Banding about

Well, I can safely say that I was pretty much ill for the whole of last week. My gym quest isn't going so well, I managed Monday and Tuesday before experiencing a horrible 'pulled muscle' feeling in my stomach on Tuesday afternoon, whereby I had trouble walking!!!! I can't imagine how I did this, I go on the treadmill, cross-trainer, bike and stepper, no funny weights or lifting, it's utterly bizarre. Anyway, I'm going to keep at my 90 minute routine, but I'm going to be gentler I think, just in case. I have recovered from it now, but as tomorrow is a BH, Hefty and I are going to do something, so I'll make it up another time.

I did go to Ming and Francoise's on Wednesday night. I can never remember what we do when I go round, but there is always some kind of hilarity involved, and this week I seem to think it involved large nipples and Emos. Hmm. My memory really is rubbish these days, I don't understand. Long term stuff is fine, birthdays, anniversaries etc, all good, but ask me what I did the previous day and I'll look at you blankly.

I do remember that last night I went to my friend's (and the guitarist in my band) gig, which was mind-blowingly awesome! My bass player is also in the band, and it's a Prince tribute band called EndorphinMachine

I'm not really into Prince, I like some stuff but on the whole, it's not noisy enough for me, but I know how good my band-mates are, and Hefty has seen them before and sings their praises (not literally!), so I was looking forward to going! I was not disappointed!! I'm probably not the best person to write a review of a tribute band to an artist whose work I don't know a lot about and am not really in to, but I can honestly say, it was AMAZING! They're a 10 piece band, they even have a brass section, and it's just incredible to listen to. I've linked to their MySpace page but it doesn't do them justice, they're definitely a LIVE band. They played for 2 and half hours, and I thoroughly enjoyed it all! My drummer was there too, and we were stood around getting all sentimental saying 'Can you believe we're in a band with them' (at which point we would gesture towards the guitarist and bass player! It was frackin great! Hurrah for bands!! Trouble is, I really want to gig now, but we have nothing planned at the mo!!!

Right, am gonna sign off, I don't have much more news than this (that I can remember) and Hefty is snoring like a motherchuffer, which means it's time to go to sleep!!

Ciao for now!

Atchoo

Well, today was semi-productive, but only semi for one reason alone. I've got a bloody cold! I really am flipping from one illness to the next at the moment, it's beyond funny.

Because of this, I never made it to the gym, because I barely had the energy to get up the stairs with the shopping. Then I had to dash out again to meet my friend, then when I got home I had that thing where your eyes are all sore, tired, and overly wet, so I just tried to rest inbetween wiping my infernally runny nose. Boo.

I managed to make my cheescakes though, four mini ones for lunch tomorrow, one uber-one for dinner. Let's hope it's nice, we're going to be eating a lot of it tomorrow! I have also opted to make BBQ chicken pizzas, a garlic bread, and a ricotta and pancetta pasta bake, so by the time we get to my parents, we'll be full enough to make it through dinner. Does that make sense to anyone? Probably not, let me explain.....

It's not an interesting tale, but any member of my family will tell you that if you go to my folks' house, all that's ever in the cupboards is Weetabix, Vitamins (hundreds of em), and Aloe Vera juice. In the fridge, you will find skimmed milk, some form of sliced meat, and a cholesterol lowering buttery spread of some kind. Meals are meagre, and it's very rare you leave there feeling full. I might be surprised, I should give them the benefit of the doubt....

I should try and go to sleep, it's kinda late and I have to be up early to tidy and stuff. I do hate being ill, mainly cos that's all I seem to do at the moment!

Oh well. Nighty night night.

iP

*another great picture, who knew sneezing images on Google could be so entertaining?

Busy-ness

Yawn.

