Jan 30th

View from the playroom on 30th January. This afternoon has been lovely and sunny but sunshine now all but disappeared. Heating and lights now on. Back to our mole-like existence until another sunny Sunday.


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Training diary

I have signed up to do a half marathon.  March 20th.  The last half marathon I completed was nearly eight years ago, I'll find my time and post it later.

Rather than trying to wing it, I've decided I need a training schedule and appointments in my calendar setting out my training schedule.  There's a good mix between shorter but high intensity sessions combined with longer runs.  

Saturday saw a perfect morning for my first long run: an hour and eight minutes, 6.73 miles.  average pace of 10.11 minutes per mile.  fastest pace 7.23 minutes per mile.  A climb of 1129 feet - which I did twice.

Sunday saw 45mins on the cross trainer.  The cross trainer works in km, I think I did 5-6 km, can't remember the exact stats.

Anyway, all off to a good start so far.  Will try and keep this updated.  My success rate would be much higher if I could get blogpress on the iPad to cooperate...

2-1-11. The party day

Having posted a picture of the six cake on my Facebook page, I thought I'd share a picture of the preparations. Boo and Pip wanted to help decorate the cake. I was at a fairly delicate stage in the proceedings so I gave them a pack of icing. And some edible glitter.


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1-1-2011

Boo turned 6 this New Years Day. We celebrated with the traditional grannies and nannies party. Once the girls were tucked up in bed, we set to work getting organised for the birthday party for her and her friends which took place on 2nd. Stuffing of bears proved to be a great hit with the attendees.


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My very own project 365

Happy New Year. Let's see how long into 2011 this lasts. Many of my friends having started a project 365. One photo for every day. I started a similar project but posting a blog-post a day but it quickly faltered.

Anyway, first photo to kick this off is from the last day of 2010. Having been in the house for exactly a year and a half, we got the fire going and saw in the new year with champagne and a toasty fire. Here's to 2012


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Commuting: an emotional experience

I spend rather a lot of my life on trains, perhaps too much time.  While walking to the station this morning, I was thinking about how I should use this time, how much of my commute I ought to be spending on work-related mattes, how much time idly surfing and tweeting, how much time gaming (sounds so much more grand than "playing inane" games), how much time reading.  This got me to thinking about my blog and what to post today.  I thought I'd share with you some of the emotions that just the journey from front door to train door brings up.

On leaving the house, one worries that departure has been left too late and the train is going to be pulling away on arrival at the station.  It's a balance between leaving too early and realising that a precious extra minute with the girls and Roary the Racing car could have been won.

After a brisk walk, navigation of the traffic lights is required.  Careful assessment of the light sequences usually results in a gain but the brisk walk is maintained.

Many commuters like to adopt a special canter, the "I'm running for a train, but not actually running for it".  I prefer brisk walk, I suspect that many of the cantering-types find it quite upsetting to be overtaken by someone apparently expending less effort than them and who they overtook only two minutes before.

The first two thirds of the journey are crucial, make or break time.  A good pace here means there is no need for the panicked sprint and shoulder-barge into the doors as they beep their way shut.  The most frustrating moment is when you approach the station and see the train pulling in,  chances are the opportunity to make that train has been lost.

Today I arrived at the station, thought I only had a minute to catch the train, got ready to adopt the sprint start and then realised I actually had six minutes, time to catch my train and saunter across.

The train too decided to saunter as it was three minutes late.  On hearing this, my relief that I hadn't missed it was replaced by ire that it was late. I now have six minutes to make my next connection.  Time to prepare for my sprint start. 


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The egg gallery

If you're friends with me on facebook, you may have seen my occasional photo-posts from weekend cooking exploits. I'm minded to set up a little e-gallery of egg-based cooking. The first two eggshibits?




Titled: "punctuating the morning with breakfast"

AND:





"There's something fishy about today's breakfast"

Clearly, my gallery needs a name. All suggestions gratefully received. Prize to the winning suggestion.

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The perils of shopping

Mr S is home alone with the girls this week. Provided you explain the mystery tubs in the freezer, he is fine. He even managed some shopping yesterday. I couldn't remember what we needed so I sent a fairly general list: lunch stuff for the girls, snacky stuff, fairy washing liquid.

I knew exactly which fairy washing liquid we needed but i had forgotten that Sainsburys contains an aisle of washing liquid so I should have been a little more specific. Mr S came home with three products, all of which we will need, none of which were the one I actually intended.




