Thursday, 26 January 2012

Lessons I have learnt this week

A phone call to a utilities company is never quick.

I own way too much cooking and baking equipment to fit in a small but well-planned kitchen.

Occasionally I actually choose to tidy and do housework.

It's sensible to check the swimming pool's showers are working before embarking on a trip there.

A few special pictures and trinkets help make a new place feel like home.

There is no substitute for great friends.

Monday, 23 January 2012

Boxes of boxes (or "have been a bit busy recently")

There's a reason I've been a bit lax on the blog recently, culminating in a weekend of madness:





Am now knee-deep in newspaper as I unwrap all of the cookware and try to decide where everything goes! Manic.

Monday, 16 January 2012

The perfect insole?

In an attempt to solve my knee pain, I've taken several steps:
  • quad strengthening exercises (squats, leg raises, etc)
  • ankle weights (for exercises, Wii Fit and generally wearing round the house)
  • shortening my longer runs (back down to 3-4 miles)
  • including more swimming (which I really enjoy anyway)
And so far, for the time being at least, I've eliminated the problem :)

On Saturday, continuing my quest to make sure the knee pain stays away, I wandered into SweatShop to get me some supportive insoles.

What I didn't realise was that they were going to fit the insoles to my feet. This was an interesting experience which involved heated insoles being pressed into my instep whilst I balanced on my toes and heels:

(The shop assistant is hiding behind the contraption, pressing the insole into my other foot. It's a classy look.)

So now I have uniquely molded insoles which fit neatly into my trainers and hold my instep in place when I get tired. Apart from wandering round the house to break them in, I've only tried them out on one run and, once I got over the odd feeling, they seemed pretty comfortable.

Thursday, 12 January 2012

Memorial Walk - my January hike

The calendar for January was looking chocka so I panicked a bit and scheduled in my first hike of the year: an 8 mile ramble around Windsor Great Park and the surrounding area.

The organisation was even more vague - meet at the starting point, follow the route, take some photos, stop at one of the en-route country pubs when we felt we needed some lunch, get back to the car before it was too dark to read the map and accompanying instructions!

As it turned out, this walk was a bit of a tour of memorials. First we found this John F Kennedy monument...


Closely followed by the spot where the original Magna Carta was signed...

Monday, 9 January 2012

Less internet, more relaxing

Sometimes I remember that there were days (only a couple of years ago) when I didn't access the internet everyday. I didn't have email on my phone. I didn't read tweets from famous people I'll never meet. And I was quite happy.

Now, I'm on Facebook, twitter and my RSS reader multiple times a day and, while I feel it does add to my life in some ways, it also takes away. I'm not reading as much as I used to (even though my kindle is full of books I want to read). I even pause conversations with people to check something on my phone. Not good.

Time to put the phone (and the laptop) down and enjoy actual real life a bit more!

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

I want to be a runner

and I've no idea why.

I don't really like running that much; I definitely don't enjoy being on a run, except for that moment when you realise you can get to the end and the joy of actually finishing.

On top of that, I'm not one of those people who likes to "work through the pain". I've been getting sore knees recently and it's not exactly fun.

However, I seem to have decided that I am going to keep running and to try to get better at it. Why? Maybe it's because I keep reading these blogs by people who seem to really enjoy running (see Christy, Britt and Elle for examples!). Maybe it's part of me trying to develop a bit of grit and determination. Or maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment. Whatever it is, I'm not giving up yet...