Hot Yoga at The Yoga Lounge

 

 

Well lovelies, I wouldn’t be a good friend to my friend Nisha if I didn’t tell you about her new venture.  Nisha and her business partner Jane have just opened an amazing Hot Yoga and Pilates Studio in Manchester (UK).  I’ve never done hot yoga before, although I’ve done yoga (unknowingly for about 15 years or so I did yoga when I was dancing - yoga moves are used for ballet/dance warm up) and I started proper yoga classes about 10 years ago and I’ve been practising ever since.  So was actually quite excited when the girls finally the studio a couple of weeks ago and invited me to my first HOT yoga class.
 

Nisha is my oldest friend; we used to play together when we were children.  As you may guess from her name she is of Indian heritage (her father is Indian, her mother English) and has practised yoga since being a child.  She’s actually my inspiration.  She is THE hardest working, driven person I know and she is a brilliant role model.  She has trained all over the world and is continually striving to learn more in order to pass the benefits on to her clients.   She first opened a Pilates studio a number of years ago in our local town and has also been teaching yoga all over the North West (including training some of the country’s hottest football and rugby stars – including Everton) ever since.
 

So now you have the background, let me tell you a bit about my first hot yoga experience.  I rocked up at the studio on Deansgate, not really knowing what to expect.   After being asked to take my shoes off (no shoes are allowed past reception) I left my valuables in a little locker and proceeded to the changes rooms … did a quick change, walked along the corridor and into the ‘hot’ studio.  Now, I know it is a ‘hot’ yoga studio, but I don’t think I was quite prepared for quite how hot it was going to be … when I walked in, I promptly turned round and walked back out, deciding to wait outside until the class began (I wondered why there were so many people standing outside when I walked past ... Duh).
 

Our instructor was Suzie (and what a lovely person and great instructor!)  I had a really good chat with her after and asked tonnes of questions; she explained all about the benefits and how to get the best out of the classes.  Well, I can honestly say that I’ve never sweated so much in my entire life (which is a good thing!) and after about 10 minutes, I could really feel my muscles opening up.  I have to admit that it was really hard, but good hard.  The yoga moves weren’t too much and would have been easy to follow if you haven’t done yoga before, but equally as powerful for the more advanced … it was the hotness of the studio made a massive difference to my practise.
 

Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish the class and had to come out after about 50 minutes because I was just too hot, but apparently that’s quite normal for your first time – Suzie said that it can take a while for you to adjust to the heat and it’s quite alright to step outside if you feel you have to (although she did show me a great recovery position to try which opens up your lungs and helps you to breath more openly).  However, all things considered, I have to say that I LOVED IT and I’ve already been back and managed the full hour.  What was most surprising was that for the next couple of days after each class, my skin has been amazing.  Apparently that’s another bonus from the hotness of it all.  All that sweating gets rid of the toxins.
 

Before I went I was slightly worried about being in a room with so many sweaty people and the potential for germ transference, however, the heating system they have at the Yoga Studio is unique to the UK … it heats surfaces rather than the air and the carbon dioxide is sucked out and fresh air pumped in, massively reducing the chance of any contamination … brilliant and totally safe!

 
 

Hot and Sweaty at The Yoga Lounge, Manchester

 

All in all, it was a fantastic experience and one I can’t wait to try again.  If you haven’t tried yoga, especially hot yoga before, I strongly suggest that you give it a go.  It strengthens and elongates your muscles and makes you much more subtle … If premier footballers think it has fantastic benefits, who am I to argue!

 

 

In case you’re interested, here are the studio’s details:
 

http://theyogalounge.co.uk/
 

Until next time lovelies … be fabulous!
 

Lots of love
 

Jx

 

Evil Dead

 

This is another quick post ... I’d love to be telling you how exciting my weekend has been, but it’s not!  Yesterday, I had a lovely lunch/catch up with my cousin Phil (he’s like my big bro and I love catching up with him), I then went to the cinema to see Evil Dead.... hmmmmm.... and today, I’ve been to a rather boring seminar.  So not really the most exciting of weekends!

