Pilates, Swimming, Walking.....

So this week I decided to start my fitness drive (drive, now there's a funny word - no driving here for a woman!)

Our week starts on a Saturday as the Saudi weekend is Thursday and Friday. So Saturday morning was my 1st Pilates Class with Cynthia at another compound about 30 mins drive away.  (In London I did a one to one pilates session on the reformer machine 3 times a week - Very spoilt, hugely expensive but saved my body and soul from the madness of being a working Mum.)  Cynthia teaches a mat pilates class to 4-6 ladies maximum and Saturaday's class was to be an hour on the stability ball ( I am so unco-ordinated I usually fall off!)

Luckily I LOVED it - my friend Joanne and I have now signed up to go twice a week.  As you can see from the photos we look pretty odd for going off to do some exercise - In Saudi women MUST wear  an abaya ( a long black cloak-like dress with ZERO shape) whenever they leave their house ( or Western Compound) -

As you can see the compounds in Riyadh are very fortified with barbed wire, high walls, security guards and LOTS of concrete bollards!

Weirdly you soon get used to handing over your passport to get into various compounds to visit friends, take a class etc

So that was Saturday morning - Even better was when I got home our fabulous cook VeeJay had baked a Gluten Free Banana cake - it was still warm and had to be tasted - surely an hour of pilates deserved tea and cake on the verandah?

        Only the crumbs left on the plates!

Forgot to mention I also bought a copy of Hello Middle East Version!

I'm digressing - back to fitness.... So Sunday I was to swim in the pool at 730am when DH left for work - OK I fell off the wagon on Sunday and stayed in bed!!  So when DH eventually came home from work Sunday evening I forced him to walk the "compound walk" with me - basically we walked the circumference of the compound at dusk ( compound is 1km square). Not much to look at whilst you walk - all the houses are pretty much the same!

        
     I may look pregnant in this photo I AM NOT!!!!

So Today is Monday and I went to Pilates with Cynthia again so I'm doing pretty well 2 days out of 3!

Have considered taking up yoga in order to........