Somebody pinch me.......

AM I dreaming .... or is it getting warmer out there? I mean, for weeks and weeks, I've had to put my new summer wardrobe collection on the back burner in favour of the boots and pop socks.

Since Easter, I've braved the elements and traipsed around in short sleeves, not even admitting to myself for a single minute that I was frozen to the bone. And that was BEFORE I got into work to suffer the air conditioning system, brrrrr.

Tonight though, as I flip the calendar from July to August, I feel outside temperatures have been cranked up so I plan to shave all the bits that require it and fake tan myself to those areas that I will hopefully be able to show off over the next few days.

I have even joined a gym in an attempt to welcome the summer with open arms, a cheeky nod and a sly wink .... oh yes, we're talking ground-breaking earth-shattering stuff here. I plan to be rid of my whiter shade of pale spare tyre in around 6 weeks (optimist that I am), so every other lunchtime, I trot off to the sports centre to pound a kilometre or two on the treadmill, struggle with a few sets of chest presses, tricep dips and press ups and huff and puff my way through quarter of an hour straddled an inflatable silver ball that negotiates me in all sorts of positions.

When I was a gym virgin, about 9 days ago, I felt as rare as hen's teeth sprawling myself over this bouncy bit of rubber in all sorts of unmentionable positions on a gym mat .... but now, I simply can't get enough of it and I really don't care who clocks an eyeful of me as they snigger their way past. I'm on a mission and a mission it is, by the time the leaves start to fall from the trees and the dark nights set in, I want the Dunlop SP2030 that I call my waistline to be lo-o-o-o-ng gone.

After my condensed version of a weekend workout, I go back to work looking like a radish hot off a sunbed. The time spent getting showered and changed after my session is harder a workout than the workout itself! Trying to battle with hot, clammy, just-showered feet into the legs of trousers at breakneck speed aint good. Neither is trying to tame the unruly and rebellious section of hair that has spent the previous 40 minutes stuffed under a baseball cap. I thought taking exercise exhilarated and refreshed both body and mind .... I get back to work and yawn my way to home time!

Perhaps I need spurring on by my close friends - Mr Coffee, Mrs Chocolate or Miss Ever So Tasty Savoury Snack ... but at the back of my mind, I think they are the demons that got me in this position in the first place.

Wish me luck......