FIVE WORK OUT TIPS FOR BEGINNERS

The Bleep Test has a lot to answer for. Ask any millennial with an ineptitude for sport and they’ll probably cite it as the reason they skipped PE class for the next decade.  As a teen I always thought exercise wasn’t for me – it was something ‘other people did’. Then, in my early twenties, I moved to London and discovered I had unintentionally upped sticks to the sportiest area of the city - you can’t move for joggers and protein shakes in Clapham. And so the exercise bug infected me (albeit very slowly), but not without it’s teething problems. As a total novice, I was clueless about working out and made every mistake in the book (HI SPORTS INJURIES). So I thought I’d share the tips that I wish I’d had to guide me along the way: 

FIVE DATING MISTAKES I MADE IN 2016

My most read blog of 2016? August's dating post, by a mile. Post-publishing, several lovely things happened to me. I received a couple of job offers. I was sent some kind messages complimenting my writing (which meant the world, words have always been my passion). And - most encouraging of all - single acquaintances, some close, some distant, some male, some female, began to confide in me. When you're in a relationship, it's easy to forget that being single can be a lonely business, which is why opening the conversation, sharing advice, laughing at the disasters, are an important part of the process. 

I'm not sure where to begin when I review the 6 months of dating that followed my previous blog. It's been eventful, but rest assured my 'love life' (I'm using this term loosely) is as tragicomedy as ever. Dating in a small pool - (don't be deceived by square footage - London is an incestuous hotbed) delivers a plethora of comedic moments. In December alone I bumped into a grand total of three ghosts of my Tinder past - in the club, in the pub, at Sainsbury's self checkouts... if Dickens had been alive today it would have made a compelling narrative for Christmas Carol; The Sequel. 

And so to a new year and new chapter...although I already have a weird sense of dating deja vu - the characters are new, but the stories are the same. In an effort to impede groundhog day, I've put fingers to keyboard and typed up the dating mistakes I made in 2016 that I'm vowing not to repeat 2017. And if you're also single, hopefully you can learn from my mistakes, too!