An Active Christmas

We arrived at the Waterhead Hotel near Ambleside in the Lake District at around 20:30 last Saturday, having driven through the densest fog we'd ever seen to get there. At one point we got to a roundabout, where there are no cats eyes in the road. Well, given that the cats eyes were the only things helping us drive in a straight line, we careered all over the roundabout until we found our exit and the cats eyes started again. On Sunday morning we went down to the restaurant and had a massive breakfast, which put paid to our plans to go running straight afterwards, but we waited an hour or so then went out. It wasn't entirely successful because the paths were really icy, but we managed to do about 4km before giving up.

On Christmas Eve we decided to go to the gym at the Low Wood, the Waterhead's sister hotel a mile down the road. We did an hour on the cross trainer and lots of stretches afterwards. We gave ourselves the day off on Christmas Day (although we did go on the Christmas morning walk with other hotel guests) and on Boxing Day we climbed Loughrigg Fell on roughly this route - we went off the track a couple of times and aren't sure exactly which way we ended up going.

Thursday we went back to the gym - I exercised while he had a massage, then he exercised while I had a facial. Very nice! But that was the end of our Christmas exercise... We drove to my parents' house on Friday morning and I mapped out a 5km route from their house that we could run each day, as there's no gym close by, but we got up yesterday and decided not to bother ;). We'll start again the day after New Year's Day.

We had a great Christmas. Rob had loads of presents to open, which he loved, and while I didn't have much to open on Christmas Day because my present this year was the piano, he did buy me a Garmin Forerunner 305 so I can track my runs better - not an inexpensive present either, and I wasn't expecting it after the piano, so that was a real surprise.

We're having a really good time here with my parents and Jen - just eating and chatting, really :). We're leaving here tomorrow morning, going back to Rob's parents' for lunch (good job because we left Grandma's present to us there last week) then driving back down to Southampton in time to go round to Adrian and Sara's for a New Year's Eve meal.

All the idiots on the road

It took us 4 hours to get from our house to James's house near Wolverhampton yesterday - usually a 2.5-hour journey - then just over 2 hours to get from there to Rob's parents' house in Manchester. There were 4 accidents on the way, every traffic light we hit was on red, and SOOOO many people drove like they'd never got in a car in their life before yesterday. One woman was attempting to turn right at a set of lights that clearly stated 'no right turn', just after that a stretch limo was taking up the entire road performing a 27-point turn, people were weaving in and out of lanes - it's a wonder there weren't more accidents, now I think of it. And I didn't even have to drive! Rob said it was the most stressful journey he'd ever done.

But we got here in one piece, and the rest of the family is coming round this afternoon for the traditional Harrop family pre-Christmas get-together. We're going to the Lakes tonight for 6 nights, then to my parents' house for 3 nights, which takes us up to New Year's Eve.

Merry Christmas!

Not the best of days...

...but equally, I don't feel nearly so annoyed by today's events as I might normally do. Not sure why that is - maybe I'm just past caring and looking forward to Christmas.

We flew back from Miami on Sunday evening, getting into Heathrow early yesterday morning. Adrian's driver was waiting for him to take him back to Southampton, but instead of going with him, Rob and I got the train into London because Rob arranged to see a client today, and I had a meeting this morning. We spent most of yesterday catching up on e-mails and sleeping. I got up early this morning and went to the gym, then turned on my computer to check what time my meeting was - and saw an e-mail from the girl I was due to meet saying she was off sick and would have to reschedule. So I'd spent the last 24 hours in London unnecessarily, and could have been at home sorting out the mounds of washing and ironing I have to do before leaving here on Friday for Christmas.

So I got the tube to Waterloo, and the train back home. I spent a few minutes sorting through a week's worth of post, then went upstairs to check out the bathroom. Hmm. In the last week all they had done was fit the toilet roll holder, towel rail and cabinet to the wall. There was still no shower head, and there were no spotlights in the ceiling, just the old lampshade. I called Tony, the Project Manager, and was told that he was off till January, but Pam told me the shower head was due to be fitted today and the electrician would be in on Thursday to sort out the lights. She did at least tell me the truth when I asked why hardly anything had happened for the past week - that she didn't know - instead of waffling away a response that didn't actually answer my question. The shower was fitted while I was out this afternoon, so that's something.

The first time we turned the heating on in this house, when it first started getting cold after the summer, we found a puddle in the kitchen - the radiator was leaking from a tiny hole in the bottom. We turned that radiator off, which means it's always cold in the kitchen now. Then the day before we went to Florida we were out all afternoon Christmas shopping, and got back to find the carpet in the downstairs toilet soaked through, because the radiator in there was leaking. This afternoon I got back to find a dirty wet patch on the carpet in the landing, and a plastic box catching drips from the radiator. The guy who came to fit the shower head noticed that this radiator was also leaking and turned it off and put the box there. Straight after New Year we'll have to get someone in to look at the whole central heating system - I have a feeling all the radiators will need replacing...

My Man the Master Orator

Rob was voted best speaker at the conference! We also found a number of blogs written by attendees complimenting him - things like "Overall it was an excellent presentation. In the future, I'll ensure I attend any of Rob's presentations, regardless of the topic", and "This was the best lecture I've ever been to. Ever!"

Well done Rob! I guess part of it is your ability not to take yourself too seriously, if this picture is anything to go by...

Air Conditioning is EVIL

My sore throat developed into a full-blown cold. I think I turned the corner at about 06:00 this morning, though, and will get better from now on. Yesterday evening I felt really rough - feet tired from standing up all afternoon, plus the usual cold-related symptoms: stuffy nose, cough, difficulty breathing, body aching etc - but today I feel a little bit better. I can feel my throaty cough becoming a chesty cough and my nose isn't quite so blocked. I still sound like a man when I speak, but I'll just have to live with that for a while...

Yesterday morning we left Melbourne and drove 160 miles down the coast to Hollywood, north of Miami, for The Spring Experience. We had a company lunch event, then afterwards, although I'm not officially working this week, I helped unpack 350 bobbleheads in the likeness of Rod, the company CEO, to give out to all the conference attendees. Rod took the gesture in the spirit in which it was intended :).

I went to bed at 21:00 last night, although I woke up at least every hour or so. This morning I've just spent a couple of hours catching up on e-mails and hanging out in the Executive Club concierge lounge - check me out - and this afternoon I think I'll go shopping :). There's a great shopping mall close to here, but I really don't want to wait till Saturday to go, because last year it was absolutely rammed on the weekend, and this year we're here a week closer to Christmas... I travelled over with a 3/4 full suitcase so I've got some room for purchases :).

Time for some more paracetamol and cough sweets.

80 Degrees in December

Rob, Adrian and I flew to Orlando on Sunday. The journey was OK - trans-Atlantic flights are never exactly pleasurable, I could live without them - but as long hauls go this one wasn't too bad at all. We rented a car to get us from Orlando to Melbourne. Mark, a colleague, had flown into Orlando from Boston, arriving a few minutes before we did, and he very kindly agreed to drive - I wasn't looking forward to driving an automatic car on the wrong side of the road having just got off a 10-hour flight.

We got to the hotel around 18:15 and stayed just long enough to freshen up before going back out for something to eat. We went to Carrabba's, an Italian place, which was very nice, but the non-Americans at the table totally forgot about US portion sizes. We ended up with enough food to feed 10 of us, not 5... and it only cost £12 each, including tip.

