Mutterings for the Minority

All locked up

Something should have told me it was going to be one of those day’s today when DDWT Junior came stomping into the bedroom @ 5am this morning. It certainly wasn’t the type of wake up call I expected or indeed wanted (no offence to the little fella like).

I perhaps foolishly thought that things would improve after a lunchtime cycle down Mumbles, but this wasn’t to be and the events that followed merely confirmed my initial morning reaction of it being “one of THOSE days”.

There I was changed and kitted out in my cycling gear ready to release my pent-up frustration, but lo and behold I was faced with a wee problem. My training partner - Coach DR - and I had (in retrospect) foolishly chained our bikes together. Not usually a problem, but I only had the key to my bike lock!!

My frustration levels had now reached fever pitch and I trudged back inside to change. Upon returning to the office, comments such as “that was quick” didn’t exactly help matters.

What a day indeed!

Fresh start needed

As if missing the 10k wasn’t bad enough, the tale of today’s weighing scale hit me harder than a Ricky Hatton punch to the stomach (well ok perhaps not that hard). Seventeen bloody stone - I hadn’t been that heavy since July 16th 2006. My confidence and mood was already quite low, but this really hit me hard. I must now do something as despite all the talk, I have yet to reach my target weight of 16st (the closest I came was 16st 4lbs, way back in January). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not obsessed with my weight, I’m just determined to get it off.

I suppose when I look at things a little closer, my problem area is and perhaps always was - my food intake. So I’ve taken the advice of some of the experts on the Runners World website and have started a food diary. Training I have never found to be a problem - I love it, but I also love my food and hopefully the food diary will show just where I’m going wrong.

So with food high in my list of mental priorities, I decided to try and cook something a little different for our supper.

Fillet of chicken breast, filled with grated carrots, spinach and a sprinkling of grated cheese, served with some boiled mild curry rice. It was delicious and far more apertising that what we usually have for an evening meal! For once my dabbling in the kitchen paid off - a rarity indeed - and I will try this little dabble out once again that’s for sure.

We thought we’d check today to see how tall DDWT Junior actually was - as he’s seemed to have shot up lately and we weren’t wrong. He now stands 103cm tall, which means that he’s grown 5.5 cm since the beginning of April. I wonder what the average height of a 35 month old child should be?

My cold is lingering, but I’m still hoping to start final preparations for the Gower bike ride sooner rather than later this week. So I took the opportunity this afternoon to change the tyres on my bike back to the ‘Fat Boy’ (how appropriate!) slicks again and give the bike a darn good clean.

Non-runner

Unfortuantely I’ve had to give in to my cold and pull out of the Llanelli 10k tomorrow. I’d been tempted to leave it until the morning, but even if I felt ok mentally my body certainly wouldn’t be up to it - especially as my last run out was on Monday.

The way I looked at it was that if I did the run, how would my body react afterwards - would the cold come back even worse? Which would then affect my build up to next week’s British Heart Foundation Gower bike ride. So in the end common sense prevailed, although to say I’m disappointed is a huge understatement. I’m getting a bit suspicious though (cheesed off more like) , as I was supposed to run last year’s race but had to pull out due to injury. Will I ever get to complete a Llanelli 10k? Maybe I’ll let you know June 2008!

What’s next, well I’ll just keep plying myself with drugs (day nurse/night nurse!) and hope they clear things up in readiness for next week.

Working from home

Huh, little did the ‘Night Nurse’ help last night. There is no improvement on the cold front and rather than incur the wrath of my female dominated office, I opted for the safe sanctuary of the house of DDWT today and worked from home.

In all seriousness though, the number of sneezes, coughs and splutters have steadily increased over the week (and not just from me) so I’m a guilty party already as far ast the posse at work is concerned - so it was really fair for me to go into the office in the state I’m in. Mind you my keyboard and flatscreen monitor is now covered in mu….no forget that, that’s way too much detail for here.

We sat down and watched the Harrison Ford film ‘Firewall‘ tonight - mainly because of the technology related theme of course (much to Mrs DDWT’s annoyance) and it was quite good - albeit very Raiders of the Lost Arc ‘esque in Mr. HF’s roleplay. But heck, what did I expect. Worth a look, but don’t get too over-excited by the blurb.

Interview panel

It’s been an interesting day for me today as I was part of a 5 strong interview panel for a strategic technical managers job. Interesting stuff, especially as the new person will be my boss!!

Whilst that sounds a bit dubious it wasn’t/isn’t. The interviewees had to undertake a group test, an interview, 20 minute presentation (that’s where I was) and a written assessment. From all of these different aspects, the interview panel had some very diverse and interesting feedback from each session. The decision of whom to appoint will be made by the big boss tomorrow, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all works out. One thing for sure though, is that I didn’t envy of the applicants and at the end of the day I think it was obvious to us all present that EVERYONE present was pretty much knackered out.

