Monday 17 January 2011

The Deal

I love my Husband and would do anything for him as any loving wife would! However we have our arguments as any normal couple do. . .

We have a current bone of contention which today raised its head under the banner of "can we make a deal?" On hearing this I bit my lip and in the calmest of voices said "sure, what kind of deal do you want to make?"

Him: "Do you think, given that you have a seat to drop your end of day clothes on that you could use it as opposed to the top of the wash basket? That way I can drop my dirty washing straight in there?!" (hint of frustration as he throws his shirt into the newly liberated dirty washing basket)

You would think that this is a fair and reasonable request.

And it is.


However I have tried a range of strategies to deal with Husband living out of our clean clothes washing basket. These strategies have included: asking nicely, repeatedly asking (aka nagging), shouting, pleading, crying, sulking and threatening to throw the contents out of the bedroom window onto the dog shit covered communal ground! Grrrrrr.

So I am now trialling a mimicking approach.

Me: "In the spirit of making deals do you think you could put away the contents of the clean basket that is filled with your nice clean clothes?"

. . .

He has gone out to play football.

. . .

His clean clothes are still in the basket.

Sunday 16 January 2011

First Run of 2011

Not a particularly pretty affair but here are the highlights.

The route takes us down in towards Linlithgow Bridge but we cut off the road to run along the river Avon and up onto the Union Canal back into Linlithgow and down into our estate.
  • ~ 4 miles
  • Roads, track and canal
  • Includes hills
  • 45 minutes

At the moment the river Avon is high, with melting snow and plenty of rain, the path was actually washed away at points. However given that I am now the proud owner of a set of black and purple trail trainers I ran with a new found confidence. Running alongside the river is amazing, really scenic especially when following Husband off piste!

The run uphill towards the canal while challenging from the point of view that I was trying not to slip into the Avon itself it was the Canal that generated a loud 4 lettered sweary word beginning with F! The path while nice and flat, as you would expect for a Canal, was full of puddles that left me with a choice: Jump left into a great big jaggy bush or jump right and possibly go for a swim!!

On one particularly long and wide puddle I opted for a left jump and my foot went down deep into the mud. Instantly I could feel my toes wet with mud. This incidently is the first time I have taken these new trainers out so I was already sporting a blister (this is a norm for me when it comes to running. Vasaline on the arches seems to sort it out but I am ever optimistic that I can run without getting a blister. This is turning into a denial issue rather than an optimistic thing!).

When we got back I had that high that you get from being in the fresh air and when I pulled my mud encrusted trainers off my little brown mud coated feets looked back at me proudly, almost as if to say "Can we go out agin?" It's just my leg muscles and lungs that are holding me back!

As I mentioned on a previous blog I am signed up for the Snowdon Marathon so with the first run of the year under my belt and have 41 weeks to go until the big event. Hopefully a 3 mile uphill run can be done far more easily . . .