A week away in Bristol

Hi All (all 5 of you! haha)

Back again after an epic adventure in Bristol last week.

I went there to do my 5 day Gym Instructors course with Lifetime, it would have been easier to do it in Exeter but that isn't for a while and I wanted to do it soon.
I decided that I would go up in the van and stay in the van as it would save on costs for accommodation.

I packed up the van with a weeks worth of tinned food and cereal bars and found five sets of lycra for the week! I decided I would find a gym there where I could train in the evening and also get a shower at!

Made it to Bristol and then spent an hour driving around Clifton to find a suitable place to park up for the week. Finally, I have no idea how I did it but I found a space in Victoria Square, I think the poshest part of Bristol, I had only an inch in front of me and behind between the 2 cars! Amazing :)

Anyway, I wont waffle on too much but I met the rest of my class, and our tutor, Katie. I can honestly say that woman is a legend, a legend in pixie form as she is so so tiny!
Katie kept us interested in what we were studying and kept us laughing. I have never known so many people in one room to have a Carry On sense of humour before. The innuendo just kept flowing all week :)

Met Pru, on the course and she managed to get me a cheap pass to Fitness First for the week, which was ace, and a fantastic gym with air conditioning (dont get jealous Totnesians) this was great so every morning a quick session then shower before class, and again in the evening.

I found a lovely pub just up the road, The Albion! Lots of money in that place, good job they didn't know I was sleeping in my van haha :)

Wednesday evening I went for a short exploratory run around Clifton and on Clifton Downs. Did about 6 miles in total and went back to do my homework.

Everyone on the course was fantastic, I've made some great friends and the whole week was hard for my brain after so long, but rewarding and the knowledge has gone in!

Thursday night was hilarious! I drove over to the house of my twitter friend Fairy Fluffkins and prepared for a road trip to see Meschee (another twitter friend) it took us an hour and 20 mins to get there thanks to the lovely Aussie sat nav man. Odly it only took us 40 mins to get home again haha

Met Meschee and her hounds and her massive pussy!Sorry, had to be done!

I think you should check out the Youtube footage of exactly what happened that night, I have not laughed so much in a long time.
Thanks chicks, very entertaining :)

So Friday came, after a perfect sleep on Fairy's sofa, so comfy after sleeping in the van. Drove back to Clifton for my final day.

Cooldown, core/abs and static stretches.

We all exchanged facebook details! Haha, gone are the days of getting someones address or phone number!

Sad to leave, but left with happy memories and the dark gaps of my brain now filled with my new future.

Speak soon

:)

Marldon Apple Pie Fair Boxercise Demo!

Oh yes, today was epic!

The Marldon Apple Pie Fair Boxercise Demonstration! (imagine that being read out in an American Movie Style voice!!!)
I arrived! I met a few Bay Horse friends watching the 'Red Sparrows' what I can only describe as a bunch of people carrying small wooden planes walking in formation! It was perfect for a 'Midsomer Murders' style village occasion!

Amy arrived,then Shaun and to my surprise, the lovely Chris from the Pavilions!

Amy was there with her German friend who was very very sweet and handed out leaflets whilst we demonstrated! Lovely :)

So we watched a very off-her-face lady joining in with 'moves to music' another class from the village hall demonstrating on the main arena! And hoped she would do the same with us as she was very funny!

Then, our time was here! I took up the mike and gave us a good bigging up and invited everyone to come and join in the Boxercise aerobics!
Lots of kids and a local Martial Arts group joined in, it was really nice.

Then, the padwork! We all punched, I would say like Demons, but we didn't as we had to show that we cater for all levels of fitness, the Team were amazing and at the sidelines Wendy took these amazing photos, thanks Wendy :)

Then off for a pint! We then realised why the off-her-face lady was so drunk, as they has run out of cider! Haha, but a beer later we said our goodbyes and ended a brilliant afternoon.
I love my supportive friends, they are the best, thanks to the A Team!


xD

P.S. There was no Apple Pie there at all!

Kickboxing Quickie!

Hi all

No pictures on this one, just wanted to give a few words on tonight as I'm still wired from it and my feet have the most epic carpet burns!

