The living room radiator emptied its contents all over the living room floor last night so we got up this morning to a puddle and a cold house.
By 10am when I had finished fixing the house, the swimming pool was closed so I burned some flex hours bumming about on the pC.
At 12 I was allowed back in the swimming pool and churned out 46 lengths and crawled almost all of them.
The day was slow but mercifully short. TSK got himself a new bike so I cooked dinner whilst he built it.
On the other hand, I can't remember when my cashflow was last in such a dire situation and I'm usually really careful with money. Spoiling people - that'll be the problem. Having too many lovely people in your life is a problem I can cope with.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Cold Park in winter
The crazy golf was busy. It's built from Cotswold stone - only the best for Swindon.
Me being as tall as trees
Bird watching - Tufted duck, Pochard and Smew.
And today I went racing for the first time in about 5 weeks. I coughed and I hacked my way around the course but DIDN'T get lapped by Claire and DID beat an Ironman (tho' it was his first race so I suppose we let him off since he kept falling off on the slippery corners).If felt good to be back on the bike after such a break. We had a good bonding session yesterday during which I cleaned and fiddled and tuned and fitted a new chain. I have been wondering what the grinding noise is on my lowest gear then yesterday figured out I was running a 6-speed chain on an 8-speed block. Huragh, no more grinding. The new bike is perfect.
Now I need to add her to my home insurance after Sil's experiences.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Cold
It has been cold here for some time and today I am finding it impossible to clean my bike for a race tomorrow. Every time I clean a bit, the smeared out mud just freezes on the bike leaving an icy black smear everywhere. I have had to do my best with hot water then bring it in to the kitchen to defrost before I can start on the micro-cleaning and reassembly.
The chain hasn't had an outing in 5 weeks either so I think I might need a new one of those.
On new years day we went out with TSK's parents for a walk and stood in the National Trust cafe on the way home and watched the starlings reeling in the sky. An original fairly unimpressive group of around 200 birds eventually swelled in to a flock resembling those I have seen before in Brighton then finally after 5 minutes of indecision they swooped in groups to settle in a volume of reed bed about 2 metres cube.
A fine accompaniement to tea and cake.
The chain hasn't had an outing in 5 weeks either so I think I might need a new one of those.
On new years day we went out with TSK's parents for a walk and stood in the National Trust cafe on the way home and watched the starlings reeling in the sky. An original fairly unimpressive group of around 200 birds eventually swelled in to a flock resembling those I have seen before in Brighton then finally after 5 minutes of indecision they swooped in groups to settle in a volume of reed bed about 2 metres cube.
A fine accompaniement to tea and cake.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
New Years Resolutions
I have it in me to start my new years resolutions early so yesterday I spent 20 minutes on the running machine and then found the energy for 44 lengths of the pool. This morning I ran around my village circuit. I have no idea how long I was out in the cold but I ran the whole route except for the stiles which were too icy to approach with a run and a leap. I took it careful on the railway crossings too as I seem to have a habit of coinciding with the 10:15 from Swindon.
I am pleased I ran round the whole circuit since 3 weeks ago at the end of the back pain, just before the gastro entoritis, I walked the same route and had to stop 4 times on the steep grassy hill, just to catch my breath and rest my legs. Perhaps I haven't lost as much fitness as I thought.
I hope so, since the national championships are the week after next.
TSK have been doing our best to fill in the 2009 calendar for this year. So far, I have entered this and I am scared.
I am pleased I ran round the whole circuit since 3 weeks ago at the end of the back pain, just before the gastro entoritis, I walked the same route and had to stop 4 times on the steep grassy hill, just to catch my breath and rest my legs. Perhaps I haven't lost as much fitness as I thought.
I hope so, since the national championships are the week after next.
TSK have been doing our best to fill in the 2009 calendar for this year. So far, I have entered this and I am scared.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
A Year In Pictures
Stolen ungraciously from Jill in Alaska (with all the rules broken):
My year in pictures
My year in pictures
To be honest, December: Has been just about the best ever
November: When the kitchen became this
October: Graham Robins photo. Just to prove I wasn't slacking
September: Not my photo, but my soul. I managed the 3 Peaks.
End of August: Finally, I rode my bike again on the Wild Wales Challenge
Cheating a bit here - Early August: Work started on the house
In July I went out for a ride with dad the day of his 60th birthday and he made me go over these cobbles.
June: When I made some offhand thoughts about moving here.
May: When I made some offhand comment about a new kitchen
In April, a day out with the Peterborough CC
March: An ode to what was March (fixing up the vanu) and what was enabled by the end of March.
For the long shaddows and the joy of being back on snow. February
New Year's day in the Peak District. That's my dad with the tree he wants his ashes scattered under.
November: When the kitchen became this
October: Graham Robins photo. Just to prove I wasn't slacking
September: Not my photo, but my soul. I managed the 3 Peaks.
End of August: Finally, I rode my bike again on the Wild Wales Challenge
Cheating a bit here - Early August: Work started on the house
In July I went out for a ride with dad the day of his 60th birthday and he made me go over these cobbles.
June: When I made some offhand thoughts about moving here.
May: When I made some offhand comment about a new kitchen
In April, a day out with the Peterborough CC
March: An ode to what was March (fixing up the vanu) and what was enabled by the end of March.
For the long shaddows and the joy of being back on snow. February
New Year's day in the Peak District. That's my dad with the tree he wants his ashes scattered under.
Monday, December 29, 2008
New Family Member
All hail Lenny. Prince of Cats.
