Back in the pool

I'm a bit behind on blogging. There's been a holiday and a flying trip that I am yet to write about. But today is just a quick one...

It's been a while since my surgery now and so this morning I headed to the swimming pool for my first proper swim in two months. My general loss of fitness has been quite bad so I knew not to expect the 2km I was managing back in May! I went in with no expectations and did a respectable 700m. I mixed up the strokes, but was very pleased that my front crawl is still in fairly decent shape. Until I started my swimming training back in March I hadn't done much front crawl at all and now it is almost my default stroke. Success!

Here's some other stuff I've been up to recently:

Backstage and tutus

Two weeks ago I spent my Saturday in a sea of tutus, reliving my younger days as a member of the stage crew. Throughout my time at uni I worked panto season at a local theatre, as well as the occasional other show/event. It's where I met several of my closest friends.

This time it was the end of year production for London Amateur Ballet. A was the official photographer for the day and I had tagged along as assistant photographer (not that he needed one!). It started with company class at The Place studios, after which we all decamped to The Bloomsbury Theatre for technical rehearsals and then the two shows.

It was strange donning stage blacks and hanging out in the corridors and wings of a theatre - after four years of panto season (plus the odd other show), I left that part of me behind over 10 years ago.

I basically had no proper jobs to do. I tried to take some photos, but it was tricky with the low levels of light that you get in the wings. However, I did find a variety of ways of being useful and staying busy:

- "tagging" the tutus to keep the layers together

- dressing chairs with fabric (it was actually skirts!)

- running to find the principles when they were due onstage

- getting water for the dancers

- dresser for a quick change

And many more little jobs to help out.

I'm pleased to say that both shows went very smoothly and A took some fantastic photos. Watching all the ballerinas really made me want to get dancing again. I reckon I should be fit enough for class in a week or two. I hope so!

A time for quiet

I'm taking life a bit gently at the moment - my path to full recovery isn't as linear as I expected! However, I'm still managing to have fun and happiness in less adventurous ways...

I made a chicken and leek pie (cheated with ready-to-roll pastry, but the filling was from scratch!):

I've spent some mindless time colouring in:

At the weekend we had a lovely evening with friends. (No pictures - too busy chatting and nibbling food!)

Early bedtimes, lay-ins where possible and occasional naps. I can do slow and quiet :)

Charting recovery

Alternative title: Another ode to my Fitbit.

15 days ago I had minor surgery. It wasn't particularly exciting to be honest. I was apprehensive (my first general anaesthetic), but it went very smoothly and I was home the same day.

My Fitbit One has automatically charted my recovery, which I think is really cool.

I wasn't quite so excited when on the first day I shuffled out of the house for a very slow walk (about 200m!), only to discover that the Fitbit didn't count my robotic limping as walking! I ended that day with 23 official steps.

I quickly realised that this was actually a good thing - the aim was to walk normally, and that's what my Fitbit measures. If I got tired or sore and slowed to a moonwalking shuffle, then it didn't count my steps because they weren't really steps.

This is what recovery looks like:

The first day you can see was the day of the op. Then I had a few days of barely anything, until the 3000 step mark. This was followed by quite a few days of three to four thousand steps, where I was able to get out of the house for a short trip. The first of those expeditions completely wiped me out - I had a 2 hr nap that afternoon!

Two weeks later and I'm pleased to be back at my target of 11,000. And perfect timing as I'm due back at work on Monday! :)

Taking the bank holiday weekend easy

I did basically nothing this bank holiday weekend...

Saturday: a spot of shopping for seafood and other exciting ingredients. Then cooking paella:

Just as tasty as it looks. I was a very happy bunny.

Oh, and of course there was falling asleep whilst watching the Eurovision Song Contest. Annual compulsory TV!

Sunday: It got to 3pm and I still hadn't left the house, so we decided on a little jaunt to buy cake. May have accidentally-on-purpose ended up in one of London's most exclusive shops...

Monday: The most exciting thing I did was make drop scones for breakfast. I even made an apple and summer fruits compote-type-sauce to douse them in. Didn't remember to take a photo though.

Living the slow life is rather lovely sometimes...

Ain't no party like an S Club party!

Important Notice: This post contains extreme cheesiness!

I had the most amazing Christmas present - tickets to see S Club 7 live on their reunion tour: Bring it all Back! Finally, after months of waiting (rather impatiently), this weekend was D-Day!

I had such a ball! The music was perfect - loud, cheesy and reminiscent of younger, more carefree days. I shouted and screamed, sang along and danced more than I should have done. It's difficult to sit/stand still in such a great party atmosphere!

One of the best presents ever. A truly great night out :)

Photo from the S Club 7 facebook page

Not this time

Unfortunately, I've had to withdraw my entry to the 5k Open Water Swim that I was meant to be doing in six weeks time. My training has aggravated a pre-existing medical condition which now needs to be treated. No need to worry - it's nothing serious, but it does mean that I'm now on enforced inactivity until treatments are complete.

I'm really disappointed. Training was beginning to go really well and I was cautiously optimistic that I might complete the challenge (5k in 2 hours). I will definitely re-enter this event or a similar one next year.

And when I do, I'll have some experience and tips under my belt:

- three months is enough time to train, but only if I stick to three sessions every week from the start

- my front crawl technique needs some work so kick board and leg buoy workouts need to be in the training every week

- open water training sessions take much more thought and planning than I expected

- breathing every three (or four or five) strokes is good and needs to be practised more

- swimming fast is hard so I need to add speedy lengths in more often

I also need to prepare for the fact that my hair will need to be tied up most of the time (because I won't ever have the energy to blow dry it) and my nails will be permanently breaking after being soaked so much.

In the meantime, I have halved my Fitbit step count and am forcing myself to sit down as much as possible. It feels odd but I'm guessing I'll get used to being sedentary and lazy quite quickly!