Back in Glasgow

Arrived home at 6:25pm this evening and was happy to see mum and Cat.  Immediately I gave them the gifts I bought them and then I started unpacking my bags and made sure I got unpacking out of the way before I settled down for dinner and to tell them things I were up to in Dublin.  It was nice to come back to a not-so-cold Glasgow, in fact I'd say all the roads are back to normal now and the recent weather reports says there is no more snow forecasted in the near future.  Phew!  I was really happy to have spent quality time in Dublin.  Time away from this busy city.  Ok, from one busy city to another I guess, but being away in some place nobody knew me was nice.  Away from my everyday responsibilities etc.  I guess this was like a wee retreat for myself.  Hehe!

This trip has been amazing.  The time out was what I really needed and I come back feeling refreshed and recharged with God.  I have really enjoyed my time in Dublin, although I often wished I had a toothpick with me.  Haha!  The past few days I spent by myself, just me and God in an environment that is new and that is foreign.  A place were nobody knew me.  A place were I could walk whatever speed I want, didn't have to drive (wah-hey!), check out tourist sites, drink Guinness, drink Baileys on ice, walk about the hotel room nakes if I wished.  One word: freedom.  This freedom does not last long because I knew once I got home I return to responsbility, a business, family, church and matters of the heart.

Trip has been refreshing for me because the said freedom has given me time to think about things properly, to consult in God about matters weighing in my heart and to fully submit to Him.  I acknowledge and confess that I have been very wrong in the handling of certain areas of my life, especially matters of the heart.  I know what the main cause is and I know I have to seriously take action in order to change.  Tuesday night was the second night in which I chatted to God very openly about these issues.  It was also when I felt the need to really study the verse "Seek first the Kingdom of God" and see how it applies to me.  The notes I made goes on for ages and I will share that in another blog post, cos I don't want to bore anybody here.  I will post it up later though =)

Thanksgiving

Well guys, I want to tell you I felt very blessed by God during my time at Dublin.  For starters when I arrived at the airport I was faced with a choice of taking Air Coach (blue) or Air Link (green) to the city centre.  It seemed these two companies were the main two competing.  I chose the Air Link bus because it also provided an Airport Return ticket and a 2-day Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour package for total of €22.  When the bus arrived at it's O'Connell Street stop, I asked the bus driver if he knew where on O'Connell Street the Gresham Hotel was and he told me it was just a few metres away from the bus stop.  Wow!  How convenient!  I didn't even have to walk far with my luggage!  =)  Blessed!

Some might think I booked the hotel myself and so shouldn't be surprised at where it was located.  But in fact, I did not choose this hotel.  Originally I had booked the Croke Park Hotel next to Croke Park Stadium.  But in mid-November Alpharooms informed me the hotel had closed down and they had to relocate me to another hotel.  They chose Gresham Hotel which was the same star rating and same room type.  I was ok with it as I didn't have time to look up different places again.  Croke Park Hotel would have been a few miles away from O'Connell Street the heart of the city centre and I might have had to take another bus to the hotel.  So I thank God that my accommodation was relocated to this particular hotel.  How very convenient.  Blessed!

Tuesday morning I walked out of the hotel with a wee map and was looking for a Parnell Street where I should expect to see the start of the Dublin Tours green bus route.  However when I walked to the end of the street on the right and looked right onto Cathal Brugha Street and there sat a green tour bus stationary.  When I consulted the wee tour bus map it turned out that the Cathal Brugha Street stop was the first stop of the tour!!  How cool was that!!  I got to begin the 23 stop tour from just around the corner of my hotel.  AND I got to choose my best seat before any other people came onboard.  Hehe!  Blessed!

These are just a few of the things that made me feel blessed whilst being on holiday. There were other things like getting charged a concession rate when I went to Christ Church Cathedral, when people agreed to take pictures of me with my camera, feeling safe walking about even at night time without any bother from the locals or others.  The peace of God was with me, giving me the confidence, even when a man and a woman stopped me on the street asking for money and I told them I was a tourist with "only €10 on me" and that was for dinner.  We had a nice chat on the street and we shook hands, hugged and wished each other well for the new year.  I would never have done that in Glasgow, or at least felt comfortable doing that in Glasgow, but I felt peaceful about it last night.  God bless Michael (who was also blind) and Rosie.  =)

I shall share more later when I have the time.  Right now I'm quite tired and looking forward to sleeping on my memory foam bed and memory foam pillow =)  Scheduled in the gym tomorrow at 1pm.  Must go even earlier in order to get more cardio work done.  Have eaten sooooo much (unhealthy!) food in the past few days!!  =P

Special thanks!

Before I forget I want to give special thanks to a few more people.  Cat my sister took me to the airport on Monday morning.  It was cold, it was wet, but my wee sis drove me in her wee Micra before going to the gym.  She was shocked to hear that the taxi would have cost £24.  As was Bryan my driving instructor friend.  He was also disgusted at the cost of the taxi fare and said he'd take me and pick me up.  Vince also kindly offered to take me and pick me up.  In fact, he texted me on Monday morning and also this afternoon to ask when I was landing. God has blessed me with great friends and family who are kind to me.  They show love and kindness amidst their busy schedule.  I opted to take the 500 bus to George Square then then local 41 bus back home.  Although I declined their offers (I'm never one to bother people if I can help it), their kindness will not be forgotten and I am gratefully touched.  Cheers again guys!  =)

Fed up

Feeling fed up right now.  Looking forward to getting away tomorrow for a few days.  Sent Nick away today and it was an ok time at the airport, but the last part was emotional.  Yes it was.  There were a few other people who sent him away as well, so I had to stay strong.  Mum pushed back those tears as much as possible too but couldn't keep some from flowing out.  I was pretty much the same.  Can't remember when I last had a proper cry.  Seems like there is stuff bottling up inside of me but I can't seem to find an outlet.  I really need that "mountain top experience" when I can shout out loud and let it all out.  Not literally shout it out cos that would hurt my throat, quite literally, but really just let off some steam.  Something that even the gym can't do.  Where can I get this outlet?

Taxi

In the middle of looking through and gathering my important documents I need for flying tomorrow.  Have to be at Glasgow Airport for 9am.  I've just this moment booked the taxi for 8am, just in case of transport issues or whatever.  In fact, I think I might be too early but better early than feeling I'm in a rush.  But guess what?  Before I hung up I asked the operator if there is a set fee for going to the airport.  She told me usually it is £16 but because tomorrow it is fare-and-a-half I am due to pay £24.  Bloody heck!!  That's more than a standard one hour driving lesson!  Don't know if I'll even learn anything from this driver.  Lol!!  Probably spot a lot of bad habits instead.  Haha!  Don't think I'll tip then.  £24 is a lot of money and that's even before I've departed to my destination.

Christmas

Christmas was nice.  Had Nick over spending the day with us for once our family opened Christmas presents together.  Took pictures and videos and had a laugh.  Cat prepared brunch for us all.  I prepared dinner.  We had brunch, opened presents, had a laugh, then watched some tv, played with a new massage chair and played Sudoku (Nick and I) and then it was time to prep dinner.  Lol!  Quiet night in and it was just as well because the streets outside were frozen and pure slippery.  We ended the night praying for one another, in particular praying for Nick as he was soon to set off back to Singapore.  We thank God for a blessed time together as a family plus one :)

Disconnected

Now Christmas has passed, the next special occasion is New Year.  And between now and then I will be off work which will give me time away.  Time in solitude with God and time to reflect upon things in my life.  Most likely will be without the internet, cos although the hotel offers free wi-fi I won't be bringing my laptop as I don't want to carry so much stuff.  If I get access, cheap access, to a computer I might check email and/or Fb, but if not I'm happy to just be "disconnected" for a few days and reconnect with God.  I won't be using my mobile because if I use it for outbound connects it will be roaming and I will be charged a bomb for something that is free back here.

Plan to bring my Bible with me.  Notepad, pen, Christian book, print outs of places to visit and of course somme Euros and Pound notes just in case.  Will pack some gym stuff as well.  Will try to go to the gym a couple of times to keep the physique, cos even though I'm on holiday, working out cannot be on holiday.  Christmas Eve I had a McDonald's for lunch.  Today I had McDonald's for lunch.  This evening I had Pizza Hut.  So c'mon!!  Where is the discipline??  Whilst I'm away I hope I can find healthy enough food to man, if not I'm gonna come back a few pounds flabbier!!  Noooo!!

