We've been living in our current home for more than a decade now, but the first time we saw it, we nearly walked away without even going through it. We'd arrived a bit before we were to meet the agent so we could have a wander around the neighbourhood (as you should always do when considering such a big investment). We liked the area, the people seemed fine, it was a convenient location, and the house, while it needed a complete make-over, was big enough for what we wanted.

So we were feeling quite positive when we happened to walk past it from a different direction and glanced down the driveway where, to our amazement and disappointment, we saw another house right up against the back fence.

It was all too good to be true, we thought. Now it looked as if the house was on the front of a battle-axe block with a right-of-way going down the side and neighbours smack-dab on the back fence.

Sigh ... But we swallowed our dismay and smiled when the agent arrived ... maybe this was as good as it got.

He took us through and we made mental notes of all that needed doing: the 70s wallpaper would have to go, ditto the shag-pile carpet and the floral curtains (different in every room). The bathroom and its lilac walls with feature tiles of black and gold peacocks (I kid you not ... I even saved one as evidence!) and the kitchen would both need stripping back to bare walls ... We'd sand and polish the timber floors hidden under layers of old lino and carpet, we'd recoat the bright blue roof tiles with something more subtle. We'd ...

By this time we'd both agreed that this was the house for us after all and decided we'd just plant trees to get some privacy from the house so close to our back fence, when the agent said, "And now I'll show you The Shed."

The Love of My Life's eyes lit up and a great weight slipped from my heart as the agent led us down through a gate we hadn't noticed and into a second part of "our" garden and showed us through the house we'd thought belonged to a neighbour, but which was actually the original cottage that had been moved to the back of the block when the bigger house was built.

Phew!

That little cottage is no longer fit to live in permanently, but it's a little ripper as a work-shed, a storage area, a hobby room (and here we finally arrive at the point of this visit) a home gym!

One room has all our bits of furniture that don't fit with this house, my Mum's things I can't bring myself to part with, boxes and furniture belonging to our son and daughter that they currently don't need but don't want to get rid of just in case they can use it "one day" ...

The second (and larger) room has an old billiard table, shelves with all my teaching notes (no, I'm never going back into a classroom, but I put so much effort into those notes over the years I can't toss them yet ...) and our son's gym equipment.

Why is it here? Long story (for another day ...)

Back to the Shed ... Over the past couple of weeks, I've come across a number of articles that highlight the importance of resistance training for those of us In Our Prime, so I'd dusted off the set of hand weights I bought a couple of years ago and found the resistance bands I'd started using last year, did some research online and found a little ripper of a book of exercises and tips that were just exactly what the doctor ordered (or what all the experts and trainers were recommending in the articles I'd been reading recently). You can get a copy of these tips here.

This particular book encouraged the use of weights in any health and fitness program, because resistance work builds strong muscles as well as being excellent for keeping a healthy heart, but the photos of the exercises showed a fit young man with bulging muscles lifting huge weights, and I dismissed the idea of me doing any weight-lifting. Instead, I started using my little weights, but still I yearned for all the fancy gear shown in the photos ...

I knew I already had access to all these machines; they were tucked away in The Shed, and all I had to do was find out the correct way of using them. And this is where you get the pay-off for all those sleepless nights, walking the floor when your kids were babies and teething, then when they were teens and out late in motor cars, because before I could say "Dumb-bells," my dear son had worked out an exercise program for me and was there waiting to show me the ropes (or the weights).

We started with the barbell, on each end of which was a series of huge weights that he'd been lifting. He removed all but the smallest on each end, placed it on the rests above the bench and told me to lift it as he'd demonstrated earlier. Struggling under the weight, I attempted to lift this over my head as he'd shown me ... to no avail. After a brief moment, he took the barbell from me, removed both weights, handed it back and said, "Maybe we'll just start with the bar, Mum." 

But since that humble beginning, I'm going great guns and am now lifting actual weights! I feel fitter and can notice the difference in my strength after only a couple of weeks. A great extra benefit is that I can feel my summer clothes fit me better than they normally do after winter ... Woohoo!

