Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Trying New Things

Having lived overseas for five years now (!!!) there are so many things that cease to be exotic and new. In fact, most days are boring and normal. 

As boring and normal as things can be with three little ones, I suppose!

After time you can no longer afford to do touristy things and the things that you have done are old hat. 

We've tried a few new things lately though that have helped us remember why it's great to live in our city!

Ian and I went on a date to a puzzle chamber! (Seen in both The Bachelorette and Big Bang Theory recently.) The premise of a puzzle chamber is that you are "locked," into a room and have to figure out how to get out. 

Our particular one wasn't scary but was a murder mystery that you had to help solve. Puzzles, riddles, keys, combinations, and searching the room with a black light were some of the things that we did all while the clock was ticking. We got stuck on the first puzzle for 30 minutes and ended up having to ask for a clue. We didn't finish in the hour but since we were the last people for the day they let us stay an extra ten minutes and "solve," it. 

It was a lot of fun and something we would love to do with a group. It would also be great pre marital counseling, ha! Locked in a room, forced to work together, seeing how each other work in stressful situations! Such a fun and different date night!


Another new thing I did recently was exercise related. I'm part of an awesome Facebook health accountability group and we set personal goals every six weeks or so. My goal this time was to get in 800 minutes of exercise. We are coming up on the deadline and I needed to get in some time! 

We are too far from any sort of gym or park and it's questionable if it is culturally appropriate to run outside as a woman. (In some parts of the city it would be no problem, but in our area of town it is a gray area.)

I usually get in exercise during one of Luke's nap times but the girls constantly interrupt and it can be a bit frustrating. 

So this week I headed out to our local Formula One* race track for a run.

*as a American Southerner I had never heard of Formula One, just NASCAR. Apparently it's a really big deal. Like, in the whole world. Kind of like how soccer is not really followed as much in the U.S. 

Yas Marina Circuit hosts an open track day on Tuesday nights and a ladies night on Wednesday nights. Cyclists come and use it to get in some major mileage and walkers/joggers go around the outside edge for some well lit, safe, exercise. 

I came right after I put Luke to sleep for the night and was on the track by 7:45. I did two days worth of Couch to 5k in a lap and a half (a lap is 5.5 kilometers.) then things kind of went down hill from there. 



I knew I still had an hour for the track to be open and I was about 2 kilometers into the track. There was one shortcut/turnaround but I missed it. Shortly after my hip started having pain and my feet were completely numb! It took me nearly and hour to finish the track and I was quite possibly the last one off even though there were several hundred people there just an hour before!

It was really neat to walk through the track (seen on The Amazing Race season 23!) and get a bit of a behind the scenes look at the pits and the grandstands. 

I will definitely be coming out again. It would be fun to come with a friend or to rent bikes and ride it!

I even think the girls would love it! 

1 comment:

Emily Powell said...

My husband is obsessed with all things car. He would be so jealous that y'all can work out there!