Remembering step aerobics

 I heard a clip of a tune, Sandstorm by Darude, this evening and it triggered memories of step aerobics. This track was released globally in 2000 and it took the world and club scene by storm. 22 years later it is still a winner. (This is a super version played by a symphony orchestra)

I first hit a step aerobics class when I was 15 or 16. I spent much of my later teens and twenties addicted to the gym. Step aerobics, power pump, high-impact aerobics, yoga, super circuit, treadmill, and later spinning classes, were my fuel. Double aerobics classes after a 40-minute hard-and-fast treadmill session was my regular fix.

My gym had steps just like these.

Step aerobics is a winning exercise for feet, ankles, calves, quads, hammies and glutes. Brilliant too for balance, coordination and agility.

From around 1992 to 2007, I was in the gym almost 7-days-a-week gobbling up large doses of cardio. 

A highlight - certainly from the late 90s to mid-2000s - was an advanced step aerobics class with challenging combos. The first instructor to present a class that was as much mental stimulation (stacked choreography) as a physical delight was Belinda. As it happens, her boyfriend, a triathlete, was my teammate in my first adventure race - recruited through Belinda after I first learned of adventure racing. Over the xmas holidays when the gym was dead and our class numbers were low, Belinda would do even more complicated routines using two or more steps. I looked forward to these classes each year.

Around this time, another instructor began to emerge - Rory. His class was solid but didn't have the complexity of Belinda's class. Fast forward a few years and Belinda and Rory were seeing each other. Her influence on his classes took him up a few levels and for the next few years I rarely missed any of his weekly advanced step classes. 

Rory's classes were strong and well-constructed with new choreography each week. There were a number of regulars who attended his classes - and Belinda's before him. We were there to work. Hard. Rory's classes were very rewarding.

What I most appreciated about his classes was that he barely needed to speak. His cueing, timing and musicality were spot-on. His hand signals were clear. His movements strong and crisp. He worked hard up at the front and set a fine example.

He would build the choreography in blocks. Start building block one. Do one move, add the next, the next and the next to make one block. Then build the next block. Put block one and two together. Then build block three. Put one, two and three together. He would slow down complicated moves. Repeat a few times and then speed it up as he slotted it into the block. Build block four. Put blocks one, two, three and four together. Combining blocks. Step combo. 

For the last section of the class, Rory would play Sandstorm. We (the class) would completely focus on the routine. Not one word from him. The routine already learned and embedded. We would work the choreography putting all of the blocks together and just keep going and going and going until the song ran out.

Remembering the routine was the challenge. Getting through it without making mistakes was very satisfying. 

I miss step. 

I see there are some classes on YouTube. 

Gotta get me a step...

Swimming in the dam and pools

 In December last year, I got into the dark and warm water of the Garden Route Dam for some open water swimming. With a friend, we paddled around to a good spot, clocked some lengths and then paddled back. These were great outings.

Last month, via another friend, I heard about an open water swim at the dam with the local masters swimming club. I joined the group for a whip around the island and 'tower'. With tired arms and body after carrying boxes and furniture with my house move, I was happy to stick to one of the one-kilometre laps. It was just right.

I haven't done much swimming for many years. Back at university, I played underwater hockey and found myself in a pool 3-5 times a week. In 2002, I had a foot injury and I spent months aqua-jogging and swimming. I'd swim lengths and lengths and lengths. For some reason - perhaps winter? - I phased off the swimming and never really went back to it. 

My mom recently expressed an interest in swimming. Last week Friday, we joined the masters swimming club for a pool swim at a local school. I enjoyed it, mom enjoyed it and we were back the next day for a quick Saturday-afternoon session. It felt good to be in the water.

Mom joined me for a walk on Sunday afternoon and said it was the best walk she's had for months. I totally credit her swims to this as it loosens up the joints and muscles without any impact.

Swimming is an age-friendly activity. There are a number of swimmers here in their 70s and 80s. The one lady, at 84, competes in events. I'm friends with her son who says that she absolutely lives for the swimming. Last week, about to start a lap of backstroke, she told me that she only started swimming backstroke four years ago. She competes in five events and everyone said to her to do a 6th - so she now does backstroke too. 

