California Dreaming - High Flyers Style - Day 1

Once again there has been a big hiatus in my blogging (well on here anyway, I've been keeping a more private journal online with some of the thoughts that are going around my head at the moment, but it's best to keep them separate from day to day stuff I feel)

Anyway, I couldn't go on holiday and not fill everyone in on the minutia of details of what I've been up to.  The post title is a bit of a clue...I'm currently in California and have had a really interesting week so far, but fairly limited time to sit and reflect and record exactly what has been going on.

First of all, this will be (for what I've managed to do so far) a fairly cheap holiday for me as my flights were paid for (bar a £65 amendment fee) as well as the first 3 nights of accommodation, food and activities for 3 days.  How you might ask?  Well I ended up doing pretty well at work last year and qualified for an incentive that we call in our organisation "High Flyers" although i'm not sure whether more accurately it should be "High Fliers"?

Anyway, when you are a High Flyer, it means that for 4 days you are treated a bit like a VIP/Royalty and given 2 extra days holiday and flown out to a destination with other High Flying colleagues.  There were about 15 of us in total that went on the holiday - more had qualified, but some couldn't make the dates.  We also had 3 directors with us to "supervise".  We met at Heathrow and made introductions and then shortly boarded the plane to LAX.  Being the extremely well coordinated person that I am, I managed to throw an entire Bloody Mary complete with ice down my jeans within 30 minutes of takeoff - I had only tops to change into, no change of trousers.  It dried eventually and I ended up smelling of tomato until I managed to get changed at the hotel.

My attention span wasn't great, so I managed to watch 2 films, but they were fairly low brow and I have to say, not very good at all.  In brief I watched For a Good Time Call it was incredibly predictable, but also really quite poorly characterized  so you didn't really care what happened to the characters who weren't at all realistic or in a realistic situation.  I then watched Smashed which was much more realistic and actually very sad - a mutually alcohol dependent marriage that changed when the wife decided to get sober.  Probably not the best preparation for a holiday where we'd be frequenting some high end bars - although it was a good sense check.

So we landed at LAX and took a long time to get through immigration, but fortunately we all made it through.  We were met by our rep who showed us to our transfer coach and then after a short journey we arrived at the fabulous W Hotel Hollywood.  We were welcomed with a cocktail and a seat outside as we walked through the truly awesome lobby.

We had about 45 minutes to get freshened up and accustomed to our hotel rooms before dinner.  The rooms were fairly spectacular - very white, bright and clean and with a very exciting, but expensive mini bar selection!

We went up to the rooftop restaurant of the hotel and had a really lovely meal which included 4 courses - although I had gone to bed by the time they brought out the desserts!  I particularly enjoyed a melt in the mouth steak with garlic mashed potatoes (although it probably had a posher name!)  The view from the rooftop was brilliant and the atmosphere was really good too, however at 10.30pm (equivalent to about 6.30am UK time) even an espresso couldn't keep my eyes from closing and drifting into mini sleeps so I snuck away and went to bed in my huge comfy white bed switching on the wave sounds machine to block out some of the partying noises from down the corridor.  I think that the rest of the guys were out pretty late - although everything in Hollywood does close at around 2am so not that late, but the equivalent of 8am for those who hadn't slept on the plane!

Time Lapse

So apologies if I indeed have any regular followers, there has been a bit of a blog hiatus.  I'm hopefully back for the time being and will do my best to ensure smaller gaps in the future....

So what have I been up to?

Well my parents are visiting at the moment as it was my Mum's 61st Birthday on the 19th February and my Dad's 70th on the 9th so I decided to buy them some tickets to see Fairport Convention at Leeds City Varieties - for a band that have been going for 46 years they certainly do well on a 3 month tour in terms of energy and engagement with their audience.  We went straight to the gig from home and it was a very very cold Leeds night - fortunately we didn't have far to walk or long to queue.  

The support act for the gig was a chap called Fake Thackray who was entertaining, but a little blue and was signing the songs of a fairly misogynistic individual from the past.  It was done in good humour and more in appreciation for the artist rather than the sentiment, so I was able to tolerate it, though was keen for Fairport to start!

