it’s all about the speed…

Technology is not my friend, but today it made me laugh a lot.

I’m still working hard at the unfatness plan. I will never be particularly good, but I do get some weird sense of achievement at sweating my way though a run, especially when I get views like those I got yesterday:

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But with a bit of an unhappy knee, I’ve been told to swap out some of my runs with bike rides. It’s been surprisingly fun to get back on two wheels, but this is where my giggle came in. I started today with a bike ride and it would seem the effort I am putting in is really starting to pay off. Because according to the app on my phone, my top speed today was….um… 800.8kph.

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So although my average speed is a little lower, apparently I am a bit of a speed demon. Ahem. :o)

 

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Pog and Norman similarities

You know that theory that over time dogs and their owners look more and more alike?  It’s not the case with cats, is it?  They are such independent creatures I don’t think they would allow it.  Norman has developed his own Norman take on this though.

Ever since the disastrous attempt to take my wisdom teeth out, I’ve been in pain.  I thought it was the first disaster.  Then I thought it was the surgeons attempts that caused the pain.  Then possibly the incident of ripping a stitch out.  Then I thought it was just bad luck and I’d developed a hole in a tooth.  After around 136 visits to the dentist since the middle of June, I thought today would be the final one and booked in to see the hygienist tomorrow, so that my fully fixed teeth could have a proper clean in celebration.  Today’s ‘final’ appointment turned out not to be though.  Yesterday I managed to get to 7pm before taking any painkillers so I could try to help the dentist understand the pain that gets worse and worse through the day.  The way I was helpful?  I drew the pain onto my face and took a picture:

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Apparently this isn’t pain from a tooth.  Particularly as all the x-rays show that there is absolutely nothing wrong where the hurting is focused.  It looks like the surgeon may have to be bought back again :o(

So anyway, we’re having a bit of an MOT session at the moment, teeth, eyes, haircut, B12 soon and the vet for Norman tonight.  He was due his annual check up and injections which is usually just a bit of chaos and quite a bit of money.  It turns out Norman has taken more notice than I thought of the dental issues in Pog Towers though, and the vet discovered he has a lot of plaque on his teeth. He needs a full dental session including a polish.  And his polish, it turns out, will cost at least FIVE times more than mine!  Seriously, why couldn’t he just settle with us looking a bit more like each other?!

Tomorrow after my polish, I’m going back to the opticians to see if they can teach me how to wear contact lenses.  I went in with one pair of glasses with a huge scratch across one lens and the other pair on the verge of losing an arm – I think they feel contacts would be a safer option for me.  I feel sorry for the person I have the appointment with – eyes make me feel a bit icky and if I think about them too long they water.  A lot.  But I’m not telling Norman anything about the eyes or the next think I know he’ll be needing glasses :o)

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The effects of heat

It’s summer!  I know this because earlier on I was on a conference call in my conservatory and I spotted my neighbour in his Y-fronts.  Just his Y-fronts.

I’m not going to complain about the heat – I love being warm and it’s meant for the first two nights this year I’ve not slept with a hot water bottle.  Also, this is the UK, so summer could be over by Thursday morning.

What I am going to complain about though, is the number of adults I encountered yesterday who, despite presumably clocking that big fiery thing in the sky and noting that they didn’t need the coat / scarf / umbrella that most English people have on hand at all times just in case, and possibly wishing they could wear shorts to work… despite all that, they did not apply any deodorant. These were not teenagers.  These were people who have been doing the sweating thing for years.  These were people who should have known better; they were people in my office.  Not my friends, I hasten to add, and not anyone who I could point at and subtly hand over a can of Sure to.  But get a few people together in the lifts, and oh my…!

The upside of this is that I took to the stairs each time I needed to move floors and got a bit of extra exercise in.  Never mind that my knee was unhappy about it – it could just about cope.  My nose most definitely couldn’t.

Today there were no smelly people in Pog Towers, mainly because it’s just me and Norman here and we’re both quite good on the personal hygiene front.  Without air conditioning though, it did get a bit toasty in the conservatory where we work, so that combined with the Y-fronts parading next door sent us into the cool of the lounge.  Tomorrow, back in the office, I get air con, hopefully fewer Y-fronts but smelly people.  Hey ho, I’ll just stick to the stairs and be happy that we have some sun :o)

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Blue skies and furniture

This weekend was mostly about blue skies and furniture. On Saturday I spent eight hours transforming this:

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Into this:

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It’s not perfect, but I rather like it :o)

And today, with the really blue skies here for once (I took a photo for posterity):

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We had a family barbecue at Sister 2’s house. And despite really trying to step the unfatness plan up (this week: two fit ball classes, one yoga lesson, a 12 k bike ride and two 5k runs), I broke one of their garden chairs:

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And it’s the second time I’ve done it apparently (I must have blocked the last time out of my mind, but they all assure me it’s the case). So never mind the wardrobes, it looks like I need to start investing in some new chairs :o/

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Just a daft Norman post

I tend not to post on here when big things have happened in the world because it seems disrespectful.  I noticed something this morning though.  I spent a good 15 minutes on line trying to find something – anything –  that wasn’t full of sadness, of stunned reactions, of anger.  I acknowledge another bad thing has happened.  I read up on it, I tried to understand it, but ultimately I can make no difference.

