the tortoise and the hare ~winning~ nothing else matters

the other week I was a little bit tired when I did my benches

felt as slow as a tortoise, as I slowly, but surely, pushed the bar up

normally I do a comfortable 3 sets of 4/5 reps on 60kg now. I've built up to that and I usually get 3 clean reps and a couple extra with my spotter.

It's always good to have someone strong to spot me

to wheek the bar up when I am struggling...

here I am struggling....

had one of my fav Metallica songs on - 'nothing else matters'

you can just hear it in background above my panting

did some declines next

I now do 3 sets of 8 reps on 60kg easily, then about 3 sets of 4 reps on 70kg, with at least 2/3 reps clean per set

...slow and steady wins the race....

eh, but that day I was only on about 85% strength, so em, I tried my best

...better late than never....

and since I was not up to par, my spotter had his work cut out for him that day!

- so here's the bar being wheeked up....

(always good to get some negative reps in, dontcha know how beneficial they are? :  )

and then 24hrs later I was surrounded by heavy metal of another kind....

I flew across the North Sea to Norway, to bask in the Scandinavian sun and have a wee break from all the Scottish rain

aah, I'm only joking! it's been pretty good in Scotland so far with some nice sunny days

but it was good to be in Stavanger again! catching up with family

and because you can't take the metal out of this girl -

I spent 6 days hard training in 'bears' gym - THE best hardcore gym for serious training in Stavanger! - Bjorns gym!

and best of all - they had Metallica playing! 

omg!! omg!!! how happy was I?!!

many thanks to Lloyd for being totally awesome : ) and Benjamin too!

let's have some more Nothing Else Matters eh?

was nice to be back in Norway

went for a wee run around in my brother's rr

love driving the range rover! so much fun! like a tank and it can go as fast as a hare!

talking about fast - there are alot of Trans Ams in Norway. My fav car ever! They have a few ta clubs over there

and I was so hoping to see one, or two, or three - I'd seen one the week before in Scotland on the coast road to North Berwick - ha ha, that was SO exciting!!!

but the only old car I saw was a Ford Mustang

Bears gym was 2.5km away, so I ran there and back every day

was nice, ran by a wee lake, Mostvatnet, was chased by hungry mallards with tiny babies and hungry swans, then up and down a couple hills, past lots of beautiful and elegant Norwegian homes, across some busy roads, up 4 sets of steep steps, then finally made it to the gym in one piece

(*yes, I did get lost on my first day, yes I did run an extra 1km trying to find my way there and home again...)

~ never ran in those purdy shoeses though, they are my stepping out heels

as in stepping outside anywhere

love them so much! 

then on the first day I got back from the gym I was so exhausted after my *extra excursion that I flopped like a tired hare on the long summer grasses of my sister-in-laws beautiful flower-filled meadow-like garden

amongst the dandelions and wishes and.....

and dozed in the evening sun

~it was blissful~

normally the grass and dandelions are kept in trim by the tiny furry lawnmower

little Tomas - my Norwegian heart! eating his heart out

but a few days before I was to fly over, he decided to fly to heaven

and so not all the dandelions were kept in trim

and some had turned to wishes

I was so looking forward to seeing Tomas again. 

We got on so well together. 

I bribed him, er, I fed him nice things and he let me pat him : ) 

I loved stroking his fur, feeling his tiny heart beating thru his warm skin, looking into his soft black eyes, listening to his rustlings late at night

I had made him a little heart shaped fleece blanket the year before and often sent him edible presents, and on my birthday this year my brother took him out of his inside home (sometimes it is referred to as a cage by others, but not by me), and Tomas sat on the dining table eating tasty treats when he skyped me happy birthday and my nieces were dancing gangnam style in the background (yeah, they had a birthday party for me on skype :/

and whenever I see dandelions, and wishes, I think of my little prince Tomas

and whenever I see things fast

taking things slow

I remember to enjoy the moment ~nothing else matters~

spotted these fast things being slow in a gallery window 

feety grooming is a time consuming and pernickity process

and attention to detail is what matters

they are on my wish list now

well, one is anyway

made by Kjersti Olsen and sold here Galleri Amare 

and then as I was walking up the street, smiling away to myself, after looking at those hares I happened to glance to my left, in between two large buildings, and saying hello from a far wall were a couple of bigger hares !!!

ha ha ha!

that made me smile big time!

I've seen some interesting art on buildings before, but I reckon these rabbits take the cake 

sooty and sweep?

it's good to see fun and beautiful art

nice to appreciate it

even better to enjoy a cup of tea and some cake, or biscuits, as one does the appreciating

whether of a tiny sculpture, 

building graffiti,

or even on oneself.....

yeah, yeah, what can I say?

