No trainers needed – Ithaca edition

Posted on September 25, 2017 by thepogblog

I’m back from a week (mostly) in the sun.   Time away from the laptop with family and Himself on the tiny Greek island that I love was fantabulous.  Despite having been there quite a few times, I got to see things I hadn’t before, courtesy of my trainers and a few pep talks with myself first thing that I was ‘just going for a walk to take a few photos…in my trainers’.  So like that other post, take a run around Ithaca with me (no trainers needed):

My trainers breathing in the sea air:

Sunrise from Frikes:

In an empty house, smelling of donkey, and a trunk containing two jumpers.  Obviously:

The goats didn’t get it:

(A different) Dawn from Stavros

This was in the middle of nowhere.  Literally.  I was lost on a path with no people, no houses, just olive trees.  And this chair:

Because doors in Greece are so much more attractive than anywhere else:

The view to ‘our’ beach.  The teeny tiny black dots half way along the sand are Sister 2, her partner and Little Wisp, out for a morning stroll :o)  To start any run, I had to go up.  And up.  And up…

A slightly more dramatic drop from the road than I’m used to:

Proof I really did go:

See previous comment about doors :o)

Thank you to Mum and Dad for making this holiday possible, to Sister 1 and 2, for being you, to Little Wisp for the cuddles (and actually not being sick on me the whole week!) and to Sister 1’s partner and my Himself for surviving a whole week with our family, bringing a bit of calm when needed and coping admirably with conversations that resulted in the ‘Did I just cross a line there?’ question…. You’re all shiny stars :o)

 

Posted in exercise, family, fitness, Good for you, holiday, Pog Life, Pog Pictures, running, travelling | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bring the party food! (A guest post by Norman)

Posted on September 15, 2017 by thepogblog

My Pog and himself have just informed me they are leaving me once again for ‘a bit of sun’.  I got in the suitcase but they said I wouldn’t like it. I am unimpressed.

So I propose instead we have a party! You bring the tuna, I will supply the fresh mouse intestine. Maybe we can take a look at the blog and see if my Pog posts any pictures of this sun thing. Oh yay….

:o)

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No trainers needed

Posted on September 12, 2017 by thepogblog

My words seem a bit small in the shadow of yesterday’s post, so I’m just going to tell you a little secret then show you some photos:

The secret?  I don’t always like running that much.  I LOVE the feeling of finishing a run, but frankly, if it wasn’t for the fact that it means I get to eat more cake, I’m not sure I’d do it quite so much.  Sometimes dragging myself out of bed rather than snuggling up for another hour is just a bit too much.  So I’ve started playing Pretend with myself.  I pretend that I’m not going for a run, I’m just off to do a bit of early morning exploring so I don’t get lost in town next time my Sisters come to visit.  (In my trainers.)  Or I’m just going to do a teeny bit of window shopping to get some ideas of where to take a look at next time I go into town.  (In my trainers.)  Or I’m going to take a few photos to capture a bit more of Beachville.  (In my trainers.)

So that’s what I did this morning.  I ran a new route, worked out a bit more of how the back roads fit together, noticed some shops I’d not seen before and took some photos.  So here are they are.  Take a run around Beachville with me (no trainers needed):

Still quite early:

Too early for that:

I love these random graffiti bits that add colour, often where you least expect it (this is on a residential street):

The dome-y thing (my definition) The bobbly thing (Himself’s term):

I ran the other way for only the second time! (I usually turn right at the pier):

How?  How did they find sooo many old machines? There were three windows like this:

And I’m not very up with ‘It’ as just the thought scares me, but he seems to have appeared only since people have started talking about it recently…:

That’s it…until the next time I need a reason to run :o)

 

Posted in Beachville, exercise, Good for you, Pog Pictures, running | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Your opportunity to provide a smile

Posted on September 11, 2017 by thepogblog

I started writing a huge long post tonight, but it’s not needed.  What is needed is to tell you that:

  1. I have the two strongest sisters ever created.  While Sister 2 was in hospital with Little Wisp, Sister 1 was mostly downstairs with her husband.  If you want to see what ‘strong’ looks like, take a look at their faces in the photo.
  2. Sometimes you don’t know how hard someone is fighting to give you that smile.  Be kind, always.
  3. My post was going to tell you a story I’ve not mentioned here yet, but it’s still not my story to tell.  Please read the words of Sister 1 below, and if you have even just a pound to donate, please do.  I know she will gain strength from the support.  (And not just that:  Kings hospital has been key in the lives of two people in my family.  If they can build this amazing unit, it means should something like this happen to you or someone you love, they could be the people benefiting.  And as our family have proved in the last four months, anything can happen to anyone, at any age).  And if you don’t have a spare pound right now, maybe look up the Little Princess Trust and see if donating your hair is something you can do?  Or donate to Kings when you do have a spare pound.