Am rather tired today, must be all this exercise. Managed to do another 90 mins yesterday, and will do so again this afternoon. Got to drop Hefty off at work and head to a real live supermarket for some supplies this morning, cos we've got someone coming round tomorrow. He's the guitarist in my band but we're both friends with him, in fact Hefty knew him first as they worked together. He's coming round so to watch wrestling! An afternoon of wrestlemania and smackdown or whatever, I'm not really familiar with the terminology, but he and Hefty like it so I'm going to do some cookin and turn it into an event. I also need to make a cheesecake cos we're going to my parent's house for dinner tomorrow evening and I offered to provide pudding. I'm making a fudge cheesecake (not chocolate fudge, just fudge) which should be nice (in theory).

I'm also meeting my friend for lunch, so I've got rather a lot to fit in! Sadly, it's chucking it down again today, I'm looking forward to this hot dry Summer we've been promised. We've had some nice days so far though, and I've managed to get a bit of a tan just on my face from having the roof down on my car!!! Bit of a random tan that one, like I've been hung upside down and dipped in something, cos it stops just below my shoulders!

Ooh had a mini-band practice last night actually, and have added 'Zero' by Smashing Pumpkins and 'Livin' on a Prayer' to our set list! Oh the hilarity, I'm angling for 'The Final Countdown' now...... :0)

Right, best get on!

Toodle oo!

*I have no idea who the people in the picture are, but I like the fact that one of them is doing a crazy-ass jump and the other has bitchin hair.

Gym Bunny

So I went to the gym today and did my first session. All in all I did:

5 mins warm-up on the bike
25 mins power-walking on treadmill
5 mins running on treadmill (hey I'm easing myself in!)
15 mins on crosstrainer
40 mins walking on treadmill

So, 90 minutes all in all, which I'm pretty happy with. The only thing I was disappointed with was that there are TVs in some of the machines but not the treadmills. I would have spent longer on there if there'd been a TV, not that I wasn't on there for a while, but watching Diagnosis Murder with no sound and subtitles wasn't as much fun. I managed to watch Doctors on the crosstrainer, but it's not my favourite machine (these ones are different to the one we have at home) and I couldn't do the DM time on it. Oh well! Got some good stuff on my iPod so I'll have to adapt. I'm not going to be there at that sort of a time most days anyway I reckon, as my plan is to go on my way back from dropping Hefty off at work, which would normally be about 11am. As long as I can get a couple of hours in every day I'll be happy enough. It was nice to get back into it and I really enjoyed it actually. I have to be gentle with the running as I have asthma that's triggered by exercise, so I can't currently do anything too intensive. I don't think you need to anyway per se, power-walking definitely gets you working, but I'd like to build up my asthma resistance so I can jog around the village when I'm at home. So 5 minutes sounds crap but for me is really good!

Still have to walk Ozzy but the weather is against us at present. Can't go til Hefty gets back from work anyway, he's doing some kind of computer-fandanglery, no idea what.

My parents have invited us for dinner on Saturday which is bizarre but nice. We were supposed to be going to an antiques place during the day but it's off so it's compensation!

Anyway, Hefty has called, best go, ciao!

Star Trek - Go and see it, NOW!

OHMYGOD! So, Star Trek is the BEST film EVER! I was captivated, mesmerised, thoroughly awesomed out the whole time! I want to see it again and again and again! Truly, it exceeded all my expectations, and I was expecting something pretty darn good! I can't discuss it much without giving it away, but I think one of my favourite things about it was that unlike some remakes, references to the original aren't thrown in in a clanging hit you in the face kind of way. They're there, but there's not millions of them, and they're done well, so well, that if you aren't a fan and you go see it, you're not going to feel you've missed something. But then if you are a fan, you go 'Ah, cool' and smile more!

All round bitchiness people, go see it!!!

*for some reason, you can't get a decent picture of the new peeps when you Google it, which is really weird frankly, but hey. So I just stuck with the original chaps!

Silk and Steel

Has anyone seen that advert for Robinson's Be Natural? With the bird? I love it! It makes me happy to think of lickle birds having all that stuff in their lickle homes!

I just made two key purchases from Amazon, 100 Hits of the 80s and Legends by 5 Star.