As is customary for me after a long-haul flight going west, I only managed to sleep until 04:30 yesterday morning. Rob woke up at 05:00, and we caught up on e-mails and looked at Google maps for a while, working out where we were in relation to the office, Ben's house, Keith's house etc, and mapping out this running route, which we ran with Adrian at 07:00 to blow away the jet lag cobwebs. Actually, Rob ran the route with Adrian; at about 7 minutes, I told them they didn't have to run slowly on my account and they immediately sprinted away from me :). I still had them in my sights for a while, as the roads were pretty straight, but after about 19 minutes I lost sight of them altogether and didn't see them again till the end.

After the guys had left to go to the Melbourne office for their meeting, I practised driving the car round the hotel car park for a couple of minutes - it didn't take long to get used to the car; now I just have to remember to drive on the right - then drove round to Keith and Keri's house and hung out with Keri, Annabelle, Corgan, Erwin, Bieke and Jill, running errands for the party Keri had organised for everyone yesterday evening. Her friend Justin came round to do the cooking and all the guys (and girl) came round after their meeting at the office; about 30 people altogether.

I felt the first signs of a sore throat yesterday afternoon and by the time we got back to the hotel last night I was definitely getting worse, so I went out to Wal-mart across the road and got some throat sweets and have been dosing myself up on them ever since. I don't feel ill in any other way; I think it's just the combination of 10 hours on a flight with recycled air, then the air conditioning drying my throat out, and I didn't drink nearly enough in the first 24 hours after I got here. Rob, on the other hand, expected it: I am on holiday, after all, and I do tend to get sick just before or during a trip away... Hopefully it won't develop into anything else.

Stupid Feet

I went to the gym this morning to do my now weekly 'long session' - an hour on the cross trainer. I had to stop after half an hour, though. Not because I was out of breath or my legs were tired, no. Because I couldn't feel my feet any more. I've mentioned before that I don't have very good circulation in my feet, and I get cramp when they get cold or when my muscles are tired, but this morning I actually bypassed the cramp stage and went straight to numbness in both feet. Rob suggested I go on the rowing machine, so I did, but I had to stop that after about 7 minutes because I was getting shooting pains across my shoulder blades, so I went onto the bike instead. I managed about 23 minutes on that before I got cramp in both feet at the same time. By then I'd actually done an hour of exercise, albeit on three machines with a little break between each, but clearly my body had decided that was the best it was going to do today. Better than nothing, I suppose...

08:45 is the new 08:00

It was still dark this morning when I left the gym to drive back home. It's usually dark when I arrive at the gym but the sun has risen by the time I leave. Today, however, I had had to get up earlier than usual to fit in going to the gym then getting home and showered in time for the bathroom fitters arriving at 08:00. So why, when they sauntered in almost an hour late, was I just pleased that they had shown up at all??? Just goes to show that if you lower expectations (see previous post about delays already suffered) your customers will just be glad to see you, and won't mind nearly so much that you've made them late for work...

I gave them the spare key before I left, and told them to lock up after themselves. They then said that they weren't doing the tiling; someone else would be coming to do that, and depending on how fast they could rip out the old fixtures, it might be ready for tiling tomorrow. I've no idea what position this leaves me in regarding the key: if they're not coming back tomorrow, they said they would post the key through the letterbox, which presumably means that I'll have to wait in again tomorrow for the tiler and be late for work two days in a row...

UPDATE 17:00: The good news is that the ripping out of the old fixtures only took a day. The bad news is that it was scheduled to take two days, and the tiler isn't available until Wednesday as he's finishing another job, so no work will be done on the bathroom at all tomorrow. The guys who were here today did at least have the sense to take the key round to the project manager, who will pass it on to the tiler on Wednesday morning.

Contractors... Grrrrr

Work was due to start on our en-suite bathroom last Monday. A letter arrived from the contractors at the end of last week, saying that two of their fitters had had accidents, which had delayed the jobs they were on, and they wouldn't be able to start work on ours until today. So this morning we cleared out the en-suite of all toiletries etc and I took a couple of 'before' photographs and waited for the fitter to arrive.

Other than the letter telling us about the delay, we hadn't had any communication from the contractors for at least a month, but I thought when we placed the order and paid our deposit that they had said the fitter would turn up between 08:00 and 09:00. I was just about to call them at 09:00 to find out where he was, when the phone rang. It was the contractor, telling me the fitter assigned to our job went home sick yesterday and is still not back in today. He said he'd left me a voicemail yesterday afternoon, which I found interesting because we don't have an answer machine on our home phone.

He rang back this afternoon to say that a fitter would be here on Monday - a week later than planned. This isn't all bad, I suppose, because the job is estimated to take a couple of weeks, and we'll be in Florida for the second week, so hopefully (and given the story so far, it's a big ask) we will return home to a new bathroom and won't have had to live with the mess for a week.

We'll see.

Forgot to say

I got my car back on Monday, all repaired - and also washed and valeted, which was nice. Means I don't have to do it for another 12 months at least :). It took them two weeks to replace one panel, though! Good job they left me a courtesy car. The windscreen wipers and indicators in the courtesy car were on the opposite side to my car, and I've spent the last two weeks washing the windscreen when I wanted to turn and signalling left when it rained, and now I have to remember to switch back again...

Also bought some winter running gear on Monday: two long-sleeved tops, one short-sleeved top (just because it was nice), some gloves and some thick socks (more for Pilates than running, in an attempt to keep my feet cramp-free). Grand total for 5 items: £107. This exercise lark is an expensive business!

10.5km in 60 minutes

No, unfortunately I haven't got significantly better at running overnight. But I did do 10.5km in an hour on the cross-trainer this morning. I felt like stopping after 10 minutes, so I'm really pleased I made it to an hour.

Navel pulled in, pelvic floor lifted...

I went to a Pilates class this lunchtime. I used to go once a week when I was in Manchester, but I haven't been since I moved, mainly because the classes at the gym near the house aren't at a convenient time (i.e. on a Sunday afternoon...). The gym near the office has just started a lunchtime class on a Friday, so I went to that today. I'd forgotten how difficult it was! There was another girl in the class who found it all totally effortless, and between her and the instructor, who was 5' 8" with long legs, a flat tummy (after two kids), tanned skin and beautiful hair, they made me feel quite ungainly, with my too-short jogging pants, thunder thighs and holes in my socks. My feet are always cold, and every time I do a Pilates class I get cramp at least once and have to stop to walk it off, and today was no different. Apart from that, I really enjoyed the class and will try and get to one class a week. And I know I'll feel my stomach muscles in the morning... Even though I did Pilates, I was going to consider today my 'rest' day, seeing as I didn't do any cardio, and go running tomorrow, but I had second thoughts as I heard my tummy muscles screaming for mercy today. I'll have a day off completely tomorrow and go back to cardio on Sunday.

Treadclimber = Really Hard Work!

I decided to go on the treadclimber this morning for the first time. There are 4 of them in the new gym, and I hadn't seen them at any other gyms I've been to before. It's like a treadmill except the conveyor is split into two, one for each foot. The treadles are angled upwards at one of three settings, and the weight of you striding forwards pushes them down, then they rise back up again in time for your next step. Andy at work told me it's supposed to give you twice the workout in the same amount of time as the treadmill, so I thought I would give it a go.

