Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans....

Huh.
Summary: didn't do Loch Tay quadrathalon. But did do the 'Big Ben Nevis' half triathalon. Touted as the toughest off-road tri in the UK. It was the hardest but the bestest thing me and G have done. completed september 2010. Same year as the BEST TIME OF MY LIFE. 3 weeks in South Africa, with family Mendes. for the world cup. Special times. I've probably said it before, but I am so blessed/lucky/special to be related to these people I call my family. I am still learning from them all.


Anyway,enter 2011. The rollercoaster continues. I am entering the 8th week of sick leave. Och it's a long and boring story but it is the biggest challenge of my wee life so far. I'd like to think I am improving in the fight to return to my life. I have good bits of kit in my toolbox to help me: The people in the photo above. Amazing friends. Humour. The sea. Music. The sun. Trees. And who could do anything without a series or 3 of Kath & Kim and Father Ted.
This song I think sums it up so far.... (you will have to copy and paste into your URL cos I can't figure out how to do it any other way! It's worth it for the song by the way!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLgWyHSyx9Q

Lyrics below:
"Choir" - Malcolm Middleton

There’s a choir behind me
Egging me on
Placing their bets and hoping I’ll do no wrong
I’ll do no wrong
There’s a guy inside me
Biding his time
Standing in line and waiting for me to fall
For me to fall
Self-preservation threatens us all
Health deterioration comes to us all
There’s a fag beside me
Waiting to be lit
Trying to trick me
And make me forget I’ve quit
I forget I’ve quit
I take a risk everyday when I get up
Do I try harder?
Or continue to fuck up
Fuck up
There's a bear in my bed
Wanting to be loved
Eyes like marbles
All he needs is a hug
My beginner’s luck is wearing thin
I’ll need to rely on skill if I'm going to win
I’m going to win

To see if I can...

That's the main reason I do anything. And the main reason I've done stuff up to now. Call it 'being pig-headed' as my Aunty Joan so eloquently puts it, or a family trait (have noticed mad relations doing things as I do just because) it also makes for a good story, which is the other reason my family/friends also attempt things...
To see if I can. If I can, cool! If I fail miserably, ah well, that wasn't meant for me was it? Not a talent I can put down on me list of attributes. move on....preferably onto a beach for a coupla weeks...

Anyway, So what is this all about Rosa? I hear you say. Whachya gonna do now?

Well, I cannot take the inspiration to try this. I have a mad acquaintance (well, I have several mad acquaintances, but that's another story) who has roped me into trying to complete a Quadrathalon in central Scotland in July. Sounds interesting hey? not even a bi-athalon, or triathalon, but flicken Quadrathalon. Not that I've ever attempted any kind of 'athalon' apart from doing a half marathon 9 years ago (yep, 9 years ago, to see if I could, and swearing I'd never do that again). ...
This whole idea was thought up by some mad laird up on an estate on Loch Tay who wanted his mates to do something when they came up to Scotland in the summer hol's.
And I was placated with the fact that there's no running in it! (hoorah!) but there is
1) a 1.2 km swim across Loch Tay, water temp. in summer: 6deg. peaty, murky water, needs a navigator to swim in front so you don't end up in circles.
2) a 15mile hill-walk across 5 munro's including Ben Lawyer (quite a tall chap), website interestingly states: hillwalk/run. (!!!! fell-runners are just bananas, even more than me!)
3) a 7km kayak back across Loch Tay, to original starting point.
4) a 50 odd km bike ride around the circumference of Loch Tay.
5) stop the clock and the race timer by slicing a watermelon with a samurai sword and eating the melon. (something the Laird invented to make use of his samurai sword collection, and you have to eat the melon, cos it costs him £1.50 each don't ya know!)

Ah sure, I just about fainted watching it one sunday avo when my mate text me and said 'this is the challenge I was talking about! you can do it with a bit of training no bother at all!'. yep she's a bit deluded.
So even after watching the physical and mental pain of last year's contestants, I thought 'jeez, it'd be good to have a crack at it, not many people will be able to say they've swum across Loch Tay', and for aforementioned reasoning (however unrealistic that reasoning is).
So I've started training (after a delay with getting crook at New Years). I'm not committing to doing the whole event (i.e. all 4 events) as you can enter as a team, as long as there's 2 of you doing one of the events. So G got interested at the swimming bit too (?gluttons for punishment) and he'll be a teammate. nothing like sharing the pain I reckon.
At about Easter time I reckon we'll have an idea of what we'll be able to do.From how training is going currently, I'll be lucky to get away with the swim and hill-walk (stress walk, there is absolutely no way on this earth I am running up scottish mountains thanks very muchly).
Just to add a bit more pressure (and to again make a good story out of it), I've decided to try to do a masters module in neurology, assessment of case-study essay, to be handed in day before easter. (insert: to see if I can here).

