You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December, 2007.
Exercise: 13.5km Run - Haslemere (7’s Blue)
I know that I said that I was going to do a 20km run today, but when I got out of bed and looked out of the window, the weather was not to my liking 
It was quite windy and looked like rain. Now I know that I ran in the rain on Christmas Day, but that was only a 5km run and we were talking about doing 20km this morning!! I’d made the decision to run my long run on Sunday instead, but just as I was making myself comfortable after getting back into bed the phone rang. It was my girlfriend Jules.
Jules had a bit of spare time this morning and her Hubby was able to look after her little daughter so she asked if I was still up for doing my long run 
Okay, now what do I do??
So of course I get myself organised and jump in the car and toodle off down to her place. Now if you remember, Jules lives in Haslemere, which is probably one of the hillier parts of town. I did ask if she could find a fairly flat course for us to run, and to her credit the course that she took me on certainly wasn’t as hilly as it could have been….BUT it was still lots of undulating territory, much off it off road and muddy. Now remind me again why I thought that doing lots of lower body weights was a good idea yesterday
We only covered 13.5km but it certainly felt like we’d run 20km My calves are really feeling it tonight. Luckily for me I remembered to bring my Skins with me to the UK, and also lucky for me that I found tubes of Tiger Balm when we were at Dubai airport, so I bought 4 tubes of the stuff 
I may even head out again on Sunday for a flat 15km if the weather is not too bad. I just checked and I’ve done 5 days running this week
Em, I was flicking through the TV channels this evening and thought of you when I came across some old episodes of Sharpe
JoJo I shall be ringing you soon to talk you through the process of using the hob Sounds like I’m going to have to forcibly remove you from the house
I want to let you all know that I have been keeping upto date with everyone’s blogs but haven’t commented as the computer I’m using is really, really slow and it takes ages to do anything on it
Exercise: 5km Run - Treadmill (8’s)
Met my girlfriend Helsy at the gym this afternoon. Jumped on the treadmill for a fast (well fast for me) 5km run, then used some of the weight machines, which are much fancier than the ones at Fernwood.
It’s strange using a mixed gym again. I’ve got used to just having the ladies around when I go to the gym, and I have to admit that I’ve felt a little bit intimidated with having men there, so haven’t used any of the hand weights as that’s the area that they all hang out. 
Weather has turned a bit milder and it was quite pleasant not having to don 5 layers of clothing just to walk out the front door
One thing I’ve noticed is that everyone drinks tea here. They don’t seem to be big coffee drinkers at all.
Alana’s Quote: “Nanny you laugh like a witch!”
Exercise: 5.75km Run - Trail (7’s Blue)
How nice is it to start a fun run at 11.00am rather than the usual 8am start. I headed over to my girlfriend Jules place and then drove over to the pub where the fun run started - Yep, the fun run starts at a pub
It was sunny too
Due to my girlfriends Hubby being the chief organiser of the fun run I chipped in and helped with the registration process. It was frantic, that’s for sure. There must have been over 400 people registering on the day. Once everyone had registered we rushed over to the start line just before the gun went off.
As I mentioned previously, Haslemere is very hilly, and of course the start of the run is at the bottom of a hill that everyone had to run up
Then it was a bit of a squash as we veered off the road onto a very thin trail. Bit of a bottleneck where the mud was very deep but once past this bit it evened out and we ended up back on a nice laneway.
There was a huge mother of a hill (very similar to the one at Churchill Park). I was determined to run up it, albeit very slowly. I have to admit that I didn’t feel too great when I got to the top of it though. Then it was back onto another trail, going downhill this time, which gave us time to get our breath back. Another uphill slog, along with more thick mud, made worse by the fact that 300 people had already run through it before we got there!!
We stopped at the Drinkers table and skulled the picolo bottles of Jacobs Creek that we’d put there before the start of the race. Everyone else who had signed up for the Drinkers Run were drinking pints of Ale (yukkkk!).
Finally at the top of the hill it was a fast run back down the hill that we’d started at and a quick sprint to the finish line.
We even got a medal at the end I shall add the medal and my race number to my growing pile that I’ve kept.
