Happy Tuesdays

Hostel is empty and someone left brie, English cheddar, salami, three beers and a whole bag of those “healthy” crackers behind in the fridge.

I ask you, does it actually get any better?

Possibly. Improbably.

Unfortunately I’m also going to go to the gym. I haven’t been for nearly a week and I’ve had a big weekend. Big in both drinking and eating. Now I’m big too. 15kg heavier than Tim, in fact. Too bad I’m a 103kg weakling. Lucky I’d had a haircut.

I can feel my legs!

They’re in fucking agony.

I guess that’s what happens when you try to focus your gym session around exercising your legs and then follow it up by HIIT cardio. :(

I’ve been a bit bad and started doing squats on a Smith machine. The reasoning behind my cop-out was because I am (and have always been) so inflexible that I curl my back too much doing back squats and I’m scared it will really damage my lower back.

So,  instead of actually working on my flexibility I started to cheat around it. I knew it was wrong but then I read even more into it and it’s not just wrong, it’s a big waste of time. I’d be better off doing lots really light squats and just stretching more and more.

So. I will try. I guess.

In the meantime, I feel fucking crippled.

I also feel bloated. I’ve stuffed myself with food today. Oh well. I was looking at some older photos of myself with Marika tonight. I’m turning into a fat pig again. It’s scary to think of what I would look like if I wasn’t at least doing some exercise at the gym. Ugh.

If I was living alone I would be thin, probably. Then again, maybe not. I just need a better routine. This has been one of the laziest weeks in my existence. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, I just can’t remember when I’ve spent so much time on 3 separate couches. Tonight I’m sleeping under the bar again, just for fun.

Drinking two whiskey and cokes seems to have been a bittersweet idea. I’m comfortable enough that I’ve wanted to drift off to sleep for the last 2 hours, but it gave me a slight buzz that makes me want to stay awake and pretend to be doing something interesting. After all, it’s only 2AM and I’m usually kicking around until at least 3 or 4… Hmm. How unhealthy. Well, my parents did always say I was a night-owl.

I wonder what a psychiatrist would say about my blog and its entries over the years. I’m a paranoid narcissist, I think. Anyway, whatever.

I'm the champ

Last night at 4am Maarja and I became the Estonian foosball champions. Apparently.

That’s what happens when you turn up off the street semi drunk and declare yourself as a player. The poor bastards didn’t like losing. They didn’t like losing three times in a row, either.

The gym is fun, but deadly. Tim and I are now participating in HIIT, or high intensity interval training. Basically you just jog for about 2 minutes then sprint your balls off for 30 seconds, then jog for another 2 minutes etc. It’s hard. It’s also meant to be very effective at developing your fitness and also at burning calories. I hope so. My stomach is still in cramps.

Now I’m eating nuts and dates. That sounds a bit sexual, doesn’t it?

(Lack of) personality update

Nice essay saying how precious I am.

So, I’m not doing night shift now. Thanks, Laura, for coming back early.

Tonight is strange, all the guests got drunk around 8pm then went out for about 2 hours. Now they’re all watching movies. It’s Saturday night. Weird.

It’s nearly full here, actually. The last Saturday before Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I have to do some fucking shopping. Argh. Argh! I haven’t even been paid for about 6 weeks. Actually, I’ve been putting my own cash back into the register just so we have enough change for all these bastards that are paying with big notes. It doesn’t help that the staff keep paying themselves all the small change, either.

I’ve been hitting up the gym again lately. Even been doing some cardio. I went earlier today and still haven’t showered. Oops. I will tomorrow, or something. Fresh and clean to face the day! Wowee. I can’t wait.

I watched Låt den rätte komma in (Let the right one in) the other day. Very good and charming, for a vampire film. Apparently it’s going to have an American equivalent released next year by the same director that brought us Cloverfield. Whee?

Today was the day I finally purchased some cocoa. It tasted very nice with milk.

Hacking cough

I have a very raw throat. Fuck it. It hurts.

So, we didn’t quite make it to Angel. Instead, we went to a gay bar next door as the bouncer at Angel’s club entrance wanted 175 EEK from each of us before we could enter. Jim reluctantly joined us but soon left to Levist.

