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

Reasons to be motivated parts one two and three....

1.Other peoples achievements always seem much better than your own
2.Far too many fit people on TV over achieving in a shameless way.
3.Sheer terror.

Suddenly we are overwhelmed with Dutch guests attending a wedding nearby, a very happy experience for us and hopefully for them. Spurred on by one couple, who ran 14 miles this morning after breakfast (I was of course able to advise on the perfect route and nearly bored them to death with my overly enthusiastic local knowledge) in preparation for The New York Marathon I got on the bike yesterday and whiled away ½ an hour staring at the hut floor and listening to a spooky Play for the Day. Today, still on the up crest of the exercising wave we had a Corner Family style Duathlon. Toby, Rosie, Freya and I cycled down to the shore with the dogs (they ran) and then Coach Freya and I took off, me on my pins and her monitoring everything from speed, distance and possibly wind speed to for all I know for a 5 mile run. She was fantastic especially once I had encouraged her to give me distance updates only every 10th of a mile not every 100th. Even as we approached the turn round place which was up a hill meaning she dropped behind I could hear a distant shout giving me the distances run (if you are trying to make sense of the map we were going to go 4 miles but I was shamed into 5 so we carried on past the finish line and doubled back...psychologically this is quite shattering!). We had a wee rest with the others in a shelter thoughtfully built by Toby and then cycled the 2.5k or so home. Running along by the shore we thought of Lizzie on Coll doing her ½ marathon…it s a perfect day here for running so hope they had more of the same.

Big Day for Rosie (and her Mum!)

Rosie started "big school" yesterday and survived with a smile. The last minute decision to allow Garret to accompany her down to the bus was tempered with a request that he stay out of sight...the same was applied to Freya and me at the tail end of the day.We duly complied and all was well. Lack of photo is due to operator error (forgot to put the battery on charge) and the stress of trying to say goodbye on this big day and make sure that the correct guests got the correct breakfast. I may be able to sneak one later when she has forgotten about me and my camera...and when I have charged up the battery again. Off to rescue banana bread out of the oven now and watch the Olympics....as I write I have cringed over the mens 4 by 100m relay DQ. Oh that reminds me. Obviously now the children are back at school I will attempt to right the ravages of making beds and no exercise in a couple of days...no pressure as we officially entered the triathlon yesterday (caught by Steven, the organiser who has kindly saved us a couple of places so no getting out of it now). So Garret and I cycled a soggy 3.5miles to the pool, attempted to time our swim whilst frankly terrifying the legitimately holidaying folk of Loch Fyne Hotel. We did manage to leave about 3" water actually in the pool and damply cycled home. Jogscotland has recommenced and so a 4 miles along the canal in 32 mins (dragged along in Garret's long legged wake). We are half crippled today. Ooops, forgot the banana bread.....