Cancer update…

I thought that it was about time for another cancer update. Things have been quiet on the cancer front of late; Hospital visits have been going on in the background but nothing major to report about really. Fingers crossed it all seems to be going well. Really well.

Since chemo finished he has slowly started to put weight on and is getting stronger day by day. We know he is feeling better because he is starting to moan that he now has to shave again and even worse have haircuts.

The doctors say that the lump on his shoulder doesn’t look like another cancer and has started to shrink (insert huge smiley face). The only thing that is now left to remind us about his operations is the food bag plumbed in to his side that he still has to have everyday. But he is working hard at eating more and more (a bit hard when you don’t have a stomach I imagine) so that he can get rid of it ASAP.

I’d just like to say thanks to everyone out there in blogland (you know who you are) that helped me out through the last year and a half – It has been the worse times and also some of the best times of my life. Two great friends taken way too early and the whole cancer nightmare. It has taught me one thing – make sure you enjoy every single minute of life that you can.

Buck Rogers (Day 78)

Check it out! look what I had waiting for me when I got home from work - Sweet.

Feeling ill and other things

Woke up this morning feeling really rough. A cold this way comes I think. Everyone at work seems to have it and I think I'm next.

But to help kick start the running Juneathon I popped out and did a 3 miler with Preston.

Hope everyone who is up for run everyday day (or excersise every day) is feeling fit and healthy.

There's not many rules to the June event, all you have to do is:

1. Run everyday, it doesn't matter if it's half a mile or 20.
2. If you can't run do some form of excercise everyday.
3. Blog about it (everyday).
4. The most important point - Post a comment on everyones blog who is taking part (it's all about the encoragement).

Ps Hi sam ;-)

Robot (Day 77)

Just in... 9.22pm - long day :-/ looking forward to running tomorrow.

Time for a cheeky red wine.

Just in...

From swimming and my spuds in the oven - had a quick thought and whilst it is still fresh thought I'd best put it down in words.

1 June 2007 sees the start of a run a day month for us up north.

Preston has decided that he needs to get fit and quick, for his upcoming holiday in July and reckons he can do it if he runs just once everyday. So to help keep him motivated I said that I'd do the same. I'll not run with him at the weekend’s just keep my usual long runs to myself (I'm selfish like that - need some time to sort out my mixed up head).

So if anyone else out there in Blogland wants to join in the run a day feel free - and we can all see how many miles we can out in between us in a month.

Bart (Day 76)

SOOOOOOO didn't want to get up today :-(

Work was fun and I managed a 4 miler. Go to go swimming now - then home for dinner and bed as I've got a 5.30am start to go to London in the morning.

Catching up with my blogs...

No running today - we had a family and friends trip to Warwick castle.

An amazing time was had by all - the rain and sub zero temps didn't beat us and we all enjoyed the day soooooooo much :-D

The above photo was taken by my daughter - she rocks at taking pictures - don't believe me take a look at the evidence over on flickr - all these were taken by her today - Cool Beans.

Say Hi :-D

Just thought I'd like to say hi (and hope everyone else will) to a new blogger. It's always great to get a new blog to read and someone else to check up on ;-)

Click here and say hello.

Can Art

Here's what I did with the coke can I found on my jog this morning.

I'm quite happy with the result. My daughter did one on a fosters can an it rocks!

A few things to remember if you do this - Get some good brushes not the junior kid painting kind I used and make sure the cans are super flat (best to get them off the road at a junction).

:-)

Hulk (Day 74)

Lots of drawing at the moment. Wicket was my daughters idea after our marathon "Star Wars" moviefest.

Got up and went for a soaking wet 11 mile run this morning :-P got love combing swimming and jogging.

As I went I picked up as many flat cans that I could find around the village for a little art project that I've got lined up for this afternoon.

PS - Pirates 3 on the Playstation 2 is cool :-D

Wicket (Day 73)

It may be 30 years old...

But it's still looking good :-)

Saturday and a cheeky late start - 7.45am the little person alarm clock went off 2 hours later than normal thank goodness.

No running today - I’m going to do a 13 miler hopefully tomorrow, I’ve got to start putting some longer runs in before my 25 mile jogging commute to work… thanks jogblog for reminding everyone that I said that I’d do it ;-)

Not much to report apart from the normal Saturday routine - Ice skating lesson for the small one then an hour family skate.