When I was 7 my parents first took us to to Fairport's annual festival reunion in Cropredy which was great fun for us at the time because it involved camping, shopping in hippy shops and festival food.  I did also grow to love the music - including becoming somewhat partial to a fiddle and other folk music traits.

The gig was good, the City Varieties looks awesome post makeover, but I probably only knew about 4 songs during the gig.  They did play my favourite which I can highly recommend a listen of, even if you don't like folk.

Operation - don't read if squeamish!

After the burglary last week on Thursday I was debating whether or not to go ahead with an operation that I'd had re-arranged several times on the following Saturday, but as my cousin pointed out - there probably never was going to be a good time to have it done.

Again I'm not blogging for any sort of sympathy, but more because it's one of those things that I've experienced and hope that by sharing it, someone else who might be nervous about it - can read a realistic account of what happened.

I wrote a few months back about my colonoscopy which was to investigate a skin tag, they also found some Internal Haemorrhoids which needed removing.  At the time they'd suggested initially removing the haemorrhoids whilst conducting the colonoscopy, but they would need to remove the skin tag under a general anaesthetic, so I made the (obvious to me) suggestion of doing it all when I was under anaesthetic.   I was initially due to be having the procedure before I went to Bali - 3 days before flying out, but decided to reschedule, and on reflection, I'm pleased that I did.

I had to get up early on Saturday morning having fasted from midnight with nothing to eat or drink and I got a taxi over to The Spire for 7.30am.  I signed in at reception and was shown to a private room - the procedure was all on the NHS, but had been allocated to The Spire for it to be carried out.  The private room was almost like a hotel room - it had a telephone and a TV as well as an en-suite bathroom with shower and bath.  

I started to settle into the room, logged into the free wifi and messaged a few people that I'd been meaning to catch up with.  A lady came in to ask me for my lunch choice - I went for a tuna sandwich on brown bread, but I could have chosen from ham, cheese and even smoked salmon.  I then had a snooze on the chair and then the consultant came in to talk me through the procedure which he said should take about 30 - 40 minutes and that I should be ok to leave at around mid afternoon.  His demeanour was friendly, but incredibly efficient, I get the impression he is a very capable doctor, but has a very short attention span!  He was concerned I'd not been checked in by the nurses yet and so very soon after he left a couple of the nurses came in to tag me up with wrist bands with my name and address and also another separate one with my allergy to penicillin and my mild asthma noted.  The nurses were lovely, obviously busy (the surgeons had moved around all of the procedure schedules), but were friendly and gentle and talked through what I needed to do and what was going to happen.  I hadn't realised quite that I'd need someone with me for the whole night after the operation, so I checked in with my cousin  and arranged for her to pick  me up and take me home to feed the cats, give them their medicine and pick up some stuff.   The anaesthetist then came to talk to me and confirm I didn't have any lose crowns in my mouth or problems with anaesthetic etc.   


I had to give a urine sample and the nurse checked my blood pressure and pulse - both were normal.  I was given some tape and covered up my ear and belly piercings and  I got changed into a hospital gown and then got on the bed and lay on my side and I was given an Enema to prepare me for the operation.  It's not a painful process, it initially feels cold and you have to stay still for as long as possible, basically until I could feel a clenching slight pain in my lower stomach and had to go to the toilet quickly.  I was also given some Compression_stockings to wear to reduce the risk of clots during the operation.

I had only a brief 10 minutes before the nurse came to walk me to the theatre.  I put on my slippers and dressing gown and locked my phones and purse into a locker and put the key in my dressing gown pocket.  The nurse then put my dressing gown and slippers in a plastic bag under my bed.  I lay on the bed and was hooked up to a heart rate monitor on my finger and 4 electrodes to my chest as well.  I chatted to the nurses about Guides as they asked me a question that I was asked a few more times that day - "What would you normally be doing today?"  and I couldn't think of a suitable answer as I realised that I don't have a routine Saturday activity.  They made me feel very comfortable and the anaesthetist then put a Cannula in my hand.   "Sharp scratch" he said and it was put in the back of my left hand.  He then told me that I would feel a pain in my hand as the anaesthetic went in, as it went into the back of my hand it did indeed feel like a really deep ache, the last thing that I remember saying was "Is it supposed to hurt a lot?" and then about a second later I was asleep.

