Mutterings for the Minority

Mr. Forgetful

I’ve had one of those forgetful kind of days today, not because it’s been a lousy day but because I’ve been so absent-minded!

I mean, after going into Swansea city centre to buy a card and Thornton’s chocolates in 22 minutes flat I dashed back to the office to get my kit so I could go for a run - so far so good. However, after getting my kitbag and going down 2 flights of stairs I remembered that I didn’t have my card to clock out - back upstairs I went to get the card. Once again I trotted down the same two flights of stairs to remember that I’d forgotten my stopwatch (an essential running companion) - and once again back upstairs I went. Third time lucky I thought, until I reached the basement changing rooms - I’d forgotten my toiletries bag! So back upstairs again I went, only this time I was kitted out in my lycra Ron Hill running shorts and vest.

After all this to-ing and fro-ing I finally got around to doing my run. I did the same distance (3 miles) but took a different route and finished in a time of 23 minutes 53 seconds, slower than of late but I had a good reason to be. Halfway through the run, nature began to call in a big way - a no.2 just for the record - and the main road course I’d chosen made it impossible to stop. I can honestly say that I have never ever run so far with such clenched buttocks in all my life and never wish to do so again!

The relief was almost tangeable when I returned to the changing rooms. But little did I know at this stage that my forgetfulness would strike again - I’d forgotten my towel this time…..

Websense see sense

Despite the coughing and spluttering I decided to go out for my usual lunchtime bike ride, in the hope that it would help shift the green gunge that has made it’s home in my sinuses. It seemed to help even if it didn’t feel like it during the 11 mile ride.

DDWT Junior was chuffed once again to see Santa visit Cylch Meithrin Trebanos today and duly celebrated with an energetic 90 minute stint on the giant bouncy castle that was also there. Needless to say he’s still as wound as a clockwork soldier this evening!

Websense have now appeared to see sense (ho ho ho) and remove the beta.blogger.com address from their master database - which now means I can happily block at work again (albeit during my lunch hour honest boss).

Talking of Websense, I came across a rather interesting post on the jclin blog about how to tweak Firefox to bypass the Websense URL blocker. I’m tempted to give it a go …..

Finished at last

Yes indeed, we’ve finally managed to finish all of our Christmas shopping - so it’s now time to enjoy the final run up to the big day. We always try and leave the worst until last, and for us it’s always the family cards that cause the biggest headache (and often the most expense). However, a visit to no less than 4 different card shops solved the problem in less than an hour - a result!

The flu symptoms that have been sweeping the house of DDWT have finally caught up with me today and I’m also now coughing and spluttering with the rest of them. Just what I wanted for Christmas NOT. I can see me having to endure vast quantities of Covonia cough mixture and Night Nurse in order to try and keep the worst of it at bay and more importantly get rid of the lurgi pretty darn quickly.

More positive news from the confines of our bathroom today with the tale of the scale showing a super smashing great 16st 6lbs on its digital display. That’s magic and just what the fitness coach ordered *massive cheesy grin*

Swans v Cumbrians

After yesterday’s festive knees up, I felt decidedly bright and breezy this morning - which came as a bit of a shock considering the amount of cider I drank - and was out of bed early enough to take a few pics of the early morning moon and sunrise.

Talking of yesterday, there were one or two things I forgot to mention during my drivelled outbursts last night. Firstly DDWT Junior had a great time in the Gower Heritage Center (along with 28 other kids and parents!!) and actually met Father Christmas without shedding a tear - which was a major surprise. There was also lots of animals for the kids to see, a puppet show and a present for all of the kids. It was worth all of the 225 pennies (as DDWT Junior calls them) that were paid.

Talking of DDWT Junior he received a letter this morning from Nick Jr the TV Channel - he was one of their winners in the Johnson’s Junior competition they ran. The bath bag and toys will no doubt make his enjoyment of bathtime ever greater now - not that he ever needed any encouragement as he’s such a water baby (unlike me).

The other bit of news was my 3 mile lunchtime run yesterday and the time it took me - 22 minutes 28 seconds. This was another personal best for me and now me’s that I’ve broken my previous personal best on each of the last two Friday’s! So there’s no pressure for me to do well this Friday then is there *wink*

This afternoon I was fortunate enough to be at the Liberty Stadium for a five star (no not the pop band from the 80’s) performance from the Swans as they walloped the Cumbrians of Carlisle 5 goals to zip. It’s the first time the two teams have met since last season’s football league trophy final.

It was the best performance I’ve seen from the Swans in a long time and arguably the best performance of the season to date. A number of players caught the eye in an impressive team peformance, but extra bonus points for the midfield (Robinson, Craney, Pratley and Britton) and Big Den whom I though were excellent today.

Somewhat bizarrely I thought Trunds was a little off the pace, but I’ve also found that when the team plays well he doesn’t and vice versa. Anyway, a full match report can be found on the Swans official site.

I’m off to bed early tonight as I’m out on my feet - I think last night is finally catching up on me!

Christmas party number two

Just a quick update this morning before I get to work - as due to the IT restrictions I mentioned yesterday, I won’t be able to do this in work. Bah humbug.

DDWT Junior is off to see Santa this morning with his friends from playgroup, so the Gower Heritage Centre better brace themselves!! I’m sure they’ll have lots of fun though what with seeing Santa and some farm animals that are there (weather permitting).

Anyway it’s Chrimbo party number two today with a 3pm kick-off, so it would be unlikely that I’d be in a fit state to blog later tonight (or rather early hours tomorrow morning!). I’ll do the usual review tomorrow on this evening’s festivities and try and get a few snaps this time around as well.