Garden chores….

And now for the GREAT NEWS. My daughter has never voiced an interest in Star Wars - and to be truthful I only like the original ones (apart from the last new one). That changed last week at the car boot sale she picked some Star Wars books up and really enjoyed them (much to the disappointment of the geek behind her trying to use the force to let him buy them). So today we have watched all of them - well we are on Return of the Jedi as I type. And she loves them :-) I can see us taking a lot longer at the Tatooine Traders this October. I had forgotten how great Star Wars is... Especially through the eyes of a young one.

PS - if you are a Star Wars fan visit BBC radio 2 and listen to the 2 programmes that celebrate the 30 years of Star Wars (Traffic jams are good for some things).

Another run around the park.

A cheeky run around the country park again :-) nice views and the weather stayed ok.

The young lady I ran with managed to double her run from last week - 3 miles in all - I did another cheeky mile to add up a bit.

Hope everyone has a great weekend - and let me know what you all think of Pirates 3 (but no spoilers please). :-D

OctoPussy

Fish anyone?

More new sketches over at flickr...

ROARRRRR! (Day 72)

Raided the small persons toys for another picture :-)

Preston Strikes Back Part2

Hot, sticky and wet - and that was just Preston's under wear before the run ;-)

The weather sure is odd at the moment - but a lunchtime run was the order of the day and the dynmaic duo answered the call. 4 miles later and we were both "glowing" as the ladies say.

How many flies are about at the moment, it's gross you can't help but choke a few down :-X

Well off for the drive home in a bit (don't faint finishing on time today).

Dr octopus (Day 71)

No running today - work work and more work.

Not to bothered about not running - good to rest the legs every 2 or 3 days.

The highlight of the day so far... this plopped out of the end of my penicl during the afternoon.

Sign? (Day 70)

The sign outside the local swimming pool. Can anyone explain what it means to me?

What day isn't it a pay and display - couldn't the sign just have said "This is a pay and display car park"?

Or does it mean on Sunday it's not?

Am I just thick?

Yet more running...

Don't tell anyone but I managed to go out for another run today :-D 4 miles.

A non-eventful run until about the last mile and a half. Running up the road I noticed some bloke hanging around outside a dodgy shop that cashes cheques. As I ran up he held his hand out to stop me, I slowed down and took out an earphone. He said something in a foreign language and held out a really rubbish tacky shiny gold looking ring.

"Do you want to buy?"

"No thanks"

"You want to swap?" - points his dirty finger at my iPod.

"No thanks"


Firstly - why would you stop someone out whilst jogging to try and sell him or her something - where would they keep the cash for an emergency "knock off" purchase?

Secondly - I'm sure that no one in their right mind would swap an iPod for a cr*ppy ring!

I jogged off to complete my run.

Busy Monday

Hi - flying post......zoooom.

Managed to get a 6 miles in today, no time for a picture yet.

Hope everyone is keeping ok.

Zooooom....byeeeee

Shipley Country Park

No run as of yet today - we got up early and headed out to that park I mentioned in Fridays post.

We took bikes, some bread to feed the ducks and a picnic.

A great time was had by all - no all I need to do is try and motivate myself to go for a run... maybe tomorrow ;-)

Newstead Abbey

Here is the Abbey we went to for the open evening :-D

Lord Byron used to own it - I took a few snaps and posted them over on Flickr.

Saturday so far...

Up early and out the door for a 7 miler around the village.

A quick shower then out for ice skating.

Back home - Cut the lawns, and some other boring jobs.

Now getting ready to go out to a night at the museum - not the film but a late night visit to Newstead abbey :-D photos to follow.

Run forest run...

Well more like run in a forest run.

No lunchtime run today - too busy enough. So I thought I'd go for a jog after work around my 4-mile route. But just as work was finishing up for the weekend on the girls in the office came in wearing her running clothes and said she was running a country park which turns out to be sort of on the way home.

Never one to pass up the opportunity to run some where new, I quickly dashed off the shower room and got changed in to my running gear.

Man the park was ace! I will be going back there again.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and JogBlog hope the 10k goes well - look forward to see the T-shirt.