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Pip's Birthday

Yesterday was Pip's birthday. We had a lovely afternoon with friends and grandparents over for tea and party games: pass the parcel, musical statues and so forth.

Pip was given a variety of presents - all v generous and v lovely. I'm hoping she doesn't go off Peppa Pig this year given the sheer quantity of Peppa Pig gifts she received, some of which were from us.

It did get me wondering however. Most of her gifts were plastic. There will come a time when she no longer plays with them and they may get stored in the loft or given away. Eventually they may find their way to landfill or just lost in the back of cupboards, bottom of cardboard boxes etc. Two examples of their little smily pinkness are shown below.




It made me wonder whether, in thousands of years' time, when all recollection of the children's cartoon is lost, archeologists will uncover so many plastic pigs that they will come to the conclusion that a little pink pig was venerated by so many and Peppa will be deified and worshipped forever more? Congregations will gather round muddy puddles and fall over laughing.

Idle musings I know. In the meantime we will enjoy watching Boo and Pip at play with them.


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Fail!

OK, so my post a day mission has failed so far. Will try and continue to maintain a regular presence in the blogosphere. Expect some musings on child benefit, tuition fees and public sector pensions in the coming week...


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Pedantic?

Or attention to detail! I suppose it's an occupational hazard for me.

Anyway, the attached sign has always made me chuckle.




A talking hot drink? I wonder what it says?

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Tooth Fairy

So the Tooth Fairy visited last night. Boo's wobbly tooth came out, after the school photo, so it was despatched to the now found tooth fairy box and under the pillow.

Pip wanted something under her pillow so a Lego badge was deposited under the pillow.

At some point in the night, the Tooth Fairy took the tooth and left a pound coin and a scattering of sparkly fairy dust. On finding the Lego badge, she took that as well.

Morning time arrives and Boo is very excited by the coin and the sparkly sequins. Pip wakes up and says "I've lost my badge". Thankfully the Tooth Fairy had left a note saying thank you for the badge and various other tooth-related pleasantries. Alas, the girls were still upset with the tooth fairy for taking the Lego badge.

I have an inkling that the tooth fairy will have found that the Lego Badge was too big to fit through the fairy door...


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Rainy Saturday

Today has been a nicely quiet day. Once gymnastics was finished (including mine!), Pip and I went to see a neighbour while Boo and Daddy had their weekly piano lesson. Pip went with a Peppa Pig DVD in tow but soon wanted to watch the marble run and play with the magnetix.

After lunch and a trip to the local shoe shop, we settled down for a nice quiet rainy afternoon. This included a game of Scrabble (me and Boo v computer, we won), lots of plasticine, lots of drawing with the wipe off ones and the laminates - a great hit!

Having played with some at the neighbour's house, Pip wanted to get the Geomag stuff out, another great hit! We had a "how many balls can you attach to one stick challenge". Boo also managed to get a structure to spin round, much to her delight!

What we didn't manage to make was a Taj Mahal. We discovered this website a few years ago, it's quite impressive to say the least.

I'm sure I've seen an Eiffle Tower as well.

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The Dorking Chicken

This statue sits on a roundabout in Dorking. It's a key landmark on our way to visit family. While changing trains at Dorking, I noticed it again today and decided it merited a post. I wanted to try and find out more about its significance, why it's there, why is a chicken a symbol for the town of Dorking represented by a Chicken?

Well, the first thing i discovered was that there is a breed of chicken called a Dorking, which beggs the question, which came first? Is the town named after a breed of chicken or, is the chicken named after the town?

The next thing I discovered was a website dedicated to a project depicting a photograph for every square kilometre of Britain. Rather than cutting and pasting a picture from the site without consent, I've set you a challenge. Hidden in this page is a link to the picture. Can you find it?

I haven't got very far in my quest to find out about Mr Chicken, or perhaps that should be Mr Cockerel, but the geograph project sounds interesting. I'll let you know if our contribution gets off the ground.


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Blinging up the Blog

I've added a couple of "gadgets" to the blog. Not necessarily permanent. I'm trying to add a more personal touch and make it look less like the standard templaes (not that there's anything wrong with them).

I'll let you find what I've added. The Gadget list is endless, there are too many to choose from. I'm sure I like what the add-ons do to the layout but I'll see if I can adjust that when I'm on a computer with a mouse I can drive. Trackpad is tricky.

The Wheel Turns

And turns and turns again.