Looking ahead

Nick asked me last night what my aspirations are for 2011.  I told him I want to look good, feel good and smell good.  But about all else I want to walk closer with God.  I think being closer with God is the most essential thing I need to be which will help me look good and feel good.  For smell good, well I'm not sure I'd smell any different, but for sure I might have the "fragrance" of the Holy Spirit.  Haha!  Tonight I was reminded of the importance of Seeking First the Kingdom of God and few nights ago I was playing Scrabble and the first seven tiles I randomly chose turned out to spell "J-O-S-H-U-A-B".  We were quite amazed at seeing that and later when I got home I read the Bible at Joshua chapter 8.  The first thing is said was "Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged".  When asked by some people if this applies to my life at present, I think it does actually.  There is something niggling inside of me, something that has been taking my thoughts and attention, something weighing down my insides.  What can I do about it?  Could God be speaking to me indirectly?  Truthfully I haven't been too close to Him recently and it is something I am shameful of.  I feel I have been running on my own steam, on my own fuel.  Need to look to God to be my fuel, to be my source... =)

Christmas Eve

So I finished up for Christmas today.  Only had one driving lesson between 12-2pm and it went quite well I think.  In fact I was meant to have a driving test first thing in the morning followed by this driving lesson, but when I woke up this morning I got a text from my pupil saying the test was cancelled.  I called him to ask how he knew so soon and he said the test centre called him around 7:30am to tell him his 9:37am test was cancelled due to icy conditions.  Not too surprised it was cancelled but very surprised the test centre called the pupil as I was expecting to call them on his behalf since English is not his first language.  After speaking to my pupil I went back to bed.  Yep, I could have gotten up and went to the gym but I was pretty tired and struggled to face the coldness outside.  So I was thinking... would this be my last gym session?  Not quite.  Cos I will still get to workout next week at some point.  Either at the hotel when I'm away on my wee trip or at Greens if I get snowed in and cannae fly.

Wee trip

It just dawned on me last night that my wee trip is only a few days away.  The flight is at 11:35am which means I should be at the airport at least an hour beforehand, but might not know if my flight is going ahead until possibly on Monday morning when I will check the flight status online.  Oh my!  There are reports of snowfall this Sunday and Monday (Boxing Day and the 27th December) but I hope the snow doesn't affect the trip.  However it also makes me question, what if I got out there but can't get back in on time for New Year?  Haha!  Ok, might look funny here, but I don't think it will be quite so funny if it really happened.  Cos although I have the week off work it doesn't mean I want to be away from home that long.  Haha!  Guess what?  When booking the flight and the hotel I only took the insurance when booking the flight, but didn't take it when booking the hotel.  Cos I was thinking the flight insurance should/ would cover the hotel stuff as well.  Now I'm a little doubtful cos I am not sure if the flight insurance will cover all cancellation related changes if the weather causes my flight to cancel.  The worse case scenario would be if/ when the snow hits us again and my flight is cancelled.  According to the airline website I can get a refund if the flight is cancelled.  That's fine, without or without insurance I should get my money back.  But what about the hotel?  Well I contacted Alpharooms to ask what would happen if my flight got cancelled due to the weather and here's their response:

"In normal circumstances, any cancellation within 14 days of travel would incur a 100% cancellation charge, however due to the weather situation in the U.K at the moment we are trying to remove or reduce charges wherever possible.

If your flight is cancelled, please let us know as soon as possible. We can then contact our supplier and let them know you will not be arriving. Should they offer a refund then of course this will be passed onto you, however please be aware that if the hotel/supplier charge for the cancellation we would have to pass these charges onto you."

So I've to contact them on Monday morning if my flight is cancelled and just keep my fingers crossed that if I cannot make it over there I will get some sort of refund for the hotel.  But I wouldn't hold my breath because it would be very spectacular for the hotel to refund money after a booking but hey, you never know eh.  Anyway, I wouldn't want the flight to be cancelled cos it would be more hassle than anything else, but I'm also scared in case I get stranded there and not make it back for New Year.  Nooooo!!  But having said that, I did take the first step in getting myself ready for the trip and I went to M&S and got myself some Euros.  Not much, just £100 worth.  Should be enough to last me for the first day over there.  And I'm sure the rest will sort itself out.  Now travel money is sorted, it's just a case of waiting to see if I can fly away :)

Ready for Christmas

It's Christmas Eve now and I've done all my shopping, written all my Christmas cards, wrapped all my presents, made sure my admin is all up to date.  I will be leaving all things driving instruction related from this moment onwards until I start back again on Monday 3rd Jan.  I wonder how long this can last though.  Lol!  Pupils are bound to call me at some point to ask stuff or reschedule etc.  One thing that I cannot avoid is my office, which I require to get me around even when I'm off.  And I still need to clean it as well.  Haha!  I'm looking forward to this week off.  It's so much different from the two weeks off when I was snowed in because then I had to call pupils to confirm or cancel lessons and had to constantly check the weather forecasts etc.  Now I can truly lay them all aside and just enjoy myself.  Looking forward to time off without being on edge.  Hopefully not more ranting.  Haha!!

So what's planned for this Christmas?  Well I will get up tomorrow and get all spruced up before getting Nick and bringing him over to our house.  We shall have brunch together before we hang out and possibly open presents, watch Christmas tv or possibly a movie, or play card games, or arm wrestle, or sing and dance.  Gonna have a big dinner I hope and get stuffed on turkey and lots of veg.  Will try to have an early night because we plan to hit the Next Boxing Day Sale on Sunday morning. I think the stores open at 6am so we shall try to go there as early as possible (the early bird catches the worm!) before coming back to pack and send Nick off to the airport.  Guess it'll be my first of two trips to the airport, so at least I will get an idea of whether my flight can take place the next day =)

Ok feeling really tired now.  Gotta go guys.  Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!  =D

Greens anniversary

Apparently I joined Greens Gym Glasgow on the 16th of December 2009, which means I have just passed my first year anniversary.  Pretty cool how time flies eh.  I was reminded of this date when I called up this morning to ask to downgrade my Greens membership from full access (access anytime between 6:30am-10pm) to off-peak access (access only between 6:30am-5pm and all weekend).  The reason for this is because since May this year when I started my personal training program with Ally, I have only been going to the gym in the mornings before work.  I haven't stepped foot in the gym after 5pm, yet still paid for full access for seven months.  Due to my working lifestyle, I have no time to go to the gym on weekday evenings, because I am usually teaching till 9pm, especially around summer time.  So it would be pointless for me to keep paying extra money to get nothing extra in return.  Haha!  So from February 2011 I'll start paying £36 a month instead of £42.50.  Will save £6.50 a month which will come to £78 a year.  Ooh yeah!  Gonna need to think of ways to save money as the New Year is just around the corner, and I'll need to find ways to save money wherever I can.

Are you game?

Oh yeah, a fortnight ago Greens Gym sent out Christmas cards to its members to say thanks for their membership as well as to advise of the rise of new monthly membership.  Along with that came several vouchers that were pretty cool.  Stuff like 'Two Guest Passes', 'Free Sunbed session', 'Free personal trainer session if you buy training worth up to £50' and '£10 off if you buy £30 worth of fitness gear'.  I found the 'Two Guest passes' the most appealling and was pretty glad there were four of these vouchers.  This means I can sign two guests into the gym with me four times between now and the end of January.  But I am not sure who would like to go.  I spoke to Kerry once a while back who expressed an interest in visiting Greens to check out it's swimming pool.  James is also quite interested but we have to find a suitable time and date.  Is there anybody else who'd like free access to Greens for the day some time between now and 31st January 2011?  =)  To give you more information on what this gym offers, check out the link here.

