Saturday, March 13, 2010

Running


Another gratuitous photo for your viewing pleasure.... taken yesterday from work. The river was unusually smooth and calm, and the weirdest shade of green I've ever seen it to be. Gorgeous!

I've been training with Carrie two nights a week recently as we get ready for the Reading half-marathon (and she does the Shakespeare Marathon!). It's good to have someone else to train with, and probably safer overall given that we tend to run at night when it's dark. :S

Only a week left - and I've been a bit slack this week while she's on her skiing holiday. I've done a number of 10-milers though, and plan to do 12 tomorrow, so I'm not too bothered.

Goodbye Vauxhall!


Brendan's car has failed its MOT (WOF equivalent), and it's not worth fixing, so we've decided to scrap it. I've kept the licence plates, however - apparently the Netherlands are the only other country where the licence plates can be yellow instead of white.

It's a bit sad, but Brendan says he's not as attached to it as he was to the Fiesta, which died last year. I still felt sad as I watched Brendan drive it around the corner and onto the car ramp. A couple of photos to come!

On the other hand, I now have the sole car as Brendan's going to carpool with his friends. I forsee a lot more shopping trips in my future!

The mechanics at the car yard were a father-son team. I'd bought a car stereo for my Renault there a few months before. We talked about our travels and about NZ to them - where LOTR was shot (South Island), what the weather is like (just like Britain but without the snow that fell in Basingstoke - which is apparently extremely unusual), what we like about the UK (how old it is!) and the best places to go in America on a once-in-a-lifetime trip (LA or Florida).

A lot of British people think NZ is hot, which makes sense I guess given that it is next to Australia, Fiji and other tropical/dry/hot places. The father ate chips out of a paper packet balanced on his lap while he talked to us, with black, greasy hands.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Finally spring!

It's been a long, cold winter - the coldest on record for 30 years, according to various radio and TV sources. So I'm pleased that the past few days have been gorgeously sunny, even if not that warm yet. Bring on summer!

I'm doing the Reading half-marathon in 2 weeks... I've been going for twice-weekly runs with a friend after work, which does a lot for motivation! She's doing the full marathon so I'm running more than I need to, but it's all good practice. Especially as I've only been training "properly" for two months, and have only done three long runs of 10+ miles recently.

In other news, Brendan and I are starting to look at the next steps and future travel plans... we're very keen to visit more of Europe over summer.