Swimming is also an activity that mom and I can do 'together'. We go to the pool together and swim in lanes next to each other. I swim at my pace and she swims at hers. It works for us both.

We're swimming again this afternoon and we're both looking forward to it.

Incremental behaviour changes for waste management

 My mom thinks I'm a bit radical when it comes to recycling, composting and waste. 

I separate my trash into general and recyclables for our municipal waste collection. Our general waste is low - less than a shopping bag each week. Recyclables - from packaging - make up the bulk. We're fortunate to have a municipal collection of recyclables in George, but really, recycling is not the solution to waste. Not bringing these items into your home in the first place is the solution.

I compost organics in my YOLO Compost Tumbler.

I ecobrick plastic packaging and take my ecobricks to the environmental centre at the Botanical Gardens (previously I sent them to collection projects).

I save plastic bottle caps for the Sweethearts Foundation - these come from home, work and those I pick up off the roads/trails.

I don't use straws (even paper ones). I have a reusable, glass, Restraw for those times when I want to use a straw for a milkshake, smoothie or beverage.

I love my fabric shopping bags and have not bought a plastic bag in about four years (and at this stage it was only about 4 bags that year!). I've got smaller net bags to use for loose fruits and veg. These live in my car and handbag.

If I know I'm going to get takeout, I take along my own containers. I do use long-lasting, reusable plastic containers for almost everything from lunch at work to leftovers in the fridge, and takeout.

I've got bowl covers to use instead of cling wrap.

I swopped to cotton buds with paper stems when they became available a few years ago. 

I abhor disposable face masks. There is no good reason you can give me to justify their use when there are washable, fabric masks readily available.

I stopped buying baby wipes years ago. If I may need these like, for example, when on a roadtrip, I have a facecloth and bottle of water in the car.

I switched to a Mooncup and washable cotton pads more than six years ago to replace disposable pads and tampons.

I didn't start off doing all of these things. One-by-one I've added one conscious behaviour and then another so that they have become habits over time. 

I'll walk out of a store with my goods bundled into a 'pouch' of my tee-shirt rather than purchase a plastic shopping bag (principle, not cost). If I visit a place without composting, I would rather dig my banana peel into your garden (or a bed on the sidewalk) than put it into your trash bin. I save bottle caps that I pick up to add to my collection - I just can't leave them on the ground.

If you, like me, are in your 40s or older, you will have parents who grew up without clingwrap, ziplock bags, shopping bags and mountains of packaging, and too many disposable, single-use products. What has happened to us?

Enviroment-conscious actions have to be as convenient as the waste-generating behaviours to which we have become accustomed. 

Small, light and compact reusable fabric shopping bags, like my Forget-me-not Pouch from SUPA (Single Use Plastic Alternatives) has made it easy to always have a fabric shopping bag on hand for when I pop into the shops. My YOLO Compost Tumbler has changed the game for me in terms of composting convenience and effectiveness.

Have I arrived at Zero Waste status? No. I'm not even close. I'll count my actions as progress when I can seriously cut the amount of packaging that goes out each week for recycling collection and to eliminate my use of single-use products. 

In December, I babysat my mom's dog for two weeks. A Maltese, Bella gets tear-stained cheeks. We've got an eye solution that we use to wipe her eyes daily. To apply the wipe, we use a cotton pad. I did her eyes twice a day. That's two cotton pads a day. I started washing them to reduce my waste. They do last a few washes but the disposability and waste of this process really hit me.

Around this time an ad popped up on social media for the Danish-designed LastObject products - reusable cotton pads and earbuds. Of course, this caught my attention.

We've got a Danish customer who was heading this way in January. I ordered, had them sent to him and he brought the products out for me. 

It was love at first sight. Both of these are practical and functional, and they come in great colours with outstanding design. The earbud should last 1,000 uses and each round (cotton pad alternative) is good for at least 250 uses (there are 6 in each pack). The rounds can be machine washed. They are made from cotton and wood fibres so they can be composted at the end of their life.

