Wednesday 30 May 2007

Body and brain training

It goes like this, reaching ones mid-forties and I'm doing a job I love but is sedentary and heck, I don't even have to travel anywhere to do it. Compared to where I was once upon a time, this is an extremely privileged life. No longer the single parent working hard to support a home and two young children; no more walking from the top of Ladbroke Grove to the then, new and huge Tesco at Shepherds Bush and returning with the pram laden with shopping provisions until the next trip, with young daughter having to walk, baby tucked in with the softer items, and carrier bags hanging all round the pram like some overladen monthly train crossing the Indian sub-continent. All in all, I did a lot of moving around in those days. Much more than I realised.

With a car license brings that incredible supreme feeling of driving oneself to the supermarket and then opening the boot and loading up the heaviest possible items without any second thought. Indeed, life has changed beyond belief.

Now grown daughter has recently left the family fold which I have found painful but that is a whole 'nother story. Which perhaps has added to my navel contemplation of late (late meaning the last year or so!).

With sluggish body and thickening waist I feel my brain is thickening too. But just like Gok's programme How to look good naked with the bevvy of ordinary women worrying about perceived problems, perhaps it is just me that thinks I'm thick. Or out of shape or bulging in places.

However, it is a matter of fact that I have little stamina and can't do anything for too long before I need to wimp off to the chaise longue. Then it seems watching too many of the TV shopping channels opens one to a unknown world of delights that would turn us in to gloriously hard tummied, blonde, tall, beach babes of California. And that's just the men. I didn't realise there was a whole world besides QVC and again that's a whole 'nother story.

One item I have purchased, second hand from Ebay, from a person quite near to me so it meant very low price and collecting it myself, is an air walker rather like the one above. I didn't quite bargain on having to slug it across the estate to the car park but I was DETERMINED as I propped it over my small shoulders and tried to weave a straight line to the car.


That was just over a week ago. A day or two after the purchase, Mr Doris encouraged me into another buying frenzy of something I had wanted and I suppose even he thought there was only so many times I could play solitaire or jaw breaker on our hand held satnav gizmo whilst I did my usual lounging on the chaise. All that exercise was very tiring don't you know!

So I am now the very proud owner of an outrageously pink Nintendo DS Lite together with Dr Kawashima's Brain Training. I even ditched the car and walked into town to make the said purchase: my virtue was at an all time high that day! Anyone who knows me, know I would normally opt for a more functional and less girly colour such as Black or White but something seems to have gripped me. All this Gok watching and I'm going all girly it seems. By the Saturday Dr Kawashima's Brain Training wasn't enough and I walked into town again and acquired two more brain games. The first is still the constant best but Big Brain Academy gets most use. Strange that. And then a review of those different brain games is a whole 'nother story.

This morning I have managed to do 12 minutes and 22 seconds in one go on the air walker. This is a lot for me and an achievement. Whilst I am not knackered, like I was in the first days, I had to come and sit down here writing this whilst my blood pulsed through my body and it calmed down. Just yesterday morning as I dressed in my apparently matching underwear, I almost thought "cor! not bad" but didn't quite parade downstairs to show off to Mr Doris. There has to be a limit I guess and I've a way to go yet but it sure feels good to have started.

PS. Dear blogger friends, please forgive me for not visiting or even replying to your messages here. I love hearing from you and think of you all at times ♥ ♥ ♥


Original Comments:

Steg said...
Air-walking? Brain training? Babe, you need to mellow out a little.
Seriously though, it's good to know you're taking care of yourself.
Monday, June 04, 2007 8:56:00 AM


Doris said...
:-)
Wednesday, June 06, 2007 5:53:00 PM

jane said...
I think that airwalker is called a Gazelle here. I've never tried one though.

That pink Nintendo is so cool. Well, it looks cool! I'm wondering what the stylus is for though. Does it play Mario Bros.? I only like that & Tetris.

Hey, our 3rd anniversary is coming up!!
Thursday, June 07, 2007 8:51:00 AM


Doris said...
We have shopping TV adverts for the Gazelle here. I think the gazelle is better than mine and what I would have liked but this one is a good substitute at a fraction of the price.

