Today, I feel like a mountain goat! Truly! I feel as though I’ve been climbing up and down stairs all day (and climbing back up from the floor, when I slipped and fell, at the photo shoot today) We were in a bit of a rush this morning (well, I was, he wasn’t!) I got up, got weighed, got dressed, and raced off for my Stair Walk. Three floors down, three floors back up – the usual. I came back, had my shower and washed my hair, and got dressed again. We had breakfast, and I replied to email from my favourite eldest daughter – “where’s my weekly meal plan?” she wanted to know. I sighed. I barely had time to unpack my Minions, and send them off again when it was time for me to squeeze in my pre-lunch Stair Walk. Off I went again. Three floors down, three floors back up again. Arriving back at the apartment, I quickly put on my (much hated) shoes. Time to go off to the *gulp* photo shoot. Of course, we got there early (so much for rushing, eh? 😉 ) so we sat in the car and ate our lunch – I’d brought an Optifast Cappuccino bar with me, but I’d forgotten to tell himself to make a sandwich that he could bring along for his lunch, so he’d grabbed an Optifast Chocolate bar on his way out the door… We arrived at Studiomax (Studio Diva section) just after 1.00pm, and were shown around and made welcome. And guess what! The studio was up two flights of stairs! Oh Joy! Extra exercise pour moi! (I groaned) I looked at Julian. “Did you ask them about disabled access?” I asked him sweetly. He had the grace to blush… “er… no….” he replied. I pursed my lips slightly… The nice photographer was very kind and said that they could bring everything down for me, and that the makeup artist could work on me downstairs. I shook my head. “No,” I said grimly, “I’ll walk” – and so I did. It wasn’t so much two flights of stairs, just one very long one, and one very short one, which I counted as I came down after the photo shoot. The short flight was 6 steps, the long one I counted to “quindici”, or fifteen – so 21 steps up, 21 steps back down. The fire escape stairs are (16 steps per floor down, 16 steps per floor up times three floors equals 48 steps down, 48 steps up, so I’ve actually done 69 steps down, and 69 steps back up again today, and if that don’t wear off another few lbs, I dunno what will!) So, yeah… I climbed the stairs, and was given a cup of coffee to drink, and a bar stool to sit on for my makeup session, which took about half an hour. Julian didn’t get any makeup – I guess that’s because he’s a guy 😉 The makeup girl exclaimed over my hair, and what a fantastic colour it was, and (as she was doing my hair) how well it had been cut! (you reading this Josh!? Get some business cards made up immediately and start handing them around! I’m making you famous! 😉 ) Then the nice little photographer arrived and we were ushered into the studio. Yup, and she also started gushing on about what a wonderful colour my hair was! The studio was a bit like my cousin’s used to be, only not as big. White studio paper on one wall, lots of white screens or various sizes, a couple of couches and footstool as props, and a few shaded lights. And so it started – her name was Laura, and she was a very good photographer – knew how to “direct” her subjects “Chin up a bit… look over here…. put your hand there… nose down a bit for the glare” – you know, just like a movie director! 🙂 She took dozens and dozens of shots – some just of me, some just of Julian, and quite a lot with the two of us together. Then we went and changed clothes, and I slipped and fell over. Arrgghh! The last time I ended up on the floor like that we had to call the ambos because I couldn’t get up under my own steam, and Julian didn’t know how to lift me properly. It’s funny, you know – it was only last night that I said to Julian (I’d contemplated actually sitting on the floor, you see, as it’s a very long time since I’ve done that…) “I wonder if I could get myself up off the floor now..?” and he said “I don’t know, but don’t try it!” So there I was, sitting on the floor in a very small room with a very slippery floor – luckily there was also a couch there! I guess it just goes to show how much weight I have lost – the only thing I had any trouble with was squirming myself around in order to be able to kneel in front of the couch – then I put my hands on the couch, and pushed myself up with no problems! I was quite proud of myself! 🙂 But I did hurt the side of my foot when I slipped – it seems to be alright now, though (but I’ll probably get a nasty bruise out of it) Back in the studio again, even more photos of us alone and together were taken. Eventually we finished, and we climbed down all the (*censored*) stairs again (they were steeper than the fire escape stairs, too!) Laura went off to “process” the photos for fifteen minutes, and we went into the little Theaterette to read our Kindles while we waited. When the photos were ready, Laura showed them all to us as a slide show, so that we could “weed” out the ones we didn’t like, or didn’t think were good enough. This process took quite a long time – in the end though, we ended up with eight photos – some of just me, some of just Julian, and some of both of us. I was very taken aback – the ones of me actually look rather good! … stunning, even! Julian looks very handsome, too, and some of the ones of us together are really nice! So, kudos to Laura! She’s a very good photographer! 🙂
Weigh-in this morning. Not as good as I would have liked – I went down one point, to 94.1kg. Hopefully I’ll have scared/surprised/jolted (cross out those which do not apply!) off some more weight with that fall this afternoon! 🙂 We’ll see what happens tomorrow morning (and because I said what I just did (stupid me!) I’ll probably go up instead of down! When am I going to learn to keep my big mouth shut, mmm?)
So it’s now nearly half past six – I’ve done my regular evening Stair Walk (I bet I sleep well tonight! 😉 ) as well as all the other stair climbing, and I’ve finished off, and emailed, Lee’s Weekly Meal Plan, complete with all the calorie and kilojoule values, a full list of Additional Food Allowances, and the url to a good place where she can work out fruit and vegetable calories/kilojoules. I don’t mind admitting that I’m just a trifle tired – I feel as though I’ve been through a washing mangle or something – we were going to go rug shopping tomorrow, but I’ve vetoed that – I just wanna stay home and relax, play a bit of Rift, do a small amount of graphic work, and generally, bludge! We’ve gone this long without a lounge room rug, another day’s not going to make any difference! Thursdays are much more betterer for rug shopping than Wednesdays, anyway! 🙂 So now that I’ve brought you all up to speed on the Great Scary Photo Shoot, there’s not really much more to tell you! My new tops both fitted (as I suspected they would), I decided not to paint my nails because I think they’re still a bit too short (and besides – when would I have had time to do that?!) so all I can say is – stay tuned again tomorrow night! Find out if my foot develops a nice, big, black and purple bruise! …and if my weight did what it was supposed to do (go down!) or not (that is, stayed the same, or went up! Ye ghods! I hope not!) – and I’m sure there’ll be heaps more to tell you by tomorrow, anyway! 🙂 So, untill then, bee good, don’t rip the photo, it’s bad luck, and above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 