tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91599893062993261052024-03-19T01:50:38.513-07:00parablepsis......a sideways look at life.Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.comBlogger175125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-7687482394576042242014-02-19T06:36:00.001-08:002014-02-19T06:36:21.563-08:00Down and Up AgainThe positive mood has fluctuated over the past few days. Daughter #3 seems to have taken a nosedive again, and then pulled upwards. If only she had some decent female friends to confide in who could tell her that these feelings of alienation and 'not fitting in' are a regular - if unwanted - feature of the teenage years, being largely driven by hormone levels. Also of the peri-menopausal years, something I'm not going to divulge as it won't cheer her up any. It's unfortunate that as one member of the family is clambering onto the front end of the hormonal rocking horse, another is being bucked off the back end at the same time.<br />
I've told her that life is pretty much hard work, but that it WILL get better and she WILL find her niche in the world, but I think she feels that it's so much hot air. On the one hand, she wants to hear comforting noises, but on the other, she's pretty disbelieving. I've tried to shortcircuit the tear-fests by briskly telling her to get up, get dressed, get some food and start doing something positive - anything positive - but my case isn't helped when she indulges in watching crap like 'My Mad Fat Diary' which dwells on mental and self-esteem issues. If you watched to much telly, you'd end up believing the world was a terrible dark place, with death and madness only a step away and you might as well wrap yourself up in a duvet and spend all day crying. But of course they all watch this sort of self-pitying victim stuff, so to not watch it is to be 'out of the loop', and 'out of the loop' is not what she wants to be.<br />
Sadly, she seems to believe that the answer to her problems (or at least temporary relief) is for us to pay for her to go on trips, or to gigs, but I don't think she understands that we REALLY can't afford to do this. University is looming, and that is going to cost us BIG TIME when they're both there.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgac_DiyWACcaFbn3HYQS8ts7PhyphenhyphenmiIGqNblzAhmgn_jtyI788ybDzr-PQFpnOQznQxgpa9QT6wvOrFmpmwQLtz-WpBmbRhgth9tesd61HKB70jjC3NEGQv2jerBy6JPXnrBTdNwReeu5NL/s1600/misty+scullers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgac_DiyWACcaFbn3HYQS8ts7PhyphenhyphenmiIGqNblzAhmgn_jtyI788ybDzr-PQFpnOQznQxgpa9QT6wvOrFmpmwQLtz-WpBmbRhgth9tesd61HKB70jjC3NEGQv2jerBy6JPXnrBTdNwReeu5NL/s1600/misty+scullers.jpg" /></a>Fortunately the endless rain seems to have petered out. The sun is sort-of out at the moment and the river level is dropping rapidly, so some actual rowing is on the cards rather than the grim gym sessions, which everyone is p-r-e-t-t-y sick of by now. I coxed the older juniors this morning - the stream on the river is still pretty fast, so the coaches little lectures, given to a stationary crew, saw the quad drift back downriver some way before they got going again.<br />
Leisure sculling outing tomorrow - hopefully. The better weather should see the squad numbers increase once again but, as ever, those who haven't been down to the gym sessions will be unfit <i>as well</i> as lacking in technique and confidence. It'll take a few weeks at least<br />
to get things going again, but by then the last of the Head of the River Races will be upon us. We'll be doing 'time only' rows, I think!Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-25705334541303800252014-02-11T05:23:00.005-08:002014-02-11T05:24:24.696-08:00Knuckling Down<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb8VLKCUcFbdnBd4XmdcIV-0xMS7rAp7qnjixEzVK7I-XiAyteGMxQuGpQiRk_oxWLwezSSZI7ElbF0lnmlRsZvxa69ovovbtlafy6hVFYbvE3o61-FkDZUy1zY8i_txEsVyBLVw3fLXwS/s1600/deadlift.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb8VLKCUcFbdnBd4XmdcIV-0xMS7rAp7qnjixEzVK7I-XiAyteGMxQuGpQiRk_oxWLwezSSZI7ElbF0lnmlRsZvxa69ovovbtlafy6hVFYbvE3o61-FkDZUy1zY8i_txEsVyBLVw3fLXwS/s1600/deadlift.jpg" height="289" width="400" /></a></div>