Day 65

A quick photo of what came out of my pen today - and jogblog it is a photo ;-)

Tink!

Not much to take a quick picture of tonight - so I grabbed the funsized persons pencil sharpner and took one.

Run wise - 4 miles today :-) hot and wet, not a great combo.

Winston C (Day 64)

No run today :-) my body told me to take a break - it's not keen on running more than 3 days in a row.

Today’s picture is of a Mr Winston Churchill statute that we inherited a while back - I like him, I like him a lot, when I look at him it brings back great memories of a long lost friend.

Day 63

100 point reward if you can guess what this picture is of...

Fly tipping

I could have done with the amazing fly tipper this lunchtime - there were flies everywhere YUK! I lost count of how many I must have eaten...

I did 4 miles.

Great Experiments in running (Day 62)

Preston and I took advantage of the break in deluge and headed out for a jog around the urban sprawl that we call home for 5 days a week.

Even though we both love running so much we pondered if it was possible to actually make it more fun.

Backwards running was ok, but being the pioneering mavericks that we are we needed to push the boundaries of what is seen as socially acceptable for public joggers. By the end of our four miles we retired back to the studio smug with the success of our scientific lunchtime achievement.

If you fancy cheering up a bland run try one of the following experiments – but be warned these have only been used in a controlled outdoor environment not in an enclosed lab on a treadmill.

Experiment 1:
Run/Jog whilst moving your arms like a steam train – in a circular clockwise motion at your sides.

Experiment 2:
Run/Jog whilst moving your arms as above but faster than your legs – increase speed until all pedestrians stare and point.

Experiment 3:
Repeat experiment 2 but in an anticlockwise motion.

Experiment 4 (and our final one for today):
Run/Jog as above whilst moving one arm anticlockwise and the other clockwise.

Enjoy.

Footnote: For a cheeky twist on the above experiments running crouched low down and applying any of the above arm movement’s members of the public are automatically drawn into acknowledging your tests.

PS – would anyone like to see video footage?

Coke Break...

Day 61

Back yard fern - I'm not sure if jogblog already took a photo of this...

Update
Did a cheeky 4 miles on the treadmill - weekly total up to 30 :-)

Hat's off to anyone that can run highnumbers or spend more than 30+ minutes on a treadmill, it's sooo hard to keep on going.

Day 60

How come these grow so fast? They look nice though.

Running on frozen water.

No run for me today, it’s my day of rest.

Well when I say rest I mean getting up early and going to the ice rink to watch the small person have her skating lesson.

She is doing the skate UK program and today managed to pass her level 4 grading. So in 9 weeks worth of lessons she has done 4 badges (value for money for us). I can’t get over how well she can skate it seems to be a natural talent for her. After her lesson we get to hang around for an hour and then we all get to skate for an hour - I don’t really have much natural talent at skating. But I don’t fall over and I can stop etc , I won’t be on “Dancing on Ice” any time soon though. I did learn something today, pint sized gave me a lesson on skating backwards - and I can do it J

No daily photo yet - I’ll have a look around to see what I can snap.

Day off (Day 59)

Late, late late night last night and 7.00am start to get the small person ready for school this morning.

Had a great time off though - chilled out and watched a movie :-) then picked the school girl and went ice skating.

No run? well I thought I's run home from the Ice Rink - about 7 miles, but when we got out it was raining :-( But not to worry I did it anyway :-) and I had a fantastic run, that much so I ran around the outskirts of the village as well and bumped it up to 11 miles :-)

My ipod headphones died the other day so I needed to replace them - I got these lime green numbers.

Hope everyone has a good weekend... and plenty of running (Get well soon JogBlog)

Day 58 (Self-Portrait)

WOW don't faint the boy badger managed to get out for our 4 mile lunchtime jaunt. And what a fantastic run it was good and sunny (windy) and only two fighting dogs to be seen. Preston struggled bigtime for the first mile but pulled it back for miles 2, 3 and 4.

Well that's about all for me - I'm off work tomorrow :-D I might even go for a long 'un...

Day 57

You know it's time to go home when there's only 2 other cars in the car park... Mine's an old banger.

The weather has been overcast and wet again, but another 4 miles called out my name today and I went a running.

Today I saw two things that I've never seen before.

