Thursday photo #279

Isn’t it funny how the school holidays seem like such a long time ago? The girls only went back to school last Wednesday but we’re already back into our usual routine. I’m slowly catching up with work and everything seems a little easier. But that doesn’t stop us all from looking forward to half term.

New challenges

Every year, I tend to sign up for a challenge of some description. I’m terribly bad at motivating myself to exercise and the thought of failing to finish an event usually persuades me to do at least some training. Over the past few years I’ve dragged myself around an ultra marathon, a triathlon and the London marathon. This year though, I’ve agreed to something a little different.

When I ran the London marathon last year, there was a flurry of vague interest from people who follow me on Twitter. A tracker app can follow your progress and I really appreciated all the support I had. In the few days afterwards, my friend Martyn mentioned that he’d like to do the London marathon. The only problem is, he wouldn’t manage to run it. So, somebody suggested I push him around it in his wheelchair.

That was April and now, a plan is forming. The London marathon organisers apparently don’t allow wheelchair users to compete unless they self-propel. So, our focus turned to the Brighton marathon. Here, pushing a wheelchair is allowed. Support from the crowd is supposed to be excellent and everyone says it’s a great marathon. So, Martyn is in the process of finding a company to lend him a chair he’ll be comfortable in for 26.2 miles. When that’s done, we’ll be applying for a charity place. And in the meantime, I’ve started training. Having to get into the gym to train is a little different for me, but it’s good to have something to work towards.

When a house becomes a home

I first got a dog not long after buying my own home 16 years ago. Since then we’ve always had a dog and I can’t imagine being without one now. The thing about dogs is you have to walk them every day. Most days, Bubbles has at least two walks. When I’m marathon training we run instead of walking but either way, she gets me out of the house. If I walk to our local pub, she comes with me. I feel safe walking back at night because I’m not on my own. There are innumerable advantages to having a dog. But that has never stopped me from missing having a cat.

Cats were my first pets as a child which is probably why a house never quite feels like home without a cat in it. It took a lot of persuading to get my husband to realise that we needed a cat. But now we’ve got him, the house finally feels like a home again. It may be far from perfect. Our kitchen is half finished, we have no carpets or floors and don’t even talk to me about the clutter. But none of that matters because the truth is, home is where the cat is.

True to form, I forgot to take a photo of the girls on their first day back to school. So instead, here’s a celebratory photo of the first school day we weren’t too late to have time to take a photo.