Update in Hello.

Hi.
If you’re frineds with my sister on here, you’ll probably already know, but I’m going to be auntie! I’ve had to bite my tongue since she told us before Christmas, but she’s had the 12 week scan now and gone public on Facebook, so I’m sure she won’t mind me sharing! I get get knitting some cool little things for him/her now!
I’m training to do the 32 mile Workington-Keswick sponsored walk with dad. It goes through the Lake District, past Crummock and Buttermere and over Honister Pass. It wouldn’t be so bad doing it the other way with Honister at the start, but doing it this way means I’ll have already walked about 22 miles before I get to it! My training has involved walks of at least 7 miles, with jogs on my treadmill on the days I can’t get out. I think I’m doing OK, I walked around 30 miles last week and I can run for 15 minutes on my treadmill before my legs start to hurt. I didn’t even know I could run for that long, so I’m super proud! Knowing that the walk is looming is a great incentive to get out and exercise. I used to walk all the time, but for some reason stopped doing it. My absolute favourite walk near me that doesn’t involve a drive, is one that goes through a forest, up a small hill and down the other side. Walking in the trees is great, it almost feels like I’m meditating. No noise except birds, no people or cars or anything else to contend with. Although I’m not doing that one while I’m training because the sponsored walk is on roads and I need to practise doing that. I appear to have a niggling hip pain on my left side, which usually starts at around the 5 mile mark, although it does seem to be lessening. I’m not sure if that’s just age (I’m 45 now) or more to do with the camber. I try to walk down the middle of the road, because they’re generally quiet country roads. But obviously I walk on the right when there’s a blind bend or summit.


If you’re friends with me on Facebook, you’re probably fed up of me spamming your feed with pictures from my walks, but honestly, it’s so pretty round here!

I had such a palaver with my treadmill. I bought it off Amazon on January 2nd. The delivery driver told me I had to take it off the back of his van because he had a bad back. Lucky for him I was too excited to argue, but of course it dropped to the ground when I got it off because the bloody thing weighed 36kg! When i put it together, the little legs that held the console to the frame had snapped, so I emailed them right away. It took them two days to respond and they said they would send out another console. That took about 3 weeks to come. Then I kept getting the error message when I turned it on, so I emailed them again and said I was fed up, I just wanted a refund. They then had to organise the courier to come collect it, that took about a week. Then when he did come, it was the same bloody driver and he told Robert he had to lift it back into the back of his van because he still had a bad back! For fucks sake, what sort of bloody courier company sends out a driver who can’t lift packages! I’d even warned Rob beforehand that he’ll probably tell him to do it and I told him to refuse and just offer to help him lift it. But Rob being soft, just did it anyway. Of course I fired off an angry email and they said they’d address it with the courier company, but I haven’t heard back and frankly I can’t be arsed to chase it up. Then it took about another fortnight before I got my refund! So all in all it’s taken 6 weeks, whereas if I’d bought it in a shop, would have taken 2 days! Urgh. Never mind. In the meantime, I bought one that was being sold on a local buy and sell page. She wanted £100, I managed to get it for £90. It’s like new and worth about £220 brand new by the looks of things. My only problem is it measures in KPH instead of MPH, so I’ve no clue how fast I’m walking/running, lol! I just press the up and down button until I feel comfortable. Yesterday I ran at 8kph, which is about 5MPH. Not bad for a beginner. I’m hoping that once the days get longer and the weather gets warmer (and I get slimmer!), I’ll feel more confident about actually running outside. At the moment the thought fills me with dread for some reason.
Speaking of getting slimmer, I’d decided ages ago that if I ever actually get to my target of 9 stone I’d get a tattoo. As I was walking out of the tattoo place after my last one, Ollie shouted “Bye, see you next year for your next one!” and I just laughed. But yeah, I think it’s a great incentive. A couple of years ago, Ollie posted a design on his wall, saying he’d like to do it on someone. I’m not sure if he ever did it, but I really liked it and saved it at the time. I can’t find it, but I’ve asked if he still has it so I can have a proper look. It’s a crow with 3 mandalas behind it and it looks quite big, so maybe one for my thigh!
I’ve just bought myself a new phone! I’ve been considering one for a while the phone I have has a crap, tiny memory and is so slow on mobile data that I stopped even trying to use it. The memory is so crap (8GB) that I can only have 2 apps on it, Facebook and my Fitbit. Then yesterday Bel broke her phone, which is the same as my current one, and now the screen doesn’t work. so I’m going to give her that one when my new Nokia 6 arrives. She’s going to Manchester to watch Imagine Dragons with Anna and Katie this weekend and she had a bit of a panic about getting lost and not being able to contact anyone. I’m excited to get it now!

Did I mention Rob and I went to Yorkshire? It was lovely, we went to Malham and walked up the gorge to the tarn, then went to York where we visited the minster and Yorvik and went for drinks with John’s younger brother, Daniel. Rob fell in love with York, he said he’d like to live there. PLus the Thwaite’s pub there (the company Rob works for) is quite posh. He was going to think about getting a transfer, but he hasn’t mentioned it since. Would be a great place to go and visit and I’d feel ok about him being there with Daniel there. On the 4th day we deicded to come home via Whitby. But when we got there, the abbey was closed for the season and the weather was so windy and cold with icy sideways rain, that we didn’t really enjoy it. We went for a mediocre pub lunch, looked round a few shops and decided to call it a day. I think I’d like to go back there some time when the weather is nice though. It’s very pretty!

Malham Gorge

See the people on it?

I’ve seen American Werewolf in London. We stuck to the road.

Us on top of York Minster.

Whitby Abbey. Where Dracula supposedly landed.

So pretty!

This is my budgie, Sky. She belonged to my friend, Susan, but every time Sky moved or made a noise, Susan’s dog would go mental, barking and jumping up. My firned tried for about a year to get the dog to calm down, but he wouldn’t, so she asked if I’d take Sky. Sky was in really bad condition when I got her, probably caused by stress. She was underweight and her feathers were scruffy and dull. You also couldn’t touch her at all, she’d go crazy flapping about her cage. It’s taken a long time, about 6 months, but she now lets me stroke her and this was a new thing just a couple of weeks ago, she started sitting on my finger and even lets me take her a little way out of her cage! She’s still a bit depressed I think, she doesn’t talk very much and tends to just sit in one spot all the time, unlike any other budgie I’ve had. I’m considering getting her a bigger cage and a friend, I think she’d like that seeing as me and John are out of the house all day and the cockatiel won’t let her go anywhere near him! Although if I do put their cages close together, Sky clings to the side closest to Syd and climbs around in circles really fast, which makes Syd really angry. I’m sure she does it on purpose to wind him up!