For those who'd like to visit after church one Sunday I am willing to arrange something in the afternoon like 4pm-6pm as the gym closes 7pm at the weekends =)  Just drop me a comment or text or something =)

Remember I am not really promoting Greens, but purely promoting to importance of health and fitness.  Actually FREE health and fitness.  Some forms of exercise can be quite expensive, certain sports require equipment and membership fees etc.  But going to this gym with me you can attend classes, try new equipment, just have fun with friends, everything at your own pace.  It's all good!  =)

Back to work

After my rant last week, it didn't actually snow anymore.  How ironic.  In fact, the snow was kept hidden until yesterday afternoon when it snowed during our church service.  The morning started off really chilly and frosty, but no snowfall until around 2pm I think.  By the time I left church at 4pm we had around 2cm of snow on the ground everyone started driving slowly again.  Haha!  I thank a friend who asked me if I were ok after my rant.  Haha!  Yes, I am ok now thank you.  In fact, I managed to work Thursday, Friday and this morning too.  I am meant to be teaching right now (5:05pm) but I am here blogging because my 4-6pm pupil cancelled me at 3:30pm saying he was unwell.  Technically I have the right to charge him for his full lesson because he has given me less than 48hrs notice.  However, since it is his first "offense" I will mark it down only and let it got this time.  Sitting at home means I lose money and we cannot have that, especially in this weather, know what I mean?  At summer time when I am rushed off my feet I occasionally welcome the break from lessons and am not that disappointed from occasionally cancellations.  However, at this moment, every penny counts.  I did manage to do one lesson this morning 10-12pm and I have a 8-9pm planned for this evening.  Fingers crossed that will go ahead ok.  =)

Final touches

So just some final touches as I get fully prepared for Christmas.  My last Christmas present came through the door this morning (phew!) and I can wrap it up and that's all presents done.  Then I have one Christmas card to redraft (gonna be in Chinese so I will have to be extra careful to avoid writing the wrong thing - thank God for Yellow Bridge!).  I have a letter to redraft as well, in English this time, but will need to avoid any spelling mistakes or anything.  And I think that's me then.  No!  No!  One more thing.  Need to buy food for Christmas dinner!!  Ooh!  Most likey go to Tesco for that as tradition has it.  Probably go on Wednesday afternoon or something and stock up for a lovely Christmas dinner with Nick coming round to join us =)  That's it then.  It seems to be all sorted.  I've made more effort this Christmas in fact, with buying presents, writing Christmas cards etc.  Only for a few people though, mainly family and one for Secret Santa.  Haha!

Secret Santa

Yesterday I received a Christmas present from my Secret Santa, someone from the English Ministry in my church.  The Christmas bag contained three presents an a Christmas card.  The first present I was was a Sci-MX protein shaker cup (excellent!  had considered getting a replacement cup since I've used my current one for well over a year), a Nivea Men travel pack (fantastic!  everything is under 100ml which means I could take through airport for my week trip away next week!) and an Autoglym Hi-Foam Interior Shampoo which I was very impressed with especially after watching the video of how it works.  The Christmas card also contained a very nice message encouraging my walk with God.  So this person seems to know me very well, for a few years in fact (stated on the message inside card) and really knows my passions: Gym/Fitness (shaker cup), Vanity (Nivea men products) and Cleaning my car (shampoo).  Haha!  Ok, I was joking about vanity, but I do moisturise.  The most important thing is, these Nivea products are travel size stuff and are amazingly handy for taking on board my flight!  Is this a sign from God saying I can still go after all these airport problems due to the weather?  Haha!  Who knows, but I do know I am thankful for this person whomever he is.  Yes I shall guess a guy cos it seems like a guy would know me that well.  Right...?  If it's a girl, that's kinda dodgy!!  Lol!  =P

Where's the snow??!!

I'm so peed off that I want to blog before I do my admin and other more "important" stuff.  Have been in a foul mood the whole day, but that's only on the inside.  Nobody was to see it, especially not pupils.  What have I been upset about?  The bloody snow!  Or lack of in fact!!

I woke up at 8:15am and expected the great outdoors to be totally white like on Monday or Tuesday of last week, but was only greeted with a brief twenty minute sleet/snow shower that melted as soon as it landed and turned into rain basically.  During those twenty minutes I was on the computer checking the weather forecasts from both BBC Weather and Met Office but both now changed their story and claims sunshine through the day with low temperatures.  What the heck... where have all the stories and reports and rumours and the scare-mongering gone?  The whole nation was talking about this snowfall which was due back Thursday and Friday this week with a vengeance.  But why did the sleet/snow stop??  So should I teach today or not?  If I teach, will I have enough time to get through my lessons before the snow comes?  If it snows during lessons will my pupil(s) be able to handle it?  Will we be stranded somewhere?  All these sorts of questions ran through my head as I sat at the computer between 8:30am-9am.  I then decided to call my 10-11:30am pupil and asked her what the weather in Anniesland was like and she said was fine.  So I said I'd meet her.  Off I went to get ready for work: shower, get changed, sort out the day's paperwork and have breakfast - all in half an hour!  I hate rushing!!  =(

I had a driving test scheduled for 1:03pm today at Anniesland as well.  So I reminded my pupil to call the test centre this morning to check if the test was going ahead.  At the end of my lesson I checked my phone expecting a text saying it was off (all of my driving tests since 28th Nov have been postponed due to this fricken weather).  But the text message from my pupil this morning said "Yes they said the test is on!".  So since his test was 1:03pm it meant I had to meet up with him 12pm.  The car wasn't washed, there wasn't enough fuel and I had no lunch!!  Was expecting to go to the gym after this first lesson, even had my gym gear in the boot!!  So, although surprised at the news, I set off to get the car washed, fuel topped up and grabbed a snack and get back to the west end, all within half and hour!! The snack that I got was a Boost bar duo and a Mars Refuel.  Not exactly healthy I know but really my stomach was really empty and was on the verge of growling which later would result in stomach cramp if I didn't get any food in.  Boost bar is full of glucose which would have provided me with some instant energy to last a while and of course Mars Refuel is a chocolate energy drink thing, looked "healthier" than a Yazoo! milkshake anyway.  I hate rushing!!  =(

Total disappointment

The driving lesson hour before the test went as it usually does.  Whilst driving around I commented how certain parts of the roads were still quite icy and definitely not suitable for manoeuvres, but it was still a good thing we had this chance to sit the test despite so many cancellations thus far.  My pupil was psyched up for his test and we both hoped this would be a nice early Christmas present.  So after we prayed together we walked towards the test centre.  On route we found certain parts of the pavement very icy and resorted to walking the 100 yards or so on the road.  I joked saying I wondered how the examiners would walk to the tuition vehicles and if they found it slippery etc.  As we approached the stairs leading up to the DSA building we were greeted with three people who walked back down the stairs and whole told us the driving tests were cancelled!!  Noooo!!  So we walked towards the office and an examiner told us they conducted the first two tests this morning (0820hrs and 0917hrs) but when it came to 1044hrs a driving test candidate slipped and fell on the pavement and hurt her knee.  Although the sun was out the temperature dropped and the moisture on the floor turned to ice.  So they decided to call off all tests because the was some black ice on the roads as well when they took a drive around certain routes.  Sigh... imagine the disappointment on the faces of my pupil and myself!!  We were so looking forward to this test and thought today was the day we sit and pass the test against all odds, but in the end it was not meant to be.  Sigh!!  I didn't charge my pupil for that one hour lesson cos I felt sorry for him and myself.  After I dropped him off home in the west end at 1:17pm I was faced with a dilemma.  Go to the gym then have some food before my 4:30pm lesson?  Or go home and have a proper sit down lunch without rushing and relax before next lesson?  In the end I chose the latter, but I was very frustrated at the waste of time and rushing around between 11:30am-12pm for NOTHING!  Also, at 1:17pm I felt I would not have been able to relax and enjoy my workout without thinking of my next lesson if I'd finish with enough time to go back home for something to eat before lesson in east end.  I don't like feeling "lost".  I like things in order!  =(

So I got home and had a lunch of leftover pizza, reheated boiled rice and reheated baked beans, all dumped ito a plate and devoured with fork and knife in front of the tv whilst watching The Apprentice through BBC iPlayer.  During this time my HTC Magic prompted me to install the latest software update for the phone.  It was it's third notification of the day as I ignored previous two in the morning.  After pressing Install Now the phone restarted and it started doing it's thing.  However, after like twenty minutes or so the phone looked different and almost everything ran really slowly.  The sync'ing icon appeared at the top of the phone and stayed there for another half an hour or so as the phone attempted to bring all my data, emails, text messages, contacts, photos etc all up to date.  For a moment I thought I broke the phone or installed a virus or something and it had me worried.  Fortunately shortly after The Apprentice and a shot of the PES 2009 the phone managed to run a little smoother again though it has a different look to it.  It looks not bad actually, though texting takes some getting used to.  By 4:05pm the weather had gone really dull and gloomy and I was expecting the snow to fall any second as I drove to my pupil's place for 4:30pm lesson.

