Gym hell

A couple of months back I finally started going to yoga again. The fact that the classes are literally next door to where I work is a huge bonus as it means I can go during my lunch break. I’m finding it to be an enormous stress-reliever and I only wish I could go more often – I had long forgotten what it felt like to do something physical, especially when like most people I spend all day using my head – or trying to.


While the classes aren't that fantastic (loud music from the techno-booming spinners next door) I’m enjoying it even more than when I first started a couple of years ago, yoga can take a while to get into at first but this time the adjustment has been almost immediate – though not for my stiff ‘ole joints who are not being very co-operative!

Anyway, a few weeks back I decided to try one of my gym’s other offerings, stretching, or strechin as they write it at the gym. I thought it might help with my yoga as I’m naturally inflexible. Well, I got a lot more than I bargained for. Not only did I stretch, but I got stretched by the only other student in the class, a man as it would happen. Now, physical contact with a complete stranger might be the most natural of experiences for some, but not for moi I’m afraid. Anyway, I went along with it and did pair stretches with my new buddy – he was actually an amiable sort, not at all creepy. In short, the whole thing was just about bearable. That was until the perky strechin teacher asked me to sit on the floor and my partner (Javi, let’s call him) to kneel right behind me while I lay (yes, lay) my head on his chest (yes, a stranger’s chest and entire frontage). Right now I am no longer in bearable territory but being the polite Brit that I am I comply and allow him to bend my back forwards, diagonally and sideways. To be honest it would even feel quite nice if it weren’t for the fact I don’t even know this guy’s name.

Just when I think things couldn’t get any more awkward, I hear the word ‘massage’. Oh my God, she’s asking him to give me a shoulder rub (whilst I lean on his chest), and now she’s asking him to give me a head massage. Yes, a random stranger’s hands are running their fingers through MY hair. At this point I sort of lose consciousness, but not in a good way. This is like the bit in those true life stories in The Daily Mail when people report to ‘float above themselves’ and ‘watch it all happen with horror’. And then it starts to dawn on me: I’m going to have to return the favour, aren’t I? Oh yes, I kneel behind Javi, and proceed to knead his scalp while he closes his eyes and makes little noises that I really don’t want to hear. I'm sorry if this all sounds gross, but I have to get it off my chest!

Why didn’t I run for it? Why didn’t I make my excuses and flee? Politeness I guess. I sometimes get a similar feeling when I get a taxi and they drive like a maniac. I say to myself ‘just ask him to slow down’ but I just can’t say it and I continue to let them terrify me for the next 20 minutes and then pay them 30 euros for the pleasure… I mean how stupid would it be do die because of politeness?! But that’s a whole other post.

Needless to say I haven’t returned to streching .

Parched

Via

Do you drink the recommended 8 glasses of water a day? I certainly don’t. One of the obstacles to my water intake is the fact that in the office we have a water cooler with no room-temperature option, and ice cold water plays havoc with my sensitive teeth and friolera (cold-sensitive) body.


Tap water is a viable option as the water in Madrid is good, but we don’t have any decent sized glasses in the office and if you bring one from home and leave it on your desk overnight the cleaning lady inevitably takes it to the kitchen and it finds its way into someone else’s hands! Some co-workers use plastic mineral water bottles but I have two issues with plastic – 1) doubts about whether it’s safe, and 2) water just tastes so much better from glass.

Well, for some months now I’ve had water bottle envy of a colleague who sups water from a trendy glass bottle – great as you can take bottles to meetings unlike glasses of water which tend to spill as you carry them into meeting rooms together with laptop, notebooks, pens etc. So, propelled by my envy, I’ve ordered two of these beauties from Amazon, one for David, one for me. Retap bottles are award-winning Danish-designed water bottles with extra strong glass and lids made of ‘safe’ plastic. The price is also ok I think, for something you’re going to be using every day. Can’t wait for them to arrive, will let you know if they live up to my expectations!

Laziness vs the urge to nest

I have to admit, I haven't been the most social of creatures lately. Work, moving away from the city centre, and being (please feel free to cringe) loved up have all kept me away from that place known as 'outside' for several months now. I keep promising to go out more, but come the weekend I'm so tired and life is so messy that often I just want to stay in and nest (aka tidy up). Trouble is, we don't stay in and nest, we stay in and watch films, take siestas, organize trips, make pancakes, drink wine, read, look at silly videos on Youtube and all other kinds of pretty unproductive but enjoyable pastimes.

Yet I fantasize about nesting, about all those homely, domestic-goddess type tasks that I promise I'll get round to as soon as we finish the next episode of Game of Thrones. I'm just reading over what I've written here and see, that without realising it I've become a Dinky 'Double Income No Kids' - not quite sure if I'm meant to be pleased about that, but I admit that for the moment, and for the first time, it does give me the 'luxury' of time-rich weekends but without all the strapped-for-cash issues of my 20s (and erm, a year ago). I must clarify that I didn't suddenly get rich or find a sugar daddy, just that money is thankfully no longer a big problem.