The sky is that awful leaden grey that doesn't change its tone from daybreak to dusk - a sharp contrast to yesterday's frosty sunshine. It is far, far less tolerable. I heard the water trickling off the roof into the gutters during the night and knew we'd awaken to more gloomy weather. It is getting beyond a joke.<br />
I went down to the rowing club this morning and we were discussing that we hadn't seen the bottom towpath (which means it's safe for all classes of boats and experience to go on the river) since mid-December. The leisure squad's Christmas outing was undertaken in v-e-r-y marginal conditions; high water levels and fast stream, but with experienced steersmen and a safety launch accompanying the quads, but the river hasn't really dropped since then. It's been one of those winter's when we might as well have said 'no rowing for three months' so sporadic have been our outings. One head-race was cancelled last Saturday due to adverse weather conditions and I can quite forsee that's going to be a recurring theme over the next few months.<br />
I suppose we're in a far better situation here that down south, where the Thames Valley is now severely flooded, as are the Somerset Levels and all the rivers in the south-west have burst their banks.<br />
Touch wood, the Yorkshire Ouse hasn't come as high as it did last year when we had to evacuate the boathouse THREE times in almost as many weeks. But then after that, we had an exceptionally benign Spring/Summer/Autumn conditions-wise.<br />
So this morning, a gym session it was; weights for me and ergos for the hardy leisure squad souls that bothered to turn up.<br />
Not much fun (or leisure) for them, but there was at least some sense of achievement.<br />
Hopefully I will still be able to move in 48 hours time - last week's legs session left me barely able to walk, with muscles so tender I could bear them to be touched, let alone knocked in any way.<br />
It's always very, very difficult in the early stages of a fitness/strength campaign to just knuckle down and get the reps/miles in. It would have been the easiest thing this morning to look out of the window and think 'Naaah - don't fancy it today' and pull the metaphorical duvet over the head.<br />
Taking the l-o-n-g view means thinking how I'll feel sitting in my all-in-one lycra, in the boat, in the Summer: relatively pleased with the training results, or wishing I'd done those reps? How I'll feel on the beach....happy in a bikini, or opting for the big T-shirt?<br />
Yes, I know, I know....I talked only yesterday of not being vain, and really I'm not. But I like to feel strong and - I suppose - to look like I've made a bit of an effort training-wise.<br />
As I've always maintained, I'm more interested in what people can DO, rather than what they LOOK<br />
like.<br />
That goes for me too.Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-12796918224602836132014-02-10T06:03:00.002-08:002014-02-10T06:03:51.807-08:00Brightening UpThings are looking a little more like they're on an even keel now.<br />
Apart from the horrendous squelchiness and interminable mud brought into the house at every turn, life is definitely looking brighter.<br />
Husband has received some good news on the work front which means that his efforts are going to be recognised...and not before time.<br />
Daughter #3 has come round a bit and cheered up - at least temporarily. She's joined the local gym on a short-term contract that should take her through until the nights are light enough for water-training to start again after school. To that end, she's been sorting herself out a training programme. This busy optimism is great, but I wonder whether it's just another pressure she's putting herself under? When did our children feel like they had to fill every moment of every day with worthy activity? What happened to pointless fun?<br />
I feel that it's probably something that she's absorbed from us, her parents.<br />
