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!!
Showing posts with label Snowed In. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Snowed In. Show all posts
09 December 2010
08 December 2010
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...
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...
06 December 2010
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! =)
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! =)
05 December 2010
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!
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!
03 December 2010
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!
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!
02 December 2010
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...
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...
01 December 2010
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
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
30 November 2010
Day Thirty
Snowfall continued throughout the day here and it was another day off work. It has not felt good being trapped at home not being able to work and in fact losing money as the franchise still comes off me as well, which is one of the biggest reasons why I am looking to leave the AA Driving School and become indepedent in the springtime. Don't want to do it now cos in this weather it would be foolish to start up anything new. I'll use the time from now till around March to decide which direction I will head in and which route to take =)
So bored
Was so bored at home all day. Fortunately Cat came back from Birmingham last night and was here to keep me sane. Here's what I was up to between 8am till now (almost 10pm).
Got up at 8am to call the DSA Springburn Test Centre. They confirmed the driving tests were off today, even some examiners couldn't make it in to the test centre, so no chance. Then I called my pupil whose test was at 10:44am to inform him of the news and rolled back into bed. Whilst wrapped up in my cooled down covers I downloaded some new apps for my phone (HTC Magic). I got a Lighter app, a Basketball shooting app and the ever popular Paper Toss game. Each app was free from the Android Market so that was good. The Paper Toss game was the most interesting one. After getting my high score record of 12 shots in a row I went to have breakfast.
I had a Skype chat with Nick and got to try the new webcam on my new laptop. Nick said it was pretty clear. That's good. Totally didn't feel like going out in the snow but I had couple of things I had to do like go to the post office and drop off some donations to the Salvation Army charity shop. Did that in about half an hour and came back to have lunch. I made char siu and egg fried rice and had that with leftover roast chicken and made hot gravy for it. Yum yum! =9
The World's Strictest Parents
Time went by so slowly guys. I was so bored at looking out the window and seeing flurries of snowflakes pass by the window. It was so cold outside I couldn't even be bothered scraping the snow and ice off my car cos I wasn't driving it anyway. Will probably do it tomorrow morning if/ when I go to the gym. I watched Taken on dvd then had dinnner after mum got home from work. Then... back on the computer again and watched Don Juan DeMercado TVB drama and then watched an episode of The World's Strictest Parents on BBC iPlayer. Now this programme was very interesting. It followed two wayward British teenagers from the UK who travelled to Holland to live with a family with very strict parents. They had to leave behind their debauched lifestyles of alcohol, sex, drugs and parties etc and live a week of house rules, discipline, chores and trust! Now that was interesting to see how these two teenagers (16 year old boy and 17 year old girl) adapted to their new environments where everyone was focussed on education, discipline and self-control. Their peers drink but don't get drunk and all want to get a good education for a good career in the future and they laugh at the idea of just wanting to "go out and get drunk with my friends and having fun." Sure they know how to have fun, but they all seem to have much more self-control and don't live their life for partying all the time. The culture difference was hard for the kids to accept but it was good to see that in the end the kids changed for the better. The once spoilt girl who hid behind makeup and fake tan and had no respect for family actually learnt to cook for twelve members of learning difficulties group and helped them out with housekeeping. And the young lad whose role model was gangster rappers and who was always angry and smoking marijuana has learnt trust and respect for his family and to be a role model for his siblings.
Although the programme is called "The World's Strictest Parents" the guardians from Holland were not unreasonable. They just lived with rules and conditions that made life better for their kids. Above all, the most important point they lived on is Trust. "Trust brings freedom" the father guardian told the show, which I think is true. If you can gain and display trust and respect from people around you, you will be able to do more and enjoy more freedom. It's the same with us living as Christians. Can God trust you with little things? If He can trust you with little things He could then trust you with big things. With all things, however big or small, you should do with all your heart and be focussed on it. Even setting up chairs for a Sunday service. Don't just lay chairs out without thinking of the layout and spacing etc. Set them up properly and people will be able to worship God in a more comfortable environment. Use your heart and God will acknowledge it. =)
Behind all the rules and discipline the parents are actually very nice people. Especially the mother who spent quality time with the boy and then the girl alone and got to know them deeper inside. She found out why the boy was so aggressive and why he wanted to take cannabis all the time. By talking to the girl she found out why she always avoided going out into the public without any makeup on and was obsessed with her looks etc. I won't give away too much here in case you are planning to watch it. Behind all the rules and discipline the parents had a lot of love for the kids. Rules and discipline may not seem nice at the very start. Very restrictive perhaps to those who like freedom. However, if you step back and look at it, you will see the rules are generally there to help people live harmoniously and to try and keep things in order. As for discipline, that is out of love. Parents discipline children when they do wrong, but this is out of love as well. Chinese parents may express this love out of smacking with flip flops or whipping of the chicken feather duster. For the record, I no longer get smacked by my mothers flip flops or the chicken feather duster. This reflects my very good behaviour at home. =P
Hebrews 12:6-8
"...because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined — and everyone undergoes discipline — then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all."
