Play list

Today I had training in the content management system for the new website RRL (Riverina Regional Library) is getting. As well as sharing the hilarity that is bad lip reading ("An orange peanut? Well, I accept you") we got excited about all the great things we can do with the new technology. It reminded me of something Joss said last night.

Andrew had been in Sydney since Sunday and was on the phone to Toby, catching up on the cycling and swimming carnival news. Joss came out to ask me if I knew that she could join in on their conversation if she just picked up one of the other phones! She was pretty impressed with this advance on what her mobile can do and there was a hint of the young person telling the old person about technology. I had to inform her that not only was that technology available in the olden days when I was a girl, but I'm fairly sure it was also available in Old Testament times when Mama (my Mum) was a girl!

Now, I am going to write something shocking. Mum and Dad, I hope you are sitting down. I have taken up running. Well, that might be a slight over statement. Firstly, I have only been out twice and secondly, I am only actually running short periods of time. What has possessed me? I used to ride my bike from Estella to the library twice a week, and that decent ride (all of 7 kilometers - Toby and Andrew rode 52k on Saturday!), kept me reasonably fit. The ride to work from our rental house is way too short to raise a sweat, except in fear of the cars that will knock me off my bike, and I start work so early at my new job that I won't have time to ride when we move back. My friend Jane has been using the Get Running app and, on a whim, I decided to give it a go.

The first sign of seriousness was the $2.99 I paid for the app. The full commitment came with the much larger sum required for proper running shoes, shirt and undergarments. There is no backing out now.

The app works by having a lovely English lady tell me to walk briskly for 5 minutes. She then warns me about what is coming up, gives me 30 seconds warning about the first run and then tells me to start running. It turns out that I can run comfortably for around 20 seconds. After 9 weeks, running 3 times a week, I am supposed to be able to run solidly for 30 minutes! For the first week I run for a minute and walk for 1.5 minutes, 8 times, with 5 minutes warm up and cool down walking. It is really hard, but I can't give up!

You are supposed to put your running music on and then turn on the app. The English lady pauses the music to talk and then it just starts again. After my first run I realised that I have nothing good to run to. Jane sent me her list, full of Pink, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. It really isn't my sort of music, but I need something to motivate me to move so I bought some of my favourites from Just Dance 4. Here is my running play list.

OK, the first three are just old favourites, numbers 6 and 7 came from Jane's list and Joss shared the Guy Sebastian one in the car during the holidays, but all the others are from Just Dance. The Skrillex dance is our current favourite, Toby has the top score, but we all love it. After I bought the song, Joss and I did the dance in the kitchen. Joss wished Andrew had been home to video it for Facebook. I did not share that wish. The lyrics on Just Dance are all clean and I did notice the little red 'explicit' box on iTunes. The song is electronica so I imagined that it would just be indistinct, robotty swearing. No, a very loud, out on its own, male voice saying 'F*** you". Oops, at least I'm too busy puffing furiously and trying not to be sick to sing along.