The Husband has always been absolutely rigorous about his 'training' regime, even when his training consisted of only that - training. He has a remarkable ability to get himself to the gym three or four times a week when there's very little need to be so committed. I think it's probably because he thinks of himself very much as a physical being. He defines himself by his strength and the way he looks, which is all well and good, but what happens when his physical prowess goes into decline (as it surely will)? It's the same for the woman who defines herself by her attractiveness to men, her looks, her slim figure. How will she feel when the skin wrinkles, the tummy sags, the men no longer stare longingly at her....? Seems to me that old age will be more difficult than it already is, if all our energy and interest has been invested in mortal flesh.<br />
I don't think I have the same level of vanity....but I might have. I don't know. Looking at photos of my young self, I regret that I did not value my youthful slim figure and what might pass as prettiness. As far as I was concerned my external appearance was only minimally interesting. I had a passing interest in clothes, but never any money to indulge in fashion, so I formulated what might be nowadays called a 'hipster/boho' look based on what I could get from the Oxfam shop. Funnily enough there were very few charity shops around as far as I can remember. Grandad shirts, a tweed jacket, tight jeans (always Wrangler), clogs, long hair worn loose, scarves and the like. It fitted my pseudo-intellectual pretensions, the carrying of the poetry or philosophy books. And many of my friends were of the same cloth, so to speak. Apart from the huge lacuna of my twenties, I don't think I've really strayed from that look or image. I was, and still am, a pretentious cheapskate, an intellectual lightweight and bullshitter. Only now the hair is greying, the midriff thicker and less taut (four kids you see...), the joints achier. Ah but youth is wasted on the young!<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrUaXHLq4fElxdGRhcCrYiCZm6kz51ko6i0B3keN4W6mSNCbUHirc460hAHmHut2OcBG6wtQ58c4gafnsIUl3lYzKk5sMWzLC_D2YYi1C5jHAydUlzcWfHaWVC9DwuMZWx_CVraS5DBsRg/s1600/gitanes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrUaXHLq4fElxdGRhcCrYiCZm6kz51ko6i0B3keN4W6mSNCbUHirc460hAHmHut2OcBG6wtQ58c4gafnsIUl3lYzKk5sMWzLC_D2YYi1C5jHAydUlzcWfHaWVC9DwuMZWx_CVraS5DBsRg/s1600/gitanes.jpg" /></a>Funnily enough, as I was walking the Dog in the glorious February sunshine this morning, I had a very intense recollection of a moment in my sixteenth or so year: It was another brilliant chilly morning, and I was - for some reason - walking to school sometime after the start of the school day (dentist or something?). I'd stopped to light up a cigarette (I know, I know...it was part of the 'image'). It was, I can clearly remember, a Peter Stuyvesant, from a soft top packet. I was very brand/image conscious when it came to cigarettes. I eschewed the regular flip-top packet (no No6 or Bensons for me!), preferring foreign fags; Gitanes of Gauloises (my favourites by far, having 'taken up smoking' on a school trip to Dinard), Camel (liked the pic on the packet), Black Cat (ditto), or anything that was slightly exotic or foreign. One of my friends had a taste for the menthol St Moritz (very posh packet), and the school cool girl smoked Disque Bleus.<br />
Anyhow, the sense of lighting up that cigarette came so strongly back to me in the frosty sunshine. I can completely recall the feeling of pure HAPPINESS that washed over me at that moment, and it washed over me again this morning some forty years later. The recollection of such intense happiness was incredible. I don't understand why I was happy at that moment in time - it was certainly just an ordinary day, with nothing exceptional to look forward to - just that I WAS, sublimely happy. It was like a pinpoint in time, or a moment that stood outside time in an inexplicable way. It was separate from time itself, a pure discrete sensation. I understand that there are physical conditions that can have a similar effect, epilepsy for example, but I don't believe it was in anyway thus caused.<br />
