Friday 27 August 2010

Another catch up post.

I was feeling a bit sad last week so I haven't blogged much at all, so here's a little catch up of recent events.

Last Saturday was the wedding of two friends, Loz and Tony. It was a fab wedding, Loz looked stunning and the day was really lovely. Loz is a friend from sixth form college so we've been friends for over 20 years now, along with Ceri, Sam and Susan. Sue emigrated 3 years ago so wasn't at the wedding, but here's a group shot of the four others of us.

L to R, Ceri, Lorraine, Sam, me.

Before that I was camping. It was a family camp, me, Mum, sister and two nephews, sis-in-law and two nieces. You notice the distinct lack of grown up men....? They're wimps. We went to the New Forrest and had a lovely time. The weather was mostly fab and I even swam in the sea with Tarka!



Whilst there I found some fab sloes and might go back to pick some in a few weeks when they're ready to pick. I'll take Tarka and we'll make a day of it, with a nice walk and maybe get fish and chips to eat on the beach. I doubt it'll be warm enough to swim again though.

Talking of sloes, I posted last year about making sloe gin.... well it's turned out to be good stuff hence wanting to pick more sloes!! I'm planning to make a few bottles this year because apparantly it improves with age. I'm not a big drinker, a bottle will last me a while so if I make a few bottles it should have time to mature nicely.

I finished my last assignment at work and passed with 72% which I was pleased with. I get annoyed though with comments like "I would have liked to see you discuss XY&Z" and "you could have explored AB&C further"...... yeah well I would have done if I'd had more than a 200 word limit for each section!!!!! Anyway, I just have to submit my completed paperwork now and that's my qualification sorted.

I now have a house rabbit. Teddy has been with me for 4-ish years now and is about 8 or 9 years old. He's lived outside 'till now, but lost his friend in Feb (2 weeks after Pippa died) and since then has gone down hill. I don't want to get him another companion, I'm not having any more rabbits for a while. Anyway, as an old boy he doesn't clean himself very well which makes him susceptible to fly strike, which is a nasty way for a rabbit to die. So, I moved him indoors to protect him from the flies and he's gone from strength to strength! His legs are much stronger and his coat is better. His poo's are normal (sorry, too much info?) and he's a lot cleaner although I do bath him from time to time. He's in an indoor cage during the day as he's not house trained and would probably be quite destructive, but in the evenings I let him have free run of the house when I'm here to keep an eye on him. Teddy is blind with only light and dark perception, so I don't like to use flash photography hence this pic is a bit dark.

Monday 23 August 2010

Six months on.

Yesterday was the six month anniversary of when Pippa died.

I miss her more than ever.

Thursday 12 August 2010

Badminton

I started playing badminton a little over three years ago. I'm not a natural at the sport but I do enjoy it. I really enjoy it. A lot. I currently play 2 hours twice a week.

While I was in Guernsey I had a lesson with my friends husband, who plays for Guernsey in various competitions at quite a high level. He spent an hour and a half teaching me stuff, giving tips and advice, and I really really enjoyed that! I haven't moved quite so much in a very long time though, my legs did ache for a few days!!

So anyway, I've been trying to put into practice the things we covered but it's not as easy as I had hoped. I mean, it's one thing to practice net shots when you are expecting a series of net shots, but it's quite another thing to move to the back of the court for a long shot, only to have it followed up with a net shot and I'm still half a mile away!!

This week however I've felt a few things coming together a bit, and today I even had a compliment on my recent improved standard of play!

How chuffed was I?

Saturday 7 August 2010

Just realised...

I forgot to update on my water leak problem...

IT'S FIXED!!!

Dad came round and did it for me.... Thanks Dad!!!

Today's run

I had a really nasty cold a few weeks ago, I was completely blocked up and breathing was difficult even whilst walking, so running was out of the question! Since then I've struggled to get back to where I was with the running. Today I was still below my previous standard but it felt much better. I was able to get my breathing in synch with my steps which makes so much difference. It's the first time I've managed to do this on the treadmill. I can do it easily when running outside but I seem to run differently on the treadmill and have struggled to find a breathing pattern.

At the moment I am aiming to get back to 2 miles at 6mph. I didn't quite make it today but was pleased as I started slower and went up, and even though I couldn't maintain the speed I did the distance.

Laps are a quarter of a mile. 1+2 and 11+12 are warm up/cool down laps.

Laps = mph
1 = 3.5
2 = 3.5
3 = 5.5
4 = 5.5
5 = 6
6 = 5.5
7 = 6
8 = 6
9 = 5.5
10 = 6
11 = 3.5
12 = 3+2.5

Total time - 39.05 mins
Total calories - 301

Sunday 1 August 2010

....not forgetting the pets!

My friend in Guernsey has plenty of animals.


4 dogs
3 cats
2 rabbits
3 guinnea pigs
lots of chickens
lots of ducks.

Here are the dogs:


Wellington, 15 years old

Charm, 10 yrs old

Luke, around 5 years old

Eden, somewhere between 1-3 yrs old

It's tiring being photographed.....