What felt like seconds later I woke up and another nurse called Andrea was looking after me.  I didn't have my glasses on and so I couldn't see how long I'd been under for, but Andrea told me that it was about 40 minutes that had passed.  I had an oxygen mask on when I woke up and started chatting away and Andrea told me to relax and keep it on for the moment.  I then realised that I had quite a lot of pain in my lower stomach and was writhing around, Andrea gave me 2 Tramadol tablets.  I chatted to Andrea about being burgled and somehow then got onto the topic of craft - she also enjoys craft and so I told her about Buns & Roses and she said that she was retiring and I suggested that she might want to join a WI.  As much as chatting was fine, I still felt in quite a lot of pain so after another 10 minutes or so I was given 2 Paracetamol.  Another lady was brought in next to me and she was coughing a lot and I remembered that they were giving her a special type of humidified oxygen to help her - it seemed to work quickly.  I noticed that the finger in the rubber attachment for the heart rate monitor was bloody - I think it had dripped down from my cannula, so Andrea wiped it clean for me.

Andrea had to ask a couple of times and then I was taken back to my room on the bed.  I was still in quite a lot of pain, but one of the nurses told me that it was probably gas used to perform the procedure and I'd feel better after using the toilet.  The nurses checked my blood pressure and pulse and stayed with me as I got down off the bed in case I wasn't steady on my feet.  At one point the monitor beeped as my pulse dropped down below 50 BPM - I have a naturally low  heart rate so I ended up having to reassure the nurse so that she didn't worry!  I managed to go to the toilet which helped a little with the pain.  I got back on the bed and then switched on the TV and watched The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory which helped distract me.  I also had my tuna sandwich, but my mouth was so dry I couldn't eat the crusts even though it was a really tasty sandwich.  I drank the coffee and even drank the milk because I was so thirsty.  I didn't know how to call the nurses - but there was a phone, so I used that and asked for some water and also asked what had happened to my dressing gown and slippers so that I could get the key to the locker.  The nurses brought everything through and I texted people including my Mum who was going to call, but I needed a sleep.  

I think I slept for about 2 hours and then woke up feeling much better, still sore and drowsy, but the pain in my stomach was much better.  I called for the nurses again and asked if I could go home and so they took my blood pressure and pulse, checked that I wasn't bleeding too much and then said that I could get dressed and go home.  I texted my cousin to come and pick me up and rang my Mum to let her know that I was ok.  One of the nurses came back with a big bag of medicine including lots of Paracetamol and Tramadol for pain relief and then some Fybogel and some Lactulose to help make going to the toilet less painful during my recovery period.  The nurse was Scottish and lovely, we chatted about the burglary and how my cousin was going to pick me up and she walked me to reception.  I made a point of telling her how lovely the staff and the nurses had been and that I really appreciated them.  I had enough time to buy a coffee for 50p and then my cousin arrived and I got into the car.  

Jenny took me back to her house and I watched TV with the kids and then we headed back to my house so that I could sort the cats out - they were all a bit freaked out still from the burglary, but Marla enjoyed cuddling with 5 year old Joe who loves her.  We went back to my cousin's house and ordered a yummy takeaway from Aagrah - I had a very mild vegetable Korma, poppodoms and mushroom rice which I couldn't finish - a sure sign that I wasn't myself.  I started watching Dorian Gray which was really good, but I was feeling so spaced out and drowsy after taking some more pain killers that I ended up going to bed at 10pm.  I was sleeping in Joe's room which was in a surprising comfy single bed.  I remember waking up about 11.30pm when my cousin checked in on me.  I woke up at about 2.30am in pain, took some Tramadol and couldn't sleep so browsed Groupon and spotted a deal for a 10 day trek to Nepal including accommodation, Yoga classes and transfers.  I emailed my friend Kate to see what she thought and then she emailed me back to say that she was definitely interested.  