As you can tell, there has yet to be anymore snow fall after the initial sleet/snow shower in the morning.  Inside I feel very disappointed and even a bit angry at the new Transport Minister for talking a lot of crap saying we're getting prepared for the heavy snowfall.  Actually, no, come to think of it, it's not exactly his fault.  He's just acting on information given by the Met Office and BBC Weather etc.  Those "weather people" who seems to know it all, actually know jack all!  I wish they would give us accurate information for a change and stop messing up people's lives.  Argh!!  It better snow tomorrow and snow really badly!!  I mean it.  People should deliver what they promise.

Why?

Why am I ranting so much?  It's only snow right?  I should be happy I was out earning and not snowed in, right?  Well, yes and no.  I tell you why I am feeling this way and why it has affected my mood the whole day.  I feel all this hype or sh*te about snow really pressed up the nation.  It made everyone really scared and started to think how they'd avoid being caught out by it.  Let's not talk about other people, let's talk about me.  I feel to be told for a bloody week, "It's gonna snow on Thursday and Friday" and "The snow will be back with a vengeance.  Will be worse than the previous two weeks." that has put fear and terror into my head.  In my mind I was ready to sit at home today hibernating, resting, doing my chores and going through my list of To-Do (I had already planned what I'll do when snowed in, right?).  But when I woke up there was no snow?  How crap is that?  Utterly terrible!  Here's how I can describe my feeling...

It's like being told by a doctor all week, "An illness is going to bestow upon you on Thursday and Friday and you'll be bed-ridden.  You can't escape this.  Be prepared."  So hearing this everyday through the news, media, word of mouth, it really makes you unhappy, but you come to terms with it and finally sleep on Wednesday night expecting to fall ill badly on Thursday morning.  But through the whole day there has been no illness at all!  Not even a cough or sneeze!!  But it might come anytime!  So... What's the bloody point in saying that?????  Just tell the truth or apologise for getting people confused!!  I have been hanging on edge all day, frequently checking the weather and looking out for the snow but nothing appears.  The bloody Met Office keeps sending emails telling me there will be Icy Conditions today, tomorrow and next few days through till Monday.  And there's meant to be Heavy Snow a few of those days as well.  However, I don't even know if I will believe their crap anymore, you know.  Just totally disappointed guys.

Sorry if I have surprised anybody with my rant, but this weather crap has really gotten onto my nerves.  I think I will unsubscribe from Met Office emails as they are not realiable.  I'll just take each day as it comes...

Christmas Countdown

My Microsoft Office 2010 keycard finally arrived yesterday!  I thought it had gotten lost or something and had planned to notify Play.com after 21 days from delivery (according to it's policy).  But it got here yesterday and I was so happy.  With Microsoft Office 2010 installed this new Samsung laptop is now fully functioning and the Toshiba laptop can be used as a backup now, or possibly be used if/when travelling.  The Toshiba runs fine, but I wanted a new laptop, one with bigger screen, webcam, more RAM and the blu-ray player makes it much more future-friendly.  I think it was a good investment and I made the purchase before the rise of the VAT.  ;)

Midday gym

I went to the gym in the afternoon, between 12:30-2:30pm and it was busy!  Hadn't been to the gym any later than 8am since around May or something, so was a little surprised to see so many people there cos usually people are are work.  A few of the guys talked about the forthcominng snow which is due tomorrow and meant to last through to the weekend as well.  I guess some of the people turned up to the gym to get a workout before being snowed in again.  Haha!  I did squats, shoulder press, dumbbell rows and finished off workout with floor wipers.  I can finally do proper floor wipers on a bench without fear of toppling over.  I think using a heavier barbell (35kg) really helps stabilise your upper body and so you can totally focus on the core and keep it tense throughout the exercise.  Ooh the burn!  ;)

Christmas Countdown

So there are only ten more days till Christmas and I'm just about 80% prepared.  Have still got things to do, like buy a few more presents (actually one of them is a Twenty-first birthday present), I have to wrap all my presents and write all the cards.  I also have to think about getting food for Christmas Day itself.  We usually have a nice big Christmas lunch together and then stay in at home with our bellies stuffed, open presents, watch tv, nap and then we eat again come dinner time, but the appetite is no longer there cos we're still stuffed!  Lol!  This year we'll probably change to have a special Christmas dinner instead and just have an ordinary lunch at home, invite Nick over to join us.  If one of my blu-ray movies arrives in time then we'll watch that.  So looking forward to that!  =)

If I'm gonna be off work again, I will definitely need to make up a food shopping list for Tesco, just like every Christmas =)

Mundane Monday

Didn't manage to get up for the gym this morning.  Was woken up by my 6:15am alarm, silenced it then clumped back into bed.  Had considered getting up and checking the living room window to see the weather conditions before deciding I could teach, but couldn't do that either.  Just felt very tired and drained.  I think mentally drained as well.  Didn't really sleep that well.  Felt slightly awake all the time, with my mind ticking over through the night.

Managed to teach three lessons today despite the heavy fog in the morning.  Fortunately it cleared around midday after my first lesson and I was able to do two more later in the day.  A few phrases circulated around my head today.

"Patience is a virtue" - Quite true, though can be difficult at times.  Very difficult.

"It's better to give than to receive" - This may be true, but if we keep on giving and take nothing in return, wouldn't we end up deprived in some way?

"You reap what you sow" - In terms of the gym, yes.  However, not in all areas.  Currently sowing... awaiting the harvest.  Don't see any results or signs of life yet.  Is the current weather affecting this crop as well?

Snow preparation

Everywhere and everyone has been talking about the upcoming snow storm on Thursday and Friday that is apparently going to cripple the UK especially Scotland and bring it to a standstill again.  Ok, maybe the effects will not be as bad as last week as the new Scottish Transport Minister has been notifying everyone in Scotland all about it and has been "making preparations" already.  However, I can forsee another few days of no work and sitting on my ass losing money.  So I want to make myself useful and actually do some preparations myself!  This is so on-the-spot, but I wanna build a list of things I want to do during my Snowed In Days...

~ wrap all my Christmas presents
~ write all my Christmas cards
~ update all my client records and admin details
~ hopefully do press ups throughout the day
~ get more sleep
~ finish watching my Still Game box set dvds
~ finish reading my book on prayer which I started around end of October
~ tidy up my Facebook account

Maybe there'll be more to come, but here's the list so far in the order which they came to mind, which I guess shows their priority... or randomness.  Lol!

Goodnight all!  Have got the gym tomorrow 7am!!  =D

It's a Sunday!!

