Marina; rural crafts; gym

The bunnies appear to be settling in well, and appear more or less house-trained, which is nice. In an effort to find out more about my new housemates, I have been flicking through Dykes’ and Flack’s ‘Living With A Houserabbit’ for tips on rabbit habits and care. Their crepuscular nature (new word learned, courtesy of D and F) would seem to make them quite well suited to folk who work during the day, as they seem happy to be quiet during the day – see daytime shot of Lola under the coffee table – and then run round like mad things in the early morning and evening.

Last Saturday I went with Ray for a first visit to the Thames and Kennet Marina, where he will be mooring his new narrowboat. The narrowboats are housed in their own marina, while cruisers are moored in another marina next to it. Was favourably impressed – seems a pleasant spot and the facilities look pretty good from what I can judge. We found Ray’s berth and then went for a drink at the Waterfront Bar and Bistro on site.

Drink at the marina

In the afternoon we went for a visit to the University’s Museum of English Rural Life (see my 11 March entry for photo). This used to be housed in prefabs on the Whiteknights campus but moved to a new permanent home in 2005, in the former St Andrew’s Hall (there’s a history of St Andrew’s Hall here - it was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and was apparently originally known as 'East Thorpe'). In fact the bulk of the exhibits are housed in a new extension – I’m not sure what the old hall itself is being used for but I think there are lecture and reading rooms there. It’s very nicely laid out with lots of interactive exhibits, although as I have only limited interest in rural crafts and agricultural machinery, it’s not somewhere I could while away a large amount of time. Ray found it interesting though and interacted with several of the exhibits, including trying on some traditional smocks and watching a video about hurdle making.

Following last week’s fitness assessment, I returned to the gym this week to get an induction to the machines and a personalised fitness programme. Zita, the fitness instructor, led me around a bewildering array of machines and has done me a workout programme that should supposedly last about an hour – starts with a ten-minute warm-up on the exercise bike, then a few sets on about half a dozen other machines (some of which seem useful, some less so) then some mat exercises/stretches. Personally I think it’s a bit OTT for a beginner. Can see myself doing the ten-minute bike warm-up, then going for a swim…