GYM BUNNIES AND MACHO MARYS

Ohhhhhh....Noooo........!!!!

Yes, we have finally succumbed to it, we are now part of the elite gym bunny party. Gerald, gym instructor of the year 1902 got us a special offer to join McFitness First for about $25 per fortnight, and we decided to go in and see what happens. So for the last week, me and Matt have actually been to the gym 3 times!! I was a reformed gym bunny, having been a member of InShape gym for five years, gone down in weight comparable to the Biggest Loser and getting a heel injury that plagued me the last 3 years. Everything has come full circle hasn't it?

For our first class, we wanted to go slow and hence decided to go to a super intense class of Cycle. I arranged to meet Matt at the entrance of Fitness First Park St and we'll check out the lockers and go about our own thing, and guess who rocked up????

Lady Dashwood!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you who are not in the know, Lady Dashwood aka Firman Schouten, is part of the pseudo-royal family in Indonesia who has been ignored by the royal family in England for 4 centuries. Having royal blood did not stop Lady Dashwood from wanting to get to know the commoners that roamed Oxford Street. She was so down to earth that she would even walk down the street at 3am in the morning to attend to people and their needs......Maybe that was why she's lost her connection to to highly strung royal family.

We strutted up to the male locker room to change, trying our bestest not to partake in the great scenery surrounding us. We were a bit slow in changing and impatient Lady Dashwood grabbed our towels, letting a shrill "I'm going first....." before prancing off to the cycle room in a very un-ladylike manner. You see, the gym gets very crowded after office hours and you'd only get a seat if you have a friend like Lady Dashwood who is willing to dash to the room and use our towels to reserve our seats. We strolled into the room and Lady Dashwood screamed for us to go over to our "thrones"(for the queens), classily covered with my blue checkered towel. It was a bit nervewrecking because me and Matt had to adjust our seats and we didn't know how to do it. It didn't help when everyone around us looked like they were ready to start the Tour de France. We finally managed to stumble onto our seats (saddles as they were known in gym language) and started to get "into the zone". The instructor came in and boy, was she a SCREAMER!!!

" EVERYONE FEELING GOODDDD???? WE ALL READY TO DO SOME SERIOUS CYCLINGGGGG???!!! "

No response, a few grunts and mumbles.....

She then turned off the lights and the whole room started to glow.....very dancefloory....and my checkered blue towel was glowing so intensely I was almost blinded. Damn, should have brought my sunnies......MMmmm...UV lights....exercise and tan at the same time......great idea!

And we were off!!! Pumping Euro music started filling the room and we were cycling really hard! I was looking at Matt and Lady Dashwood, giving them a "What have we got ourselves into"look.
30 seconds later, I was panting like a mad pug and was ready to go home.

5 minutes later, my legs were numb and I am having trouble co-ordinating the simple circular motions.

" SO EVERYONE'S WARMED UP AND ALL READY TO GO HHHAARRDDD????!!!!!! "

I almost died.

I did stick around for the full class, but I needed help to get off the bike. My thighs and calves felt like they were pierced by 6 million pins and I had a sore bum. (According to Gerald, I had to push my bum right against the saddle to feel more comfortable. Yeah Gerald, put dirty thoughts in my mind while I'm exercising). Matt did much better than me, he was peddling harder, and he wasn't complaining at the end. Made me feel more like a pathetic whinger.

The next morning, I woke up and couldn't feel my legs. Arrrggg......

Day 2 was worse, I limped all the way to work, and I actually took a longer time to walk down the stairs to Museum Station than another old lady with a walking stick (I'm serious!!!).

We felt good though. Its great that we've finally started to live a healthier lifestyle, and it was quite enjoyable too (after the 5th day).

Things never come easy, but it is inevitable that we will look like this in about two to two and a half month's time.

Gosh, we look beautiful!!