Over to Sister 1:

On the 5th May my man was diagnosed with a brain tumour (grade3). He was taken to Kings and operated on the 10th May to remove the tumour, unfortunately things took a turn and he had a massive bleed, this resulted in an evacuation of a haematoma (with a small part of his brain being removed-leaving the effects of a stroke), he was induced into a coma but on the 11th May had to endure more surgery-a bifrontal decompressive craiectomy (removal of the middle section of his skull), he remained in an induced coma for 3 more days. He spent 11 days in critical care before going to the High Dependancy Unit for 10 days, then eventually onto a ward.
On the 28th June he had his titanium Cranioplasty put in (new skull part) and despite a minor set back, recovered well.
He came home on the 7th July where his package for 6 weeks radiotherapy and chemotherapy started to be set up.
Unfortunately on the 30th July he was admitted to Kings with an infection, on the 1st August his titanium plate was removed, the infection cleaned out, and he was put on a 6 week course of IV antibiotics (eventually reduced to 4). Dan is now home…without his plate as they feel starting treatment is more important. This will start within the next month.
SOOOOOO….I am cutting off my hair again (was only done a year ago!) but it’s going to have to go short short 😬. The hair will of course be donated to the Little Princess Trust for children with cancer, which allows them to have free wigs from the donations. But I want to raise money for Kings…they have saved Dans life and been the most AMAZING people we have had the pleasure to meet. Every single member of staff has been beyond incredible, so I want to give something back.
I honestly can’t explain what this hospital means to us all now. They are currently building a £1.6 million pound 66 bed Critical Care Unit and I would love to be able to donate £1,000 towards it ❤️PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CAN YOU HELP ME ❤️ by sponsoring whatever you can ❤️

Her Just Giving link is here.

Now to both of you:  You are both amazing.  Could you please now focus on keeping your respective family members OUT of Kings hospital, please?!  :o)

 

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Meeting the neighbours

Posted on September 5, 2017 by thepogblog

I’ve always found it a bit tricky to meet new people.  I’ve often thought that it would be easier if I had children as there are more opportunities and an obvious common ground.  In fact, since moving to Beachville, I’ve spoken to more people at playgrounds and the like when I have been looking after Little Pea than any other time (helpful tip:  ‘Oh, he’s not mine’ tends to scare people as a response to a question about ‘your son’ unless you follow up very quickly to confirm that you do know his Mum and she does know you have possession of her little person).

It seems though, that I have overlooked a certain furballs ability to help me meet people.  Last Friday I was hanging the washing out and two ladies walking past leant over the fence to say hi.  It turns out that Maureen and Margaret are residents in the sheltered accommodation half way up the road.  They also introduced me to Buddy – Maureen’s dog.  Then they paused and asked ‘We’ve been wondering…’ (And it turns out that the ‘we’ is most of the residents of the flats) ‘…do you have a black cat?  Quite large?  No collar?’

I confirmed that would be my furball Norman, and that I had seen him walking up to the flats a few times.  Then I panicked ‘Has he does anything bad?’  Other than his hiding of most of a mouse under the back door mat, we’ve not had any gifts lately and I suddenly wondered if it was because he was spreading his gift giving love around these residents.  It turned out that no, he’d not done anything bad – he was just well known up there as he visits quite often…

Clearly word got round that I am the hooman attached to the furball with no manners as while I stretched against the front fence after a run on Saturday morning, I met Pat (two legs) and Millie (four legs) who wanted to confirm what Margaret and Maureen had reported: that Norman was indeed my cat.

So without having to borrow any small children, I’ve met three neighbours and their associated animals in the last few days.  I also have an invite to join them when they hold their Macmillan coffee morning, which I plan on doing.  Just without Norman….although it sounds like there’s a good chance he’ll already be there…  :o)

:oD

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Pie judgement

Posted on August 31, 2017 by thepogblog

I admit it:  I got a bit cocky.

Having eaten mostly toast for the last 10 years or so, I’ve discovered that I actually enjoy cooking when someone else is eating with me (and when they are not very fussy at all, so always manage a convincing job of appreciating my efforts).  So although I still revert to toast on the evenings when it’s just me and Norman, I can now be found throwing together the likes of chicken biryani, pork and lemongrass meatballs and Mexican chilli with a cheeky apple salsa when it’s me and Himself eating together.  I know, right?  Who would have thought it.

