Too many days without a real break is bad. I hit a point where I didn't want to do anything at work and I was on the verge of serious burnout. That is why this past weekend was so good. The weather held out with slate gray skies and no rain. It was hot, but not too hot; and it was humid but bearable.
Saturday morning I played tennis for the first time in about a month. I am not a great tennis player, but I was encouraged by new strength and control in my serve. I am good at running around the court and scooping nearly impossible shots, but my weakness lies in the serve. I keep telling myself I can be a reasonable player if I ever get consistency in my service. While I still have a lot of work, I think the time off from the game did me some good and I hope to carry this over into my next match tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.
After my morning tennis, Diep and I took a long ride on the motorbike. We both enjoy riding around the city, and her holding on tight around my waist makes me feel like a teenager again. The traffic does seem to be getting worse, however, and that puts a damper on the fun. It isn't so much that the streets or bulging with cars and bikes as much as it is the total chaos and maneuvers the Vietnamese make without any consideration of their surroundings. Sudden moves from the outermost lane through to the center lane, wrong way traffic and u-turns without any indication other than the flick of the head are the norm. It can drive a person nuts.
The rest of my Saturday was lazy, with a dip in the pool at the end of the day.
On Sunday, Megan and I went to the movies and watched Battleship. It was entertaining, and Rihanna was a much better actor than I expected. I really enjoy spending time with Megan, but it is pretty hard to get the time on the weekend between my TDY schedule and her school events. After the movie we had lunch together and got back home.
Megan turns 16 next week. Sweet sixteen isn't as significant here as it is in the U.S. because you aren't able to get a drivers' license here until you turn 18. As a matter of fact, most kids just ride around on motorbikes without a license anyway. I am still not sure how we are going to work Megan's DL issue out. I don't want her getting back to the U.S. without any skills in the car. That is something I will have to work out, sooner or later. Hopefully we can get her a permit this summer.
Monday I started block two of You Are Your Own Gym. Ten weeks of block one went well after I got over the initial soreness. Some of the core exercises made me hurt in my extremities. As a matter of fact, I was so sore I had to make sure I was properly positioned before I sat down and at one point I thought I might have testicular cancer. After a week I got better and I feel better than ever now. On completion of block one, I took two weeks off of the program and did some maintenance exercises just to stay loose. I didn't lose much weight, but I did drop from 23.5 per cent body fat to 20.1 since I started the program. I would like to be below 18 per cent, but at least I am in the normal range right now.
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