I have only gone and posted my London Marathon entry form. For April 2007. Eeekk! David already posted his a few weeks ago, he was sure he wanted to apply, I have taken some serious time to really think about it. I know that we have a very small chance of being accepted but we have also potentially lined up a guaranteed place through a charity, which we will use if we don’t get in through the general ballot.
When I decided to do the marathon, I had 32 weeks in which to train. 32 weeks to go from not really being able to run a step to getting around a 26.2 mile long course. Tonight I go for my first run in week 5 of the program, which is pretty good I think. It is a “run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute - repeat three times” night. I think I am doing pretty well, all things considered. I now go about 4kms in about 30 minutes, which by my reckoning means I will get around the marathon in about 6 hours. David will no doubt complete it in about 3 and a half hours and have an awfully long wait for me at the finish line (assuming I cross it!!) ;)
For many years I have watched the London Marathon on tv and dreamt of running/walking it. Now I am finally trying to turn that dream into reality. It is scary and brings tears to my eyes thinking about it. I cannot tell you how it makes me feel to think of crossing that line. I only hope I can do it. Lots of dreams have come true for me in the past few years, so why not this one too?
Naturally, as the time draws closer and we find out if we have been accepted, we will be chasing you to sponsor us. No amount too small and all appreciated…I am already on a promise of £100 each from two friends, whch is fabulous!
So, off to don my runners and run along the Thames towpath. Fingers crossed for us that we are both accepted. If we aren’t, then another marathon will surely be there for us to run (especially after all the training we will already have put in, as we don’t find out until December if we are accepted) but London would be special.
September 7th, 2006
I was politely reminded *ahem* that I haven’t blogged in ages at the weekend, so after the shenanigan’s of Sunday night, I felt the need.
As you probably know, David has run a Jamiroquai website (funkin.com) for a few years, in fact it celebrated it’s tenth birthday on July 13th. I help him out on some of the day to day stuff but really it is all him…though what do they say, “Behind every great man is a great woman” 
So, we went to the Lovebox festival on Sunday, saw Norman Jay spin some tunes, mooched around for a bit, ate delicious Caribbean goat curry and then went to watch our favourite band, Jamiroquai. I had been asked to keep a secret from David, which was that some of the fans wanted to take him out for dinner after the gig but I must not tell him. However, it transpires that it was all a big lie! I thought I was in on the secret but I wasn’t! David defintiely wasn’t as I somehow managed to not tell him anything.
Some rather lovely Jamiroquai fans who frequent funkin.com, as well as a superb forum jamirotalk.net decided way back in April that they wanted to throw a party for David and I to celebrate the anniversary of the site. We were absolutely shocked! It was wonderful. They had made banners, booked a really cool bar and the best thing was that they had asked for contributions to an A4 book, which comprised messages from lots of our friends (virtual and “real”!), including a message from Derrick (Jamiroquai’s drummer who we know pretty well now). It is fabulous! The really funny thing is that now the party is over, we have been allowed access to the “secret area” of jamirotalk where the whole thing was planned. It is very very amusing to read all the plans taking shape, them wondering how to get us both there, deciding I needed to be partially aware and finally being excited in the days beforehand.
We are over the moon that people would go to all this trouble for us (well, David really, but I seem to be included). Some people we had never even met, some we have and would consider to be great friends. It is overwhelming and once we have some photos sorted I will update this entry. I have to confess that currently my favourite page in the book is from woman called Deesha. It is a photograph of David taken in New York in October 2005, where he is in the press pit taking photos of the band (see, a photo of a photographer taking a photo, it’s cool)…she has printed across it a comment that David made to her earlier in the year when she was over in London. It says, “One day, when I am old I will look back and realise how lucky I am”. Not half as lucky as me to be married to him…
July 25th, 2006
Wow, it has been a long time since I wrote anything here. Apologies to my four blog readers
Anyway, I had some fabulous news today. I returned from work to a letter from my old university. The letter reads:
“I hope you are keeping well and enjoying your practice as a midwife. Each year the Rotary Club of Greenford present a Claude Osborn Award for Excellence in Midwifery Practice and I am delighted to inform you that of our graduates over the past year, you have been chosen to receive this award”.