The next morning I woke up and felt drowsy and still in a bit of pain, but better than I had.  I had fresh bread for breakfast and we had a quick trip to Ikea as my cousin had to sort something out with the new wardrobes that she'd bought for the kid's rooms (I was the very fortunate new home for her old ones).  I needed a new rug and a lampshade for my lounge and 8 year old Caitlin helped me choose.  I thought I felt fine and I got around ok, but I did start to feel a bit dizzy after about 25 minutes and so I'm pleased that I'd planned a very lazy day for the rest of the day.  In the end I went for 4 £10 rugs in red, blue, green and yellow as well as a white and primary colour streaked lampshade.  

Marla seems to enjoy the rug, although I was particularly unhappy about the fact she'd managed to get through the cat flap and spent possibly the night outside on Saturday night.  Hopefully the cold weather will have persuaded her that she shouldn't do that again!  At least she hadn't managed to get far - I found her sheltering underneath a fence panel.

Anyway, I seem to be recovering well, the Tramadol was making me very spaced out and so even though I've been in work all week, I've not been my usual energetic self, although I did have a fairly successful week and placed 2 candidates.  I stopped taking Tramadol on Wednesday and whilst I've felt sore for most of the week, I'm feeling better now, but I'm very pleased I wasn't on a flight to Bali only 4 days later.  I needed to bring cushions to work and take my time to walk slower than usual.  

Anyway, I have looked on the internet and here is a more medical report of what you can expect, but hopefully my ramblings might have helped someone who was nervous.

Burglary

So this week has not been an easy one for me.  I've always had a fairly major OCD fear of being burgled to the point that when I was particularly stressed it took me 20 - 30 minutes to leave my house about 8 years ago as I had to do so many checks to make sure it was secure.  

2 years ago I came back from a work conference and my husband told me that he thought we'd had an attempted break in and sure enough someone had tried to jemmy off the back door and had "snapped" our Yale lock - I'm not going to put up a link, but if you google "lock snapping" it's quite scary.  Fortunately my Dad had spotted that our patio doors needed additional security and had fitted two top and bottom lockable bolts and so they didn't manage to get in thankfully.  It was enough of a scare though that I invested in replacing the patio doors and the old tired side door with brand new UPVC double glazed doors with special ABS locks that are anti-snap.  

Anyway, I returned from a busy day at work on Thursday at 8.30pm with Lebanese takeaway in hand and tried to open my front door.  It wouldn't open so I assumed the cats had maybe knocked something down in front of the door, so I went around the back in the dark and saw some weird white stuff which I then realised was glass, I gasped as I wasn't sure what it was and when I realised it was a break in, I had no idea if the burglars were still there.  I ran to my next door neighbour (Who moved in during the summer, but the extend of our conversation had been to swap names and shake hands and I'd not really seen him since) and knocked on the door as my husband was down in Devon and so I was staying by myself that night.  I explained that I'd been burgled and he handed me the phone and I called the police.  I initially dialled 101 as I wasn't sure if it was an emergency, but when I though that actually there might still be people in my house, I changed to 999 and they sent 2 police cars around.  

Whilst we were waiting, my neighbour and his house mate put on shoes and helped me try and spot the cats - I was most worried about Marla who doesn't go outside as she gets lost, but we waited until the Police arrived and went into the house.  I looked through the lounge window and could see straight away that the TV had been taken.  The police arrived within about 5 minutes and got out their hitting sticks or probably as I think they're professional known to be - asps.  3 of the officers went through the house and came out of the front door. Whilst I was waiting outside I mentioned that my husband was down in Devon visiting his brother and they asked if he might have been involved - which of course wasn't true!

My first question when they came outside, was if they'd seen Marla or as I said "A white fluffy weird looking cat" and they had, I managed to catch her and locked her into my car so that she couldn't escape.  I saw Willow run down the stairs, but I couldn't see Pocky and was really worried as she needed medicine for her Thyroid problem.  