Good morning all!  Literally just got up ten minutes ago and the first thing I wanted to do was sit at the computer and blog.  Haha!  Not that I have a lot to say, but at least a wee update on what's been happening.  Haha!  It became very cold again yesterday evening time as I headed home after worship practice and I knew something was not right.  Temperature did not match the forecast given by BBC Weather nor the Met Office, both reported dry and mild temperatures above zero.  However it is -4C outside now and there is frost on the rooftops of buildings as well as cars.  Oh my... I hope the "nice" weather (above zero temp) isn't going to leave again.  I hope it is not three days of +ve temp in exchange for another week of -ve temperature or snow!!  =(

Back to work

So after Thursday's thawing of snow and ice, the roads were in a much better state to teach in.  I managed to go out on Friday and teach two lessons.  1-3pm and then 8-9pm.  The first pupil was still a bit of a learner.  In fact, being a middle-aged Cantonese speaking wifey she is a bit of a slower learner, so having her on the roads was ok cos she was allowed to go slower as there were still some snow at the kerbsides etc.  Mainly stayed around an estate doing junctions to the left and right and also even managed a Turn In The Road manoeuvre which she managed quite well.  Traffic was increasing as people felt a bit braver to venture out onto the roads, well those who could get their cars out that is.  Some roads were still quite snowy and slippery, however, I thank God the roads we were on were at least 80-90% clear and I even let her drive home slowly and did a reverse bay park at her place =)  The evening lesson was 8-9pm after my pupil finished work.  I finish at 9pm you see and there are times when I used to let the lesson run over (at my expense) but on Thursday I couldn't let that happen, cos these days are cold, dark and wintery.  I long for my bed and don't wanna be out that long!  We did a recap of MSPSL, stayed on the main roads, did some roundabouts and taught him the Emergency Stop which was good because the weather conditions also got us talking about skidding etc.  At the end of the night I was pretty thankful God has given us nice enough weather to go out and for life to resume as normal, at least for the time being.  Though there's still some slush around and a hellofalot of grit spread everywhere, people are back on the move now.  Let's hope all transport systems and delivery systems are running well as well, so people can get their Christmas presents on time.

Slept quite late last night.  After 2am, because I was writing a birthday card and the Christmas card for Secret Santa.  I'm glad the two cards are now written, but it wasn't easy thinking of what to write.  I always seem to draft my message on a spare piece of paper, make edits and then write carefully onto the card, making sure I don't make mistakes.  Does anybody else do that?  Lol!  =P

Long day

So yesterday I taught another lesson in the morning 10-12pm then went home for lunch and to watch The Apprentice The Final Five and then spent the rest of the day at Church Centre.  I had a PEB meeting between 2:30pm-5:30pm then after a short dinner break (bought Char Siu and Chicken rice from Asia Style!) there was worship practice with Kerry and co between 6:30pm-9pm.  Was a pretty long worship practice because it was the first time some of us worked together we had to adapt to each other's styles as well as learning how to sing a particular song for the first time.  We will have practice again this morning at 11:30am, so I better get going after this.

For today I have worship practice 11:30am.  EM service 1:30pm.  Nick's Farewell Dinner at China Blue at 6pm and then hopefully I can resume my "bed by midnight" routine as I hope to get back into training after missing out on the gym for a week.  I went to the gym on Friday, did a run, deadlifts, worked on my shoulders then so couldn't be bothered and wandered down to the jacuzzi and sauna.  Was quite tired and couldn't really focus on the workout.  Hopefully that will go and I can refresh my head come Monday morning.  The only challenge is to get up on frosty mornings now!  Haha!

Last day of snow?

As per my previous post, I mentioned the few things on my 'To-Buy' list, things to get as part of Christmas shopping and today I managed to get most of these things:

For others
1) Leaving present: DONE (also acts as a Christmas present combo)
2) Christmas present for Cat: HALF-DONE (I know what Cat wants but will let her pick it first)
3) Christmas present for Mum: PENDING
4) Birthday present: DONE (birthday card and present bought)
5) Secret Santa present: DONE (Christmas card and present bought)
6) Baptism present: HALF-DONE (card ready but present still to be chosen)
7) Cards to go along with each present: DONE (need to sit down and write them!)

For me
1) Longjohns: DONE (think I'll give this a miss; bought myself thermal socks instead)
2) Something from Perfume Shop - tentative cos it is still v.expensive after it's discount: DONE (I took the plunge and went for it.  Will take it as an investment.)

So most things completed today and only two/three things left to do and that'll be me set for Christmas.  =)  I'm hoping to return back to work tomorrow.  Possibly have two lessons: 1-3pm and then 8-9pm.  If tomorrow's weather is the same as today, dry and around 5C, we'd have a much safer chance of being on the road so I look forward to it.  I was talking to a pupil this afternoon who said she heard snow is due again in the next few days, possibly Sunday or something.  Man, I really hope this doesn't come true.  Only now has the existing snow and ice started showing signs of thawing.  There are a lot of water puddles and slush around at the moment and the drains have a lot to take in.  The heat generated from cars on the road should help it melt as well as people walking on the busy roads etc.  But please please, do not let another snowfall happen.  It really will mess things up even more.  =(

Fearing for snowfall is one thing.  The other is... once all this snow and ice clears off our roads, Britain's roads shall be faced with another big problem.  Anybody else know what that might be?  =O

P.s. Michael McIntyre has had me laughing non-stop for two nights on a row now!  LMAO!!

Freeeezing!!

It is currently -11C outside right now and guess what?  Yep!  Another day of being trapped in and not able to work.  It's so strange really.  It's like the whole city is shutting down, sort of thing.  Yesterday my Greens Gym opened at a later time of 8am (usual opening time 6:30am) and then it closed at 9:45am due to weather conditions and low staff numbers.  Then later in the afternoon I went to town and wanted to pop into Wesley Owen (Christian store) but when I got there around 4pm there was a sign saying they were closed early due to the weather!  What?  Lol!  I guess in this sort of environment safety for staff is very important.  Many workers cannot make it into work because of they have been snowed in, cannot start their car, broken down on a journey, or even being stuck on the motorway gridlocked.  It's a shame that this country seems so ill-prepared to take on the winter weather.  This is the third winter which we have had problems and this year is by far the worse, definitely!  This year is by far the earliest snowfall we've had since I can remember.  Something's wrong here guys.

Blessed

I've not been to the gym since last Friday and feel kinda slobby.  However, in order to not let myself go I still watch what I eat (currently munching on my leftover pasta with chicken and a few chicken dippers) and trying to keep active.  I don't like being "trapped" at home and so for the past two days I've been venturing out town.  I think I might do that again today.  Not sure as it is much colder today and buses might not run again.  Lol!  Yesterday I was very blessed by God on my journeys to and from town.  I managed to catch a 40 bus across the road from me by trotting quickly towards the bus stop but making sure I didn't slip.  Then in the evening I was fortunate the bus driver had let me on another 40 bus whilst stopped at traffic lights a few yards beyond the bus stop that I didn't manage to reach on time.  I didn't want to shout for the bus driver's attention as it drove away albeit slowly from the bus stop.  That would have been so embarrassing.  Lol!

Dedication

For the past few mornings my mum has gotten up extra early for work.  She works in McDonald's and has a fixed shift of 7am-3pm Monday to Friday's. She usually takes the 6:20am bus from Dennistoun into city centre and makes it into work around 6:45am or 6:50am.  However, due to the current mess of the transport system, she walked to work yesterday!!  She told me she got up just after 4am and did her usual stuff to get ready for work then started to walk out to city centre whilst wrapped up with jacket, scarf, gloves and these really nice winter boots Cat bought for her last month.  She said she tried looking out for buses but none showed up so she walked it.  Man, that is dedication for you!!  There were several of her workmates who live not far from us, maybe a mile difference or something, who called into McDonald's and said they couldn't come in to work because the trains were off or cos the buses were not running etc.  The manager then asked my mum how she got in, and at such early time as well.  Mum told them she walked it.  Now mum is 54 years old and she has arthritis and sore joints that comes with her age and she is such a fighter that she won't let anything stop her from getting to work and serving the company.  I really hope the managers can appreciate my mum for her efforts in helping them out.  Currently my mum is the hardest worker in that branch of McDonald's and this was reflected in her personal review a couple of months back when she was awarded the highest percentage of wage rise in the whole branch.  It's still not enough in exchange for the amount of work my mum puts in.  Her hourly pay rate is still too similar to those workmates who skive and slack and don't put in as much effort.

