exercising.

That's right.

Regular readers, and for some obscure reason there are some, will know that there has been a saga leading up to this point, largely involving the incompetence of the staff at my local council run gym. But this afternoon I made it at last and spent a relatively happy, and surprisingly pain free hour and a bit there.

And I'm already over thirty pounds lighter, as I had to pay the first month and a bit up front until the Direct Debit kicks in.

So, for the record, and this may be the only time this statistic appears here, in shorts and trainers I weigh 92 kilos, or 14 stone 6 pounds in old money. My aims are to lose some of that and ditch as much of the beer gut as possible in the process, get a bit fitter, get my blood pressure to a lower level without aided by Lisinopril, and generally feel better about myself.

This morning's efforts consisted of 20 minutes on an exercise bike, 10 minutes walking quite quickly on a treadmill, 5 minutes on a rowing machine, 5 minutes on a cross trainer (which was the most work, the least fun and the highest heart rate!) and finally another 15 minutes on an exercise bike. Plus the warm down bits at the end of those times too. I did break sweat, but deliberately didn't try to push myself too far on the first visit, as that's a surefire way of getting pissed off at both it and myself, and never going back! The objective is to gradually increase things, so we'll see how it goes.

Oh, and to put all this in perspective for those who don't know me, it's been a long time since I exercised (and I was exactly 11 stone when I left school and for many years afterwards), and the last time I did any I managed to rupture my achilles tendon! I am well aware that the length of time I spent on each machine today is nothing to write home about for the average person, but I'm proud of it, given my current state of health and fitness. It will improve.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Review of 2008

It's that time of year again when the TV, Radio and newspapers are full of their reviews of the activity and stories of the previous 12 months. Well I'm not going to be outdone! For your delectation (well, OK, it's actually totally for me as a cathartic exercise) here is how 2008 went for me. Not everything I'm going to mention has already been Blogged about, but some has.

Looking back at the review of 2007 I posted a year ago, I can see there have been some changes to my life in the past year. Almost exclusively these have been changes for the better.

The year 2007 ended with me having rejoined Glasgow Chamber Choir, and continuing to enjoy the experience. This coincided with me coming to the end of a difficult and sometimes turbulent relationship which had been going on for a bit over a year. I pride myself on being easy going and hopefully pretty calm much of the time, but my stress levels were through the roof for a significant chunk of the latter part of 2007. I didn't really Blog about this much at the time, it wouldn't have been right, but I can say now with the clarity of hindsight that this was a relationship I shouldn't have been in, and having been in it, it shouldn't have dragged on as long as it did. It did neither of us any good. And in fact it affected my friendship with other, better, friends too. Another pride I take is that I am still on good speaking terms with everyone (there are not all that many!) with whom I have had a significant relationship, whatever form that took, but this particular relationship having finished part way through the year and changed into a tentative, or possibly even tenuous, friendship, in January something happened which caused the other person to cut off all contact with me, despite my efforts to try to remain friends. I gave it a few weeks though, and after all calls had gone unanswered, including calls being rejected, I gave up and haven't thought about contacting her again. So another dark chapter passes!

The thing that happened in January was that I started a new relationship with RE, a member of Glasgow Chamber Choir. She had joined in September 2007 on the same evening I had rejoined, and over the next weeks and months we seemed to hit it off and seemed to enjoy one another's company, albeit always in a larger group, and so we eventually started dating. And we are still doing so, I'm very glad to say! It wouldn't be right for me to describe RE, or our relationship, or how I felt, or anything like that. So I won't. But she knows, I hope, and that's what matters.

In January, sadly, my gran died after a short illness but a long life. Needless to say I miss her. It was largely for her that I started tracing my family tree a few years ago (I currently have it traced back to the late 17th century in one of the strands) and since her death I haven't put any real effort into researching anything further. I fully intend getting back into it in the new year though.

Also in January I sat and passed my Institute of Advanced Motorists Advanced Driving test, adding that qualification to the Advanced Motorcycling one I passed the previous month. Since then I haven't felt the urge to become a Qualified Car Observer, but I persevered with the motorcycling training and in September 2008 I successfully passed the written and practical tests which make me a Qualified Motorcycle Observer, able to accompany and assist associates who are undertaking training to pass their own Advanced test. The season's finished just now of course, but I'm looking forward to carrying on with helping associates next year.

