My inner F1 geek

I love Formula 1.  

I was bought up on it rather then football or rugby.  I know it is a male dominated sport and fan base but scratch the surface and there are plenty of women involved.  I have been known to be around a friends house and get up at 7am to watch an early race.  When in Australia 2011 it was the Canadian race and I waited to watch it start at 2am.  I am a F1 geek. 

Now most of my female friends do not see the attraction or understand the sport more then it being about cars driving round a track.  Many might complain it is no longer about the driver and that it is more about having the best car.  Yes that is true but driving a F1 car is more then just having a fast car.  You need to understand the rules and the technical side of it.

My first grand prix to go to was the British for my 21st Birthday present in 2007.  I loved it the noise, the atmosphere is just incredible.  Yes it is different to watching it on the TV you do not get all the detail of the race but there is nothing like it.  I planned part of my travelling around going to the Malaysian race in 2011.  That was even more incredible because the tickets are cheap we had seats on the start/finish straight and the noise because of the track was even more incredible it sent tingles up your spine.  

Last year I went to the British again last year and was a very wet weekend but amazing none the less.  We had general admission tickets again and we some how managed to pick the spots on qualifying and race day where all the action was. 

An ex boyfriend also got me into Motogp and I do not follow it as closely but I still love it.  I went to the British race at Donnington and then again planned it so I was in Australia for the Phillip Island race in 2011.  It is more exciting at times because the bikes have added danger going side to side millimetres away from each other round the corners.  Moto 2 the lower series is even more exciting when I saw it in Australia.    

If I won the lottery I would love to spend a year just following the Formula 1 and Motogp around the world. I would love to see the race in Brazil as they are massive Forumla 1 fans and they know how to party!  

I will always support the Brits in the race but do have a soft spot for Webber and the under dogs of the lower teams.  It is great to see them win against the top dogs.  But do not mention Ferrari as we are definitely not fans in our house.  

Today is the Monaco race one of the most prestigious and one I would love to be at on a Yacht but for that I need some pennies!

So Formula 1 is one of my loves and passions and just a little bit of a F1 geek.  Will leave you with some photos.

British 2007 and meeting Johnny Herbet!

Malaysia 2011

 British 2012

Why I choose to learn pole dancing: No sleaze please

Since last July I have learnt to dance.  Pole dance to be specific.

Now for most people this conjures up the image of gentlemen clubs of women in barely anything writhing around to please the paying man.

Learning pole for fitness is a completely different kettle of fish.

I had tried pole dance a few years ago but due to finance and a teacher I did not really like I gave up thinking I was not strong enough or ever be able to do it.  When I came back from travelling I put on a lot of weight and wanted to get healthier.  I hate the gym I get bored easily and lose the willingness to go very quickly.  I love to dance I have dance in so many different styles since I was 4 years old.  I studied contemporary dance at university and love the way it makes me feel.

I started at this dance studio just doing the hula class which I did really enjoy and just caught the sight of some of the pole classes starting as I finished so I got the guts to try a beginner course at the same studio.  All the classes at this studio are open level so to help participate it is advised to have a beginner course first to get the basics.   I have been hooked ever since due to the challenge and feeling it gives me.

When I started I had barely any upper body strength at all.  Some of the girls could do the more strength dependant moves straight away but I have always been good at spins.  Even now I try to focus on what I can do and draw inspiration from the other girls as everyone is different and every person has a different body.  I stuck at it and slowly by keeping going I was able to start seeing progress.  The first time I climbed up to the top and then the next week get upside made me feel on top of the world.

Despite the rather unsightly bruises and sore muscles it gives I love that space for an hour each week to push myself to the max mentally and physically.  Pole is a lot about trusting your own body to do what you know it can do.  Yes it can be dangerous but so is life and a good teacher only teaches what she think you can do.  Build the skills and strength up slowly at your own pace.  I got bored of Zumba after a few weeks because I can dance already but pole dancing is just a challenge every week to get the new trick or move or to combine movements.

The realisation after a few weeks of working on something and finally getting it or even better finding it is getting easier is one of the best feelings.  Knowing that nearly a year ago I could not even climb up part way of the pole and now I can just climb to the top.

Another good point is the ladies in my studio.  There is such a mix in ages, sizes, background and ability that it makes such a community.  Due to the classes being drop in I often change about classes depending on the week and how I am feeling.  No matter what class I go to everyone is so friendly and encouraging and shares in your successes.  I may not see them outside of pole but it is great to feel welcomed and valued.

My next challenge is to do the pole dance studio's show 2 weeks on Friday.  I am doing a solo to 'Felling Good' by Muse.  Putting the routine together has not been too much of a challenge but getting through it requires stamina I never thought I had.  I cannot wait to perform it and show everyone how well I have done in a year and it lets me get back into performing which I miss so much from university.