I’m hoping to do a 20km run/walk on Friday. There are some great towpaths that go for miles and miles so I’ll find the closest one and run out for 10km and then run back. Just hope the weather stays good.
Okay, I’d better go put my trainers somewhere near the heater so that the mud can dry and then I should be able to scrape it off. They currently weigh about 2kg more than they should
Exercise: 5km Run - Local Streets (8’s)
Can you believe that I actually went out for a run on Christmas Day….and you’re not going to believe it, but it was raining too. That’s right, me out running in the rain on Christmas Day
It was actually Hubby’s idea. I would have happily stayed inside and opened my first bottle of champers, along with the chocolates, but he was pretty adamant that he wanted to run, and who am I to miss an opportunity to run with somebody else. So I donned the wet weather gear and waded out into the street. When we started out it was raining lightly. Between km 2 and 3 the heavens opened up and we got pretty soaked
At least I could justify eating Christmas dinner
Have had a couple more shopping days, just to get last minute presents. I’m not sure we’re going to have enough room in the suitcases to bring all Alana’s back though. She got very spoiled.
Well I hope everyone had a fantastic day and Santa brought you everything that you wished for.
I’m off to do the Boxing Day Run this morning. I’m too scared to look out the window in case it’s still raining. Rain and off road hills equals lots of mud
Thursday - 7.3km Run - Haselmere (7’s Blue)
Saturday - 5km Run - Treadmill (8’s)
I went down to see my girlfriend on Thursday, who lives in a cute village called Haselmere, and she took me out for a run, which incorporated the course that I’m going to run for the Boxing Day Run. I only have one thing to say - it’s hilly Oh yeah, it’ll be muddy too
Later that evening we met up with a whole load of people that I used to work with at Prime Health in the pub that I used to frequent (very regularly). It feels very strange going back to places that have become distant memories.
On Friday I saw more people who I used to work with at BOC. One of the guys was retiring so I went and had a few drinks (diet cokes they were….yep, was a little bit seedy from the night before’s drinking). I then jumped on the bus and did a bit of shopping in Guildford. Have to admit that I really wasn’t in the mood though.
You know when you do something and then look back on it later and think “why did I do that?”. Well I got back from Guildford and nobody was home, so instead of walking up to where Nick’s Mum works and getting the keys, I just stood on the front porch waiting for somebody to come home. I was absolutely frozen when Nick’s Mum appeared after an hour!! Sometimes I worry about myself.
Yesterday we finally made it to the gym. We got there just after 3pm and it was really quiet. I hopped on the treadmill and did a comfortable 5km. They have a really nice pool there and I’d love to use it, but that would mean wearing bathers and I just don’t think that I’m ready to do that right now 
We have a little bit of a dilema at the moment. We fly out of Gatwick on the 18th January and it’s just been announced that airport staff are all going on strike and of course it had to be on the day that we’re flying out. We now have to look at alternatives and may consider flying back earlier, or maybe going over to Paris and flying out from there. I’ll have to give my travel agent a call and see what she suggests. Of course it may all blow over and the strike may be prevented (crosses fingers and toes).
Am still feeling the cold really badly. It has warmed up a little bit and there wasn’t any frost on the ground yesterday but it still feels freezing to me.
I’m having alot of problems sleeping too. I go to bed just fine and fall asleep really easily, but I’ve been waking up at 3.30, 4.30 or 5.30am and can’t get back to sleep again. I suppose I should make the most of this and get up and go for a run, but it’s very hard to actually get out of bed when it’s -2 degrees outside.
Have reacquainted myself with all the lovely chocolates I used to enjoy here that are not available in Australia I’ve found though that I’m actually eating alot less than I do normally as I’m out doing things rather than sitting at my desk at work bored out of my brain, eating aimlessly.
I have taken photos but have not been able to upload them yet. Will try and load the software on this PC when I get some spare time.
Yes, I know, MORE shopping
This time Hubby and I headed up to Kingston, which is great for shopping. Alana got to spend some time with her Grandad, which meant that Hubby and I could enjoy the day without having the worry of Alana getting bored 
I saw so many things that I wanted to buy, but would not be practical to take home with me. There were these Champagne glasses with Swarovski crystals in the stem, but at £325 per pair, I thought they might be just a little bit out of my price range. Have just checked the Australian Swarovski website and they cost $665
Then there was this absolutely beautiful jewellery box. It weighed at least 3kg and was glass. I don’t think it will travel well though, and decided not to buy it. Mostly though we bought presents for Alana. Lots of little things for her to open on Christmas Day.
