After 4 laps of the croft, I came in and did an extra lap round the kitchen to Tiuana Taxi on the radio. Then I enjoyed an uninterrupted afternoon drawing - bliss.

Population of Birmingham - 1.15 million approx. NZ South Island 1 million approx.

My parents visited for 3 days and then Spook headed off to Birmingham to the Outdoor Show for 4 days. I was a bit worried that the contrast between Birmingham and his Rail Trail Cycle in New Zealand would push him over the edge. It would seem that the Benromach Whisky sponsors of No Fuss are keeping his emotions bouyant, and the spectacle of the very healthy Physiotherapists at the stand next to them (offering recovery methods to athletes), desperately applying their recovery methods to themselves after a night out with No Fuss and their sponsors, is keeping him entertained. I possibly find myself missing the wide, empty expanses of New Zealand's amazing South Island more than him right now!

I slept-over at work last night and the children decanted themselves elsewhere. One is 12 miles north-east of here and the other is 2 minutes down the road and communicating with me via his new Facebook page. ("wassup", "oi", "yup", "nothing much"). I have read the whole of Saturday's Glasgow Herald - a luxury - and now have to consider a 2nd day in a row of running round the croft. The elusive battery has still not appeared for the scales, but the less than elusive pounds are appearing around my middle with gathering speed and in my mind, the excess is approaching 2 stone, rather than the one that it probably is..........

Transport issues.

It was a busy week - the spring cleaning continued throughout every spare hour I had. Spook had 3 days back at the Poo Factory which is a major diversification for No Fuss. He went in to help them out and did so under the banner of No Fuss Waste Water Solutions! He went to Aviemore for the last 2 days of the working week, on a course to get the first part of his MTB guiding ticket. It was a very long but enjoyeable two days and was interspersed with time spent under the caravan fixing burst pipes. There were some nervous moments when I was thinking I had spent the week cleaning the wrong caravan and was going to have to get started on the other one.
I also got fairly physical. This was more to do with the unfortunate locking of the car keys inside the landrover, than with any timely training effort. The keys got locked inside on Tuesday (no idea how THAT could have happened), the rain came, and having taken eveything out of the caravan, I had to spend a lot of time running up and down the road with curtains and bedding inside bin bags to keep them dry, when normally I would have driven it all down in one load.
There is a collection of 'possibles' round the back, outside the shed. The green vehicle was put asided in favour of the red one being a better contender for a succesful MOT. The red one needs a bit of welding done and getting gas, welder and vehicle all in the one place has proved problematic. The motorbike was then considered as the next contender, but you need a vehicle to transport that to the MOT station. The trike, which is up-ended in the picture has obviously had the once over and been rejected. The good news is that the tractor works and the bad news is that Meg does not wish to be transported anywhere in it.
The other good news is that my parents are bringing the spare keys for the landrover today.
Spook has been grumbling about buying something that actually works and spotted a Leyland Daf van down the road for sale. Meg said she would rather be driven around in our red scabby van (there wasn't a hope of her getting inside it the last time it was discussed), than THAT thing down the road!
So I have been cycling to work and looking very fetching in Lidl's motorbike all-in-one Andy Pandy suit, Meg has managed the last day of the season (or so it looks) up at Nevis Range, Finn has had a weekend of rugby and Spook got a spin around Aviemore - at least I don't feel so left out.

Run. Stop. Run. Stop. Run. Stop.

I have had 5 days off. The first was spent in Aviemore, talking for 8 hrs to my friend and guru. (not very good photo of Adverikie Castle (Monarch of The Glen) which is sitting on a frozen lochside). The next two were spent helping Spook and Chloe with the Wee Triathlon and finally on Monday - still helping No Fuss by bringing in some more signs - I started my 'training'. I ran round the Peat Track, but clearly not very fast as I took lot's of photos. The one of the zigzags on the snowy Ben Nevis was taken to remind me how much bigger it is than The Peat Track and that I have a long way to go. It was good to be out in the fresh air and enjoying a change of scenery - Fort William, Loch Linnhe, The Achintee Inn, The British Alcan Factory.

