Happy Birthday to me....

Yes I'd better change my profile to read "37" although strictly speaking I'm not until 1210pm! Agh another year has whizzed by, and an interesting year it's been.

This time last year a celebrated in Basra with a bottle of smuggled in wine shared with some good chaps whilst no doubt watching an episode of Alias. Highlights of the year, well there are quite a lot so here's a flavour for some;

• Birth of Sean, my new nephew, in October. He's really special.
• Taking my other nephew (who's 8) to his first orchestral experience. He loved taking a look at all the instruments and amused the audience at the concert as he got so into the music that you'd have thought he was the conductor. Priceless :o)
  
• Finishing my first Triathlon, I particularly remember smiling like a Cheshire Cat on the bike leg - brilliant
• Week climbing in Spain. I'm not a real climber but this was a fantastic week to get away after getting home from Iraq and let my brain comprehend my previous 6 months. also the peace, beauty and tranquility was well needed. Getting to the top of my first lead climb was a totally amazing thrill.
• The feeling when I demobilised and left the gates of Chilwell to come home after my tour was also priceless. I could earn a fortune if I could bottle that feeling up and sell it. What a relief!

There were also obviously some lowlights too but hey there's no point dwelling on those, learn what you can from those type of experiences and move on is what I say.

Have just received my birthday call from my parents with a good rendition of "Happy Birthday" :o) and here's a quote from Gerry Sikorski which is on a card from Uncle Alistair and Auntie Carol...

"BE ABSOLUTELY determined TO enjoy WHAT YOU do"

So that seems a good motto for the year doesn't it.... and let's face it I'll be enjoying today for starters! :o)

Right better get some scoff and ready myself for my day of fun. I'm going to watch the girls play hockey today followed by a nice meal with mates tonight. It's a great day for it all too, lovely bright blue skies, birds singing and fairly mild for the time of year. It will be good to get out and watch some other people exercise!!!

Adious!

A new day.... A new blog!

Finally got round to changing my blog template from orange to blue - well i've got to do something whilst I can't train! Still only 4 more days to go before I learn my fate, well my hand does. Fully expecting to have an xray and put back in plaster for another few weeks - getting quite fond of this plaster cast too so it'll be a shame when it gets cut off. Although at least I'm going to get the opportunity to give my hand and wrist a good scratch between cast off and cast on! :o)

Not wanting to just sit on the sofa and eat chocolate, I have managed to put my downtime to thinking about a new training schedule for when the day comes that I can get back on the treadmill. Found an alternative Olympic distance at the end of September which I may aim for if it turns out the London Tri early August becomes a no-goer. Knowing myself as I do the danger is when my hand is in rehab that I train too much too soon.... so have gone so far as to create a run/walk schedule at the start of the plan, and yes sticking to it will be interesting but let's not get ahead of myself!

Looking on the bright side, the sun is now coming up earlier so come the end of this month/ early March running outside in the early morn should be lovely. Am also looking forward to getting back in the pool and remembering how to glide again :o)

Ok enough for now, time for some brufen and scoff! Happy days everyone :o)

A new day.... a new cast....

Damn this silly small bone i've broken... cashew nut shaped apparently (isn't it amazing what you can find out on the internet!).... humpf

So yesterday I got myself a nice new shiny heavyweight cast. Had some probs with some swelling and some pins and needles Thursday so spent some time with the lovely people in the "cast room" (no not some dodgey actor auditioning parlour), at the local hospital. A quick chainsaw moment granted my hand (now called the poor paw, pp for short) some freedom.... i was subsequently dispatched to the tea room and told to keep my hand up to see if the swelling went down..... hummmm. Well it did get a bit better but I was left with this odd feeling in my finger tips and a pins and needles type od sensation through the palm of my hand. I was dispatched back home with a bright blood red cover over my cast to see how things settled overnight.

Woke up to an overcast drizzly day and the same sensation in my hand, so back off to the bus stop for the exciting trip back into town and to see the helpful people in the cast room. Despite me not having an appointment and it being rather busy I managed to see a doctor after about an hour and a half wait. Who broke the news that it's definitely broken (i thought there was still some doubt), and I should expect to be in a cast for at least 8 weeks!!!! Wasn't expecting that. As for the pins and needles well got my cast changed, no more light weight fibreglass for me back to the heavy weight plaster of paris stuff. At least the sun came out in the afternoon!

So having been reprimanded by the cast staff and doctor for overworking pp I've decided i'd better not go to the spin class I'd planned to do today!!.... and running is totally banned for another few weeks - not that i've done any of that. This is the most in active period since Jan 2004 when I was recovering from a major op. Still I can walk fine and as the weather forecast is for blue skies at the weekend I shall keep my arm up and go for a stomp around the countryside!... and hey we actually beat the aussies at cricket last night so there's always some good news :o)

More soon, may have to rename the blog to Karen and the adventures of the PP... In fact I may change the format and colour of the blog... gives me something to do other then the hours on a bike, would have been a lovely day for an outdoor ride today too!!!

Until next time remember behind every grey cloud there are a thousand rays of sun.