March 14th, 2011 | Posted by acidicice

Sjoe. Applying for a bond is a load of admin and a half! Rudi and I spent at least an hour just trying to get stamped bank statements on Saturday. I have no idea why the banks are packed in the middle of the month! There is a ton of other documentation needed. I have a big fat folder on my desk full of papers. So much for saving the environment! Stupid banks. We still need to go to the police station to have our ID's certified and I'm waiting for Rudi's payslips, then we should have more or less everything we need. I'm really hoping that we get a 100% bond somewhere, if not I guess we won't be able to buy the house after all. I know a lot of the banks don't give 100% bonds anymore, but I think we both have a pretty good credit record. I have a pension fund benefit at work, but as far as I can tell after all the enquiries I've made I would need to borrow from my pension fund in order to qualify. The benefit is pretty awesome since we get a reduced interest rate and don't pay any administration fees (legal or registration)…but it's proving quite difficult to try and work around risking my pension which I refuse to do. I might still be young and have a long time to work, but anything could happen and I don't want to affect the money I have ploughed into it over the last 11 years.

On Saturday morning I decided to try out the Yoga class at gym. About 10 minutes into it I thought to myself 'What have I let myself in for? OMG. There isn't a clock in this room! How much longer is this going to last?!'. The instructor was very encouraging, calm and positive. Don't ask me what kind of Yoga we did, it is something I cannot pronounce. There were poses where my muscles were *burning* and the sweat was dripping down my face, but I held them. My t-shirt was wet when I left the class. There were many instances where you were supposed to have your legs straight (i.e. when bending over and touching your toes) where I had to bend my knees, but she was okay with that. She said we could bend our knees if that's where we were. I found my heart pumping harder and myself out of breath more than once. Yoga is HARD WORK! It isn't for sissies. Don't let anyone tell you differently! You also have to move from one position to another frequently and I felt like my movements were clumsy and not fluid, but I am a beginner . I don't think I did the 'breathing' thing properly either, I found it hard to focus on my breathing when I was in pain! (This is also probably why I choose not to give birth without an epidural). Towards the end of the class we started doing some relaxing and stretching exercises. They were fairly easy to do and I felt comfortable doing them. For a while we just lay down on our backs with our palms outstretched faced downwards next to our sides with our eyes closed. She then had us hold our hands together at our heart's centre (as if praying) and asked us to touch our foreheads for wisdom, lips for love and hearts for peace. Somehow there at the end I felt tearful. That touched me. I didn't feel 'spiritual' or 'connected' to anything while I was doing the yoga, I was too busy focusing on not falling over or crying out, but right at the end there something happened. Because of that moment I want to go again and see what happens. I'm working this Saturday, so I'll have to make it the next week. I was quite sore and stiff on Sunday. Yoga definitely works you out!

I weighed on Saturday morning. I've lost 200g. Pffft. 200g. So little. Only 2.4 since I've started. It's been more than a month. It's my own fault really. I should be eating properly and I'm not. Rudi isn't much help. His suggestions for supper include things like 'miele pap' or something with a high starch content. He is the cook in the house. I keep telling him he is keeping me fat, but he insists that I've lost weight. *sigh* I know once I start eating right I'm going to see fast, fantastic results. I just need to DO it. Easier said than done.