Quick Update + Workout Idea Bonus!

Wow, I've dropped the ball on blogging in March! No matter, we press on -

Update I'm so excited, my parents are arriving TONIGHT night and we have a boat load of activities and things planned, including a trip to Jogjakarta (on Java, in Indonesia) next week! Can't wait!

So the previous three weeks - we've been pretty busy.

Burning it up with Ireson - such a cool venue
overlooking Marina Bay

Jacob made his debut with the Singapore Symphony (!), playing two children's concerts and a chamber concert this past weekend. He also performed with a Latin music group called Ireson during Singapore's Mosaic Music Festival, and continues to practice, perform and record with the Fungki Munkees, a funk band. Oh and then let's see, he plays in the Thompson Big Band and the Thompson Swing Band, including a performance at a Children Cancer Foundation fundraiser - the President of Singapore was even there! And he's starting a Brass Quintet. And preparing for an audition, and a music competition, and a master class in Sabah. And he still finds time to make me dinner sometimes.

Haha! As I was writing all that, Jacob emailed me about another gig offer in April! I really don't mind being a trumpet widow (much) when it means he gets to do so many cool things! And of course, the $$ ain't bad either...

I've been fairly busy at work, finally getting to the point where I feel (mostly) in the groove of things and like I'm really contributing. Of course, I still really look forward to the weekends, which for me have been rather laid back recently. Sometimes I've actually been at a bit of a loss for things to do, but I'm trying to remedy that. I've been getting back into more of a running / exercising routine (sort of), now that the rainy season is mostly over - occasionally I even get up to workout before work! But not often.

Workout Idea Bonus!
I have a few work out buddies now too, including Karyn (US-via-UK expat who also works at Duke-NUS), whose condo has an air conditioned gym, so that has provided a great opportunity to exercise-while-chatting, something I miss from my cross country days! Two days ago I got *really* ambitious and finally got around to making something that I'd had in my head for awhile. See, for me, the hard part of working out is choosing what to do next - and the convincing myself to go through with it. I took a class at our gym in Rochester where one day the teacher brought in a basket with slips of paper, and on each slip was an exercise and a number of reps. Simple procedure - pull a slip, do the exercise, put it back and get a new one. I did this on my own, but never made more than a few slips so it got boring kind of fast. But I had plans. I may have been inspired by something on Pinterest, so I won't claim this as my own idea. BUT I think it's pretty nifty.

I took a pack of playing cards and, after a bit of planning, wrote an exercise and rep number on each one. I got a little bit fancy too, designating each card suit a type of exercise (Hearts = cardio, obviously!) and making the higher value cards harder. Yesterday Karyn and I tried out the deck and it worked really well! We just turned over a card, did the exercise, then turned the next. We got through about 28 cards in 30 minutes, so it works out to just about an exercise per minute. I liked not knowing what was coming next, and the feeling that there was a challenge thrown out by the cards. By the end of 30 minutes we'd gotten in a good workout and were pretty tired. And today I'm fairly sore, so that's good, right?

And now, for your workout pleasure, I'm including the spreadsheet (yeah, I made a spreadsheet, what's new?) I used to plan the cards. Use it to make your own! Vary the exercises or the reps or whatever - just remember that 50 squats sounds easy when you're writing it but less so when you're in the gym. (Don't be too easy on yourself either!). And if you don't know what an exercise means, either ask me or replace it with one of your own.

Enjoy, friends!

Workout Roulette*

*I don't think Roulette actually uses cards, but I don't think that matters. The point is, you don't know what's coming next but it might be AWESOME. Or it might be burpees.