I got a bit too confident though.  At the weekend my Mum and Dad offered me and Himself some fresh rhubarb.  It turns out that Himself is partial to a rhubarb pie, so I thought I throw one together when I finished work on Tuesday.  I didn’t think through the fact that Mum taught me to make pastry and to make a quiche, but I had no idea how to put a lid on a pie and make it look pie like and avoid a soggy bottom (I couldn’t let Mary B down – she has played a big role in the creation of this chef Pog persona).

So basically I made the bottom bit, baked it blind, popped the rhubarb in and then….had a bit of a strop because I didn’t have enough pastry to cover the top properly, it kept breaking anyway and it was almost 8pm so I wasn’t about to make more pastry – I just wanted to get the bloody thing cooked.

And that’s how I ended up with this mess:

BUT….it was really rather tasty, proving that you shouldn’t judge a pie by it’s pastry :o)

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Not my average bank holiday

Posted on August 29, 2017 by thepogblog

This weekend was lovely and sunny.  I don’t think I’ve ever said that after a UK bank holiday before; I’m not sure anyone has…

Himself and I made the most of it.  We went to the pub for good food and we went to visit another city.  The pub punctuated almost a marathon on our bikes (25 miles.  If I had still been able to sit on my saddle I’d have rounded it up to a full marathon) and the other city was so we could get up at 5.30am on Bank Holiday Monday to run a half marathon (me – woo hoo!) and full marathon (him – his 10th!).  The run was a very, very relaxed ‘cakeathon’ and now I mostly want to run this way (although it was a VERY hilly trail run, so a lot harder than what I usually do).  The people there share the view that it’s about completing, not competition, so there is much walking, chatting and eating of cake / fudge / jelly babies between laps.

Bike sun:

Running sun:

Never the less, last night we were broken.  Luckily, we’d done a trip to my parents on the way home for a shower and cuddles with little people, which I think helped delay some of the pain.  Although I am a little concerned about how much Little Wisp made eyes at Himself…

Little Pea just made scary eyes at me:

When we finally did get home though, we opened our running goody bags.  When Himself did the London marathon the ‘goodies’ were things like coconut water, chocolate orange milk that wasn’t chocolate, orange or milk (go figure) and protein balls.  The contents of our goody bags yesterday?

This:

:o)

Posted in Cycling, exercise, family, fitness, Good for you, holiday, Pog Life, running | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What is your heart’s desire?

Posted on August 23, 2017 by thepogblog

Because I have to run in whole kilometers (because I am a bit odd like that), on my seafront runs I have particular places I turn depending on how far I am going.  There is one turning point where I always want to stop and look,  but for any number of reasons it never gets more than a passing glance.  Today was a treacle run (like running through treacle and no fun at all) so I used the excuse that I could take photos to share the spot here with you as an excuse for a breather :o)

So here you are:

People have been adding their desires for a few months.  I love the addition of a gentle voice to the very angry one here:

The photo below is the response to the one above:

Bless!:

I love the fact I live somewhere that this has resulted in two messages of support…in less than a week:

I wonder how old Alexandra is.  I initially thought about 4.  I don’t see why he couldn’t be 44 though:

I guess politics gets into everything:

Slightly less expected though:

I started wondering what my heart’s greatest desire was.  At that very moment I decided it was a cool glass of water and a better pair of legs.

4.5km later though, it was for a little bit more kindness.  Down what I call graffiti alley, I managed to trip on a loop of plastic packaging at the side of the road and fell over.  There was blood.  Not a huge amount, but I did have those 30 seconds or so you have when you fall over as an adult and don’t move in case something is properly broken.  And in those thirty seconds TWO people walked around me :o(  But then a lovely man stopped his car to see if I was ok.  He even offered to show me the footage on his dashcam as he said that I’d looked pretty impressive.

(I was fine – I just cut my elbow and arm a little and got a few grazes – and I ran the final 2.4km home….and then ran round the outside of the house to make up the extra 0.1km :o)  )

So my heart’s desire today is for people – for you –  to be more Dashcam Man, please.  Not just helping up idiots who fall over running, but saying good morning to someone looking a bit lost, or smiling at someone just because you can.   I promise you’ll be amazed how many faces light up in front of you. :o)

 

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You meant ‘expressive’, right?

Posted on August 22, 2017 by thepogblog

I did a brave thing last week.  I don’t mean having Little Pea for a weekend, or spending the day with him, Himself and Himself’s boys.  I don’t even mean taking them all for a picnic / scavenger hunt when we knew there was a chance of a downpour and having to hide in the trees under a picnic blanket in an attempt to stay dry (that failed).  I don’t even mean cuddling Little Wisp straight after she’d had her milk without wearing protective clothing.  No, I did something that actually made me shake.