The police took me into the house so I could see what had been taken - strangely as well as the TV they'd taken our PS3, but left our PS2 and Nintendo Wii and not taken any DVDs or games.  They'd taken my Netbook - on which most of the blog was authored and then a chintzy piggy bank of 5ps and coppers.  They'd been upstairs and gone through all my clothes in my drawers and wardrobes, but hadn't found anything as I don't have any bling jewellery anyway and also the house is still a tip whilst the redecorating is finished, so I would have trouble myself finding anything of value as it's all boxed up and mixed together.   I was also pleased that they'd not discovered the external hard drive in a well hidden, on display place and had left my Tower PC alone.

One of the police officers stayed with me to take my statement and the others made "house to house" enquiries.  My neighbour remembered hearing voices during the evening, but hadn't seen anything and his housemate had been in all day as he was ill.  

The police asked if I minded being filmed - apparently the BBC and Rav Wilding were doing a special on burglaries in Leeds - I said that it would be fine - especially as I like Rav, but he never turned up, so there must have been more interesting or photogenic burglaries that evening I guess.

The police asked if I knew anyone who could secure my door and so I rang Gav - the guy who has been helping me re-plaster as he's really handy and knows pretty much everything - I work with his wife and she called to say that he was on his way and see how I was.   I also texted my cousin who lies in Leeds to ask if she knew anyone who could board the door in case I couldn't get hold of Gav and her partner replied to say that she was on her way around.  

The SOCO person arrived and it was like watching CSI as he used a torch to find footprints on my new lounge floor and lift them off with a special metallic dust.  Just from looking at them he knew that the burglars had been wearing Addidas and Nike Air trainers, unfortunately he was also able to establish they'd worn gloves so couldn't get any finger prints.  When he'd finished down by the back door Gav fitted a board to make it all secure and my cousin made everyone tea - I had some with sugar as I was in a bit of shock and hadn't eaten at all since 12pm.  The officer taking my statement was lovely and was really interested in the copy of God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens which was on the dining room table.  I explained that it was my husband's and we had an interesting conversation about religion - he was Muslim  but very interested in hearing about other people's beliefs, although mentioned that he was a lot less keen about the prospect of being on TV with Rav Wilding who he'd met earlier in the toilets.

After the Police had left and Gav had finished securing the door I tidied up my clothes and the drawers and my cousin cleared up the glass inside and I managed to coax Willow and Pocky back to the house who were terrified.  I managed to feed Pocky her thyroid medicine and then settled them in and then went back to my cousins's for the night as I was a bit too full of adrenaline to want to stay in the house by myself.  I did find it hard to leave the cats though.  As much as I am annoyed at the TV being taken etc.  I was most concerned that the cats were OK as they can't be replaced in PC World.  They are still taking time to calm back down, but are getting there.  

The next day I got up and had breakfast with my cousin and her kids who didn't even seem to think it strange or ask why I was there and then headed home to speak to the insurance company and finish tidying up.  Another SOCO officer arrived as he wanted a glass sample from the door - they'd found suspects with glass in their shoes so he said that there was a chance I could see my stuff again (not holding out much hope though it has to be said).  I also purchased a cheap TV so that I have something to watch whist insurance company sort out a replacement - I had a minor operation on Saturday under general anaesthetic (more about this later) so I wanted some access to entertainment whilst recovering.  I also wanted to create a timeframe for the police as I knew I had a lot of recordings on Sky+.  I was able to tell the police that the burglary occurred between 6.30pm and 7pm (Got to Dance recorded fine from 6 - 6.30pm) and 7pm (The Big Bang Theory at 7pm failed as they'd unplugged all of the electronic devices including the Sky Box when stealing the PS3 and TV).

So what have I learned or decided from all this?

• My friends, family and neighbours are all lovely people who have helped me more than I would have expected.
• I will be upgrading to a good burglar alarm which works well with a cat infested house.
• I will be recording the serial numbers of everything electrical of value and marking them all with UV pens (this I had already done for most things, but not my Netbook).
• I will get to know my neighbours a little better.
• I will get the fence at the back of my house repaired and get a lock fitted onto the side gate.
• The Police in Leeds were lovely to me and they also came back to patrol the next evening and check in that I was ok (Marla got on the officer's lap!)
• I will continue to be grateful that my cats are ok and that I'm ok - it does make you realise that material possessions are handy, but friends, family and pets are what matter most.