So I am going to post today.  Something banal, irrelevant and unimportant…because we have to have some smiles somewhere, don’t we?  Even if it feels like the world is going to pot, there are still good people, good things and good feelings.  And without them, it really is all a bit rubbish.

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Last night I had the excitement of my wardrobe.  After a very full day of work, I spent three hours cleaning it – it was filthy.  Hot water didn’t seem enough, I was warned off using white spirit inside so I resorted to the internet.  I discovered a tip of using 1 part lemon juice, 2 parts olive oil to lift dirt.  You know how the one thing that cats all hate is citrus?  Well apparently Norman didn’t read that memo.  I polished the wardrobe.  He  licked the polish off.  This is all I can think of to explain the chaos that ensued.

Norman and I have an understanding.  He stays in the house until I go to bed.  He then goes off to do his cat man thing.  I don’t know what that is and I don’t ask (It can’t be too much though as he has no cat man bits…).  All I do know is that it’s between 2 and 2.30am when he comes in, stands on me and surveys the bed to identify a Norman spaced area.  Usually this is where most of me is lying so I end up sleeping half the night parallel to my pillows.  Anyway, that didn’t happen last night.  After an hour of dozing I heard him come in doing his naughty walk.  This usually means he has bought something with him which he will then try to hide so I only find out about it a few days later from the smell.  Not this time Norman!  I got up and chased him back outside with whatever he was holding.  10 minutes later he came back in, I chased him….and this carried on for about 40 minutes.  It was made all the more fun for Norman because all my clothes, which should be in the wardrobe, are currently on a rail in the middle of my lounge.  It reminded me of chasing Little Pea round a tree, swapping directions all the time to try to get the upper hand.

Eventually he tired of this game, presumably because it had got him a bit over excited as on his next loud entrance through the cat flap – it was about 1 am at this point – he started throwing up.  Through my bedroom, into the lounge and behind the sofa.  I cleared up and tried to check on him.  He ran under the bed.  I attempted to follow.  It all got a bit silly.  In the end I did a final check to make sure I’d not missed any cat sick, found the mouse that he had managed to hide from me and got back into bed.  At which point Norman rushed out from under my bed and managed to get his entire body stuck in the arm of a bra that was hanging on the bed post.  He was trying to run, but it was like watching a fur ball attempt a horizontal bungee jump.  He ran; he pinged back.  I tried to untangle him, but he tried running again and did the whole pinging back thing again.  I didn’t want to take the bra off the bed post as there was a good chance he’d escape with it on, and that would take a hell of a lot of explaining to the local paper (an underwear wearing cat – a cross dressing one at that – would be right up their street, as long as there was an accompanying picture.)  All I actually wanted to do was get some sleep before the alarm went off.  And yet somehow, eventually, Norman was free and I did get back to bed.  To be woken at 2am while he stood on me, working out exactly which spot on the bed was taken up entirely by me that he would therefore claim as his own.

I won’t lie though.  The image of him wearing my bra is still making me smile, even though I am half asleep.  I hope it brought a teeny smile to your face too :o)

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A new Pog project

I have a new project (and I do love a project) and it’s all Sister 2’s fault.  She’s been doing fantabulous things with bits of sad old furniture to make them happy again and I was a bit envious.  I asked where she was finding these gems and she offered to take me.  The place is essentially a warehouse where people donate old furniture which is then sold to fund local community projects.  Some of the future is…well, you can see why people got rid of it, put it that way.  But if you look with eyes that can imagine a lick of paint and a bit of love, there are a few bits with potential.  Sister 2 seems to have bought most of those gems recently, but that was ok, because when she took me for a look round I was definitely only going to look.  As a result of my recent upholstery efforts, I’ve already had to put some of my furniture in the loft – there is absolutely no room for any more furniture in Pog Towers.

I bought a wardrobe.  But it is a gorgeous wardrobe.  And at £40, it was considerably less than a new one.  Here is Sister 2 modelling it at the warehouse:

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Probably the less said the better about that.

Anyway, so that I could fit the wardrobe in, I had to get rid of my old wardrobe and a lot of my clothes as the new wardrobe has only a third of the hanging space of the old one – there’s nothing like a bit of badly thought out impulse buying.  But I did all that and today the wardrobe arrived.  And I love it.  Look:

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It has shelves…

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Labelled shelves:

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Those two are behind the glass door, because obviously shirts and sportswear need a bit of extra care…

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I gave it a quick clean earlier:

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I think I’ll be giving it a few more cleans before I can start on its transformation :/

We think it might be quite old.  I wish it could talk…I bet it has more stories than the Pog Blog :o)

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Pudding club!

