Brilliant Distractions

So, as a non-smoker, I find myself with an amazing amount of extra time on my hands. As mad as that may sound, I'm not the only one who's noticed this phenomena. Think of all the times you go 'I'll just have a fag then I'll crack on with the cleaning' or whatever. Add to that, the fact that I can now do all the things I used to love doing but were marred by the craving for nicotine, and you have a JoJo with a renewed appetite for life.

Tuesday found me at the Tate Britain. I had an invite to a private view of their newest exhibition Modern Painters: The Camden Town Group. Smoker JoJo wouldn't have bothered going, reasoning that it wasn't the kind of art I'm really into, and as with every other gallery trip, I'd be craving a fag about 40 minutes in. Now, because I don't wanna be hanging around the house doing bugger all, I decided to go anyway. What did I have to lose? Nowt.

The paintings were a bit 'traditional' for my liking, but you know what? They were fantastic! There was one artist who I'd never heard of called Charles Ginner, and his paintings really stood out for me, by the third room I could pick his out. The texture of the paint on the canvas was amazing, really rich, it made me wanna touch but I didn't cos I am a good girl.

I spent about an hour going round that show, then after a little coffee and a fab Tate cafe sesame cookie (I've only ever seen them at the Tate, they're yummy!) I treated myself to some time with the Bacons. Just breathtaking. If I had won the £95 million on the Euro Lottery last week I'd have bought myself at least one of Francis Bacon's works, they just astound me.

It was a gloriously sunny day so I wandered along the Thames and jumping on a random bus found myself in Covent Garden. The Birkenstock shop was calling on account of a pair of gorgeous Phillip Lim sandals he's designed for them. Also, I am a total Birkenstock freak and all mine are too big for me now, so what better reason to check em out?

Sadly the Phillip Lim's aren't in yet, but I got myself on the waiting list. Even better, they had some sale remnants and I got a brilliant pair for like a quarter of their original price. Yay!

The shoe spree continued as I made my way to John Lewis on Oxford Street and finally got a pair of the Masai Barefoot Trainers trainers. A trip to my doctor on Monday confirmed that I am indeed at the menopausal stage of life and therefore exercise is even more important than before if I don't wanna end up with osteoporosis. These shoes are meant to really work the legs, hips and spine, so I got em. Felt weird as anything at first, like standing on a rocking horse! I also got some of the resistance tubes Tommy Campbell told me about. So far I've used em to do additional exercises that would be dangerous with the hand weights, and I love em!

Wednesday saw me indulging in another of my rediscovered loves, the movies. Again, this was something that was much less pleasurable when I was fagging it. In fact I had my own rating system for movies based on how soon I wanted a ciggie ... I've used it here in some of my posts. But since seeing Juno in New York a month ago, I've gotten hooked again, cos there's nothing making me twitchy. I decided to check out Things We Lost in The Fire before it disappears from the cinemas. I am so glad I did. Halle Berry was great as usual, but it was Benicio del Toro who totally took my breath away. His portrayal of a junkie desperately trying to quit and stay clean was understated and so much more real for that. He is soooooo sexy too! 

I was thinking about that last night, and actually he's sexy cos he's Benicio del Toro the movie star, if he was Benicio del Toro the binman you'd never look at him twice! The glamour of the silver screen eh?

I decided to do some extra walking yesterday, so I put the MBT's on. Apart from the increased height they gave me - the soles are about an inch and a half thick - they definitely affect your posture. I was standing so tall! This morning as I did my squats I could feel muscles in my legs aching that I haven't felt before, so I guess they work.  Plus they make shopping into a workout - so now when I splurge (like I did in Topshop yesterday) I can feel virtuous about it cos it's good for my legs.