Bit random for 8am on a Monday morning you might think, but for some utterly bizarre reason, because I got up to accept my Ocado delivery, I stayed up (don't usually) and am sat watching 'The 80s at 8' on VH1. It was on when I turned the TV on and 5 Star were playing (Can't Wait Another Minute), and I remembered how much I LOVED 5 Star as a child! And as I sang along I realised the chances of me still having the tapes of their albums anywhere was slim to none, and I don't have a tape player anyway, so I went on Amazon.

I love Amazon, especially because I have Amazon Prime which means I get it the next day, however little I have purchased. They messed up with it last week which was annoying, but that's the first time it has happened to me so I'll forgive them on this occasion. Anyhoo, 5 Star, the 3CD boxed set was £4.98, bargain! And because I liked some of the other stuff playing on this show, I decided to invest in a good 80s comp whilst I was at it. 5 CDs, 100 hits (as the title suggests), £6.98. I'm happy with that!

Off to look at a gym today. We have an in-house gym (wow, I made that sound posh), but it caters more for Hefty's Arnie regime, and there's not a great deal of CV equipment. Plus, if I do venture in, Ozzy gets in the way due to his nosey nature and natural capacity for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's a couple of gyms near me, but the nearest is a JJB Sports one (I had no idea they weren't just a shop!), and I had a butchers on the t'internet and it seemed pretty good. The best bit is, I can just pay monthly, it's not that expensive, and I don't have to sign an annual contract or anything. Plus, it's cheaper because I can choose Off-Peak hours - hurrah! So I'm going to go and have a proper look on my way back from dropping Hefty off, so I can see if it's any good. Hopefully it is, then I can go on the way back from dropping Hefty off every day, yay!

Right, best get ready, toodle oo!

Scurvy Dog

Goodness, I thought I'd last blogged on Thursday, goes to show how crap my sense of time/space is!

So, what have I been up to. Hmm. Well, not a lot! Hefty was away on Wednesday, he went to St Albans (muchos fun for him) to do his computer fandanglery gubbins, so it was just me and the Ozster. We mainly slept and watched Poirot from what I can recall. I'm not really very well at the moment, various things, so I've been trying to rest, and though I do do some stuff, I have trouble remembering cos my brain is a little out of order at the moment. I know I baked cupcakes, and that I saw SuperSaz, and that I spent today in bed cos I felt a bit low. No idea what I did yesterday, which is bizarre. My long term memory is really good, but recently I have had great trouble remembering things I did the previous day.

I really need to go back to the doctors and sort out my medication, but not only is it impossible to get in, once you do, they're not really very helpful! I remember when I went through a horrendous period of insomnia a few months ago, and when I went to the docs for help, he said he didn't believe in sleeping tablets, I needed to eat more fruit. THANKS! He was pretty crap generally, and told me off for not going back sooner to sort out some of my other meds, but what's the point?! They're shit! I need to go really, and when I do, and inevitably get bollocked for leaving it so long, I feel that this time I am just going to say:

- Getting an appointment (or trying) is usually more stressful than whatever problems I'm having
- When I do come, nobody seems to read my file and I have to list my history
- If I don't feel my medication is working, I get told to try it for 2 more weeks and come back - what's the point if it hasn't been working for 6 months? What's another 2 weeks going to do?
- I'm bipolar, STOP offering me counselling! I have nothing to discuss, I just need better drugs!!!

See, just writing all that has got me feeling very tense, and that's why I hate going. I always feel like they don't believe there's anything wrong with me which is why they don't want to help me. Grrr.

Anyhoo, I'll shut up about it, it's not very interesting to read and it's making me feel worse!!!

Hoping to go and see Star Trek this week, can't wait!! Not sure when we'll manage it but as long as we do it'll be all good!

In other news, my friend is having a Pirate BBQ Birthday Party in June, and because we can take Ozzy, I'm working on making him a wickedace 'Scurvy Dog' costume! Am struggling to buy a costume for him (if I lived in America it wouldn't be a problem) which is why I'll have to make one, but he's only little and it'll be a nice little project for m, something to keep me occupied. I'll post pictures when I have some!