So here goes, my nesting projects for summer-autumn 2011 (I promise to stop using the N word from here on and while I’m at it I promise that I will never refer to myself as a yummy mummy no matter how smug and earth-motherly I become):

• Making home-made cleaning products. But you HATE cleaning! Yes, but I also hate the idea of using toxic nasties. I did a trawl of the various sites offering tips on ‘natural’ cleaning products and the verdict is that it’s better for the environment, better for health and better for my pocket. Just need to see if they work. As ever, I have trouble getting the right ingredients here - the recipes called for ingredients like white vinegar, castile soap and borax which you can get - but not from my local droguería who were aghast at the fact I wanted to buy food (vinegar) from a drug store. I figure out that for the moment Marseille soap and apple vinegar will have to do. Here are some recipe pages, one in Spanish and one in English – will let you know how I get on scrubbing the bath with half a lemon filled with bicarb!

• Cook something from one of my recipe books once a week. I don’t know when I stopped buying recipe books and just searched for recipes on the internet instead? But over the past few years, what was a bi-yearly shopping spree on Amazon has dwindled to nothing. However, I still have my shelves groaning with Nigellas, Nigels and Jamies waiting to be made proper use of. Surely even I can manage to delve into them once a week and try something new? I love this project an American couple set up to make use of their bulging food magazine collection.

• Buy a sewing machine and make stuff. I have always loved to sew and am not bad at it – it suits my quick-fix nature much better than knitting which I love the idea of but find painfully slow to get good at. I have this book by Amy Butler with loads of easy projects that can be speedily stitched and I love the fact that you can rustle up cloth napkin rings, cushion covers, and whatnot in less than an hour and avoid the neo-chintz ugliness that is the El Corte Inglés home department. And with Christmas 6 months away, do I have time to stingily but lovingly make all my presents?

• A meditation corner (or any peaceful little corner to call my own). I know you can meditate anywhere, but this is just a little luxury I’d love to have, space permitting. I don’t even meditate properly, but since last summer in Bali dedicating little bits of time to myself in the form of quiet contemplation or ‘just being’ have become quite important to me. Our home is a quite colourful due to the fact that we have the sum of 2 lives in one place, but this corner would be white, with my little white Buddha as a centerpiece – I imagine lots of whites and off-whites but different textures – velvet cushions, a plaster-framed mirror, a rag rug, scented candles, a notebook and pen, orchids… completely whimsical I know. I have a couple of examples that I’ve seen online (below) but none of them really capture what I have in mind - I'll have to do a post on furniture and accessories for a meditation corner.

Happy N******!

Running tops

The sheer amount of stuff happening in my life at the moment mean I haven't done a yoga class in a while. My body feels stiff and cranky and in need of a good stretch. I haven't been completely idle these past weeks though, as thanks to David I've taken up running. Yes, me, running. It's something I always thought I'd be totally crap at, but surprisingly in just a couple of weeks (and 4 sessions) I've got up to 5km. Not exactly a marathon I know, but it's a start. Image conscious as ever, I've noticed that I feel much better jogging in D's figure-hugging dri-fit leggings than my own baggy junkie-style tracksuit bottoms. Despite my supposed 'busyness' I've managed to find the time to browse the web in search of stylish ladies running gear - namely tops as I'd rather wear some plain leggins on my bottom half - I'm too lanky to look good in bootleg.

I love this Alpine top from Lululemon, the colour and the fit are just gorgeous and I think the hole in the hood for your pony tail is ingenious - no more ponytail scrunched into a ball and no more looking like a boy when you have your hood up. Sorry the other thumbnails pics are so small.

Equally gorgeous but a little more spring-timey is this option from Sweaty Betty...

And now, something that even body-conscious old moi would find too daring to run in but that is undeniably very sexy, this Stella McCartney top for Adidas...



And for summer in beige from Sweaty Betty - wouldn't it look nice with a tan?

For some reason I actually believe these tops will make me run faster...I just need to find out where to get them in Spain.

A message from paradise

Bali truly is paradise, and the yoga retreat is better than I could ever have imagined! I'm here blogging on the centre's only computer (the retreat is called 'escape the world' so the whole idea is that you're not blogging and on facebook the whole time hence my near total absence these days!). I'll be back in the UK in a week or so where I'll post some photos from the trip before returning to Madrid. In the meantime here's a link to my 'wanderlist' (travel wishlist) which Alex and Mina have posted on their wonderful blog, Sending Postcards, where they document their travels round the world.