Actually, Lenny is from a broken home - a violent partnership where the man involved has done something so bad that Lenny could not stand to be near the husband of the lovely woman who was fostering him on behalf of the cats' protection league. He would, apparently hiss and spit at S. when he walked by Lenny's pen and S. was quite perturbed - he couldn't be near Lenny for fear of being savaged and for a man who loves and cares for cats so much, that's hard.
So it was with some trepidation that TSK entered Lenny's pen, having watched from the kitchen window whilst Lenny and this Trep had a quick and happy introduction. Lenny was by no means enthralled by TSK's presence in the pen but there was no hissing, no spitting, no growling and TSK was quite well behaved too. Lenny even chanced receiving a stroke from TSK and ate a little food from the bowl he offered before slinking away into his fluffy hidey hole.
I loved Lenny straight away. He's shy but reasonably forthcoming with me as a stranger. He's white, oh so white with black ears and face and a black back and tail. His whiskers ping! at you in white on black and his little black nose is shiny and inquisitive. He's a big cat for a yearling and I could tell there was a twinge of adventure in him. I could not wait to rescue him from his fears and his cold, outside pen.
TSK loved him to! Oh joy of joys. Lenny was to come home with us. I kept asking to make sure that TSK was OK with Lenny. I didn't want to saddle him with a cat that only likes me because TSK likes cats just as much as me - if not more. But he was fine with it all - prepared to accept a challenge, prepared to accept the odd nip and scratch, prepared to sacrifice a finger or the occasional arm, prepared to be ignored for a while.
We took Lenny home - a traumatic ride in the vanu, sitting in the new cat box but his fosterers sacrificed their blanket to travel with him to give him some comfort.
Back at the Orchard, Lenny took his first steps out of the cat box. Our intention was to show him where the litter tray and food and water was but before that, he legged it under the kitchen cabinets and there he stayed for the rest of the night. I knew I should've finished the kickboards before I got the cat.
I spent the night worrying about what to do. Would Lenny come to spend the rest of his life under the cabinets if we left him to his own devices? Would he never experience the joy of family life if he didn't push himself to try it just once? Would I have to get down on my belly on the tile floor and pull a screaming hissing cat out from under the cabinets?
You can imagine my relief when, this morning, he was happily lying on his fluffy cushion in the middle of the floor?
He took tentative steps over to his food and ate carefully from the bowl, watching me all the while.
He had a stroke, he had a cuddle. I got TSK to feed him some leftover chicken scraps.
You can imagine our surprise when this was allowed to happen...
and those are TSK's arms, not mine.
All hail Lenny, prince of cats.
Actually, Lenny is from a broken home - a violent partnership where the man involved has done something so bad that Lenny could not stand to be near the husband of the lovely woman who was fostering him on behalf of the cats' protection league. He would, apparently hiss and spit at S. when he walked by Lenny's pen and S. was quite perturbed - he couldn't be near Lenny for fear of being savaged and for a man who loves and cares for cats so much, that's hard.
So it was with some trepidation that TSK entered Lenny's pen, having watched from the kitchen window whilst Lenny and this Trep had a quick and happy introduction. Lenny was by no means enthralled by TSK's presence in the pen but there was no hissing, no spitting, no growling and TSK was quite well behaved too. Lenny even chanced receiving a stroke from TSK and ate a little food from the bowl he offered before slinking away into his fluffy hidey hole.
I loved Lenny straight away. He's shy but reasonably forthcoming with me as a stranger. He's white, oh so white with black ears and face and a black back and tail. His whiskers ping! at you in white on black and his little black nose is shiny and inquisitive. He's a big cat for a yearling and I could tell there was a twinge of adventure in him. I could not wait to rescue him from his fears and his cold, outside pen.
TSK loved him to! Oh joy of joys. Lenny was to come home with us. I kept asking to make sure that TSK was OK with Lenny. I didn't want to saddle him with a cat that only likes me because TSK likes cats just as much as me - if not more. But he was fine with it all - prepared to accept a challenge, prepared to accept the odd nip and scratch, prepared to sacrifice a finger or the occasional arm, prepared to be ignored for a while.
We took Lenny home - a traumatic ride in the vanu, sitting in the new cat box but his fosterers sacrificed their blanket to travel with him to give him some comfort.
Back at the Orchard, Lenny took his first steps out of the cat box. Our intention was to show him where the litter tray and food and water was but before that, he legged it under the kitchen cabinets and there he stayed for the rest of the night. I knew I should've finished the kickboards before I got the cat.
I spent the night worrying about what to do. Would Lenny come to spend the rest of his life under the cabinets if we left him to his own devices? Would he never experience the joy of family life if he didn't push himself to try it just once? Would I have to get down on my belly on the tile floor and pull a screaming hissing cat out from under the cabinets?
You can imagine my relief when, this morning, he was happily lying on his fluffy cushion in the middle of the floor?
He took tentative steps over to his food and ate carefully from the bowl, watching me all the while.
He had a stroke, he had a cuddle. I got TSK to feed him some leftover chicken scraps.
You can imagine our surprise when this was allowed to happen...
and those are TSK's arms, not mine.
All hail Lenny, prince of cats.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Health
Mastitis
Chest infection
Back Pain
Noro Virus
Cold
Neck Pain
Chest infection
Since November.
Bring on holidays and 2009
Chest infection
Back Pain
Noro Virus
Cold
Neck Pain
Chest infection
Since November.
Bring on holidays and 2009
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