Hannah Louise Swift

Day 22 started in a bit of a rush to get to the gym as a quick phone call to my mum ended up with her telling me all about her using facebook to look for long lost relatives! I got to Body Combat and lo and behold, Dan changed all the routines. GRR! So it was back to the beginning for me, un co-ordinated, flapping around and nearly knocking people out! Fun! Although mid way through a high paced routine he did break out some pretty impressive break dancing moves (I didn’t pay to see this, but added freebies never go amiss with me!) There was then a rather bizarre move we had to do – a flying kick – without knowing the technique for this I daren’t even begin to describe what an utter moron I looked… I was absolutely shattered after an hour of kicking and punching and running and sit-upping and various other ‘ings’ so took the 5 minute break between classes to sit in the corner and whimper quietly! HA I wish!

In came Di for Body Pump and into another hour of hardcore muscle toning we went, I’m still sticking with my special techniques do to the horrid pains i get in my neck. (must see doctor) But it means I have to squat further to the floor, which trust me hurts so much more! Luckily Di was on top form and even let out a couple of “See-Ya’s” for an extra boost! I’m slowly beginning to up my weights each time, although I don’t think I’ll be entering World’s Strongest Female any time soon. Di was even kind enough to bring handouts with descriptions of all the techniques we do so that we can perfect them at home and make sure we target the correct muscles! I of course grabbed one copy of each, shoved them in my gym bag where they currently lie, untouched… I will read them, promise!

One thing I did notice was my hands kept slipping, so next pay day I’m investing in some sexy gloves;

Day 21 and my first day back after my eventful trip to London (must complete that post with more gossip). I spent the weekend in bed feeling horrible and managed to sleep 13 hours on the Friday night and another 12 the Saturday night. The rest was spent on the sofa under my slanket feeling sorry for myself.

So when Tuesday came around (yes, I took Monday off) and it was time for the gym, I desperately did not want to go. 5 days off and I knew I would hurt!

I started with Aqua and instead of the usual routine which is nice and easy, Miranda changed the whole lot so we started off by running laps, trust me, this is not easy, especially when carrying weights! I gave it my best shot and after last weeks swimming costume choice disaster, I went for a swimming costume and swimming shorts over the top. There was a very nice looking young man in the Jacuzzi with an awesome tattoo down his side so I may have been distracted for a few of the exercises! oops! A few more watery based aerobicish activities later and time for a quick steam…

Onwards and up the stairs to Body Jam, and I was ready to work hard. Me and Louise took our usual spots at the back and welcomed a newbee… Di the bugger, changed all the ruddy routines too! Talk about exhausting! The routines were awesome actually, some funky hip hop moves! The newbee was doing brilliantly too, better than all of us put together… Even better than that, when a nice looking man walked past, she causally informed me her sister was a cheerleader so knew some of them… Note to self, make friends with newbee!!!

So that was day 22, eventful and i worked hard!

Well. A new month at the Gym, and I have decided to make some changes to my gym routine. I am also intending on taking some measurements so that I can monitor whether the hard work is actually working.

The 1 thing I have learned this month… Big boobs do not go well with exercise! So, I’m off to buy a sports bra!

The Journey
My trip to The Big Smoke started on Wednesday night when I returned battered and bruised from the gym late into the evening. A quick cuppa and a tidy round, then upstairs to pack my bags. I cleverly stood on something really sharp and made a massive gash in my foot, which then bled everywhere and hurt – ALOT. This injury will re-appear later in the visit. I finally nodded off at about 3am, and woke at 6am to have a bath, dye my hair and get in the taxi ready to head to London.

The taxi ride was awesome, despite being barely awake, I was given some wicked history about Plymouth and in particular my favourite place, Crapstone (Geologists will understand the humour). Apparently it used to be a runway up there in the war! Awesome. Surprisingly the 25 minute taxi ride only cost me £10! Bargain!

It was freezing on the train station platform and I also remembered why wearing a dress and heels is never a good idea for travelling! There were loads of kids on the train all discussing the latest fashions and who fancied who, you will never guess who is going out with such and such… Mind numbingly boring stuff, that I confess at one stage discussed too with the highest importance. The lady across from me put her MP3 Player on loudly then fell asleep, so i suffered ts ts ts ts ts SNORE ts ts ts ts for a good 3 hours! There was also a guy sat behind me who sounded like Del Boy on helium, he was buying a house, but it has a 30 year old crack so he wanted 5k off and lots of photos… SHUT UP! Every time he called someone it was “I’m on a train, it may cut out” Like they care!

