by Jonny | Dec 18, 2013 | Updates
From the 17th of December to the 2nd of January, 2014 – I’ll be on annual leave.
I haven’t planned too much, but I have spent quite a bit of money on a new laptop that arrived on my doorsteps today. Here are the specifications of my new laptop:
I’ve started using the laptop. I just need to get Photoshop, ScreamingFrog, and a few other programs that I’ll need for work. I justified the cost of paying for this because of my job. Otherwise, I would have stuck with my old sluggish laptop that I’ve had for over 2 years. I have yet to test it for gaming and it has a dedicated graphics card with 2GB of memory. I should be able to play most modern games – if I wanted to.
The only bit of technology that I’d like would be a new camera and perhaps a new phone. Although, my Nexus 4 is pretty decent and I can’t quite complain with the performance of that phone. In fact, I’m thinking of saving up for a new camera, as I’d like to get my photography site back up and running with new content.
Fitness update
I’ve not really been doing anything too healthy this year and I guess the blog section on here under “Health” reflects that. I have however decided to join a leisure centre that is not too far from where I live. I went on a tour of the place yesterday and it looks fantastic. It has a decently sized swimming pool, a nice cosy gym, and if you want to do yoga, martial arts etc then there are classes for those.
I’ll likely be sticking to running, lifting weights, and swimming.
The best thing about this leisure centre is actually the price. It’s only £20 per month, but you do have to pay 3 months in advance and thereafter it works like a sort of rolling contract. You also don’t have to pay the world for the lockers, too. I found this to be the case for Easy Gym on Tottenham Court Road, where you have to purchase a lock. At ‘my’ leisure centre you only have to insert a £1 and you get it back after. It’s a pretty sweet deal, which I’ll be taking advantage of.
It’s time to become healthy again!
by Jonny | Jul 11, 2013 | Updates
Today I met up with an old friend of mine from secondary school. I can’t honestly say that the experience was enjoyable as we went to this bar where they were playing loud music and it was really difficult communicating. I was trying to get a catch up as to what she’d been doing the past 2 years, but as I said, it was too difficult to communicate with the music and all. Then we went to this disco… where she and her friend were kind of dancing and staring at each other, smiling, as they were kind of dancing. I wasn’t sure if they were sober or if this was their normal behavior. Either way, it was an extremely weird experience… But it was good seeing her again and knowing that she’s doing well for herself! 🙂
Here’s a pic with me and her: (I’m not sure if I have any old photos to make a comparison from secondary school)
by Jonny | May 15, 2013 | Travel
Taoyan Airport
Okay, so I haven’t traveled much around the world and Taiwan is likely the first place I have traveled abroad to in years; well, other than South Korea and Hong Kong. Anyways, I came extra early to the airport because, well, I’m paranoid like that. I have a lot of free time, so why not make use of the time and post on this blog from the airport. Admittedly, this is the first time I have posted on a blog through an outside WiFi connection, especially at an airport. I’m currently using Taoyuan’s “Free Airport Internet” and it’s working great. Of course, the connection is not 100% or like I had in my home in Taichung but it’s definitely adequate and it’s uploaded all the pictures I’ve taken relatively quickly.
I don’t know what else to write, other than having a safe and no problem journey. Oh, and here’s what I ate at the Burger King at Taoyuan airport:
by Jonny | Mar 27, 2013 | Fitness
I’ve just taken a shower, after having exercised in the park for around 40 minutes, and I feel as though my stamina fluctuates. Some days I can run for longer periods and some days I’m absolutely flustered.
In all of my runs I try to push myself and I can usually keep going for a longer period of time, so perhaps I’m pushing myself too hard when exercising?
Whatever the case, I’m on track to losing weight and hopefully by the end of next month there will be a significant difference. However, unfortunately I’m just doing cardiovascular exercises, so I’m unsure as to whether or not I’ll look like a rake after a couple months. I’m more than willing to start putting on muscle mass after I get rid of this fat that I’ve been dragging around with me all these years.
Also as a note, I need to watch how much I’m eating.
by Jonny | Feb 1, 2013 | Fitness
Let’s just say that while my sister has been in Taiwan I’ve gained weight, as I’ve been going out and eating at restaurants and I simply have not had enough time to exercise.
However, I’ve changed all that; now that my sister has returned to the UK I’ve started exercising again.
Today, I pushed myself and I ran around the track 14 times without stopping at a fast pace; it took half an hour to do that as I was really pushing myself.
I just weighed myself and I only gained 3kgs, so it isn’t as bad as I thought it was — as I originally thought I had gained 7kgs; that would really have been a disaster. So, weighing myself now I weigh 86kgs where at my peak I got down to 80kgs, however that was long time ago. In December, before my sister arrived in Taiwan I weighed roughly 83kgs. I’m still overweight by a small margin in comparison to how I was 2 years ago when I originally arrived in Taiwan, but I’ve still got more weight to carve away at. My ideal weight would be 75kgs, but the reason I started putting weight on at 80kgs is because I became fed up as I wasn’t losing any more weight; effectively I hit a plateau. That plateau really demotivated me as I was tirelessly trying to lose weight, yet there were no obvious signs of any weight loss or muscle growth. That really annoyed me, so I became lazy I guess.
I’m rebooting now and hopefully in a month or two I will notice changes, as I will be pushing myself to the absolute LIMITS! Ha.
Here’s a recent pic of myself:
I’ll update this when I feel I can see a difference! I’ve definitely gained weight around my face as I’ve been comparing my face to how it was one year ago:
I can definitely see a difference, or am I just hallucinating?