My nearly neighbour friend is pretty much a genius. Last night a group of us decended on her house for pudding club. Nearly neighbour friend made nibbles bits of the tastiest variety and we all took a pudding. Yes, we had nibbles followed by EIGHT home made puds. We all practically exploded… :o)

I mentioned this while I was out with my running group yesterday morning and (between sounding jealous and suggesting I run a bit extra in preparation for the gazillion calories I would be eating) I was asked what I was making. As you know, I am rubbish at cooking, but can bake (sometimes) so I was going with my cake with a secret ingredient which a lovely colleague gave me the recipe for. I told them the secret ingredient and some of them asked me to post it, and pictures here. So here you go ladies.  If you want a cake with a talking point (nobody ever guesses without a bit of help) which also tastes delicious, give it a go :o)

It looks a bit orange before cooking...

It looks a bit orange before cooking…

But not too scary afterwards.

But not too scary afterwards. (Sorry, I should have got a better photo, but apparently a rule of pudding club is that you also need to drink quite a lot. And this was the last pudding we had!)

Ta dah!

Ta dah!

:o)

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Bees and mushrooms

This has been the loooooongest week.  Earlier on I told someone about a meeting I had ‘a few weeks back’ and looked at my notes to discover the meeting was on Wednesday.  The Wednesday that happened two days ago.

I’ve just realised that my dinner wont be quite the feast I’d hoped for as it seems when I decided  I’d have stuffed mushrooms while wandering around the supermarket a few days ago I was pretty much asleep.  What did I get to stuff my mushrooms with?  Cream cheese and….mushrooms. So I guess it’s a cheesey mushroomy night for me then, as apparently the only other things I bought are biscuits.  And even I wont stuff a mushroom with a chocolate bourbon.

But it’s not all bad.  This morning I found a very sad bee.  Well, actually, he found me – he appeared from nowhere on my notebook.  So I whipped him up a little sugary water, he had a bit of a feast (not a mushroom in sight for him), and he went home.  That feels like the biggest achievement of my week.  Other than the fact that I got through it.  Now to go and make magic with those mushrooms :o)

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The original Pog?

Lots of you know that this is the Pog Blog due to my nickname.  I was given it around the age of two and a good few decades later my family only use my proper name if they are cross with me.  Family friends call me Pog.  I don’t think Little Pea realises I have any name other than ‘Auntie Pog’ (which I rather love).  My number plate includes Pog as does my personal email (although today someone read it back to me as ‘Podgy’ which is almost as bad as when my sisters ‘accidentally’ type ‘Pig’ on messages to me…).  Pog is more my name than any other, really.

Anyway, at the weekend I tidied.  Not just a little bit.  I moved a considerable percentage of the contents of my house into the loft and filled the car with bags to take to the tip.  I really tidied.  One of the boxes I went through had cards and papers and all sorts (and I admit, I couldn’t find the willpower to sort through them all, so the whole lot just went in the loft), but as I moved things around, something fell out.  It was another demonstration of by lack of artistic ability, but this one was from a long, long time ago.  And rather proves how long the Pog name has hung around me (because honestly, my drawing hasn’t improved much, but my handwriting is marginally better):

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I have no idea how old I would have been, but I know I didn’t learn joined up writing until I was 5 ish so it’s some time after then.  Could this be the earliest written documentation of me being Pog?  Possibly the original Pog?  :o)

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Lots of nature in trainers (but not much actual running)

Yesterday as I joined others in my running group for their annual lavender run (running alongside the local lavender fields) one of the lovely ladies commented (with some surprise, I think) that I had actually made it back from my holiday in one piece.  And yes, other than that incident with the stitches in my mouth I had managed it with no problem. I should have known it wouldn’t last.

The running involved yesterday was a bit sparodic as kept stopping to take photos – it was so pretty and I knew if I went back on my own I’d just get lost, so I made the most of it:

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We stumbled on a fire engine show and one fireman took a picture of us:

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And one of himself:

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They suggested we join them for a bacon sarnie, but we just did another photo instead:

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Part way through all this I realised I was a bit behind the rest of the group, put my phone away and started my version of running. And suddenly all I could see was the sky.  I might have managed a week away without incident, but a few miles from home I’d managed to fall into the hedgerow. Specifically a patch of nettles :o(. This was a bit of my back last night:

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This morning I thought rather than a proper run I would explore and try to find myself a new route.  I ended up in grass up to my thighs:

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Discovered there was a very good reason someone had built this bridge and if I had used it, I wouldn’t have ended up with quite such muddy trainers:

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I realised I shouldn’t have attempted to run down the centre part of a tractor trail as 1) the water either side was strangest and 2) it joined up in the middle in parts.  My trainers are now muddy and have a slightly stagnant aroma.

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And for some reason this bridge only goes part way over the stream, adding to the routes obstacle course flavour:

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It was fun though. I also met a lady called Barbara who was having a coffee at the end of her garden that backed onto a field.  She has chickens and ducks and luckily also held the secret of how to get out of the field I seemed to be trapped in.

Not your average runs, but it’s lovely to do something a bit different sometimes.  And when I got back I washed Paddington and James the bear, just because that seemed a bit different too. They are now doing in the garden :o)image

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