I'm Scared!

Happy Birthday Toby (yesterday)

I never met a pumpkin I didn't like.

Five Children
Five Pumpkins and a carving competition....with a little help from their friends.
Master of The Judging Ceremony extraordinaire was Andy, father of the two cuties (Sam and Hope). This honour was bestowed upon him when he foolishly left the room and was nominated in his absence.
The results are very diplomatically as follows from L to R:-
Most Scary No 2 (Hope)
Neatest No 3.(Rosie)
Most effort No 1 (Freya)
Best design No 5 (Toby)
Best Teeth No 4 (Sam)

Back to running

All quiet on the B and B front this week so I am a lady who lunches today with my friend Lyndsay...always good food at her gaff.Nice to have time to relax if only I could stave off the guilty demons that lurk around me at this time of year. I can justify the downtime in my head but somehow the message stays in there mired in a pit of anguish.
Attending jogscotland last night turned out to better than expected as we set of in a splatter of rain and hailstones combined with a pitch black night. The aforementioned guilt kicks into touch here in a positive way at the thought letting others down, being a wimp at not turning up, setting a bad example and worse of all the fear of others getting a rung higher on the training ladder as no way was last night a good night for training...or was it? The rain cleared just before Lochgilphead and jackets and gloves shed on the 10k run down Loch Fyne through Ardrisaig. Roughly 53 minutes...okay for a stiff under exercised Momma.

Half term Catch up

After all the drama of the previous week what Toby and I needed was a week or so convalescence in warm and cosseting surroundings, Hawaii, The Maldives, a small cosy log cabin somewhere. What we got was 4 nights in a caravan on the East Coast.... Actually the static caravan 2 miles from the lovely Bamburgh with its beautiful beaches was perfect in every which way. We could and did cycle to Bamburgh along the little lanes and wyndings and then on to Seahouses. The only glitch was when Rosie's bike firstly shed derailer bracket on the beach at Bamburgh just before the photo of beach cycling (Toby was delighted to be shunted onto Garret’s bike for her to take his…I shall draw a veil) and then a pedal crank at the furthest point from the mainland along a rough track on Holy Isle (Lindesfarne). This is a wonderful place, which Garret and I have been visiting for many years. It was fantastic to cycle over the causeway with the children and even more fun to wind Freya up about the tide. The cycle back against the wind was tougher especially for Garret on Rosie’s bike following a hastily performed Heath Robinson repair. The week spun away from us and pretty soon we ended up at our regular annual destination of Centre Parcs at Penrith. This place suits us all, as we love the cycling and the sporty activities. We are all finally, even me able to sustain a reasonable badminton rally in our own contest the rules of which are devised so that no one gets bored or left out or too exhausted. This time we shared the experience with beloved Aunty Liz who made the weekend perfect all round.


PHOTOS
1.Reviving Toby with a Hot Choc
2.The beach at Bamburgh
3.In a tree
4.Rosie embracing the North Sea
5.The Poison Garden at Alnwick closely guarded. The perfect place to research methods for a detective novel aka Agatha Christie.
6.Lindesfarne Castle with Freya
7.The causeway to Lindesfarne

Excuses Excuses Excuses.....read on

Shame on me...so long without a post but I do have an excuse or two honest! Firstly we had the sweaty, panicky downward slide to the Triathlon (hence the pictures)coupled with an end of season rush for rooms with some very nice guests indeed. You know who you are......So, back to the triathlon. The day was good with kind weather, just a bit of a breeze on the cycle. I had a better swim than I expected pulled along as I was in the wake of a friend and better swimmer. I hauled myself out for a rather frantic transition to bike losing precious seconds by forgetting to fasten my helmet strap, a big slap on the hands and an ignominious return to the bike racking if you try to set off on the cycle so woefully prepared. The cycle leg was so so 42 minutes with the usual leg crunching start to the run when one's thigh muscles become so disproportionately large and heavy that even a slow crawl along the pavement seems unachievable. Luckily after a km or so of torture it begins to subside and I finished in 34 minutes...oh blessed finish line. So, then we went to Liz's for a little glass or two of bubbly to celebrate and...Toby decided to round the evening off nicely by tripping outside and (we subsequently discovered) tear a tiny artery at the top of the nose. This naughty little blood vessel dominated my life over the next two weeks or so as it continued to bleed at varying degrees for the following week until a humongous eruption on Saturday night which saw us moving late at night from home to Dr's surgery to ambulance to ENT ward in Glasgow at a fast rate of knots. Our heads were reeling but not as much mine was 5 days later after several joyless nights sleeping in a hard chair by his bed. We actually reached discharge twice during the week but had to return.After numerous goes with a rigid scope the eventual cauterization was achieved with a GA. So, 5 days later a paler son (and mother) returned to the bosom of the family in time for Rosie's birthday on Friday.
We have now had several discussions on what not to say to complete strangers i.e "my mother was born in 1950" to the porter on the way to theatre and "do you know what you are doing" or words to that effect to the consultant surgeon just before theatre and (worst of all) "hospital food is really good". I hope I am forgiven for my absence.