Smelly Cat

The Smeaters household is without a shower.  I don't know exactly what's wrong with it but I do know that it's going to take at least 2 weeks to fix.  We do have a bath, so I'm not actually a smelly cat but today I forced myself down to the gym just so I could shower and wash my hair afterwards!  I was tempted to just go in, shower and leave, but I didn't.  I happily made it in just in time for an episode of CSI Miami starting (the Gorbals Gym cardio machines have wee TVs built into them) so I did a punishing 45 minutes whilst watching that.  The time passed so much faster than when I'm just listening to my iPod!  I think I'll start going to that gym more often, even though there's one closer to my house.

I also handed in my job form for the guitar store, so that was good - fingers crossed!  I heard about a lipgloss that I wanted from Collection 2000, which is pretty cheap (it was my brand of choice when I was about 14 for just that reason!) but they didn't have the colour I wanted!  Very peeving, but never mind.

I think my mum wants to go to Silverburn tonight to have a look at TVs (still haven't decided which one to get: size, brand, LCD/LED...?) and there's a Boots there so I might pop in and see if I can get it.

Not much chat today, really!  It's a lovely sunny day and pretty warm, so it was quite nice wandering about town - and much more of an effort to force myself into the gym!  If it's nice again tomorrow I'll see if I can finally corral ED in and we can go and feed ducks in the park.  Lovely way to pass the day!

I was at LW's flat party the other night, and that was pretty good fun!  Lots of drinks and chat to be had - and wigs!  MM brought a couple along for me to borrow and LW had a few of her own so we all wigged-up and pranced about like those weird kids' dolls.  (Bratz? Is that what they're called, and do they have funny coloured hair?)

Anyway, here we are; I actually really like myself as a platinum blonde - who'd've thought it?!



Sunday chat

Just been to the gym and for some reason it felt much harder going than usual!  Probably cause it's a Sunday, there must be some kind of built-in laziness clause.  Still I did my hour of cardio, though I gave up on the cross-trainer after 10 mins and switched to the bike.  I went running on the treadmill first so then when I hit the cross-trainer I just couldn't hack it!

I suppose I'm glad I made the effort to go cause the more I get into the way of it the less likely I am to fall of the bandwagon. (Or treadmill.)

My dad's away out but I'm hoping when he comes in I can get him to make a pot of soup - his soup is legendary, just what you need on a blah grey day like today!

I was out for a few drinks last night in Boteco do Brazil in Merchant City - one of my favourite places in Glasgow!  The food is cheap and unbelievably tasty, and the drinks are quite cheap with cocktails for £3 during the week.  I'm also happy to report that there's a really hot waiter who I've never seen before.  Maybe he's new, I think I'll have to go back again and check...!

Today I think I'll just be chillaxing and mulling things over - still thinking about going to Italy, and still thinking about doing a make-up artistry beginners course and saving up to a professional one down in London.  I think I'd actually love that but it's a bit daunting to think of breaking out and doing something so new and completely different...  So much to think about, so little idea about what would be best!?  Argh.  At least the beginners' make-up course would be funded by ILA, so I might as well do it and see where it gets me... If I hate it then at least I won't have wasted the money on the longer course in London.  Then again there's the whole thing: where would I stay when I was doing it in London, how would I support myself, would I stay down there permanently after I finished it?  Who knows!?

And, of course, if I did decide to go Italy, none of this would even matter.

My brain is now fried.  I'm off for a strong coffee and a shower before I self-combust. 

Sunday musings

After tanking so much wine on Friday night, on Saturday I decided to start going back to the gym, as I hadn't been since before I went to Spain, so today I made it down and onto the treadmill.  I've only just started to run on the treadmill, I used to just walk and go on the cross-trainer for the harder part of my workout, but then one day when the gym was quiet and there was no-one to judge me if it all went wrong (!) I decided to give running a go.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could do it for whole minutes at a time, as when I first started jogging when I moved back from Spain I could literally do about a minute before I'd have to walk again.  I also got a lot of stitches.  Anyhoo today I managed ten mins before I walked, which I was quite proud of, though it doesn't sound like much.  I think it's surprisingly easy to build up your times if you stick with it.  And I find it more enjoyable than the cross-trainer which always feels like a big chore!

So that's my exertions for today out of the way, nothing energetic planned for the rest of the day!