I had the most yummy Pastie for lunch. It had a cheese and bacon filling and it just melted in the mouth. Hubby had a Steak & Guiness one.
We didn’t get home until about 5pm and I had to go and have a nanna nap. Only woke up at 8.30pm No gym or running today I’m afraid.
Am going down to see my girlfriend tomorrow and we’re going out for a run (and there will be hills ), then we’ll go straight from her place to meet up with lots of old friends in one of the pubs that I used to visit regularly (it was just across the road from where I used to work).
I will get to the gym, honest
Now about that run I was supposed to be doing this morning
We had to be at the Dentist for our 10am appointment so it meant that I had to start getting organised about 7.30am, which would have meant that I had to get up at 6.30 if I wanted to get a run in before I left for the Dentist……that wasn’t going to happen, I can tell you right now
Dentist appointment x 2, including 2 xrays and a full clean and scale for each of us = £55 each, which converts to $135 each…..aaaggghhh!! (sorry but I just can’t stop converting ). I should have taken some Australian dollars with me as he’s flying out to Oz tomorrow and he would have only charged us $200 if we’d paid him with A$
Met up with my girlfriend and her friend afterwards and we did some hard shopping. They’ve got heaps of sales on at the moment, including a 90% off sale in a sports shop I only bought a new pair of boots and some sports socks for myself, and a really cool sleeveless Adidas puffa jacket for Alana.
I ended up in one shop and it was just full of shoes….I wanted to buy so many as they were all fantastic. I took a photo while I was in the shop and I got the third degree from one of the sales assistants. I think she thought I was a competitor and was taking photos of the opposition’s shoes.
Have now signed up for a 1 month membership at LA Fitness. We did it online, which I thought was pretty good. Cost us £40, which converts to $100 (sorry, sorry but I just gotta know). Will head out there tomorrow to pound the treadmill.
Hubby and I went to the cinema tonight and saw The Golden Compass. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although the ending leaves you hanging. Looks like they’ll be making a sequel!!
And it’s going to warm up by the end of the week….YAY - will reach the balmy heights of 9 degrees
So the 5km run didn’t happen unfortunately.
I woke up at 3am this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep at all. I woke Nick up at 5am as I thought that if I was awake then he should be awake to keep me company
Hence by the time 8am rolled around, I had absolutely zero energy to do anything. I couldn’t even be bothered getting out of bed, even though I couldn’t sleep. And it looked absolutely freezing cold outside too. It was overcast and there was a strong wind blowing
Eventually got myself organised and Hubby’s Dad drove us into town so that we could organise a hire car. We have now had our first experience of crap customer service over here. Won’t go into too much detail, but these people really need to get a life 
We couldn’t pick the car up until 4pm so we wandered (okay we walked very quickly) over to the shopping centre to get out of the cold. Hubby bought a couple of pairs of jeans and Alana bought a nice warm beret, which she looks very cute wearing too. I bought nothing
Sat down in a cafe and ordered a couple of chicken panninis, a couple of large coffees, and a sausage roll and a soft drink for Alana. It came to £18.25 This works out to about $45. Aaaaggghhh!
Hubby ran into one of his old squash buddies as we were leaving. He’d only mentioned last night that he’d love to catch up with him for a game of squash…..coincidence or what!
It gets dark very early here, around about 4.30pm. We walked back to the car rental place and signed for the car. When we got in it, there was absolutely no petrol in the tank at all…..but they did say that we could bring the car back with no petrol in it when we’d finished with it. So we zoomed off to the petrol station, which was just over the road and filled it up. It came to £44.50 That converts to about $110. WOW!! I’ll be making sure that the car is running on vapours when we return it.
I’ve got a dental appointment tomorrow. Yes I know, why am I seeing a dentist in the UK Well it’s like when you get a really good hairdresser. My dentist over here is an Australian guy and I thought I’d take the opportunity while I’m here to get a visit in.