If you’re out in Swansea today, I’ll no doubt see you in Ciderspace later *smile*

Well guess what, I’m back at home and it’s not evening Saturday morning yet (well it will be when I’ve finished typing!). I finally joined the party (in the Lava Lounge) at 4pm this afternoon and wasted no time in catching up - mainly thanks to a few strongbow tinnies I purchased earlier today! Having gatecrashed the DVLA/Panasonic party in the Lave Lounge, it was time to move on over to Play for the big bash and meet up with the rest of the merry band of partygoers.

The next 5 or so hours was taken up drinking and dancing (mainly) with me trying my uptmost to live up to my nickname of ’snakehips’. Thankfuly the DJ’s played ball and ensured that my requests for N-Trance and Kelly Llorenna were spun in due course - music indeed to my ears. I’ll also issue a public apology now to anyone upset by the excessive use of pelvic thrusts and hip swirling during any of my dance moves - especially my colleagues, sorry girls!!!

After we’d have enough of Play (and I’d entered into Ciderspace) we went to Revolution (a vodka bar) and then the Walkabout (scene of my Pole Dance of the Year award 2005). At this point (and having now consumed 4 pints of water) it was time to grab a taxi home just before I turned into a pumpkin. One thing about the taxi, how can it cost £17 at 11:30pm and yet only £14 at 02:30am? I’d love to know the answer to that one.

Time for bed now….

The Yeti strikes again

I’m feeling guilty today purely and simply becuase I didn’t do any exercise. I was all set to go out for a lunchtime run, but was advised by several people that the sea front really was a no-go area. I’m hoping things will improve tomorrow for me to go, but I’m not holding out too much hope as the forecast isn’t good.

On a totally different subject, one of my work colleagues came across the Yeti game that has been doing the rounds for years - you know the one, where you hit a free-falling penguin with a club and see how far it goes! Sick but true. Anyway, they’ve now decided in work that on Christmas Eve they’ll have a competition to see who can hit it the furthest and the winner will receive a large box of ‘Celebrations’.

Whilst talking about work, someone in IT (in their wisdom) has decided to get the beta.blogger.com URL (i.e. the one used to gain access to let users edit their blogs) blocked by the Websense - the internet filtering product - and categorised as a ’sex’ link!!! I think I’ll inform Websense - as I’m guessing that the filtering database is maintained by them and downloaded by IT. Humph.

35 months old

Another milestone in the life of DDWT Junior today with him reaching the 35 month old mark. What did he do on such a day, well he ended up in the doctors surgery getting some antibiotics due to having yet another stinking cold! I can’t believe the little fella will be 3 in January - the time has just gone so fast it’s quite surreal.

Unfortunately I was once again training on my own today and decided to avoid the promenade in Mumbles due to the very strong winds. So I opted to take the bike path down to Gowerton instead a 14 mile or so ride.

It’s been somewhat of a ticket frenzy today with me buying both my Swans v Blades of Sheffield ticket and a ticket to my work’s massive Christmas party in Play nightclub this coming Friday.

Office decorations

In keeping with the festive spirit the girls in the office decided to put up the office Christmas tree today.
It’s always nice to have some Christmas decorations in work as it makes for a more festive feeling about the place - which ultimately makes it a more positive one as well. Apologies for the quality of the picture as well - my Sony Ericcson K300i takes a somewhat grainy picture, but I’m hoping Santa will bring me a new supa-doopa phone for Christmas. Well I can hope can’t I.

With Coach DR being unwell, I was faced with doing the 3 mile lunchtime run today on my own - in what were some pretty sh*tty weather conditions. So my time of 22 minutes 59 seconds was quite acceptable given the driving wind and occasional rain. I’m actually getting more of a buzz out of the running than the riding at the moment and I can’t quite put my finger on why that is.

DDWT Junior has recently started telling little stories to us -by practically mimicing the bedtime stories we tell him. Tonight’s was most funny as he was telling us about him telling a little baby a story about ‘winkle winle ittle star’ and some moo cows, horsies and sheep!! I wish I’d have taped him as it was as cute and sweet as it was humouress.

Sandswept

Yet another sandswept bike ride down to Forte’s ice cream parlour this lunchtime, as is the norm for a Monday. After having cleaned my bike gears and cogs yesterday, the benefits were plain to see and feel today - which made me even more ashamed of how little I actually clean my bike.

The improvement in the bike’s performance was mirrored by my performance with the 11 mile ride taking 44 minutes 28 seconds at an average speed of 14.6 mph.

Oh Christmas tree

With Christmas day just over 2 weeks away we decided to put up our Christas tree and lights today - much to DDWT Junior’s excitement.

We had some great fun putting all the lights, tinsel and baubles on the tree and it was lovely to see DDWT Junior helping out this year - as opposed to being somewhat bewildered last year. The blue icicle lights were a bargain at £12.49 (half price) in Wyevale garden centre and with 8 different modes for the flashing lights - it was great visually to watch.

Today’s weigh in saw me gain a 1lb on last week - which considering the amount of food/drink I indulged in on Friday I’m quite pleased. So just for the record I now stand (naked) at 16st 7lbs.

I finally pulled my finger out today and cleaned my rather filthy and gear malfunctioning mountain bike. It’s also when I realised the power of ‘Muc-off‘ - the well known bike cleaning stuff. The amount of dirt, grease and sand that came off my gears and rear cogs was quite amazing and it really did make me wonder how much of an impact it was having on the performance of both the bike and me. No doubt I’ll find out tomorrow!