"Just" a housewife

Achievements & Appreciation

Well if you've read David's blog then you'll know that yesterday I ran the first half of the San Francisco Marathon. It's a stepping stone for me to achieve something I've been thinking about for more than a year now - running a full marathon!

I ran it in 2 hours 22 minutes and 15 seconds. I lost pace on the Golden Gate Bridge (who wouldn't slow down to take in their surroundings!) but still finished with my best ever time! Admittedly, I've only done two other half marathon's but this was still great!

David was more than generous about my achievement on his blog, but what he failed to tell you is that I chose to get up at 5 a.m. but he had no say in the matter...I made him drive me down to the starting line to drop me off! He then drove back home before jumping on his bike to cheer me on at various points along the way. He then cycled the last 3-4 miles with me, by my side, willing me on.

I'll stop now before I get too mushy, but he's pretty cool too!

On a more sad note, one guy didn't make his intended achievement yesterday. A gentleman died at mile 24 out of 26.2 miles. Sad news...

I'm glad I ran, I had a good time, chatted to random strangers along the way and I didn't feel guilty for spending 8 hours lying on the sofa on Sunday! Who knows...come October I may be talking about an achievement of 26.2 miles.

Top 10 Highlights of April-July 2006

Ok so I was lame and took a break from blogging. There were many reasons, most notably because I started a new job. I just didn't know how to blog and not be censored, so now I won't comment at all about work on my blog. That's the first bit of advice from the Blog Queen herself, Dooce.

Now for the summary of 3.5 months; list of 10 (okay 11!) updates in random order;

1) Sitting 4 feet from a lion in Zambia. Awesome. I was only a little bit scared. I was more scared to be told I was flying on a 12 seater plane for 3 hours.

2) Being told by the wonderfully incompetent British Airways staff, that while they were transporting us to Zimbabwe to pick up a flight after they'd cancelled one from Zambia, "we'd be safe while on the bus."

3) Balling my eyes out in a Santa Barbara pub as England lost on Penalties (again!) in the World Cup. [Okay so that was a lowlight!] And then getting drunk on wonderful fruit cocktails all afternoon. [There's the highlight!]

4) A private dinner with David by the Zambezi River and our own personal waiter. Wonderful meal, wonderful company.

5) A 30 minute speed boat ride towards Victoria Falls. And having a bruise to prove how hard core it was after I was slammed from one end of the boat to the other during a spin!

6) Planning a birthday surprise for David in early June and knowing that he'd love it! We went go-karting, played crazy golf and video games. Not to mention cake and balloons! We had fun!

7) Jill & Dave's wedding in early July. A great Californian outdoor wedding with lovely personal vows in a gorgeous setting. David and I had great fun chatting, dancing and drinking.

8) Spending time with Katie and Oliver - the two children of my very good friends Anna and Lucy. They're both great children and it was nice to actually spend time with both of them. And did I mention I got to eat Pork Pie and Cadbury's chocolate.

9) Ron & Nutan's wedding - a lovely day filled with family and traditions from both families. A combination of traditional Indian dress and food happily merging with the Scottish kilts and Dutch family members. And who will ever forget half the wedding party (including groom) being stuck in an elevator/lift just 25 minutes before the ceremony.

10) Being heartbroken to hear that when Lauren woke up on June 25, she wanted to run in and wake up Auntie Emma sleeping in the room next door, only to be told by Sarah that I'd already left for the airport!

11) Memorial weekend camping in Little Basin with Jodi and Gary. Okay so it was freezing cold, but we had a great time by the camp fire and many laughs telling 'creative' stories!

A perfect weekend?

What is a perfect weekend?

I think I may have blogged about my perfect weekend before. This weekend comes close...

David and I spent Friday night at the Baseball match. It was a good match (The Giants won!) and despite the fact that I didn't eat a hotdog (more on why later) we still had a great time. At the end of the game we stayed and watched the fireworks put on by Chevron. Despite the blatant commercial sponsorship I was very thankful to them as they were great! A nice end to the evening.

On Saturday morning, I went on a run. 10 miles around the Marina, Golden Gate Park and back again. I'd eaten pasta on Friday night at a restaurant by the ball park so that there would be no excuse not to complete the miles. However, by the time my sister called me at mile six, I was wishing I was anywhere but there. It didn't help that she was getting merrily drunk at Arsenal's first match at their new stadium which happened to be Dennis Bergkamp's testimonial.

I'm trying hard to train for the half marathon next Sunday and the full marathon in October. We'll see...running 10 miles just 6 months after I could barely walk due to a herniated disc makes me very happy.

Last night David and I had a lovely BBQ, just the two of us. Yummy. Followed by a movie. Sleeping in this morning was only punctured with a call home to hear about Lauren being sick in Grandad's car. Much as my dad would have wanted to complain...he didn't.

Today we made the most of the wonderful SF sun and lack of fog as we rode our bikes through Golden Gate Park to Ocean beach. We ate a picnic of sandwiches and strawberries on the sand. After a few hours we're back home and both catching up with our blogs!

What makes a weekend great? Sometimes it's seeing friends and constantly being on the go with chores and appointments. Sometimes it's like this one; spending time together, exercising, sunshine and lots of relaxing at home.

Yes it's true I'm back blogging

I've been meaning to for a while...

I promise I'll get more frequent.

A lot has happened in 3.5 months since I've been away from the Blogesphere...

Anyway, I'm also back training for the SF half marathon...just like last year. Only this time I'm not training in London on the Thames canal path.

In the last 6 weeks I've been running along much nicer path-ways; many beach/seaside resorts. Santa Barbara, San Francisco, today along Santa Monica and a few weeks ago the wonderful Dover seashore!

Anyway, I'm off to bed now, after a few drinks and much fun with colleagues. I'll write and give you the top ten of things I've done in the 3.5 months since I last blogged...but in the mean time, please let me get to my drunken sleep........