At work a while back people were asked to volunteer to create a ‘This is Me’ film.  The idea was to talk about your experience of mental health and, I guess, to put a human face to that experience.  Now, I have a lot of different experiences in this area…but the one thing that I’ve seen very little about in comparison to self harm, panic attacks, depression etc, is my old thingy of trichotillomania.  When I wrote about it on here forever ago quite a few people contacted me to say they did it, or they knew someone who did and they also kept it a secret.  Since then people have contacted me to say it’s great to see a success story as it gives them hope.  So I thought it might be a bit different to volunteer that part of my story for this film.

Which would have been a really good idea if I don’t turn into Minnie Mouse on speed when a video camera is pointed in my general direction.

I got so nervous the day before that I turned into a complete diva and refused to be filmed in a bar (I didn’t think noisy and nosey people would help with the Minnie issues)  and asked if we could go to some gardens that are about three stories high and usually quiet, other than when people play the pianos available, which is actually rather lovely.

So anyway, I got there looking reasonably presentable and we had to do elevently billion takes because the quietest place in Canary Wharf suddenly became some sort of top London attraction and because the filming set up was more professional than just a camera, it looked like something exciting was happening, so people kept walking past, then backwards to see if they could work out what was going on.

But we got through all that.  And through my inability to speak coherent sentences and the fact my mouth got so dry I was asked to drink some water as they could hear the clagginess.  Nice.

And we were right at the end and the director person suggested that I remove my hands from the vice like grip I had then in, squashed between my crossed legs.  I had them there as it was hiding the fact that they were shaking.  But it turns out I’m not the only one to come out with the wrong thing sometimes as he asked if I would mind ‘using my hands to be a bit….suggestive’.  Having established from his face that wasn’t what he actually meant, I laughed a lot, the camera man didn’t know where to look, the interviewer just looked rather surprised.

So, if you happen to see this film at any point in the future, I’m the one looking very nervous, sounding like Minnie Mouse on speed until the end.  Then I just look like I’ve been laughing for a good ten minutes.  And I’m not doing anything suggestive with my hands at all – I just went with an attempt at ‘expressive’ :o)

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Stupid, soggy, but smiley

Posted on August 17, 2017 by thepogblog

One thing I like about running is that in  lycra, everyone is on an equal playing field.  You can’t tell who has money, who has a high powered job, you can’t even tell who is actually good at running as they might be spritely as they just jogged out of their front door or they might be struggling because they already ran 10km as fast as they ever managed.  And I like that.  All judgement is suspended while wearing trainers.

I also like the fact that there is a feeling of being in it together.  Especially today.  Because today, only complete and utter idiots were out running and we all knew it.  Today on the seafront the wind was boardering on autumnal in its gusting, the tide was in, the waves were crashing and salt spray was combining with the heavy, horizontal rain to soak anyone stupid enough to be out there.  And the few people out running were grinning at each other, recognising their own stupidity in that of others. :o)

What I don’t like is the fact that last week I invested in one of those fancy pants running watches that do pretty much everything except tie up you laces for you.  I like the watch; it’s very exciting as I can now watch in real time as my heart rate goes up to numbers that might or might not be the end of me.  The bit that made my heart sink was realising that, as I’d suspected, the app I’ve been using for over a year to track my running was out in every single way.  The distances were wrong, the time was wrong, even the calories I’d been burning was wrong.  I’d not gone as far or as fast as I’d thought.  (And no wonder I’ve not lost weight – I’ve been allowing myself way more chocolate rewards  than I should have)  Humph.

In preparation for cakeathon I decided I had to run 18km.  I thought I’d done that last week, but based in the differences between the app and my watch it was probably less than 17km.  So I decided today was the day, despite the rain.

Well, clearly this Pog is designed to 1) run very slowly.  It was barely a jog in places, and 2) is better at running when the sun is in hibernation.  Because I did 20km.  TWENTY.  Without. stopping. once.  Even when I had to cross roads I ran up and down the pavement so I didn’t stop.  I pretty much can’t move now, but we’ll gloss over that.

There was one slightly odd thing though.  Either the fancy pants watch had a blip, or it’s not surprising I was so soggy when I got back (I weighed my clothes: 0.5kg, they were so waterlogged).  If I understand this bit right, it seems that at some point I was actually a meter below sea level… :o)

I did it though; soggy but smiley (well, almost smiley) :o)

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