But the sensation that it left me with, an afterglow, has persisted throughout the morning. I feel energised and hopeful, ready to take on new challenges, should they present themselves.....It's gradually fading of course, as the day goes on. If only I could preserve that sense of happiness and revisit it for inspiration throughout the darker days! Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-69068131881501998432014-02-05T03:49:00.003-08:002014-02-05T03:49:43.159-08:00More of the same...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5_hV_Hn_IMmLFABQjCy3uczuxb7XXW-6eo-lqHJW5B8Ei7TScdD0BXIcyLVk2BJ3ntmUt4I6wfMpB2C8gPltXvZRstYcWASBJL7hx8HE0qqbCLeCHLV9oT0WiIHur5NkZgMx9fmsCp29/s1600/kicking+horse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5_hV_Hn_IMmLFABQjCy3uczuxb7XXW-6eo-lqHJW5B8Ei7TScdD0BXIcyLVk2BJ3ntmUt4I6wfMpB2C8gPltXvZRstYcWASBJL7hx8HE0qqbCLeCHLV9oT0WiIHur5NkZgMx9fmsCp29/s1600/kicking+horse.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
Another day dawns. The Husband is off to Manchester first thing and leaves me the car. This is both good and bad. It means I don't have to walk down to the boathouse for the junior training session later this afternoon, but it means I don't GET to walk down to the boathouse, which means I'm falling short on the load-bearing mileage thingy that I've got going to keep me fit.<br />
It does mean. however, that I can give Daughter #3 a lift home after her double training session, which today is probably a good thing as she is most definitely feeling really down.<br />
Poor girl. She tries so hard to be hard-working, conscientious, responsible and fit....and she does so well.<br />
I am constantly staggered at her drive and commitment (and wonder where she gets it from!) but worry that she is taking on an awful lot onto her teenage shoulders. School work, rowing training, TWO paid jobs...enough!<br />
There was a bit of a crisis this morning. A welling up of sadness and loneliness that spilled over as I hugged her and tried to comfort her. What prompted this? I ask myself....is it a hormonally driven fluctuation, the result of driving herself to try for perfection, a seasonal funk of gloomy days and not enough sunshine?<br />
I've always said to her - and reiterated it again today - that our love for her is absolutely unconditional.<br />
It's FAB if she does well, and we're really proud of what she achieves, but it has no bearing on our love for her. It's not conditional on anything she DOES, it's there because of who she IS. Our girl.<br />
I feel for her so much. My teenage years weren't the happiest. My parents, as I have mentioned in the past,<br />
were generationally conditioned in the post-war era to expect that children were largely there to fulfil their own often-frustrated lives and plans. They were supposed to dutifully toe the line, pursue post-university careers that would make the old folks glow with vicarious pride, and never, ever, do anything to bring opprobrium onto the neatly tended semi-detached respectability carefully nutured by restraint and making-do. I was not their ideal child. Sulky, rebellious, frustrated and desperate to be independent (although not financially - that never occurred to me) I made the most horrendous errors of judgement that effectively cocked up my late teens and twenties. But the errors of judgement were ALL MINE!<br />
So what I want more than anything is to make sure she never feels that she has to do things to make us happy. I want her to be happy, for herself, and in herself. And at the moment, that doesn't seems to be happening.<br />
The best I could offer - over and above a listening ear and comforting noises - is that she is essentially lonely, because there isn't anyone of her acquaintance who in any way measures up to her in terms of excellence. She is in a different league, but will find her soul companions as she progresses in life and goes to university.<br />
Unlike some teenaged girls I know, I would trust her to govern her own life at university NOW on account of her amazing maturity. But I DO know that - deep down - she is still just a little girl. And it's that little girl that I'm looking after today.<br />
So the plan is, little things to look forward to, dotted through the coming days, weeks and months: coffees out, a new activity or two, a day out at a music festival. Cutting back on the remorseless work ethic, the endless 2 and 5k erg-tests so bloody beloved by the rowing fraternity. Keeping it light.<br />
I know her mood can flip just like that, for the the better or the worse. I just hope that when I get down to the club tonight, she will be feeling a bit better in herself.<br />