In March I spent a tremendously enjoyable long weekend in Marseilles with Glasgow Chamber Choir, where we sang in a couple of concerts (pretty stress free) and ate, drank and socialised a lot. I think part of the reason I enjoyed it was that it was my first trip abroad for ages, apart from the trip to Belgium in 2007 when I was in a plaster cast, and the first time away with RE. In fact up to that point our relationship was known only to a very small handful of people, but we had to come out the closet, so to speak, for the trip away so it was nice not to have to hide it from our friends any longer!

I've made my personal peace with St Mary's Cathedral. For a while I had no intention of ever going back, but I have and I'm very happy to have done so. My absence from the choir, and from the building generally, started with my achilles tendon injury when I couldn't walk or even stand without crutches, but it then developed into a wider problem connected with the relationship I was in. I should never have let that happen, but I did, but I'm glad to say that I'm back. I'm not singing in the choir full time at the moment, because they rehearse on the same evening as Glasgow Chamber Choir does, but I am for the moment one of the "occasional extra" singers drafted in when they need tenors. The other side of that coin is that if I see anything coming up on the music list which I'd like to sing, then I just contact FW, the director of music, and he's happy for me to come and join in, even if that means the choir has a boatload of tenors that evening! And in fact the choir is well blessed for tenors at the moment, there are I think about five of them, so I'm not really needed just now. But RE and I do attend Evensong most weeks, which is very enjoyable only not quite so enjoyable as actually singing in it!

This year, and I actually can't remember when it was apart from early summer or before, St Mary's Cathedral played host to a big Evensong service for the organist emeritus, Bernard Porter, who was celebrating a significant birthday. Lots of former choir members, including me, joined the current choir and made a spectacular sound. Some travelled from as far afield as the south of England, the north of Scotland, and New York to join the singing! And the socialising, funnily enough, was great!

In the summer, together with various friends including RE, I joined the newly formed Royal School of Church Music Scottish Voices choir. The initial meeting was a residential weekend at Strathallan School in Perthshire, which seemed to go well, not least because FW, from St Mary's Cathedral, is also the conductor of RSCM Scottish Voices. I should explain that the RSCM choir is not to be confused with Scottish Voices, which is a different choir. Apparently RSCM Scottish Voices is the equivalent of the RSCM Cathedral Singers in England, but they decided not to use that name in Scotland lest it offended Presbyterians and others who have no cathedrals! Political correctness strikes again! So they chose the name RSCM Scottish Voices instead, and presumably either didn't realise there is already a choir called Scottish Voices, or didn't care. Superb!

Anyway, next year's dates have recently been circulated, and it looks like it'll be a busy and enjoyable year.

In September my little cat Ernie fell ill, and after a short illness sadly died. I Blogged about that extensively at the time and have no intentions of reliving it here, since it was an intensely painful experience. I miss him greatly, as does Elmo, his wee pal.

One of the high spots of the year undoubtedly was my visit to San Diego, Califonia to visit my brother and his family. Made even better by RE joining me for the last few days when she was enroute back to Glasgow from New Zealand and made a stopover. I've Blogged a fair bit about the holiday, but I'm conscious that I still haven't told the full story yet and I owe this Blog the final installment, so I'll try to get to that as soon as possible!

I discovered in 2008, or it might have been late 2007, that my blood pressure had climbed alarmingly. It's now down to a better level, and I'm trying to get my act together to get to my local gym regularly in an effort to keep it down, lose a bit of weight, and get fit enough to do the things I want to do, which are many and varied! I've decided against taking up badminton again though, as I don't relish the idea of fucking up my achilles tendon again! Watch this space for details of my progress, if indeed I make any progress!

As ever, I make it my rule not to Blog about work. Suffice to say I'm still enjoying being in the particular department I'm in, doing the things I do, and tempting as it is to go looking for more money elsewhere, and it IS available, I'd rather stay where I am. For the moment anyway!

So, to sum up, 2008 has been a good year for me, not only on the relationship front but also as regards St Mary's Cathedral and trips abroad to sunny places. On the extreme down side, I lost both my gran and my faithful companion Ernie, but such is the way of life.