You may be wondering why I don't give my mum a ride to work instead of letting her walk.  There are few reasons for that.  Firstly, the roads are incredibly icy, especially first thing in the morning once the overnight frost sets in.  The car takes a long time to defrost and right now I've not moved the car since Monday morning after I got back from being stuck in a snow ditch =(  I think I have knackered the car after all the wheelspinning etc.  If the road surface was more manageable I'd definitely offer to take mum to work.  In fact, I'd try to persuade her to let me drive her.  Because, as I said before, she is the strong-willed fighter type of lady who prefers to do things herself without "troubling other people", even when I insisted in taking her to work there were occasions we sort of almost got into an argument where she would resist me over and over again.  I know I couldn't force her into the car, that would look dodgy to the people walking by, seeing two Chinese people screaming and shouting and then a guy pushing a woman into a driving tuition vehicle.  So wrong in so many levels.  Lol!!  Anyway, I am truly thankful that God looks after my mum and that she reaches workplace safely.  One of the things she did when walking into town was she sang and hummed Christian songs that she remembers.  Awww bless her!  =)

To-Do or not To-Do

I'm usually really busy with work and my list of 'To-Do' builds up and gets sorted at the weekends.  However, I've been off work for over a week now and I don't seem to have a lot done.  This is mainly due to the weather. Since Christmas is coming up and Nick is also leaving for Singapore soon, there is lots happening this month and I find I have lots more to buy this year.  Here's my current list of 'To-Buy' which I hope to get all done before 19th December:

For others
1) Leaving present
2) Christmas present for Cat
3) Christmas present for Mum
4) Birthday present
5) Secret Santa present
6) Baptism present
7) Cards to go along with each present

For me
1) Longjohns
2) Something from Perfume Shop - tentative cos it is still v.expensive after it's discount

But when will I find time to go out to town and get these things?  The cold weather really puts me off and makes shopping and walking around a real drag.  I might just brave it and go out again today, take the bus and get an All Day Ticket for £3.75 and then just go back and forth then.  Hopefully the buses will be frequent enough.  Fingers crossed...

Shattered

Absolutely shattered man.  Did so much walking today.  I walked from house at the east end all the way to city centre, St Enoch's shopping centre.  Then after lunch I walked from St Enoch's shopping centre to the a...

Too tired.  Need a wee nap first.  To be continued...

Keeping fit in the snow

Ok I'm back.  Now is almost 10:00pm.  My ankles and feet are mega tired from all the walking today.  They feel like I've been doing Body Attack or some sort of cardio exercise for prolonged hours.  Lol!  It must be from all the walking on snow, ice and slush and the occasional jumping over puddles etc.  So I as I said earlier, today I walked from my house to St Enoch's Shopping Centre (2.8miles in 55minutes), had lunch to refuel before walking from St Enoch's to around The Point (2.7miles in 60minutes), from there back home (2.9miles in 70minutes).  So a total of 8.4miles today of snow, slush and ice!  Walking is not that difficult, but walking on a slippery surface means you cannot use as much pushing power into each step, less traction so to speak in order to avoid slipping.  It was so frustrating at times, especially the final trek home, to find myself walking an endless journey and there was fog at some point too, when I was cutting through Sighthill.  I wish I had a pedometer today.  They say an average of 20,000 steps a day would ideal for keeping fit and fighting fat etc.  Or half an hour of exercise a day to keep the heart healthy.  I think I exceeded both targets today.  In fact, not being in the gym today I am glad I got to walk so much in a way.  Because it helped with fat burning I guess.  And walking on snow/ice was different from walking on normal dry land, cos you tend to use more stability muscles, which would explain the tiredness and soreness.

Saving grace

The weather today was much worse than the weather of the past week combined!  Last week I still managed to venture out to the gym several times through the snow, but this week I think I'll keep the car safely parked outside the flat.  I say today was much worse based on the fact of the effect it had on today's traffic.  On my morning drive around the local area I saw cars wheelspin all over the place, especially moving off at traffic lights, and at any gradient.  I was also one of them whereas usually there wouldn't be a problem moving off in a higher gear, or moving off in first gear but feathering the clutch.  However, this morning when giving way to another vehicle reversing backwards from a give way junction, I managed to reverse back into deep snow and got myself caught in a ditch and could not move forwards or backwards.  Sigh!!  Half an hour I spent trying to get out, moving out in first gear, second gear, and third gear.  Reversing didn't help either.  The snow flakes battered down onto the windscreen and blew into the car each time I opened the door to step outside.  I tried kicking away the snow around the tyres but they snow was still too deep for the tyres to get any grip.  I sat inside and prayed to God for help.  I told Him once I got out I'll drive home and keep safe, away from all this stuff.  About ten minutes more of frustrated efforts, a man walked across the road.  I asked him to help me push the car as I tried to rev out, but that didn't work, so he offered to scoop some salt grit from his depot which was only one minute walk (he was actually on his way out to the petrol station I guess to buy cigarettes or something).  With the salt grit under the front wheels and some pushing at the back along with high engine revs in a low gear the car was eventually free.  I had my window down in order to ask for his name and to thank him properly, but he shouted, "Move!  Keep on going!" (cos stopping the car would mean it would take longer to move off again).  I could only thank him by shouting, "You're some man, pal!  God bless you!" and had to drive off again.  Although I don't know him, I think I recognise his face and I definitely know where his workplace is, so once this horrible weather settles, he will get a nice reward.  Thank you God, and thank you kind sir!  =)

A nice Sunday

About to go to bed but a little worried after checking the BBC Weather and the Met Office sites for Glasgow.  Both forecasts heavy snow fall tomorrow from around 0300hrs.  I am hoping to start back work tomorrow after being off a whole week because of the white stuff, which as I type is freezing up again after being exposed to -3C temperature outside.  Sigh... I really hope I can get back on the road tomorrow but I will not risk taking my pupils out if they may be risks of accidents or anything that might scare my pupils, skidding or swerving etc.  Will definitely be praying about this and see what God wants me to do.

Garage sale at EM

Having said that, I had a pretty good day today, albeit a long day.  I woke up around 9:45am after going to bed around 3am last night.  Still felt quite tired as it was the first time I slept so late after a while of getting to bed before midnight.  I didn't go to the gym nor clean my car due to the snow.  So that were two things out of my Sunday norm.  I'd usually do one or the other at the very least.  Sometimes both if I have the time.  So I lazed about in the morning before having lunch with mum and Cat, washed up and then it was soon time to leave the house.  Helped do PA duties at EM today and was glad to have gotten so much help from Alan and Portia with the set up.  I did the pc/projector duty today after forgetting to text anybody to remind them they are on duty.  Lol!  I realise when doing the projector duty you can't really go deep into the worship because you have to focus on the timing of the lyrics instead.  A few occasions throughout the worship sets I allowed myself to sing along to the song but then realised I was late in changing the next few lines etc.  Lol!!  Highly embarrassing at times.  Lol!  So I appreciate the people who volunteer to do the projector duties each week.  Might look easy, but is also a sacrifice.  =)

The EM had it's first Garage Sale going on at the back of the hall today.  The things on sale to raise money were unwanted cd's, dvd's and books along with home baking of cupcakes by Jojo and Becca.  The money collected will go towards funding the New Year Retreat which is happening in January next year.  The cakes were all sold out at the end.  £1 each and some people went back for more more more!  The cakes were in popular demand there has been requests for them to make them every week!  Good going girls!  ;)  Praise God!

Nando's

Was meant to meet a friend Alfred for dinner and catch up tonight.  Originally planned 6pm at Nando's but around 3:30pm he told me he couldn't make it any longer and hope to catch up some time soon.  But I was so in the mood for peri peri chicken, so I suggested to some people that we go to Nando's and in the end around twelve people went to Nando's at The Quay and we all dined at table 5.  Had a good laugh and I think it has been a while since we hung out like that.  Or at least a while since I joined anyway, cos I know there were times some folk went to See Woo restaurant for yum cha.  Kerry also pointed out that we haven't been out on a cinema trip in ages as well, which is true.  We used to go cinema and/ or C7 Church etc after EM service.  Ah... those were the days!

Sweet stuff

To end the evening a few of us went to Nick's place to hang out and have desserts.  We had a wide range of choice: custard and fruit loaf baked in oven, a Tesco Finest strawberry and cream cake (which I avoided), and fruit salad.  The was so much to eat we had leftovers for each item and we didn't even need to make these Tom & Jerry fairy cakes which Kerry bought when we went to Tesco.  Haha!  Had a good night overall, but pretty tired now, so gonna head to bed now.  Goodnight everyone!

Last day off?

