It's all going wrong

Number of job applications this week – one.  No of pounds lost – one.  I haven’t done very well this week, failing miserably to meet the objections that I set myself at the beginning of the week.  I feel a failure and am determined to do better. We’ve been back two weeks now and although the jet lag has gone, I’m still struggling to back into any kind of routine.  We did finally manage to sort out our gym membership and are now fully fledged members of the DW Fitness Sports Centre near the MK Dons stadium in Bletchley.

I’m not sure if I mentioned it, but we fell out with David Lloyd before we went away in November.  It was a little sad because Phil was one of the first founder members and we both have been members for over 10 years.  The fees at David Lloyd have gone up steadily over the years but the latest increase made us decide that it was more than we wanted to pay.  We argued with the £70 a month suspension fee which we weren’t happy with, so told DL that, okay, we would pay this, but they could take this as our 3 month notice period.  They came back and said no, you need to pay 4 months suspension and then pay for 3 full months as notice.  Well, of course we told them where to go and immediately stopped our standing order.   Their response has not been professional but we will fight them if they pursue the matter.

We ummed and arrhed but finally decided on membership at DW Fitness. It was a toss up between LA Fitness and DW in Bletchley.  I am not 100% this was the best choice.  The gym is quite blokey and a little impersonal and the water in the ladies showers is barely luke warm. On the plus side, the steam room is great and they have 2 jacuzzi's.  DL is without a doubt the best club in MK but at DW we are only paying half the cost. The funny thing was I recognised quite a few DL members and a DL spinning instructor.  I guess at the moment we are still the newbies and perhaps I should allow myself a few more visits before I make my final  judgement. We were pretty nervous about our induction session on Wednesday and both admitted in the car on the way there, that we both felt more unfit than we had ever felt.  Luckily for us, the fitness instructor had broken his finger playing football, so our induction session was more informative rather than assessing our fitness levels.  Andy showered us the core section area and made us do a few exercises and we had a go on the different power plates.  And that was about it; we had a go on the cross trainers after he left but we could only manage 5 minutes!  We finished off with a couple of lengths of the pool and that was it for our first session.

After lunch I met up with Janet at the OU and we went for a walk around the grounds.  It had been raining in the morning but by midday this had gone and it really was quite a lovely day.  Jan was really busy at work but made time to meet me and we gossiped as we walked.  The garage called and Phil finally got the land rover back.  I’m not really sure what the probably was and although Phil says it’s driving much better, the engine light is still flashing.   Once a car lets you down, you just can’t trust it and it will be interesting to see if the LR gets through it’s MOT which is due at the end of next month.  I know that Phil really wants to change the car but now really is not the right time.

Phil went out with the Wednesday night crew and Chris drove them to the Fox & Hounds in Deanshanger.  All the boys (and me) are already familiar with this pub but recently it has changed hands and is under new management.  Phil said that the menu, although simple was really good, and everyone enjoyed their meals which Phil tells me, were reasonably priced.  I think the new owners are planning to renovate the barns at the back and turn them into a restaurant so maybe worth a visit in the summer.

We’d hardly done anything in our induction session so we were surprised to wake up on Thursday morning aching like crazy.   Just goes to show how unfit we both are and how much work we’re going to have to do to improve.   Even though we were aching, we still managed an hour in the gym yesterday, which was a big improvement on the day before.  Unfortunately aqua aerobics was taking in the place in the pool and it was virtually impossible to swim.

Since we got back home, everything seems to be breaking down.  First up we realised that the BT Vision hadn’t recorded any of our programmes and we weren’t able to record.  Phil tried many things but in the end we had to get out a BT engineer.  Turned out, it was a problem with our broadband speed which was way too slow.  The engineer rebooted and got it back up but some days it works and other days it doesn’t, so the problem is still not resolved.

Next to go wrong was the all singing-cum-dancing bath Jacuzzi shower.  I stupidly put down the bath plug even though I was having a shower and then Phil couldn’t get it up when he went in after me, which meant the bath filled with water.  We both tried several things to get the plug out and Phil phoned a plumber for advice.  He ended up bailing out the water until the bath was nearly empty and eventually managed to get the plug out.  We knew the bath needed some attention before we went away.  But, the bath panel is still off and sitting in the spare bedroom and Phil needs to phone the manufacturer and order the parts.  Something else that remains unresolved.

Next up, was my car failing its MOT.  Not altogether surprising but I didn’t expect it to fail in such a dramatic or expensive way.  I was going to phone round for quotes but instead I’ve booked it into my normal garage for an MOT and am praying that they will pass it.  I know this is slightly ridiculous but this has happened to me before and well, if it fails (which it probably will) then they have a body shop so I will let them carry out the repairs.

A couple of weeks before we got home, our electronic garage doors decided to open all by themselves.   Fortunately Neil next door spotted this and Sandy told him that Emma had a key.  Emma of course, put them down with the remote but they opened a few more times by themselves and in the end Jason had to cut off the power.  Phil and I fitted these doors by ourselves and we’ve never had a problem before, but of course now they’re out of warranty so we shall just have to keep an eye on them.  We’ve got a lot of stuff in our garage so if we can’t identify the problem we shall have to keep the power off. Not ideal really and defeats the object of having electric doors.

There have been a couple of other annoying things like my dying laptop but I think the biggest thing to go wrong happened just last night.  At the end of the day we settled down in the lounge to watch Come Dine with Me. The 50 inch plasma came on and then promptly switched itself off.  The remote wouldn’t work and we powered off and on several times but all to no avail, it just wouldn’t come on.  Phil managed to get the sound back but couldn’t get a picture.  And of course, this is just out of warranty so we shall have to get an engineer out to fix it.  It’s not the best timing either;  the Australian Grand Prix is on this weekend and Phil wanted to record the qualifying session which was on TV really early this morning and now he can’t.  If he can’t get his big screen fixed today, he will be like a bear with a sore head all weekend.  Of course we do have other sets and last night we watched TV in the cold conservatory but it’s just not the same.  I have to apologise again for the lack of photo’s and the improvisation today.  Although I have my new super duper digital camera, all my UBS ports have decided to stop working so I can't download from my laptop.  What next I wonder?