6.10 the lovely Cy - Famous for Dartington Village Stores and being a Red Belt Kickboxer, picked me up, he already had our newest Kickboxer, Matt in his massive vehicle and off we went to Plymouth!

Down the A38, off on the 386 (oh yeah baby, I know my road numbers!) to Derriford and The Devonshire! Oh my life what a massive sorted place of exercise that is!

Anyway, we went in and I saw my most favourite sparring partner ever, Joanna (I cant spell or pronounce her surname as yet, but I will) and I knew all was gooooooooood :)

So in we went into a sort of 'rough-veloured' area (I dont know how to spell the fabric name sorry! Or even what it is) and got hot and sweaty!

It was a Kickboxing Seminar to be reckoned with the lovely Sir, Mr Houston is a man that I like a lot. He does a lot of punching, lots and lots, that's what I loved about my grading, he let me punch a lot! And we did that tonight and it was so so so so good I am excited, can you tell?

Anyway, the finish was a brilliant CV circuit, me and Joanna went head to head (without cheating .... unlike others!) and sweated or wotsits off!

Anyway, the main point of this blog is that I had another epic adventure! And the best bit was Cy's Amy Winehouse joke on the way back that had no punchline, that I still laughed at!

Night all, had a fantastic night and lost a whole kilo in water :)

My Mummy's visit

I wanted to give this blog justice and I've been busy!

My lovely Mummy visited me this weekend as she does every 2 months (more than I go to see her and I feel bad) but due to my recent job loss I was able to actually meet her at the station again and take her to the B&B (I have a tiny tiny house)

Thursday night consisted of a Totnes in Bloom meeting, a 'Tweetup' in the New Walk Brasserie (very nice) and then a bit of a session in 'The Albert' on the dark side of Totnes in Bridgetown. We met Albert the Springer Spaniel, a customer got an apple thrown at his head and I woke up the next morning with a bit of a headache!

Friday, I've already blogged our Zoo adventure! We came home and had Fish and Chips and a sober one!

Saturday morning, Boxercise out on the field, it was fantastic out there in the sun, and then back to change for our next adventure!

We went over to Tavistock. I used to go there with my best friend Sarah so I know Tavistock very well indeed but have never actually been there with my Mum.

We parked in my favourite carpark (I am sad) by the river and Meadowlands leisure pool! Walked into Town and to the Pannier Market. It was lovely walking round there with Mum but soon I was needing a wee (haha) a pint and some food!
We went to the Tavistock Inn, a pub I used to go in with Sarah and her Mum and Dad. We used to go in there and put songs on the jukebox, we had Kirsty McColl Days and always put on 'The Walk of Life' for Sarah's Mum!
The old jukebox is still there but no longer working, in fact the whole pub hadn't changed at all since we used to go there over 20 years ago! That's probably not a good thing haha :)

We had cheesy chips and then hit the town! Or should I say, the shops, which to be fair I dont think you go to Tavistock for.
Anyway, I decided to confront another viaduct whilst we were there! I made it near it anyway, it was a big one!

We had a BBQ that night and a lush walk back after a few Ginn Fizzes before bedtime (Waltons)

Sunday, I went for a cycle, run and my place of worship, the Gym whilst Mum went to sing hymns and see her Totnes Church friends.
Then we went to the Dragon Boat races at Longmarsh.

A beautiful afternoon by the river, we took the dogs (Murphy with his bandaged paw) and spent all afternoon there. My lovely friend Amy was there for the Steam Packet for their first race but then had to go to work, so we did have a brief visit to the Steam Packet to say hi, then back to see Britannia Royal Naval College just about beat the Rugby club team, erm, I mean Nelsons Waterman.

Then home for a Chinese takeaway and some wine! Perfect!

I miss my Mum and love and cherish her visits to Devon. I hope one day she will visit and never have to go back on that train back to Surrey again.

This one's for you Mrs Wright :) xx

Dartmoor Zoological Park

Evening all!

Wow! Frantic session trying to upload animal photo's! My dongle really doesnt like it haha ;)

So today me and Mum had a van trip to Dartmoor Zoo, I follow them on Twitter and also hear about them on Radio Devon all the time so thought we had better go there before the Epic Hollywood Film comes out!