My friend V is moving back to Italy on Saturday and she's having a leaving party on Friday night so I thought I'd bake a cake to take with me.  Any excuse, really!  I've decided on this amazing sounding caramel cake from The Caked Crusader's blog, which is my baking Bible.  I've never made my own caramel before, but the way The CC says to do it sounds easy and fool-proof.  Whether or not this is true remains to be seen, but I've never used one of her recipes that didn't go exactly the way she said it would, so I have complete faith in her.  Caramel, cream, and sponge - if it all goes well it'll be a total winner of a cake!  I hope V likes it, sometimes I get so excited about the cake-making progress that I forget they're actually for other people!

I made a cake for FL's birthday when I was in Spain, and it went OK but it was very touch and go - for a start it took about 3 times as long in the oven as the recipe said, my friend EWL' had warned me that that was usually the case with her oven but I didn't really believe it til I tried it myself!  The cake rose but split right down the centre, which apparently happens when you fill your cake tin more than half-way up, I had no idea!  Then after I'd made the cake we went out and when we came back at about 3am, we thought it would be a good time to make the buttercream icing so it could set over night!  Well, the icing came out fine but EW's kitchen was left looking like a fake snow factory had exploded in her kitchen! 

Gin + electric whisks + a mountain of sugar = sweet carnage.

FL had asked for a strawberry cake so I made a normal sponge with strawberry buttercream icing and it came out looking like this:

The icing looked quite grainy, because the sugar I used wasn't as fine as the icing sugar I would have used here (this also made the sponge a wee bit denser than normal), and then I think when I added the strawberries the wee pips made it look less smooth.  But it tasted good all the same! 

I love cakes!

Gym Fail

Or is it a success?  Fine line, hard to tell etc etc.

Yesterday I trotted along to an LBT class (that Legs, Bums & Tums for those who aren't in the loop).  I've been to one of these before and it was fine - fairly hard going on the bum muscles, a few sit-ups, a few squats, nothing too bad.  Well, imagine my surprise when I went to the class at the other gym and it was a total killer!  I wouldn't have been surprised to leave that class and discover a whole new backside in the mirror!  Alas, it didn't work quite so fast, but I'm sure it will if I keep going.   *If*... Haven't decided yet!

Anyway, I thought I'd keep up my good work and signed up for a flurry of classes this week.  So today was spinning and away I went.  My bike was crap and cause I was one of the last ones in the class I couldn't change it.  My saddle was sitting at a funny angle and wasn't at all comfy.  Not a good start to the week for my poor bahookie!! 

Anyway, the class was fine, but my back is a wee bit sore and I think it's from the weights we used in LBT yesterday.  That's right, weights - I didn't see that one coming either.  What have hand weights got to do with your L, B or T?  Anyway, my lower back is feeling quite sore and I probably shouldn't have gone to spinning this morn, although I didn't notice it hurting whilst I was doing the class, just before and after!  I guess popping into Argos on the way home and buying a wee set of dumbbells to cart home didn't help either!

I think I'll take a day off tomorrow, I was meant to be going to an aerobics class, but instead I'll try some yoga (still have my amazing bargin-tastic voucher for the Merchant City yoga centre, thank you Groupon!)

I will, though, be going back to use the gym suite at the Gorbals - it's further away from my house, which is why I never go unless it's for a class, but today I popped in for ten mins before spinning (rookie spinning mistake - should have spent those ten mins picking and adjusting my bike!) and not only do they have loads more machines, including ones I've never seen before - one that looked like a trampoline with an elastic rope attached, I think it was one of those weird vibrating ones... but also, their cardio machines have built in TV screens and you can pick your channels!  So much better than the gash music channel they play at Holyrood, which is always on too loud, is full of ads (I hate adverts!) and only seems to have about 10 songs on rotation.  One of which is always Bruno Mars in some shape or form!

I think a trip to the Gorbals would be well worth it in terms of working-out entertainment!  Right now though, I'm considering a bath or a hot water bottle for my back!

Have orchestra practice tonight which I can't be arsed with, but I should go.  Even though it means missing the new season of CSI!  Sometimes I don't know how I make it at all!

Don't Sweat It

Well, last week after my successful Spin Fit class, I trotted home and booked myself up for the same class this week.  This was all fine until last night when I realised that the class is at 10am and, frankly, I totally couldn't be bothered!

So, I set my alarm to get up at 8...and hit snooze for about half an hour.  Then by the time I rolled out of bed and got ready it was too late to get to the class on the bus. (Thanks, First Glasgow.)  To make up for that I decided to go to the gym this evening.  I signed myself up for a Pilates class and headed to the gym half an hour early, so I could do a punishing interval routine on the bikes.  Well, OK, it was hard but it wasn't that punishing. Still though... 