These things always remind me of a really good (bad) joke whenever I'm out training in gale-force winds and hail: A bloke on a construction site at tea-break, sees this Irishman/(insert ethnicity of choice here) hitting his head with a hammer. He rushes up to him and says: "what the bloody hell you doing that for?" The Irishman replies "Cos it feels so good when I stop!"

God loves a trier......

Wherein one gatecrashes a marathon and rubs with the celebs....

So...the leaves are turning gold and yellow and jade, the mornings are crisp and your boiler decides to die properly....it must be autumn in Scotland!

I must admit I'm quite fond of Autumn, even if it does mean the noticeable quickening of days getting shorter and shorter, and cold grey weather for 6 months. ah well. I'm quite fond of Autumn in Scotland too. As G says, the light is liquid and you find yourself staring at a field full of hay bales for a good hour, watching the light pour itself around soft shapes and darting birds, before being distracted by say, traffic (oh yeah! i'm driving home:) or someone asking you a work question.

So the other saturday morning was a cracker autumnal dundee day: windy, sunny, grey, windy, sunny, grey etc etc. I had an overwhelming desire to inhale great lungfuls of sea air while I still could in the morning, without my breath freezing and being unable to feel my face.
'that's it! I'm away to broughty ferry for a docile jog along the waterfront for a bit'. I announced to G. Parked the car at the usual place, and start a very unchallenging paced jog along the waterfront, watching the herons and oystercatchers and other great gangly birds feeding etc.
soon enough I notice skinny blokes with numbers attached to their front singlets and running shorts shoot past me in a blur of hot pink and blue. 'must be a local comp on today' I muse as I begin to break into a sweat. Then onto the castle, where Stewards wearing hi-vis jackets are standing around and look at me very strangely as I approach. Nothing new there, me thinks, peeps usually look at me strangely when I attempt to run/jog.
The no's of runners flying past me begin to increase as I get onto the beach promenade proper, so I take a quick look behind me before launching off to complete the beach circuit. A rather large fluro yellow "14 MILES" sign is posted on the pole behind me. A little 'click' is audibly heard from between my ears, as I instantly remember a conversation with Amy and radio station conversations about the Dundee marathon being this weekend. of course! Now it's impossible at this point for me not to get any redder in the face, so when I find a space in the dunes from the road, I dash into it and run back to the castle onto the beach. bloody hard work but a respite nonetheless. However, I must get back to the car, and the beach runs out before this. So I find myself back at the 14 mile mark and join the throng of runners. Thank goodness there is no way I could be mistaken for a competitor in my baggy shorts and daggy shirt and cap. I do get the odd clap of encouragement on the way back to the car, which is quite nice from the norm really.....

Today me and G head to 'teuchter territory' up in Perthshire, for a wander and a late lunch at this great pub that I always pass on my travels at work and have always wanted to stop off at.
Great choice. It's another great Autumn day (see above for staring at the same field for half an hour, except this time it's a river). A good Pub for live folk sessions and as we eat our very appeasable lunch someone cracks open the guitar case and plays a few tunes. Then as we're finishing off, Dylan Moran wanders through the door (well, staggers), ruffling his hair and orders food and drink before wandering out to smoke in the very agreeable beer garden on the banks of the Tay river. Now there's not much unusual about that, me thinks, I knew he was touring and was disappointed he was sold out otherwise I woulda gone, but bugger me if he doesn't look like the spitting image of G's mate, just with longer hair. So both G and me resist the temptation very narrowly to say 'Oi! Jamesey! why didn't you tell us you were coming here!'

more later on commercial wave farms and the raging debate of the 'size does matter' on waves between Britain and Portugal.

ok that's just ridiculous

well what did I see when nipping into the local supermarche a couple of weeks ago (yes, 2 weeks ago). Christmas cards and christmas wrapping paper.
'bloody hell' I thought, that's just typical of the "evil multi-national taking-over-the-world supermarket" that I frequent because I'm a hypocrite and don't go to local shops (during the week anyhoo, in local shops on weekends, i promise!!) christmas in the first week of september??? it hasn't even been halloween to consumerise over yet!

but hey-ho whaddya know, every shop I've been into since that day 2 weeks ago has bloody christmas bloody paraphenalia in it!!

If my ma and pa weren't coming over for Christmas I might have considered boycotting the 25th of dec this year I'm so disgusted with the galling materialism of the concept.

no pressy's for us, ma and pa are the best yet.

Parklife

As the poet and legend John Lennon said:
Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans....

A beautiful lady reminded me to update this blog, so I'm attempting to!