In this other bar I was molested in the bathroom as soon as I arrived. By a man’s face. In my crotch. It was brilliant.

Anna also danced away in a drunken stupor enough that she was cheer-leading in the bathroom while Tim and I relieved ourselves into the porcelain. She then vomited all over Tim and the dance floor, along with most of the back room when the staff tried to drag her out.

I got told off by the waitress for trying to take a picture of what was going on and nearly had my camera knocked out of my hand. I proceeded to argue quite effectively in Estonian and even mopped up the mess.

By the time everything had calmed down we’d lost Anna completely, even though I still had her ID card and money. Later we discovered that she’d managed to find her way back to the hostel and passed out on a couch. All in all it was an entertaining night.

The next day Catherine had convinced Anna to let us have dinner in the monastery, so we had some wicked fire-baked potatoes. We also got to meet Anna’s new little dog which is currently unnamed. I like to call it “Little Mate”. She’s a tiny little black dog that looks more like a miniature lamb.

I didn’t make it to the Brazilian night. I was starting to feel a bit fagged and went to bed around midnight, which is early for me and even earlier for a Saturday night. My early start on Sunday didn’t feel that great either and now here I am, sick.

It probably didn’t help that there was a baby blizzard going on in town over the weekend. Enough to cause power outages, road accidents and train delays. It also probably didn’t help that Ben convinced me to walk all the way to the harbour at Linnahall to see how bad the water was in the storm. It was like being whipped by ice. I did manage to get some cool pictures out of it, however.

So, tomorrow I’m going to stay with Marika for a while. Piia will be giving me a lift. How kind of her. I hope the snow doesn’t cause any complications for our trip!

Snow!

Yay! The first proper snow in the old town has just arrived today. I think it’s about minus 2 degrees outside. I hope it stays cold for the next few months. Last year was a horrible, wet winter.

I’m taking a couple of weeks off soon and will probably be spending most of it in Tartu. Marika is excited, to say the least. I am too. I’ll also be trying to do some decent exercise and lose a bit of weight, somehow.

On the other hand, my muscles are gaining weight. It’s kind of nice to see myself bulking up. The only problem is I have no definition at all due to my body fat. I’ve been like that for all my life so it’s not something I’m unfamiliar with, it just annoys me.

Tonight I think Tim and I will go to Angel, perhaps, along with Anna. It’s probably going to be hell so I will try to get very drunk first. Tomorrow is meant to be a party at Pikk street and our new volunteer Catherine wants to go to some Brazilian dancing night at Uberblingen… This time I’ll try to make her very drunk at Pikk street so that she can’t make it to the other club.

I need some breakfast other than chocolate. I would also like to finally buy a fucking blender. Pohhui.

African

I had dinner at African Kitchen last night as a pre-celebration of Barack Obama winning the U.S. election. The mango smoothie was delicious.

I’ve started going back to the gym, but I really want to do a proper program. Apparently the 5×5 program is a good one to follow. Too bad I don’t actually have a proper life or schedule, so I find it difficult to stick to proper diets/training patterns. I suppose I could if I really wanted to… I’m just lazy.

Regardless, feels good to be going again. I’ll try to go today as well.

We’ve been watching the Star Wars saga over the last few days. Episodes 1, 2 and 3 are now under the belt with 4, 5 and 6 to come over the next few days. I’m looking forward to watching the older ones. Nostalgia is important.

Soon we’ll be watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I can’t wait for the onslaught of homoerotic themes.

I hope to take a widdle holiday soon. Palun. I’d like to visit some other towns around here on my own, but they’re all going to be in off-season. That wouldn’t normally be a big problem, but off-season over here in small towns really is off-season. At least from what I have heard. Still, maybe it’d be nice to wait until it’s snowing everywhere before I go check some places out. I found my gloves the other day so it’s a possibility.

It’s a little quieter here as well, which is good. Not for profit but for serenity. Our collective mental health is regaining, slowly.

Someone give me a good recipe to try.

