Take your time... I'm only about to collapse

I succumbed to my illness and spent yesterday and today at home. I feel much better now - I think mainly because I was on my own, so didn't talk, so didn't cause myself to cough so much. I'll be back at work again on Monday.

I tried not to work too much while I was off - I did better at that today than yesterday. I had to keep checking my e-mails for the payroll reports from our accountants so I could schedule the wages payments, and I don't think anyone would have been happy if I'd left that till Monday. But once I received the e-mail at lunchtime today I stopped working.

I went to the bank yesterday to make a couple of international payments from the business account. I do this on a monthly basis, and make anywhere from 3 to 6 payments a month. The process has changed recently: I used to have to fill in a form with all the details, take it into the branch, have it checked and stamped, then I'd get the carbon copy and the top copy would be faxed to the central international payment processing department. This procedure wasn't without its problems: twice in the past 6 months one of the forms has got 'mislaid' between the branch and International and the payments were delayed for up to 2 weeks (but of course we still got charged when the payment eventually did go through). Now I just take the payee details with me and the payment gets inputted straight onto the screen in the branch, printed out for me to check and sign, and e-mailed straight to International. Sounds quicker, right?

Wrong. I stood in that bank for 45 minutes, wishing I had brought more tissues with me, while Steve behind the counter arranged my two payments. It was 10 minutes between my telling him that I had two international payments to make and him asking me for the payment details... what he was doing for those 10 minutes I don't know; he just seemed to be pressing random buttons on the screen. After 20 minutes I complained, and he sympathised, saying that there were so many more checks they had to carry out these days to comply with the more stringent money laundering regulations that everything took longer. What he failed, or refused, to see was that he wasn't helping matters by typing with only one finger, and being seemingly incapable of locating half the letters on his keyboard. At one point he got up from his chair and stood in front of the printer behind him, cursing because it was taking forever to print, when I looked over at his computer screen and saw that he hadn't actually pressed OK on the print window. When the printing eventually did come out, he had spelled the company name wrongly and there was a mistake in the account number of the payee. He asked me if I wanted him to do the form again. No, Steve, just go ahead and send the money to the wrong account. Seriously??

UPDATE TUESDAY 08:30: The payment didn't go out of the bank on Thursday, like it should have. It didn't even go out on Friday. It finally left our account yesterday, which means it will be in the payee's account by the end of the week. Over a week to send a payment. No wonder the banks are making so much money.

Feed a Cold

That's the old adage, right? Well, I took the advice very seriously this last weekend. I feel like a right old porker now, but I don't care. On Saturday I ate something at least every couple of hours. Not necessarily junk - I had a real hankering for savoury food and kept going back to the kitchen for a couple more crackers & cheese, or another cup-a-soup - but I can safely say that I never felt hungry all weekend, and just kept topping up my level of full-ness so I stayed between slightly hungry and slightly full the whole time. Of course, being Easter weekend I felt obliged to partake of an egg or two, but generally I ate reasonably OK - just lots of it.

I think this cold is getting worse again, not better. Today was the first day back at work after 10 days off - only 4 of those were working days, but I still had 209 unread e-mails this morning - and I really struggled towards the end of the day. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

One thing I really enjoyed doing this weekend was watching The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency on TV. It's based on the book by Alexander McCall Smith, about a woman who becomes Botswana's first female private detective. The programme that was on at the weekend was a feature-length pilot, and they're planning on filming a series of programmes based on the other books in McCall Smith's series later this year, to be aired next year. Jill Scott played Precious Ramotswe, the main character, and the whole thing was very funny and moving. Plus they featured a lot of African music, which I love. Keep an eye out for it if you haven't seen it.

The thing about me and time off work is...

...I always seem to get ill. I haven't had a day off sick in years - because I'm usually off work anyway when I get poorly. The last time I took time off work was when I went to Miami in December, and I got a stinking cold that lasted all the way through to New Year. The day after the Exbury Gardens 10k I started with a sore throat (but better after the race than before) and I managed to keep it at bay while I was in London last week, but this week it really attacked with a vengeance, while I was on holiday. It didn't help that we had all sorts of activities planned, so I didn't really give my body a chance to shake off the illness and it probably lasted longer than it would have if I'd stayed in bed for a day or so.

As if that weren't enough, I added significantly to my injuries and ailments while we were at Center Parcs this past week: my bum is killing me from all the cycling; badminton made my arms and tummy muscles ache, which in turn made it difficult to cough or sneeze; I have a massive bruise on the inside of my left arm from where my bow pinged back while I was practising my target archery...

Despite all these things, we had a great time last week. Our apartment was gorgeous, with its own sauna on the top floor, and we had some good fun doing stuff like tree trekking, spinning, bowling, swimming - and eating out! Plus there are still three more days before I have to go back to work!