Not much more to report today, mainly cos I can't remember anything! So I shall sign off!

Ciao for now!

iP

*Sigh

Eugh, BBQ NOT a success, it went out, Hefty was furious and is gonna buy a gas one, and we suspect the bit of food I did eat was partially raw cos I've been helluvva poorly sick :0(

Hefty and I both feel crap in point of fact, though he seems to have a fever of some kind (NOT swine flu before anyone suggests it!).

He has to go to St Albans tomorrow too, boo :0( Double boo actually, as the work he has to do starts at 6pm so he has to stay overnight :0( So me and Oswaldius will have to chill on our own. I might actually watch TV (shock horror), but I'm not holding my breath.

Weather is shite today, I generally feel ill and miserable, and most people I know do too. Roll on Summer I say, I need cheering up!

iP

Death of a Tomato

Well, had a bit of an event today. Went to Harvey Nichols yesterday and bought some Daylesford Organic Ketchup because we're having a barbecue today. This is what it looks like for anyone who doesn't know:



So, I opened it at lunchtime cos I was going to have a bit with some pasta - EPIC FAIL! As you can see, the lid is one of those poppy Grolsch cork things and despite being such a little bottle, the top popped out with such force, it pretty much exploded all over me! I was a bit shocked, but wiped myself down and got rid of the splatters on the floor. Then I noticed it had gone on the walls so I cleaned that too. Then, as something caught the corner of my eye, I spotted the mess on the ceiling! Good god! Dexter would have had a field day with this one, it literally looked like a murder scene. The more I cleaned (and Hefty cleaned too, we needed to act quickly so it wouldn't stain), the more I found! It was a ruddy nightmare! So we're thinking of suing HN for the inconvenience of it all. Why the hell not? They can afford it!

That's pretty much my news for today, we haven't done anything, I'm still in recovery and Hefty needs a rest.

West Ham won 1-0 yesterday, we're 7th, which is really good for us. Yay for the Hammers!

BBQ in process of being lit, ciao for now.

iP

Books and shoes

Well, despite saying I needed to get on with reading the two books I already have on the go, and so not having time to get through the Twilight books as well, I only went and bought another ruddy one today! I bought this:



It's a factual fictiony story (if that makes sense) based on a real murder that happened in 1860. And, according to the back cover, an 'unimaginably gruesome murder' at that. I'm about 10 pages in so can't tell you much about it other than:

a) I like it so far
b) It had a Richard & Judy Book Club sticker on the front when it came

R&J, that's good enough for me!

In other news, Ozzy is now on Twitter! The settings bit is playing up and so he can't get his picture up yet which is a bit rubbish. It keeps saying something about 'Twitter is stressed out about this at the moment so the function has been temporarily disabled.' Bizarre. Anyway, if you want to follow him he's @OzzleBozzle

I still haven't watched Dexter or written any of my book, instead I continued with the mad cleaning. There is nothing left to be cleaned in my house now, all three floors are spotless and tidy. This is good news, but Ozzy brought some bark in from the garden earlier and made a right mess chewing it in the lounge, at which point I told him off and got the dustpan and brush. Hope I'm not going to be one of those mental OCD types, like Monk!!!

I heard about these trainers called MBTs that are supposed to help your posture and rid you of your thunder thighs and such. They aint cheap and when I scouted around, they do look a bit Spice Girls meets Special Bus, so I avoided them. Now, Skechers have made their own version, and though they still look a bit orthopaedic, because they're Skechers, I'm thinking I could get away with it, cos they just look like big trainers. Not sure.....? Any thoughts?

Here are the MBTs:



And here are the Skechers:



The reviews I've found (there aren't loads) seem to be positive so I'm very tempted but I was thinking of getting this tiny Mulberry bag I saw so I'm not sure. Part of me thinks I really don't need another Mulberry bag, especially a small one (where will I put all my crap?!) but I do like it. Decisions decisions! Look at me, shoes & handbags, how very un-iPandah-ish! Must be all this cleaning, it's sent me snooker loopy!

:0)