We walked briskly across the Common towards the children’s
play area. Well, Gareth was
walking briskly, I was lagging behind looking upwards. The sky was threatening
to rain and with every passing second, I was regretting the decision to stick
to working out on the Common when I could have chosen the studio. Bad decision,
Claire, bad.
The children's play area was completely deserted. It’s
usually packed with young children, mums and older teenagers who should be
doing more productive activities elsewhere. Today, there was no-one, not a
soul.
Overhead we both noted a police helicopter hovering over us.
Ruh-roh, somebody’s loose. The police car may have been out just having a laugh
on a boring Friday lunchtime but it was a bit of a coincidence…. The po-po
drove around the children’s playground slowly then back to the main path round
the Common.
Me: They’re looking for someone.. (my deducing skills are
finely tuned).. but I’m not worried.. I’m with you and you’re a black belt Taekwondo..
aren’t you?
Gareth: Yeah.. but
I’m not worried because I can run a hell of a lot faster than you.
THANKS VERY MUCH GARETH!
Husband tells me that’s the law of polar bears. You don’t
have to be able to run fast, just faster than somebody else. Not sure why it’s
the law of polar bears. Surely that’s everyone’s law?!
I had a flashback to my 11 year old self one sunny
summer afternoon, the fuzz told everyone in Cho Fo* to stay inside and lock
their doors until an all-clear. A prisoner had escaped from the law courts and
was attempting to make a getaway through the Ford. A few hours later we heard
that he’d been found, hiding under a small sailing boat in my friend Karen's garden, which backed up against ours. A scandal,
so close! It was the gossip of the week at school.
Anyhoo, I was weighing in, in the middle of the play area
when the po-leece came back around and then moved off the Common. Lost or
found? Who knows. I lost, however: 1lb, disappointing but add that to the 4lbs I
lost last week and it’s not so bad. Total so far = 17lbs. Not too shabby.
We started the workout with some running up and down a
section of tarmac. The heavens opened but it shortly stopped. Phew! Not
too wet. As we lunged back and forth, it started to pour down. Gareth looked at
me with his ‘whose idea was this?’ face and I felt guilty for texting ‘It’s
sunny, let’s stick to the Common’ only 50 minutes earlier.
As we did push ups, the rain turned cold and starting
bouncing on the grass..huh, hail. Nice.
Gareth had brought along the ViPR again so I did lots of ‘lifting
it above my head’ (I’m sure there’s a proper name for that) as the clouds
perfected their aim and hail hit me in my left eye. On we continued with our hair
white from hail. Good look. We were both
soaked through and the workout had turned into an impromptu wet t-shirt
competition. I TOTALLY WON! Whoop! Whoop!
For an hour we worked out in the rain and the hail. For the
last ten minutes, the hail got heavier and heavier until the whole thing just
got ridonkulus. All we could do was laugh!
Back at work, someone asked me if Gareth let me stop at any
point as it was raining so hard… HAHAHAHAHAHAHA… no.
(*Chandlers Ford)
-----
As I’d only lost 1lb, Gareth asked me to reel off the
reasons for doing this project again to get me focused.
One reason is aircraft seat belts. I’m flying to Korea (South, not North, obviously) at the
end of this week for work. Normally with
any flight, I start worrying that the seat belt won't do up without an extension
piece for about a week before the flight, all the way until I’m actually seated
in the aircraft with the seatbelt done up and then would breathe a sigh of
relief followed by swiftly ordering a G&T.
On a flight a few years ago, I was seated in the emergency
exit row with loads of lovely leg room. Only problem was I couldn’t do up the
seat belt. I asked the stewardess for an extension.
You can’t sit in the emergency exit row with an extension
apparently… so I had to move. She moved me to the front of the plane away from my
family and had to ask another passenger to swap with me. I’ll let you imagine
how humiliating this was… She then proceeded to
bring the bright orange extension down the cabin holding it aloft and
making it quite clear it was for me. THANKS LOVE!
This week with three stone off overall since last October,
I’m pretty sure I won’t be needing the extension so I’m trying not to worry.
I am however worried about the ‘love motel’ that we’ve been
booked into in Seoul. As Koreans generally live with their parents until they
marry, couples use love motels to have some time to themselves.. ahem! You can book overnight or you can also book it by the hour... I'll let you imagine what kind of clientele frequent the motels.
Apparently, on check-in, you get handed a package of 'protective equipment' for your stay...Nice.
-----
I started writing this post in the car on the way to a
family wedding in Torquay – hello 1970’s! how’ve you been? I feel so young in
Torquay…. (Only joking, Aunty Jill, I luurve Torquay! It’s got all you need…
cream teas, clotted cream, fudge, beaches and most importantly my family!)
I've been to the wedding (it was great!). It's now Sunday and I'm nursing a hangover. Ugh. I regret that wine. Can I rewind please?