Cupcake Baking and Decorating Class

So back in the Autumn my friend Jenny suggested that we buy a Living Social voucher that she had spotted for a 3 hour cup cake baking and decorating class for £22 from Zarina's House of Cakes.  We booked it for today to give us something to look forward to after Christmas and it was really good fun.

First of all we had a look at some of the cakes that Zarina had decorated whilst we waited for the rest of the class participants to arrive and were offered a coffee.  We were then shown through into Zarina's lovely (and huge!) kitchen where all our ingredients were ready and laid out for us - just like on a TV cooking programme!

  
There were 4 of us in the group in total and the first thing that we had to do was to bake our cakes after we'd been talked through the recipe - similar to a sponge recipe, but with the addition of cornflour to make it a smoother mix.  The recipe from memory was as follows:

4 oz self raising flour
4 oz stork / butter
4 oz caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons corn flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

All the ingredients were added into a bowl and then whisked for exactly 1 minute.

If you've ever wondered how to make cupcakes that don't bake too high...then we learnt how to do this - using an ice cream scoop you fill it 2/3rds full and then use the scoop releaser to put the cake mixture into the cupcake case.

The cakes then went into bake and Zarina showed us how to make our fondant icing decorations to go on top of the cupcakes.

First of all we blended two blocks of white fondant icing with our chosen colour pastes.  I went for Tangerine and violet and Jenny went for claret and ice blue.

We then used Zarina's huge array of cutters to cut out decorations for our cupcakes.  The cutters we used included butterflies, shoes, stars, flowers and geometric shapes.  Some of the cutters just cut out the shape, but others emboss patterns on top.  We also layered up the decorations and used just a drop of water to attach the icing pieces together.

After we had made enough decorations for 6 cupcakes, we took our baked cakes that were almost perfectly flat and Zarina showed us how to ice them with very smooth and perfectly whipped butter cream icing.  First of all we were shown how to "Flat ice" the cakes - spreading the butter cream icing over the top of the cake and using a palate knife to neaten up the edges.  

Zarina then showed us how to pipe butter cream roses onto the cakes - simple, but a definite technique required to make them look like roses.  Then when we had iced our cakes with butter cream roses or flat icing techniques we placed our fondant decorations on with some really lovely results - even if I do say so myself.  (Mine are on the left and Jenny's on the right)

Zarina then gave us a cupcake carrier box to put our cakes in and I think that they are almost too pretty to eat!

We then went back to my house so Jenny could see my decorating efforts on a larger scale (I've just repainted my entire lounge - photos and post to follow shortly) and I introduced her to the wonder that is Kirkstall Morrisons with the best salad bar in the UK (only rivals I've found would be in New York!).  Jenny is here looking very pleased with the selection.

Breaking through the Pain Barrier

One of the things that I have on my profile here is that I like getting muddy, and this is the first time since starting this blog that I can show you exactly what I mean.

Earlier this year I signed up for The Pain Barrier race.  I've done a number of "mudstacle" races before with the first being Total Warrior up in the Lake District in 2011 and then The Spartan Sprint which I first did last year, but also this year.  Usually I have a few friends with me to run these races as you often need help to climb over walls or up slippy slopes, but strangely I couldn't convince any of my friends to join me this morning.

I was extremely anxious about this race, I've had a fair amount of time out from running this year - after last year I decided to have the year off and concentrate on getting the house sorted.  I've still thrown in a few 10Ks and even a half marathon, but my fitness is nothing like it used to be.  Being in Bali for 2 weeks was hard work too as I had hoped I could go for runs, but with the humidity I just didn't even try. Also I'm not good with the cold, my fingers get really cold and so do my toes.  I like nothing more to be tucked up in bed in my dressing gown in winter as well as under a blanket when watching TV.