Sport Relief Mile

Well, it was a lot of effort for less than 10 minutes' running, but we still enjoyed ourselves. I've been fighting off a cold all week, and have mostly been winning, but today I felt quite rough - cough, blocked nose and difficulty breathing. Because of this I was even more pleased to run my mile in 9:21. Ben didn't time himself, but we reckon he came in somewhere around the 7:15-7:30 mark and Rob put in a blinder at 6:38. More importantly, we raised £400 between us for Sport Relief, so many thanks if you were one of the people who helped us reach that figure. We really didn't expect to make anywhere near that much.

Rob and I are off work this next week, and are going to Center Parcs tomorrow until Friday. We've got lots of things planned: archery, spinning, treasure trail, tree trekking, badminton, mountain biking, step class, challenge course and squash, plus we've got a couple of spa sessions planned in as well. Looking forward to a week away from the office...

Happy Birthday Rob, and Well Done!

Rob spent his birthday taking his first 'grade' in Kung Fu - and he passed, meaning he arrived home this afternoon with a yellow sash. Well done Rob!

We had our inaugural dinner party in this house this evening. Andy, Cathy, Glyn and Sally came round and we had fajitas and birthday cake. I got a bit anxious at about 6pm when I realised there wasn't enough time to prepare the food, but Rob helped me out and we got everything done in time.

Bedtime now - got to get a good night's sleep for the Sport Relief Mile tomorrow... ;)

Role Reversal

For the first time ever, I'm away on business this week and Rob is at home. Feels a bit weird...

I'm in London for QCon, a tech conference that's running Wednesday to Friday. SpringSource has a booth in the exhibition hall and, along with a few others, it's my job to man (woman???) it. This is the second year the conference is taking place, and I was on the booth last year too, so this year I've learned from my previous mistakes and brought a couple of books with me. The exhibition hall is very very quiet while the sessions are on, then it gets really busy during the breaks, then goes quiet again. So far so good...

My Mistake

I thought Ben wasn't keen on doing the Sport Relief Mile, but he's said he'll do it if I do it. So we're on! Rob's also doing it, so I'm on the scrounge now...

In case you didn't know, Sport Relief is a UK charity that raises money for people in the UK and around the world. It's a sub-project of Comic Relief, which runs a campaign around March time every other year. Sport Relief takes place in the years that Comic Relief doesn't.

A few people asked me if I was raising money for yesterday's race, and they would sponsor me if I was, but I wasn't. Given that, I don't feel too bad about asking for money now ;). Please will you sponsor us? If so, please visit our sponsorship page (actually it's just my page, but consider it a donation for all three of us) to make a credit card donation. It's only a mile, but think of it from Ben's perspective: it's a whole mile! Thanks so much.

I did it!

My running worst nightmare almost came true - I was almost the last person to cross the finish line. But even if I had been, I wouldn't have cared; I was just pleased to have done it. The weather was great - it had rained all night, but it was sunny all the way through the race, even a bit too hot, then 25 minutes after I finished, as we were on the way home, it started pouring down. Perfect timing.

The course wasn't exactly what I would call 'flat' - although that's how it was billed - but it wasn't too bad; more undulating than hilly. The route took us along to the shore and back again - we ran on the shingle on the beach for about half a mile - and the sea air smelled fantastic. I got a stitch very early on so I used Keri and Chelsi's advice for keeping it at bay. From about 5.5k to the end I ran with a lady called Aileen, whose friend was supposed to run the race too but pulled out last night as she wasn't well. Here we are just about the cross the finish line. I really am still running at this point; Rob just managed to catch me while I look like I'm walking.

I finished in 1:13:38 - which is never going to break any records, but was more or less what I was expecting, and is something to aim for next time. Am I seriously talking about next time already??!! Actually I've been trying to persuade Ben to do the Sport Relief Mile with me next Sunday in Southampton, but he's not keen...

Rob, Ben, Adrian, Rebecca and Elliott came to cheer me and Sara on (she finished in 1:02 - well done Sara!). While they were waiting for us to finish, Rob was telling Elliott about the Kung Fu classes he started a few weeks ago, and Elliott showed Rob some moves of his own...

Bring it on

The race is tomorrow - and for the first weekend in ages they're forecasting sharp showers. Typical. Actually it won't be so bad if it's just raining; it's the wind that makes it more difficult. We'll soon see.

I just want to get the race over and done with now. I'm getting a bit fed up of running - I'll still do it after tomorrow but maybe not as often as three times a week. And I'll start going back to the gym too: for the last couple of weeks, on the days I haven't been running I've either done nothing or just done a few lengths of the pool - and then gone in the steam room on the grounds that it's helping my legs, but really just because I like it ;).

Letter from Bathroom Company

We are very pleased to advise you that all works at your property have now been completed. Payment received in full with many thanks.

We hope you have been satisfied with the work carried out and would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your custom.

My Reply

I write this while looking at a shaving mirror that's sitting on my dining table. It should be on the wall in our newly installed bathroom, but it's not. So I would have to disagree with the first sentence of your letter of 29 February.

I also have to disagree with the second paragraph too - we are not satisfied with the work carried out. We have a downstairs cloakroom that we intended to ask you to do if we were happy with the job you did on the en suite. I think it’s safe to say that we won’t be asking you to do any more work for us.