four days off, five years later

Hello everyone!  Thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my marathon race report.  I'm finding it hard to believe it was only a week or so ago!!

How was your long weekend?  I hope you enjoyed yourselves - I personally had been longing for the Easter holidays for some time!  Since January my life has been a version of this video:

ie: trying to remember which moves to do at which time, in sync, on a treadmill!  Ha ha!

By the way, it is a fabulous song to run to!

So with the Big M out of the way, I had the laziest, loveliest four days.

I normally don't make coffee on weekdays because it's much easier to plonk a teabag in a mug - we had fresh French pressed coffee every day over Easter.  My favourite blend is a Guatemalan one that I pick up from Starbucks - it has some chocolatey overtones.  Most appropriate :)

I went for a 5k run on Friday morning - my first since the marathon - and I felt fantastic.  I had expected to be an absolute wreck for at least a week, but the only day I was sore was Monday (the day after).  I think the secret was to move about a lot, so I had Monday as a rest day but then walked to and from work each day the next three days (about 4.5k each way) and that eased the soreness a lot.  By Thursday I was raring to go again.  I'm just easing back in slowly but loving it - I just feel so strong!  I am already plotting my next half, but not sure when my next full one will be.  Watch this space!

I got some flowers delivered to my house on Good Friday - a huge surprise - from my mates at Total Greek Yoghurt as a thank you for doing a talk at their masterclass in London on Thursday.  Thanks again guys, they are making the house smell lovely :)

London's weather was beautiful over the weekend - it hit 27 on Friday.  It's apparently the warmest April on record!  We made some Pimm's and sat outside once I had finished transforming the garden.

We have a lovely little courtyard garden, complete with barbecue, and in the warmer weather it is like having an extra room in the house.  The garden, however, has suffered from months of neglect thanks to a freezing, bitter winter and then the chief gardener being on extended leave due to marathon training!  We want to have a little garden party for the Royal Wedding this week, so I knew I had to use this weekend to tidy it up - I got rid of all the dead plants, swept up all the leaves, re-potted some of the older plants that were looking a bit worse for wear, and planted some chillies, chives, geraniums, rosemary and some other flowers.  I resuscitated my sad hanging fuschia and breathed new life into a few trailing ivies.  The garden is now beautiful!  We enjoyed having Pimm's out there, and then breakfast every day :)

I did, however, pull a muscle when lifting a 100 litre bag of compost which meant I couldn't go running on Sunday as I'd planned :(  Oh the irony - I can run a marathon and barely get a blister, but a bloody bag of compost was my Waterloo! heh heh

Tom got me some ice cream on Saturday to cheer me up:

On Easter Sunday we had breakfast outside and listened to the church bells ringing.  The flat is in the middle of a tripod of churches, so it was quite something!  Easter Bunny brought me some Hotel Chocolat florentines, Tom some Hotel Chocolat orange pralines and some Green & Black's goodies to share.  Boofle got in on the action too:

I made a yummy Easter Sunday roast dinner of Linda McCartney roast, roast potatoes, asparagus, brocolli and (my favourite) cauliflower cheese, which we ate outside in the sun!  We went for a lovely walk by the river down to the Houses of Parliament while dinner went down, and then came back for dessert of apple crumble.  We did not need an evening meal!

Today my pulled muscle in my side was much better so I went for another 5k run this morning before it got too hot, and then did some Easter Monday retail therapy:

Any London marathon runners out there - if you take your finisher's medal into Sweaty Betty before May 1st they will give you a whopping 50% off!  That's right! (thank you Rachel for telling me about it!)  I took this opportunity to replace my rusty, black-turning-white sports bra with a brand spanking new ultra support one, as well as some new running capris and another gorgeous racer back tank top to add to my collection.

My darling husband waited patiently while I tried on every sports bra from a 32C to a 36A trying to get the fit right, so then we went to his favourite shop (HMV) and I waited patiently while he decided which Blu Ray to add to his growing collection (he went with Waltz with Bashir).  We had a picnic in the park behind John Lewis before heading home, past the hotel in Mayfair where we spent our wedding night nearly eight months ago, and then through Piccadilly and Green Park where the barricades are already going up in preparation for Friday (!) and union jacks are fluttering from every lamp post!

We may have caught a touch too much sun (!) so have spent the evening in the shade with books, wine and Masterchef.  And perhaps I had some chocolate as well ;)

What a lovely four days.  And thanks to William and Kate, we get to do it all again this Friday!  Whoo hoo!

Today is also April 25th, ANZAC Day.  Not only a national day of remembrance back home, but a very special day for me.  April 25th 2005 was the day I decided my life needed to change.  April 25th 2006 was not only the day my wonderful nephew was born (!) but the day I reached my goal weight - a year to the day.  It's now been five years since that day.  And what a ride it's been!!

Every ANZAC Day is always my day to reflect and to give thanks for all my blessings, for everything and everyone that has enriched my life, for all the lessons I've learned, and to refocus and look forward to what lies ahead - new challenges, goals and dreams.  I had no idea on that ANZAC Day in 2006 that this is where I would be five years later, but I think that's part of the fun - you never know where the path might lead!

Wishing you a lovely week my friends - and thank you for sharing the journey with me :) xx