I was half expecting to not manage to even persuade myself to get to the starting line, let alone complete this race as it was billed as follows:

The Pain Barrier at Parkwood is a 10km mud race set amongst 100 acres of off road wood and parkland. The course twists and turns across a variety of terrain so you’ll find yourself running along muddy tracks and open fields, through woodland, across ponds and water obstacles and tackling steep hills and ravines.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE ABLE TO SWIM TO TAKE PART BUT PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT THE COURSE WILL GO THROUGH PONDS AND STREAMS WHICH WILL BE COLD, WET AND VERY MUDDY.

Please be prepared for elements. This is December in the North – we are not expecting sunny weather, so please prepare by bringing suitable warm racing clothing and a complete set of dry and warm clothes to change into afterwards.

I decided to prepare for a very very cold morning and so first step was to completely cover myself in Vaseline (you see people swimming the channel covered in goose fat, so I figured this was similar and might help), I then put 3 layers on my top (2 long sleeve and one t-shirt) and two layers on my legs.  For my feet I put one layer of thin socks and then put plastic bags over them, and then put thick socks on top.  Coddy had bought me a hot water bottle for afterwards as well as some thick and slightly waterproof gloves from one of my favourite shops - Go Outdoors.  

We drove to Tong and it was around 1 - 2 degrees Centigrade.  I picked up my registration pack and hid in the car until I absolutely had to go to the starting line.  The sun was out and actually it wasn't too bad.  Once I started to run down the first slope - it was muddy and squidgy grass, I started to warm up a bit.

It wasn't long before we hit ankle deep muddy swamps that nearly sucked my feet in and I had to accept a friendly helping hand from a fellow competitor to help me get out of the mud. There was a lot of running through very pretty woodland, but after getting covered in mud and cold, you stop admiring the scenery quite so much.  

At this point I'm still fairly warm, and just a little bit startled by this photographer.  In the next photos I look fairly exhausted having made it up a very steep and slippery hill.

After quite a few puddles, muddy paths where my feet just seemed to want to go sideways rather than forward and at least two occurrences of falling over (no injuries though I am extremely good at falling!) I arrived at the "Dips of Despair" nearly vertical slopes covered in mud that I had to hoist myself up, if it wasn't for a few kind hands dragging me up at certain points, I'm not sure that I would have made it up.  It was fun going down the slopes though - like a slide only covered in mud.

About two thirds of the way around the course I reached the "Pool of Punishment" which was freezing - literally!  It was a 5 minute walk through a frozen pond with sheets of ice across it.  I had to shift the ice out of the way to walk across it.  The guy in front of me wasn't having a good time of it, at one point I was convinced he might pass out and I'd have to help him out - the expression on the photographer's face in front of me suggested that he thought the same - I've checked the results though and he finished the race about 15 minutes after me.  He really didn't look like he was having a good time of it though.

So in case you have never had the experience of walking through an ice covered pond, this is what it feels like.  At first it's a bit exhilarating and then it feels as though there are lots of very sharp needles poking you and then your legs feel like they've turned into lead and it's much harder to keep lifting them up to keep moving forward.  You may question why I do these races, but you do feel like it's a big achievement when you have finished them and it's fun in a weird sort of way.  I love the camaraderie that you get with the other competitors - people helping you up slippery slopes, encouraging you along and helping you up if you fall down, It's very different to what you might expect from a normal race or indeed normal life.  I look far too happy to have just climbed out of a frozen pond in this next photo.

When I got out of the pond, I jogged to warm up as fast as my frozen legs would allow and then hit another load of waist deep water.  This was fortunately the last one and the rest of the course was running up and down hills and along slopes back to the finishing line.  It took me an hour and 38 minutes and 1 second to get around the course.  A normal 10K takes me around 52 - 55 minutes (51 is my personal best) so this is a lot longer, but the amount of climbing really slowed me down!  It was a really good all over workout - back and arms to pull me up the slopes, core to keep me balanced and stop me topping over in the mud and legs from all the running and hill climbing.

At the end I got a medal and a pretty decent goody bag and most importantly Coddy waiting with my coat!  We walked back to the car, I swapped out of my muddy wet clothes and Coddy filled up the hot water bottle and drove me home.  I'm pleased to report, it took a while to get the mud out from under my nails, but that I have no scratches or bruises at all.

EDIT - just found this video on YouTube which gives a good indication of the level of challenge!  

