So, the day came and the count down was over and I had to take my place and run my 10K. what a day it was! wonderful and fantastic. I really enjoyed it immensely. The pasta and rice I had last week paid off and i finished in 77 min which is a new record for me.

high point: passing on Westminster bridge and realising I passed the 8K mark and not 7k, I was over the moon.
low point: seeing the fast runners on the other side of the Thames while I am still trying to get to my 3K mark.
great comments: the crowds were fantastic and some were thanking me for running for Diabetes UK charity.
nice slogon: a guy with a T shirt that said : Give me a hug, I am special

As I crossed the finish line, there were people handing water bottels followed by some people handing leaflests about upcoming running events! now, talk about good timming and trying to pick a good moment to ask people to do a half marathon run just after a 10K.

the good news was that i finished my run and raised a lot of money for Diabetes UK, the bad news is that I have to be at work all day tomorrow :)

Pasta, rice and rest

Yesterday, I ran my longest distance so far 8.4 K in 65 min! Was too hot but felt great after that. My personal trainer suggested that this should be the last run before my big day. She said it is recommended not to do the whole distance before a run so I can keep pushing myself on the day. So, from now till the day of the run, it will be pasta, rice and rest.

keep on running

As the date approach for my 10K run, I started to go to the gym every day in an attempt to calm my nerves and get more training. Today and for the first time, I ran 7K and I am so pleased with that. 5K was my barrier and it was more of a mental barrier than anything else. I do not feel any pain at the moment (who knows about later on). The funny thing is that, as I run I can see how many calories I have burned and at a point when I feel like death, I look at the machine and see that I have burned 70 calories and I am filled with despair as I am sure only looking at a bar of chocolate will make me gain 70 calories!
my aim now is to run faster and get to 10K in one piece before my actual race.

thank you for the music

The weekend was lovely and I really enjoyed listening to a performance by our local brass band. The theam was movie and theater music and it was so nice and a great evening. so thanks for the music that lift up our moods and this is for fun... not a real image from the band :)

How would you like your shoe-laces today sir?

Having choices seems to be the name of the day...choices in every and anything we have, buy and do. But, how many choices do we really need to do up shoes laces? MANY is the answer and here are some ideas....enjoy and good luck trying them out. (thanks to my brother for sending me this).

As last summer was cancelled, the minute I saw the weather forecast for the weekend, I decided that being on the beach was the sensible thing to do. It was PERFECT. We had such an amazing time, lovely sun shine, sea air and the most important ingredient: fish and chips. Let us hope this lovely weather lasts.

to facebook or not to facebook...that is the question

One of those nights where because of insomnia, I am sitting to write after all else failed to help me sleep.
Now when it comes to keeping up to date with technology to help keep in touch, I feel I am doing ok, except for one thing that is facebook! It seems now that everyone and I mean everyone is on facebook and the number of invitations I got to add people (even though I am not on facebook) is really big. apparently, people do not call anymore and emails seems too slow, even facebook will soon be not cool enough as twitter is taking over. So far I have resisted joining face book, but I feel it will not be for long. I still do not have faith in facebook but time will tell.

Cake, Candles and Birthdays

I was so busy in the last few days preparing for my daughter birthday party. Lots of organisation and preparation, from invitations to organising food, presents,etc. Deciding on how to design the invitation was like the middle east peace process negotiation. As my daughter wanted the invitation to be in the shape of a little book of information, pictures and stories given to each one of her friends. I voted against giving a "dossier" to each child and at the end we reached a compromise and we agreed to make the invitation long enough but not too long. As my daughter wanted a sport party, the decision was made to go for rock climbing and archery party (instead of cannoning and high rope which I felt was going to push my blood pressure to the limit with all aspects of health and safety). Praise God the party went really well and all had fun and more importantly, all were in one piece by the end of the 4 hour party celebration. At these times, I thank God for his mercy and that birthdays are only once a year. So time for me to have a little rest before we start counting down to Christmas :)

Bring on the excuses

As a parent, I know that kids are very clever and they know which buttons to press. But recently, I awarded my daughter the first prize in inventing excuses to get away from doing homework or music practice, etc. Here are the best excuses she has come up with (so far that is):

