Reading Lists - for posterity

How this works
Why didn't I think of doing this before? I certainly read enough to make it a regular feature... From now on, there will be a note in the side panel about what I'm reading at the moment. Once I've finished it, I will move it to this main listing.

I have an owwiee (another one)

Well, I did it. Yesterday, along with 7,499 other gluttons for punishment, I ran the Great Bupa Ireland 10k Fun Run in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. It was also David's first birthday. But mostly, I ran 10k.

Granted, it was the first time in 3 or 4 years that I'd done the full 10k but to be honest, I was a little disappointed with my time of 1 hour 2 minutes. That already takes into account the time lapse between the starting gun and my crossing the starting line. Congratulations to my pal Ann Marie Brooks who finished it in 47 minutes - there's a time to be proud of. Gerry Gainford didn't start. So, even though I went more than 15 minutes over my target, I still beat Gerry. Go me!

I was also a little horrified by how shattered I was for the rest of the evening. After we got home, I lay in a hot bath for ages and then just vegged out on the sofa until I crawled back up the stairs to my bed at 9 o'clock.

Anyway, it was a great day and I really enjoyed it. Conor and David came out to cheer me on. My friend Aiveen and I ran nearly the whole course together until I had to take a break between 7 and 8km. I almost caught her back up at the end though, finishing just a minute behind her.

I got a bit emotional towards the end as I turned onto the home straight - just 600m to go - and I looked at my watch. It was 2.30 pm... a year to the minute when my beautiful brand new baby was handed to me and I remembered the feeling that I could do anything in the world that I wanted to. So I straightened up and dragged every last bit of my energy up from the ends of my hair to my toenails and I ran those last 500m (it took me 100m to gather my energy!)

My legs hurt today.

There was something on my mind...

There was something that I thought of this morning and it was accompanied by dinging klaxons, whirling lights and a little man dressed as a ringmaster that all yelled: "BLOG IT!"

I can't remember now what it was, but at least I did remember to blog it!

Dib-dib-dib

While I was growing up I was a Girl Guide (and quite a good one too - good in the sense that I got loads of badges, knew first aid, was able to tie knots, had plenty of practice building outdoor fires and cooking on them and could build a bridge or an overnight shelter with a piece of 4x4, a couple of branches and a length of twine, that is; not good in the sense of being, well, good.) Anyway, between the jigs and the reels, I left Guiding far behind me when I went to University (because, even though I wasn't good per se, the two lifestyles are very different!)

Last year, I moved back to the town where I grew up. One Wednesday afternoon in September, I was out walking and I met up with my old Guide Captain, who lives very close to where I do now. We were chatting away and I asked her if Guides was still going.

The long and the short of it - from that day on, I have been a Guide Leader. I'm back at my old company, working with a great bunch of girls (most of whom weren't even born when I left Guides). I got my warrant a couple of weeks ago - a nice shiny badge! - and I've just been on my first camp away in almost 15 years! (It was indoors - it's still far too bloody cold to camp out.)

Ooops, I got it again!

Oooh! That stomach bug!
I spent Sunday in a wretched heap.
Couldn't eat a thing.
Didn't even have the energy to stay awake through American Idol.
No fair.
Woe is me.

Flash Forward

I saw a vision of Conor and I about 30 years from now yesterday evening when I was on my way home from work. I couldn't hear what was being said, even though I was standing right next to them, but it was definitely us-in-the-future. And I'm scared.

She was the epitome of rage: eyes bugging out of her head; steam rising from her ears; giving out about something (me, I think - there may have been some perceived bus-stop queue skippage - and also everyone else standing around in the throng for the same reason; the bus was running about 5 minutes late aswell) and he was so calm - talking her down off the metaphoric water tower.

I swear, if she'd been a little shorter and he'd been a little taller with long hair and a beard, I'd have known for sure that these were the Ghosts-of-Christmases-yet-to-come and asked them what the world was like in their time and whether now was a good time to buy...

Anyway, the upshot of it all was that I made a mental note to calm the hell down. Just in general. I think it would be a valuable life skill. Future-me looked like a stress-induced heart attack waiting to happen.

In my defence

I got a bit of stick from Con last night about my previous blog.

Thing is though, you can never really tell the tone of someone's 'voice' on their blog. I was kidding. It was a celebration of city breaks. And a little bit of a rant against suburbanisation. But mostly a celebration of city breaks.

BTW, Venice is lovely. In estate agent parlance, viewing is highly recommended.

Oh God! I'm so suburban...

Sometimes I hate what I'm becoming - a middle-class suburban working mom. Such a hateful and dull cliché. I had such visions for myself - a high-flying, jet-setting, devil-may-care, free-as-a-bird individual. But no more. I appear to have relegated myself to the staunchly middle-of-the-road suburban 4-bed detached outside of the city territory that probably describes a good 50% of the population. How very unique.

On the plus side, I get to go on mid-week city breaks! Yeayyy!

Winter Vomiting Virus (ii)

And now, so does everyone on the 17.10 CL3 Mortons bus to Celbridge.

Sorry about that folks!

Winter Vomiting Virus

I used to think this was a myth.

Now?

I think I've got it.