I selected the pre-programmed Treadclimber workout rather than a manual one, which was basically a 20-minute introduction to the machine. When I saw that it was only 20 minutes I thought I would probably do the programme again when it finished. By the time I got to 19 minutes, however, and the display asked me if I wanted to go for longer, I had definitely changed my mind! It really is twice the workout - I don't really understand why, but I'm glad it works!

Freezing Fingers and a Runny Nose

To say that I live in the UK and we're now well into November (not to mention the fact that swathes of the country were flooded this summer), in the five months that I've included road running in my exercise schedule I've never once run in the rain. In fact the weather has generally been very good: because we didn't really have a summer this year (apart from the gorgeous few weeks in April and May before I started running), it was never too warm, which is great for running. It was a beautiful bright and sunny morning today, as well, but blimey was it COLD! After I'd had to de-ice the car before I left home, I was in two minds whether to run or go to the gym because I didn't have a long-sleeved top on, and I only decided at the last minute to take the risk and go running.

By the time I'd finished, I didn't feel cold at all, which makes me wonder whether I should just suck it up and be cold for the first 10 minutes. If I wear something with sleeves, will I get so warm that I'll need to take it off half-way round and tie it round my waist? I think I'll definitely invest in some gloves, though - my fingers never really defrosted until after I got inside again. I also need to take a tissue with me next time!

Blogspot Confessional

Keri tagged me in her recent blog. I have to list 6 little-known facts about myself here, then tag 6 other people to do the same. I don't know many people who blog, and the people I do know have already been tagged, except for you, Sarah, so I tag you.

Here are mine, in no particular order: -

1. I read the Celebrity Baby Blog regularly. I hate that I do it, because it puts me in the category of people who keep paparazzi in business, but I don't read Heat, or Hello, or OK, or Closer, or any of the zillion other trashy magazines, so don't be too hard on me...

2. I have never seen Jaws, or any of the sequels. Or any of the Rocky films, or the Indiana Jones films, or the Terminator films, or an episode of The A-Team, or Sesame Street... Plus I was 16 before I saw my first Disney film. Rob wonders what growing up in my house was like...

3. I am a Licenciate of the London College of Music. I took the diploma when I was 18 - on the recorder, of all instruments - and it allows me to use the letters LLCM after my name.

4. Show me 5 seconds of a scene from Friends and I'll tell you which season it's from and what happens in the episode.

5. I miss Manchester. Not too much, but definitely a little bit.

6. I secretly (not so secretly any more) love Ryan Reynolds.

The piano's arrived!

I bought a piano last weekend and it was delivered this morning! I haven't had a piano since I left home 12 years ago, but now I'm finally at a point where I have the space and can afford to buy one. Actually, I can't afford to buy a whole one - luckily my birthday and Christmas are both coming up so Rob has given me some money for both occasions to to cover part of the cost. I don't have any sheet music here and I can't remember much off by heart of what I used to be able to play (but even with the music in front of me I'll have trouble playing the things I used to play), but Mum has taken a bunch of music to Jen's today, and Jen's coming down for the night on Tuesday, so I'll have something to play from soon enough. I'm looking forward to re-learning all the stuff I could play when I was 16...

UPDATE SUNDAY 18:00: I've downloaded and printed out a free copy of the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and have re-taught myself to play it. So far so good...

My neck hurts...

I got shunted in the car this evening coming home from work. The traffic in front of me stopped quite suddenly and I only just managed to stop in time without hitting the car in front. The same cannot be said for the driver of the car behind me... I could see he was going to hit me so I braced myself, but I still jarred my neck a bit. It doesn't feel too bad but I'll see how I am in the morning. At the time I was more concerned about being pushed into the car in front, but I wasn't. My car wasn't too badly damaged - because he was braking so hard, the front of his car was down and he practically went underneath the rear of my car, denting the panel under my bumper, that's all. His car, on the other hand: broken number plate, cracked bumper, both headlights damaged, one totally smashed, bonnet buckled... serves him right, I suppose.

To say that I used to deal with RTAs for a living, I was rubbish when it came to getting details. I got his name, address and insurance company, and his passenger's name, but when I got back in the car I realised I hadn't taken down his registration number... as it happened he followed me down the road for quite a while in slow-moving traffic so I was able to read his plate and write it down.

So not a particularly bad crash at all; it's just annoying that I'll have to spend ages on the phone now, sorting out repairs to the car, then I'll be without the car for at least a day while it's being repaired. Grrr.

UPDATE FRIDAY 08:30: Neck felt fine this morning so I guess I won't be putting in a personal injury claim. Shame really, because I've just made a big purchase (look out for tomorrow's post) and I could have done with the extra cash...

Tired legs this morning

Today I left the house at 07:15, usual time, but instead of getting to the science park and going to the gym, I left my bag in a locker at the gym and did this run instead. It's roughly the same distance as the 5km run near the house, but today was the first time I did it in this location and I actually got lost for a couple of minutes before using the sound of the traffic from the motorway to get my bearings. I posted a fairly bad time again, but I did get lost, and as it's a new route I didn't know what to expect in the way of hills etc (I know, any excuse), but at least I did it - I came extremely close to rolling over and going back to sleep again this morning. My legs are aching now, and I can't stop yawning, but it's a rest day tomorrow.

Congratulations...

... to Sarah, who smashed her personal best over 5km by almost 2 minutes on Saturday at the Banstead Woods Time Trial, coming in at 22:58...

... to Catherine, my friend from an old workplace and the loveliest girl you're ever likely to meet, who got engaged to Ben on Saturday...

... and to Clare, my friend from another old workplace, and her husband Wesley, who've announced today that they're expecting their first baby on 20 May 2008.

Congratulations to you all!

My Second 5k

On Thursday my legs were still aching from the accumulation of cycling last Saturday then 4 days of cross-training, and after the 5k I didn't do enough stretching so I had two days off on Friday and Saturday to recover. I needed it! I did another 5k this morning, though, and got a better time - 34:00 exactly. Still not a great time, but this is more in line with my usual pace of somewhere between 06:30 and 06:45 per kilometre. I sprinted at the end and was shattered when I finished, but I felt like if I hadn't sprinted and tired myself out, I could have run for longer. This is good news - I'd like to think I could get a good time in a 10km by June 2008.

My First 5k

Well, I made it out of bed this morning, put my running gear on and was out of the house by 07:00. My normal route starts from the back of our house and goes into Hedge End village, then I run past the road at the front of the house at around the 2.5km mark. Up to now I have always run past our house at that point and followed the road round to the back again, finishing where I've started, and making a detour into the estate on the way if I want to make the run a bit longer - the basic route starting and finishing at the back of the house is 3.5km; running round the estate makes it 4km.

This morning, however, I decided at around the 2km mark that when I got to the 2.5km point in front of the house, I would turn round and go back the way I'd come, making today the first time I'd ever run 5km. I posted an appalling time - 36:11 - but quite honestly most of the damage was done in the first half, not the second; I couldn't get my legs to go any faster. I don't have a super-duper GPS stopwatch thingy, just a regular one, but I'm fairly sure I was at the half-way point (right outside my front door; it was difficult resisting the urge just to stop and go inside) at around 19 minutes, so I actually did a faster second half than first.