So let’s get right to it ... Evil Dead *** (3 Stars)

I must have seen the first one ... I must have, but I can’t recall it.  I didn’t really know what to expect from this version other than what I’d seen in the trailers and I’ve got to admit, this version wasn’t great.  It was unbelievably predictable.  It was very akin to Cabin in the Woods only that was done with a few more twists and a bit of panache.  This to me was totally clichéd and your basic slasher, blood and gore, teenage on the rampage type film.  No surprises, lots of blood and only one (minor) twist.

The story (as if you can’t guess) a group of kids end up at a disused cabin in order to aid one of them on a major cold turkey detox.  They smell something funny in the cabin, go into the cellar and find lots of dead animals hanging from the ceiling an ancient book encased in a plastic bag and covered with barbed wire.  The smart arse kid (there’s always one) decides to read the book and translate some of the words (big mistake ... massive!) and unleashes an ancient evil with devastating effects.

That’s it in a nutshell.  If you really like teenage slasher type movies (think Hostel etc), which I really don’t like and usually avoid at all costs, you’ll love this.  There’s nothing clever about it, there’s no real psychological edge to it, it’s just out and out gore ... and not that well done either.  Hey ho ... here’s the trailer, although it's not gory, if you get scared easily you may wish to give this a miss :-)

   

Right lovelies, that’s me for another day.  Speak soon, until then, be fabulous!

 

Lots of love

Jx

Oblivion

 
I almost forgot to do this review!  I saw Oblivion at the weekend.  That’s Tom Cruise’s new film and to be honest, as I’m not a huge fan of the pint sized, alien loving scientologist, I really wasn’t that fussed about it.  Obviously I’d seen him plugging it all over the place, but to be honest, I wasn’t really that impressed with all that jazz ... when there’s that much fuss over a film, it tends to make me think it’s going to be rubbish (because they usually are when they’re so hyped).  However, I’m happy to announce that it was marvellous.  It was a joy to behold and I loved it!

Tom plays a drone repair man – one of the last remaining human’s on Earth.  During a battle with aliens, our moon was exploded sending Earth into chaos.  The majority of humans have been shipped off the planet and Tom is left to make sure that the extraction of Earth’s resources goes without a hitch.  However, when a spaceship crash lands a chain of events is triggered which forces Tom to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.

There were so many twists and turns that I absolutely didn’t see coming - it was quite spellbinding!  Give it a go ... you won’t be disappointed.  Here’s the trailer...
 

 

Well that was just a quickie lovelies ... more soon, until then, be fabulous.

Lots of love

Jx

Dark Skies and Bloody Steak!

 

 

Well I had a lovely lunch with my dad yesterday and actually had my 4^th ever steak - I’m a converted red meat eater – I’ve never eaten steak before, but as I’ve just found out that the reason for my recent lethargy was due to burgeoning anaemia, I’ve broken the habit of a lifetime and found that I absolutely love it ... the bloodier the better, “Just walk the cow past the kitchen” type bloody!  Weird.  If you’d have said I’d be craving virtually raw steak 2 months ago, I’d have said you were certified bonkers!  Funny how your body really does crave the stuff you need ... not sure where wine comes in to that equation, but hey ho.

After lunch, I decided to have a little trip to the cinema and the only film I haven’t seen which I actually fancied was, Dark Skies and I loved it!

Dark Skies **** (4 Stars)

I’ve got to be honest, the reviews weren’t brilliant for this film but I’ve never been one for listening to others’ film reviews – they’re usually written by people so far removed from me and the type of person that I am, that their view point is of no use to me.  Also the Director, Scott Stewart, has directed some of my favourite films including Priest and Legion, so it couldn’t be all that bad!

The story ... a husband and wife witness an escalating serious of disturbing events involving their family.  When it becomes clear that they are being targeted by an unimaginably terrifying and deadly force, the couple take matters into their own hands.

