Wonderful weekend

I've just had a wonderful weekend.

I started out with an early morning (9:15 is early for me) aquarobics class to get the blood moving. I think the instructor must be a body combat teacher too as it was all kicks and punches - which is quite tiring underwater! It was all rather comical though, as the music we were fighting away to was the soundtrack for Mamma Mia :)

I followed that up with a spot of shopping including the purchase of a "No Junk Mail" sign. I feel inproportionately excited about this as I've been meaning to get one for years now, so it seems like a big achievement to have finally done it! I'm really looking forward to getting home and finding out if it works (and yes, there will be disappointment if there are any flyers in the box!).

I spent Saturday afternoon at a garden/birthday party out in the countryside. I've been craving to get away from London for months now, but have been holding off until the exhorbitant summer prices come down a bit. Now that the kiddies have gone back to school, the weather is cooling off and autumn is colouring the leaves I'm determined to have a weekend away - especially after feeling the peace of being away from the city (however briefly) on the weekend.

On Sunday I attended a Grimethorpe Colliery Band concert. They are the brass band that were featured in the movie "Brassed Off". The concert was fantastic - a great mix of well known tunes (Superman, Star Wars, Carmen) and some fabulous brass band numbers. There was great variety in the audience too - lots of really young children and plenty of oldies, but everyone absolutely loved the show. I wasn't expecting the kids to be so completely enthralled with the music. There were dad's of all ages accompanied by their daughters (must be a popular dad/daughter activity), which made me wish my dad could have come with me - he would have loved it too I'm sure.

To finish off the perfect weekend, I curled up under the doona and spent a couple of hours reading a good book.

Absolute bliss!

Lance Armstrong Returns

I just read the news - Lance Armstrong is returning to the Tour de France next year!!!

I'm off to block some scheduled time in France for July 2009!

The chill is in the air

Yesterday we felt the first hint of a chill in the morning air!!

Autumn is my favourite season in the UK - the trees erupt in orange and gold, the air feels fresh, everyone snuggles into their coats and scarves when they go out, and it feels like the city is bedding down for the winter. Love it! Love it! Love it!

I'm particularly looking forward to the change in temperatures this year as the summer has been warm but wet resulting in months of muggy stuffy train travel that has been most unpleasant.

In honour of the promise of the short cold winter days to come I've spent today wrapped up in a doona reading Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes. WOW! This guy is phenomenal - he has run the toughest races in the world through unimaginable conditions just to see what he can achieve. I see from his website that he has just completed 50 marathons in 50 days. My mind baulks at the concept!

I thirst for books about the gods of achievement. Over the past couple of years I have ridden multiple Tour de Frances with Lance Armstrong in Every Second Counts and Its Not About the Bike, climbed Everest Into Thin Air accompanied by Jon Krakauer, run for gold and swum to Olympic glory beside Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe in their autobiographies, painstakingly pedalled my way across the Atlantic with Stevie and Jason in Pedaling to Hawaii and sailed my heart out with Ellen Macarthur in Taking on the World. Bring on the next challenge!! Actually I have a couple of my own brewing for next year (ooooh... mystery!!!) - watch this space.

But it will have to wait, because it is now half past midnight and I'm going to finish off a couple of pages of my current "dip-in, dip-out" book Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts before switching out the lights and being "rocked" to sleep by the 80s music blaring from a party down the street.

Goodnight all...