Moving on

I am sitting at my desk on my last day in this contract. I started here in March as a temporary gig for a month or two and here we are four months later. It could have gone on longer but my employer said 'enough is enough'. I will certainly miss the canteen who actually cook food from fresh and it tastes as good as it looks (as opposed to most work canteens who reheat food or make stuff from packets and its all a disappointment and you end up eating chips 'cos they are the only thing that tastes as it should). Oh and the Costa Coffee franchise they have here - I will miss that too!

I have been continuing with the exercise idea and it is beginning to have a positive effect on my size and shape but boy do I ache and man it is hard work! Last night I went running with our new youth pastor - we were supposed to work on hills specifically but ended up doing a 5 mile run which incorporated three hills of varying length but also the most torrential rain which meant we looked like drowned rats half way round. It was the first time I met Paul so it was nice to make such a dignified first impression!!

Today I am trying to decide if my legs are up to a cycle ride with Steve? I can't decide yet - my legs say no, my energy level says 'you must be kidding' and yet my waistline says 'its working, keep going'.

Oh and very exciting, Womad starts today and we have weekend tickets - I am definitely looking forward to Peter Gabriel tomorrow night! Lets hope the rain holds off for that.

progress and steps backwards

Just a short one tonight as I really need to go to bed soon.

I have had a bit of progress in some areas and a step backwards in others. Yesterday I got a PB on sprints on the bike in my personal training session (I took 1 minute 17 seconds off my previous PB). And then today I managed a very pleasing PB on the rower when I was acting as timer in the gym circuits class - I did 1000m in 3 minutes 53.7 seconds!! (My previous best was 4 mins 1 secs). And there is progress in the weightloss/inch loss plan as well as I managed to get into a smaller dress size and continue to inch towards the next weight milestone.

The backwards step came on Tuesday when I had a headache which meant I had to pull out of the housegroup barbecue. Since I started the new tablets I have just had one migraine which is good for me.

Well, time now for bed because there is still one more day at work until the weekend.

Avoiding the heat as best I can

While the rest of the country has been basking in a heatwave I have been working either in air conditioned rooms or else in an office with the blinds permanently closed and the fan whirring away on my desk. However, the heat hasn't stopped my efforts at the gym - they have air conditioning and water in plentiful supply so I am pretty safe from heat/exhaustion. The wrist is still a bit dodgy so we concentrated on lower body exercises in my PT session last night - man do my legs know about it today! But I am signed up for gym circuits tonight so there is no rest yet.

Andy Murray made a better job of his quarter-final yesterday...he won in straight sets. So he has made it to the semis and the hopes of the country are raised again.

On Saturday we are off to Henley to go to the Royal Regatta - here's hoping the sun shines for that (although not too much - I don't want a repeat of the W shaped sunburn from last year - it was a V shape when I was still in the halter-neck dress but when I let everything down it was distinctly W shaped!!)

Best wishes to James Pettit who is being ordained at Canterbury Cathedral on Saturday too. And talking of ordinations, our NEW curate was ordained at Bristol Cathedral on Sunday last week and so he will be serving at his first services this Sunday - I am looking forward to meeting him at last. And the new youth pastor arrived in town this week so hopefully we will get to meet him too.

Dave went to book our holiday to Greece yesterday. We have such good holidays planned - in a month's time we will be on holiday in Devon; in three months time we will go on holiday to Greece and then in six months we will be on holiday in South Africa. We had so many years where we couldn't afford holidays or else they were cheap and cheerful affairs camping or house sitting. And a few breaks where we were fortunate enough to be paid for by Dave's Mum and Dad. So it has been lovely this year to be able to plan, book and pay for 4 breaks away (and getting more exotic as the year progresses!). Thank you Father for your provision.