I’ve got to be honest, although it wasn’t the best film I’ve ever seen (the father character was a bit whimpy and annoying), it did keep you hooked all the way through and at one point, I literally jumped out of my skin, as did half the people in the cinema judging from the sounds everyone made!  Brilliant!  That doesn’t happen very often.   They cleverly lulled you into a false sense of security then BOOM!  Go and see it ... you’ll enjoy it.  Here’s the trailer:

 

Right lovelies, have a wonderful week and be fabulous.

Lots of love

Jx

The Worst Film Ever - The Host

 

Well this is a really quick post, but I thought it would be a bit of a public service offering. 

 

I went to see The Host yesterday and it would be extremely remiss of me if I didn’t do a post to warn you:

DO NOT SEE THIS FILM!

It was without a doubt the worst film that I’ve EVER seen (and that’s a lot of films).  It was glib, boring and cringe worthy beyond anything I’ve ever seen in my life.

I’m not going to bore you with the story, suffice to say that it was about aliens taking over the bodies of humans ... one human gets infected by an alien but doesn’t die, we then have to listen to the most appallingly cringe worthy running commentary from the human about what the alien is doing throughout the film.  It was THE most tedious film and so cheesy I had to hold down the vomit.  Yes, it was that bad.  I thought the book was bad (I abandoned it after the first chapter) but nothing could prepare you for this load of rubbish.

This is the first time ever, but NO STARS for this one.  I’m not even going to add the trailer in case you think it looks quite good and decide to waste your money on it!  There are so many better other films out right now, Trance and Side Effects to name but two that completely blow this one out of the water (no that it would be hard).

Right, now I’ve had my little rant and hopefully saved some of you from wasting your hard earned dosh, I’m off to eat Easter Egg!  Enjoy you week lovelies and be fabulous!

Lots of love

Jx

Side Effects, Trance, Jack the Giant Slayer

Well I’ve seen 3 brilliant films over the last couple of weeks.  Again, there are so many films coming out at the moment that I hope by writing this blog, it will help you sort the wheat from the chaff when you’re only looking to maybe watch one a week.

So here goes:

Side Effects **** (4 Stars)

I LOVED this film and it was very near to getting 5 stars – in fact, I’m going to give it a 4.5 instead of a 4 because it really does deserve more.  So what’s it about?  Well, it’s about a once successful New York couple who are struggling to readjust to life after his recent release from prison (he was put away for insider dealing).  She is plagued with clinical depression and following a car crash, is referred to a psychiatrist (Jude Law) who offers her the latest prescription drugs with the aim of alleviating her anxiety.  However, the more she takes the drugs, the more the lines become blurred between reality and fantasy, with really nasty consequences.

There are loads of twists and turns in this film that I really didn’t see coming (Trance is like that too)  It’s quite a riveting watch actually and the fact that Channing Tatum plays the lead role didn’t hurt ... he’s very easy on the eyes don’t you know!  Catherine Zeta-Jones is in it too, although I’m not so sure about her recently.  She seems to have ages really quickly, despite all the work she’s had done ... I guess that would happen if you were married to someone so much other than you ... you’d become old before your time.  She looks decidedly middle aged (and there’s no need for that!).

If you can, go and see it.  It’s definitely one of my favourite films of this year (although it is a bit dark – certainly don’t go expecting laughs!).  Here’s the trailer...

Trance ***** (5 Stars)

I saw this today and I was really looking forward to it.  It’s the new film by Danny Boyle (I love his films) and it absolutely did not disappoint.  It stars James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel (he’s French and  played the lead role in Black Swan - love that film) who actually got more and more attractive as the film went on and Rosario Dawson (I’ve got to be honest, I can’t think what I’ve seen her in before, but she was brilliant in this).

So, what’s the story, morning glory?  A Fine Art Auctioneer suffers a blow to the head during a heist to still a Goya painting worth £25m.  When he wakes up, he discovers that he has no memory of what happened, the painting has disappeared and even the gangsters don't know where it is.  They (as you can imagine) are really p*ssed that all their hard work and planning and gone for nothing and try to torture the whereabouts of the painting from him.  However, when he still can’t remember, they send him to a hypnotherapist in order to see if she can gain access to his subconscious and discover what happened to the painting.

