Bell ringing woman, l
I like this one. It could be anyone. Anyone with a Laura Ashley* shirt. And glasses. And pearls, and a little coral rose** on a chain. And I’ll tell you about my belt buckle some day too. Nobody else has that belt buckle.
I’m sure bell ringing is good exercise for your waist muscles. And a lot more interesting than those torso crunches. Also, standing around with your hands over your head, you look really thin. How many hobbies give you the excuse to stand around with your hands over your head a lot?
Note bad form however. Hands on a bell rope should be together at all times as if glued.
* All right, all right. I’ll buy anything with roses on it.
** Yes! It’s a theme! It’s not a NEW theme!
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Oh wow, I love these! And there will be videos some day, yes? ;)
There should totally be more hobbies that let you stand with your arms up and look thin. Let’s invent some.
How about…popping bubbles?
there’s SUPPOSED to be a video NOW but the ratbag hasn’t SENT it! I’m going to hunt him down and strip him of his digital camera! Cormac hadn’t brought his video cam after all, but one of the other bell ringers had a pocket camera that would take a video, and DID, and he was SUPPOSED TO SEND IT TO ME!!!!
First you have to write the rules about BLOWING the bubbles at the right ANGLE. :)
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Well remind him you have mobs of adoring fans and we’re not afraid to give papercuts! ;)
LOL!!!!
****** And I’ll tell you about my belt buckle some day too. Nobody else has that belt buckle.
and I was just going to ask you about that belt buckle, it looks like… hmm, no, more like… drat, can’t quite see… !
and NEVER say you’re fat again woman. Just keeplooking in mirrors. Slim, slender, lithe… :)
I@m not fat! I never said I was fat! I’m totally neurotic, I’m not BEYOND totally neurotic! I SAID that the CAMERA can make ANYONE look fat, and that includes me and Twiggy!
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That’s better! Comparisons between you and a supermodel – MUCH more hellgoddess ;)
LOL! A very OLD supermodel! She’s MY vintage, I think! And is probably a wizened broomstick!! :)
I think she’s looking pretty darn good – she did several ads for M&S recently – so you’re in great company. Vintage is an excellent word, improving with age:)
Talking with a friend yesterday and we both agreed that we were much less tolerant than we used to be, a pair of grumpy old women!! Great fun.
Oh, good for her. I remember an interview with her a while back that made me think, oh good, she was not just a thin body.
It occurs to me that more people should quit going to the gym and instead start ringing tower bells. We’d be in better shape and the landscape would be so much improved. As would everyone’s mood, I think. Memo: America. Build more churches with tower bells. Footnote: Build fewer strip malls with fast food places.
A teeny tiny part of me wonders: don’t you get migraines from standing and pulling that way? My shoulders ache just looking at you. You do look awfully lithe, though. Might be worth the migraines.
It occurs to me that more people should quit going to the gym and instead start ringing tower bells.
******** YES. I do think generally tha tthere ought to be a way to put more physical movement back into *ordinary life*. Gyms do work for some people–Hannah is one and I have a local friend who is a total gym bunny–but it would be easier for a lot of us if we just stretched and sweated because that’s what we *did.*
We’d be in better shape and the landscape would be so much improved. As would everyone’s mood, I think. Memo: America. Build more churches with tower bells. Footnote: Build fewer strip malls with fast food places.
************ YES.
A teeny tiny part of me wonders: don’t you get migraines from standing and pulling that way? My shoulders ache just looking at you. You do look awfully lithe, though. Might be worth the migraines.
********** Good lord NO. You should NOT get migraines. Shoulder injuries are unfortunately not uncommon–because most people don’t go into it with upper body muscles (boys included) and EVERYBODY overrings like mad when they’re beginners. But bell ringing SHOULD NOT HURT. If it does, something is WRONG.
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[quote]******** YES. I do think generally tha tthere ought to be a way to put more physical movement back into *ordinary life*. [/quote]
you remind me of one of my college girlfriends’ delightful boyfriends, watching us ladies bemoaning our lack of will to go to the gym and snarking that when *he* wanted to work out, he’d at least do something useful like go out back and chop a cord of wood.
we, of course, scoffed at the idea of breaking a sweat in a non-air-conditioned environment ;)
in our defense, said boyfriend was of the body type/age where he was 99% lean muscle, and that type just shouldn’t be allowed to remark upon anyone else’s body composition.
but i will also chime in on how *misleading* it was that you would tell us all about your concerns about menopausal weight gain — you look like you could positively float away, arms over head or not! wonderful photos, thanks so much for sharing!!!
I have always gained weight easily, but I learned early that if This Body, which is how I often think of it, gets as much exercise as it wants, its appetite and weight-maintenance takes care of itself/themselves without a lot of conscious input from ‘me’. This has all gone south with menopause. I’m still thin, but it’s now a STRUGGLE, and I am NOT ENJOYING IT.
But do remember that while young men generally ARE a total pain in the rear in terms of muscle strength and fitness, you aren’t just BORN that way. It’s just easier to GO that way if you have a cooperative body type. And wood chopping is fun, have you ever tried it? And it’s great for letting off steam and reducing stress AND you have chopped wood for a lovely fire at the end of it! :)
By the way, I never got in the initial round of commenting, but congrats on the new blog! Seems much nicer than the LJ and I concur with those who said that the “About” page alone was worth the wait. I appreciate so much these glimpses into your life!
Thank you! :)
PS~ I’ve been wondering about that belt buckle… Glad you’re going to address that.