7 going on 17

isn't she beautiful

my youngest niece

who demanded that I apply some make-up to her, since I am an artist

and now I am a professional make-up artist to small humans under 10 (yup, her 2 wee pals wanted made-up too) and she is now a professional model for all things Ness and tigers

my watercolour hare is now nearly finished

only got the whiskers to go on

was nice to paint him

he's a young buck

and he's waiting for the sun to come out, after getting a wee bit wet in the morning rain

painting takes it's own time

no matter how fast you want to go, 

time dictates the pace

and me n watercolours - it's slow and steady

was nice being in Norway
totally loved bears gym! totally loved all the metal big time, never seen so many eleiko plates in my life! *sigh* and a full set of eleiko dumbbells *sigh* and 4 racks!! *sigh* 
yup, was good

and loved seeing my precious nieces and beautiful sister-in-law

and soaking up the Norwegian sun - got a little bit of a tan infact

winning ? 

losing ?

slow ?

fast ?

as long as you are enjoying yourself, then in my book you are winning and ~ nothing else matters

i iz no gym bunny

a few weeks ago I received a delightful surprise in the mail ~ from across the pond

~ a holiday card (American xmas card 'happy holidays') with house bun Mr Mick on it, wearing his beautiful blue scarf 

and

a calendar for this year, that Jade had mentioned on her blog, featuring the most gorgeous rabbits, 

including her Mr Mick, posing perfectly as Mr May

the rabbits in the calendar are just adorable, or should that be 'abunable' ?

and this pretty lady caught my eye, with her little toy koala peering from behind her

some of my baby hares and my ram looked on in admiration at all the tenderness (after drooling over Mr May first, ofcourse)

and when I looked over the months again (as I had rushed thru to spot Mickey), the bun for January was a little fluffy treasure lying nonchalantly amongst some free weights!

and my heart started to race as I totally love my free weights!!

infact I love them so much that when I first stepped inside my local gym at 14, in Darwin, Australia, I was hooked! 

I took up bodybuilding on the spot, because my hero Arnold Schwarzenegger had done that, and I loved the strict discipline, the 6 day a week/ 2hrs a day routine, and the 'moulding of the clay'. 

The most muscliest biggest hugest man in the gym patiently took my under his wing and wrote me a great programme that I have followed ever since. Thanks Bruce you are the best :)

I was rather the star, and the local paper contacted me for a feature and I got a full page spread. How about that?!

that's not me on the right, that impressive lady was the world's No1 champion Ms Olympia and had quite a few years of serious muscle building under her belt, I was a weaky compared to her!! but I used to push the metal real heavy though

I won a First gold medal for bench pressing 52kg at a body weight of 48kg for under 18s

...anyway, ahem (pulling the tickets off myself), I digress...

a while ago I remember seeing the handsome Mickey wearing his fetching sky blue scarf, and about Jade saying she would post out a greeting card to anyone who wanted one,

so ofcourse I said Yes Please

and in the meantime I began to ruffle up a 'thank you' in readiness....

hey! what's this? blue isn't my colour lady, white is, you know that, and what's those fancy ribbons on the side? I'm not a kitty!! honestly?!

and I made a surprise white hare to go with a tiny hare Jade was having, and called him Kinglet - as in 'little king', because Mr Mick is a very regal, demanding king-like rabbit, and each of my hares come with their own original stories that I muster up, and so.....

Baby Hare Kinglet

One afternoon Kinglet was making her way across the meadow when she heard the rabbits making a big fuss about something. The rabbits usually made a fuss about things, they always seemed to have extra time on their paws and find things to fuss about but today Kinglet thought the fuss was extra loud so she loped over to see what it was they were fussing about. 

One of them, their leader Sir M, had discovered an annoying piece of material that had been left outside his burrow. Infact it had been draping his burrow entrance, imagine that, the cheek of it! So he had tried to pull the pesky thing away but it was too cumbersome for him. 

At first Kinglet wasn't exactly sure what it was because she had never come across something like this before. She had come across picnic blankets, and they were always brightly coloured with stripes and checks and bits of cheese stuck on them, but today, for the first time she saw a thin, unchecked and unstriped blanket with no cheese on it so she said to Sir M (what a strange name she thought!?) that she would drag it back home to show mama and all her friends. 

Ofcourse Sir M agreed, anything to get the offending scrap away from his palace and out of sight! And so Kinglet got to work. It was a bit of a struggle because it got tangled a few times on the thistle bushes and brambles, and none of the lazy rabbits had wanted to help her, but she pulled and pulled and eventually got the whole enormous piece home. Whew! that sure was tiring work she thought as she proudly trailed the treasure behind her, though she noticed her furry feet were filthy from all the purchasing she had had to do! 

