10k in the making!

i am just in the door, fresh from my 2nd run of the spring!! when i say fresh i actually mean completely the opposite- hot, sweaty, thirsty and very red in the face!! however, i must admit that now its over for today, it feels good! despite proclaiming to hate running, there does come a point (admittedly near the beginning!!) where i sort of love it!! pounding the streets, thru the park, sun shining, colourful spring flowers cheering me on my way, smiling and saying hello to people i pass by (again, when i say hello i actually mean trying to make a noise that sounds close to hello as i can barely breathe as it is!!)

so, the aim... Womens 10k on May 10th! 

According to their website countdown i have 50 days left to get myself in shape and be able to run 10k in a reasonable time! having put off training for as long as possible the crunch time has come to either commit to doing it or stop kidding myself! so, i figure that if i go public then i'll have to do!

my other purpose in doing this 10k is to raise money and awareness for an extremely worthy cause! OM (Operation Mobilisation) do a lot of work in India to support the Dalit women and after speaking to one of their workers I am going to be raising money to fund a specific project! so, watch this space for more details of how u can get involved too :)

howling bells and spiders!!

last nite saw another much-looked-forward-to gig as the Howling Bells appeared in glasgow! hurrah! i love it when bands u'r totally familiar with come and play live! as mentioned in previous blog, their new album came out last week so after immersing myself fully in it i was totally prepared! we had a nice wee group gathered incl. Rich, Scott and some of the luvlies from work, for a bite at the Arches (where the scary Alien chases are currently happening!!)! the band played at the Classic Grand, a kind of weird venue next to the Academy of Music and Sound where i started my guitar lessons (but the only sign advertising what's in the building is for the pole dancing club on the 2nd floor so i used to feel rather self conscious waiting for them to buzz me in!!!) anyway, it was a nice little venue but the stage is really low so if ur like me and a mere 5'3" then its tricky to see! which lets be honest, is one of the reasons u go- most important to suss out their look  and see if u can replicate the world's most glossy fringe (as featured on the luvly Juanita bell!)

the support band were fairly bland- their music was alright, i just wasn't feeling the vibe!! this may have been partly due to the very sticky wet top i was then wearing after some randomer knocked my drink all over me! sigh! 

however, when the Howling Bells came on the nite became lovely! they mostly played from their new album, of which i am particularly loving 'It Ain't You', 'How Long' and 'Cities Burning Down'! they played a handful of older stuff incl. Broken Bones which karen and i swayed to

 with a bit of attitude! there was a great energy from the stage and i loved how she performed and used her hands all the time! i almost missed the coolest moment of the whole gig when, during their performance of Golden Web (at which i get creeped out cos its about spiders!) Juanita meandered down into the crowd and was standing Right At Us!! major gold stars to Rich for elbowing me hard enough to point this out!! 

so we sang to each other for a moment or two, connecting thru our cool fringes! i believe the lines she gazed at me whilst singing were 'yeah u bit me, and u ran, away, just like a spider', and 'i'v been bitten by a spider, and now there's nowhere to run'!!!!! 

spiders and running are two of the things i loathe most in life, how ironic!! now i have a warm fuzzy feeling when i think of them! :)

so in conclusion, it was a top gig- they were great live and altho their encore song was a bit mince i think we can forgive them as they sounded so good the rest of the nite and had a guitarist who wore a fedora and looked like brad pitt!! smile! :)

i'm a superhero i am!

tonite i popped along to sainsburys garage for an innocent wee shop, only to turn a corner and be affronted by a man shoving a bottle of white wine down his jeans, and hiding it with his coat!!! shocked as i was, i picked up a jar of something useless and marched (subtly of course) to the security guard at the door to report this heinous crime! the 2 of us then crept round the store til i spotted him and could point him out!! 

as key witness i then hovered around the biscuits keeping my beady eye on this crook, only to once again be privy to him stuffing packets of sausages in his coat pocket!!! what is the world coming to!?! i caught the eye of a girl who had seen this too, we both had a shocked giggle and i updated the security guard who by this point had been joined by 2 colleagues, all rather fierce looking and practically blocking the exit!

what happened next u ask...

well, our shoplifting friend then attempts to leave and is stopped by the men in uniform! who challenge him very politely, at first! the stealer denies he has any store produce hidden on him, but this is quickly disproved as everyone can see the sausages sticking out his pocket!! disaster! upon being asked to open his (rather smart leather!) coat he gives up the pretense, pulls out the bottle of wine and a packet of sweets!! and then proceeds to ask for leniency as he is apparently homeless- question: where was he planning to cook the sausages!?!

the security guards let him off with a warning and a ban on returning to the store! What!?!? no punishment!? no being led away in handcuffs, or spending a nite in the cells!? the man staggered away and the security men thanked me for all my hard investigative work, before having a rather boisterous chuckle at " the world's worst shoplifter"!!!

weekly musings

feeling inspired by scott's 'white noise' weekly review/ preview, here is a brief summary of things happening/ have happened!:

My week in reverse:

• today did not have enough minutes in it to complete the outrageous amount of work i have on just now! 

• yesterday evening was spent clearing out everything i hid in my old bedroom cupboard when i moved out!! it was even more difficult than i expected- i am an epic hoarder of meaningless junk and still struggled to part with: my childhood badge and stamp collections (no wonder i was bullied at school!!); approx one million photographs; shoeboxes filled with letters, cards and notes from a rather broad range of people such as my irish penpal from when i was 8, my gran who lives in london, funny notes sent back and forth to friends in school; folders filled with handwritten, colour-coded notes from high school, including repeat notes of Higher biology which i sat twice and gained a D and C for!

• sunday i slept a lot

• fri and sat were spent in edinburgh at the Women Walking With God conference- it was luvly spending time with friends and whilst i slept thru some of the teaching, the seminars were great and Lou Fellingham and band led the music extremely well!

• wed, thurs and fri were jam-packed with work and visiting my grandpa in hospital. he has been in now for 4 weeks and is thankfully starting to show signs of improvement after having a number of strokes and then catching the C Diff infection.

tomoro i am sooo looking forward to the Howling Bells gig!! their new album 'Radio Wars' is great,a bit perkier than 

their previous one, altho there is a song about a spider 

(Golden Web) which i just cant listen to!! it makes me paranoid that there might be one on me, i mean, really, there is no need to remind people that such creepy things exist and sneak around!!