Chefknob

Marika and I made roast lamb yesterday. It was actually good. I’ll be sure to try it again the next time I sacrifice one to the gods.

On Saturday we had a little party at Jim’s new apartment. It’s in the same building as Pete’s old place. Almost the same layout. Nifty. Pilly, Tim and myself polished off a litre of gin rather easily, on top of a few beers. It was surprising that I felt so good the next day, especially considering that I ate McDonald’s for lunch. Marika and I stayed in kala maja that night. Then we had our Sunday roast.

It was Elizabeth’s 6-month birthday yesterday, so we had cake and martinis, too. She’s a cute little dribbler. Amazingly enough, she’s one of the few babies that actually seems to like me. Huzzah!

Now I’ve returned to the old town and someone is playing Saw on the big screen, so I’m listening to it in the background. It’s still kind of creepy. I remember the first time I watched it was with palmy at his place. We sat together in the basement in the dark, shit scared. If only we held each other.

I think I should clean something. I think I should rejoin the gym, too. :/

"Pop!" goes the ear wax

I can hear again. It’s a miracle! A miracle of miniature suction. I skipped down to Tartu for a doctor’s appointment Marika made for me to have ear wax removed from my left ear. It’d been about 2 months since it happened (I foolishly compacted it up against my ear drum whilst nonchalantly playing with a Q-tip) and for the duration of my ailment suffered tinnitus and reduced hearing.

I’d actually come to live with it.

When the doctor sucked it all out (which sounded very loud and odd, but kind of cool) I felt like I had super hearing. My previously-dulled ear was now more sensitive and sharp than the unharmed one on the right side of my head.

The contrast was so… audible… that I wanted him to repeat the process on my other ear. Unfortunately I had already paid up front for the treatment and was too shy to ask. I still wake up to hear little bits of wax sticking in my ear canal if I sleep on one side, or have sweaty hair. Sweaty hair, yuck.

I haven’t been to the gym for a while. I can feel my body getting softer and flabbier. I did, however, carry a lot of building materials up 6 flights of stairs. I’ll be doing it again on the weekend. I probably could have provided more moving services but the cards simply didn’t fall that way. Never mind.

We’ve still got a lot of guests staying here of late. I think it’ll be like this until late November. That would be fine if we had a nice, reliable washing machine. It’d be even better if our super-duper dryer worked. Even our regular one is having a hard time keeping the heat. Pohhui.

There was something else I wanted to mention but I forgot what it was. Hurrah. Life is exciting.

I haven’t really been drinking or going out much lately. That’s been nice. Instead, I try to get up around 7am all the time. That’s been not so nice.

Oh. I smell. A lot. I need to change clothes more often. I suppose I’m supporting the environment by using less water and CFCs and electricity, but wow.

The scariest thing that I’ve realised of late is that I’m the only person watering the plants in the building. Me. The most non-green thumb around. Terrifying.

Saarioinen make good microwave food.

I like the sound of women

Electroclash women, that is! I still wish The Micragirls would come back to play here. I wonder where their flyer went?

Apart from that, I feel like sleeping until I die due to my intake of pancakes, chocolate bars and chinese food today. Gym tomorrow. Really.

Actually, I think I might even be making progress at the gym. Inconceiveable, I know. Too bad my body fat is, as well. Or so it seems.

Since I’ve already started discussing women, I should mention that Marika is back from her pilgrimage to Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris. I guess he broke on through to the other side after all.

It’s nice having everyone floating around the main building again. It’s nice to have too many people to schedule, too. Maybe I’ll try to take a long holiday soon, since we have so many kiddies. Too bad I can’t go to the gym if I’m away, but I’m being a bit lazy anyway. Oops.

Spain beat Estonia 3-0 in wet weather, we had lots of Spanish guests. It’s always the same process… Germany beat Russia 2-1. No one here seemed to react.

It’s been very sunny here of late, just cold at night. Windy, I guess. Blustering.

There is too much laundry here. I don’t want to think about it. It’s a big load worthy of dumping onto someone else. I know just the man.

I can still taste the crispy beef.