Friday 4 January 2013

Terrace Tales

We moved into our new place many months ago now. I used to do some type of Shaun T or Tony Horton workout in the space just outside our bedroom in the old place. We had a TV and appleTV set up there and it was convenient. In the new place, everything was super messy till recently, and I lost this space.

The child & I used to 'celebrate terrace time' in the initial days of moving here. We used to climb up to the highest point and hang out, watching parrots and gently swaying tree branches. It was a very painful time for us all with all the activity in the house, and the carpenters and so forth. But we enjoyed some peace up on the roof, though mosquitoes mauled us.

Over the past several months, lots of things have fallen in place in the house. We have almost completed our task of identifying locations for all our stuff. Almost. Our bookshelves are groaning. We have our plants now. And yes, we have pests already attacking said plants, but thats par for the course. Our furniture is all tucked away and arranged; our bathrooms are operational.

I have been doing a fair bit of exercising up on the terrace recently. I have done my concocted 'Boot Camp' workout during the initial days after recovering from my foot injury. I have done a p90x legs and back routine many times. I have done Core Workouts there. We have spread out our dumbbells, bands, skipping rope, and my special stinky vibrams (oldest pair) up there with the tomato, brinjal and chilli plants.

I really love the place. Going up there at 6 am, especially in this slightly mild version of Chennai weather, is great. I have watched the sun rise over some trees in the distance a few times; tried valiantly to click a photo on my phone; pondered on what to do about the overflowing tank next door; and spied an old lady walking determinedly a few roofs away; variously.

This morning was the time for a shoulders and arms workout. I was mildly surprised to see my husband up and ready by the time I walked up from the kitchen with our coffee. We went up and cranked out a tough and tiring set; I brought my reference book but he pooh-poohed it saying he knows the sequence by heart...

Sis-in-law joined us in a bit and her eyebrows shot up in surprise at all the frenetic activity up on the terrace, early in the morning. We kept up our chatter even as we wound up with some extra sets of our favourite exercise. I stuck pretty much to the 5kg weights though I ventured into the 7.5kg territory for a few - like bicep curls.

We argued all the way down about everything including whether my muscles had become more defined in the near past. The child woke up and we rushed around getting ready. Its been six months now, and I think we finally feel like this is home. The name board is up in the front, and our sweat has mingled with the red tiles on the terrace floor now. Yes, its home....

1 comment:

dipali said...

Sounds like a terrific terrace! And a busy one:)