Stereotype

When I went on the scrambling weekend a while ago, there were two instructors - a chatty, charming one, and a quiet, earnest one. First, I liked the charmer better, but then the quiet one grew on me.  He didn't say much but when he did it was useful. There was one thing he said to me that keeps popping up in my head, even now, weeks later.

A couple of guys were taking pictures of each other on the ridge. I was in the field of view, so I offered to look scared to make them look more badass by contrast. To this, the quiet instructor said to me "Don't be the stereotype."

I'd hate to be the stereotype, that's the last thing I want to be! 

Hallowe'en

We did a cute song at Ukulele class on the occasion of Hallowe'en coming up - Mysterious Mose. Enjoy!



Hope you can open it wherever you are!

Autumn is coming

... So I took some pictures.

 

   

Yoga binge

When I feel sad I go on binges. Nothing seriously bad, no booze, only something to distract me from thinking about it and feeling the sadness.

In the past few weeks since my recent breakup, while being mostly fine (honest!), I've developed another bout of binge-watching my favourite TV show, Doctor Who. There have been 122 new episodes since they revamped the show in 2005 and I had watched them all before. Three times I think. I'm now through 45 of them or so for the fourth time. Having to stay in and study for the Open University course I'm doing isn't helping either, it's enabling my procrastination. My flatmate's partner, who is staying with us these days, likes to mock me and hum the Doctor Who theme whenever he sees me.

The other thing to drown my sorrow in is hot chocolate. Both, the doctor and hot chocolate, make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Temporary and superficial it may be, but hey, I'll take it. Still better than compulsive online shopping. I need to watch myself there - it's the new season for all my favourite brands of outdoors gear - check out the new North Face Summit Series, and Icebreaker's new colours!

At the same time I've (re-)started yoga. I'd meant to take it up again for years and I finally took up the introductory offer of a yoga studio near where I live. Two weeks of unlimited yoga classes for a fixed price. And as I like to save money I went six times during these two weeks - yoga binge! It was great, I now hardly remember my back issues. It is also hot yoga, which means yoga in a room heated to 30 or 40 degree Celsius, depending on the class. This is meant to make you stretch better.

I tried three different types of yoga there. A more dynamic kind with flowing movements, called vinyasa, or power, cardio- or flow yoga. Lots of fluid movements, like variations of sun salutations. Lots of downward and upward dogs and - my favourite (not) - planks. Not really my thing, too much effort. Also, I'm not doing yoga for the exercise, I get enough of that from cycling.

Then there was the other extreme, yin, where I didn't even work up a sweat - in 40 degrees! This one was more about stretching "the deep tissue", whatever that means. Apparently, not the muscles are getting stretched but the tendons and joints. For this one we went into quite uncomfortable, but not strenuous, poses sitting or lying down and tried to relax into them for minutes. Interesting, but it didn't feel like it was doing much. Maybe it would grow on me.

And finally there was the "classic" type where there were poses standing up, sitting and lying down, usually needing a lot of balance, which were to be held for a few breaths. Definitely made me sweaty, but this was more about building flexibility and strength than cardio fitness. Maybe I should stick with this for a while.

Yoga definitely makes me warm - if not fuzzy - inside and out.

Reindeer and Ptarmigans

I discussed my recent breakup with Kat and where to find eligible young men if not on the internet and how about fun group trips such as skiing holidays etc. That turned into talking about future trips which generally makes for more interesting conversation anyway. 

She once did a navigation course in the Cairngorms at Glenmore Lodge, an outdoor training centre near Aviemore. So just for fun I looked them up and saw that they had an Introduction to Scrambling course on this upcoming weekend. 

The weather forecast looked good so I signed up.

I came back with bruises and scratches all over from hugging the rocks while slowly sliding them down, but it was a brilliant weekend and below are a few pictures. I saw reindeers and ptarmigans!

Fiacall Ridge - we scrambled it up.

The gear: helmets and ropes - that's it.

Fiacall Ridge

A great day for views

Getting tready for Christmas.

Princess2

After the princess incident last week, today was another memorable cycling day. Most of my commute is on cycle paths, but there are a few short bits on the road. On one of those, a car turned in front of me, cut me off, and made me brake sharpish. Not great, but I think the driver realised how close it had been and will surely watch out for bikes next time. And I would have forgotten about the incident right away had not a taxi driver, who had witnessed everything, slowed down right next to me and asked me if I was alright. Awwww. Made my day.

Princess!

On my daily commute to and from work on the cycle paths, I usually have to navigate slow cyclists, dog walkers and their dogs, passive-aggressive pedestrians, angry mums, children, dog poo - which is all preferable to cycling in car traffic.

But occasionally, my timing is bad and I have to share the cycle path with high school children on their way home. Some ignore me, some make space, some jump in front of me or shout abuse after me. One boy once stuck a stick between my spokes - I don't think he meant to hurt me, he was just curious. Fortunately, the stick broke.

Today, I passed a group of adolescents who had made space for me, so I said thank you. And one of them said you're welcome. And then he shouted "Princess" after me!

The end (for real this time)

Five months after the first date we have now come full circle. My man and I are done, over and out.

What went wrong? Hard to say, many things. Liking each other and having similar values was not enough. Maybe our personalities and interests were too different, maybe our personal issues weren't compatible. I wasn't myself around him a lot of the time, and at first I thought that was just because we didn't know each other well yet, and I just went along with it, but then I got used to it and stopped noticing it. Not ideal.

I would prefer it if I knew exactly what went wrong and how to fix it, but I don't and he doesn't, so I'll go with that sometimes things just don't work out.

So I talked things through with friends and did a bit of wallowing, and strangely, now I'm fine. So, going forward, I need a new strategy. Here's the best plan I currently have: I'll buy a cottage in the highlands and get kittens!