I am hoping today is the last day of being off work due to the snowy-icy weather.  That has been a complete week now that I've not been at work and it sucks.  One week is more than enough for the weather to settle down and for things to return to normal right?  Well, at least if the snow melts away the roads should return back to normal.  How long it'll take to melt away from the quieter smaller roads I don't know, but I know Glasgow Chinatown carpark was still heavily covered up this morning when I parked there.  The parking bay markings were unseen and people had to guess where to park.  Haha!!

Out in town

So I went out to town today for a few things.  First of all was my 11am appointment at The Men's Store which I was five mins late for due to a bad snow and slush between Chinatown carpark to Cowcaddens subway and the subway train being late as well.  After the treatment was done I went to M&S to refund longjohns which I bought on Thursday at Silverburn.  I didn't like the material as it was not as thick as my current pair which is Pringle make.  I wanted to check out thermals at Trespass in Buchanan Galleries but turns out the nearest one is in St Enoch's Shopping Centre which won't be opened until next week.  Doh!!  Ah well!  Spent the rest of my shoppinng time around Buchanan Galleries: visited Boots, Perfume Shop, Fragrance Store, Clinton Cards and even JJB.  Got home after 3pm to have lunch!!  It was terrible!  Felt so hungry but didn't have time to sit down and relax to have lunch.  Also there wasn't much choice for a proper lunch out town anyway.  You know I need meet and I think the closest thing to that would be Ham and Cheese panini or something.  Lol!  So expensive for something small and unhealthy.  =P

New Police Story

For the rest of the day I stayed home and had dinner with mum, Cat and Nick, then after washing up we had hot apple pie with custard.  Have been trying to stay away from sugary stuff but mum was really excited about having apple pie and so we all joined her.  Haha!  Mum went to bed after dessert and the three of us watched New Police Story.  I think this was my fourth time watching the movie and it was still very good and kept us entertained throughout.  Nick watched it for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

To end the night I logged on to Fb but there wasn't much activities so I logged on to Skype instead.  Haha!  Byee!

Cream crackers

Almost midnight and I've had my shower and now sitting at the computer with mug of tea and some cream crackers.  In fact, a tub of cream crackers.  I don't eat them all of course, but find when I feel a bit peckish late at night and want to snack then cream crackers and tea really does the trick.  Haha!

Now don't let these little crackers trick you.  Though they are small in size and look dry without any fat or oil etc, they are actually worth their weight.  Each cream cracker has approx 35 calories (ten would make 350kcal!), 1 gram of fat but only 0.8g of protein!  Haha!  So I think I'll stop after my sixth one.  Lol!  At least I'm not snacking on crisps.  It'll take something really special for me to eat a crisp. Over two and a half years without eating a crisp!  ;)

This morning we awoke to freezing temperatures once again.  The only difference was there was no fresh snow fallen overnight.  However, the overnight temperature of around -8C in Glasgow made everything much colder and more slippery.  Most things iced over, including my windscreen washer solution which is a first!  I dilute my solution so it can stand to roughly -6C and it coped fine for the past week no problem and was able to squirt out in the mornings.  However, on the way to the gym this morning the fluid was stuck, I guess frozen in the tubing, and I could not get the dirty surface spray off my windscreen.  Upon pressing the skooshing button the wiper also wipes and they ended up smearing the dirty spray from lorry in front all over the windscreen and that started to freeze as well!!  Nooo!!  Was so annoying and also a bit dangerous.  However, I knew where I was going so that made the motorway trip a bit safer.  So that was us going to the gym. After the gym we cleared up the windscreen with clear water AND the windscreen washer fluid started working again.  Thank God!  =)  Was totally knackered after the gym.  Day three at the gym now and this time I worked on chest and shoulders with Sean and James and I did some abs myself as well.  Pure tiring, especially since my chest was recovering from Wednesday's big push of 100kg and my shoulder workout from yesterday.  However with their spotting I managed to bench press 102.5kg and also for shoulder press did six reps of 30kg each dumbbell as well =)  Don't know if it's just because I've been working on my shoulders more with a new routine, but I feel that my shoulders have grown a little in the past two weeks.  Hmm... they definitely need to recover for them to grow properly.  If I do go to the gym tomorrow morning it will be to work on my arms and abs.

Sweet stuff

Been trying to stay away from sweet stuff in the past fortnight.  Tea has no sugar, no snacking apart from fruit and of course no ice creams or desserts etc.  Been trying to cut down in sugar and increase my cardio work at the gym.  This week I've returned to doing interval training when running on the treadmill.  I usually run 6-10mins on the treadmill on a steady pace e.g. 8.5km/h.  However that rate of fat burning is not as face as doing interval training when I first warm up two mins on 6km/h then increase speed to 15km/h for a minute, then drop back to walking pace 6km/h for two minutes and sprint again at 15km/h, then repeat few times round until ten minutes mark.  Then to warm down walk at 6km/h then drop to 3km/h.  Interval training is better at burning fat than running at a steady pace.  It shocks the body to work harder and definitely increases your heart rate and sweat starts to pour out.  Haha!  Been doing more abdominal training as well at the end of my workouts.  Floor wipers and jack knifes are two of my favourite ab exercises at the moment and I find they really burn the abs if done correctly.  At the changing room today I put water into my shaker cup to prepare my protein shake after my shower.  A guy getting changed to start his exercising asked me what I was shaking and I told him about the protein shakes and why people take the supplements.  He seemed quite keen on it, quite like myself a couple of years back.  I told him it's a supplement that does not replace nutritional intake from real food.  However it does work if you take the right stuff and do the right exercise.  He said he could clearly see it works on me.  =)  I took that as a compliment and thanked him.  Then I checked the mirror again.  Lol!!

So I shall continue to lose body fat.  Might not be as good as last time when I reached about 80% of a six pack, but I lost mass as well.  This time I hope to keep the size but drop body fat in a good steady way and have a stronger core. =)

Cleaning up

So tonight after dinner I was really tired from the gym.  Before washing the dishes I had a spare ten mins so I laid on my bed to rest and almost fell asleep!  Lol!  Afer I did the washing up, Cat and I went to the church centre and together with Nick we cleared out the top floor of the church centre.  The level that EM uses for meetings, worship practices and events etc.  For a while I have felt very passionate about clearing up the top level because I felt it was pretty much neglected.  People came in to use the church and after their event is finished they pack up and leave, but things were never done properly and there was no general housekeeping.  So tonight we cleared up the main meeting room, the worship room, the hallway and kitchen.  We dusted the place, hoovered everywhere, did some rearranging, threw unwanted and broken stuff away, recycled stuff etc and generally made the place look much nicer.  Finally the Chinese New Year posters and lucky red envelopes from almost three years ago have been taken down!  The place is now ready for upcoming events like the Christmas Party on the 19th of December =)

We hope that people will begin to appreciate the church centre as it is God's house and should feel like it's part of our house too.  Learn to look after the place.  If it gets messy again, I would be tidying it up again.  I feel this is a God given passion to do this.  I am glad I spent my Friday night clearing up God's house with Cat and Nick.  What better way to spend a Friday night than going out partying, drinking etc.  Haha!

Quality Time

It is well below freezing outside right now.  On the way home from church meeting the thermometer read -7C.  Nick also texted me telling me the River Clyde had frozen over.  Man, this is crazy.  Looks like tomorrow is yet another day of unemployment!  This is really disappointing.  My last driving lesson was last Saturday 1pm-3pm when I took a pupil out and we only drove on the main roads as we could not see the kerbs to do any manoeuvres and had to avoid quiet side streets in fear of skidding or getting stuck.  It's ok getting stuck but skidding so close to cars was definitely something not to risk.  Anyway, been out of work for a week and have complained about being bored, but tonight after attending the EM meeting discussing the upcoming events, I feel God's calling for me to help out again.  Have been taking the back seat in the EM in recent months due to being busy with work and on average finishing 8-9pm each night.  Life was busy back in the months where there is sunshine.  But I am left slapping flies (Chinese phrase) when there is snow, at least this amount of snow around.  Sigh.  Was asked yesterday if I anticipated this happening [being out of work due to weather] and my response to that is I did not anticipate having this bad weather quite so soon!  Last year the snowfall and big freeze didn't really get to us until January and February time.  This year is the first year since 1965 or something that heavy snowfall arrived in November!!  Sigh... I had anticipated this month still to be a working month which meant I could earn and save for the winter time.  But turns out I have started my unpaid holiday much sooner.  Lips are feeling chapped.  Have applied Nivea Soothe & Protect lipbalm thing.  Think I need a new one, this one is quite dated and passed it twelve months recommended time frame.

