Cupboard Update

I dragged all the stuff out of the cupboard the other night. I didn’t find any slugs or spiders. I did find a hole in the floor, for the electrics. No obvious cellar either. Everything is now back in the cupboard (mostly) and we’re going to buy some slug pellets to get rid of the slugs as we can’t find them. We have also discovered that we need something to put the potatoes and onions on. We keep them in the cupboard coz it’s dark, but it seems to be having an adverse effect on the floor in there.

Race For Life

I completed the Race for Life. Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me!

I managed to finish in about 40 mins. Lots of the people who got themselves into the “runners” group didn’t run very far before they stopped running and started walking. Some of the runners, though, ran round very quickly! I was somewhere in-between. I ran for the whole thing, which included running around people. It was quite satisfying to finish knowing that I ran all the way around and that I have raised a big wadge of cash for Cancer Research UK.

My sister came up to support me (Mum and Dad would have, but they had work commitments) and to laugh at me too. It has been very nice to see her again. She also drove me to the racecourse, which was fab!

Afterwards we all went for a celebratory curry. Excellent.

I think that I will continue running because it’s a way of keeping fit (it would be awful to go back to the slob state I was in before we started training when I couldn’t even run for a bus!) although I don’t expect that we will run quite as often! I’d like to keep doing the three miles, and I guess it will get easier if we keep doing it! it is only just over half-an-hour when running on the road and when not running with 5000 other women!

My last (and most important) thank you of the post has to go to Leon for his support over the past few months training for the race, and for his continued support in carrying on running and staying fit!

Oh - photos of me on the day to come once we've uploaded them.

Slug

We have a minor slug problem. This has been indicated in the following ways:

• the finding of slugs at various times, including the one Lint almost stood on 6 months ago, and the one I threw in the bin (that didn’t work)
• slug trails on Leon’s slippers
• Slug trails on my new cushions

As you can probably tell, the final point is "the straw that broke the camel’s back"
Now, because of the locations in which slugs have been found and the places trails have been seen, I think that the slugs are coming from our under-stairs cupboard. This is a mangy cupboard which we have piled full of crap.
So, we’re going to:

1. take all of the crap out of the cupboard
2. throw away some of the not-useful crap
3. find more sensible ways of storing the remaining crap than just piling it all in there
4. investigate the cupboard
   • For slugs
   • for a cellar (1)
   • for other nasties like spiders. (2)

If there’s a cellar Leon will probably want to investigate. I will probably not. If there is not a cellar then we will give the cupboard a clean and then put the crap back in, neatly in some kind of storage solution=ness. Fantastic.
As Leon’s playing badminton this evening, I may make a start on clearing the crap out of the cupboard. I do have some disposable not-latex plastic gloves suitable for "light cleaning". I normally use them for applying fake tan or for cleaning in the bathroom. (I don’t just use gloves; I also use cloths, cleaning products and water when cleaning the bathroom,)

(1) A neighbour of ours claimed that some houses on our street have cellars. We may just be being gullible, or if not, there may be a chance of a cellar, which would be exciting if not that practical. Apparently they’re only about 5ft ceilings.
(2) Might as well get rid while we can

More Race For Life Stuff

If you have been holding back on sponsoring me (!) because you don't want to choose between myself and other people you know, then no fear! The "team" I'm running with also have a donations page so click on in there and sponsor the team instead!

Those of you just not sponsoring me - sort it out!

Surprise!

So, this weekend we have been in Edinburgh for Jackie’s birthday celebrations. She didn’t know about it until she walked into her house to find us all there waiting for her! JB, her boyf, did an excellent job of keeping it secret and she really had no idea! It was a great night too, although we stayed up too late and drank too much.
We don’t make it up there often enough though. We should work on that.

Other notable news, the parents may be coming up to see me in the Race For Life, as is my sister. I don’t know whether they will stay long after, I’m going to see if Gayle wants to stick around, but I know Dad has to be back at work that evening. Some of the runners are planning to head on to have a curry afterwards to celebrate. Yey! I like curry. And I like celebrating.