The blurb that goes with the letter tells me how Claude Osborn was from Guyana and moved to England, qualifying as a doctor in the mid 1940’s. Claude eventually commenced work as a GP in Greenford. He was involved with the Rotary Club and since his death in 1976, there has been a bursary given in his memory. The award is given to the “best student of the year” (about 100 midwives qualified in the last year through my university, some like me were direct entrants to midwifery and some were nurses first), with the intention of emulating Dr Osborn’s vocational example of the Rotary Club motto, “Service Above Self”.
As far as I can tell, I will receive £300, a framed certifcate and a shield (which I keep for one year). Unfortunately I shall not be able to attend the dinner as we will be away on our holidays but I hope that I will be able to go to the Rotary Club to collect my certificate and shield in the not too distant future. Oh and the cheque too! LOL! I have emailed my joy at being selected and included the comment, “I hope that being unable to attend the dinner does not mean the award will no longer be mine”. I couldn’t bear to contemplate that thought.
**updated to add that the Claude Osborn Award Board have changed the date of the presentation, so that I am able to attend. Apparently they like to present the award to the winner in person, so on August 31st I shall be attending my first Rotary Club dinner where I wasn’t serving the food as a waitress!
I am very pleased indeed. After achieving a First Class Honours degree, I have topped off my student midwife-dom by being recognised not just academically but also in the clinical and practical sense, which is of course vital to midwifery! It is the first thing I have ever “won” and I am looking forward to including it on my CV. One of the best things is that the letter was copied to the Head of Midwifery and the second in command midwife at my hospital, so they will be able to read about it too 
June 20th, 2006
So, to all of my American friends I make the same plea I made to my British friends earlier in the year. Help save the life of a mother to be in Ethiopia.
It is Mother’s Day soon in the States and the charity Maternity Worldwide is running the same campaign for America as it did for the UK in March. I urge you to donate on your Mom’s behalf to this charity instead of buying her flowers or candy. My Mum was very pleased with her certificate for Mother’s Day and said it was one of the best things I had bought her in a long time.
Help a Mom in Ethiopia live through the experience of childbirth so that she can see her child grow and love her, like your Mom loves you. Help this charity to reduce the maternal mortality rate in Ethiopia, could there be a better Mother’s Day gift than the gift of life? I make no apology for the emotive language but hope that you forgive me.
May 1st, 2006
OK, let me set the scene. I went to Tesco a while back to do the shopping and had a quick look at the book department. My eye was caught by the cover of this book - and once I read the synopsis on the back cover, I was more than happy to part with £3.73! Many of you know of my love of “oriental” books and so it should come as no surprise to you that I was dying to read it. However, my studies got in the way, then work got in the way and finally last week I was able to read and finish this book.
I will not lie to you, the first few chapters are a little disorientating. The book sets the scene for each of the main characters - different ages, different social backgrounds - all bound by one thing…Jin-Shei. What Jin-Shei itself is appears fairly unimportant (it is a language passed from mother to daughter which men must not know) but what *is* important is what Jin-Shei represents. I will not spoil any of the plot for you but I have to say that this is the best book I have read in a long long time. The characters, seemingly disjointed at the start of the book, start to interweave and the effect is stunning. My breath was taken away, the way that Alma Alexander describes physical scenes and characters is beautiful You could almost be in the temple in medieval China. Oh, as an extra thought, if you *do* read this book, then read the glossary first! I only discovered it after I had read the book and it would have been useful to know how to say the Chinese names before I started!