The negative side though is the comments I get from some people and particularly men.  Do you know what I think though?  They are the ones made nervous by the fact women (and men if they choose to) can go and do a fitness class which is hard work and demanding like no other.  Just look through youtube at some of the amazing routines men and women can do.    Once you start you realise how easy people make it look.  One of my friends I showed the video too said that 'she didn't realise how graceful and gymnastic like it was'.

So I tend to my bruises with pride knowing how much strength, flexibility and confidence it needs to try and succeed in pole dance.  It is something I intend on doing for a very long time just never in a sleazy bar for a man.  It is for me and me alone!

I had a photoshoot the other week as part of the studio and will post a picture at some point if any good!


 

Just a sneak preview

I will be writing an update to my wedding post from earlier in the week as to how I found the weekend at my friend's wedding. I also have an article on the effect of exercise in the pipeline as well.

Sneak preview from the wedding yesterday.  Me feeling beautiful, strong, sophisticated woman of 27 years old.

Weddings and my dislike and grief

I have a wedding on Saturday of a close friend from university.  Am I looking forward to it? Yes and no.  Yes because I will get to see many friends who live far away and celebrate a lovely day for a lovely couple.  But really I hate weddings and the day holds all sense of dread for me.  So instead of just bottling it up tonight I am going to use it to write instead.  

Many girls dream of their big day.  Their one special day where everybody is there for you and your marriage to wish you well.  To walk down the aisle to Prince Charming in a big white dress looking for the happily every after.

To me this is all a load of rubbish.

I think a lot of how I feel stems from my family situation and my cynical nature of marriage after my own parents separation after 25 years together for reasons my mother, who was the one that walked away, never has explained at all.  I know she was unhappy but nothing more then that is known to me or my sister.  After my relationships have ended I have always thought is quality of time better then quantity of time together?  Do we need different people for different stages of life for different needs?

I have never seen myself with that perfect day because my wider family is so split up and people do not speak to others.  I never saw myself having a wedding at home I would rather have eloped and not dealt with the family arguments of 30 odd years old.  

My feelings about the actual wedding day revolve a lot around the loss of my dad.  When thinking about a wedding day the only thing I have ever thought about is the speech my Dad would do to embarrass me as much as possible with at the same time being the proudest man there.  I saw on key moments of my life like my graduation how proud my Dad was and there is not really another occasion where your Dad stands up and speaks to people about you.  To me getting married without my Dad just seems impossible to not have him there as I never envisaged him not being there.

The week of my Dad's funeral I attend my best friend from university's wedding as Maid of Honour.  Looking back it was probably a step too far at the time but I was determined to not miss the wedding.  I had got through the funeral without a single tear yet just walking down the aisle behind her I had to hold back the flow.  When it came to her Dad's speech I just could not hold on to the sadness of not having my Dad.  Since then I have been to a few weddings as a guest and working as a waitress and it still gets me every time of being there and having your Dad there.  It is one part of the wedding coming this weekend that I wish to just go and it somewhere and not have to face.

My other issue is how I then deal with coping with these feelings.  One is drinking alcohol and it is never a good place for me really but there is that expectation at a wedding.  Through in a whole room of strangers that makes me anxious as well and its a recipe of hell for me.  Then there is also the issue of; what to wear? what shoes do I wear? Do I look fat in this? Am I too dressed up or not dressed up enough? It just makes everything that little bit harder. 

I do not see myself getting married as I could not make that promise to love some and stay with them until death us do part.  There is not an occasion that celebrates us not making that choice.  That single life can be just as much a choice as being married.  It comes down the expectation of society.  I do not see myself getting married or having children but that is a different post yet to be written. 

Will leave you with a photo of me being Maid of Honour for my best friend in October 2010 and will promise to post pictures from the wedding and an update next week. 

The issue of trust

Trust.  

It is something we cannot see but is vital in our relationships with friends, partners and families.

It is something that takes a long time to build but very little to destroy.

It is something I am trying to teach my students in my class who have autism everyday.

It is something I crave to give me stability, security and safety.

It is something that effects me every day and I want to discuss how it effects my every day well being.

First of all the complexity of trust in relationships and friendships. 

Last September something rocked my relationship that I was in at the time.  I had been with the man for over 2 years however it was hard to describe the relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend as I spent a lot of the time we were together was whilst I was away travelling.  However we were close.  He had supported me through my Dad's death even though he had only known me for 5 months before hand.  During the time after I returned from travelling he had supported me through a bleak time and we were just becoming closer again.

That was until the end of September when he was up for one of my friends birthdays.  He said he had something to tell me and on the Sunday our relationship came to an abrupt halt due to him cheating on me.  Not only that he had not even been an adult about it and she was now pregnant.  In days after I forgave him and accepted it, there is too much anger and hurt already in the world to tear myself up over one mistake.    We have remained friends for a time and it is going through a rocky patch at the minute and we shall see how things go.  