I got in touch with LastObject because these products beautifully complement my YOLO Compost Tumblers. They agree too. I'm in the process of putting together my first order.

I also reached out to Restraw. I first ordered their glass straws about six years ago. They reminded me of glass pipettes from the lab in my past life. I broke my Restraw a few months ago after it slipped out of its holder when my bag when flying. I made contact with them and will be adding these to my YOLO shop - because I really like them and they work.

We certainly can't plead ignorance when it comes to waste and the environment. There are alternatives and replacements so it really falls on us to be more conscious and to see how we can change our behaviours - one at a time - to do better.

Movin' home

 January has whizzed past with loads on the go, as usual. I haven't even had a chance to write about the year that was - I haven't digested it and now we're already a month into 2022.

November, December and into Jan were pretty stressful months for me as I was double-timing it at work with the company to run and a new almost full-time project on the go and a new employee for the project to train. 

On top of this, my landlord gave us notice. I've had my eye on properties and there hasn't been much 1) of interest, 2) within my budget and 3) dog friendly for many months. To have to property search over November and December when the pickings are even more slim? 

Come the first week of January with three weeks until I needed to move out of the place my mom and I have been renting, I finally found a house. Asking price was way too high for the area and what I could see from the photos, and too high for my budget. I wrote to the landlady and made her an offer - and she accepted.

I've been living in George now for 15 months. When we (me plus factory bunch) first moved down, I had a six-week short-term, fully-furnished rental. This gave me time to find a house to rent for the next 12-months (or more). Being mid-November, there wasn't much available but I did see two properties in my target suburbs (close to the mountains). The first was not even close to the ideal and the second, which I ended up renting for 13 months, ticked enough of the boxes to make it suitable. 

Three bedrooms, shower, tiles throughout, pet friendly, decent kitchen, garage, garden. Awesome kitchen space with a gas hob was really what won me over from the beginning.

I didn't have much time or any other options to consider and I had to commit immediately.

On my first night there, I felt like moving out. I discovered an infestation of cockroaches in the kitchen. I'd turned the lights out and then returned to the kitchen. On turning on the lights again, I saw cockroaches running all over the counters and cupboards. I took a shower and discovered no shower rail to hang a curtain (= water all over the floor), no bathroom fittings (not even a toilet roll holder or towel hook) on the walls. Outside the kitchen door, the paving was 1-5cm deep in dried mud. The garage door couldn't be locked.

Minor irritations that came out over the next two weeks was that the back garden was mostly weeds under the trees and against the back wall. The lawn was also bumpy and rocky as they'd dumped building rubble plus some soil and grew grass on top of it. The lawn sat higher than the house behind a retaining wall outside the kitchen. On the side was a section of steep lawn to get 'up' to the lawn proper. Very uneven and not something that my mom was able to negotiate. I build stairs, cleared weeds and chopped alien trees (bugweed) and got a guy in to help with a big mass of ferns and weeds. 

After spending and hour or two each night after work sweeping the back paving, I discovered the problem. When it rains, the run-off water come out of the retaining wall carrying soil and silt with it. This gets deposited on the paving. It is non-stop and only the degree of sedimentation varies. 

Water can trickle out of the embankment for days after it has rained and we had months of constant water on the paving such that algae and moss grew, making it very slippery and treacherous for my mom. I could only scrape and sweep when it dried out.

To say nothing of the lovely tiled floors inside! Between me in-and-out and the dogs in-and-out, I've never done so much floor sweeping and cleaning in my life. We would sometimes be sweeping twice a day.

By six-weeks after moving in, my landlord had attended to the bathroom fittings. This was a blessing and was really essential for the property.

This little house had so much going for it. It was only 18 months old when I moved in. Lovely tiles throughout, great kitchen and although the en suite bathroom was small, the design worked and the shower was one of the best of my life. The property and garden were a decent size, the simple outside braai area really worked for me (I've made braais more this year than at any time in my life) and the location was absolutely perfect. 

