My Life's Ingredients

Haven’t been back to Germany during summer in quite a while – we usually go in April for my mum’s birthday (which was this year changed to now because of that stupid volcano) and then again for a longer weekend in December for exchange of presents, and to go and visit Christmas Markets. We had fabulous weather, every day around 30 degrees and mostly sunshine! Fab! Not sure if it’s because I’m getting older now, but somehow a week is not long enough for the trip to Germany anymore. I’ve not been able to meet up with friends this time at around, and we’re usually fairly ad-hoc with our plans to visit my family as well. And then there’s the shopping … it’s nearly like a trip to Florida!!! ;) And of course I’m always trying to get a trip to the sauna in as well… I would LOVE to go for longer than just 1 week – I would LOVE to travel around Germany, would LOVE to go with Doug to the Northsea or the “Ostsee”, would LOVE to go south towards Munich, east to visit my family in the Lausitz

Yup, that’s what I am … our WiFi doesn’t work ON the couch, just on the wee table beside it, which means I cannot lie with my right leg elevated if I want to be online… :o  Not really happy about that, but maybe that keeps me “off the box” and I get more editing done? TONS of photos of Wolves and Clansmen games still to be edited … not to mention our holiday in US and up outside Dundee!! Restless probably because my blinking knee is not swollen… it hurts, but is not swollen… which would more indicate something is wrong with it, right? Still using the cryo cuff which is nice for pain treatment (and usually for swelling as well, but we don’t need that yet).

…  the running on paved paths on Friday was worse than I thought, and standing a lot on Sunday during the game didn’t help. However, I didn’t really feel tooooo bad (but then – I sometimes wonder if having a high pain threshold is a curse as I’m just putting up with it). Yesterday I was jogging to catch the bus and suddenly my knee just buckled. :o Managed to sit through work and then decided to go to A&E (given that I’m only 15 mins away from the hospital) to get the knee checked before our holiday(wouldn’t have gotten an appt with my GP before next week). Waited just 40 mins for initial assessment, then on the trolley bed for another 15 mins for the X'-ray, then another 15 mins (all the while listening to a) a female alcoholic, b) a mentally challenged person and c) a guy who was out for a fight! VERY comforting … really was fearing that soon the “fight guy” is going on a riot! – Very high police attendance in A&E doesn’t really make me more comfortable either!!). N

Tried to figure out where the small shower room at work disappeared to, as the big ones are for office gym members only and I'm not going to pay for that! Got slightly annoyed but finally found the 2 showers available ... suppose they have to have "free" showers, in case someone cycles to work. ;) Means I can do my regular Wednesday session for the "run" (jog) around Arthur's Seat ... provided it's not chucking down rain!!! As for today - I had a triple session tonight ... first W1D2 which I upped to 8kph speed for the run (still feels like a jog). Managed the work out. During Body Pump I upped the ante to 2.5kg each side for most moves bar the warm up (even for the triceps bar workout!). The single plate weight for triceps I upped to 5kg as well. Still can't do the lounges without help (now used the bar to steady myself and that worked ok-ish), and squats ... yeah, just ignore me with them. Not sure if my lordosis (quite a big invard curvature of

Yup… I did it … :) Was fun, felt great afterwards, and am looking forward to Wednesday now. :) The podcast definitely helped – I’ve downloaded two, will see if I’m trying the other one on Wednesday. Speed-wise: warm up at 4.5kph, walk at 5.5 kph and jog at 7.6kph. Probably can crank it up to 8kph for the jog. Was running on the treadmill just to check speeds … funnily enough jog is there at 6kph (that’s fast walk for me) and walk at 3kph (geesh… that wasn’t even my cool down speed!). Depending on weather I might actually go for a run in Holyrood Park on Wednesday during lunch break … just so I have a bit of a breather between that and Body Pump & Body Balance. :)

Ok, after lots of umm-ing and haaah-ing I am going to follow in Joanne's steps ... not that I am necessarily planning on doing a 5k run or anything, but with me doing the Body Pump, Body Balance and Ceroc already I quite like the idea of being able to do some workout I can do while on holiday where I don't have necessarily access to a gym. After coming back from the family weekend away my scales shocked me ... I was at 90kg, the highest EVER!!! I still think the scales are broken, but hey... ;)  There you go ... tonight I'll do my first 20 mins ... :)