It was lovely out this morning as we walked through Totnes Market so we had high hopes for good weather, but Dartmoor being Dartmoor yep, you guessed it, the rain came in!
Luckily we both had brollies and in true English Fashion we went to find some animals that were hiding from the rain :)

We, or should I say I, had the usual 'Dear' jokes as you would expect! Mum did fall for the what do you call a dear with no eyes joke on the way out which greatly surprised me! I'm the gullible stupid one in our family ;)

We wandered around, I spoke to a lot of animals as is my way, none of them answered back today, although Mum did do a good job of speaking for them just to humour me I think but they were all great!

A few didn't come out I am thinking due to the rain but the Otters gave us an immense display of playfulness which entertained for a long time!

We saw Big Cats, The Cheetah, Tigers and Lions and my most favourite of the whole day, the Wolves. Beautiful creatures!

We said hello to the Meercats, had a cup of tea (well I did) bought a copy of the book, 'We Bought A Zoo' and off we went back across to Cornwood and home.

Fantastic wet day at the Zoo with my lovely Mum.

Speak soon my lovelies :)

Dogs on Dartmoor and the Avon Dam

Good Afternoon all, and a very Happy Thursday to you.

This morning, the sun was out, the dogs and I had our usual cycle along the river path to Dartington. Thetdogs were as energetic as usual and I thought, why not completely wear the little worsits out before my Mum arrives!

Breakfast, washing and a bit of cleaning done and I lycra'd myself up and chucked the dogs in the van.

We headed off South Brent direction onto the moor and parked up.

2 very excited little pups legged it out of the van and straight into the stream! Bless!
Off we ran, and ran, and ran, I think you get the picture, anyway we ran up to the Avon Dam on Dartmoor. It was only a short run by my standards but we hit it hard and fast and broke into a proper sweat!

The dogs decided to go against orders and go into the danger area for a swim, then we hit the track back to the van.

Brief but epic adventure, hope you like the photos?

Now Paddy and Murphy are fast asleep and dreaming of their adventure

:)

Pedal Mad turns into to Mad Pedal

Well hello so swiftly from the last blog! Wasn't expecting that, but to be fair, I wasn't really expecting today!
Up early after a cracking nights sleep and off to Dartington Primary School for the Pedal Mad Mountain Bike Orienteering event!

I offered to help Kris with this event back at the time of the 103 mile challenge. I wasn't going to cycle as I only had the 'green bike' at the time (now at over £22 on ebay) anyway as Kris was so epic helping us staying up all night to give us our 4am lift it was only fair I try and help on his epic event.

Fairly good turn out considering but I will be completely honest and say that the Totnes end of South Hams Martial Arts was very very disappointing. Considering we were raising funds for our clubs it was very sad indeed :(

There were some pro guys there today and they eventually won and it seems that all enjoyed the experience.
Thanks Lesley for the cheese and cucumber roll :)
The 3 and a bit hours passed fairly easily actually and the bikers came back.

We cleared up and I offered to pick up some of the markers for Kris. Thinking that it was all flat and everything from my house to the 4 I was picking up! *why?*

I set off on my new lovely mountain bike, new to me anyway, and found marker 3, the one that everyone said had been stolen! Yay! I found one! Wooohoooo!

Then the next one by the watermill, then off to the Steiner School. I missed a bit of cyclepath, rode along the road and had to go back to find the marker, this was the first time I realised I am no good with maps and stuff like that and behind the table today on van rescue mission should it be required was my best job!

Found the third out of 4 and then up the lane past the kennels and found the little rocky muddy track that the last one was up!

My gears stuck, I had to stand up, fell off twice, tried again to change gear but I think the bike needs a service! I got off and ran up the track with my bike, so much easier! haha

Found the last one, checked out the map (hmmm) and thought I could just carry on......

Long story cut short, I ended up in Rattery! 5.5 miles from Totnes in the opposite direction!
Called Kris to let him know I had his markers and that I was lost and he laughed a lot, as I would, and did!

Anyway, declined the offer of a rescue mission lift and found my own way back to Totnes in under 30 mins! Woohoo!

It was fun, and reminds me why I never just turn back around and go back the same way! It's all about the adventure for me :)