Fire and Ice

Today is the 5 th of May* – an important day. Actually, more of a milestone. In exactly four months’ time I will be lining up with thousands of my friends to run the Disneyland Half Marathon . I signed up for this a while ago and since then, to be honest, I’ve been dabbling with the training . I had plenty of excuses: “it’s snowing”, “I’m sick”, “I hurt my knee, need to rest it”… and so on. In the last month or so I have actually started following a training plan and most of the time I do the runs I’m supposed to be doing. But now that the race is only four months away, the training needs to become serious: no more dropping out mid-run because I’m bored, no more skipping runs because I can’t be bothered… mileage needs to start increasing, long runs become longer and short runs become faster. I need to start planning my fueling strategy, need to start running with the gear I am planning to use and need to start putting together a killer playlist. The fundraising needs to get star...

This is pretty cool... (view the animation here) A bit of fun but also part of my U101 Design Thinking course. Even though I am struggling to keep up, I am really enjoying the discovery process and also finding cool little toys like this one!

I wandered around, getting lost a few times… this shopping center sure is big! I popped into H&M and bought a lovely new top, then into Next and Debenhams just to check things out. Eventually I got a bit weary and headed for Starbucks and a Dulce de Leche Frappuccino (my favourite!) and walked out of the mall and into the bright sunshine: when straight ahead of me I suddenly noticed this simply enormous building: Yup, I was in Dubai . I had only arrived that morning but already I was having a look around what is supposedly the world’s biggest mall: Dubai Mall . Besides the usual UK high street brands and popular US shops they also have a bunch of real high-end designer shops and even some more Middle Eastern shops along with hundreds of others… the place sure feels big. And extremely clean, flashy, upmarket and opulent. Pretty much like the rest of Dubai . Our trip was sudden but it had been in the cards for a while. It really was a business trip for my DH and he’d been...

My story is on another blog ! You all probably already know most of the story but what do you think?? Like the photos? Incidentally, I'll be back on the blog soon as I have adventures in Dubai to share... watch this space!

Let's play this game again : here's a recent photo of Jessica (aged 1): And here is one of me, roughly the same age: So who does she look like now? Shall we consider this game over?

Last January I signed up for the Disneyland Half Marathon which takes place in September. I was very well organized: I booked the race , the flights and even a place to stay . I’ve told all my friends and am hoping that at least some of them can join me that weekend. I’ve even had thoughts as to what I’ll be wearing on the day! However, there is one thing I haven’t done. I haven’t been for a run in MONTHS. Sure, I’ve been to dance classes, dabbled in cross training, even messed around with weights. But no real running outside, for any considerable length of time. How do I expect to complete a half marathon in 24 short weeks if I don’t train? Thing is, I tried to start training in January. But the weather was awful (cold, snow, ice) so there was no chance of doing it outside. I have also been incredibly busy at work so fitting in a gym visit at lunchtime wasn’t really working out. Then I got a really terrible cold that meant I could barely breathe and THEN I went a...

As part of my D esign Thinking course , I had to take photos of objects I like and then submit them to the Online Design Studio. They are intended to act as practice for taking and uploading photos which I already have lots of experience on… but I still took a while to do it. Why? I just couldn’t decide on only 3 objects to photograph! In the end the three things I chose probably say a lot about me, so I thought it would be fun to share them with you and explain my choices further. The first object that I chose was a Smart car. I chose this pretty quickly because it is something that has always made me smile. I used to own one and even though I have nothing against the car I have now, if I could I would go back to my Smart in a second. The second object took a bit longer to pick. I was looking around the kitchen for inspiration and considered my blender (which I love but not THAT much), my slow cooker (which is great but let’s not get carried away) and finally settled on ...