Phew! Just finished a couple of hours of evening gardening. It’s been too hot to brave it outside today! 

Instead, I made some bread rolls and finished up making a calico dress pattern.

TIRED!

I woke up early this morning to the postman at the door. Too early after the night I’d had. Unfortunately I had the ‘Mark of Shame’ on my arm - a stamp from the local rubbish ‘nightclub’. I tend to avoid it normally but they had bands on last night. (Badly sound-engineered bands!)

This meant pottering round in my PJs all morning whilst Simon picked up his new motorbike. He’s traded in his old one for a second hand Yamaha Fazer 1000 because we want to go further together.

Anyway, by the time he got back it was raining so I hadn’t gone into the garden to start any work. Typical.

I found other bits and bobs to do this afternoon, including some tatting for a Steampunk necklace idea I have in my head.

Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive!

Last night:

Weird light (no flash):

Morning:

I’m sure it’ll be gone by tomorrow as the sun is quite bright now. Pretty whilst it lasts but not at all practical unless you’re in a country equipped for it! :o)

Well, we’ve had a lot of snow (for here). It’s cold, it’s wet and it’s a pain in the bum! I’ll take some photos in the morning.

Unsurprisingly, I’ve stayed in all day. I’ve been cutting glass for a terrarium, watching films and generally pottering about.

This evening Sofy has come over. I’ve just demolished a McDonalds caramel sundae and we’ve settled down to watch Tremors. Nice.

Well, it’s really quite cold today but very sunny. Puts me in a good mood when there’s a lot of sun! Apparently we’re still expecting snow this weekend, which is bad because I’ve got a lot that needs doing in the garden. It’s bad enough that the earth is rock solid at the moment but snow will stop me doing other things, too.

Still, if it’s an indoor-only weekend I can at least work on my glass. I want to have all of my pieces cut and filed for next Wednesday’s class. 

I went to Pilates at lunchtime. Lots of muscle-shaking but a really good session. I feel good now. :o)

We’ve got friends coming for dinner and a film tonight. I’m planning on doing Thai Green Chicken Curry with Rice, followed by a Raspberry Pavlova. I’m sure there will be drinking involved, too, but I figure that I’ve worked hard for it! 

Just waiting for 5pm now - FREEDOM (for 2 days!)

Well, it keeps trying to snow here. It’s only light and is very sunny so I don’t mind. Apparently it’ll hit -10C tonight, which is cold for here. I, for one will be sat in front of the fire with my Kindle! :o)

I finished my lamp last night at the evening class. I’m quite pleased for my first ever foiled piece. It’s a bit rough and ready and my cutting needs work but I just wanted it done so I could move on to the next (more exciting) project.

Here are some pics:

At the gym today I ran for 20mins on an incline of 3.0 and did 3.2k. I’m quite pleased but am also eager to push it further. 

Bobo woke me up this morning by meowing loudly outside our bedroom door. I let him in and then went back to sleep. Not long afterwards, Simon woke me up with ‘a pinch and a punch for the 1st of the month!’. Nice!

This morning was really cold but lovely. There was frost but it was quickly burnt off by the sun, which was very bright. When I got to work my fingers hurt from the dramatic change in temperature.

I went to the gym at lunchtime and did 26.2k on the bike in 45 mins. I was only going to do 30 minutes but I upped it twice as I felt I could do more. The only things that stopped me today were lack of time and a sore bum from the uncomfortable saddle! 

My solder and flux arrived today - just in time to use at tonight’s evening class. I’m hoping to finish my lamp so that I can get started on my Steampunk box project next week. 

Well, I made it to work before the wind and rain got too bad but my left knee was twinging all the way. I was going to run this lunchtime but I think I’ll give it a miss as I need to be good for tomorrow’s fitness test. I’m participating in some smart clothing research by exercising at different heats and humidities (I think!) for different lengths of time. Tomorrow they get to find out my base fitness level by running my ragged!!

Today I’ve been reading a book called Total Immersion by Terry Laughlin. It’s about improving swimming technique in order to improve speed through the water. I’m finding it really interesting as I’ve always loved swimming but have never been amazingly fast. I’d always assumed that the more work I put in, the faster I’d go. Apparently this is not exactly the case so I’m excited to try out these different techniques. 

This afternoon, I will mainly spend reclaiming clay. This involves taking clay that hasn’t been fired but has dried out and placing it into a bin of water. The clay then breaks down into a sloppy mud-like consistency. I can then scoop it out onto plaster ‘bats’ (big slabs) in order to dry out to a firmer consistency. Once it’s done that (overnight to two days) I can then put it through a pug mill (a machine with an internal corkscrew which mixes the clay to a consistent texture). I complain a lot about having to pug clay but actually it’s the final part, bagging the clay, that I get more narked with - it’s just so time-consuming to find the bags, turn them out, break the clay into manageable pieces to fill the bags and then tie them off. Then I get to carry them to the clay store. I suppose this is good weight training as each bag weighs around 12-15kgs. The clay then gets used by the students and thus the cycle continues! Joy!! 

It’s Thursday today, so takeout night tonight. Don’t know what we’re having but I really fancy a curry. We’ll see. :o)