Talk about win-win!

Especially since I can now do my weight-training in the privacy of The Shed and don't have to front up to one of those Fitness Centres with all the lycra-clad nymphs posing and posturing in front of the mirrors. It doesn't matter if it's a just a Womens Gym, I still prefer home ...

Ah yes ... the apostrophe rears its ugly little head. Do we or don't we?

Well, in this case, we really should. It's a Women's Gym or a Men's Gym, but then it can be a Boys Gym or a Girls Gym.

But ... if the adjectival plural noun doesn't end in S, we always use an apostrophe before adding the S.

e.g. Women's Gym (the gym for WOMEN). 'Women' is already the plural of 'woman,' but we want to indicate that the gym is FOR this woman and that woman and this woman and ... so it's the Women's Gym.

Likewise a children's hospital, a men's club etc.

So now we know!

And there's a lesson for us all there, boys and girls ... don't believe everything you read on the Internet! At least, not until you research and check your facts. I don't know what sort of system you have in your little corner of the world, but Down Under where I live, membership of the local library also gives us access to the online resources of the State Library. So since I can research hundreds of reputable online references (all the Britannica and Oxford resources for a start), there's really no excuse for getting it wrong last week!

Make some enquiries at your own library to see if it offers the same facilities. You have to love the Internet -- even when it catches you napping ...

Here are some words about your muscles ... how much do you really know about your body and its bits?

agonist, rhomboids, abduction, isometric, obliques, isotonic, ligament, adduction, deltoids, trapezius

1. muscles to either side of abdominals that rotate and flex the trunk

2. exercise that involves lifting weights

3. either of two back muscles that function to move the scapula

4. the muscle directly engaged in contraction that is primarily responsible for movement of a body part; a muscle that contracts while another relaxes

5. band of flexible, fibrous connective tissue that is attached at the end of a bone near a joint

6. movement of a body part away from the middle of the body

7. a broad, flat muscle on each side of the upper and back part of the neck, shoulders, and back, the action of which raises, or rotates, or draws back the shoulders, and pulls the head backward or to one side

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aerodynamics, side skirts, deck, rocker panels, wings, spoiler, ram air hood, wiper cowl, roll pan, fender flares

1. smoothes the transition from the hood to the windshield - WIPER COWL

2. used in place of the rear bumper - ROLL PAN

3. study of the motion of gasses (in this case air), how this motion effects the movement of an object, and how the shape of the object affects airflow - AERODYNAMICS

4. forces cool air into the engine compartment - RAM AIR HOOD

5. taller than a factory-style spoiler, these can grab a little more of the air passing by the vehicle; wider, angled design also does more to redirect wind resistance and generate down-force - WINGS

6. extended ground effects look - SIDE SKIRTS

7. the lowest panel along the side of the vehicle in between the two wheel wells; three or four-inch piece of metal which runs along the bottom of the vehicle’s body underneath the doors - ROCKER PANEL

8. portion of a spoiler or wing that's typically angled to catch passing air; usually run parallel to the trunk lid, eliminating drag and down-force - DECK

9. add to tyre coverage; give extra protection from road debris - FENDER FLARES

10. changes the aerodynamics of a vehicle, disrupting the airflow over the car; adds more downward pressure to the back end, tightening turns and reducing hazardous lift - SPOILER

A Little Something Extra

More about the apostrophe here

And get your copy of the exercise book here

Word of the week: Gastrocnemius (n) largest, most prominent muscle of the calf of the leg, the action of which extends the foot and bends the knee.

This word comes from the Greek gastroknmi, meaning 'calf of the leg' which comes from two words gastro- 'belly' (from its belly-like shape) and knm, the word for 'leg.'

Oxymoron of the week: relaxing exercise (If it's relaxing, you're not doing it right!)

And a Latin phrase you could use if exercising with a mate ...

Serva me, servabo te

[SARY-wah MAY say-WAH0boh TAY]