I must say that given the opportunity it would have been my preference to hibernate than endure the last few weeks. Unfortunately I doubt the cat would allow me to do so. Work wouldn’t be particularly impressed either……..

Perhaps it’s just fatigue at the end of a hectic year, but yet another anniversary came by and rendered me unable to function. Mid November is the triple whammy of Mark’s birthday, burial and our wedding anniversary. I managed to avoid focusing on it too much by running in Conwy but the fact I had also succumbed to another heavy cold at the same time suggested again that I was run down – ironically the same term (different meaning) to about 1000 runners who I overtook at Conwy.

And come December and the weather has remembered what winter is all about. Plenty of cold, plenty of rain and plenty of wind. To be fair, it’s what Manchester does best when it comes to weather, but I wouldn’t feel I’d have missed out had I slept through the lot of it and woke up in March…….

I’ve scaled back on the running as well. Partly due to a possible minor injury which I need to get checked out (all booked in, just awaiting the prodding and likely manipulation) and partly due to the weather being so darned horrible! I managed to sneak in a half-marathon training run last weekend, but only once I felt most of the ice would have melted; I’m accident prone at the best of time without tempting fate. Either way, it wasn’t an unpleasant trip out and it’s nice to keep the legs moving.

So according to SmashRun that is 625 miles for this year. Although I might still get out for another run or two, but just little ones. Which reminds me, if you want to check out SmashRun, click the link 🙂

http://smashrun.com/swfnrunning/invite

Christmas is always a little stressful as the family want to know what I’d like from them to unwrap on the 25th. And to be honest, it gets more and more difficult as there isn’t much I haven’t got that I don’t need. Usually if there’s a dire need for something, waiting 6 months for it usually isn’t an option! But last Christmas I identified a need for some bedroom curtains, which I was lucky enough to receive when I opened my presents.

Now, when I put up the curtain poles in about 1492AD, for some reason I had misplaced some of the rings to which said curtains are nailed to. The spare ones subsequently turned up sometime later, but because I didn’t need them at the time I put them somewhere safe. This is always a disaster as I am very good at putting things in places so safe, I rarely find them again. Ever.

As such I’ve had my lovely new curtains sat on the top of the wardrobe ever since. Of course, I could have gone out and bought some new curtain rings. However, how could I be so wasteful knowing there were plenty of the blighters somewhere safe.

Today, I had an epiphany.

Having subsequently cleared up, I located the curtain rings in a plastic bag of electrical cables.

Clearly, my safe place was designed to ensure that anyone breaking in to steal curtain rings would never find these prized wooden discs, of value £1.25 for four rings.

So 11.5 months later, my new curtains are pride of place hanging in my bedroom. Admittedly it still wasn’t entirely plain sailing having at some point during the year thrown out my excess collection of curtain hooks leaving me four short for my window decor. But with a bit of creative adjustment (nicking them from other curtains around the house) we got there in the end.