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I really like Tabata workouts, where you do 20 seconds of full on exercise and then 10 seconds of rest, then repeat it 7 times (so 8 sets in total) equalling 4 minutes per exercise.

This ‘psychopath’ workout was, not surprisingly, tough, but I got through it. There are 5 exercises of 4 minutes each. See the full explanation here. Enjoy!

Another killer high intensity interval workout. This one is 11 sets of exercises, 50 reps each exercise. See the full explanation here.

Time:

7th February 2010: 35 minutes 7 seconds

It’s amazing how many little things need fixing after you’ve been living in an apartment for a while. We’ve been living in this place for 2 years and 3 months. I think that’s the most I’ve ever stayed in one place, except when I was in Australia, living with my parents.

We’ve spent the last couple of days fixing all these little things:

• Fixed a dripping tap by replacing a washer.
• Redid the silicone in the bathroom.
• Redid the silicone in the kitchen.
• Replaced the burnt out (literally) bulb in the oven.
• Patched the water damaged bathroom wall.
• Repainted the bathroom wall.

By complete dumb luck, we managed to pick the exact shade of paint for the bathroom. We argued over which colour for about an hour (lol) before picking one and it looks like it is the same brand and exact same colour of the existing paint. That made things so much easier because Ferbent we could just paint the one wall which needed redoing.

Chaque Jour est une Fete. I didn’t really get this movie. You have a group of women who are going to visit their husbands, sons, etc in a prison in the middle of nowhere, in Lebanon. They’re travelling by bus when the bus driver is shot in the head and the bus runs off the road. Who shot him? They were in the middle of nowhere with no one around. Anyway, they head off on foot and end up splitting up with the 3 main characters hitching a ride together.

Lots of strange things happen like all the villagers they pass are fleeing their villages because they fear they are going to be burnt down or something like that. I don’t know. Then you have one guy who is hoping to sell the women he picked up in the car. The ending is kind of odd too.

Waste of time seeing this.

Movie #: 11

I’m not really into war movies, mainly because all they do is highlight what a waste of time, resources, and human life wars are. This was no exception. Lebanon:

June, 1982 – The First Lebanon War. A lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town – a simple mission that turns into a nightmare. The four members of a tank crew find themselves in a violent situation that they cannot contain. Motivated by fear and the basic instinct of survival, they desperately try not to lose themselves in the chaos of war.

You follow one tank and a small group of Israeli soldiers in one day of their war against Lebanon. Their mission is to go through a number of towns which have already been bombed and ‘clean’ the towns. Somehow they went off course and ended up surrounded by Syrians. It doesn’t go well.

This film won a number of awards so check it out if you are interested in war movies and/or the Israeli conflict.

Movie #:10

Even though my bread machine can’t seem to cook anything without blowing a fuse, I am still able to make dough. This was my first attempt at pizza using the bread maker.

I didn’t have any mozzarella so had to substitute French Brie but hey, it worked out ok.

French Brie Pizza

After a 10 minute warm up, I completed this fierce workout. I found it really tough but I guess I’ve let my fitness slip over recent months, so that’s to be expected.

The reason I’m posting these workouts is so I can keep track of my times and then when I come back later (in a month or so) I’ll be able to compare my times and see how much (or how little) I have improved.

For some reason I completed this workout faster than Zuzana who did it in 17 minutes 47 seconds. I must have done the exercises slightly differently, who knows. Anyway, I could barely walk after doing this, lol!

Time:

2nd February 2010: 17 minutes 25 seconds

I was running errands near the Opera yesterday afternoon so took the opportunity to stop at UGC Opera to see In The Air. I never used to like George Clooney, at least not back in the days when he was doing ER, but he’s definitely grown on me in recent years.

In The Air

In The Air is really 2 stories in 1. Firstly, you have the story of Ryan (Gorge Clooney) and the lifestyle he chooses, which basically entails avoiding deep personal relationships (including with his family) by travelling most days of the year. He maintains his distance from people by being on the road all the time.

Secondly, there are the dozens of people he fires on a daily basis as part of his job. The US economy is in crisis and hundreds of thousands of people have been made redundant. This side of the movie is more interesting, imo. You see people who have been in the same job since they left school. Doing the same thing, day in day out for the past 10, 15 or 20 years. When they are suddenly fired they don’t know what to do with themselves and wonder how they are going to pay their rent/mortgage/bills etc. Some are suicidal.

I don’t understand how people can be so dependent on others for their livelihood. They depend on the government or large corporations to support them for the rest of their lives. Wtf! This is just bullshit if you ask me. People need to take responsibility for themselves and their future. No one owes you a job. You need to work on your skills so you can always find a better job but most people are lazy and just do the minimum to get by. Are these people really surprised when they lose their job? But better yet, find a way to work for yourself so you’re the boss. That way you are dependent on yourself and no one else. It may not be easy at times but it’s better than waiting for someone to say, ‘your services here are no longer required’. People who think having a 9-5 job have security are crazy. Even here in France.

Not only that but how can you be working somewhere for years and yet are still be living paycheck to paycheck? Then when they lose their job they can’t pay their bills because they have no money. Savings anyone? Honestly, if you haven’t saved and invested your money for the future then you have no one to blame but yourself. Keep cash in high interest savings accounts, invest in blue chip stocks, and borrow to invest in high quality real estate. If you are just waiting for a pension then you may as well just kill yourself now.

Not everyone wants to get rich, in fact most people don’t, but if you want to read a motivational biography on how to make money, invest and ultimately, live life to the fullest, read How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis. There are many things I like about this book but one of the main things is that you need to be aggressive about making money. eg. If you buy a house, that’s great, but you need to immediately start working on buying another one. If one business venture doesn’t work out, forget about it and try something else. Never give up and don’t rely on others for your success.

If you think money isn’t everything and there are more important things in life, remember this – MONEY = FREEDOM!

Movie #: 9

If you didn’t know, tickets for the French Open 2010 went on sale today at 1pm. Well, they are supposed to be available but their website crashed at about 12:55pm and is currently still down. You can book (well, try to book) your tickets here.

This is for tickets to all the major courts. You can buy tickets for the outside courts at any time, there’s no rush for those tickets.

I haven’t been able to get through yet, hopefully the site will be back up shortly and I can get tickets.

Update: 2 and 1/2 hours later I got my tickets. I got 2 Cat 1 tickets for the 24th May and 2 Cat 2 tickets for the 25th May. These are the best days to go, imo, as you get to see lots of matches. I tried to get tickets for the finals but I couldn’t get decent seats and if I’m going to pay almost 500 euros for 2 tickets then I want to be able to see without a glass pane in front of me. Anyway, two days of matches should be enough tennis for me.

I’ve had this draft post sitting around for months and months so it’s about time I actually posted about where to find vegemite in Paris.

I could go into detail about what vegemite is but if you don’t know what it is then you probably wouldn’t be looking for it.

Vegemite in Paris

When I first lived in Paris in 1999, you could only get vegemite from Galeries Lafayette and maybe at La Grande Epicerie but all that has changed. You can now get good old Aussie vegemite from Carrefour. Where in Carrefour? In the British section, of course.

I’m Australian and have to say I’m not a huge fan of vegemite (although I did have some on my baguette this morning for breakfast) but it’s nice to always have some in fridge, just in case. If you’re not an Aussie and have never tried it, I’d say don’t bother as there’s a 99.99% chance you won’t like it

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