Category: post

Busy afternoon.

Walk. Lunch. Work.
H+H for quick coffee, followed by short grocery trip in Tesco.
Heavy duty shopping in B&Q.
Drive home in peak hour traffic.
Clean pee on front door and back door carpets, while he does even more pee in the backyard.
Put dishes in dishwasher, and start it.
Clean rest of the dishes by hand.
Make Kong.
Write update to boss.
Send.

Boxer ‘shorts’

Wikipedia:

Boxer shorts (also known as loose boxers or as simply boxers) are a type of undergarment typically worn by men.

The term has been used in English since 1944 for all-around-elastic shorts, so named after the shorts worn by boxers, for whom unhindered leg movement (“footwork”) is very important.

I know they’re called shorts, but they’re really underwear – something you wear under your shorts / trousers / jeans …

This confusing nomenclature seems to have confused a load of people in India.

Had a friend over few weekends ago. After a long day walking out, we all changed into comfortable home clothes, and he came out of his room wearing a tee and … boxer shorts. I queried him, and he confirmed that he was wearing ‘underwear’ under them. I explained to him (hopefully not too rudely) that they were underwear, and not really shorts.

This wasn’t the first time either.

A couple of years ago, at home in India, the whole joint family had gathered for a wedding. A cousin emerged from the shared bathroom, walking through the living room where all the relatives were gathered, in his …. boxer shorts. Again, wearing an underwear under it.

Back in my B-school hostel too, a lot of batchmates used to roam around in their boxer shorts. It may have been them just walking around in their underwear in a men-only hostel. Or maybe they too were wearing underwear under their boxer shorts.

Ideally, Jockey (who first popularised boxers in India), should’ve done a customer education campaign to inform buyers that the shorts were meant to be underwear, and not regular shorts. However, driven by profit motive, and seeing a large proportion of their customers using boxers as outwear shorts, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them actively promote the boxers as … shorts :)

 

Sweet pain. Bad symptom.

Legs are aching. It’s that sweet pain that comes after rigourous exercise-an evening in the gym, a long run, or a long/hard bike ride.

However, I’ve done none of these things. Last run was on Saturday, last bike ride was last Sunday, and haven’t been to gym this year. Even tonight’s Pilates class was postponed.

All I’ve done is a 1.5 hour walk last night, a 45 min walk tonight, and a blood donation in between.

I love this ache. But I’m concerned – if a bit of walking can cause it, I must be in terrible physical shape 😟

Pilates and the 2 minute tooth brushing

The electric toothbrush I’ve been using last couple of years comes with a two-minute buzzer – meant as an indicator for how long to brush your teeth (at a minimum).

As would be expected, I’ve rarely ever got to the buzzer – finishing my brushing in a minute or so, well below the suggested time. Of course my teeth are in a crap state.

A few months ago I started going to a pilates class once a week. However, it was clear to me that once a week wasn’t enough, and I couldn’t afford to go more (both financially and time-wise).

As a compromise, the instructor offered a few suggestions on how to get a few exercises in a usual day. One of those suggestions was to do single leg stands while brushing teeth – stand on left leg when brushing the right side, and vice versa. This one stuck.

A couple of months in, and the other side effect of this pilates exercise is becoming clearer. As I’ve become better at single leg balancing, I try to stay longer on each leg, and thus spend longer cleaning my teeth.

The result: In over a month, I’ve never stopped short of the buzzer :)

The other side effect: I now need to charge my toothbrush weekly, after running out of power twice, against the once in 2-3 weeks I use to do earlier.

So, stronger legs, better balance, and healthier teeth. It’s a win-win :)

Try it out..

Mild, sunny & beautiful – is it really British spring?

Today was one of those beautiful spring days that makes living through the winter worthwhile.

It was sunny, but not hot.
There was a cool wind, but neither a gale, nor freezing.
And there was plenty of beautiful walking and riding done.

Met Charlie again on the walk today. Chewie & Charlie had a few mins of fun running around, again. At the end of an already beautiful walk.

Bike had a flat front tyre – a pinch flat, probably from the last ride. Quickly changed tubes, got a few mins of rest (while catching the Giro), and off we went – Raghi & I – on another beautiful Sunday’s ride in the shire.

We’d considered a few new routes for this weekend. But R wasn’t feeling too great before we headed out, so ended up riding the usual route out to Shere & back. With a couple new easy, beautiful climbs thrown in.

Despite starting off tired – in head more than body – and needing a gel after just 11K on the flat, R surprised us both on today’s ride. She comfortably managed to climb both the new climbs without stopping. She even managed our backyard climb, Down’s lane, without a single stop or slowdown. But what was most surprising, was that she let me eat ice cream at our turnaround point in Shere. She must have been in a really good mood! ;)

Post-ride plan was to not eat anything than a bowl of cottage cheese after the ride. A cold shower later, it quickly went for a toss. Ended up eating a bucket load of cashews and peanuts, some mini carrots with hummus, and that bowl of cottage cheese. And that was apart from the dinner & dessert. So much for control!

Yesterday’s stupid (and lovely) evening run meant that my step target jumped by almost 500 steps (as predicted) to over 10,200 steps. A morning walk and playing with Chewie in the backyard wasn’t going to meet this. So, went for another post dinner walk.
A lap to the crossroads with music. Then, dropped Jyoti at the station.
And another lap to the crossroads with Chewie!

This boy wants to come along on my walks no matter how tired or sleepy he is. I wouldn’t be surprised if, a decade from now, he gets up from his deathbed because dada seems to be going for a walk.

:) :( :)