Happy Birthday princess, have a very special day xxxxx

Sarah and Jon renewed their vows today, 10 years after their wedding. Sarah looked absolutey stunning (even with a pint in her hand!). We all had a brilliant time at the reception, although my feet may be very sore in the morning

I got to the home today to find the residents almost at the end of a service being conducted by a local vicar. Apparently Nan had enjoyed it and had been singing along She’d also had her hair cut before I’d arrived and after the service had a visit from the nutritional health worker. Mum has been concerned about the amount of food Nan has actually been eating recently, although the staff had said if she misses one meal she usually eats well on the next one and has been putting weight on. Even so, she’s been prescribed some calorie heavy drinks and been told to eat chocolate pudding, which she raised a smirk to!

Nan then had a visit from the optician. I walked her with one of the carers to the other wing where she had her eyes looked at, but point blank refused to have any eye drops in, telling the optician to go away! After such an eventful morning and afternoon, i left her to sleep in the lounge before tea time.

Some readers will have already met GP Sue, her daughters Frankie and Lola, her husband Matthew, and their unexpected surprise addition to the family, Tom. In this delightful sequel, we are a year on…

Sue is a GP, her busy life filled with demanding but lovable patients, demanding but lovable children, a husband, and a new dog. But she has just enough time to notice the rather gorgeous neighbour who walks his black lab in the park. Frankie is about to do her GCSEs, and is absolutely certain that no-one is as stressed as she is, nor as in love, nor as confused. Lola is eleven, and endearingly aware of those around her, including all her friends (and whether they are, or not), her Granny, her pain-in-the-neck but scrumptious new baby brother, and the fact that her Dad is spending a lot of time texting. And when she sneaks a peek at his calls, there are far too many to someone called Laura. Suddenly, Lola feels overburdened with guilt and responsibility, so just what is she to do?

Whilst doing the review for the first book, I realised there had been a sequel, so bought it immediately from Amazon (at 1p plus postage you can’t really complain!). This is as delightful and easy to read as the first, with the added benefit of life from Lola’s perspective. My only complaint is it ended a bit too abruptly and with this book being published in 2006, it doesn’t look like a follow up up is likely

I can’t believe I’ve made it to 30 runs, that makes the 50 target seem a lot less daunting! Again was just me for the run this morning, leaving Gra and Freeda sleeping as I left the house. The day had all the promise to be another hot one and at least it was for the duration of the race, with the rain coming afterwards when I was at work. I definitely do better in cooler conditions and felt I didn’t push myself as hard this week, apart from on the final downhill where I overtook 3 people I’m sure that must be really annoying for the other runners, but it does give me a nice satisfied feeling, especially as I’d thought the person who finished behind me was too in front to be caught up! Now it’s just the other 4500m of the course I need to focus on!

Every Thursday mum and Claire do the pub quiz at The Windmill hosted by Mike D, last seen on this blog in the Monsters of Mock photos looking none too sober! After laughing at him for having a builder’s bum when he was setting up his equipment, he then graced us with this sight *bleurgh*

We got quite a low score in the quiz, but Claire was off sick, so it was just me and Mum, even so I don’t think I’ll be invited back

The photos from Saturday’s parkrun have just been put up on the Bramhall website and I found this one of me:

Tonight me and Freeda went along to watch Gra sing in the Comfy Gill’s karaoke cup match against The Bowling Green. Our team started with a 14 point lead from the first leg and won on the night, with team members deservedly winning the best singer and best performance certificates.

When “Daily Telegraph” correspondent Tim Butcher was sent to cover Africa in 2000 he quickly became obsessed with the idea of recreating H. M. Stanley’s famous expedition – but travelling alone. Despite warnings that his plan was ’suicidal’, Butcher set out for the Congo’s eastern border with just a rucksack and a few thousand dollars hidden in his boots. Making his way in an assortment of vessels including a motorbike and a dugout canoe, helped along by a cast of characters from UN aid workers to a campaigning pygmy, he followed in the footsteps of the great Victorian adventurers. Butcher’s journey was a remarkable feat, but the story of the Congo, told expertly and vividly in this book, is more remarkable still.

I started reading this book in November during my lunch hours and I don’t know why, but it’s one that I just couldn’t get into. The book is well written and the authour is clearly passionate about his journey, but something with it just didn’t click with me. the one thing I did take from the book is how africa has changed for the worse in the past 50 years, with areas that were once thriving towns and cities now living in fear of civil war and unrest with decayed buildings that were once famous structures.

When I left home, it seemed to be the start of another hot running day, but by the time I’d got to Bramhall, the clouds were gathering ominously. On my warm up walk round the park, I couldn’t help notcide how fresh everything smelt and how green it all looked, so decided to take the above pic. Sure enough just as we started running, the heavens opened, but thankfully with a cool refreshing drizzle rather than a complete downpour.

I’ve always thought I perform better in cooler weather than hot and today really enjoyed the run. My legs felt stronger than usual and although I still walked up the hills, I felt I was on course for a similar time to my PB. On the second lap, going through the woods, there were a couple of runners that overtook me, who I then overtook again on the downhill, for them to overtake me on the uphill. Thankfully as we now finish on the downhill, I used them to give me an extra push on the way to the finish and overtook 3 people on the way down to the final flat, in the last few metres I was concious of someone on my tail, which spurred me on to an even better sprint finish than normal (I still have no idea how I manage a sprint finish most weeks!) and to what I thought was a finishing time a few seconds over my PB. However, as usual I’d forgotten to stop my timer so when I got home after work, I found out I’d actually beaten my time and finished in 32.50