I loved the aluminium window frames but, as an ex-Johannesburg girl, I struggled with there being absolutely no security - not a door gate or burglar bar on the windows.

Water. This was the biggest issue. From the mud slush and retaining-wall issues out back to ground water seeping under the skirting board and across the floor of my mom's room, and worsening wall-damp situation, we were fighting a losing battle every day.

As a tenant, it is my duty to notify my landlord of the condition of his property, which I duly did every few months. I didn't ask him to fix anything (these are major fixes) - just notified him. We did speak on the phone a number of times where I made suggestions - like getting a water drainage person in to assess runoff from surrounding properties to put in a furrow or sorts... Without this any other fix would be a plaster, not a solution.

In early November I got a call from the agent asking if I wanted to renew. 

The landlord said he was happy to renew for a year with no rent increase but that he wouldn't do any maintenance. "Six months and then reassess," is what I suggested. The next day the agent called. "He isn't going to renew anymore because he needs to do 'maintenance'," is what the agent reported.

It seems like they planned to get a relative in who would be tasked with the maintenance. They guy came along with his wife in early Jan, saw the damp and issues and declined. Another young family came to see the place. I don't know if they are moving in or whether anyone is moving in.

In looking for a place, I think I saw five properties -  all with fundamental flaws. by the time January began, I was quite stressed about finding something.

And then, I found 'the one' in an online listing directly by the owner.

 I had a good interaction with my landlady from the start. My mom and I met her and her daughter at the house. I liked the feel if its strong bones and bigger living area (ours was very small) and I fell in love with the very big lawn at the back. Very big. Flat. Perfect for ball throwing.

"It's perfect for an agility course," say my dog-school friends and teachers. I agree.

The agreement was signed.

The dogs do everything I ask of them. Now this is something for them. Mostly lawn with some trees. The black spot is Rosy.

This corner has fruit trees - guava, avo, fig
and possibly peach.

e started moving on Thursday. I'd decided to move all of the smaller items myself with the plan being to put personal cupboard items into crates, take them to new place, unpack and then do another load. Thursday involved a lot of back-and-forth with packing and unpacking happening throughout the day. With the houses only one kilometre-odd apart, it was an easy and convenient system to use. 

On Friday morning, a moving truck came for the big and heavy stuff like beds, couch, tables, washing machine, fridge and the like. This was also very smooth.

I did some more loads on Friday of random items, some boxes and odds. And then a sign-out with the estate agent in the afternoon.

I spent most of Saturday at the old house with a gardener to do a final tidy-up and move big things like my raised pallet bed (with my beautiful strawberry plants) and my YOLO Compost Tumbler, which I emptied first to take with me (quality compost). We trimmed the plants in the retaining wall, weeded the paving and swept the paving.

I popped through today for a load of odds today like the dog kennel that the dogs don't use (I'm going to sell it online, for sure) and random stuff left indoors.

On Monday morning, I'll meet a cleaning lady for us to do a final clean inside - floors and cupboards and bathrooms - plus windows. And then a key handover and that will be it.

On my new side, I've got rearranging and sorting and cleansing to get through. The main stuff is done but I've got refinements to make, my home-office to reestablish and garage contents (like paddling gear) to reorganise. I took my kayaks to the factory before the move and would like them back here but I'm not yet sure where to put them.

As for the dogs - they transitioned seamlessly and are very, very happy canines. They love the big open lawn and Rusty keeps giving me a silly toothy grin, which just melts my heart. Rusty and Rosy seem to be hardly shedding fur. It has been three days and we have not yet swept the floor. No need. No fur and no dirt.

A view of the mountain. Similar to what I had - just a bit more visible and about 1km further back.

The new house is older but it is solid and has been cared for. It isn't fancy but the bits work. The road outside is busier but manageable. Location is still good for quick access to trails, parkrun, dog school, work and paddling. And my landlady is really nice.

I've got happy mom, happy dogs, a better space in the living area for my home-office, an awesome garden with a good mountain view, and a home for at least the next 12 months.

Here's to 2022.