After that I’m meeting one of my girlfriends and we’re going SHOPPING!!!
Kathy, It’s way too cold to even consider taking any clothes off whilst out running. The wind is absolutely bitter and just bites right through you. I’m cold even thinking about it. Hubby’s Dad has set us up with a computer in the bedroom we’re sleeping in so I’m sitting very comfortably in bed as I’m typing this
Eat Em, I’ll ask Hubby to take a photo before I run out the door in the morning (yes I’m planning on getting out there tomorrow - honest).
JoJo, hope you got the hob working okay. As I said, there’s always the BBQ if you’re desperate.
Em, I’m doing a 3.5 mile fun run on Boxing Day. This also incorporates having a glass of champagne half way through the run
Beki, I’ll try and take as many photos as I can, although Woking is really not the most photogenic place in the world Maybe I’ll just take lots of photos of the pubs I frequent while I’m over here
Alana’s Quote: “Dad you look like a real man now!”
Hello from the motherland
OMG, what a journey so far and we’ve only just got here
Hurdle 1 - Getting all our luggage into Michelle’s car!! Once everyone listened to how I thought the bags should be packed, they all went in just fine (Hubby mentioned that I should look for work in the home removal trade!!).
Hurdle 2 - Getting to the airport without stressing too much. I was the one who was pretty stressed, whereas everyone else in the car was cool, calm, chatty and relaxed (and a bit excited too!!).
Hurdle 3 - Standing in the queue to check in. it was a long queue, even though we’d got to the airport with 3 hours to spare! Note to self: Use online check in facility for return journey home
Hurdle 4 - If anyone is going through to the international terminal, I would suggest eating from one of the food places before passing through the security point. There are no decent food places once you pass the point of no return.
Hurdle 5 - Trying to decipher whether or not you can purchase Duty Free stuff at Melbourne and not have it confiscated when you pass through any of the transit airports. In the end I just waited until I got to Gatwick and bought stuff there.
Hurdle 6 - The tables were turned once we passed through the security point at Melbourne airport. I was relaxed, calm, chatty and excited. Hubby, on the other hand, was now stressing big time (he’s not good with flying!).
Hurdle 7 - Being told just as we are about to taxi onto the runway after leaving Singapore Airport that there is a small abnormality with the auxillary power system as we detached from the dock and that an Engineer has been called to “check it over” This then involved 2 hours of sitting in the plane with no idea whether we were actually going to take off, and also wondering if we were going to get to Dubai in time to catch our connecting flight to Gatwick.
Hurdle 8 - Getting to Dubai and seeing the “Final Call” sign flashing against our flight on the big screen. You’ll all be happy to hear that I was at least able to sprint the whole way through the terminal (from Gate 18 to Gate 42) without stopping. Unfortunately it made no difference as they wouldn’t let us on the plane anyway
Hurdle 9 - Standing in a queue with another 200 passengers at the transfer desk, all of whom were trying to get new flights to their destinations due to the plane being delayed. By this time I was absolutely shattered and did not have much patience left in me. The only good thing about this queue was that we were offered free sandwiches and soft drinks while we waited And just a bit of useless info, they still use ring pull tabs on their cans of soft drink in Dubai!!
Hurdle 10 - Trying to while away 4 hours before our connecting flight from Dubai to Gatwick. There is only so much to do at an airport before becoming totally bored and fed up. Luckily there were places that served big cups of coffee and chocolate croissants Somehow or other Alana managed to sleep for a while, although she must have been so uncomfortable on the chair as it was hard as nails! (I have a photo which I’ll upload as soon as I figure out how to add the software to this PC).
Hurdle 11 - Trying to block out the noise from the loud speaker system that we were sitting directly below while waiting for our flight. I was almost nodding off, and had managed to ignore the noise from the loud speaker system when all of a sudden this horrible wailing noise started coming out of the speaker. At first I thought that somebody had managed to overide the system and was doing it as a joke, but I then realised that it must be some kind of noise that they use for thier prayers….
