The jog-blog

This is a bit off topic from my regular posts, but it’s something I felt like sharing, just because it was on my mind.

I’ve recently taken up jogging.

And I’m loving it - the freedom of it just being me and the road is an amazing experience.

I’ve taken it up because I can’t get to my gym as often anymore as I moved further away from it, and I’m still within my contract period, so can’t get out of it to go somewhere else just yet.

And that’s quite a big deal for me – I’m quite the gym bunny. Not “all that I think about, go there every night” type of gym bunny, but the kind that enjoys hitting the treadmill, the exercise bikes, or taking a class or two a couple of times a week to just burn off the week and de-stress myself a little bit.

Anybody who knows me away from the tinterweb world or the bdsm world knows how important that is for me. To keep my body in shape, look after myself, feel healthy and vibrant and be happy in myself. It’s part of what makes me, me!

I was building up my jogging days, when I started 6 weeks ago I only went once a week. But now, last week I hit the streets on three mornings out of seven, for 4 miles each time

I’m shocked by my discipline and how quickly I’ve taken to it, I’m not a big morning person, but I’ve been up at about 5 a.m. every time and out the house before half five every time. And it’s been refreshing. I thought I’d be tired and not want to do it, if I were taking a bet on myself back 6 weeks ago when I started, I would have betted that I’d not make it through the month.

But I’ve proved myself wrong, I’m still going strong, and have really started to develop a love for it. Is love too strong a word? Mutual non-hate maybe? lol
It's certainly a good stress reliever anyway, after a jog and a shower, I feel so much better about starting a brand new day.I even took one of my dogs with me one time last week. I’m not sure she enjoyed it that much, but she didn’t mind it either. She enjoys running with her long lanky legs, but it was a struggle for us to find a pace we could both agree on, I wanted to go quite slowly, she decided she wanted to sprint and then stop, sprint and then stop, sprint and then stop.

She’s still a puppy for all intents and purposes though, so I thought it would be a good exercise for her to practice her loose-lead walking/cantering (or walking to heel as it is sometimes known) – which she’s been struggling with so far.

Anyway, it went okay, but I don’t think it will be a regular activity that she’ll be joining mommy on!! She’s just not disciplined enough to stick to my 7 minute mile targets!! Instead she chooses to stop for pee-breaks, or shrubbery sniffing distractions, or decides to turn around and try and run the opposite way to follow a random stranger that happens to be passing.

I will teach her discipline and focus, I will, I will, I will… or at least I will try!!

2009 London Marathon – here I come… perhaps!! Lol :-)

The driving license pic..

I’m pretty happy today.

This morning I got my new drivers licence in the post – back from my former hometown people at the dvla.

I’ve been driving for a few years now, so I’m not excited because I get to drive now. I’m just excited that I finally got to change my license pic, and it doesn’t look horrible… in fact, I look pretty damn good on it!!

For those not in the UK, or for those who just don’t know about UK driving licences – we have a photocard license with our pic on, and our name and address, date of birth, and driving allowances/disallowances details.

Previously, the pic on my license was still the picture I had taken for my provisional (learners permit) license, which I originally got when I was 18. As every so often I’d have to change some details, or upgrade it to my full license, but I just kept the same picture.

I wouldn’t say it was a horrible picture, in fact when I first had it done I thought it was quite good. But I quickly realised it wasn’t. Maybe that morning several years ago after a heavy night on the town wasn’t the best time to go to the photo-booth, but it was the moment I chose nevertheless. Especially when my license came through and what was a pretty bad picture became a REALLY bad picture after scanning and processing, or whatever the dvla did to it… perhaps replaced it with the picture of somebody less attractive??

Well, anyway, after years of a bad license pic, I finally got around to sending them a new one. I had to send my license off to them anyway to get my address changed after my recent move, so I took the opportunity to pay the extra fee and get them to change my picture.

And it was a really good picture. It took me five photo booth attempts, and hours of practicing my smile in the mirror, so I wouldn’t look like a non-smiling misery guts, but at the same time wouldn’t look like I’d swallowed a bottle of happy pills and end up with a picture that is more smile than face. But I got there in the end, my hair was practically perfect, my make-up was just right, and I got the all important shot I was after.

But I still worried. After the dvla got their mits on it, and scanned and processed it – or replaced it with the picture of someone slightly less attractive – what would it turn out like.

I finally found out today, and I can breathe a sigh of relief. It was pretty good. Not quite as good as it looked a few weeks ago, fresh out of the photo booth printing machine, but definitely something I can brandish as ID without hiding my head in shame!

And yes – I know I’m sooo vain!! Lol :-)