I know 5km isn't exactly far - I bet Sarah wouldn't even have been out of breath at that point - but I've spent the best part of 30 years being relatively inactive, so I'm pleased that I was able to do it. And I have a fairly easy target time to beat next time!

Meeting Time Again

I'm home before 23:00 for the first time this week. There's a meeting going on at the office - we've had 10 people fly in from around the world, 4 consultants from around the UK have come in, and we've also got a client here for a meeting, and our accountant's spending the day with us tomorrow. And since the last time we had a development meeting at the end of August, we've hired another 5 people, so the office has gone from really quiet to really busy in the space of about 2 weeks. Plus I'm still trying to catch up from being away... I like it when we have people visiting; the atmosphere in the office is great, but I tend to do a lot of running round, making sure everyone's OK, clearing up after them etc.

It was Jennifer's 30th birthday on Monday so we went out for a meal to celebrate. It wasn't a particularly heavy night because she and a few others had only arrived in the UK that morning on a red-eye from the US so they were pretty jet-lagged. Unfortunately no one had a camera so we couldn't take any pictures. Yesterday 13 of us ate at the pub next to the science park and I didn't get back till after 23:00, and tonight 6 went to the cinema and 10 or so went to the pub for a drink. I was part of the pub crowd, but I left early as I'm shattered and need my beauty sleep...

When we have visitors to the office I arrange for lunch to be delivered, and I've been a bit of a pig today. I don't usually have pastries and chocolate for lunch, so why I felt I had to have some today I don't know. Luckily I had already been to the gym so was able to offset some of the calories :).

I haven't been running since before we went on holiday - by the time we got back home, sunrise was at around 07.30 each day, and I wasn't keen on the idea of running in the dark. Now that clocks have gone back, it's light an hour earlier, so I'll have to try and make the most of it for the next couple of weeks, before sunrise gets later again, and go running before work. I plan to go tomorrow - but then, I planned to go today but the warmth of the bed and the lure of another half-hour of sleep tempted me away and I had to go to the gym instead. Fingers crossed I manage to get up in the morning.

And before I go, I've just seen the gorilla advert again, which is just genius. If you haven't seen it, you're missing out, so check it out here.

Cycling - in Central London

Yesterday I got the train up to London to meet Sarah, my marathon-running friend from uni who I got in touch with again recently via Facebook. She met me at Waterloo station, having brought her own bike with her and hired one for me, and we cycled through St James's Park, Green Park, Hyde Park and Regent's Park, then to the top of Primrose Hill for a great view across London (Sarah decided she wouldn't be cycling up Primrose Hill and walked up with her bike; I got about 3/4 of the way up before I had to stop and walk the rest of the way) and back again to Waterloo.

Sarah brought a picnic, which we ate in Hyde Park, then we fed the ducks (and geese, and pigeons, and starlings which flew up and caught the bread in their beaks in mid-air, very acrobatic...) before carrying on. Our route took us down part of Whitehall and through Horse Guards Parade, which was packed full of tourists and it was quite difficult negotiating our way through them, but once we got onto the cycle paths in the parks it was much easier. Not easier all the time - plenty of pedestrians walking on the cycle path, plus one woman who walked out in front of us and a kid who rollerbladed into my path after I took the trouble to move to one side so he could pass. We had to go on regular roads between Hyde Park and Regent's Park, but Sarah picked some fairly quiet routes for my first cycling trip through Central London.

Sarah's GPS said we cycled nearly 13 miles, but she forgot to set it going at least once after we'd stopped for a break, so we think it was more like 15 miles altogether. More importantly, we caught up with what had gone on in each other's lives since the last time we saw each other, which was over 10 years ago. Time really does fly...

I had a great day, not only catching up with Sarah but also remembering how good it is to ride a bike - the last time I did it was a year ago in St Lucia, and the time before that I was probably still in primary school. Rob's been trying to persuade me to get a bike for a while now (because he wants a new one but can't justify it while he still has the old one, so if I have his old one he can get another) and I think I will. I'm very saddle sore this morning though! Plus my knees are creaking a bit from cycling up Primrose Hill, and my shoulders and across the top of my back are aching from leaning over the handlebars, but other than that, a really great day! Now I have to think of something exciting for us to do when Sarah comes to Southampton next time...

More pictures here.

Back to the Grind

Turns out I had 308 e-mails - so you weren't far off with 289, Sarah. Your prize is you get to spend Saturday with me ;).

It didn't take too long to get back into the swing of things at work - I didn't really have a choice; 308 e-mails weren't going to file themselves... There's loads of work to catch up with, plus it's the end of the month so there's the payroll to do, including 4 new starters this month, and we've got 10 people flying in for a meeting next week so I had to organise hotels and airport transfers. Turns out the temp only lasted a day before calling in 'sick'. Reception wasn't manned on Tuesday, the busiest day of my holiday period and the main reason we wanted someone to cover (typical), then a girl came on Wednesday and spent most of the day reading the paper so she was told not to come back. Then the second week I was off, last week, they had a girl in all week who was very good, so I guess my return could have been a lot worse...

This summer was a weird one in the UK - it rained a lot during July and August, then September was quite dry and warmer than average, so the summer got stretched out a bit longer than usual. It was still fairly decent weather at the beginning of October, before we went on holiday - dry and not cold yet - but it most definitely turned to autumn while we were away. It's been quite cold this week and all the leaves are disappearing from the trees. The tree in our front garden has turned a beautiful colour, though - I left work dead on time today so I could get home before the sun went down and take a picture of it. I didn't want to wait until the weekend because with my luck all the leaves will have dropped by then.

I also got this one of the road in the science park leading up to our office - I really should have taken it earlier on this week as a lot of the leaves have dropped already. I don't really like autumn and winter months too much, I prefer the summer by far, but I do like it when the leaves all turn a lovely colour :).

I booked my flights to Florida today - 3 nights in Melbourne with Keri and the kids while Rob, Keith and others have a meeting, then 4 nights in Hollywood, north of Miami, doing more hanging out with Keri and other techie widows during The Spring Experience. Can't wait! South Florida in December is great - Christmas preparations everywhere, yet it's still warm enough to be wearing shorts...

Home Again

We're back home and it's freezing! We put the heating on as soon as we got into the house at lunchtime and it's just getting warm now, 8 hours later. We even resorted to putting the fire on in the living room, and it's really toasty in here now, but the rest of the house is still taking a while to warm up.

The flight home was better than expected - I managed to get about 4 hours' sleep. It didn't feel like it - I woke up every time I moved, which was a lot, and I thought I hadn't slept much at all, but I must have because before I knew it, it was 09:00 and there was only an hour and a half left before we landed. Just before I move off the subject of planes, why is it that people coming back from holiday insist on wearing their holiday clothes on the plane? It was 10 degrees in London today for goodness' sake (that's 50 for you US folks), and people were wearing shorts and flip flops! More fool them, they must have been freezing.

So we're back now, and trying to stay awake until bedtime. Actually, I am; Rob's already asleep, although he didn't sleep much on the plane. I've done three loads of washing and have the last load in the machine right now, and a huge great pile of ironing that I'll tackle in stages this week.