Anthony Robbins cleaned my house – bad news for bad habits

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Ok, I lied, he didn’t, but bear with me while I explain :-)

In an earlier post I mentioned my interest in ‘burly republican* motivational speakers’ and said I would explain myself at a later date! So, here I am - not really explaining myself – more like elaborating on the topic. Disclaimer* I neither know nor care if AR is a republican...lol
Anyway, back on topic. Call it personal development/self-help/what you will – it’s a subject that gets a lot of flack. And I can see why, one can’t help but think that a lot of the people in the field simply have a little bit of information and a lot of balls and are out to make a buck on other people’s insecurities. Perhaps so, but recently I have stumbled accross a few gems of wisdom. It with more than a little embarrassment that I admit to be in the midst of reading Tony Robbins’ Awaken the Giant Within (blush internally). I’m not sure how it is on the other side of the Atlantic, but in Europe we can be a little cynical about self-improvement and even when we indulge in it, it’s often on the sly, secretly beavering away only to suddenly appear before friends saying ‘diet? what diet?’, ‘I had no idea I could be up for promotion...’. We are very modest I think :-) And perhaps this is just me being cynical too.

So back to ATGW... I got to the bit in the book about breaking bad habits and was about to skip through it. ‘Bad habits, I thought smugly....well, I don’t really have any’. I'm sure my friends are doing a lot of eye rolling right now- lol. Yes I have plenty of negative traits (an awful sense of direction for example) but as for habits? These sections of such books always go on about people who can’t stop eating, who can’t stop smoking, who can’t stop whatever. And I have some weird and kind of lucky self-control thing which means it’s hard for me to get addicted to food or anything else. Then it occurred to me. My bad habits are the things I don’t do, rather than the things I do. For as long as I can remember I’ve been messy at home. Big deal you might say, but it really affected me, as quite unusually for a messy person, I ABSOLTELY HATE MESS! ‘Then tidy up you lazy ass!' I hear the people cry. But I found it near on impossible, just like the person that can’t say no to that extra slice of cake or who can’t get off their butts to do some exercise. I would have done anything (and I mean almost anything) rather than get out the broom. Of course things would get on top of me after a few weeks and I’d have a big ‘blitz’, but then, much like the crash-dieter, following this, the cycle would begin again and I’d revert to my old ways.

So in comes Tony Robbins. Using quite simple methods in the past month I’ve gone from messy Merghani (that’s my surname) to Martha Stewart. Well, not really. But honestly, my house has not been so pristine since God knows when and best of all I’m finding it virtually effortless to keep it that way. His basic principle seems ridiculously basic – you need to get leverage against the habit and for the new behaviour. You have to very very graphically think of all the things you stand to lose by indulging in the undesired behaviour (try to think of exaggerated far reaching negative effects and a LOT of them) – so in my case I would picture myself feeling horrible, unable to find my stuff, unable to invite people round without prior notice so it affected my social life, embarrassment if my family came round, what if one day I had kids and I couldn’t keep the house tidy?? I thought of all kinds of disasterous scenarios. Then you think of everything you have to gain: so I pictured impromtu dinner parties with friends, some of my more expensive pieces of furniture would finally be seen instead of covered in piles of paper, I imagined that with a new level of organisation at home I would be more likely to cook decent meals better which in turn would make me look good, and possibly even live longer (Ok, I’m talking major exaggeration here but that’s how it works).

Another step was to think about the kind of person I see myself as and to ask if that negative behaviour was congruent with that type of person. We all see ourselves as types – the funny girl, the intelligent boy and it’s important for our identity and confidence that we reflect that persona on every level. For example, I like to wear good clothes and generally I’m well-presented and style matters to me. And why not admit it here, I like a bit of glamour. Now would such a person have a messy disorganised home? I think not.

And here’s one final technique, which I think is a really obvious but simple one. Get in the mood. It’s hard to get motivated when you feel below par. So think back to all the things that make you feel good – in my case this is listening to pumping dance music :-) But it could easily be spending time with a pet, calling a friend or going for a massage. I think it would be cheating to include something like eating chocolate cake here ;-) So I put on my favourite music while cleaning - something which people have always done but that I never considered.