<br />Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-27024433742565526622014-02-04T07:42:00.004-08:002014-02-05T03:50:47.523-08:00A Return to the Front<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfRReLhtyfKzrQP3vexsk3mI8b4oVUDp8OAcWlwxYlD8JG2x856LMqQlFXhnmEkdymgPFPZMndEi-OInoKqwRrHqBf2To26NYab0BHgrbGlijn3gc2sh8J3AoJZ_l5GYWKWIp5Vy3MT7kt/s1600/abandoned+library.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfRReLhtyfKzrQP3vexsk3mI8b4oVUDp8OAcWlwxYlD8JG2x856LMqQlFXhnmEkdymgPFPZMndEi-OInoKqwRrHqBf2To26NYab0BHgrbGlijn3gc2sh8J3AoJZ_l5GYWKWIp5Vy3MT7kt/s1600/abandoned+library.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
Absolute madness - the urge to write gets no less, despite the traumatic ending to the PhD which saw me refuse at the last fence to do the proposed corrections.<br />
Much shock and disbelief at someone who had completed, submitted, had a viva....and to all intents and purposes passed (although there was much huffing and puffing about the borderline status).<br />
Why? Why did I not knuckle down and just do what I was told? Rewrite the bits that were considered unsatisfactory, go through with a fine tooth-comb and correct the typos, insert the references that were suggested as suitable?<br />
Well, that boat had sailed. I could no more open up that document and write another word in it than fly to the moon. I had HAD it with academia. And academics, and the pifflingly unsatisfying nature of research done at such a micro level, that no-one either knows nor cares what the findings of your thesis are. Not even me. At a party, someone asked me to sum up my PhD in a sentence, 'Because' he said 'it's perfectly possible'. So I said 'Verbal aspect is not all it's cracked up to be'. And it isn't. And its not worth another moment spent on it, not even to get to wear the funny hat and have a limp and half-hearted buffet reception in the department common room.<br />
But still...the urge to write persists, and its been a peculiarly unsatisfying 18 months on the intellectual front.<br />
On the one hand, I have a great deal of specialised knowledge. On the other, I have neither the desire nor the opportunity to use it. I open many books and notebooks, my mind skids from one subject to another enthusiasm; it burns but briefly before the volumes are abandoned in the pile on the table, gathering dust.<br />
What is my problem? Why am I such a light-weight, a butterfly, a charlatan? Have I had some psychological crisis that leaves me thus unable to commit to a project, or am I frightened of becoming a jack-of-all-trades, a flailing amateur, destined to half-fill journals with half-baked prose?<br />
I've considered maybe I've been depressed, but I don't feel the awful sense of pointlessness and doom that supposedly accompanies that. I don't know what I feel. Boredom mostly, a sense of the drumming of fingers whilst the days fly by unused, a need to fill my days with something other than hoovering up mud, washing and cooking.<br />
Even a part-time job - in a pleasant enough environment, with tolerable people, became a hindrance to getting on with...nothing. But I resented it's restrictions.<br />
Rowing: Rowing is great when it goes well. It takes you out of yourself (because you HAVE to concentrate!), keeps you lithe and co-ordinated, fills your lungs with fresh air, but the interstices tend to become just time when you sit around waiting to go rowing again.<br />
The children are growing so fast that I merely tend their needs and they beetle off on their own.<br />
The Husband is going through such a total career and existential melt-down that we seldom communicate in any meaningful way at the moment. He is mute with misery, but I don't want to replicate his mother's inane witterings to fill the silence.<br />
The Dog...the Dog is a blessing. Rescued mutt, desperate to love and be loved, bounding, extravagantly pleased to see his humans and snuggle inconveniently alongside them in bed. He keeps me busy; active, anyway.<br />
So resurrecting this blog (as I have found the login details) will be a bit of therapy.<br />
I shall work through - in words, blessed, necessary words - what it is that I am missing, and try to heal that wound, whatever and wherever it is, that lies across me.<br />