Until recently I thought this break of trust was something I had got over.  Instead meeting someone new who I liked has put this issue of trust at the forefront again and it is a constant struggle for me now.  When me and this new guy, I will call him B, started getting closer I was so hesitant because I had been so hurt in the past.  I knew I would have to open my heart again to be able to let someone in even just as a friend but that felt a massive step to take. 

When I told my close friends originally about my Dad's death I had some very unsupportive comments.  One of my close friends, who I had waited 2 days to tell her before I rang her due to her being on holiday, replied with the comment 'Are you joking?'.  Like I would joke about my own Dad's suicide?  Ever since then I have always been hesitant about telling people about my Dad and not only what happened but my own reaction in that I accept his death and understand he is at peace now.  Even my own sister tells people that Dad died in a car crash rather then explain the complexities of suicide to people who have no understanding.  

With the my ex he understood what I had been through and I trusted him so much because of that.  I thought no one new would ever understand how I felt about my Dad's death or be able to support me like he had.  I felt I had baggage that was too big for anyone else to understand and accept.  I felt like I was damaged goods in some ways.  However after we split up and meeting new people who have had experience with depression I have begun to trust again and talk more openly.  I started trusting people again that they would understand and not judge me for what had happened and my views on it.  I have told B I feel like damaged goods and he says truthfully that I am not and it is just life experiences.  

How did I trust B with how I feel and why do I open up to him?  I do not know but he was the first person at my last work place that I even told about my Dad's death and circumstances.  He knew that I was in grief counselling and why.  I have trusted him, like I did today. to talk about certain things around my last break up and my Dad's death that I have never talked about before with anyone.  He said a few weeks ago that I take care and worry about so many people that he is there to look after me and to relax me.  I find it easy at times to open up knowing I will not be judged but it is still hard at times to trust fully.

Yesterday I had a very paranoid moment.  I do not know if it was down to not taking my medication or just the circumstance of the days but I just felt on edge with this new friendship in some ways.  In the end it was completely unfounded on my part but it just bought to me the awareness of how my trust in people is on a knife edge.  I have that paranoia at times and it is hard to get it out of my head. 

   

Secondly my relationship with my mum is where trust is a major issue and effects my life on a daily basis. 

Me and my mum have never had a close relationship.  I know I could go to her if I was in trouble but I would only tell her personal things if I felt I had to rather then wanted to.  I have never had that share everything with my mum kind of relationship and I am becoming more and more aware why this is and it is down to trust.  I tell her what she needs to know.

It comes down to the fact I do not trust my Mum fully.  I expect to be judged in a usually negative way for any action I do.  Even simple things like cleaning.  When I was living with her and her partner I did not help that much with the cleaning because I knew no matter how much effort I put into it I would always get criticised and it would never be good enough for my Mum.   

  

I do not speak to her about my Dad because I just do not expect her to understand and to trust she will just listen. In the middle of an argument on Mother's Day she described what my Dad did as selfish which is the opposite of what I have ever thought.  One Christmas before my Dad died she criticised him for being a bad father on Christmas day and really the only people that can judge that is me and my sister.

She does support me in things I do and what I aim for in life but I try to not rely on her 100% for emotional support and one reason of that is of her relationship with a man who cannot even be civil to me even after living with him for a year.  A man that left me out of my Mum's birthday and never apologised.  A man who swore and shouted at me over minor things but yet that is ok in my Mum's eyes.  All the time whilst I lived at home Mum said I should try harder and make more effort even though she knew how hurt I was by all this.  In the end it does come down partly to the fact that me and my Mum are very different people and as adults we just do not get on at times.  

Now I have my own house I have more security, stability and safety because I never felt like that living with my Mum and her partner.  I did not realise until I moved out 3 weeks ago how much fear I lived in day in, day out.  Me and my Mum are repairing our relationship slowly but I do not think we will ever have a close relationship like other people and I envy that at times.

I am starting to trust again and put measures in place to do so but it still takes a massive effort at times to reduce my anxieties.  All I know is in the last year I have made some very good friends who I can start to trust and open up to.  That I have strategies in place to deal with this but my trust is still very delicate.       

  

Sleep and my journey

Sleep.  It is that thing you do when you get in bed, close your eyes and wake up the next morning.  Surely it should be that simple?  You have been doing it all your life so we all should be pretty good at it having practised everyday.  However when depression or anxiety happen sleep is often the thing you need most but yet the hardest to achieve.  My post is about the effects of sleep or not sleeping upon my emotional health and tips for what has worked for me.  They may not work for everyone but they are a starting point for me.