Also, what sucks about the weekend just gone is how much weight I put back on! What a nightmare! I’ve been so good and lost so much. I’ve gone back up by three pounds! Hopefully when I am back on the porridge this will be rectified. (porridge is wonder food!) and also I will be drinking nothing this week until after the race. I think that most of the weekend’s gain is due to margaritas. I didn’t even have a single crisp (go me!) though I did eat three burgers. And three chicken strippers and two bits of pizza. (not all together, this is over the period from 6pm Saturday to 6pm Sunday) oh well. I also drank over a litre of margarita, one cup of tea, one and a half cans of diet coke and a bottle of water.
No wonder I’m really hungry right now!

This IS a Sofa

New sofa 1
Originally uploaded by leondumont.

The sofas did come...
Fantastic aren't they?
I made the cushions...

Weeks go by...

I have had a very nice two weeks. I had a week off work and then this week my boss has had a week off work. Things are a little more relaxed when he’s not around. I have worked really hard though, had lots on. The random project person I have been working with is very cheerful and positive. I have lots of cool stuff I could possibly be doing in the future; although I have no doubt that it will all be shot down as soon as my boss gets back!

We went to see Dylan Moran last night, which was pretty good. Leon and I remembered to turn up - always a bonus. We went to Fiesta Mexicana first, which was nice. I probably ate more than I should have. Then on to the theatre to see DM. he was funny, mostly. The general consensus seemed to be that he could have been funnier. We all liked the “What? Yes.” Joke. I liked the bit about cows too. He seems a little obsessed with cake and cages, and he definitely smokes too much. It was the fourth live comedian I’ve been to see (officially, unofficially I’ve seen 5) and he was better than the other three (the fourth was Matt Lucas who gate crashed the show with the other three in and outclassed them all.)

Race For Life is only 5 days away now. Tonight Leon and I are meant to be running our full 3 miles in one go. We almost did it on Wednesday, but I sort of lost my momentum when we had to walk down the steps. Then we will be going out again, including celebrating Iasonas newly found Actuarydom and eating some Thai food.

Tidy Up

I've been on a mini spring clean. If anyone can tell me how to make my archive list (on the left there) shorter, I'd like that. Anyway, I've removed the following from the "To Do" list because they've been done.

• make/buy cushions (carried over from 2005) [6/4]
• complete arty picture for Leon's brithday [1/1]
• buy some new slippers [1 pair/1 pair]
• pay off my overdraft [100% complete]
• read some new books [11+ read]
• get Leon to put up some picture hooks [9/many]

Not a sofa

Not a sofa
Originally uploaded by Hayzee C.

This, as you can see, is not a sofa.

Sadly it will not be a sofa until Tuesday.

On Tuesday it will be magically transformed into a sofa (or at least some people will bring some sofas and we can put away the camping chairs)

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Chocolate Fudge Brownies Originally uploaded by Hayzee C.

I made chocolate fudge brownies today. Yummy. I also made fudge yesterday. Check out the recipe page if you fancy having a go at these!

BBQ

We had a barbeque yesterday. Arguably it was the worst day of the week for it, as we had better weather on Monday, Tuesday and today... Oh well. We enjoyed it, although we didn't eat it all. I made salsa (see the recipe page) and potato salad (not on the recipe page) and buttered some bread. Leon did the manly MAN + FIRE + MEAT = FOOD bit of the event. He also drank beer, while I finished off a bottle of Pinot Grigio. (It was already half drunk from the picnic...) Yes - we also had a picnic. Didn't I mention it? Oh. Well, on Sunday in the nice weather we threw together some sandwiches and trekked about twenty minutes down the river to a meadow with horses in. Nice. We ate, drank wine and watched birds. Then we left. Leon's shoe rubbed his foot quite badly, so we did some barefoot walking, which was amazingly pleasant!

Legs Bums and Tums

Ok, this post should probably reside on my "diet" blog, but since that's not really up to date these days, it's going to be here.

I've had a go at my LBT DVD with Micah again today for the first time since we moved house! Anyway, I expected to be really knackered, but to my amazement I made it all the way through with only one outburst aimed at the TV! Brilliant!

So, I guess the running is helping in more ways than one. :)

Holiday Activities!