I've just re-read all of the above and realised it's a bit more of a random stream of consciousness than usual, so apologies for that. If I could be arsed I'd edit it into some better chronological, or at least logical, order, but I can't!

Anyway, Happy Christmas and a successful 2009 to you all, and I refuse to go down the political correctness route and use weasel words detracting from Christmas. If you are offended by my wishing you a Happy Christmas rather than Happy Holidays or similar, then perhaps you're reading the wrong Blog and I invite you never to darken my URL again!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Destiny

Went to my induction session at the local gym this evening. It was fine, and the equipment they have is pretty modern and impressive looking. And thankfully most of it is idiot-proof in a "press that button to start, and that button to stop" sort of way.

But get this. After it seemed like I was destined not to ever get to the gym I thought things seemed to be sorted, but they're closing for two weeks starting this weekend for refurbishment! So rather than sign up and start paying a Direct Debit now, I've decided it would make more sense to wait until they reopen, otherwise I'd be paying for half a month I wouldn't be able to use. I've completed the paperwork and they've even given me a membership card, but I won't be able to use it for a few weeks yet.

Ah well, I'll get there in the end!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Jumping around and singing on the phone

A while ago I posted about the incompetence of my local council-run gym when they failed twice to give me an induction session despite me having booked it both times. The jury was out as to whether they were going to get a third go at it, but I'm afraid the much-cheapness of their deal has won against local privately-run gyms, and I've now booked, for the third time, an induction session for tomorrow evening. I've even paid in advance for it this time, so it'd bloody better take place!

On a related topic, I had a blood pressure check this morning at my GP, and I'm glad to report that it's now down to a much less deadly level! A few months ago it was something like 140/115 and it's now about 105/81. Put in an over simplified way, it's the bottom reading, the diastolic one, which is important because that's the pressure when the heart's at rest, rather than the higher, or systolic, figure, which relates to the heart pumping the blood.

The weekend just past was a busy one musically for Glasgow Chamber Choir, as we had concerts in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. They both went well, on the whole, although there was one bowel-loosening moment in the Edinburgh concert on Sunday when I came in on a completely exposed (i.e. the only part singing) top G tenor entry without the company normally offered by my two fellow first tenors! It all happened in a flash, as I sang the German word "Ein" very briefly, then stopped dead and my neighbour then sang the same word and note in the next beat after which the other first tenor and I joined in and we carried on as if nothing had happened. Except I was thinking something like "bollocks bollocks bollocks bollocks bollocks" for the next few minutes. How could I have ruined the piece, I was thinking. Oh well, that's life.

Only, in the pub afterwards, our music director told me that the other two first tenors clearly owed me a pint as I had been right and they were wrong, although in my own mind I now think I should have had the courage of my convictions to keep going instead of stopping, but it all happened so quickly that my subconscious took over and I didn't have time to rationalise what was happening, and that can't be helped. The knowledge that my original entry was correct helps my conscience though!

After the Glasgow concert we had some wine and nibbles in the church hall, which was OK as far as it went, but as a party venue it rather lacked atmosphere. Not helped of course by my one glass of wine, since I had decided to drive there.

After the Edinburgh one though, we adjourned to the pub next door. I can't remember the name off hand, although I should try as it's another one to add to the my pubs page of my Website, which is an ongoing effort to list every pub in which I've ever had a drink. It's a long page! After two or three pints of Deuchars IPA, a very fine pint and well worth trying if you get the chance, and an exceptionally ordinary cheese and onion toastie, the world seemed at peace. The train journey back the 50 miles to Glasgow, then the bus journey home, didn't seem so bad either. It was a good crowd of friends, so that helps.

I forgot to mention my new boys' toy. After a year and a bit of using a Palm Treo mobile smartphone, it was time to speak to Vodafone about an upgrade again, so after taking advice in the shop, and having a look around and a read at some specifications, I chose a Nokia E66, and at the same time upgraded my monthly tariff from £25 a month including 125 free call minutes, to £35 a month including 500 free minutes, 100 free SMS messages, and unlimited mobile Internet access.

