gird my loins
the domestic minx
33 Comments
Henry David Thoreau
While it's hard to beat a good bout in the sack, there is not much I find more invigorating and soul lightening than a hearty walk.
One sniff of the great outdoors and I'm off like a terrier, straining at the leash, anxious to stretch my legs, wag my tail and bound beyond the horizon.
It's a tonic indeed and one I like a dose of every day.
Unfortunately, given my feline disposition, the recent soggy weather and my fundamental fear of wet hair, I have lately felt a little like a caged bird, (and prone to extending analogies of the Wild Kingdom in my prose...)
It has been a conspiracy of sorts. Frequent thunderstorms and belting rains coinciding with the timing of my daily constitution have, over the past few weeks, colluded in a vile and unfriendly manner with the much extended birthday rituals to create an inclement thundering of my thighs. Hmmm...
And not the kind I like to reserve for bedroom ministrations.
Certainly not the sort one wants rumbling uncomfortably from one's corset...
Call me Xenia Onnatop, for I have relished my role as ex-Russian agent with thighs of steel, my marvellous muscles threatening to clench my man of mystery in a vice-like grip, rather than the inner flab that might be 007's after dinner blancmange.
So, in a manner much aligned to my own Bond Girl antics, I have been pounding the pavement, pounding it hard and girding my loins.
Over the past week my husband and I have covered the distance from Perth to Dwellingup!
Weekends of surprising environmental clemency have found us walking for hours, invigorated by the elements and our own delicious company.
Imbued with fresh vigour, memories of West Papua return to inspire us, where our walks, staggering and strained up primitive mountainsides, steep and unforgiving at 3000 metres, left us trained like athletes. It was a harsh and barbarous world where a trip up three flights of stairs at the end of the day could leave one gasping for breath.
Oh how fit we were then...
We mock the misery of our muscles now, sizzling at sea level, smoothed and softened by suburbia.
And a plan has been made.
My visions of That Road Trip have been made real. Very real. Very road.
Next year we walk El Camino.
780km from St Jean Pied du Port to Santiago de Cosmpostela. On foot.
Despite our lack of religious leanings, it will inevitably be a spiritual journey.
For sacrifices will be made, dear reader, both muscular and monetary.
Jobs will be abandoned and money will cease to be the currency we need for survival.
But intestinal fortitude and thighs of steel are high on the packing list.
Hand me a vodka, bring me my man and gird my loins.
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Reader Comments (33)
There's no half measures with you, are there?
780km. What the hell!
Sounds like an adventure of spiritual proportions!
(Darling Mr Honea, something terrible must have happened to your comment. I found it languishing in my Inbox but not in my comment box, so I have transplanted it. It is happy now that everyone can appreciate it, for how true it is.
Silly Squarespace...)
xox
*I spent an afternoon at Walden Pond one time, on our honeymoon actually. I bought a t-shirt from a giftshop next to H.D.T.'s old cabin. Something tells me he would have frowned on that.
Sometimes a walk in the rain is just what one needs.
WHIT*
The very thought of such a departure from the norm is exhilarating Eddie. The open road, the smell of adventure, the lack of decent washing facilities..
Oh dear..
Spiritual, indeed...
xox
Darling Whit,
How true it is.
All the tshirts in the world can't make up for the experience, can they?
While I fret at the thought of wet flannel hair, I love the feel of a fresh breeze against my face and the sight of the open road ahead of me.
I've no doubt my hair will be sodden and my body sore on this journey we've planned, but the very thought is almost deliriously intoxicating.
I love an adventure! My hair will just have to fit in!!
xox
Mon Cher
You're grand escape is planned! Huzzah! It sounds, daunting for one with a lack of lung power such as myself, but for one as energetic and sprightly as you my dear, so exhilarating!
Terriers...Secret Agents...you read my mind on a daily basis.
Soothsayer, vixen, minx extraordinaire!
xoxo
Mistress M
I meant YOUR grand escape...not you are...geesh.
Why don't these dreadful boxes have grammer check?!
xoxo
M
Good LORD...grammar...and SPELL check please.
Someone refill my glass, I actually still care!
xoxo
M
My strong leggy friend....you know I am all about the burn and I agree while there is nothing quite equal to a good romp..I feel the need to release thise endorphins daily..my weapon of choice sadly the eliptical machine and my ipod...as our weather is quite unpredictable as well. I will send energy your way after my run tomorrow and from one set of rock hard thighs to another...you go girl! Xoxo kk
Darling Margot,
The Big Adventure.
I have said it out loud now, so I am compelled to act on it. The idea invigorates and scares me simultaneously.
I am such a little princess. I think this is why I am compelled to pursue such a challenge.
And I do love to walk! Up hill and down dale..
I'm sure there'll be plenty of diversity over 780km, both figuratively and literally!!
Your terrier/feline/bird-like spy minx friend
xoxo
I too have needed a strong drink with the nonsense these comment boxes have levelled at me today, Margot.
You are so like me. I can't stand it when I look back on comments I've left for others, only to see a glaring spelling error or grammatical fart.
I am a spelling/grammar nazi...
And I am my own worst enemy...
xoxo
The endorphin release is remarkable isn't it dearest Kimmykat!
Burning and sweating, I always feel infinitely better after a walk in the great outdoors.
I have been a little out of sorts for the past three months as a result of those hideous ops and the weather has conspired against me, but I must say it doesn't take long to slip back into the groove.
Here's to some girding of the loins, my fit and fabulous friend!
Meow
xoxo
I do enjoy a good walk too, my dear Minx.
Sadly, I seem to spend most of my days running, usually from furious husbands.
xx
How exciting this sounds!
I'm so jealous that you're able to walk outside.
It is hotter than Joan of Arc burning at the stake here! Walking outdoors is impossible when it is 105 degrees outside.
Methinks Hell is more than likely cooler.
I suppose we'll both find out if that's true in due time though ;)
Ooooh that's on my 'one day' list. I'll be with you in spirit you fabulous Minx!
We have diametrically opposite weather patterns don't we, my dear Blasphemous friend...
while you swelter I am sodden...
It is the only time I appreciate "middle of the road".. when I walk..
My journey next year will inevitably lead me away from the fiery furnace, dear boy..
In fact one could say I will be taking 'the high road'..
It will certainly make a change from my usual schleps around the bowels of Hell...
xox
My dearest Lord Likely,
I would suggest a snug pair of running shorts and a sturdy pair of running shoes so that you may beat a hasty retreat.
Some exercise in this department might also be in order...
Perhaps we could gird our loins together...
xox
Dearest Michelle,
It has been on my "to do" list for five years now..
Time to act!
I rather prefer that we are doing it now, sans enfants...
I fear it may well have been the death of us..
xox
I will be handing out blessings after this, of course.
what an absolutely wonderful plan... and such a nice escape.. just the two of you ... all those miles,,, an amazing set of memories are sure to be filed on such a remarkable journey... now i have to go find out what the hell el camino is......
I always sensed you were a woman of the outdoors, Minx. That and your firm lower flesh would make you an ideal candidate for a gorilla's harem. May your buttocks be envious of your thighs and compete with them!
Oh, how exciting for you! This is the trip you have been longing for, no? I have noted your travel yearnings in these pages many a time, dearest Minx.
You will have a brilliant time, and most certainly return with thighs of shining steel after all that distance!
It's not quite the same, but my husband and I would like to walk the Appalachian Trail one day...