When I finished this book, I was truly sad. I felt quite bereft for a couple of days - as though I was somehow missing friends. I shall confess I shed a tear or two. I urge you to read this book, seldom do I read a book which I would want to read again. This is one of those books, so I shan’t be giving my copy to anyone - buy your own
April 19th, 2006
Well, you may have seen some of the recent stories about job cuts in the NHS. Today more cuts were announced in Birmingham. I have many friends who are still training to become midwives and nurses who have been told that they are unlikely to be successful in getting a job upon qualification later this year. It is disgusting. All that hard work - and for what? To not even be able to get a (not very well paid) job at the end of it all.
What is more disgusting is the fact that the NHS has been totally run into the ground. I am a big fan of the NHS but this government seems to want to waste money (big public sector salaries for those who, IMHO, do very little for the world but get paid the equivalent of two midwives salaries; more managers than you can shake a stick at; wasteful expenditure on things like agency staff rather than permanent). I am a life-long Labour and trade union supporter but right now I am seriously hacked off with Mr Blair and his government, to the point that I am contemplating changing my vote this time around. Of course, the alternative is worse so what do I do? I can’t not vote, women died for me to able to make that little cross in the box…but who to vote for. I shall be reading the election pamphlets with interest as they drop through the door in the run up to the local election on May 4th.
April 13th, 2006
We have just returned from a lovely few days in Polperro, a very small Cornish fishing village. The weather was very kind to us and we even got a bit of sunburn (or perhaps it was windburn?) on Sunday morning after walking for a few hours.
We soon discovered the delights of Stowford Press cider at The Three Pilchards pub, I even converted David away from lager on the last night! Also an interesting little pub was The Blue Peter, although the cider choice was limited which let it down in my opinion. We stayed at a pub called The Old Millhouse in a very grand sounding four poster bedroom and thoroughly enjoyed a full English breakfast every morning! The pub suffered from being a little “out of the way” in terms of attracting pasing clientele but suited us just fine. We also enjoyed a cream tea at the Plantation Tea Rooms. The nicest dinner we had was at Couch’s Restaurant - the thing that was funny about it was that it was exactly the kind of place that would be on “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” if you watch that show on channel four. The executive chef trained under various celebrity chefs (including Ramsay himself!) and it seemed as though they were trying just a bit too hard and not getting it exactly right. However, the saving grace was the delicious meat - David enjoyed a beautiful fillet of beef, whilst I scoffed down gorgeous lamb which I am sure we drove past only that morning.
You might have gathered from this that there was nothing except eating, drinking and a bit of gentle walking going on this holiday - and you’d be right! That was the plan, along with catching up on some sleep too. Of course, there was also some photography going on too…
March 21st, 2006
Yes, I know it is early (26th March) but if you are stuck for a Mother’s Day present, why not give the gift of safer motherhood through the charity Maternity Worldwide? For a minimum donation of £15, they will send your Mum a personalised certificate of sponsorship. Love your Mum? Ensure that someone else’s Mum lives through childbirth to be loved by their child. I know that’s emotive language but when one in ten mothers die as a result of pregnancy or birth in the developing world, I think emotive language is needed. Every minute of every day, a woman dies as a result of problems in either pregnancy or childbirth and 99% of these are in the developing world. If you have a spare £15 (or more!) then please consider this instead of the usual box of chocs or bunch of flowers.
So if my Mum or Mum-in-law are reading this, no surprise as to what you will be receiving for Mother’s Day this year!
March 15th, 2006
Here is a model (larger version) of part of the city of Reykjavik, Iceland which I’m working on in my spare time.
Now, if you believe that, you’ll believe anything! Here is the original photo and what you’ve just seen is an example of fake model photography, where the aim is to fake the effect of a tilt-shift camera lens.
There’s an excellent tutorial here, and some great photos over at Flickr.
March 7th, 2006
Just a quick message to say that some of my graduation photos are now online on our photo gallery. Have a look and a laugh at me in my silly outfit.
February 8th, 2006
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