The Pilates class was good, but I don't feel as sore in the tummy muscles as I did after my last one.  There are two possible reasons for this: 1) I've gotten better at it, and it wasn't such a shock to the muscles, or 2) I wasn't working the abs as hard as I could have been.  I'll wait til tomorrow morning, judge the pain levels and then let you know! 

The teacher said that it's harder for women to build up good tummy muscles and/or get a 6-pack because the testosterone levels in men make it easier to form muscle mass.  So there you go:  Muffin Top is not your fault. Fact!

In light of planning a holiday (ha, I just typed 'party' when I meant 'holiday' - that pretty much sums up what I'm planning to do while I'm there!) at the end of May, and hopefully spending a good proportion of the time on the beach, I'm trying to get my arse into gear and keep up the work-outs.  I'm totally fine once I get into it, but as soon as I miss a planned gym-slot I'm screwed and I fall off the exercise wagon for a week or so, and then I psych myself up to go back...and so the cycle (gettit?) continues.

But no! This time I will keep going, and I will only fall off the wagon when its due to exhaustion and not even my hyper-toned core Pilates muscles can save me!  This is the plan, and I fully intend to stick to it...  I don't have a picture of me at the gym, so I did a quick Google, and I found this photo here, which is pretty accurate.  Y'know, except for the obvious:

I would never have that hair.

And streeeeeeeeeetch.

Went to the yoga class today, and unfortunately, I was less than impressed.  First of all, they had crap music playing the whole time, and then it wasn't anything like the yoga classes that I used to go to.  It was more an hour long stretching session than real yoga.  In fact, the only proper yogic position we did was the Downward Facing Dog (we did do a tree pose, but that was more Tai Chi than yoga!), which we did several times in between other moves, but even when we did that, it was only held for a few seconds each time and she didn't really talk you through it.  If I hadn't known how to do it I probably would have done it wrong.  Whereas when I went to the other class he talked you through everything, telling you exactly how to engage you muscles, and when to lock your knees or when to keep them loose, and how to really work on your posture.

When I came out of the other yoga classes, I felt like I'd used every single muscle in my body, and I felt like I was walking on air all the way home.  But after this class, I just felt that I'd kind of stretched my arms and legs, didn't feel like I'd done anything on my back at all.  And in the cooldown bit, all I could think of was how crap the music was - it was all dramatic, violin and piano stuff.  Full of vibrato and 'emotion' with a shite piano line.  Ach, I was just not at all impressed.

Having said all that, if all you wanted was a good stretching session and a bit of gentle exercise then I would recommend those classes (and, to be fair, the teacher was very nice), but if you want real yoga then find somewhere else.  I've now been to the yoga, Pilates), and Body Balance classes at the Glasgow Life gyms, and the three are essentially exactly the same.  Same movements, same music track, and all quite general.  Out of all the ones I tried, I think the Body Balance was the best, probable because when I went I knew it was going to be general and a mix of everything - Pilates, Yoga, and Tai Chi - whereas when I went to Yoga and Pilates, I expected much more from the class.  Oh well.  At least I didn't have to pay any extra for it, it's all included in my gym membership fee every month, which is why I stopped going to the class on a Saturday.  But now I'm considering going back there.  It's only a fiver a week, and really, you would spend that just going for a cup of coffee in the town!

Popped into Primark after the class, and I saw a pair of trousers very similar to the La Redoute ones that I've been talking about.  And the ones in Primark were £12!!  If they'd been about £5 I would have gone for them, but for the sake of an extra 3 quid, I think I'd rather have the decent ones.  I have a skirt and a cardi from La Redoute that are about 7 years old now (I'm a hoarder, what can I say?) and they're still in good nick.  Don't think the Primark ones would see a year!   I did see a very nice red vest in there, almost identical to the ones they do in Zara that I love.  Very soft and stretchy, good for wearing under V-necks, etc.  But (typical) they didn't have my size.  So either I'll go back and see if they have it later this week, or I'll see how much the ones in Zara actually are, cause I don't think they're too pricey, only a few pounds.  And, you can shop Zara online now, finally, sweet!

Ahh, my mum's just stuck on the Strictly Come Dancing fitness DVD that I got her for Christmas.  If you're into fitness DVDs, then this is as good as any, I think.  The music is quite catchy, and they do about 5 routines that you can choose from.  My mum's well into her dance exercises - she goes to Zumba, and she used to do Salsa-cise, which I think is what Zumba was before they revamped it.  Anyway, she does quite well, aided by a few extra puffs on the inhaler to keep the emphysema at bay. (!)  She's doing the Samba now, and really going for it, but she didn't look very impressed when she did a spin and came face to face with me, on the couch, tucking into a big slice of rhubarb pie.  Fair enough, I suppose...