As the day wore on I found it more of a struggle - despite the constant supply of coffee and Welsh cakes - as my cold started to build up to one of those stinking streaming eyes and runny nose types, which is more annoying that uncomfortable. Hopefully a dose of ‘Night Nurse’ will do the trick tonight.

It’s a shame that there wasn’t a dose of something which would rid us of this almost incessant rain we seem to be having at the moment. Is it ever going to stop and let us have a Summer day - like June is supposed to be?

Wet and sweaty

With the Llanelli Waterside 10k looming large on the horizon this coming Sunday, I felt the need (rather than the desire) to give myself a long run out as my preparations draw to a close.

So a 5 mile run ensued in a time of 41 minutes 53 seconds, which didn’t exactly fill me with confidence given my target of wanting to break the 50 minute barrier this Sunday. To compound matters I really did feel like sh*t after it, with my beetroot glowing face a sight to be seen by the traffic along Mumbles road I’m sure. Hot and bothered I most certainly was. Furthermmore, my wet and windswept body are hardly going to endear themselves to my fast encroaching cold (currently at the raging sore throat stage).

Today was also my first day back in work after a lovely week away with the house of DDWT. Pre-lunchtime run I was sifting through the backlog quicker than a comb through sand, post-lunchtime run and it was more a case of a lollipop stick in honey.

What have I left myself in for.

Quackers

Our plans for the day pretty much went out of the window due to the non-stop rain. Even the excitement of getting the Swans fixtures by wap and teletext at 10 am failed to raise spirits that much.

In the end we bit the bullet and thought sod it we’ll go out on the bikes anyway.

Mind you DDWT Junior didn’t seem bothered either way as he was too busy feeding the ducks and getting us to draw dinosaurs with him.

With the weather unrelenting we spent the rest of the day in the pool. Quote of the day goes to DDWT Junior who told his new blonde acquaintance Charlotte that “You can’t stay with me, you have to go and stay with your mammy and daddy” - quality!

Tis time to do the packing now as we have to be out of the villa by 10 am - which is a pain in the bum when you’ve got a nipper in tow. We’re all a little subdued though as it’s hometime tomorrow unfortunately.

—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson videophone

Soaked to the skin

An earlier start to our day today as Mrs DDWT had an appointment at the Aqua Sana. So whilst the Mrs had an ‘Elemis’ skin specific facial (£46 for 55 minutes), DDWT Junior and I went for a long walk. We spent most of the time playing racing sticks at some of the many mini waterfalls along the cascade walk. We also parted with a £1 of hard earned dosh for the lookalike Swansea Bay Summer Festival windmill (see attached pic).

The rain duly arrived this afternoon and co-incided with my first (and last?) holiday run. In fact it chucked it down for the 31 minutes 20 seconds I was out and consequently I was like a drowned rat on my return to the villa. The heavy rain also ensured that we spent this evening in the pool plaza - rather than on the bikes. We had a bargain though with the pool staff giving DDWT Junior a dolphin - foc!

Excitement is building ahead of tomorrow as the League One fixtures are announced - and with them our plans for next seasons weekends away

—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson videophone

Pedal power

What a treat having a lie-in until 9am was this morning - which is a novelty for the DDWT family believe me. After brekkie it was time for more cycling and playground exploring - the best bit being the mini zip wire ride, which me and the nipper rode in tandem.

With the sun still blazing - despite the promised rain - we hired some pedalos and headed off to the boating/course fishing lake. After all that I think or at least I felt that I’d done a days training.

As the afternoon turned to evening we caught the land train to the plaza and spent the rest of the evening as 3 water babies - sooo relaxing The only other thing worth a mention was a seemingly endless procession of mallard ducks passing our villa patio. As a result we now have no bread!

—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson videophone

We’re here

Well we’re here in Center Parcs Longleat now and this is my first real attempt at updating the blog via mobile.

For once we actually arrived early (11:30) but the journey here was memorable. For the first time ever DDWT Junior uttered the phrase every parent dreads - “are we there yet?” and we hadn’t even got as far as Bridgend! Our early arrival meant getting the bike hire done straight away. I’ll add pictures upon my return - but the Dawes Trailblazer MTB and Dawes Ranger bikes were a tadge well used to say the least.
Still apart from a detour to the shop for DDWT Junior to use up his Nanna’s spending money qouta on Clinton the croc (attached) we spent the next few hour clocking up the miles on the bikes.
Our evening was spent trying out practically all of the playgrounds on site - in between squirrel and rabbit watching.

And that was our first day. We’re all zonked now and bed beckons in readiness for another tiring day tomorrow. Nos da all

—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson videophone