This truly has to be one of the greatest scientific advances of our time. Greater than whatsisname's discovery of penicillin, even.*
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you ... the iGallop. It mimics the trotting movement of a horse, and helps to tone your abs and thighs by forcing you to balance and use the same muscles that you would when horse-riding.
Now I really can sit on my derrière all day, have fun and still lose weight.
I first saw the iGallop in a Japanese mail order catalogue in 2006.
We were on a plane travelling from Tokyo to Sapporo, and my eyes, previously glazed with fatigue, glinted with base lust as they focussed on the iGallop. (Mind you, I did wonder for a second just what kind of catalogue I was reading, especially when I saw the stirrups.)
My gaze lingered on it for at least five minutes, but the price (and the impracticality of bringing it back to Australia) forced me to turn the page, while I thought sadly, "I wish I lived in Japan, surrounded by such technological marvels."
I felt like Charlie Bucket looking through the gates of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.
I had forgotten all about it, until this year, when I saw it again during a family holiday in Malaysia.
We had just lost my aunt to the third storey of a gigantic shopping mall. After 10 minutes of searching, we wandered into a sporting goods shop and found her sitting on one of these, looking alternately gleeful and terrified.
Naturally, I had to have a go as well.
Although I shudder to think of the electricity needed to power this baby, I have to say that when I climbed on for a test ride, I really didn't care. All I could think of was how I never wanted to get off. And what would happen if I turned the switch from "Trot" to "Race".
I
don't know if the iGallop will ever come to Australia, although I found it at Brookstone's (a large US department store) web site for USD$299.
If it ever does turn up in Perth, you'll know where to find me.
* Yes, I know who it was. Please do not send me any treatises on Alexander Fleming.