My New Life

Hello!

After being warned of how bad a drought we are in over the last few weeks, nature sure has made a point of proving a point. We have had SO much rain! Saying that, the sky is blue, the birds are singing and it is set to be a beautiful day! The weekend has begun!!!
This post is a sort of catch-up of all the things that have been happening since I have moved. My life has totally changed over the last few weeks, which I love.

The House

So as most of you know, we have now fully moved in to our new house. We have bought some fantastic new furniture (on a credit card) and have it pretty much how we want it. Some final tidying up to do this weekend and I will be ready to share some proper photos 😀 ! Also forcing this to happen, my mum is coming to stay for a week and I know she will be secretly judging us.

I will never forget the time she turned up at my student accommodation unannounced. I lived with 3 other guys and we all had a pact that if any of our parents/family were coming to visit, we would all pitch in and help to tidy up. This worked amazingly well until my mum dropped in unannounced one day! I have never seen such a look of disgust – and admittedly, quite rightly so!

Thankfully, there is not too much to do!

We are finally getting our satellite TV installed today (YES)! I may be an adrenaline junkie

Fitness Challenge

I have totally FAILED at updating the 14 Week Fitness Challenge Diary. So much so I may delete it. On the plus side, I have succeeded at keeping to the gym schedule and mostly (ignoring the Indian meal I had last night) to the diet. Given that time is ticking and our honeymoon to Roatan is only 7 weeks away. The challenge is officially half way. I am going to step it up in the following ways over the next 7 weeks:

• Increased number of gym sessions – Mrs Scot and I have decided to join our local gym this weekend which will help with this. I will continue to work out Mon Wed Fri at work and add additional sessions at evenings and weekends.
• Seriously start watching contents of my diet – This involved cutting out all simple carbohydrates and limiting those of the complex variety. Furthermore, I will up my intake of water. Mrs Scot has agreed to adapt her amazing baking to a healthier variety – protein flapjacks 😀
• Reducing portion sizes – It is a well known fact that what you eat counts more than what you do in the gym. In order to improve efficiency over the ‘burning off calories’ process, I will reduce the number I consume in the first place.
• Started Cycling – We bought mountain bikes with some of our wedding money and have found a great new way to spend time together while keeping fit!

I am really starting to feel a lot healthier. I was always pretty fit and healthy, but I have a LOT more energy in general.

My summer challenge (details to follow) is around the corner. This is going to be extremely physically demanding and keeping fit is a must!

Dilettante Challenge

If you don’t know what the Dilettante Challenge is, then first read the post. My aim was to start a movement of dedicating time into a new area and explore different hobbies each month. You may remember that my challenge topic for March was Photography. Given the chaos that was moving house, I did not have enough free time to properly explore this area. I decided to extend the allocated time until the end of April.

So far I have:

• Been reading a lot of Photography Blogs (these really inspire me to travel even more than I already want to)
• Have been researching different techniques of how to use my Digital SLR
• Bought a new Underwater camera and casing for our upcoming trip (This was an absolute must. After all, you do want me to share all the shark and dolphin diving pictures – Right?) Our old u/w kit kicked the bucket during our trip to Thailand for our wedding.

I feel that photography is something that I will continue to pursue after I move onto a new Dilettante item. I can’t help but feel that pictures have a unique way of reminding us of good times.

Toastmasters

I have started a Toastmasters club at my work. For those of you who don’t know, Toastmasters is an organisation which aims to improve communication, presentation and leadership skills. With American routes, it is the most popular speakers club in the world. It has thousands of clubs worldwide and tens and tens and tens of thousands of members 🙂 ! I have been along to other clubs in the area and feel pretty passionately about the whole concept. After pitching the concept to management at work, my company have endorsed it and we have already had two meetings. They have even agreed to pay the membership fees on our behalf. So far, thing are going great!

Other Cool Things

We are both doing our Emergency First Response (EFR) courses in a couple of weeks time. This is a prerequisite to the PADI Rescue Diver qualification which we will be doing on our honeymoon. We thought that instead of waste a day of our trip in the classroom, we would do it here and take the certificate with! – Result! 🙂

I am ticking another London West-End Show of my list next weekend – Mamma Mia

So far my list is:

• Phantom of the Opera
• Sweeney Todd
• Chicago
• Billy Elliott
• Million Dollar Quartet

I really want to go and see The Lion King. What other shows do people recommend?

We got tickets to go and see Nickelback in October this year. They are one of my favourite bands and a lot of their music reminds me of events growing up. Mrs S also loves them which adds to the excitement of it all!

I get my 6 monthly pay review next month… No explanation required!

Tell me something interesting that is going on in your life at the moment