In short (or not so short), moved out of Pitkerro rd, sadly, at the end of November. moved into Pete's (G's mate) to save money for a bit while we decided what to do for the next few years. The plan changed a fair few times along the way, bit of a rollercoaster of emotion trying to decide what to do, shortly after Xmas decided to get a wee place here in Bonnie Dundee. Thus ensued lots of nosying at lots and lots of different places where we discovered a few truths about hoose's (location location!) and found a lovely wee flat opposite Baxter Park which is my absolutely most favouritist park in Dundee. (also amazed at the fact that we had a good chance of living in the street that I always wanted to live in when G first walked me around Baxter Park when I first met him, weird!) Thus ensued many horrible nights of not knowing what the hell was going on as we don't understand the legal/monetary system that is getting a mortgage and buying a place, and not wanting to thank you very much! finally the day before we both decided to pull out and get a round the world ticket to anywhere, the bloody thing went through (what happens when you buy at the start of the credit crunch, and i'm so sad to realise I even have an inkling what that term means). We have decided after all that carryon that we're never moving again!!!
And so we live in a wee flat all of our own (well, i think the deposit paid for the front door. everything else belongs to the bank). It's very peaceful and to be all hippy-like, there's great vibes here, man.

Moving day, as opposed to moving out of Pitkerro Rd, (which was one of the most stressful and horrible moving days) was great fun. G's lovely mates all turned up and many laughs were had as I discovered I absolutely adore driving white transit vans all about Dundee (with G's mates in the back). It has to be said that it has been the longest move-in both G and I have ever participated in, due to a)having more than a backpack of stuff to move and b) donations of furniture from mates/relatives/distantly related pets etc, it seems every week we have had another bit of furniture to pick up. We are very blessed and very lucky to know such great people. (with great taste in furniture!) looking around the flat we both realised all we have contributed to has been a flatpack coffee table, 2 canvas wardrobes and our very treasured CD collection.
An added bonus has been the arrival of Amy, a mate I studied OT with in NZ, who has returned to scotland and been locuming up in Angus, and thus boarding with us. Am truly spoilt to spend so much time with her, she's a special gal.

In between moving we've been over to Portugal to see ma and pa, which was great, attended cricket matches down in Durham and even been to a great summer music festival, which wasn't attended by thousands and had lots of hippies to people-watch and lovely Irish bands that we chatted to and made me very homesick for Ireland, if that makes sense!
And now I sit at the dining table (donated by our financial advisor!) and watch the leafy trees move about in the park. (it's been a windy summer!)

I never would have thought I'd be content having my own wee patch on the earth. Sure, the twinge of travel calls me, but I reckon I'm gonna try have my cake and eat it, too! Gotta be worth a go, anyhoo....

nowt stranger than folk....

well well well....(3 holes in the ground as my mate Kev from the lab used to say. Bless you Kevin, wherever you are!)

16th October 2007 I meant to blog as a conscientious blogger should, but me being neither conscientious, nor a blogger, this didn't happen. No disappointment then hey?

16th October 2007 and I've been away from enzed 5 years. Phewee bro. Imagine that!

That's the thing. I would never have imagined it. Little did I know 5 years ago that I would be living in a wee tenement flat in Dundee, Scotland; shacked up with some strange dundonian bloke,hell, even married to this strange scottish bloke (or married to anyone for that matter), after living in Dublin for 2 years, wandering around a bit, climbing the highest hill in Africa, climbing hills in the republic of Ireland, staying at the most bombed hotel in europe for easter with a mad but very special Australian, going to my brothers wedding in South Africa, meeting my oldest and bestest mate in northern italy for great coffee, meeting up with old mates in Nice and swanning about monaco in shorts, just to name a few great memories in the 5 years past since departing on a 26 hour flight from Auckland to Dublin on 15 Oct 2002.

Life is great hey.....

I do like the fact you can't see what's around the corner. Yes bad stuff has gone down but hey, I don't think I would've signed up to half of the stuff if it hadn't of just happened.

Must go, stop looking through those rose-coloured glasses and check the pumpkin soup. I must admit I'm still struggling that the only time you can make pumpkin soup in Europe is when it's Halloween. It's just wrong. But when I get my allotment, that'll all change! There'll be pumpkin soup in spring, dammit! just you wait!

Thoughts from a disqualified colonial.....

yes well we all know that it's been far too long between drinks for me writing this blog.
sorry chaps. life has got in the way a bit. will slowly plough away at writing re: the wedding and so forth......

Every ting i've learnt has been from random nonegenerians....

So said aforementioned nonegenerian to me on friday (see opening title). She 's been a prisoner in the 'jap camps' in the first world war, speaks frightfully well, and says her only mistake in life has been to outlive everyone, especially her precious husband...first question when finding out I too was a 'disqualified colonial' was 'what the bloody hell are you doing in this god-awful place then eh what?'. I explain I had the (mis)fortune of meeting a bloody scot and look where it got me. Her deep blue eyes twinkled and face creased into long-established laugh lines. 'yes, happens to the best of us.' Next question: 'do you get homesick?' and I didn't even have to explain the sentence "it comes and it goes". She merely nodded and deep eyes again revealed all understanding.

So today was a cracker autumnal day. crisp. golden. sun warming your face. wander through baxter park. read. occasionally getting hugs from passing puppy's. people-watch.

Life is good.

Enjoy