It's been two weeks and three days since I last checked my work e-mail; officially the longest by far I've ever gone without looking. I was going to go through them this afternoon but I've resisted the temptation - what's the point of taking the day off work then spending all afternoon doing work stuff? So I have no idea how many messages are in my inbox, but I predict that it will take most of the morning to get through them...

Oh, by the way, photos are here.

5 things that tell me I have a tan

Apart from the actual changing colour of the skin, of course.

• The hairs on my arms turn blonde;
  
  
• The skin on my face gets less greasy and I get fewer breakouts - but it also gets more irritated by the salt water and stings quite a lot;
  
  
• I get 'old lady hands' - they look browner but also more wrinkled;
  
  
• All the marks on my skin that were once scars and then faded come back, and go darker than the rest of me - this year, among others, I've got a mark on my arm where I burned myself on the oven a couple of months ago, and lots of scars on my legs from when I got bitten half to death last year in St Lucia;
  
  
• The freckle on my chin appears - the one that only comes out after a few days in the sun.
  

Reading this back, I'm even less sure than ever why I want to get a suntan, but then I remember... Without a tan I'm really pasty!

I can snorkel!

I know, I know, everyone else learns by the time they're 10, but I didn't, and now at the age of 30 I've finally got the knack of it. If you knew me in 2004 (and I don't think many people who read this blog actually did), you might know that I had an attempt at snorkelling when Rob and I went to the Maldives, and it didn't go very well. I had never done it before, a boat took us a little way away from the resort to a nearby reef and the sea was quite choppy. I couldn't get my mind around the fact that I had to breathe through my mouth, not my nose, and there was no time to learn because the group of people we were with were already swimming off. I got a bit panicked, swallowed a load of sea water and ended up swimming straight back to the boat. Rob came with me because he couldn't see much anyway, being short-sighted and not having his glasses on, so we just sat on the boat and waited till the others came back.

Yesterday, however, we went a little way into the water, where we could still stand up, and Rob taught me how to snorkel. It still took me a few attempts before I could put my head under water, breathe through my mouth and resist the urge to hold my nose, but once I got the hang of it, I loved it! The only trouble was, there isn't much to see in the waters just off the beach here - there was an old tyre on the sea bed a little way out, with lots of green stuff growing on it and a load of fish swimming around, which was great to see, but once the novelty had worn off that, there wasn't really anything else. There is a reef about 20 minutes' walk down the beach, but what I really want to do is go back to the Maldives and see all the stuff I should have seen last time!

Another positive is that I haven't got a mosquito bite for 4 days now. I think it might be related to the fact that there hasn't been any rain since Friday either, and there's not much moisture in the air. It does mean that the temperature is much hotter during the day, so we tend to go inside for a few hours at lunchtime then venture out again around 3pm, but I'd rather that than be constantly itching and come home covered in bites, like last year!

Soooo Relaxed...

OK, they have a business centre here so I couldn't resist a quick post. Despite the fact that it was almost a direct flight - we touched down in the Bahamas to let some people off - we still spent the best part of 12 hours on the plane. The resort was a 15-minute ride from the airport, and it's really beautiful. Within 10 minutes of arriving at the resort I managed to get three mosquito bites, but I guess that was to be expected - they always seem to have a thing for me. I did OK for the next three days but then yesterday, despite being slathered in insect repellent, I got five more bites. Still, it's a small price to pay for such a lovely place. Our room partly overlooks the pool and partly the beach, which has the softest white sand I've ever walked on, even softer than in the Maldives.

Our days so far have consisted of a gym session around 07:30, then back to the room for a shower, then breakfast, then reading by the pool, then lunch, then more reading, maybe a nap, then shower and change for dinner. I decided a few weeks ago that it was just too much work getting a tan - it's too tortuous, lying there all day, feeling like I'm going to melt, then it only lasts about 2 weeks after I get home - so while I'm not exactly avoiding the sun, equally I'm not worried about catching every ray and coming home browner than I've ever been. Which is just as well, because the last couple of days were quite overcast, yesterday in particular. This morning there was quite a heavy downpour and the sky has been quite bright and clear since then, and I've definitely got more colour.

There is a spa here (an essential for us when booking a holiday) and it's fantastic - facial yesterday, and on Saturday something called 'Little Drops of Caribbean Rain', where they drip aromatherapy oil along your spine... Food is excellent - there's just one 'proper' restaurant at our resort, plus a poolside one serving burgers and salads etc, but the resort is one of a load along the beachfront and we've eaten at a couple of neighbouring restaurants so far. Our favourite is Hemingways at the Sands resort, which is 10 minutes' walk up the beach - the food is great and it's also quite a bit cheaper than the other restaurants we've tried so far, so I'm sure we'll be going back there soon. We're going to try Orchid tonight, which is at the Alexandria, next door to our resort.

This morning we went kayaking in the sea, which was good fun, and yesterday we practised a bit more of the croquet that we'd learned when we went away for the weekend in August. Rob won, again - I just don't have the whole pivot action thing right yet.

I've taken some pictures, but I don't have my cable to download them to a computer so they'll have to wait till I get back. If I've got any news, I'll post again next week. But then again, I might be so relaxed by then that I'm unable to peel myself off my sunlounger... :)

Holiday Time!

It's 05:50 and we're waiting for our car to arrive to take us to the airport. So all will be quiet on this blog for a couple of weeks. More when I get back!

Not long now

Haven't done much all week other than work and sleep (and go to the gym) - I've been preparing as much as I can for all eventualities over the next three weeks because, in case you weren't following my countdown timer at the bottom of the page (and if not, why not???), we're going on holiday on Sunday. A meeting has been scheduled at the Southampton offices for Monday to Wednesday of next week with people flying in from around the world, plus we've got three new employees starting in the next two weeks and a couple of other things going on, so I've organised a temp to come in for the duration of my holiday to make sure that things go as planned. Greg (my boss) told me yesterday that as I've been working 'like a Trojan' all week, I could have Friday afternoon off, but I didn't think I would be able to, as I had so much stuff to get through before going away. However, a couple of extra hours yesterday and today mean that I think I'm on top of things now (touch wood) and I just have a couple of things to do tomorrow, plus the handover to the temp, Julianne, who's coming to the office in the morning, so I might just make it out the door before 5pm. I've typed out a list of what's going on every day - who's in the office, who's a new starter, who's travelling, who's onsite with clients etc - so hopefully Julianne will have all the information she needs in case there's an emergency. And if she doesn't, well... frankly, what do I care; I'll be on holiday ;).

Well Done Sarah!

Congratulations to my uni friend Sarah (we got in touch again recently through Facebook) who ran the Berlin Marathon yesterday in a fantastic time of 4:06:24. Well done mate!

I run 4km at a time. That's less than a tenth of the distance Sarah ran yesterday... Puts it all into perspective a bit.

More Visitors

This weekend it was the turn of Helen, Dave and Sam, who travelled down from Merseyside to see us, which was very good of them. They arrived late Friday night with the hope that Sam, who's now nearly 15 months old and had slept all the way down in the car, would go straight back to sleep as soon as Dave had set up his cot. Of course, that didn't happen, so we spent a good half hour or so watching him run round the house chasing a balloon. I had done some preparation for having a toddler in the house, but I didn't realise that absolutely everything that isn't nailed down needs to be at least 3 feet off the ground! Sam was really good all weekend (even though Helen said he's usually better than he was) and only had a couple of 'moments', which to be honest weren't even moments because he was so cute when he had them, it was hard not to smile. We went to the restaurant at the gym where they have a ball pool, fed the ducks in the pond next to our house, and generally had a fairly relaxing weekend. Plus Rob and I got some insight into just how much work it is having a toddler around!