As a qualified hypnotherapist, I really found this film interesting, although you don’t need to know anything about hypnosis to enjoy it.  It had so many twists and turns that you just (or at least I) didn’t see coming, that it kept me hooked from beginning to end.  Be warned though, it’s really rather violet and they aren’t shy in showing the torture scenes and there are lots of guns and bloody shootings involved.  There’s also an awful lot of full frontal nudity from Ms Dawson too (no male full frontals though ... there rarely are I find!). 

In case you haven’t seen the trailer (although you’d have to have been living in a hole not to have caught Mr Boyle promoting it on some show or other over the past few weeks) here’s it is...

And finally...

Jack the Giant Slayer ***** (5 Stars)

Another 5 star film!  I loved this, it was extremely entertaining and quite the opposite end of the spectrum compared with Trance ... it was good, all round family entertainment.  It’s an adaptation of that old classic, Jack and the Beanstalk and stars Nicholas Hoult (him from About a Boy), who I have to admit is a little wooden in this, Ewan McGregor (who is wonderful) Stanley Tucci (who plays the king’s daughter’s traitorous suitor perfectly) and Ian McShane (whom I totally love) who plays the King with all the panache you’d expect from him.

It’s a good old fashioned romp with a fabulous story, brilliant cinematography and CGI ... this film had everything.  The best bit had to be the giants lead by Bill Nighy (his voice is instantly recognisable); they were brilliantly funny and actually really believable, they absolutely made the film.  I’m not going to go into the story, because if you don’t know the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, then you’ve more stuff to worry about than my description.  Anyway, here’s the trailer... Go see it, you’ll love it!

Right lovelies, that’s me for another day.  Until next time, be fabulous.

Lots of love

Jx

Champagne Saturday & Cosmos

 

Well the last few weeks have started to be a bit more eventful, which is always good, especially for logging purposes.  A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to a Birthday party for a company I know who had just reached their first Birthday.  Now, normally I wouldn’t be too enthused about a business ‘party’, however, this was a business party with a difference.  For a start, it was being held in an art gallery which is very forward thinking for Manchester.  Secondly, they had cocktails and gorgeous, yummy finger food and there were giving party goers the opportunity to learn how the make cocktails!  Job done.

I took my lovely friend Nisha with me and we had thoroughly lovely time.  The highlight of the evening was, not the yummy cocktails and fabulous foodage (it was all ‘bite size fish and chips’ and ‘bite size toad in the hole’ ... you get the picture) but it was the fact that we learnt how to make Cosmopolitans!  My favourite cocktail (that doesn’t involved bubbly stuff that is) and the best bit was that they are incredibly easy to make ... who knew! 

And as I’m the caring/sharing sort, I thought I’d share the recipe with you:

• The juice of half a fresh lime

• Two shots of vodka

• Two shots of cranberry and raspberry juice

• Pour over ice in a cocktail maker, shake violently and pour ... voila!

Yum, yum, yum  ... that tasted just like liquid sherbet.  So that’s my new speciality.  Of course, it will never replace bubbles, but it comes a damn close second.  So all in all a jolly little time was had.

The following Saturday was ‘Champagne Saturday’ with the lovely Justine.  It’s actually been a year since the last one (can you believe that?  A whole year) and it was thoroughly enjoyable.  In case you aren’t aware, Champagne Saturday consists of Justine and me grabbing ourselves a seat at the Cocktail Bar in Harvey Nichols (Manchester) on a Saturday afternoon, drinking champagne and generally having a good girlie gossip and catch up, followed by having some yummy food somewhere equally as fabulous.  For my American readers, for Harvey Nichols think Neiman Marcus and you’re on the right track.

We had a thoroughly lovely day and we actually didn’t seem to drink as much as usual, or at least my hangover the next day wasn’t as bad as usual!  I’m happy to say that for a change, nothing untoward happened, so there really isn’t any gossip to share (I think I must be getting boring in my old age – either that or I’m learning to dodge the drama).

Right lovelies, that’s it for another day.  Enjoy your Easter Sunday and be fabulous!

Lots of love

Jx