After a few hours my laptop died leaving me alone with nothing but my scuba diving magazine and some irn bru. Stupidly I thought all train plug sockets were on the side next to your feet. Alas, I was sadly mistaken and discovered all of 2 minutes before getting off the train that they were in fact in the middle of the seats in front by your feet. Which to be fair had been covered by my bags.

My Arrival
So I land at Paddington and once again the high heels were a big mistake! I went off for some lunch with my hubby Matt (not really my hubby, just one of my bestest ever mates). A quick bite that was literally 3 macdonalds sized chips and a soft drink and it was time for me to head off to the Institute of Directors and meet Bruce, one of my bosses. After a little ‘navigation issue’ we found the place and headed inside for our meeting. Bruce was a true gentleman and carried my bags for me too! It was a really good meeting, I even got a cuppa with home made biscuits! Awesome! The place was really posh and even had a sofa in the ladies! The meeting ran over so we missed something we were supposed to attend and had to head straight to our next meeting.

The next meeting was with Andrew from Webgains, who is a legend! He plied me with booze as any decent person should, but bearing in mind no real food for 2 days, excessive gym and stress about lugging myself all over London, the wine hit hard and hit fast. Sorry Andrew, I can usually handle my booze better! Needless to say you are a legend! I cleverly left my bag (with clean clothes and laptop) with Andrew to pick up later as I headed to a gig.

The Streets or not…
I headed off to Brixton to see The Streets perform, I was really rather drunk at this point and to be honest it’s kinda blurry! Me and Ray met up with Red and her friend only to discover the gig had been cancelled due to a power failure… Lies I tell you Lies, it turns out Mike Skinner had injured himself crowd surfing so had to cancel. It’s ok though Mike, I’d forgive you anything (swoon). So we grabbed a quick Maccy D’s (thanks for my happy meal Ray! including mini Twister game!)me and Ray then decided to go and get drunk instead.

We heading to Leicester Square to a cocktail bar, after passing ‘comedy man’ – more on him later… I asked the girl at the bar to make us 2 suprises. Not a clue what was in the drinks, but they were nice… I was forced into taking photo’s of his lordship, whilst he decided what he wanted to do when in the heart of London. A meal, cinema, comedy man, ice cream, you name it… But no, he wanted to gamble – yawn!!! So I was dragged into a ruddy casino! I pondered the floor in a bored state, and decided to exact my revenge by asking a multitude of weird questions. I had at this point completely come out of my drunken state and was instead bored and fed up. The injured foot was also giving me greif.

At some point between entering the casino and leaving it had gone past midnight, and I checked my phone to realise Andrew had gone home to bed with my stuff. DOH! Luckily I spent a few years in London so have a few friends around. To top the night me and the gambler decided to head to China Town for a quick bite to eat. A nice lady came in and offered his lord ship a rose for his wife! WTF!!! She gave me a yellow rose anyway, mainly because I’m nice!

Day 2
Ok, just realised how long this post is so I will keep this brief!
Day 2 began with a shower and a trek to Holborn, then to Waterloo to meet Andrew to get my stuff. Whilst waiting I got checked out by a random and saw a z list celeb, i think he used to present newsround or something… I used to travel into Waterloo everyday for over a year so it was quite weird seeing my old eating places (when drunk on the way home) and the bus stop for the 243 bus! Ahhh the memories! I went to get changed in Waterloo and had to pay 30p for the privilege. A quick wash and change and I was ready to ride the Northern Line to Hendon.

I had a great meeting up there with one of my clients – MobilePhoneXChange. I even got picked up and dropped off at the Station!

After an hour and a bit there it was back to Central to meet my buddy Darren from Linkshare! We had an awesome lunch and discussed all the finer points of London in heels! It was good grub and surprisingly cheap for where we were! Cheers Darren!

Then onto Hammersmith for CAP where I saw loads of people I hadn’t seen in a while! The guys over at Existem left me in charge of their stand as they went for a meeting, so I gave stuff away and talked business with people, then had a few wines, and a few more! I headed up to the Bingo awards for some free food and booze and then pretty much headed home (after loosing my ticket in the bottom of my bag).

4 hours back in 1st Class (thanks boss for booking me that) a free can of coke, some passing in and out of the living world and I was back at the station, where 3 men decided to leave me stranded instead of offering me their cabs… Where is the love? Finally got home and passed out for 13 hours!

Thanks and Stuff
It was great to see everyone so thanks to Bruce, Andrew, Ray, Red, Darren, Matt, Chris, Claire, Ingrid, Tommy Q, Byker Grove Geoff, Nadeem, J Lil, Ken, Jon Shannon, Jo, Purple, Sam, Dom… I missed people there I am sure…

And sorry I missed you to Krys, Jo, David, Dirk and all the other London bods!