Well, mama was impressed and so were all her kindergarten friends because this big thing will indeed come in handy once it has been nibbled and torn into pieces for everyone. Mama said that it was a sheet, she had seen one once, as a baby, a long time ago. So she gave Kinglet a pat on the head and then they took it down to the stream to give it a wash. All the other hares went as well to help out, because it was really a very, very big thing. And when it had been put in the water at the shallows and everyone bounded in to stomp their hind feet on it, it nearly floated away! Picnic blankets usually sunk to the bottom but this sheet stayed near the surface. 

Everyone had such a laugh trying to stomp it clean. However the laughs soon disappeared when it came time to pull it out and dry it off. The mamas all took a side and pulled and dragged and scuffled and, well, you get the picture – they all exerted themselves as it slowly slithered along the rocky bank and up onto the soft grasses. But in no time it was dry, unlike picnic blankets which usually took a few days, sometimes a week. And again, everyone immediately joined in, nibbling it into sections. Even the babies were encouraged to nibble and they found it so funny at first and squealed in delight! It was very easy to pierce and soon all the mamas had a decent snippet to take home. Some of the babies had been naughty and nibbled extra holes in it, they had just been a little zealous, but ofcourse no-one said anything to them. And a few of the pieces were interesting shapes, but again, no-one said anything, the mamas were just happy to have a bit of this. 

Kinglet asked her mama, what will she do with it, and mama said, why, to make a beautiful blanket for sitting on! Wow, how delightful! bleated Kinglet.

Kinglet is looking forward to dozing cosily on your armchair. She wanted to take her special piece of sheet with her but on second thoughts decided not to because she knows that you will have plenty of these sheet things in your airing cupboard and she can pick and choose as she pleases. 

She may even have a quick look at the ones on the beds too, but knows that it's usual human practise to keep the best tucked away nicely in cupboards for that special occasion. Well, she'd like just the one thanks, and she'll have it folded up neatly on her armchair, between the cushions, so that she will look extra pretty on it as she snoozes away. You can do the folding, she's seen how big they are, can you just imagine a tiny hare like her struggling with the folding? Don't be so silly, not even for laughs! 

And she'd like the French doors left ajar a little thanks because mama will be coming by to see her, and so will her friends. 

Besides she will be showing off her new throne to them! Oh, okay, it's not really a throne but to her it will be because it's an extra special place to sit and nap on, and any place that cosy must be a throne! Plus that rabbit friend of hers, Mr M or whatever his name was, had said that he wanted to see what she had done with the scrap, so he will be hopping by too. 

And just before they all turn up can you make sure to refold her throne because there are a couple of small nibbles in it, she couldn't help herself. (And don't even think of inspecting your cushions). What do you mean she has to take care, you are not made of thrones? What kind of way is that to talk to a cute little baby hare? sharp teeth or not?

and here is the picture of the king himself on his own 'makeshift throne' that inspired that story!

what?! you mean that beribboned nest is not for me?! 

not that I really wanted it anyway, what with bows and no white, but that is beside the point 

*furred foot stomping the ground* 

**massive huff attack**

      

        ....the cheek of it !! ...... when do I ever get anything new? I've never had a cosy bed stitched up just for me! bah! hmmmph!

hmmm, well I'm sorry Wesley, I shall change that this year for sure because I can see that Mickey is really enjoying his new 'throne'

and even Kinglet gets to play in it

but you are right Wesley, it is high time that I rustled up a nice bed made just for you :)

....shall do it as soon as I get back from my gym

I love the free weights gym at Meadowbank, it's the bestest ever, tough, old, worn - no fancy crap, no bright shiny new stuff that makes you your morning cup of tea and toast, just old style hard-core weight training equipment

and I get to train amongst serious athletes who are all really nice lads

I have been back into 'pumping iron' for over a year and a half now and perhaps I am just as muscly as I was way back then, but there won't be any revealing shots cos I don't do bikinis no more

and besides, I'm not a gym bunny, I don't do lycra or leotards or singlets or skin hugging stuffs like that, I wear my old asics trainers, old training pants and scrappy workout Ts that I stitch up myself 

though I do follow the same 2hrs a day / 6 day routine plus I run 2/3km most days, and I can bench reps on 60kg, and decline press 70kg, preacher curl 30kg, concentrated curl 20kgs and I can lift ......

yeah yeah, yadda, yadda, yadda .... hey Annette you still going on about how great you were? I mean, are!?

this is the only type of metal I push around here, this little supermarine spitfire tin

(push with my tongue that is) 

 *lick lick lick*   *lick lick* mmmm

haven't you got a throne, I mean bed, to make?

just get stitching.....

*lick lick* mmmm *lick lick lick* mmm

thank you Jade! Wes and I love the calendar and holiday card!