E is for Eye of The Tiger

E is also for energy. Back when I had it in spades, thirty years ago. I was a skipper. Not as in skipping along the road or skip to the lou my darling. Like a boxer but hardcore. This was supercool, school based, synchronised skipping. To music.

To Eye of the Tiger.

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I know I left my skipping rope here somewhere…

I lived in a small, isolated town and our demonstration team was part of a national programme designed to improve and promote fitness for kids, as well as to raise money for The Heart Foundation. We practised religiously under the strict coaching of our formidable Physical Education teacher and did several tours of our sunny state. Like I said, superstars.

Every time I hear those opening riffs to Eye of The Tiger I’m transported back. “Timing! Timing! Keep in time to the beat! Do it again.” Probably the only time in my life when I’ve been a part of a successful team based activity. Or demonstrated something that vaguely resembled coordination. This extreme sport just seemed to work for me. I loved the music, the dance routine, mastering the tricks with the rope. Cross armed skipping with two people inside a single rope within a larger double dutch skipping rope. Cartwheel entries and death defying footwork. We were the Harlem Globetrotters of the skipping world.

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That’s me in the red shorts.

I attended a reunion for the programme at the school some time ago with a demonstration by the current team of skippers, cake and presentations. Some of my original team mates who still lived locally also did a skipping routine. You know, to demonstrate how it was done back in the day. They kicked arse over those young whippersnappers. I’ll never forget the look on our PE Teacher’s face. “Look at the timing”, he whispered to himself. “They’ve still got it”. I may have cried.

We were so, so fit. I’m hoping to get some of that old fitness back into my life as part of the Winds of Change Project and I’ve decided skipping should be a part of that.. look out Rocky, here I come.

Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive

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Dee knew those old bandanas from her glam metal days would come in handy one day.

 

Marching On…

Are we there yet?

Despite being almost three months behind the eight ball, I’m determined to put some effort into this years project of change. I’m not the only one. I have a friend who announced she was having a “Year of Me” this year. Sounds wanky I know (I promise not to use the word “journey” at any stage throughout this…time of travelling from one area to another) however she actually deserves a year of her. I have other friends who are in their fourth consecutive “Decade of Me” celebrations. A year I can handle.

There truly is something about hitting the midlife mark that smacks you in the face with a big paddle that reads – YOU ARE SERIOUSLY RUNNING OUT OF TIME LADY. People you love die. They just off and go and then…they’re not there anymore. Even when you had a vague idea it was coming because they were almost 100 years old and Human Biology was one of few classes you didn’t wag in high school…it still comes as an enormous shock.

I used to chuckle to myself on the freeway if I passed some guy driving a red sports car with the rag top down (so his hair can blow) because he inevitably had no hair and was no Tom Selleck but rather a bald, middle-aged man. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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You want hair baby? I got hair!

Now that I’m a fat middle-aged lady with greying hair, I completely understand this man. He’s not being vain or fantasising that all the young ladies in their Hondas may mistake him for Channing or one of those hard-chested Helmsworth brothers. The reality is, half his extended family have dropped dead, he attends more funerals than weddings and he’s been whacked across the back of his bald head with the YOU ARE SERIOUSLY RUNNING OUT OF TIME GEEZER stick. Buy that car buddy, they aren’t for sale in the afterlife.

Call me a slow learner but it’s taken me half a lifetime to work out that you only get a limited crack at this life business. So it’s time for a lifestyle overhaul consisting of various attempts to not die prematurely and crossing some stuff off my “Shit To Get Done Before I Die” List. Very challenging for someone who has trouble grasping that some form of preparation is required EVERY single day for that weird occasion that rolls around about 6pm when people get hungry. Or hangry.

I’ll do my best not to go too Oprah but here are my Top Ten ideas for the Winds of Change Project that you can eagerly anticipate reading about as this blog is born and blossoms.

1. Declutter
2. Detox
3. Deal with Death
4. Decide
5. Discipline
6. Dare
7. Deliver
8. Discover
9. Dream
10. Dance

Hope you can join in along the way.