The incredible shrinking lake

Hello from sunny Blackpool! Matt and I are currently in England visiting his parents for a long weekend. It was rather a spontaneous visit, had the idea on Wednesday, booked the Chunnel on Thursday, drove Friday night and arrived Saturday breakfast time.

This morning I was wide awake whilst everyone else was still busy snoring so decided to take the opportunity to go for a walk. Weather forecast is for rain, which it did in abundance yesterday, so the morning sunshine was a lovely surprise. I headed off in the direction of Stanley Park and walked round the lake. When we lived in Blackpool our house was only 1 mile away from Stanley Park so walking round it again brought back many memories.

We were leaders of our local church youth group and our house was often a place to hang out and stay over. Sometimes, late at night we’d motivate some bored teenagers to go for a walk round the park. We grabbed torches and whatever bread we could find before climbing over the locked gates to play tag near the clock tower and Italian Gardens or go wake up the ducks for a midnight feast (hence the bread). The park was always locked overnight and thankfully we were never caught by a park warden, even though our breaking and entering consisted of nothing more criminal than annoying a few sleeping ducks!

Another memory I have is after the car accident that damaged my spine. For many months it was excruciatingly painful to walk so Matt would drive me down to the park (yes a whole mile!) so I could walk on the lake-side path as far as possible before turning back. At that time, the idea of walking round the whole lake seemed more akin to the idea of walking round Lake Windermere (the largest lake in England at 18.8km long). Today, in comparison, it’s more like a big puddle!

It is now less than 2 weeks till the Aschaffenburg Citylauf and, as I mentioned before, my training schedule has completely gone to pot due to illness. However, even though I must admit to contemplating cancelling, having just read about Claire Lomas, a paraplegic, who is walking the London Marathon at a rate of 2 mile a day my excuses are definitely invalid.

Here’s the link. I hope it inspires you as much as it did me.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/london-marathon/9233873/Is-this-the-bravest-marathon-athlete-of-all.html

We all have our odd little quirks, right?

I don’t have much to blog from these last couple of weeks, not pertaining to my goals anyway but this morning one of my little quirks got the better of me and gave me a laugh so I thought I’d share.

It’s been tough health-wise since returning home from Spain and my training for the Citylauf on 11^th May has ground to a shuddering halt. (I’m still determined to take part but it will be at a slow jog-walk-jog-walk pace.) 

Anyhow, this week-end has been extremely painful and I spent all of yesterday in bed. We had arranged to have one of our darling “adopted” nieces stay with us so Matt had to take over and run the show. I ate supper with them but that was all L so after a busy day of joining in the work-day at church, shopping and swimming Matt dutifully puts all the wet towels in the washing machine and sits down to watch a film. This morning I realize that he only pegged out half the load of washing - half is better than nothing right? - so I got the rest and began pegging it out.

Now, those who know me well, know I have some little OCD tendencies, one being that each item of washing should always have the same coloured pegs! (I know, I know, I alphabetize my books and DVD/CD’s too.) So I didn’t annoy me that Matt had only done half the job it was his choice of pegs that got to me. Painful as it was to raise my arm above my head, there I was re-pegging towels with matching pegs! Laugh all you want, because I'm laughing too.

However, weird as that may be, it’s not a bizarre as Shannon getting Matt to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2! 

The Joy of Giving

I´m writing this whilst in sunny Gijón, northern Spain. Matt and I are staying with our good friends Joseph and Dani Contreras and their 3 boys, Isaiah, Andrew and Michael. They are American transplants and their work here is 3 part based through their association BeStrong, and they work to better the health of the community physically, educationally and spiritually.

Joseph is the strength trainer and honourary Pastor to the local American Football team – The Mariners, and “head honcho” in the bible teaching and main Pastoral aspect of the job. Dani schools her boys, teaches English as a foreign language from 5yrs through to adult. Runs ladies health and fitness courses both at the centre and one online plus leading a ladies Bible study. Their current building is quite new, they’ve only been there 1 year and are still working on renovating. That’s quite a novel concept to my British mind (plus 10 years of German influence) where a business wouldn’t open their doors to customers until the premises were finished, but here in Spain, life is a little more laid back and customers are quite happy to weight train in a room with un-painted plaster board walls and showers with no doors! (The doors are ordered but delivery will arrive………well, when it arrives)

This is now our 4^th visit, last time we arrived just as they got the keys and so got stuck in with scrubbing and cleaning and painting. This time it’s no different, after 2 days of hard work the main multi-function room is now freshly painted and looking good :o)

Since becoming ex-pats we’ve got to know people all over the world and, like with Joseph and Dani, the actual physical time we get to spend together is limited but our friendship is deep, so we feel almost like family. Therefore, spending some of our holiday working is not only fun but being side by side with close friends it’s so fulfilling too! Plus the locals we met last time greet us with big smiles and loving kisses.

So, in trying to be a positive difference we in turn have receive (and I don’t mean the cough and cold we’ve picked up). A deepening of friendships plus new friends and making memories.

So that´s what is meant when it is said, there is more joy in giving than receiving.