Today I am spring cleaning a caravan for visitors coming on Saturday and putting the nitty gritty off by writing this blog.

I need to buy batteries for the scales as we have arrived at that time of year where Spook and I join other Ben Race entries in the quest to reach the ideal Ben Weight. I figure I must be at least 10lbs over my normal running wieght and one doesn't want to drag that kind of excess up a mountain. As I haven't bought the batteries yet, I am not too worried about the 2 cream buns I had the other day, the fish and chips on the way home from Inverness last night, nor the lovely big pancake I had with morning coffee. But once the truth is known......................

Alpine winter on the riviera.

This is what the Highlands of Scotland look like, and have done so since Spook got home from New Zealand on the 20th December. It looked like this for a wee while before that too. In fact there has been two weeks of rain since I came home on the 1st of October. And one day of driving sleet. We have to admit - we are glad not to have missed this winter!! These photos were taken on Monday morning in Ballachulish and on Rannoch Moor.

It's been a busy spell for me but has not included any training for The Ben Race in September. A friend phoned to invite me for a 'wee' run up to the CIC Hut on The Ben today, as her husband was climbing up there and she wanted to leave some chocolate in the hut for him. She is panicking on my behalf. She is not the only one who seems to think the training bug should have kicked in by now. Anyway, I was working. It's still not too late to get started, but it would be a shame if it rained from now until September and I had missed all this wonderful running weather. Meg ran a cross country race last night, has another one on Monday up at Gordonston School (Prince Charles' hated old school). She came home from school today and went straight out for a run. Finn did some homework and went down to the rugby pitch to toss a ball around with Grieg.

The No Fuss Wee Triathlon is on this weekend and the cycle track is still covered in snow with no sign of thawing. That is a surprise, as Spook and I have had two lovely coffee's sitting outside in the warm sunshine. Despite the busy times, we are relishing in spontaneous opportunities to commune over a cuppa.

Lochaber Reigns.

Spook finally had his wings clipped this weekend. Instead of racing his bike or his legs (opportunities for both) or snowboarding or skiing - 2 afternoons spent up the hill this week - he watched his boy play rugby most of the afternoon. Lochaber played very well and won all their games except one. Finn was delighted to finally have so much time to just play rugby. After a quick bite to eat in the club, he came home to check in with his dad and then got Grieg to go back down with him to throw the ball around. Just couldn't quite get enough today.

Meg had a crazily busy weekend with a sleepover at a friends on Friday and then a group of them took the bus to Inverness for a days shopping. She got home in time to pick up her other pre packed bag for the next sleepover and stayed somewhere else before going up the hill for a snow boarding lesson today. It is no surprise that she came home in the middle of the day exhausted.

I worked all weekend but managed to have a couple of cosy nights in and dinner out with my sisters on Friday night.

Yeah, yeah, blue skies....yawn......snow....etc

So boring to have only photo's of snow and blue skies. Spook took the afternoon off to go snowboarding but spent more time sitting at the summit than doing anything more active. It is a nice start to the spring. Beautiful moonlit nights and a pretty hard frost are becoming the norm.

Finn's friend Thomas wrote and told me that they are either being blasted by wind and rain in Wanaka, or boiled in 33 degrees. When we left at the end of September, I was envious of all the people coming out of the garden centre with things to grow, as the promise of spring was very much in the air. Now I need stop being envious and go and get a couple of things that might grow here. Spook is not finding the time to get the rotovator sorted so that he can prepare some ground, as he needs a car to work so that he can go and get the rotovator and he needs the sunshine and snow to go so that he can stay at home. It is not easy for him.

Finn scored a try at rugby training last night, but skint his knees as the ground was frozen solid. Meg went to athletics club training and covered a fair distance with hill reps included. I worked, but had this morning off to spend some time thinking about training. I managed quite a few reps of looking at the hill and a couple of trips towards the back door where the running shoes are. I don't want to overdo it after so much time off.