Think that's me done here. Gonna get ready for bed now. Hope to get up early tomorrow for the gym first thing in the morning, hopefully make it in before 7am after removing the snow from the car. Hopefully the overnight snowfall will not affect the roads that much. And THEN once I have my breakfast etc, it will be time... a special time for me... time to... can you guess?? =P
So bored
Was so bored at home all day. Fortunately Cat came back from Birmingham last night and was here to keep me sane. Here's what I was up to between 8am till now (almost 10pm).
Got up at 8am to call the DSA Springburn Test Centre. They confirmed the driving tests were off today, even some examiners couldn't make it in to the test centre, so no chance. Then I called my pupil whose test was at 10:44am to inform him of the news and rolled back into bed. Whilst wrapped up in my cooled down covers I downloaded some new apps for my phone (HTC Magic). I got a Lighter app, a Basketball shooting app and the ever popular Paper Toss game. Each app was free from the Android Market so that was good. The Paper Toss game was the most interesting one. After getting my high score record of 12 shots in a row I went to have breakfast.
I had a Skype chat with Nick and got to try the new webcam on my new laptop. Nick said it was pretty clear. That's good. Totally didn't feel like going out in the snow but I had couple of things I had to do like go to the post office and drop off some donations to the Salvation Army charity shop. Did that in about half an hour and came back to have lunch. I made char siu and egg fried rice and had that with leftover roast chicken and made hot gravy for it. Yum yum! =9
The World's Strictest Parents
Time went by so slowly guys. I was so bored at looking out the window and seeing flurries of snowflakes pass by the window. It was so cold outside I couldn't even be bothered scraping the snow and ice off my car cos I wasn't driving it anyway. Will probably do it tomorrow morning if/ when I go to the gym. I watched Taken on dvd then had dinnner after mum got home from work. Then... back on the computer again and watched Don Juan DeMercado TVB drama and then watched an episode of The World's Strictest Parents on BBC iPlayer. Now this programme was very interesting. It followed two wayward British teenagers from the UK who travelled to Holland to live with a family with very strict parents. They had to leave behind their debauched lifestyles of alcohol, sex, drugs and parties etc and live a week of house rules, discipline, chores and trust! Now that was interesting to see how these two teenagers (16 year old boy and 17 year old girl) adapted to their new environments where everyone was focussed on education, discipline and self-control. Their peers drink but don't get drunk and all want to get a good education for a good career in the future and they laugh at the idea of just wanting to "go out and get drunk with my friends and having fun." Sure they know how to have fun, but they all seem to have much more self-control and don't live their life for partying all the time. The culture difference was hard for the kids to accept but it was good to see that in the end the kids changed for the better. The once spoilt girl who hid behind makeup and fake tan and had no respect for family actually learnt to cook for twelve members of learning difficulties group and helped them out with housekeeping. And the young lad whose role model was gangster rappers and who was always angry and smoking marijuana has learnt trust and respect for his family and to be a role model for his siblings.
Although the programme is called "The World's Strictest Parents" the guardians from Holland were not unreasonable. They just lived with rules and conditions that made life better for their kids. Above all, the most important point they lived on is Trust. "Trust brings freedom" the father guardian told the show, which I think is true. If you can gain and display trust and respect from people around you, you will be able to do more and enjoy more freedom. It's the same with us living as Christians. Can God trust you with little things? If He can trust you with little things He could then trust you with big things. With all things, however big or small, you should do with all your heart and be focussed on it. Even setting up chairs for a Sunday service. Don't just lay chairs out without thinking of the layout and spacing etc. Set them up properly and people will be able to worship God in a more comfortable environment. Use your heart and God will acknowledge it. =)
Behind all the rules and discipline the parents are actually very nice people. Especially the mother who spent quality time with the boy and then the girl alone and got to know them deeper inside. She found out why the boy was so aggressive and why he wanted to take cannabis all the time. By talking to the girl she found out why she always avoided going out into the public without any makeup on and was obsessed with her looks etc. I won't give away too much here in case you are planning to watch it. Behind all the rules and discipline the parents had a lot of love for the kids. Rules and discipline may not seem nice at the very start. Very restrictive perhaps to those who like freedom. However, if you step back and look at it, you will see the rules are generally there to help people live harmoniously and to try and keep things in order. As for discipline, that is out of love. Parents discipline children when they do wrong, but this is out of love as well. Chinese parents may express this love out of smacking with flip flops or whipping of the chicken feather duster. For the record, I no longer get smacked by my mothers flip flops or the chicken feather duster. This reflects my very good behaviour at home. =P
Hebrews 12:6-8
"...because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined — and everyone undergoes discipline — then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all."
