Acquiring

A rest day from the gym, but I've plenty of other stuff to keep me occupied.

For starters, I've got to get to the stables I rang yesterday for 10 am to meet up with the instructor, who turns out to be the trainer for our national team of dressage riders and a consequence of which is he charges quite a bit for a 45 minute session. However, he doesn't think I'm too heavy for the horse and toboot he's a nice chap which I got on with quite well, so I've arranged a riding lesson for next Friday at 2pm :) It's a bit of a treat because I'm hoping by that time I will have finally reached a big goal in my weight loss, that being losing 3 stone in total and so to reward myself I've decided that 45 minutes of arse ache is the perfect prize for actually getting to a weight where I can ride again :)

After the stables I then head on into Oxford to go pick up Phils train that I'd reserved yesterday. Not only is it blisteringly hot but there are thousands of people in Oxford too, which made it doubly hard work trying to lug the huge hefty thing through the town and back to the car. It was a good job the shop dude had kindly wrapped up the train and put a make shift handle on the box so I could carry it with slightly less difficulty. What was also nice was the 10% discount I got which made it financially sound for me to treat Phil to something a bit extra in the form of a rolling road (which is basically a bit of track and runners you can put the train on and get it running without it actually going anywhere). I thought it might be a good idea because from what Phil has told me about these live steam trains they are quite difficult to control and get running, so perhaps the rolling road will be a good place to get the feel of the thing and how it works before he lets it loose on the track layout.

It was helluva job getting the purchases back to the car and by the time I'd got to the multi storey and gone up several flights of stairs I was dripping with more sweat than had I have gone to the gym. Thus, the car's air conditioning was a most welcome relief to say the least.

On the way home I also nip into the Argos Extra store as I want to get an electric waffle cooker thing since I'd seen a recipe I'd like to try which required such a contraption. Well lets face it, any thing that involves waffles on a diet it's worth spending the 30 quid to get the right equipment to do the job right!

When I get home I unload the car and let Rupert out and as he's wandering around the garden the clouds start to roll in at a rapid pace of knots, and with them comes the most horrendous wind and torrential rain. I mean I've seen some bad weather in my time, but nothing compares to this. Thunder and lightning right over the house, the electricity cutting off, no satellite signal, enough rain that the whole of the garden is submerged in a good inch of water within seconds and a wind who's aftermath left the garden looking like a hurricane had just whipped through it. The honeysuckle was torn off the fence, the parasol was ripped out of its stand, the solar lights were ripped out of the lawn, even Stanley the gnome got blown over - seriously bad stuff, it's a miracle the damage wasn't worse. And all Rupert and I could do while this carried on for 30 minutes was sit and watch it all unfold from the lounge, though Rupert was pretty insistent that he wanted to go outside so I just had to entertain him until it all blew over - I'm sure the temptation of things flying around the garden was proving too much for his eager little paws.

So what with the stables, shopping and storms it's been a pretty exhausting day - though no doubt not nearly as bad as Phils, since he was trying to do a major release of a bit of software whilst dealing with frequent power cuts.

Posted by Abi on the July 22, 2006 9:09 PM