Bear with me. It might not be pretty, or happy, or even useful. But I am going to give it a go. Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-66683648946224573102011-11-04T08:17:00.000-07:002011-11-04T08:31:02.709-07:00You Are What You Eat<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFiCGY07fG04hNlDd9cIaykbMddq1PzKU6h4QlTEmL6Z-G98vzUKovthlRi-AVS-c76TgMZiGdaoXrHS6sak1_ztF1u5Aot1L249AVyfGwGM-39IwBa8GzSYJMnxREpvryey5EsdJdPv3C/s1600/healthy+food.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="324" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFiCGY07fG04hNlDd9cIaykbMddq1PzKU6h4QlTEmL6Z-G98vzUKovthlRi-AVS-c76TgMZiGdaoXrHS6sak1_ztF1u5Aot1L249AVyfGwGM-39IwBa8GzSYJMnxREpvryey5EsdJdPv3C/s400/healthy+food.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Food has always played an enormously important part in our family life - and not always in a good way! The Husband, having pursued many, many years of weight training before his reinvention as a rower, has always been meticulous about the composition of his diet. He knows precisely what he has eaten, the percentage of protein/carbs/fat in most common foodstuffs, what to eat, and when to eat it for maximum benefit. Even when he lived at home (before he was let out and married me) his most excellent mother catered for his every nutritional whim to the extent of making packed lunches at 5am before he set off for work and popping to the shop to pick up extra gallons of milk for the protein milk-shakes if required. Bit of a shock then when setting up his own home to realise that a good diet required a great deal of forethought, effort....and money! Still, in those days we were both working, young(ish) and idealistic and as a couple still managed to hit the gym three or for times a week and eat a pretty healthy diet. Photos from our first foreign summer holiday together show us lean, toned and muscular. To be quite honest, we were pretty vain and narcissistic and probably bored the pants off everyone around us.<br />
All that was to change with the arrival of our first child, a bonny bouncing thing who - having turned up with a bit of difficulty two weeks late - decided that sleeping was a Bad Idea. We became drawn, irritable and haggard and comforted ourselves with the thought that the second baby (who arrived placid and smoothly two years and two months later) could NOT POSSIBLY sleep less than the first.<br />
How wrong we were! The Bright-Eyed Boy was not only <em>just</em> as bad at sleeping, but much worse, had some sort of hair-trigger motion-detector that sensed breathing three-foot distant and roused him in inconsolable wailing. Night and day this continued, one setting off the other in a constant round of baby-noise. Unsurprisingly NOTHING got done. I'd given up going to the gym as I was constantly shattered and, more than likely, somewhat depressed. The Husband still went occasionally as far as I remember (I'm not really sure) but when we had a major extension built on the house (cheaper than buying something bigger) he spent two years decorating and fitting stuff whilst I sat zombified and minded the babies. Pretty grim actually. The Husband looked like a skeleton, and I piled on the weight through exhaustion and an inability to care. At the same time the Bright-Eyed Boy developed some sort of digestive problem that made him throw up constantly: every night I'd have to strip off next to the washing machine, carefully pulling jumpers over my head that were covered in vomit. Just as the spewing got better he decided that eating was a Bad Idea altogether, and it was all we could do for a year to coax him to eat custard creams. This aversion to food persisted until he went (kicking and screaming) to nursery and saw that hey! Other Kids Eat! So he started to join in and although he still had quite rigid ideas about what he liked, he has got better and better and now at age 12 has a fairly sophisticated palate. I think the root of the problem is that he has an extra-sensitive sense of taste/smell so that what we would count as fairly bland and unremarkable flavours seemed to him outrageously bitter, sweet or sour, hence his insistance at age 5 on having a pizza that consisted only of the base and the cheese (I think they are now quite trendy and called 'pizza bianca' or somesuch) - absolutely NO tomatoes in ANY shape or form. The Daughter has always eaten like a horse and her diet as a rower needed only minor tweeks to make it fit for purpose (e.g.porridge for breakfast, lots of pasta, tuna, chicken etc.). Even the BEB, having taken up rowing this summer, has taken to eating more, although quite often this consists of attempted raids on the cupboard for chocolate biscuits <em>before</em> tea.<br />