Think that's me done here. Gonna get ready for bed now. Hope to get up early tomorrow for the gym first thing in the morning, hopefully make it in before 7am after removing the snow from the car. Hopefully the overnight snowfall will not affect the roads that much. And THEN once I have my breakfast etc, it will be time... a special time for me... time to... can you guess?? =P
29 November 2010
Day Twenty Nine
Spent most of today snowed in, trapped at home. If it weren't for going to the gym first thing in the morning, I would have home bound all day. The snow was still pretty much everywhere around here. On the roads the kerbs were still not very visible and that took away any chances of doing manoeuvres. All four driving lessons were cancelled either by myself or pupils. My 7-9pm pupil told me she slipped on her way to work in the morning and dislocated her knee. OUCH!! Felt so sorry for her when I heard the news. Let's hope she will be better and well enough to drive next Monday.
Samsung
My new laptop arrived this afternoon, around 12:30pm I think. Had to run down to get it because the courier couldn't find get a parking space on my street. The snow mayhem did him no favours either. This new Samsung laptop is pretty cool. Runs on the latest Windows 7 which I have a bit of experience with through the church EM laptop, but I'm sure I'll get to know it a lot more here. Currently have to get used to the new keyboard cos the querty keys are set slightly more to the left side, and there is now a full number pad on the right hand side. That will come in handy for when I do my sums and admin etc. =) Have yet to try out the dvd or blu ray capabilities, but might leave that till tomorrow.
Tired out
Pretty tired right now after a day of gym and tidying up, hoovering and clearing out the living room. Have really tidied up the whole living room and hallway. Wanted to make myself useful whilst being at home all day, so shortly after I got my laptop I began to move and hoover behind my computer desk, the surrounding chairs and sofas all were moved and hoovered underneath. There was so much dust and junk hidden under. Sorted out all the bits and bobs lying around in piles and arranged everything to make it all look so much neater and smarter. Finally plugged in my new laptop just before dinner.
Personal record
At the gym this morning I achieved my own personal best on the standard deadlift. I did two sets of four at 100kgs. Was a little surprised at myself, considering I had only went to the gym once last week. Oh yeah, the weather really affected gym attendance this morning. When I went into the weights room after my cardio warm up, there were only seven people in total there. One was myself and another was a personal trainer. Felt like I had the whole gym to myself, my own big personal gym. Haha!
Samsung
My new laptop arrived this afternoon, around 12:30pm I think. Had to run down to get it because the courier couldn't find get a parking space on my street. The snow mayhem did him no favours either. This new Samsung laptop is pretty cool. Runs on the latest Windows 7 which I have a bit of experience with through the church EM laptop, but I'm sure I'll get to know it a lot more here. Currently have to get used to the new keyboard cos the querty keys are set slightly more to the left side, and there is now a full number pad on the right hand side. That will come in handy for when I do my sums and admin etc. =) Have yet to try out the dvd or blu ray capabilities, but might leave that till tomorrow.
Tired out
Pretty tired right now after a day of gym and tidying up, hoovering and clearing out the living room. Have really tidied up the whole living room and hallway. Wanted to make myself useful whilst being at home all day, so shortly after I got my laptop I began to move and hoover behind my computer desk, the surrounding chairs and sofas all were moved and hoovered underneath. There was so much dust and junk hidden under. Sorted out all the bits and bobs lying around in piles and arranged everything to make it all look so much neater and smarter. Finally plugged in my new laptop just before dinner.
Personal record
At the gym this morning I achieved my own personal best on the standard deadlift. I did two sets of four at 100kgs. Was a little surprised at myself, considering I had only went to the gym once last week. Oh yeah, the weather really affected gym attendance this morning. When I went into the weights room after my cardio warm up, there were only seven people in total there. One was myself and another was a personal trainer. Felt like I had the whole gym to myself, my own big personal gym. Haha!
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