Using these methods has changed this little aspect of my life, and the knock on effects have been great: I’m cooking nice healthy meals for myself, it felt great when a friend came to my place for the first time the other day and said how cute it was, I can find my (clean) yoga kit in an instant so I'm never late for class, I feel less anxious, the list goes on. It’s only been a month, but for me 3 months is a habit, so if I can keep it up I really think this will be a permanent change. My example might seem like an odd one, but I’m sure the same could be applied to all kinds of nasty habits from nail biting to overeating. Thanks Tony :-)

I rate... Caudalie skincare

I seem to be rating a lot of products lately. It’s not that I’ve been on any huge shopping spree or that companies are gifting me stuff to review (I wish, on both counts) just that I seem to be enjoying many of the little things I own, and as I’m normally so critical of everything, when praise is due I really like to lay it on :-)

I discovered Caudalie a few months back, I think through the cosmetics review site Make Up Alley which I absolutely swear by (I won’t buy any lotion or potion without checking out the reviews there first). It’s a French line of facial and body care based on the powerful anti-oxidant (and therefore anti-wrinkle methinks) properties of grapes. I’ve been using their ‘energizing’ Pulpe Vitaminée first wrinkle fluid for about 3 months now and I swear my skin has improved loads – much brighter, no-more dray patches, no more evil monster-sized spots (though I’ve probably jinxed it by saying that!). My skinprovements could also be down to other things – washing day and night with Dove soap) and doing tantra yoga – no it’s not that type of yoga. We finish off practice with a full body and face massage – done by yourself unfortunately... I was initially a bit grossed out by massaging myself after working out, but I’ve gotten used to it. Whether it’s the yoga, or the soap, or the lotion, I really like Caudalie – everything smells great and the pricing is quite fair I think (it’s more along the price lines of Galenic than Clarins). Also, Madonna uses it! She uses the Premier Cru range for deeper lines, and if it’s good enough for the queen of pop....

Not satisfied with simply slathering on their creams, I would love to go to one of their vinotherapie spas – which employ the benefits of the nutrients in grapes and wine to make you look and feel damn pretty! They have spa in Spain at the Marques de Riscal (famous Spanish winery) hotel in Bilbao, which was designed by none other than Frank Gehry of the Bilbao Guggenheim museum fame. Spa, good wine and orgasmic architecture – I can’t think of a place that suits me more :-)

P.s. Caudalie products are Paraben free. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but I understand it’s something good ;-)

The Marques de Riscal hotel - Source

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Surprising fact abut white tea (and no, it's not the antioxidants)

I've always been a huge fan of tea, whether it's 'builder's brew' (PGtips with milk and a hefty dose of sugar), Arabic mint tea or fancy loose leaf stuff. I tried to get into coffee briefly when all those coffee shops opened in the UK back in the 90s but the coffee was just bad and sitting outside in the rain on a 'continental style' pavement cafe with patio heaters just didn't do it for me. When I moved to Spain, where the coffee is pretty decent, I had another fleeting obsession with the brown beans but unfortunately I seemed to develop some of that curious stomach sensibility that's so common in Spain 'me ha sentado mal' (I could write reams about my Spanish friends and their delicate stomachs :-)) and drinking coffee lost some of its appeal. At some point it occurred to me that coffee simply made me jittery and nervous and gave me 'coffee breath' so I decided to call it a day. That's when I went back to my old friend tea; light, delicate, and according to all the medical and media hype, good for you too. While I was familiar with green and black teas I didn't know much about whites and was curious to try them as they contain more free-radical fighting anti-oxidants than any othe variety (meaning it could play a tiny part in the prevention of cancers and other ageing-related maladies). But white tea is sooo expensive, and to really benefit you need to drink quite a bit of it. However, the cost ceased to be an issue when I found out a little secret that most tea speciality tea shops fail to tell you - you can actually re-use fresh white tea leaves up to 3 times and you even get different flavours with each brew! And the same applies to many other quality loose leaf teas be they green black or Oolong. Needless to say I hastily made my way down to the lovely Tea Shop on c/Fuencarral and bought 100grams of white tea (of course they didn't tell me about the whole rebrewing thing). Will let you know how how I get on and if I suddenly revert to looking 18 again just from drinking white tea ;-)

Wellness in the Corte Inglés

This really is starting to sound like 'Nadya's health and happiness blog', I think I need to try and get back to more stuff on restaurants/design/anecdotes soon... but hey, I can do what I want as it's MY blog ;P... This post is a just quickie as I'm fighting some weird cold symptoms (there I go, health again) and I'm thinking of having a nap. Just wanted to say, don't make a special journey for it, but if you happen to be in the Corte Inglés in Callao (central Madrid) then do take a trip up to the 6th floor where they've created a new wellness space. It offers a range of treatment centres; spa, hairdresser's, tanning beds (yuck!) etc but also sells health foods and supplements, 'natural' scents and beauty products as well as every massage device under the sun, including massage chairs, massage eye-masks, foot massagers, neck massagers and a load of other battery operated vibrating machines designed to relieve your, ahem, 'stiff joints'... The space features chilled out muzak and is a welcome relief from the chaos of the rest of the store. It's also completely devoid of customers, maybe because they don't know about it, or more likely because it's so expensive. Still, I like it. Last time I was there I picked up some 'fresh washing' scented burning oil, very nice.