Under Jane's management, the guards have helped build a home gym in the former spare room across the corridor from the library. It feels silly to dedicate the room before my marriage with all the guests, but the guests should have enough room or get a house for themselves in most cases, and this is the most suitable place in the mansion for a gym. I should have made the mansion bigger, but I guess I'm just bad at going for overkill or future proofing when it comes to space. Although I was more focused on something that could be built before winter, and didn't know how fast it would go. In a future expansion of the mansion, a small gym will be built.
The gym has a shelf with improvised dumbbells, a pull-up bar and jumping rope, and Gunhild has sewn a medicine ball in leather with side grips and a punching bag according to guidelines from Jane. Jane has far too many ideas because she has spent a lot of time in gyms, but as long as she can sketch and show how something is meant to be used, we can probably build something. So an exercise machine with different handles that lift lead weights in ropes, will be designed and parts ordered. But with the future exercise bike and that machine, there is no room left for anything else to Jane's disappointment, even though she agrees that the gym must not be too crowded. Three will be able to train at the same time if they use different things, and a training buddy is useful.
Jane is happy that we now have a gym here, while at the same time seeming a little depressed. I think it's yet another reminder of her old modern Midgård way of life, which is a reminder of how different life is here, and will be for the rest of our lives.
To take a step back of radio thoughts, I sketch on mechanical scales. Both with a scale and with weights that are moved on an arm. It is practical to have a smaller household scale with a zero function in the kitchen and in my workshop that directly shows the weight on a 0-3kg scale, instead of using a box with different weights and adding, but I am ambivalent to a larger scale to stand on and weigh a person. I'm afraid it can lead to a bodyweight issue when there hasn't been one before. Is there any good reason to actually build it? Any real need? But Jane has spread the idea of a bodyweight scale to my sambos and guards in connection with talks and planning for the gym.
I do not care what my sambos weigh - or what I myself weigh as long as I can physically do what I want in hiking, kayaking, cycling and skiing. Would it have been nice to have a more toned muscular body and weigh 80kg instead of somewhere around 95kg? Yes, but I have never been motivated to get it or keep it, and I'm not vain. I've also always thought that a little unhealthy food is a vice I can accept as long as it doesn't go to excess. But fast food has never appealed to me, nor has beer or copious amounts of sweets, cakes, chips and dips. Why buy a pizza or similar when a good piece of meat and potatoes with sauce are so much tastier and cheaper, and I can do it quickly at home without having to drive away to pick it up? Especially in the winter? Unlike many of my fit and well-trained friends and acquaintances who have become untrained and fatter as they have become parents of small children with a normal work life, car use etc, I can still use the same pants and clothes as 15 years ago. And many of them are much younger than me. They have at least stopped giving me comments about my body shape and fitness, and it's kind of satisfying seeing them complain or not keeping up and seeing it from the other side. Some really don't see the irony, and I generally avoid pointing it out. In Midgård, I would probably have continued to be at the same body and physical level for another 10-20 years because my life and attitude probably wouldn't change much, but here with this company, the food, the gym etc, I will probably be more in shape. If I don't become fatter due to more orderly meal times, more of them, more cream in the food, etc. Something to think about.
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Ironically, I feel a pressure on me to get somewhat more in shape for the sake of my sambos and guards, even though they don't seem to have any problems with my current body and fitness. Jane has fun with that subject, and that normal female forms here are more reminiscent of the 1940s-1950s ideal with curves and healthy strong looks, than androgynous slim 1960s and 1990s, or 2000s yoga and long slim busty supermodels. Of course there are different attractions and tastes here too, but as long as the person is not too thin or too fat, it is quite insignificant compared to giving an overall healthy impression and what kind of person you are, even if blondes who are clean and well-groomed with long pretty hair and fine clothes generally have an advantage here.
Ciara and Iselin are tragically not considered that beautiful here because they have red-hair and freckles. The reason is that red hair color and freckles are reminiscent of 'earth and nature' and it is basically assumed that those with red hair and freckles are not very clean, or as a sign from the gods that their soul is more 'down to earth'. In the rest of Alfheimr, it differs depending on whose opinion is asked, and their religion. Some believe freckles is Gods way to characterize someone so they can not blend in with 'honest' people, or that they are hot-tempered and violent because 'their blood' is so visible in both face and hair - which can be good or bad depending on the circumstances and the profession. Or that they can not use magic. Or that the gods won't listen to them. Or they are by nature unlucky, so if you want luck, buy a red-haired slave and sacrifice the person to the gods to reduce bad luck. And so on. In Alba, Ciara's soul is considered to be 'down to earth' and that she thus has a harder time reaching heaven, and also that she is more 'common folk', which can be a disadvantage in contact with nobility from the south. On the other side, light hair and blondes are youthful and must be close to the sun and heaven. Right?
So Ciara and Iselin are a little jealous of Kari who is blonde with fair skin, and Bodil who has white hair and also fair skin. Kari even have blue eyes. In some regions across the sea with the House of Heaven religion, Alith would be very sought after. Very feminine shapes, and with her light blue hair and blue eyes reminiscent of the sky, her soul must be very close to heaven. Green hair is associated with nature, fertility and magic, which also applies to eyes, so Iselin's green eyes combined with her hair and freckles might be taken as there is some magic in her blood and she might be a good Fjölkunnig. Considering what I'm teaching her and how much she loves it, that is ironic. Jane has realised that with her black hair, dark eyes and slightly different face, she is generally assumed to be heading in the other direction, and probably can't really be trusted.
It's not just a fun/annoying thing, as in say a court where Alith and Jane both claim innocence and accused the other for a murder, Alith is more likely to be believed. Evidence isn't really a big thing here.
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After supper, Kari wants to use leather again, and since last time we have talked about possibilities and limitations, so it will be a different variant. It will be difficult to create new things and ideas. But I have made a list of small variations we can slowly tick off, which should be enough for 6-9 times before I need to get more creative or make more things, and Kari have her own ideas. We've also talked about trying to limit it to once a week or less. So it becomes more special when we do, and Kari kind of likes that I suggest rules and limits on her sexual experiences. It appeals to her fetish, while she knows that it is only a matter of time.