Big Weekend

I’ve still got ‘The Zeal’ but it has been tempered by some realism. Having saved up a few days’ worth of syns to allow for a proper drink on Saturday night, I then proceeded to totally overdo it! And I don’t care! Foodwise I was alright, sticking to meat and salad from the buffet and ignoring all the tasty looking burgers, chips, fried things etc. Drink wise – LOTS of white wine spritzers. So, I did nod to SW – wine spritzers are definitely better than pints of bitter – but the volume probably was not what Margaret Miles-Bramwell had in mind! But we had a really good night out with nice people and danced and socialised and had fun so what harm?



I’m slightly disappointed in the photographs (which I WILL get round to posting soon) – they don’t do my dress justice. It is very nipped in at the waist which doesn’t come out and the shoulder pads are huge. However, trust me, it had true 80’s impact and I was proud of it! Rich’s shell suit went down well too. It was a strange experience for me seeing him with hair – albeit a cheap, shiny platinum blonde mullet. I got just a flash of how handsome he must have been in his youth before the hair retreated and was shaved away!! (For the record – I think he’s good looking now but the hair definitely made him look younger!! Looking at the photos, though, I realise that I must have been pretty tipsy to be fooled by THAT wig!)



It wasn’t the biggest party ever as quite a few people didn’t show (don’t you hate that when people make an effort to throw a party and then get let down?). But the people who did turn up were all really fun-loving and sociable; everybody was in costume and everybody was up dancing and mixing. None of that hanging round the wall chatting only to the people you know (which in our case would have been each other, the birthday girl and her fiancée!).



I am pleased that, although I had a blowout on Saturday night, I did not use that as an excuse to stray during the day on Saturday and nor did I lapse on Sunday. As you know from my last post, I went for a decent run on Saturday and my pre-party eating was good. Sunday was, obviously a much slower affair but we still headed out for a good couple of hours of hilly tramping up Bradwell Edge in the afternoon which really blew the cobwebs away. I ate a fair bit on Sunday – a pub lunch when picking the car up and then a roast chicken supper – but it was chosen carefully and was not bad in terms of SW’s strictures. Plenty of vegetables and salad and no sweets apart from fruit.



I think this is likely to be the pattern from now on – strict and careful during the week and slightly more relaxed at weekends to allow for the odd blowout and a few treats.



The other change for this first SW week is that I went to a class at the gym this lunchtime rather than lane swimming! Swimming is good and I’m still going to be going but I think variety is the name of the game for me and a Pump FX class which incorporates weights will be ideal. I tried swimming last Monday and it was a nightmare. They close half the fast lane on Mondays in order that 1 or 2 people can learn to swim! I’m all for people learning to swim but it seems to me that inconveniencing 20 or more people to cater for a couple is not good use of space – surely you can learn to swim outside of lunch hours? Especially as most of the people I’ve seen appear to be of retirement age! Grrrr…..ok now, rant over.



So – Pump FX it was. And it was HARD! Only 50 minutes but lots of weights and lots of repetition. Not a nice, stretchy mellow class by any means. I asked the woman what I needed before we started and was a little gung ho about the weights. She recommended 5kg on each end of the bar so I went along with it. It was only when the class started that I realised that I was the only woman with orange weights - everyone else was on lighter apart from the leader! Still, I stuck it out and I must admit it was a good workout. My arms are a little shaky now and my legs weren't too steady going down the stairs but I'm sure I'll survive. I’m going to try a Zumba class on Friday too….I know I know, Zumba has been going for ages now but I'm not an early-adopter, me…..more of a follower of the herd many months if not years after the event…



I’ve got the big first weigh-in tomorrow night. Dun dun deeeeerrrr…. I’m hopeful of a decent result judging by my showing on the scales each morning but the hangover from weekend drinking can pounce at any time so I’m not saying that I’m confident exactly!!