My sleep started being effected really as my dad started to become more depressed in the summer of 2010. When my Dad died it obviously got worse but then I went travelling and sleep was always interesting at times.  Jet lag and long journeys often resulted in missing sleep but it did not really matter as I could just catch up whenever and was always something exciting.  To help I was using rescue remedy tablets which are herbal and I found really did help with jet lag to just calm me down to sleep.  

But coming home was a different story and my sleep got much much worse.  I had problems with being able to switch off, to be able to get to sleep as once asleep I would be out.  Some nights I would just watch TV on my laptop until 2am in the morning and then get up for teaching the next day at 7am.  I would tell myself just 10 more minutes or just one more programme.  Then once that time had lapsed would say again to myself the same thing.  I would only turn off the light to sleep once I knew I would fall asleep. 

Some nights would be ok and others I would sleep at 2am so I was able to cope with this until around September time.  I was also on summer holidays from school so most of the summer I just slept when I wanted and the lack of routine was bad.  When I went back to work in the September last year it started getting harder to sleep and most nights I was on about 6 hours a night and was able to just about live on that.  I split up with the guy I had been seeing in a very bad situation and that set my sleep off even worse.

To make things even worse in November I got pneumonia and during this time my friendship deteriorating with my ex and also missing out on a job I really wanted sent my sleep even worse.  I was still living at home and the situation was so tense that I only felt at rest once my mum and her boyfriend had gone to bed.  I went back to work and again was surviving on 5 to 6 hours a night of sleep.  However being weak from the pneumonia I was really only on verge of surviving on that.  I know I needed sleep to get better yet would waste my time watching TV on my laptop even rubbish programmes knowing I could watch them anytime.

I knew watching TV and being on the computer was trying to avoid that quiet time and that time to think and worry as you fall asleep.  I would worry over small things about the next day or something somebody had said to me that day.  I would worry about things I knew would be ok but I could make a mountain out of a molehill.  Once I got to sleep it would be ok but the next morning I would not feel like it had been restful.  I would often have very bad physical ticks when falling asleep which would wake me up again and unnerve me.    

As things came to Christmas and a lot of stress surrounding that I went to the doctor to see if they would give me sleeping tablets really just so I could function in the last week of work and over the holiday.  The doctor did give me sleeping tablets and I remember the first night I took them waking up in the morning was like a relief.  I had actually felt like I had slept properly and not tossing and turning all night.  Christmas was a horrible time and the sleeping tablets helped but I knew it was not a long term situation.  I hated the feeling of the tablets as would feel like a zombie and mixing them with alcohol was a massive no.  Trust me I tried and it was horrid.

After Christmas break I was only working 2 or 3 days a week so my strength started to recover from being ill and so I was better even though I was not sleeping any better.  I finally got a full time job and moved out 2 weeks ago.  I had been wondering if my new anti depressants had been causing insomnia but I would not know until I had moved out.         

Moving out and the effect of that on my sleep has been amazing.  I knew one of my problems was that I spent all my time at home in my small single bedroom.  One big tip is to only use your bedroom for sleep but this was impossible to do at my mum's house.  Now in my own house my bedroom is a TV and laptop free zone.  The only thing I do in my room is sleep.  I also have to make that decision to physically get ready to go to bed and actually move into my room which helps.  It also means that I now read in bed rather then play about on my computer which is something I had really missed giving myself time for.

Occasionally now I still take herbal sleeping tablets if I am feeling anxious but generally I can fall asleep naturally at about 10:30 to 11pm every night.  I sleep properly and ready to wake up when my alarm goes off.  I feel re energised and more ready to tackle the day.  I feel ready to sleep and do not worry about things when I fall asleep now as I enjoy a good book first.

Sleep has a massive effect on your ability to function even as a normal person let alone when you have anxiety and depression.  It would effect my ability to concentrate, to speak in a clear, normal way and it would effect how I would cope with change.  I am still not great when plans change or people do not do what I ask but I am getting better.

So my top tips for better sleep:

1. Only sleep in your bedroom. No TV or laptop.  I still have my phone as I use it for alarm but do not use Internet on it.
2. Learn what you need to make you sleep better. Things like light, noise and temperature of the room can have an effect.
3. If you need sleeping tablets on a short term basis use them to get sleep back into some sort of routine so that you can then improve things.  Use them when you really need them.
4. Relax before you go to bed whether it be reading a book or listening to music.
5. Use body wash and lotion that has lavender in it which can help with sleep.
6. Create your own routine for each night to do before you go to bed so that it forces you to start with but then becomes habit.

I do not really believe about do not have a meal 2 hours before bed as this for me with my lifestyle just does not work.  All the tips that have helped me within my own lifestyle.

Getting better sleep has improved my mood and my anxiety leaps and bounds.  Now just to sort out my symptoms of IBS I have.