Ballroom dancing, you have your arms and hands all over the place and that adds tremendously to the workout you get doing it. Also, just like bell ringing, you learn to lift your arms from your back and pull down your shoulder blades to counterbalance the weight of your arms, so you shouldn’t be putting any pressure on the back of your neck to constrict circulation to the brain…
Because we know you are thinking about your perfect form all the time, aren’t you?
PS You look great by the way and I tried on that top in Laura Ashley, but it looked awful on me.
I tried on that top in Laura Ashley
******* Gods, I LOVE it! Hands across the miles indeed! :)
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I do have a gorgeous black dress with large blowsy crimson roses on it from Elena Miro. Summer dress, sleeveless in silk chiffon.
******** YES. I do think generally tha tthere ought to be a way to put more physical movement back into *ordinary life*. Gyms do work for some people–Hannah is one and I have a local friend who is a total gym bunny–but it would be easier for a lot of us if we just stretched and sweated because that’s what we *did.*
—– Yes, absolutely. One of the things I liked best about living in Romania was that everything was MADE for people to be able to live without owning a car, because until fairly recently (as in, since the 1989 Revolution) most people did. Just about anywhere I saw where people lived, there was a food store within walking distance, for example. If you lived out in the sticks it might be a tiny, puny food market with next to nothing in it, and you’d (I assume) take the ubiquitous cart and horse/donkey into town once a week or once a month or something for the rest of your food, but you could get a reasonable amount of staples and WALK HOME with them from anywhere. I walked everywhere: to the grocery store/market/tiny butcher shops/etc., to the bus stops, sometimes all the way to work. I got so much NATURAL exercise, and loved it. And I was living in Bucharest; out in the country side you did even more walking. Not that walking gets you super into shape, but if you don’t have a car you tend to spend at least an hour or two a day just getting places, often in 10-15 minute chunks, and you get all of this exercise just as a part of life rather than an artificial going to the gym or something (not that I’m against gyms — I’ve frequented them before — but it’s just not the same as normal exercise). I’m lucky to still be able to do this in America — we live within a 20 min walk of downtown and have a decent bus system (plus I can’t afford a car, although I borrow my housemates’ car when I need it) — but I know that many people can’t, because life here is built around having a vehicle.
I got so much NATURAL exercise, and loved it.
******* Exactly.
And I was living in Bucharest; out in the country side you did even more walking. Not that walking gets you super into shape,
********* Walking is about the best basic exercise there is. Who needs to be super fit?
but if you don’t have a car you tend to spend at least an hour or two a day just getting places, often in 10-15 minute chunks, and you get all of this exercise just as a part of life rather than an artificial going to the gym or something
********** Exactly
(not that I’m against gyms — I’ve frequented them before — but it’s just not the same as normal exercise).
********** Again, exactly. Anything that you have to make an effort about becomes that–something you ahve to make an effort about. One of the purposes of hellhounds is that I HAVE to walk. And I’ve used gyms before too when there were specific reasons.
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I love it in Athens that everything is right here. I have a butcher shop under my block of flats, (another three within a four block radius), two green-grocers, a supermarket across the way, a breadshop/bakery two blocks away and (unfortunately) one of the best sweet shops in Athens a bare block away. And off a side street we have a farmers’ market every Saturday.
And we are not talking US city blocks which are long, we are talking European short blocks. I walk back from work every day (a three-quarter of an hour brisk walk), but admit to taking a cab there: it’s all uphill and I’d arrive bright red and sweaty, which I am unwilling to do. Plus I’m always in a mad rush to get there.
But walking everywhere is great. It’s one of the great pleasures of city living. But some organised form of exercise is necessary as well, for flexibility and range of movement, I find.
It’s one of the great pleasures of city living
********** Yes, I agree. With a slight caveat about all the SLOW PEOPLE clogging the way . . . :)
You take care to take back streets so you have a lot fewer of these. Anyways, as per you request (and carefully vetted for as decent a view as I can find of myself) here is a picture of me, by no means as cool as that of black bear:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susan_from_athens/2457427697/
I am the picture taker in the family and I like to believe that the reason I look so awful in most photos is that nobody else takes pictures as well as I do ;) But I am not the photogenic one in the family: too pale, partly natural complexion (both of these were taken in August after two and a half months of swimming outdoors in a pool every day (covered in high SPF so I don’t burn).
Oh! You look so . . . normal!!! :) Remember, I’m the one got all excited at someone living somewhere exotic like Athens. I feel it ought to *show* somehow. And earning a living translating!! I am deathlessly uni-lingual . . . . It’s all in what you *aren’t.* I’m a more or less successful published writer and I live in some of the most beautiful countryside there is. Which is pretty exotic. But not to me. What’s that interesting looking thing around your neck in the Embankment photo?
Hm – so how does one take up bell ringing? Looks like just the sort of thing my husband and I would need to do.
I’m in Melbourne, Australia, and I don’t know if there is any change ringing going on at all here.
Audrey
Ring the tower secretary and ask if they’re taking beginners–chances are s/he’ll be delighted. Yes, Melbourne has a tower–I’ve rung there!
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Hm – thanks, Robin! We are going along to our local tower on Saturday to see and hear the bells and “meet everyone”. 2 weddings plus the service ring on so we’ll get to see and hear a bit, hopefully!
And yes, I get the feeling of “volunteers! *2* of them!” in response to my email to the tower contact.
I shall endeavour to report back.
Audrey
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I shall endeavour to report back.
******* Please do! :)