Ah! Bliss! The family is back home. The shirts are ironed, the fridge is full, the dinner is delectable, the TV is constantly turned on to Hanna Montana and Zoey 101…
It’s on to resuming morning school runs starting tomorrow.
While the girls came back and almost immediately started the next school year (in Kimmy’s case, it was literally the next morning after landing in the UK that she was due back in school), Natasha dived into her established activities. In addition to providing steady stewardship to our entire household, that includes endeavors such as badminton and projects such as travel planning. In fact, we spent some time Monday night evaluating possibilities for our next year of travel, outlined a rough programme, and Natasha started her research and booking process.
I, in the meantime, have enrolled in a gym.
Our offices at Canary Wharf have a pretty good gym, membership at which for employees is subsidized at just £25 a month. It’s not too big, but sufficient for most needs. Free weights, aerobics floor, plenty of fairly sophisticated training machines (treadmills, stairmasters, weight trainers), television sets, well-equipped locker and shower rooms… The gym offers various programs, spa treatments, massages and such, but I am simply interested in working a simple fitness regimen into my office-dwelling routine. It took me almost a year to warm up to the idea, but I finally could not anymore ignore the convenience and accessibility of it, coupled with a certain feeling that I am seriously getting out of shape.
Only one visit so far, which resulted in a loose program designed for me by a trainer. He basically put me on various implements, observed how I did with weights and positioning, measured my heart rate (not by taking my pulse, mind you, it’s a lot more technologically advanced these days – I was wearing a chest strap with a transmitter all the time), and charted what I should be doing. That includes cardio workout on a stairmaster, crunches, and obvious rows, pulls, presses and extensions.
It will be an interesting challenge to see whether I can, for once, make it a regular activity. I am afraid, though, that they simply do not charge me enough for that, in order to make coming in an incentive…
For those who followed my saga about paying for gas, I got a new bill in my name. It was for marginally less than the amount appearing on the wrong bill that I had opened before. It occurred to me to actually check the gas meter readings… and I discovered that the meter in the house is not the one listed on the bill. The rental management company representative who visited us today with his quarterly inspection confirmed that a new meter was installed on the day that I moved in. We then realized that all meter readings on my new bill are estimates, with not a single actual reading…
I have checked with a couple of homeowners, and it appears that, for what now is almost the entire year, the size of the current bill is not too outlandish. So, I figure, we can just pay it and continue along the “estimated” path for as long as we want. On the other hand, resetting to a new meter might mean a considerably smaller actual bill… Except, that it could be the other way around just as well…