*I can not leave the cat alone and do my homework or else I will hurt his feelings
*I do not want to practice my music as my friend is not practising today and I do not want to be the only one who practice
*I need a back massage before I get changed to go to school
*I do not want to go swimming as I will get wet
*I have a bad headache can not do my homework but must watch TV to relax!
*I can not go to sleep because I m so tired (my favourite)

Run, run, run

Today, I went for to a village fete with one of my friends and we joined a 5K fun run as part of our preparation for the 10K run in July. It was very warm and the run started at mid day, so the heat was intense however, it was a good training for the big day. I finished in 42 min which is a good record for me as it used to take around 48 or 49 min. The funny thing was, as I went to collect my medal, I was given a medal with the number 1 written on it. It soon became apparent that this was the wrong medal for me and as much as I like to keep such a medal, I went and changed it to get the one I deserved, and here it is.

What is in your basket?

Today, I was helping at my daughter's school all morning. It is a great chance for me to give a hand to the teachers and support their work. This is something I have been doing for a long time, but today for the first time I was looking at all the kids in a very different way. I was thinking about Mouses and his mother. This mum was so worried about her little boy, afraid for his life and decided to do something very brave just to -may be- give him anther chance to live. She had no choice, she wanted to try and have one last attempt at saving his life. I was thinking about her getting the basket ready, making it comfortable for little Moses, covering the outside of the basket so it does not sink in the river. When she put her little son in the basket, what did she see? I think she saw a helpless little boy, a baby who can not defend himself, she saw a tiny person looking at her for protection and love. But God saw something else, He saw a leader, a great man, a man who will have problems and make mistakes, but a man who will trust in God and lead Israel.

So, what does that got to do with anything? I felt overwhelmed with the idea about what we see in our basket. seeing the kids today, learning, laughing and having fun made me think that sometimes as parents we see just what is under our nose, but God sees something else in my basket. A great child, a wonderful individual, a promising future. All I need is to tune in to God's vision and see what He sees in my basket.

Behind every great man..

I was asked to give a short presentation for a meeting at work. The session was really interesting and it ran till 8 pm. Sitting down listening to various speakers, I scanned the room and there were about 25 men and 4 women attending this meeting. It made me think that behind every great man there is a women. But what about great women? I think behind every great women is an army of people, friends, family and good kids. So, big cheer for those who are working behind the scenes for so many people.

I am the teapot short and stout...

Today I got a teapot and matching mugs to go with it. There should be nothing significant about this, however, it felt as a milestone towards being "old"! The idea of having "a proper cup of tea" with a nice teapot and matching napkins, a milk jug and some scones. I think the time of poring hot water direct from the kettle has gone and now I have to sit down and have my cup of tea at certain time with some cream cakes. I told my friends that with this new addition to the kitchen, there should also be no "pot noddles" and no out of the cans fruits! So, tomorrow I will enjoy my outdoor run followed by a nice cup of tea from my new teapot. I may be reading too much into this but I feel a bit older already with that new teapot.

Happy Easter

Old letter...same reality

Few days ago, I was going through some of my old cards and letters. I found this old letter from 2 of my friends which they sent me in the first term of going to university. We were in the same school, studied together and they went to university to study medicine and I went off to do dentistry. The letter was 6 A4 sheets (front and back) and it was all written in a poem style apart form the first part which included names and info about different people, teachers, lecturer, etc that were going to be mentioned later in the letter. It was hilarious to read then and when I sat and read it again it still is. All through the letter they explained about their frustration about the system and the different attitude in university life in comparison to being in school. How that success was not anymore dependant on your studying and more on how on board you were with students life and connections. Difficult tutors and problematic lecturers. That was a long time ago now but the experiences is still the same for many students I deal with on a daily basis. My friends now got their PhD and I did too, and it seems that we were not put off by the first change that we all encountered in the first few months of university life. We now miss being students and think back of these days and remember all the good times and the fun we all had. After reading the letter I thought I must get in touch with my friends again before our kids make the same learning choices and end up writing to us with similar letters!