PT Session #3 - it seems to be working

My last personal trainer session was this evening. Apparently I'm 2kg heavier than 2 months ago but my body fat percentage has gone down, which Ben says means I've gained 2kg of muscle. So I guess all the exercise is actually paying off! And how did I celebrate this? KFC and a big slice of key lime pie...

Ben's given me some different programmes to try on the cross trainer and the bike, because I was getting a bit bored of the same old programmes every time. I have to keep on at my weight and mat sessions and hopefully the trend will continue.

It has a name...

... Labyrinthitis. Rob's been feeling unwell for almost 2 weeks now - headaches, dizziness, blurred vision and nausea. I thought it sounded like migraine but painkillers didn't help. He went to Heathrow Airport on Saturday to fly to Ottawa for a conference, and spoke to a pharmacist in Boots who said it sounded like it might be something to do with his ears and advised him not to fly. So he got the train back from Heathrow on Saturday afternoon and saw the doctor yesterday, who confirmed it's labyrinthitis, which affects the inner ear, symptoms of which are dizziness, blurred vision, nausea etc. Apparently there is no medicine you can take to cure the actual condition - it usually runs its course in 2-4 weeks - but the doctor prescribed something to alleviate the nausea and dizziness, and at least we know what it is we're dealing with now. It's a very good job he decided not to fly to Canada - we all know that planes can play havoc with your ears. He's taking it easy this week and hopefully he'll be better by the time we go on holiday - 12 days, yay! I'm so ready for the break...

Lions and Tigers and Bears...

Actually, no lions. And no bears, now I come to think of it. Just tigers - but two beautiful ones, and also giraffes, cheetahs, snow leopards, camels, hippos, buffalo, zebras, monkeys, penguins... We had a great time at Marwell Zoo - the Colyers have an annual pass, so Rebecca and Elliott knew just where to go to see their favourite animals, then the quickest way to the playground ;). Jen and I really enjoyed ourselves. She just left an hour ago to go back home - it was very good of her to travel 10 hours there and back just for two days. Thanks Jen!

Silly Signs

I've just seen an article on the BBC website where people have sent in photos of ridiculous signs they've seen. It cheered me up after a terrible week at work. My top three are this one:


and this one:


and my favourite has to be this one:


Classic.

Everyone's out to get me

This week hasn't been the best of weeks at work. I've had a load of training courses to organise over the past couple of weeks and every one of them has gone wrong in some way or another - I've been given the wrong material to print, the printers have delivered it late, I've forgotten to book train tickets and/or hotel accommodation until the last minute, the hotel has lost my reservation... Plus other non-course-related and usually straightforward stuff went wrong, like getting an offer letter and employment contract out to a new employee, creating marketing material, organising a conference call with a colleague who hadn't told me he was on holiday... All these things eventually worked themselves out but not before I got myself into a stress about it all.

End of rant.

The good news is that I will soon (very soon, I hope) be giving up some of the more 'junior' aspects of my job and concentrating on things like getting a proper handle on, and managing, our procedures for putting on training courses and more 'office manager'-type stuff. We'll be hiring someone to answer the phone, welcome visitors and be Greg's assistant, plus we'll be asking our accountants to do our payroll instead of having me do it, so I can do other stuff. Yay!

More good news is that there's only just over a day to go until the weekend and Small Jen is coming to visit again. We're going to the zoo on Saturday with Sara and the kids. I haven't been to a zoo for years - at least 20 if not more. Looking forward to it.

A bit of culture on a Sunday afternoon

Jennifer started working for Interface21 last week out of the Florida office and is in Southampton this week to work with Rob. We had a trip out to Stonehenge this afternoon - neither of us had ever been there, and as it's only 45 minutes from where I live now, I thought it was time I went to have a look. It was impressive, but I have to say it wasn't as big as I expected it to be - and it was quite cold and windy up there. Still, it was worth a visit, and it was great to spend some time with Jennifer and get to know her a bit better. I've met her a couple of times before at The Spring Experience but haven't really spent much time with her. She's the first woman to be employed by Interface21 in a non-admin role - finally!

I also wanted to show you the following picture that I took in our back garden when I got back from Stonehenge. There are quite a few squirrels on my running route, which passes by Wildern Nature Park right near our house, but I haven't seen many in the garden before. Although I did see one a couple of weeks ago, sitting on the edge of the pond and eating the plant that's in there - no wonder the plant isn't flourishing :).

EDIT 19 SEPTEMBER: Rob pointed out last night that Jennifer wasn't in fact, the first female non-admin role - we have Sigi in Germany who is a Sales Manager, then I remembered that we also have Amyli and Nikki in the US, Legal Counsel and Graphic Designer respectively. So I was going to change it to say that Jennifer's the first female tech role, until Rob reminded me that although she's not with us any more, Portia in the UK was actually the first female tech person. So... Jennifer is currently the only female techie in the company. Phew, I got there in the end ;).

Finally, a conservatory we can sit in

Our conservatory furniture was delivered this week. Here's a couple of pictures (ignore the boxes of DVDs waiting to be unpacked!). They were taken first thing yesterday morning so the sun is quite bright, but I couldn't close the blinds because it would make the room too dark and there are no mains lights in there. I bought a standard lamp after work yesterday (which gave Rob the perfect opportunity to recommence his musings on why it's called a 'standard' lamp and not a 'standing' lamp), and it looked really cosy in there last night with the light on. Not that I did much sitting in there last night, because I was watching TV in the lounge, but I will definitely be spending a lot of time in there in the mornings when the sun is on the back garden.

After a month or so of being busy every weekend and not being able to do any more unpacking, I finally got round to sorting out the spare room a bit more last weekend. I unpacked the boxes of coats and out-of-season clothes and put them in the spare room cupboard. Then I filled a chest of drawers with stuff from another box, and I still have three boxes left to unpack and nowhere to put the contents...

We've decided that the next step in the moving process hinges on getting Wayne, our friendly neighbourhood man with a van, to come round and clear the garage of all the boxes we've accumulated over the past month. He already came round once, about 3 weeks after we moved in, and took away a van load of rubbish, and we now have at least a van and a half's worth of boxes sitting in the garage taking up space. We concluded that we aren't going to use the garage to keep a car in (Rob's won't fit for one thing, and there's plenty of room on the driveway for our two cars and two more), so we should get some units put up in there to store the stuff that's still in boxes. So we now need Wayne to come round and take the boxes away so we can see how much space we have for shelving units etc.

Yesterday was 2 months to the day since we moved in and we're still not sorted...! But we're making progress - we bought a bathroom last weekend which we're hoping will be fitted while we're on holiday or very soon afterwards.

Slowly but surely...

Just a quick one before I leave for work to say that I did not feel like exercising this morning, but seeing as I took yesterday off I didn't want to give it a miss two days in a row. I went for a run and am very pleased to say that I knocked a full minute off my 3.5km time. I still don't run fast - professional women run at least twice as far as I do in the same time - but little by little I'm getting faster and finding it easier. I'm going to increase to 4km next week.