Hurdle 12 - Using the toilets at Dubai Airport without getting soaking wet Okay, they have these shower spray things set up in all of the toilets and I’m not too sure what they are used for (I can only imagine!) but all of the floors are soaking wet, so trying to keep the bottom of my jeans dry was a bit of an ordeal….enough said
Hurdle 13 - Unpacking my suitcase and realising that I din’t bring this and I didn’t bring enough of that. Oh well, time to go shopping I think
The weather is COLD, and I mean very cold. We arrived at the airport and it was -2 degrees. Yesterday it only went up to 2 degrees, but there was a beautiful blue sky all day. No snow forecast for the near future though
I’m planning on doing a 5km run when I get out of bed and will also be going over to the local gym and signing up for a 1 month membership this afternoon. Must try and keep my fitness levels up whilst over here as I want to get straight back into trailwalker training when I get home.
Okay, if you’re still reading then you’ve done well to get this far. I’ll keep you updated.
Signing off from the motherland
OMG, where has the time gone
Well since Wednesday I’ve done no running, and I haven’t stepped foot inside the gym either.
I have, however, been to a great Xmas party at a place called Zinc in Federation Square (everything was free…yay!), thought I’d lost my mobile phone and had a massive panic attack (found it in the limousine that had driven us up to Fed Square - phew!), just about finished all my xmas shopping, writing out xmas cards and buying birthday presents, and have had my new implanon device fitted (nice bruise happening now). Also managed to fit in a massage with Corrie.
But please, nobody mention tiling and grouting (deep breath J, stay calm!!)
I’ve done more weeding, back garden this time.
I’ll let you into a little secret. Have booked flights to the Gold Coast for early July
We went and watched Alana in her school choir at Carols by Candlelight on Friday night. Here she is with her best friend Peter
This is what happens to Alana’s hair when she’s been on the trampoline
Forgot to mention that my back is fine now. It literally got better as the day progressed and I woke up on Thursday morning and it wasn’t sore at all…..I’m sure stress had alot to do with it.
Alana’s Quote:
Me: “My implanon device lasts for 3 years”
Alana: “Is that because Daddy sexes you alot!”
Me: “He wishes”
Exercise: Weights
Ouchy, ouchy, ouchy
I woke up this morning with a very sore lower back. I have absolutely no idea how this happened. I was fine last night when I went to bed, but it was hurting tons when I got out of bed this morning
I still wanted to go to the gym as I’m running out of days now before I leave for the UK and need to make the most of the time I’ve got, and the nice weather too. I’m not liking the thought of having to go out in freezing temperatures
Was going to do an interval session on the treadmill, but changed the plan and did a solid weight workout. The back was a little bit sore as I was getting on and off the machines, but as I warmed up, it did too.
Check out this photo. It was the storm that happened on Monday afternoon. Scary huh
And here’s another one of the sunset last week (taken with my proper camera)
Happy birthday Bruv
Exercise: 5km Run, Circuit (8’s)
Even though I had a relatively late night I actually got out of bed with no problems this morning
An enjoyable 5km run on the treadmill. I do miss my morning runs with Michelle though
Thought I’d try and replicate one of my boot camp sessions so used the aerobics room (which was empty) and created a nice little circuit for myself. I was absolutely exhausted afterwards I have to admit
Tiling on the kitchen walls has commenced
OMG where has this year gone, it’s December already?
This weekend has gone by in a blur as well. I didn’t get to the gym, or do any running, but I did get out in the garden yesterday and gave the weeds a run for their money. My back and legs are now reminding me of that
This is the area of garden I worked on…..BEFORE!
AFTER
Michelle and I (along with Michelle’s daughter) went and saw Babba last night. We stayed over at Michelle’s daughters place. Of course this meant that there was absolutely no restrictions on the amount of alcohol we could drink (Thank you to Michelle’s daughter’s boyfriend for being our taxi).
Here we are at the beginning of the night
After Babba we ended up at a place that had great music and stayed open until late. I reckon we burned a fair few calories with the amount of dancing we did. Hopefully it balanced out the amount of alcohol we drank!
Then on the way home we had the obligatory stop at McD’s. I can’t remember the last time I actually ate McD’s food, but I must admit that the double Cheeseburger and fries was just perfect and hit the spot I do find it very scary though that there are now security guards in McD’s late at night
I think a trip to the gym in the morning is on the agenda!!
