Saturday yoga

In my month of being sporty, I am trying out a yoga class. Having never done it, a class is starting at the church hall literally one minute from my front door, so no excuses really. It's being done by a young lady who recently qualified as a yoga instructor, so at a substantial discount from other local options. As I'm only giving it a trial run, the bottom tier pricing structure works just fine for me. As well, I sometimes find that someone who is just starting to build up their business is more enthusiastic and committed than someone who is maybe tired and jaded of the work. So we'll see...

A week's worth of dancing

Sunday - an 'adult taster' day at a local dance school. 2.7 miles away, I walked there, not the nicest walk at it was leaving town along a main thoroughfare that runs out of sidewalks. Then it was 6 classes of 45 minutes each (broken up by breaks and lunch). Then I walked home the 2.7 miles. While two of the classes were ok, it doesn't suit my needs so well as the classes that interest me are on the weeknights when the walk is too dark and dangerous.

Tuesday - swing dance class here in Essex, a 10 minute walk away, through a well populated area and onto the university campus (read: safe). It's probably the most fun I've had at something where I went on my own no knowing anyone. Everyone was quite pleasant and it was some intense cardio at times, good fun. They go on Easter break next week and then the week after, classes start at the beginning for...the Charleston! I shall return.

The snow in my corner of Essex

We had the most delightful snow, Sat night into Sunday. It started around 22.00 and continued on heavily into the morning. It was the first snow of winter in my region.

Slocombe the cat was curious but decided not to venture out onto the roof terrace:

I decided to venture to the park, with my snowshoes as we had 4-5 inches. The last time I had the opportunity to use my snowshoes was in Germany, in Feb 2008. We've had a few UK snowstorms since I've arrived, but never on a weekend. Fortunately the weather predictions were good so I had done all of my food shopping on Saturday so to be able to fully enjoy Sunday.

It was good packing snow on the roof terrace, so I made a snowman. We're supposed to have above freezing drizzle tomorrow, so we'll see how long he lasts.

I was a little surprised on Saturday night when I called home to the US; my relatives had not heard about our 'deep freeze' in Europe, or the snow that has been raging across the continent. Usually they keep an eye out for news over here, so it seems that it did not get much coverage over there on this go round.

Vaguely impressed

Four days of walking to and from work (over an hour together per day), plus additional walking in the evening for errands, etc, (two nights was another hour in addition) and I can feel the difference in a positive way. Funny how little effort it takes really to make a difference.

Scenes from the London Marathon 2009

The weather was perfect and the company lovely.
All photos from around miles 23 or 25:

Saturday in the tiny town of B

Yes, Karneval weekend is in full swing, even in tiny town of B, nestled between Koeln and D'dorf. However, something much more exciting to me today--I woke up to 3-4 inches of snow, something I haven't see in at least 3 years here.

Such a perfect day for it. I didn't need to drive into the office, so I didn't need to shovel out the car. Instead, I could go play:

(my snowshoes, from America, who were feeling very unloved up until now)