My average monthly bill recently has been £38, so in fact I'm paying roughly the same as I have been, but with more free minutes, and Internet access thrown in. And in fact, having been given a couple of months of free insurance for my Palm Treo last July, I found out at the weekend that it seems like I forgot to cancel it after the free period was over, so I've been paying just under £7 extra every month over and above my tariff, making an average spend of about £45 per month recently! So that's cancelled now!

I'm still playing with it, sorry, finding my way round the functionality of it, but I'm very impressed so far. I like the solid feel of the slider, it's the first slide phone I've had, and the functions are good. Like GPS navigation, which I can use at no extra cost since I have Internet access, and the FM radio, which I haven't had on a phone for a few years now.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Even more incompetence

I'll give you the short version of this.

A couple of posts ago
I spoke of the incompetence of the staff at my local council-run gym when they tried and failed to make an appointment for me. Well tonight I turned up (again) a good twenty five minutes before my appointment for my gym induction session, to find the whole building closed and shuttered, and a single A4 piece of paper sellotaped to the shutter addressed specifically to a slimming class which apparently normally meets there, advising them to go to a local church hall instead "because of the strike".

THE STRIKE!

The bastards have gone on strike! No official notice anywhere on the building. No prior warning. No courtesy call to my mobile number, which I gave them last week (twice), to give me a heads up not to turn up. No, they were quite happy to let me make my way there only to work out that they were on strike by reading a notice addressed to a slimming class.

Do they get my sympathy for their wage claim? Do they fuck. Will they get a third go at giving me a gym induction and thereafter will they get my monthly Direct Debit for membership? The jury is out. If I can find a privately run gym close enough at a reasonable rate then I'll go there instead. I don't like poor service, and that's exactly what this place has provided twice so far.

So instead I went to the IAM Wednesday night run. I was in time for it this time (just) but all the associates had already been paired up with observers, so I linked up with another two "spare" observers and we rode together up to Balloch, near Loch Lomond. And a most enjoyable ride it was. And since I missed the start of the pre-ride gathering, I missed the announcement that tonight was the last Wednesday run of the year, which I only found out by accident in conversation in the McDonalds restaurant at Balloch. If I'd not been told, and had turned up next Wednesday, I might have thought the IAM Glasgow North group had been taken over by council workers!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Incompetence

The incompetence of the average person working in the service industry in Britain never ceases to amaze me, although I really shouldn't be surprised.

This evening I turned up at the gym 10 minutes before my appointment, only to find out that the person to whom I spoke last night hadn't in fact made my booking on the computer and since there was only one member of staff working in the gym there was no one available to take me through my hour long induction.

So it has been rearranged to next Wednesday.

So I also missed the IAM Wednesday run, because by the time I got back home after my fruitless trip round the corner to the gym, I didn't quite have enough time to make it to the assembly point for the run. By the time I got changed, onto the bike, and rode the 5 miles, everyone had gone.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A quick quiz

Here's a bombshell for you.

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow evening. Go on, guess. Bet you won't get it.

I've booked myself in for an induction session at my local gym. Yes, me, at a gym!

The last real exercise I had was in March 2007, which, you may remember, resulted in three months off work with a ruptured achilles tendon. Since then I suppose I had some exercise when I was receiving physiotherapy, and fairly recently I have been swimming a number of times with RE. Well I say swimming. She swims 16 lengths in the Olympic sized 50m pool, and I splash around ineffectively in the small pool trying to avoid children and morbidly obese people.

I've been thinking for ages that I need to get back to some regular exercise, but in the back of my mind, well, at the forefront really, are the twin thoughts that I don't want to bugger my achilles tendon again, and it's been such a long time since I exercised properly that it's going to hurt to get back into it. So I've been putting it off.

But tonight I called my local leisure centre, and booked an induction session. For an all inclusive monthly price I will be able to access the fitness suite, sauna, steam room, spa pool, and swimming pool with water slides and suchlike.

Those who know me will not be surprised that it's been a while since I exercised, but I suspect that very few people know that when I was (a lot) younger I used to do a lot of weight training, and a bit of regular cross country running, as well as some sprinting and twice weekly badminton sessions. Added to a brief rugby playing period (I was a prop forward) and it all adds up to a pretty fit, and very strong, younger self, with very little excess fat.

I am now, frankly, embarrassed at the shape I have become, and it's (way beyond) time to do something about it. Or try anyway.

Watch this space.