Monday 4 May 2015

Gyms And Gadgets

It's been a week of exercise and toys for me. 


We joined Fram Leisure on a fitness class membership a few months ago and we were really enjoying regular spinning and circuit training - it was doing us good. Unfortunately our three instructors all left within a few days of each other and the available classes dried up. We both felt our fitness levels dropping within a week of stopping the exercise and were desperate to get back into our schedule. 

There was an alternative - Mint Fitness set up by one of our old instructors Becky - but it was an extra ten minutes drive and we were already paying Fram Leisure.


But fortunately, after several weeks of being unfit, our saviour arrived in the shape of new instructor Camille who has moved to Suffolk from France. 

  
Suddenly we have not just one or two but well over a dozen classes to choose from and we've certainly taken advantage of the new schedule. I managed to fit seven classes in between Monday and Thursday alone and Marion did a fair few too (as well as yoga elsewhere). Camille is a very professional trainer and we both really felt the benefits of the sessions that we had.




With no classes on a Friday at Fram Leisure we decided to try Mint Fitness out. Becky has set up a super little studio which is extremely well equipped with top of the range spinning bikes along with plenty of other high quality fitness paraphernalia. We had a thorough and challenging circuit class with Sophia followed by a very enjoyable and invigorating spinning session with Becky. We'll certainly be back and hope that Fridays at Mint will become an additional and regular feature of our exercise regime.



In the time when we haven't been exercising it's been a week of gadgets. I don't know if I mentioned in an earlier blog but when we took robot lawnmower "Mo" out of hibernation in February to renew the blades and check everything was functioning, the electronic display kept showing an error message. It was under guarantee so I drove it back to Mow Direct near Norwich and expected a speedy repair. Sadly the repair bamboozled their technicians (I don't think they have had many robots to repair) so they sent it back to the suppliers. The suppliers were equally flummoxed so they had to consult at length with the Italian manufacturers who, over the following two months, sent almost every component imaginable over to the UK before the UK suppliers gave in and sent Mow Direct a new one. "Mo 2"  arrived on Friday and is now ready to perform its daily trim. Although Mow Direct had the machine for over two months the service was good and they kept me fully in the picture on progress (or lack of it).


There was another minor problem (I was going to say disaster but there are so many real disasters around at the moment that that was an inappropriate choice of words) on Tuesday when the Nespresso milk frother packed up and started flashing red. A quick check on the internet told me it was an unfixable problem so, as it too was under guarantee, I telephoned Nespresso who sorted it out immediately taking the original unit back the following day and getting the replacement to us by the weekend. I'm so pleased that they did this efficiently as Marion loves her daily cappuccino.


And on Thursday the new UHD curved TV arrived. The old telly sold on eBay and just an hour or two after the high bidder (at a reasonable £160) collected it, the new one was in place. Getting a new TV nowadays isn't quite what it once was and, whilst it was ready to watch quite quickly, it's taken me a couple of days to get it connected properly to the sound system and internet and to calibrate the smart remote controller. I found a website suggesting the perfect picture settings and, once they were input, the picture is quite staggeringly good. Just one setback though, it appears that "something" is interfering with the WIFI on my laptop. The phones and iPad and ethernet connections are all working perfectly but this laptop (plugged into ethernet at the moment) drops the WIFi constantly. I'm sure I'll sort it out soon.


I did manage to sort out the Skype straight away and up popped my mum from her iPad. 

Another busy week beckons. The audiologist is tweaking the hearing aids tomorrow, there are more exercise classes on Wednesday, on Thursday I'm heading down to Rochester to babysit for a day and then on Friday we're driving to St Andrews for a couple of weeks in the caravan and seeing the Scottish branch of the family.  



Before I finish I must mention The Station. It's one of Framlingham's pubs and (according to the newspaper I borrowed this photo from) Ed's local. We joined a couple of friends for a meal there on Friday evening. The food, wine, service and beer were all extremely good and I'm sure we'll be back there very soon.

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