1 - Someone riding a bike while drinking Special Brew and smoking a roll up.

2 - A middle aged woman riding her bike like a teenage boy i.e with her hands in her pockets not on the handle bars.

I did notice something today - bike riding is the new walking up north :-/

Day 56 (Not so scary 2007 tickets)

Yah! work today :-/

Had a really busy day at work so it flew past. I managed to sneak out for a cheeky lunchtime run/swim combo. I got a mile in to the run and the sunshine vanished the wind got up and a huge downpour hit me smack on the head (hence the swim... cross country swimming is the hardest outdoor sport). I got that wet my iPod headphones refused to stay in - so I had to finish the 4 miles sans tunes.

Got home via the Tuesday night swim training (the small persons not mine... wished it was).

A big envelope was waiting for me, I ripped it open to find the above bad boys :-D trick or treat anyone? it's our Not So Scary Halloween tickets for WDW :-) SWEET.

Day 55...

No sleep last night :-/ don't you just love it when your brain won't switch off or at least go on mute.

Today has been a struggle. I have had about as much get up and go as a thing with no get up and go. I must admit I did think about not running, but the paranoid runner in my head kept saying "you have to run or you you'll loose all your running ability and fitness "

So I managed to drag myself on the treadmill for a cheeky 3 miles in 24 minutes :-)

Hopefully going to get my groove back on for tomorrow and push the mileage up again.

Day 54

Today we made some models :-) I based mine on a little drawing below...

No run yet - I'm not sure if I can get my butt out the door.

Worm

Garden chores...

Well the weather turned out ok after all :-) After Ice skating we went to the cinema to watch Bridge To Terabithia.

WOO! what a film, not what I thought it was going to be (I had in mind a naff Lion Witch and the wardrobe rip off). Kate had said it was upsetting, but I must admit it was a real heart breaker (don't tell anyone that though - don't want to lose my hard man of jogging image)

After getting home from the flicks on with the gardening :-D. With that out of the way we got on with Swing Ball, badminton and then a go on the indo board.

To finish the afternoon off the crazy wife suggested a water fight. I was out numbered and out gunned (I had one cup they had 2 and a hose) Boy that was refreshing :-)

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get up early and hit the country roads for a 13 miler... then again I might not.

PS - a few garden pic's below ;-)

Mud Pie

Rummage

Yellow Flower

Back on the Track -Day 53

I was woken up at 6.30am this morning by the shot gun happy young farmer down the lane who was out reducing the local wildlife population.

So instead of wasting time laying around I went down stairs and did 3 miles on the Nordic treadmill :-) By the time I had finished the small person was up and wanted a run - she put in half a mile :-D

Well the weather looks like old school Bank Holiday weather - grey and wet. Have a good 'un.

That Friday feeling! (Day 52)

How long has this week lasted? AGES.

But it's Friday, and over in the UK it's even better than a normal weekend - It's a Bank Holiday weekend. YAH, extra time at home with no work, work (if that makes sense).

The downside to it being a Banker is the weather seems to have worked it out this time and decided to lay on some rain for us :-(

Not sure what we are up to over the weekend - but some long runs (or at least one) house/garden jobs and ice skating etc

Running wise I managed to get my backside out for another run, 6 miles all in :-D

Hope everyone has a fun weekend and running - looking forward to reading them blogs.

YAH! new camera case

My little Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T7 has a new padded cell :-D Sweet, I can take it out of house again.

This will be the first time in 2 weeks, I've really missed having my camera with me all the time - but being tight I didn't want to risk breaking my little digital friend.

Get ready for some new photo's ASAP!

Day 51

Run run run... a lovely eight miles today :-) Phewww! the weather is lovely at the moment :-D how long will it last?

Feeling Miffed! Day 50

Work, work and more work = no run :-(

Have to get out a put some miles under my belt tomorrow then eh :-)

PS - the photo is of my bed side lamp, I busted my old one about 5 years ago and got this one of a car boot as a joke... and it's still on the bedside. Smooth.

Day 49

Time for the chop ;-)

Monthly stats and a lunchtime jog

Well the numbers have been crunched and the offical JB monthly total is 130 miles, which I'm well happy with :-D

To kick off this month's running I went out for a solo lunchtime jaunt and put down 4 miles.

Roll on May.