It’s a minor miracle I am able to type at all right now given not just all my extremities but a fair few other parts of my body are frozen into little flesh coloured icicles. The pizza is a long distant memory, I believe I burned the final calories circa Tower Bridge but good heavens was it cold. I even succumbed to looking foolish and nipped into Runners World to acquire a little beanie hat to keep my ears warm but still no good…by the time I finally fell through the front door, I was nothing short of a popsicle. Whoever said that a few extra christmas pounds of padding works as insulation is wrong – by rights I should have been self-heating like a small nuclear power station (ok, I’m not THAT big but still) it’s a myth!
I’m now sprawled on the sofa, watching a very entertaining programme whilst I contemplate getting ready and heading out to burn yet more calories on a dance floor. I will never ever complain again about clubs being hot. I will trade sweaty rivulets of make up down my face over frozen air slowly incapacitating my lungs any day. But, at least I am one step nearer to Monty Blanc.
I’m still glowing after yesterday’s successful day and my lovely client. It’s lovely to wake up in the morning and realise you really do love what you do. It even prompted me to continue on my coaching coursework this morning despite wanting to embrace the morning under my duvet with a pot of tea and the newspaper (I’ve now confiscated my FT Weekend’s from Marmite – when I hear it being delivered through the letterbox there is a very unladylike race between him and I to get down there and be the one to retrieve it). That said it’s currently still folded as I’ve been somewhat distracted playing solitaire on my iPad whilst trying to do some research.
I’m still not sure I’m a fan of the whole iPad thing (it got a bit of a bad rap to be fair in terms of association after the whole summer drama last year) and in fairness if Vodafone hadn’t offered me a free one (apparently my phone bills are so high they gifted it to me…note to self…stop talking) I would still be very anti-ipad but now I’ve found the solitaire game and the kindle download….I feel that’s about to change. And as it’s the second generation I am told I can video Skype S as soon as she gets one. Not sure that’s a good thing either given we all have very strange telephone habits…we’ve already witnessed my mother forgetting that we can see her when she says one thing to us and then turns to my father (on camera) whispering another to him. Bless.
Having not woken up in the Hotel D’Inghliterra in Rome with S this morning to celebrate her birthday, I have endeavoured to do the next best thing which has included serenading her with a (too high pitch) rendition of Happy Birthday (I apparently sounded like Cinderella Mouse to all who could hear..damn speakerphones), and starting to organise a separate birthday celebration for her on her return tomorrow. I did attempt to bake her a birthday cake earlier but when the second attempt came out looking like a rock hard biscuit (it would seem I am not blessed with the baking gene) I admitted defeat. Tomorrow I intend to leap out of bed and head off to find a patisserie to secure a proper (edible) cake, candles, balloons and all other frivolity that at 37 we should have grown out of but haven’t. Suffice to say that by 2pm tomorrow my flat should resemble a 12 year old’s birthday party. Bea’s of Bloomsbury do NOT let me down tomorrow.
Right, I just have time for a quick read up on MMA (Mixed Martial Arts don’t you know) before I get ready and head out. As part of the new charity, one arm of it is using MMA to help teach discipline to ex-young-offenders/errant teens as well as providing the coaching and mentoring service. I may live to regret signing up to this bit of it and am just hoping that my role is more on the coaching side than having to learn hand to hand combat. Although saying that, it would be quite cool…I could indulge my ninja/bond villainess fantasy some more. Although given I squeal like a baby when I’m only having a pillow fight I fear I dream my body and brain can do far more than it ever really wants to! I’d probably look like some comedy extra in the music video for Kung-Fu-Fighting a la Hong Kong Phooey.
And so to today:
High: waking up smiling and feeling that same sense of achievement from yesterday and feeling that all truly is good with the world. Finally acquiring some new snowboarding boots so that I can quietly nip off to Hemel Hempsted snow dome for some sneaky practice pre Claviere (I can NOT borrow anyone else’s again…worse than bowling shoes!) Being told by a friend that I had “made the world right again” after she had seen me as I am apparently a ‘calming influence’ these days…ha! I swear my parents will choke on their coffee when they read that but it’s not the first time I’ve heard it lately. Must be careful though, calming influence could very quickly = dull.
Low: not being with my best friend in Rome. Realising just HOW MUCH pizza I ate before bed last night and feeling like it has already become an unwelcome resident of my hips. Wishing I could scoop up all these unhappy kids in my arms and tell them its going to be ok in the end, nothing more gut-wrenching than seeing a child who has lost all hope (no more charity/mentoring videos for me this weekend). Still can’t feel my toes….