Four things you may or may not know about me...

Sarah just e-mailed me this. I'm not very good with forwards, particularly the ones that say 'send this on to 20 people in the next half hour or you'll have bad luck for a zillion years', but as it goes this one wasn't one of those anyway. Instead of replying to her and forwarding it on to everyone I know, I'll post my answers here. Which I think is a great idea because it gives me something to write about - there hasn't been a vast amount of excitement in the past week.

Although we did go to a football match on Saturday with Adrian and Sara and the kids - Eastleigh FC played Sutton United. Eastleigh are high up in their league (albeit a very low down league) and Sutton are second from bottom, so we had high hopes, but of course they were dashed - Sutton won 2-1. The quality of football was fairly terrible (not that I could have done any better, although thinking about it I could have done better than the Eastleigh goalkeeper who dropped the ball in front of his goal and allowed the Sutton player to dribble round him and into the back of the net) and Rebecca and Elliott were as interested in seeing the mascot as the football, but we still had a great time, and it made for a nice change. I haven't been to a football match since I was living in Italy - the atmosphere at a Fiorentina match is somewhat different to Eastleigh though :).

Sarah, I've modified a couple of the questions and have added some of my own, hope that's OK.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
Pianist at a hotel, Music teacher, Fee earner in solicitor's office, Director of my own company

Four films I could watch over and over:
Mission: Impossible, Entrapment, Ocean's Eleven, Evita

Four films I have bought but haven't got round to watching yet:
The Black Dahlia, Bobby, Vera Drake, Eternal Sunshine

Four places I have lived:
Kirklevington (where I grew up - 1976-1995), Hull (university - 1995-1999), Florence (year abroad during uni - 1997-1998), Manchester (1999-2007)

Four TV Shows that I watch when they're on TV:
Coronation Street (sorry), Desperate Housewives, Friends (re-runs on E4 every day), Child of our Time

Four TV shows that I watch when they come out on DVD Boxset:
24, Lost, Alias (till it finished), The West Wing (ditto)

Four places I have holidayed:
St Lucia, Egypt, The Maldives, Zakynthos

Four places I would like to visit:
Only four?? Australia (Sydney Harbour and Uluru particularly), Angkor Wat, Hong Kong, Macchu Picchu

Four people who e-mail/text/call me regularly:
Sarah (via our blogs), Jen, Mum, erm...

Four of my favourite foods:
Pasta, chicken, strawberries, salt (I am an auto-condimenter - I salt my food before I taste it; can't eat without it)

Four things I like doing:
Being in my new house, shopping (although not much of that at the moment other than house-related stuff as I'm broke), travelling, sleeping

Four places I would rather be right now:
I'm still at work right now, so: at home, sitting by a pool in the sun, having a meal (anywhere - I'm starving), in bed

Four things I am looking forward to this year:
Going on holiday - 4 weeks on Sunday!, going to Miami for The Spring Experience (not so much for the conference but to see Keri, Eva, Jill and Annabelle again and to meet Corgan), going to the Lake District for Christmas, my birthday (although I'm not ecstatic about being another year older)

So there you go. How about you?

Anyone for Croquet?

Just got back from an extremely relaxing Bank Holiday weekend away at the Four Seasons in Hampshire, about 40 miles from our house. We arrived on Saturday and left this afternoon, and spent the intervening time reading by the pool, playing croquet on the lawn, eating (did a little too much of that) and generally forgetting about work for a few days. Today we had a full day in the spa, including a fantastic facial, full body massage, foot treatment and jacuzzi bath. We finished off with half an hour by the pool then left just before 5pm. Perfect!

Another Breakthrough... of sorts

Just wanted to say a big Congratulations to Keri and Keith on the birth of Corgan Alexander on Wednesday, a little brother for Annabelle. Keri was blogging from the hospital, keeping her friends and family up to date with events! You'd never find that at a British hospital... The name is a tribute to Keith's idol, Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan was a couple of weeks early, and Keith was supposed to be at the meeting here in Southampton this week, so it's a good job he didn't come in the end!

Well done Keri, I'm looking forward to meeting him in December!

A Breakthrough

Yesterday I didn't have time to exercise. I had been to the gym on Wednesday evening, and I'm not so committed that I wanted to go again the following morning. I took my gym gear with me to work with the thought that I would go on the way home, but I ended up staying at work until almost 20:00 then going for dinner with the guys who are here this week for the meeting. I got home at 22:30 and went straight to bed, but I felt terrible. Really... well, the best word to describe it is 'bleurgh'. True, I'd just eaten a big meal and was going to bed on a full stomach, but I've done that plenty of times before and haven't felt like that. I put this feeling down to not having exercised, which for me was a real eye-opener; an epiphany, if you will.

Up to now I've been exercising because somewhere in my mind I know it is good for me in the long run and it will help me to be healthy and feel better long-term. But yesterday was the first day I realised that exercising actually helps me feel better in the short term, on a day-to-day basis - I feel far better in myself on the days I exercise than on the days that I don't. I sleep better too - and if I've exercised before work, rather than afterwards, I have that smug 'I've already exercised today' feeling all day...

So it was with a relatively light heart that I got out of bed this morning and went for a run. And since this revelation came to me last night, I haven't been able to get 'Breakthru' by Queen out of my head...!

Personal Trainer Session Number Two

My second PT session with Ben was this morning before work. I haven't exactly been very good with the healthy lifestyle in the last few weeks - for two weeks out of the past four, we've had visitors, and have therefore been out for quite a few meals, and I haven't really kept an eye on what I've been eating. At the same time, because we've had people staying, I have only been exercising about 3 times a week - which isn't bad, but it's half as often as I was doing a couple of months ago. I've felt like the exercise I have been doing has only served to counter the amount of food I've been eating. Of course, I'd much rather see my family and not exercise as often, but now that our period of having visitors is over I'm going to concentrate much harder on keeping healthy.

Last time Ben gave me various exercises to do, but no real goals to work towards; this time I have to record everything each time I go: when, how far, how many, which level, how long etc, so we can measure whether I'm making progress. Hopefully I can stick at it a little longer this time...

UPDATE 22 AUGUST: 6 or 7 colleagues from around the world have flown in for a meeting at the new office this week. Rob, Adrian and I, as 'hosts', are responsible for making sure they all get fed. I've arranged a buffet lunch to be delivered to the office every day, last night we went out for Chinese and we'll be doing something similar every night this week, and Rob and I are going away on Saturday for the weekend. But next week will definitely be better... ;)

So it's not exactly 'cool', but...

...I'm 30 years old; I stopped worrying about what was 'cool' a long time ago. When I was a kid, my Mum taught me embroidery, and I really enjoyed it. In the last few years, I've done a couple of embroideries in my spare time and still enjoy it.

A couple of years ago, my Mum gave me this embroidery that she had done for us to mark the first year of living in our old house. Earlier this year, I thought it would be good to start a project of sorts, and do an embroidery for every house I've owned. I've only owned one other house before, and for the past few years I've been renting it out, but I sold it to raise part of the deposit needed to buy the new house, so I thought it was all the more important to have a reminder of my first house.