So, the man came and took away our sofa, and now we have to sit on the floor. Alternatively, we can sit in these stylish camping chairs.

We have also moved the bookshelf - as you can see. This is in preparation for the entire move around that we will complete before the sofas arrive. We're getting a bit worried now that we may be sofa-less for some time. :(

The movement of the bookshelf has left us with a prime place to put the dresser, but before we move that we have placed our degree certificates on the wall. I say "we" but Leon has done the whole hook-fixing stuff, I just managed the placing of the certificates. I did get the "thrips" out of Leon's frame. For non-Cambridgites, thrips are thunderflies.

We have also made our house safer... Leon has fitted the smoke alarm. So if we set the place alight, it will make a VERY loud noise. It will probably also do this whenever we cook until we get the new sofas as we have had to remove the kitchen door to get the old sofa out. I figured that it was probably as sensible to leave it off until after the new sofas arrive as they're probably not going to fit in through the front. I am not allowing the delivery men (or women) to be as brutal with my new sofas as the two guys were with the old sofa and chairs. They were cool guys. One was a fairly standard looking removal-man-with-beer-belly and his compatriot was a standard skinny-removal-man-with-hairy-chest. Fab.

Learnt something...

Today Leon asked me: "Does 'hers' have an apostrophe when something belongs to her?". I did not know. I asked the other members of my team. Opinion was divided. Leon looked up the "Apostrophe Protection Society" and discovered that, no, hers does not need an apostrophe (like ours or yours)

Run

Leon and I did our second full three miles yesterday. After the fly incident I was not confident, but we set off at a good pace. We whiled away the first set of five minutes by ranting about work. This is helpful to me because I get to rant, but also I get it out of my system and then have a pleasant evening. I spent much of the fourth 5 minute stint complaining, especially about how taking water with us results in sloshing noises which make me need the loo. During our fifth stint we were told by a local yob (he was sitting in a tree) “Nice A**” – though I don’t know if he was talking about Leon or me. In total we took 34 minutes to run the three miles. I think that’s faster than 5 miles an hour. However, we are walking for some of the time, and it is harder to run all the way around. Oh well, I have exactly 3 weeks to be able to run the whole way.

Things I’m looking forward to doing during my week off

Sleeping in I will not have to drag myself out of bed in time for work; I will be able to get up late. If the weather is nice, I’ll probably be getting up reasonably early to make the most of it though. Lazing around the house in my nightie I will not have to get dressed! It’s much more acceptable to be wearing a nightie in your own home than it would be to wear one to work. That said, I’ll have to get dressed on the day that Oxfam come to take away our old sofa. I’ll probably also have to get dressed on other days too, especially if I intend to do anything outside of my house. Making Fudge (and other food stuff) I intend to spend some of the time I have during my week off making fudge. I have a recipe I found online. If it is any good, I’ll post it on the recipe page. I might even add a picture. I will invariably also cook a complicated meal too. Shopping! Yes, I may not have much money for shopping, but I will still venture in to town and do some! I still have to get my nightie/pyjamas and dressing gown combo. I may also buy random toiletries and such. We still need frames for two of the artworks from Leon’s A-Level too (which are very good) Put up pictures I’ve convinced Leon to put up some picture hooks. Okay, so he hasn’t yet, but we are deciding where to put our pictures. Leon wants to put all of them in the second bedroom. We’ll see. Most of all, I think I will enjoy not sitting in a cold office in front of a computer wishing that I was sitting outside in the sun.

Flies are Evil

Insects are everywhere, which is bad enough. However, yesterday one of them had the audacity to fly into my eye. This was not only painful but also very irritating; as it completely threw me off pace in my jogging. Leon managed to retrieve the horrible little blighter (I hope it is dead) and we continued on briefly. However, my eye was very sore and runny by this point and I was cross (to say the least). My anger mounted when another (possibly related) fly flew into my other eye. I managed to fish this one out before it began to sting too much, but the damage was now done. I could not see properly and was incredibly annoyed with the insect population. We walked home and I rinsed my eyes with cold water (which also stung, but made me feel better, knowing I no longer had fly-based-dirt in my eyes)