End-of-Night Chat

Just been to see Black Swan, with Hannah and a couple of her pals.  I thought it was really amazing, though I did hide behind my scarf at several points.  The girl sitting across the aisle from me kept doing really comedy jumps, but some parts were a bit squeamish, I must admit.  Loved the dancing, and the makeup, and Natalie Portman. After years of not knowing if I loved or loathed her, I am happy to say I am finally convinced by her, once and for all. 

I had a well-expensive glass of wine in the cinema bar (should have known better) and a random bag of Revels, which I've just realised I love!  Does anyone remember when they were called Strollers, back in the day, and they came in a Cadbury-blue packet?

I had high hopes for 2011 being a much happier year than 2010 but so far one of my friends has lost a job and a boyfriend in the same week, and I just read on my other friend's blog that her Grandad has passed away. 

I really don't know how I'll cope when my granny dies, even though just it really seems that she'll live forever.  Makes me appreciate the time I have with her, and the chances I have to go on holiday with her and go for lunches with her when I'm not working.  Sometimes she'll tell you the same story you've heard a hundred times before, but lots of other times she tells other stories and I learn a little bit more about her that I never knew before.  I never met my dad's parents, and my mum's dad died when I was only wee, so my granny is the only one I've really gotten to know and I'm really glad to still have her around.

Enough heavy stuff for one post, I think.  I just need to finish packing and then I have a Body Balance class to go to tomorrow, and then meet ED for lunch/brunch/cocktails I think. 

I think I'll stick my electric blanket on now so it's toasty for getting in to bed, and toss whatever else I need into my case, rather than try to do it tomorrow.  I have that Katy Perry song stuck in my head and I'm really hoping it won't keep buzzing round my brain when I'm trying to get to sleep, it'll seriously drive me mad.  

Baby, you're a fiiiiiiiiiiiiire-work!

Oh yeah, for anyone who's interested, I jsut signed up for an awesome yoga deal, at the Merchant City Yoga company.  You get 10 lessons for £20 which works out as a saving of 75%.  As far as I know, once you've paid you can take the 10 classes any time over the next year.  Click here if you want to sign up or read more!

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...

It's one o'clock in the morning and I am totally wired

I hate it when this happens.  I'm a bit of an insomniac, and sometimes even when I'm really tired I just can't sleep and my mind buzzes away and drives me mad.  I try and combat it by forcing myself to get up early the next day and not having a nap or anything, then getting a good nights sleep the next night but this only seems to work for one night - the night after I'm wide awake again!  Maybe it runs in the family, ever since my mum had her brain haemorrage last year she's not been able to sleep either, sometimes she's up til 6am before she finally gets off, and then she's knackered the next day, obviously.  No fun.

The worst bit is that there's no-one up to chat to, on MSN or Facebook or whatever.  Although actually maybe that's a good thing cos if I was able to chat maybe I'd never get to sleep!  I think being on the laptop is the worst thing to do, cause the bright lights make your brain think it's day-time or something.  Never mind. 

Was just having a good think there about this job (I know, I can't stop going on about it, I really hope I'm not setting myself up for a big fall...) and how much fun it would be even just going for the interview.  They mentioned in the job ad that they might ask you to do a presentation or something instead of an interview, so I was trying to work out how I'd feel about that.  Surprisingly, though, I don't think I'd be too bothered.  For some reason, whenever I have to do a presentation, or an oral exam, (like for Spanish at uni) or whatever, I feel so sick and nervous beforehand and I feel like my heart is going to beat right out my chest... but then as soon as they call my name and I'm up, all of that turns into nervous energy and I feel fine!  So, hopefully that'd still be the same if I had to do anything like that for a job interview!  I think maybe it helped doing that shite year as a teacher in Spain, too.  I got pretty used to standing in front of a group of people just sitting there staring up at you and either full of expectation (yikes) or not giving a toss, and not bothering to try and pretend.  So maybe I developed a thick skin, I dunno.

I really should stop psyching myself about this job, cause even though it seems like a slightly niche, feminist market, there's still bound to be hundreds of people who've applied, and I guess a lot of them will have more experience or something.  Whatever, I can't do it, the negativity just isn't in me, I'm such a bloody optimist!!

As part of my not being able to sleep, I thought I'd check my Chinese horoscope for this year, the year of the rabbit.  I found out that my career will be slowly but surely on the up, I may be celebrating a wedding or engagement (not mine, presumably) and my Zodiac stone is a garnet (good thing I have a garnet ring then, eh?) and my Zodiac flower is a narcissus, which is very pretty, really. 

For some reason, I have a totally random song buzzing around my head, it's that one that goes, "I love it when you call/ I love it when you call...but you never call at all..."

What even is that song, and who's it by? Answers on a postcard please.

Quite looking forward to yoga tomorrow, I've never been to a class at this gym (Gorbals) before, so I hope it's good.  I used to go one on a Saturday with this teacher called Maurice who was amazing and I absolutely loved his classes.  But with it being on a Saturday morning, I kept missing it when I'd been out the night before, and then when I joined the gym and got yoga classes as part of the membership costs, then I feel like it would be stupid to go to the other one with Maurice and have to pay for it.  So I hope whoever does it tomorrow is good, otherwise I'll be very disappointed!  It makes such a big difference, like the first time I went to a Pilates class I wasn't that impressed, but the second time it was with a different teach, and I thought it was great!  My shoulders are still quite tight from yesterdays efforts, but I'm hoping that the yoga will loosen them up a good bit, rather than being the nail in their coffin!

Ach, right, I could rabble on here all night (oh yeah, my Chinese horoscope also said that 'writing is highlighted in a most positive way' this year, so maybe that's referring to my blog, ha!)... but I think I'll switch off the laptop and do this the old fashioned way: read a book til my eyes are drooping!  I'm reading some Agatha Christie book of my mum's just now, I quite like them despite the weird old fashionedness it bits of them.  Calling someone a 'queer' for example, and generally referring to women as nervous hysterics who, if they get done in by their husbands, practically drove them to it.   Hmmmmmmmmmmm.  Despite that, I quite like them, so here's hoping sleep is a-calling.

Buenas noches!