My Mum drew up the pattern for me from a photograph of the house, and I finished it before we moved down here, but I'm terrible at framing so I had to wait for my Dad to visit for it to be framed. So here it is: 15 Windmill Avenue, Salford, my first house.

Mum's very kindly drawn up a pattern for me for the new house (thanks Mum), so I'll be making a start on it soon.

A Wicked Weekend

My sister Jenny flew down from Leeds/Bradford on Wednesday night. It was her birthday on Thursday, and today we went up to London to see Wicked, the musical that tells the story of the Witches of Oz, based on the book by Gregory Maguire.

One of the advantages of living in Southampton is that London is only just over an hour away on the train. We got to Waterloo at 10:30 this morning and went to Borough Market, a food market next to Southwark Cathedral. It's a great place for getting something to eat without actually having to buy anything, as all the stalls have samples. Jen and I tried cheeses, breads, jams, olive oils, vinegars, muesli, cherries, strawberries...

We had booked for the matinee performance but we still had plenty of time before it started, so we walked along the south side of the river, past the replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. We went into Tate Modern, frankly just because we needed the toilet, but we found that there was an exhibition on called Global Cities, so we went to have a look. It focused on 10 cities in the world and compared them in terms of shape and size, style, population density, infrastructure, etc. Did you know that Mumbai has a population growth of 45 people per hour, and by 2050 it will have overtaken Tokyo as the world's largest city, with over 40 million inhabitants? The exhibition was excellent; well worth a look - and it nicely filled in an hour or so of time we had to spare. We walked past the Royal Festival Hall and London Eye then got the tube to Victoria.

I had expected to enjoy Wicked, but I have to admit that I expected it to be just average. How wrong I was - it was fantastic. Kerry Ellis, who played Elphaba, had a voice to die for. The songs were great, the story was excellent, all in all a really good show. Plus we were back home by 19:30!

More Pictures

Here's the latest round of pictures of the house. This is the den before it was decorated (and while we were still using it as a store room).





Here it is again, after its makeover, from the same angle:







and from the other side of the room. Rob's Dad did the painting; mine did the flooring. Just need to get some furniture in there now...





Here's our bedroom, which isn't the largest bedroom in the world, but we chose this house because it had lots of living space downstairs, so we'll only be using the bedroom for sleeping. Sounds like a silly thing to say, but Rob used to spend a lot of time in our huge bedroom in the old house watching DVDs on his laptop when I was watching the TV downstairs, but he has the den for that now.

Again, Rob's Dad did the painting; my Mum made the curtains and my Dad made the door fit back into the frame!





This is the view into the en suite from the bedroom - we'll be having the whole room refitted so this will serve as a 'before' shot.






Finally, here's a picture of the spare room, which is the largest of the bedrooms, and if it weren't for the fact that our room has the en suite bathroom, I would happily have this room as the main bedroom. We haven't decorated in here; I quite liked it how it was so I just bought bedding to match.


My parents left today; as well as laying the flooring in the den, they also painted the utility area while they were here, and put up some pictures, and cooked two barbecues, and assembled the TV unit and the bedroom furniture... thanks Mum & Dad!

Nearly There...

We've had a couple of weeks of limbo in the house - after the initial unpacking was over, we reached a point where we couldn't unpack any more stuff until various other things happened - for example, we can't unpack stuff into the spare room because it's already full of Rob's clothes, and we can't move them out of there and into the main bedroom until the bedroom furniture is delivered and assembled, and there's no point in assembling bedroom furniture until after the new carpet has been fitted, and so on...

The bedroom carpet was fitted today, and I've made a start on assembling the furniture - a super king-size bed, chest of drawers, wardrobe and 4 under-bed drawers. The carpet's really nice, lovely and thick, but a side-effect of that is that the door doesn't open and close over the top of it, so I've asked my Dad to bring his planer with him so we can shave a little off the bottom of the door. Mum and Dad are arriving this evening and staying into the middle of next week - Dad's going to lay laminate floor in the den tomorrow while Mum and I finish putting up bedroom furniture. Once the flooring's done in the den we can move the big TV back in there from the dining room, and put up the AV unit that has been in the conservatory for the last couple of weeks...

We also had two bookcases, a coffee table and a nest of tables delivered on Tuesday for the lounge. These are now in place and I unpacked 6 boxes of books onto the bookcases yesterday. Things are finally starting to come together - pictures after the weekend.

Fatal Flaw in the Weight Loss Plan...

...We can't find our bathroom scales. We had two sets, a manual one and an electronic one, and I remember wrapping them both up together in a towel when we moved. I don't remember where they went after that, and not long after we moved in Rob wanted them. We kept saying that we'd come across them eventually, but it's been three weeks and we only have half a dozen or so boxes still to empty. We've looked in them all and there are no scales to be found - and that also means I'm missing a hand towel :).

So keeping an eye on my weight has proven a bit difficult of late. We had junk food every night for the first week we were here (we had a functioning kitchen within 2 days but after unpacking all day the last thing I wanted to do was cook) and judging by the reading on the scales at the gym the other day, I did put some weight on (although I was fully clothed and with my trainers on). But we've been eating a lot better and I've been exercising regularly again, so hopefully the weight I put on will have gone again by the time I find/buy some scales.

I mapped out a 3km route (actually 3.05km) from the new house and ran it for the first time on Tuesday. The route from our old house (3.15km) was really flat, but this one is a bit hillier - there's a downhill then an uphill on Wildern Lane, Upper Northam Road is all uphill (only a gentle incline) then Turnpike Way is a combination of uphill and downhill. I posted a fairly slow time on Tuesday because I didn't know what the rest of the route was going to be like, but today I did a much better time - my fastest time yet, although this route is 100m shorter than the old route.

I didn't feel too out of breath and my legs weren't too tired, both on Tuesday and today, so I've decided I'll do one more route at 3km then I'll modify my route a little to 3.5km.

Back to the Exercise Programme

Until about 2 weeks before we moved, I was exercising 6 days a week, but then preparations for moving house took over and I only managed a couple of times a week. Not long after we moved here, Rob and I joined the local gym, the Hampshire Tennis and Health Club, which is about a mile away. Included in the (ridiculously high) membership price are three sessions with a personal trainer, and my first one was this morning with Ben, an ex-army officer who's originally from Bolton, down the road from Manchester.

He's set me a programme based on my going to the gym four days a week - if I want to exercise more often than that, I can go running on the road or just repeat one of the four sessions in my gym programme. I have two sessions of cardio-vascular work only - cross-trainer, stepper or upright bike, or a combination of these if I don't want to stay on the same machine the whole time - then two sessions of a short CV workout combined with other exercises: weight machines for one session and mat work for the other. Both the weights and the mat sessions are intended to work all my major muscle groups - he's picked 6 weight machines which work my legs, chest, shoulders, back, arms and tummy, and the mat ('functional') exercises are intended to simulate movements that I do every day, like bending down, reaching out, squatting etc.

By the time we went over my aims and objectives and did a couple of minutes on all the machines and mat exercises, I'd already been there nearly an hour and a half, so this morning I just did a further 25-minute session on the cross-trainer and I'll do one of the combined CV/other exercise sessions tomorrow. I'll have my second personal trainer session with Ben in 3 or so weeks' time to assess my progress, at which point he said he will modify the programme if needs be.