Thursday 20 August 2015

and again

"how do you get used to it?"
"you get used to not not getting used to it"

from tonight's MASH viewing (still working through the box set from last summer)

Wednesday 19 August 2015

i'm going to put this here so i don't forget

 "being comfortable being uncomfortable is a very effective way to be a human"

from here.

i'm going to have to think about that one.

Sunday 16 August 2015

a very english day

the brass band played on the broadstairs bandstand this afternoon. it was my first bandstand as last summer i worked every weekend so missed them all and so far this summer, two have been rained out.

today the weather was perfect - lovely and sunny but not too hot. we had a great programme - we play a mix of marches and old stuff (ww2 songs go down particularly well with our often slightly ageing (ahem) audience). we also do more modern pop-y stuff - happy by pharell williams, abba, etc - and then a few swing-y ones like the bare necessities and new york new york. the crowd loved it, the sun shone, and graeme, our conductor, said so many horrific things to the audience that we nearly fell off the bandstand but it was funny and they loved it.

i don't think you can get more english than a brass band on a bandstand in a seaside town in august.




i even bought a new sun hat! (pink ribbon to be replaced forthwith)

now somehow the weekend is nearly over and we stand staring into the gaping maw of monday. but not quite yet. not quite yet.

Thursday 13 August 2015

so. tired.

i know an insane man who swears that early morning runs "set you up for the rest of the day". I got up at 6 (6! a.m.!) and was out the door for a 40 minute run by 645 (645! a.m.!) and i can faithfully report that my early morning run set me up for a day of tired legs, sore back, yawns, and a reliance on coffee that - in dependence stakes - would rival liberace's glitter fetish. if this is energised i'd hate to see the flip side. it gets better, right? (just say yes. smile and nod. this is not the time for truth or honesty).

on the up side i'm working from home tomorrow which means no trains - no london - no hordes - no "southeastern apologies for the delay and hopes it will not cause too great an inconvenience". and then it's the weekend (and a 50 minute run on saturday but we are resolutely NOT going to think about that right now).  tonight we're over to our friends h&j for supper - they've just come back from 2 weeks in denmark so it will be fun hearing all about it. i will get a second wind and drink too much wine and eat too much cheese and will realise once again that running is never going to make me thin if i carry on like this in the evening, and then decide (again) that i really couldn't care less.

happy (almost-so-close-you-can-practically-taste-it-but-not-quite) weekend


Thursday 6 August 2015

it was lovely!


they were very friendly :) it was fun. i wouldn't have wanted to run on these roads all by myself but when i knew there were people ahead of me (and behind me - imagine!) it was ok. and the scenery - so beautiful. and the hills - oh my dear god. i know that what goes up must go down, but still. every turn of the road revealed more hill. but all in all very lovely. when my legs can move again i may even go back!

Wednesday 5 August 2015

the dreaded runs

i'm sitting on the sofa in my running gear looking nervously at the clock. usually i would be heading home from an after-work run by now but tonight i decided to go check out the faversham running club. they don't meet until 7 (which seems awfully late) so i have another hour to sit here thinking of all the reasons why this probably is a bad idea.

i've been running sporadically for a few years now - i go for a few months, then slack off through injury or an over-abundance of wine and sheer laziness. in June i decided i had to HAD TO keep motivated or else i was going to have to diet. i have no intention of ever dieting so exercise it is. i signed up for the faversham 10k run in september and i have found since then that the terror of bailing in front of other runners not to mention the ten people at least i know who are also running the race has kept me surprisingly motivated. so much so that i am even planning on brining my trainers on holiday! unthinkable.

the running club is new-ish - it is run by our postman and he seems nice. he shouts encouraging things to me when he sees me running. well i assume they're encouraging - i can't actually hear him above my frantic gasps for air, but he's smiling in a way that suggests he has said something lovely and not, as must be tempting, comparing me to an asthmatic hippopotamus. one of my friends in the brass band is in it and loves it. another guy at work has been raving about how much he loves his running club and how it helps him and keeps him motivated as well.

my head was turned.

now that i'm sitting in lycra knowing i am going to have to talk to other people (whilst still wearing lycra!) i am not so sure. i am 41. plump-ish. i have never run more than 45 minutes and that was last week and i STILL can't believe it didn't kill me. i only run so i can keep drinking lots of wine and eating lots of cheese. ummmmm cheese.

oh well. how bad can it be? i never have to go back if i don't want to. maybe i'll learn something - god knows i could use advice on a pretty impressive scale. and i really really don't want to diet. n is making chicken schnitzel for dinner as well so there is always that to look forward to. i shall hoist my sails and gird my loins and with the happy thought of schnitzel, face my enemies! or, you know, go jogging.

Monday 3 August 2015

i've just stepped out - i may (have) been some time...

or, you know, three and a half months. time really does fly, even when you're not having all that much fun. it's been a bit rough out there - the worst thing by far was having to say goodbye to our lovely adored humph. his arthritis was getting worse and worse and he was in a lot of pain that was getting more are more difficult to control. when he couldn't get up by himself anymore we knew we had to help him in the last way that we could. it was so hard to do - we knew we had to but - oh man, we didn't want to. the vet cane to the house, and he died in n's arms. i miss him so so so much. i know we're lucky that we had 9 amazing years together and i'm grateful for every one of them but i just miss him.

anyways here's the last lot of photos i took with him - these were taken in may.