I first discovered Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series at university. Friends were reading it and I foolishly borrowed a copy of book one, not realising it was to be book one of twelve and that I would still be reading it fifteen years later.

In a nutshell, it depicts a fantasy world, one which owes much to other great fantasy writers (I will leave you to decide who) and to medieval England. Plus, I think, U.S military history. I suspect Mr Jordan has read his fair share of civil war battle re-enactments.

The story starts following Rand, Perrin and Matt, together with Egwene and Nynaeve and the Aes Sedai and her warder who find themselves in the provincial backwater where Rand and his friends have been living all their lives. The next twelve books follow a battle between good and evil, including all the shades of grey inbetween.

The series has its weak spots. As stand alone books, seven, eight and nine are poor. They fit into the overall story when read as a whole but very little happens in the way of major events. Some of the language can be repetitive, the female characters all have a habit of folding their arms under their breasts. I wonder if anyone has counted how many times they do this? Perhaps a challenge for my next re-read...

Robert Jordan died before he could complete the series. His successor, Brandon Sanderson, has taken over the job. Quite ably, I would say.

There are numerous websites on this epic tome, two of note are:

WoT Encyclopaedia

Brandon Sanderson's website

It took me four months of commuting to read books one through to twelve. Book thirteen is out soon. I'm not going to do another re-read until book thirteen is out.



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What I did on my weekend!

Remember having to do this at school? Anyway, as I've failed to keep up with Saturday and Sunday, I thought I would devote today's post to "what I did on my weekend"

So Saturday morning was spent at the local sports centre while the girls had their gym classes. Pip's settled in nicely to her class so I took the opportunity to go to the grown ups' gym while Boo n Daddy did the crossword she'd brought home from school!

Pip wanted to stay with Daddy while I went to Sainsburys to pick up a few bits and pieces. Except a few bits and pieces turned into a trolley full of bits and pieces!

Pleasant lunch in the garden followed by afternoon of play, Thamu arrived and the neighbours youngest two came over to play!

I think our dinner out deserves its own thread.

Sunday involved a nice lunch out and a browse round the shops. Mission to purchase headphones failed, think DH procured at the airport instead.

So all in all, a pleasant weekend, not enough cake baking, maybe I'll save that for next weekend, the Gingerbread loaf went down v nicely at the school cake sale.


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The Brick Testament

The Brick Testament is a piece of Lego genius. One of the challenges is to see if you can identify which kits have been used. So far i've spotted Harry Potter, lots from Star Wars and Professor Quirrell.

A selection of my favourites to follow.





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The Seven Habits of Highly Effective

Commuters.

I spend too much time on the train but it's an occupational hazard at the moment, it's part of the career choice I made. I have yet to read the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, it's on our bookshelf. Anyway, here is the commuters' edition.

Habit no.1: Effective Listening

Many people choose to listen to music during the journey, or watch films or play games. Travelling home the other day I was ired by the inability on the part of one of my fellow travellers to deploy headphones. It wouldn't have been so bad if he'd had good taste in music. I say he, there were four other people in my carriage. The elderly lady next to me, i don't think it was her. The lady in front of me, a young lad in the same set of seats as her and pen other who I didn't notice.

It's very telling that instead of trying to work out who it was and asking them to turn their music down, I said (quite loudly) "what's wrong with headphones". Some things are not worth making that much of a fuss about so I deployed my own and settled down to the sounds of a Divine Comedy album.

A few days later I had the misfortune to be travelling on the London Underground during rush hour. I spent ten years working in London and only sporadically used the Tube. I preferred to walk, run or get the bus. I stood at the tube station, and had to wait three trains before I could get on. Once on, I was standing next to a fan of the White Stripes. How did I know? Well, he had headphones but his music was so loud that everyone else could hear it. It would have been less noisy if he'd just unplugged the headphones and had it on speaker!

So, the final reason why listening is one of the most important skills you can have as a commuter? If you don't listen, you end up on the wrong train. Having schooled DH in the art of overland commuting (he grew up near the end of a tube line so had never had to memorise a timetable in his life), he has become quite adept at this. However, running to a particular platform because the train always goes from that platform is not an effective habit. Not unless you listen once on the train and get off as soon as you realise your mistake.

Must go before I miss my stop!


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Buying a castle!

Not really, but this would be a amazing - owning a piece of history, albeit a derelict crumbling piece of history that would require a lottery rollover win to be able to fund the restoration.

Ruperra restoration

http://ruperracastle.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html