Easter hol's

I've finished work for nearly a week, with a trip to Mum & Dad, plus a visit to friends in Leicester planned for my time off.

But before any of that, I'm having my carpets cleaned. I'm embarrassed to admit I'm actually quite excited about it - the place just feels filthy and I'm hoping this will kick start a cleaner house. I've also signed up with a cleaning agency and they hope to have someone out within a couple of weeks. Spring must be in the air, with all this cleaning!

In my madness, I've booked a sprint triathlon for 16th May. Today I bought some toe clips and a bottle cage for my bike - all feels a bit serious! A friend is keen to go out for a training session next week - she wants to swim in Hexham, cycle back then go for a run ..... I may well regret entering this particular race!

Easter mean it's the end of lent, which means I can return to Facebook. The reason I started this blog was to stave off Facebook-withdrawal symptoms. Whilst I have missed keeping up with friends on Facebook, I haven't really spoken to friends any more than before. But this blog is far more therapeutic than Facebook - maybe I'll do both for a bit.

Bits and Bobs

Another week's gone by, the clocks have gone forwards so it is now officially spring (and snow is forecast for later this week!).

This week was sort of turned upside down by a rough on-call on tuesday night. I was called out at 11.45pm, got home a couple of hours later, but was only back 20mins before getting called back out til 6am. You know it's bad when the dog doesn't even get out of bed to greet you as you come and go in the middle of the night.

I was seeing the chiropracter (highly recommended, not just for people with more money than sense, as I previously believed) on wednesday, and explained I was shattered from working all night. She asked what sort of things I had to do in the middle of the night, and I said, "well, last night I assessed two patients who'd been talked down off bridges by the Police and needed assessing urgently".

Yesterday, I had a lovely day entertaining friend's two little girls. We went to a local farm to feed the lambs, and bounce on a trampoline (lots). They were so well behaved, a pleasure to take out. The only hitch was their fear of Rosie but I'll work on that.

Today I've been cleaning. I REALLY need to find another cleaner, soon. Have written down numbers and hope to make some calls tomorrow.

Mud happy

On Saturday, I ran an 18km race in the lakes. The drive over was grim, with heavy rain, low cloud and no views at all. The rain stopped just in time for the start of the race, the cloud lifted, the views were spectacular and the sun even tried to shine by the end. Never run such a muddy race, but loved it. Nearly lost a shoe in one particularly deep and sticky section, and let out something of a girly scream! The ford shown in the photos washed off some of the mud, wetwipes got rid of a bit more whilst changing in a field, the rest was in the bath when I got home.

My next challenge may be a sprint triathlon. I've thought about doing it for ages, and am now getting very keen. Have found a local one in a couple of months, so will give it a go. The only bit of a tri I'm concerned about is having to get out the pool and put shoes and socks on without being able to dry between my toes properly!

Game, set and match

Oops. Having been successful at my first entry into the public ballot for Wimbledon tickets, I managed to miss the payment deadline and may now have lost them. Many folk would have given their eye teeth for tickets to the mens quarter finals. I too was excited and have booked the annual leave, but payment just somehow escaped my notice.

I have today written an apologetic and beseeching letter to the all england lawn tennis association and will now have to wait and see.

My biggest concern? How to tell Mum I may not be taking her to Wimbledon after all!

Lent

It's lent and I've given up Facebook. It really wouldn't be right to start up a blog as a substitute - a bit like giving up chocolate and eating sweets instead - but I am feeling increasingly led to keep a diary of some sort, and this seems a good way to do it.

I'll just do it on the quiet I think, a personal blog for just me to read.

Last month was busy. Mum's 60th weekend away was a huge success, and then I had my debut performance at the Sage with the Northern Sinfonia Chorus - absolutely brilliant, I was just buzzing at the end and couldn't stop grinning.

March is quiet by comparison, but I made it North to visit relatives last weekend (Mum and Dad, then Granny in Edinburgh, then my cousin and family in Haddington, plus beautiful walk at Cove on the way home) and I'm off to the Lakes for a race at this coming weekend (Cartmel Ultimate trail).

The boiler saga continues. It's now been on the blink for over 3 months. I gave up on British Gas long ago and have a local engineer coming out regularly to try to sort it. The latest update was that he had a couple of final things he could try, and failing that, it's time for a new boiler. Having put up with a dodgy boiler since moving here nearly 8 yrs ago, and now being faced with putting a new one in, I wish I'd done it years ago and saved myself a lot of bother!