let's get physical

I'm pretty glad that due to a couple of medical reports I can't sort out until December or so, I won't be enlisted for another couple of months. I somehow thought that I could cram enough exercise into my life, much like sucking up knowledge during the precious few days of swot vac, but if I were to be completely realistic about physical training, there's no way I'd have been ready for the RAAF in July.

After a brief stint of unemployment and a few days in Sydney, I started going to the gym again for the first time all year. Sure, the whole point of joining in the first place last September(?) was to train up for the RAAF, but I got distracted by the job I originally got to tide me over until enlistment. Strange how that happens, an in-between job becoming the only thing you can think about doing, or manage to do on a regular basis.

Thankfully, the gym wasn't as foreign as I thought it would be when I returned. I'm quietly miffed that apart from dealing with them in January to suspend my membership while I was recovering from surgery, there was no nagging or questioning at all regarding why I hadn't been there in literally months. I wonder what the barcode scanning is actually for, if not to keep stats on my attendance? Surely the elaborate system isn't merely to let members through the turnstiles?

A month of being back at the gym doing cardio and basic weight training had me happy to be there, and I actually discovered the sauna, steam and aromatherapy rooms in the aptly named relaxation zone. Thanks to a relatively convenient work schedule, the in-between job I have at the moment is actually giving me enough time to jump in and out of the gym before as well as during split shifts. In about five or so years of belonging to gyms, I've never actually attended as many times as I have in the past couple months. It's almost strange how quickly I managed to get used to doing so much physical training voluntarily.

Today marks the last day of doing the ADF's four week physical training program. It consists of push ups, sit ups, walking, running and biking, starting off at a basic level of times and reps/sets and building up over each week. I thought I'd forge through it and actually see whether it would improve my fitness over such a short amount of time (the program claims that you can actually get fit enough for the ADF in four weeks), and I'm actually surprised. Getting through each day's designated exercise wasn't so tough I couldn't handle it, but I'm feeling the fittest I've been in a long time, if ever.

I'm going to keep doing the ADF program for another four weeks, with increased speed/levels where I can. I've booked myself three personal training sessions, so hopefully I can get some help with designing a decent weights program. My next pay is going to be lashed out on some hefty boots and a backpack to practice walking in, which should be interesting, considering it's taken me a couple months just to get used to running. I'm enjoying running, even though I'm mighty sick of treadmills... can't wait until the weather gets better and I can take it to the streets.

I keep seeing ads for Fitness First's Boot Camp, which I imagine to be overpriced group fitness training, filled with soft civilians with office jobs, wanting to be pushed beyond their supposed comfort zone. I was thinking about doing it the month before enlistment, but then again, I'm going to have to do boot camp for real, and not have the privilege of paying people to yell at me. Heck, it's probably soft civilians with office jobs that are shelling out the tax that will end up in my pocket after ten weeks of basic training.

the end of the middle of the beginning

There was a time, not so long ago, when I thought that my future lay in the wonderful world of IT. I was never really sure where exactly I was headed during let alone after my Multimedia and Telecommunications Engineering degree, and I thought I was happy enough to figure that bit out when the proper time came (read: two weeks after graduation). It turned out that despite having geeky tendencies and inklings of technology induced enjoyment, I discovered some time in fourth year that I wasn't cut out for that world after all.

What I never would have guessed was where I'd end up after scuttling backwards out of my degree. That was the wonderful world of hospitality. Yup, that's right, I'm one of those freaks that scored a second job waiting tables whilst studying and actually ended up enjoying it more than my office job and my course/s. Over the past few years I've rediscovered the joys (and tears) that dealing with all manner of the general public can bring, and I can't picture myself leaving this world.

So I came up with a plan. It sort of came to me in parts a year ago, when I wanted to join the Air Force Reserves as a part time cook, to get my kitchen skills up, get a heck of a lot fitter than I've ever been, and possibly get the chance to travel whilst being funded by taxpayers. I gave up on the Reserves idea for a job that was quicker to hire me, as I was particularly desperate for the money that immediate employment can bring, and the recruitment process (even for Reserves) is quite involved.

With a little more hospitality experience up my sleeve (including a proper taste of kitchen life), and a minor brush with truth, I came up with a better plan. This one came to me while I was recovering from surgery and thinking about what I was going to really do with my life. I've always had an idea in the back of my head to open up a little cafe or bar somewhere, but never really thought about it too long, because it always seemed like one of those faraway dreams. The new plan is to join the Air Force as a full time cook, save up some capital over four to six years, then convince a bank to lend me more dosh for a house and/or business.

It's all well and good to have a clear idea of what I want and a rudimentary grasp of what I need to do to get there, and as exciting as it is having figured out what I'm going to do with myself for the next few years, there's a bazillion steps between where I am now and getting to boot camp, even.

I thought that in the event I do make it as a Leading Airwoman, and then start establishing a little chunk of hospitality on my own, it could make for some interesting writing and/or reading. Heck, if I fail miserably, I could probably salvage a heap of this for my memoirs and make a few bucks selling my story to some crazy publisher.