I LOVE Scottish people for lots of different reasons.

I love our ability to laugh no matter how awful the situation may be.

I mean take my brother-in-law Christopher, for example, who after having four huge buckets of water poured over him during his ice bucket challenge found it in his heart to laugh through the onset of hypothermia when I gently broke the news to him that I'd somehow failed to hit the record button on my phone and he'd have to do it all over again.

I also love our ability to see everything in life as a wonderful gift as my friend Jim did at 3am one day after a night on the town when he spotted an abandoned kebab in a bus stop and thought, well waste not, want not. Up the road he went with it without a care in the world as to how it had got there - but to be fair, the evening's intake of lager may have contributed to that.

My absolute favourite quality however, has to be our unashamed and brutal honesty to one another, something I experienced first-hand last week.

I was out doing a bit of shopping when this elderly wee woman approached me in the street, shouting out: "Oh here Michelle hen how are you doing? Oh I loved you on that TV show and I read your column every week."

I, of course, was extremely flattered and thanked the woman for her kind words, when her face turned a little sour as she looked me up and down.

She then said: "What happened to all that talk about you getting fit and exercising in the paper?

"Remember you said you were doing that thing called 'Fat Ass Kick 2014'?"

Well I just stood staring utterly bewildered at this wee woman who was obviously slightly disgruntled that I hadn't kept my alleged promise to get fit and healthy as I was clearly still sporting said, 'fat ass' - until I realised what she was talking about and just burst into uncontrollable laughter.

She was referring to the Evening Times Active 2014 campaign that I had pledged to, very unsuccessfully, at the beginning of the year and had since just quietly swept the whole matter under my gym-free carpet.

She was right though, I hadn't kept it up and in fact I've been down-right outrageously unfit and unhealthy these past few months - out partying in between work at every oppor-tunity.

I made some light-hearted joke and said my goodbyes to the lovely lady only to head straight home and book in for the first class at my local gym the next morning which was Body Pump, followed by Aqua Zumba.

I'm not sure how many of you have taken part in a body pump class but to say that walking, sitting, standing, breathing and other daily functions were excruciating over the days that followed would be an understatement. But that only made me more determined to push on through the pain barrier.

I've also downloaded a fabulous app from the NHS called couch to 5K in nine weeks.

It's a fantastic plan that takes you step-by-step through your training which currently involves a five-minute brisk warm up followed by interval training of running for 60 seconds, then walking for 90 seconds for the next 20 minutes of the training.

Obviously each week the training intensifies but if it all goes to plan I'll be jogging to panto rehearsals in November. Thanks to that wee woman and a running playlist I've put together which includes Olivia Newton John's Let's Get Physical (retro, I know) I'm determined to introduce proper regular exercise into my life.

I can't believe that we are in September already but I suppose with four months to go it's a case of better late than never to give that plump derrière a good 2014 kick.

AS A proud South Side resident of Glasgow I'm just delighted to see how well the Live@The Shed afternoons have really taken off.

We all know The Shed as one of the city's most successful nightclubs but for the last year it's really been establishing itself as a live arts and performance venue.

This Saturday afternoon's play is called If It Wasnae For The Lassies, a story about the women in Rabbie Burns' life and with tickets only £10 including a bite to eat and a drink it's a fantastic way to start off your weekend.

Doors open at 1pm. For more information log on to www.shedglasgow.com