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Friday, April 13, 2001
19:55 
Thought for the day - getting one's nose pierced really puts a damper on picking one's nose. Also, mistakenly yanking out the stud after only 5 days is a very bad idea.
Got a letter from the EA today. Opened it with some trepidation, expecting either to be over the moon or dreadfully disappointed. As it happened, I was neither. It was another interview request, which is really rather cool. Two interviews out of one application form. Not only that, but I am terribly impressed with the "how to get there" section, which primarily advises public transport. The car is right down at the bottom and there is a box that says:
| "The Environment Agency have a policy to reduce the impact of travel for both our own activities and those of our visitors. Green Transport Plans are produced for many of our sites. We encourage staff and visitors to use public and alternative forms of transport to travel to our sites where possible." |
Now is that cool or what? I'm so impressed. I expect I shall be taking the train then, as they have so thoughtfully made it easy for me to plan my journey. Much kudos to them.
Andy's coming with me to the gym tomorrow to get inducted so we can laugh at each other getting all sweaty. Crumbs. And I've got a really weird dream to write up, but I think I need to go think about it a bit.
Tuesday, April 10, 2001
23:04
Odd experience in the gym today. I was doing a short workout, because Frood was coming home from work early. I'd done 10 minutes on the elliptical, and wasn't feeling too good, so switched to the treadmill for a brisk, inclined walk. Then I got on with the weights. About halfway round, sitting on the lat pull-down machine grunting through 50kg, the instructor, Max, started talking to me. She was asking how I was getting on, how I was doing, checking my weights. We started talking. Then she went back to her induction client. After I had done a couple more exercises and was on the obliques, she came over and perched on the bench and started asking me about the FMS and how I cope with it. I told her that mostly it's a case of getting on and refusing to give in. I told her how I knew some people with FMS who have to use wheelchairs and stairlifts, and I was downright refusing to end up like that.
She then told me how much she admired me, and how watching me had made her really yearn to get back into training, because, she said, back when she was in training she had been lifting as much as I was. But there was crap going on her life and she didn't think she had the time or the motivation. Also, she had put on a stone since she was training seriously, and training would make her look bigger. She didn't have the big frame and definition to carry it off like I do, she said.
I really didn't know what to say to her. It was really weird being told by the fitness instructor that she admired what I was doing, how well I was doing, how much I had improved, and my example was giving her the impetus to get back into training despite the crap in her life. It wasn't even an ego boost. I felt vaguely embarassed, and a bit of a fraud, because I don't feel like I achieve all that much in the gym. It's not that I don't think I'm a worthy person, I just don't like being admired for being, when you come down to it, me. It's not like I overcome any great odds, or am battling against some aspect of my personality. I'm just doing what my character leads me to do. I feel it's almost like being told I am admired for having brown hair, it seems silly.
But a massive compliment. I'm getting friendly nods from the serious blokes in there now. The ones who max out the chest press and the pec deck. Just wish I could get some definition in my deltoids without having to do an Incredible Hulk impression (which I only do in private, incidentally).
Oh, and I had a dream with BC in it last night. She was giving a talk that no one was finding very interesting or worth listening to. There was other stuff, something about a fete being held at a school, and Mugwort and Wyrd were in it, but I don't remember very much about it at all.
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