The stylus is instead of using button controls - the right hand screen (if you are right handed!) is a touch screen which is great and gets away from the kiddy gaming technology which I am no good at!

3rd anniversary?! Really! Wow. So much has happened in that time.... I should check my old blog records as I don't remember any dates.

Hugs :-)
Friday, June 08, 2007 12:42:00 PM


Ally said...
I think it's the stamina thing that is the main issue rather than the waist-line issue. Although that's important for self-image, of course!
Saturday, June 09, 2007 4:11:00 PM

Wednesday 9 May 2007

Spray on condom

You see it goes like this ..... I was doing a quick visit to some blog buddies and in responding to Cheryl's post called Stynx I did a quick web search for the other flavour names for the lynx range and came across a website with a clip about one of the Lynx ads.

But what grabs my eye is this fabulous TV clip about spray on condoms. It is so plausible it must be an April Fools joke?

PS. I see the idea made it to the HalfBakery in 2002. Elsewhere on the web it is reported as a serious product due to come out in 2008.


Original Comments:

Anji said...

I didn't know that you were back, and in full swing I see. I wonder how they remove them?

Wednesday, May 09, 2007 5:11:00 PM



Ally said...

You spend *waaaaay* too much time with Google :).

Monday, May 14, 2007 2:20:00 PM


Milt said...

I'll have to get some of that it might help fix leaking pipes. It might also be useful if you wanted to waterproof a bandage.

I can't see it working as a prophylactic though a cold spray might help to kill the desire.

Monday, May 14, 2007 6:56:00 PM



Britmum said...

Hmmm real nice!! LOL

Take care xx

Thursday, May 17, 2007 4:30:00 PM


Pookie65 said...

I have officially seen everything now. Doris, hon, you come up with the neatest stuff on here.

Hope all is well!

Thursday, May 24, 2007 9:47:00 PM



Chandira said...

Ah, I'm glad I took the time to scroll down and read a bit today.. :-) Awesome.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 9:57:00 PM

Tuesday 8 May 2007

Superstar educashun

Today the BBC news site reported Star dies in monstrous explosion. Not a music or film star caught up in some horrific accident but a star, called SN 2006gy, reckoned to be 150 times the size of the sun has exploded (or is it imploded?) in outer space somewhere. The article did refer to the explosion peaking over 70 days but other than that, as one reads the article it appears that the explosion is happening right now. The same info appears on Nasa's own site.

Terribly exciting stuff.

Which it is. But is it me, or did I not learn at school that by the time we see the light from these exploding stars, that as they are so far away the actual explosion happened many years ago and what we are seeing is just the light images? So, if SN 2006gy is some 240 million light-years away (according to the article) that means the explosion happened some 240 million years ago! The light show is finally reaching us, or our telescopes, but the actual explosion has been done and dusted a long time ago.

Now, I think that is extremely exciting.

It might be semantics but I wish these things were made clearer and not just brushed under the carpet. The finer details of the article on both sites seem to suggest that another star could be about to explode. But, if that star, Eta Carinae, is some 7,500 light years away then if we are about to see the explosion then it actually exploded a very long time ago and is not about to explode! Semantics, semantics.

Glad I got that one out of my system.


Original Comments:

Chandira said...

I read that too and had the same thought.. lol :-) Great minds, and all that.
Or are we just nerds? My husband's nickname for me is 'nerd-girl'.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007 12:43:00 AM



Britmum said...

I will pretend that I understood all that. lol

Missed reading you. I hope that you are well.

Take care xx

Wednesday, May 09, 2007 1:29:00 AM



Doris said...

Dear Nerd-Girl

I am glad I am not the only one! ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Britmum

We're fine, I'm just back in stealth mode as having so much to do.

I'm so glad you've written what you have - may I ask? Did you hear about this item on the news and when you heard it did you get the impression that the "explosion" was happening now? If so, that's my point. But really, don't worry about responding... life is too short to split hairs (even if I think they are pretty fundamental hairs!) and I am just getting old and becoming one of the grumpy ones ;)

Wednesday, May 09, 2007 7:54:00 AM