Sibling time

Without spending another day bored at home again I decided to go to the gym with Cat.  To save her from driving in the snow I drove out and pointed out some tips about driving in the snow and what to more aware of etc.  When we got to the carpark I had the chance to help another man push a Mercedes Benz whose car was skidding around as he tried to move away with his rear wheel drive.  These expensive cars might be great to look at three quarters of the year but come winter they are just as helpless, if not more, as other cars around.  One push of the rear of the car to the side and the car was free from the wee ditch it created and it was able to move away slowly on flat snow and gained enough momentum to leave the car park.

At the gym we both did some running then went through to the weights room where I worked on my shoulders and Cat did squats.  I gave her a wee hand with the bar at the start, then she carried on herself and did quite well.  I also did some ab circuit as well before we headed down for the jacuzzi, sauna and steam room.  It was Cat's first time there since joining the gym in February of this year.  I actually joined in December last year.  Roughly around this time aye =)  Actually the 15th of December was when I joined Greens.  We had lunch at home and then went out to Silverburn shopping centre for some shopping.  Popped into Debehams, Hawkins Bazaar, Boots, M&S and Tesco before going to Nando's for dinner.  Nando's was nice.  We didn't go for anything spicy this time, just Lemon and Herbs flavouring and it was nice with creamy potato mash, spicy rice (not spicy at all eh!) and peas.  During the dinner Cat asked me if I had learnt anything whilst being off Facebook for a month. I told her it made me realise how I do not need Facebook as much as I thought I did.  That I could managed fine without it.  I am back on it now, but with much less intensity and frequency as before.  Even today I only logged on Fb with my phone twice in the whole shopping time.  Once was to check for notifications and the second time to check if my Nando's picture got through ok.  Haha!  Some old habits are hard to break (sharing pictures of food), however, others have definitely changed.

It was nice to spend time with Cat today.  We're usually both very busy with work and doing different shifts means we do not see each other that many hours a day.  But since we were both "on holiday" we hung out for the first time in years.... actually first time ever I think?  Haha!  Also, us being out meant that mum didn't have to rush home after her work.  She usually rushes home to prepare dinner for us which we always tell her not to rush or put pressure on herself and we sometimes offer to help too, but to no avail, as mum likes to do everything herself.  Haha!  So mum got to relax and we also had some retail therapy.  Win-win sitation!  Praise God! =)

Foolish

Later this evening after I got home I read some stuff that made me feel sad.  After the sadness came a slight feeling of foolishness.  And with foolishness came many questions.  Questions that I know will not get answered and that I should leave them.  I should not have any expectation to have anything answered, but I cannot help but feel a bit used.  I don't want to believe this feeling.  It can't be right, right?  =/

Maybe it's time I needed a shoulder...

I'm back!!

So I came back on Facebook after a whole month's absence.  I woke up this morning at 6:10am, sprang out of bed and the first thing I did was... was... looked out the window to check the snow!  Haha!  Wanted to see if I could drive out to the gym.  So I took my time in getting ready, had a protein shake (the water was sooo cold!) and made my way down to the car at 6:50am.  It took me three goes to clean all the snow off my car.  I had to take two breaks because my hands were bitterly bitterly cold, so cold to the point that went I put my right hand into my jacket pocket to grab my car key out, I could hear my hand moving keys but I could totally not feel the keys at all!  How weird was that!  It wasn't just weird, it was painful.  Yes, I think it was so cold it was heading toward froze bite or something crazy like that.  And I was using that squeegee thing to remove the snow, what if I had used a standard ice scraper which is much smaller?  Once I was inside the car I turned the heating on full blast and I blew hot air onto my hands.  Each break took about 5-10mins before my hands were warm enough for me to step out and continue scraping.  Across the road were two guys trying to get into their R-reg Rover but they couldn't get in because their front doors appeared to have frozen shut.  I could not offer any help to them.  I had no anti-freeze or anything.  In fact, I had to reserve whatever heat and strength I had left on clearing the snow off my car.  Just when I thought I was nearly done the snow storm started again and along with it the wind chill!!  Argh!!  With visibility plummeting and fingers nearly falling off, I decided to retreat back home first and see how the weather pans out later on before deciding if I could go to the gym.

I sat in the living room watching BBC Breakfast and 80% of the news was on the weather warnings, the snow, the disruptions etc.  It was a live programme, but felt like it was on loop!  Lol!  By 9am the snow stopped and the school kids seemed to have all gone back home after being told schools were closed.  So I had a quick cup of tea to warm myself up and headed out to the gym.  Fairly glad that I went, because the gym was quite quiet (understandably) and I got on with my workout without any problems.  Managed to run on the treadmill twice, doing interval training to try and shed more fat.  Then worked on my chest on the bench press and got my personal best of 100kg on two reps (spotted by a helpful guy).  Then did bent over rows and reached 92.5kgs with that.  Finally did abs circuit to finish off.  Felt great after the shower and headed home for lunch.

Logged on

It was only as I finished lunch that I logged back on to Facebook.  I knew I had something to do, but I didn't want to log on too early in the day as I might have got hooked on it and not go the gym.  Haha!  Only joking!  I'm not that much of an addict, clearly.  =P  So I logged in and was greeted with 3 Friends Requests, 7 Inbox Messages and 9 Notifications.  Spent about twenty mins going through these items and then updated my Gordon So S.O.M. page telling people of the dangers of not clearing snow off cars properly.  Once that was done I was bored.  Lol!!  I did notice that there were a few new things with Facebook.  First of all, the left hand side of the screen now shows people who are online in wee boxes so you can click on them directly to bring up a chat which is pretty handy if you chat often.  The second thing which impressed me the most was the Photos Upload section.  After you upload your lot of pictures the system uses face detection to help you tag people and asks you to name them.  This saved me a lot of time when I uploaded my November 2010 album and the twenty pics only took five mins to be published with the people's names on it.  Naturally, I didn't fully trust the automatic way of tagging so had a look through the pictures myself and found some duplicates.  So sorted them all out as well as tagged some food pictures =P and all was set to go.  So I managed to sum up my month of November in twenty eight pictures!  Of which over half were of food!  Lol!!  Oh my, I just love eating so much!!  =P  A friend Selina came on Fb chat and the first thing she said wasn't "How are you?" or "Welcome back!".  The first thing she said was, "Gordon!!  How's the food?!"  Hahaha!!

Reader

It's always nice when someone tells me that they read my blog.  Was told tonight and it gives a bit of encouragement in a way.  I'm not a writer and I don't write to impress people and I know my style of writing is all over the place, as is my grammar sometimes.  Haha!  When I blog it is primarily for myself, to note down how I feel about things or share my thoughts about the day's hot topics etc.  I'm always honest on my blog.  I might not be able to tell you everything cos this is a public domain and something things are best kept quiet.  However, what I do tell is always the truth.  Although my posts are mainly for me, it is also for people to read, so therefore I need to make the effort to keep my grammar right, check for spelling mistakes, check that it flows right when it is read etc, that is makes sense basically.  That's where the readers influence comes in really.  Blogs can be personal, yet they can be so public as well.  I think I have a good mix, but I do sometimes become a bit surprised that people would want to read my blog and even mentioned to me that I put up a new post around 11pm each night.  Haha!!  Truthfully, I try to blog between 11pm to midnight, before bed each night.  Tonight I started quite late, near midnight in fact.  Why?  Can you guess?  Yup, I was on Facebook midway through writing this post.  Looked at a guy's video which he shared on his page.  One video linked to another and another and another.  Then I had to close the window and refocus on my writing.  See how easy it can be to lose focus?  Haha!

Goodnight all!  Hope tomorrow the weather is a bit better.  Hoping to gym with my sister and then meet another instructor for some driving fun, go shopping and dinner then a church meeting.  Gonna be busy instead of bored perhaps!!  =D