An Estonian girl who has found a home in Sweden.

Saturday, July 29

July 29, 2006 Posted by Vaire

Weight update.

Naturally my weight went up during the vacation. I weighed in on Monday last week as 83.6 kg. All the work of previous weeks was wasted, but there was no real progress from changing the food habits alone. I'd decided to begin going to the gym after the vacation anyway so I wasn't too upset.

The first gym visit was last week and it wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated. I was told to do 20 minutes on each on a bicycle, treadmill and a cross-country simulator. The last one was the toughest to use, my heart-rate went up very fast and I had trouble keeping it below 140.

This week it was easier to keep the heart rate just so. In addition I did 3x10 repetitions on several machines. Doing the calorie-burning is good, but I also want to whip my muscles into shape as well. I did outer and inner thighs, back and upper stomach. I wonder if there is a machine for lower stomach as well.

Last week I used a guest pass, I bought the full membership this week. The plan is to exercise three times a week — Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Next Monday I'll ask the coaches there to make me a personal training program. The main thing, of course is to lose weight, but there are a few other areas I want addressed. Like stomach, back and arms.

It would be lovely if I could lose a significant amount of weight by April next year.

Wednesday, July 26

July 26, 2006 Posted by Vaire

Unfortunately most of the pictures taken during the boat ride came out totally unusable or boring. There is one, though, that is interesting and not out of focus.

Swedish retired light boat.

A Swedish light boat. They are all retired now, but there were quite a number in use. There was a rule that all the light boats had to be painted red.

There is not a trip to Stockholm that does not produce pictures of the cats. So here they are.

Mao, relaxed.

Mao.

Ursus

Ursus.

A book of psalms was found in Ireland. This news is very exiting for my little bookbinding self. Even though there will be years before I could possibly see it myself, there probably will be a study. I just hope they will publish it sooner than later.

Tuesday, July 18

July 18, 2006 Posted by Vaire

The vacation was very nice, apart from the horrible heat. The temperatures were between 27-34 C all the time. Awful, relentless heat.

We took it easy on Monday and Tuesday, playing a little WoW. Took a tour under Stockholm's bridges on Wednesday. It was very interesting and it makes you realise how beautiful Stockholm really is. We took a lot of pictures, but our Internet is down since the power outage on Sunday night (blogging at work) so I'll post photos when we're online again.

On Tursday we went to see the second Pirates of the Carribean, which was a dissapointment. The first one was such a brilliant movie and the second does not live up to the expectations.

Friday was a party day. We went to Långholmen and the guys were crazy enough to actually swim. Ugh! The water was very cold. We had fun meeting with friends.

Saturday we spent together and went to see the latest installment of X-men series. That one was quite good. Although they killed off a number of characters, they left enough loose ends for more movies to be made.

Flew back to Dublin on Sunday and that was that. The vacation is over and now we're back to work.

Monday, July 10

July 10, 2006 Posted by Vaire

We are in Stockholm for a week. We flew to Tallinn Friday morning for my brother's wedding, took it easy on Saturday, went back to tallinn on Sunday and took a ferry to Stockholm. Now we're in Stockholm and are taking it esy. We'll fly to Dublin on Sunday. That's our summer vacation.

I was too busy to post while preparing the trip. I am sorry about that.

The wedding was beautiful, the couple were really happy and everything else went fine. Got to see my folks a little and catch up with them. Now we are planning to do some touristy things and catch up with friends.