Please sponsor me...

So after my abortive attempts to sign up for the Sport Relief 6 mile run (3 times online and twice over the phone and due to 'technical difficulties' had no joy) I have since been thinking about looking for another 'race' of about the same length to give me a bit of a challenge. Then whilst walking Saffy at Coate Water Park this afternoon I found a flyer (as if by fate) in the grass advertising a 10k run for Cancer Research UK in the autumn.

Before I could back out, I came home and signed up for it - argh! So I'm now committed to running 10k on 21st September at Bowood House and it would be wonderful if you could sponsor me to incentivise me to do it, and do it well (i.e. get round in under an hour). I have an online page set up which is this:

http://www.run10ksponsorme.org/katemcnabb

In addition to the obvious charity benefits, I am hoping to further improve my fitness and lose some more weight. The bridesmaid 'diet' I began a year ago was essentially a lifestyle change and has yielded results.; for my best friend's wedding, which is next Saturday, I have managed to lose a total of 24lbs (not quite the 2 stone I was aiming for) and a total of 19 inches from my chest, waist and hips. This 'race' is therefore a good challenge for me to keep up the good work and reach my overall goal of being a size 12 (I believe this is size 8 US or 38 European for our international readers).

So help me get skinny and sponsor me :)

Thanks in advance
Kate

Baaaaa. Humbug

There comes a time in every person's life when they should, of course, grow their own sheep. Sarah has reached a significant birthday this year so I gave her a grow you own sheep kit for her birthday and here is the result.
Apparently she also got a Grow your own toyboy kit but she hasn't sent me a picture of that!

Helen has a new camera

I have got a new camera and so I am showing you some of the pictures I have taken. It has a fantastic zoom lens so I have managed to get some close ups. here we have the rare(ish) Brian gardening man - you can see he is at home in the knee deep grass after having not been at the cottage for a month in the spring.

here are 3 rooks pretending to be the 3 ravens in the folk song and looking surprisingly decorative against the sky


This is a ceanothus flower from the garden


This is Mrs Whinchat who we saw when we were out for a walk. She is about the size of a sparrow, and she was sitting on a branch looking decorative. However as is usually the way with birds, here we have Mr Whinchat who looks more decorative. He is really very pretty though. Last summer when we were out walking we saw a whole family - Mr, Mrs and 3 young Whinchats all sitting on the fence chatting to each other. I think they are pretty common round Pembrokeshire.

What a nutter

I just saw these photos in the Guardian newspaper. Lordy Lordy, it takes all sorts.
Check this out!

Doggy old age

Gromit our beloved Cavvy will be 12 in a few weeks time and he is very creaky now. He is not tremendously old for a dog but he is a thoroughbread and if you look at his family tree the same individuals do appear more than once. I've worked in a genetic research institute for long enough to know that this probably isn't good. One of his symptons cause his back legs to collapse sometimes making him land in his jobbie while on the job - most undignified. However he is not in pain and he is very keen on the cod liver oil on a little piece of bread that the vet recommended (served with a little balsamic vinegar, perhaps?)
As a result of this he seems to be able to get himself into trouble but hasn't got the flexibilty to get himself out. Last week I came into the kitchen and found that he had managed to get his neck through the neck piece of an pinafore apron that was flung over the chair. He was just sitting there waiting to be rescued. Then yesterday, Trev gave him the large bag that his biscuits come in which still had a few crumbs in it. Trev left the room for a couple of minutes and when he came back the dog was sitting there with the bag entirely covering his head! It is worth noting that Trev is a much better person than me, as I would have immediately rushed for a camera. However Trev thought he might be suffocating and rescued him.
Anyway, I wouldn't feel too sorry for the dog. He managed to eat an entire packet of cheddar and black pepper flatbreads that I had left on a side table in the length of time it took me to have a shower last Sunday so he can be pretty nifty if he wants.