I had a shower, and a chill out and then we went to see Ben Folds Five - more about that later.

Bookclub and Reading

When I went to University I chose to do English Language and Literature largely because it was my favourite subject at school and it was probably the one that I was best at for A-Level. I loved reading, but I always struggled with the fact that I am a pretty slow reader and even though people are convinced that I am fast, it can take me months sometimes to get through a book.  Like a lot of things I need a "target" to work towards, or nothing really happens.

I'm a bit of a geek too ever since I was 15 I have kept a small flower covered book with a list of all the books that I've read since then (which is now going on for about 17 years!).  Eventually I twigged that it might be interesting to look back on how many books that I had read each year and so from 1998 I've got a log of how many books I've read per year which is as follows:

1998 - 26

1999 - 28

2000 - 46

2001 - 34

2002 - 9

2003 - 13

2004 - 6

2005 - 11

2006 - 9

2007 - 18

2008 - 5

2009 - 2 (!!!)

2010 - 7

2011 - 6

As you can see I read the most books when I was at Uni from 1998 - 2001 which is to be expected as I had a lot more time on my hands,  as well as the fact that I had to read about 3 books per week per semester which was 12 weeks in total (so actually I should probably have read a few more than I did!).

As you can see apart from a blip in 2007 (not sure what was going on then!) my reading has really declined - probably as a result of the work that I do taking up a lot of my brainpower and making me fairly tired so I fall asleep very quickly if I try and read at bedtime.  The stupid thing is that I really do love reading, I just struggle when I'm tired and don't have an end date to get things done to finish a book with momentum unless it's an incredible book and I'm hooked.

When I joined Buns & Roses in 2010 I hadn't realised that they have their own Book Club and I was really pleased that they did - it would give me the impetuous to make sure that I finished a book by a deadline as well as giving me suggestions of books to read that I might not normally encounter (at the first meeting that I went to we discussed Jam and Jeopardy by Doris Davidson which was certainly a different read)  and have a chance to chat through them with friendly ladies eating cake.  I've already read nearly twice as many books as I did last year so I think it's got a definite positive impact on my reading.

We meet at the Tiled Hall Cafe which is next to the Art Gallery and the Leeds Central Library. It's a really pretty venue and they serve gorgeous cakes - Earl Grey Tea Loaf, Scones with clotted cream and jam, Caramac cake and Neapolitan Cake.  They also serve a great selection of drinks including wine and beer and my favourite - Suki tea - I love the Russian Caravan which is like a milder slightly less smoky lapsang souchong.

Our last book club was really fun - we met on Sunday and we had all finished reading the book that we were discussing - The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky which we all enjoyed. 

The Buns & Roses Book club is really friendly, we don't worry if someone hasn't finished the book, or indeed if they hate it that's fine too!  Everyone is fine to voice their opinion and most importantly it's fun - we talk about what we think of the cover of the book and who might play certain characters in a film version as well as discussing more technical things like characterisation and plot.

We all agreed that we liked how the book reminded us very much of being teenagers and in particular Susan who is from America said that it really reminded her and felt very well written and representative of her time in high school much better in comparison to some other books that she has read in the past.  

Sam who was new to book club mentioned that she had read the book slightly differently as she'd seen the film first, but really enjoyed the book and actually hadn't expected the form of the book to be the series of letters that are presented.

In terms of characters we felt that they were all very "real" characters and had a lot of sympathy with the main character - Charlie and genuinely felt as though we were taken on a bit of a journey with him and saw how he developed.  

Lianne had been worried about how the ending of the book would transpire and how some of the fairly serious issues would be handled, but actually felt that it was effectively written.

We all enjoyed the book and I found that I really enjoyed the references to different music of the time and how his teacher recommended different books for Charlie to read to help him develop both intellectually and emotionally.  I loved how one of these books was A Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger as the feel of this book was very similar to that, but the characters were much more likeable.

We tried to think of some Christmas themed books for our December Bookclub meeting, but went for Life of Pi by Yann Martel instead and will be meeting at 2pm on the 16th December at the same place - you are welcome to come and join us.