Newport Pagnell

So this evening I find myself in Newport Pagnell. This is a situation entirely of my own making as I selected the Harben House Hotel in Newport Pagnell as a venue for a work event tomorrow....chosen principally for its transport links I'd not had the pleasure of visiting here before today, and some how I don't think I'll be back after tomorrow. Hotel is firstly (and weirdly) located in the middle of a housing estate and is also a very odd mixture of the new (reception and bar) and retro 60s/70s (bedroom) interior design which reminds me very strongly of my halls of residence at university.

Upon arrival I asked if I could take some delegate packs up to the conference room as I'd lugged them in from my car with me. The nice receptionist said 'Of course, Chris will help you with those, he's our night security.' Is it wrong I expected a big burly dude to come out and lift my heavy load with one hand? Instead a little Indian chap came out and proceeded to wheeze all the way around the building and up the stairs struggling under the weight of all my event stuff! Felt v.guilty!

So now having had a serioius guilt trip and a tasteless tuna sandwich but a nice glass of red, I'm off to bed to worry about my presentation tomorrow. Good night from Newport Pagnell :)
Love Kate xxxx

Our bluebells are better than yours

Alice and I went for a walk in the new forest on bank holiday monday, and saw far superior blue bells to those paltry essex examples that have been shown here- see below

It was a somewhat muddy journey, as our shoes bore testament to.

Along the way we saw a thousand year old church, with a thousand year old tree....

All in all, a rather beautiful place...

Mid-afternoon post

Ah, much better when sober.
Here is a picture of sarah and her 30th birthday cake:

Sarah and Boo sharing a joke
Andy's speech
And here is Alice (Kierans Fiance - and maybe that isn't the right spelling and punctuation)
and Brian at the Bristish Museum Courtyard restaurant

And Boo and Linda at the same venue
Now for the more exciting stuff - the Doctor Who exhibition that we went to after lunch. We being Martins plus Alice.

Look, K9 and Boo

Alice meets the Doctor by a phone box (shame about his face - the projection got washed oout by the flash I guess)
Don't blink!
The face of Bo (yes Bo, not Boo.............)
Daleks!
And now Cybermen - but the best picture is next

Yes, it is Kieran and he is inside the Tardis - woo!!
That's it for now. We've been to the Botanics today, had lunch in Cambridge, bought Asparagus, strawberries and Cherries, so slumming it again eh?

Paintballing and partying

As Boo has (rightly) commented we've all been a bit slack on the posting front recently, I thought I'd just pop up some photos from my friends' 30th birthday celebrations on Saturday. For some reason best known to themselves, my friends Lyndsey and Amy decided to go paintballing to celebrate their 30th birthdays. This is an activity I'd already participated in back in January and frankly was not an experience I was particularly eager to repeat. However, there was no way I was going to wriggle my way out of it, so here are a couple of photos of me and my friends getting ready to go and shoot each other with little purple pellets that actually really, really hurt when they hit you - wound here being illustrated by my friend Giles' hand after taking a shot at close range :(

Here's also one of me and my friend Jo at the party in the evening looking marginally more glam than we did earlier in the day. You can also see my new hair colour too which mum thinks is too dark but I actually quite like :)

Love Kate xxxx

Late night post

Hi,

Probably shouldn't post after 4.5 glasses of wine, but hey, let's live a little. Last night, we went to Sarah's 30th. Great time, thank you Andy, Phyll and Sarah, and Greg, who did a great job handing out drinks vouchers. It was a casino night, but as we had to drive back, we couldn't stay and win, so I lost all the fun money at black jack. Boo was brilliantly winning on roulette but foolishly gave me her chips and went socialising.....

Pictures tomorrow when I'm sober and have resized them - just started and realised 2MB+ files should not be uploaded!

Had lunch with Heleen, Brian, Linda, Kieran and Alice in the British Museum today. Then went to the Dr Who exhibition. Pictures tomorrow - including Kieran in the Tardis! And Cybermen and Daleks!

How can you wait? It is so exciting. Gotta go now.

Trevor

Bluebells 2008

It is that time of year again, so we went for our annual bluebell walk near Rickling Green. Fabulous as usual. Just one picture this time.