Anyhow, in our home food has gone in a complete circle: the Husband started really taking an interest in nutrition again when he took up competitive indoor rowing a few years ago (before 'proper' rowing was even a twinkle in his eye) and his interest rekindled my interest. Being told by the practice nurse that I had the beginnings of hypertension spurred me on to take stock and radically rethink and reform my diet. Drawing on all my former knowledge, which up until that point had been buried under the quotidien family crap that all families wade through, we decided to pull our socks up and Get Serious about nutrition. <br />
Not that it's been easy - it's really hard to plan ahead for healthy dinners if we don't know who's going to be around at tea-time and who's got an activity organised. The slow-cooker is an absolute boon (thanks Sam!) allowing for stews, curries, pasta sauces, and chilli to be taken out as needed, but sometimes the best-laid plans fail and there is a certain amount of nutritional compromise. As I am the one who works on academic research from home, it falls to me to prepare the vast majority of the meals and although I am mostly OK with that, I have to admit that occasionally this particular worm turns. Hence fish and chips. But there was no excuse for my lunchtime lapse today when I am ashamed to admit I actually ate a Pot Noodle. I'd just come in from town, needed to fire up the computer for work and just could not be bothered to sort out something healthier. At least I know precisely how many evil calories I have ingested (392) and comfort myself that had I indulged my appetite with a panini, brownie and latte whilst out, the total would have been a great deal higher than that. On the upside, Friday night is sirloin steak night, eaten with mushrooms, salad, a few oven chips and a big glass of red wine. Food of the gods! And rowing training tomorrow to burn it all off....Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-41405820737770737392011-10-29T01:24:00.000-07:002011-10-29T05:33:55.486-07:00A Clash of Antlers<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtZoHQBkRWIHq6dgqTIiYgYpTeOGa2qAkfTYojFyGO_DYjpPY6uVmjyFScAavSyCLILSAW6I6eT-qkASoOU2_ufjcDZPECZtc8AL42e6QXPIrExVZD6fQ-8cUXqVLiTZiz7VONLzxSmvkl/s1600/monarch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtZoHQBkRWIHq6dgqTIiYgYpTeOGa2qAkfTYojFyGO_DYjpPY6uVmjyFScAavSyCLILSAW6I6eT-qkASoOU2_ufjcDZPECZtc8AL42e6QXPIrExVZD6fQ-8cUXqVLiTZiz7VONLzxSmvkl/s1600/monarch.jpg" /></a>The Husband has merrily trotted off down to the boat-house to meet up with some of the guys who were on his 'learn-to-row' course last May. He is extremely lucky in that he has found three other people who have taken to the sport of rowing with as much enthusiasm and commitment as him, and together they have made a reasonable - if somewhat unusual - quad crew. There! That didn't sound too anarchic,did it? And yet, the reaction in the club up until very recently was, if not actually hostile, then certainly very unhelpful. Having encouraged folk to learn to row, and very happily relieved them of a not-inconsiderable amount of cash to take up full active membership, there seemed to be an unneccessary amount of obstacles put in their way to prevent them doing precisely that which they were initially encouraged to do: row. I'm not sure how the women's squad runs things, but the men's squad seemes to be run along the lines of some minor public school, where the 'new boys' are made to jump hurdles merely for the amusement of the 'prefects'. Arbitrary training regimes were set up - and amended - on a weekly, daily or even (and I kid you not) hourly basis. It was initially a source of some amusement, and later despair, to receive emails <strong>all</strong> marked 'high importance' stating that 'the men's squad will meet at 6.30pm for a 3k run, then circuits' only to have that replaced by 'please meet at 6 for a 2k ergo test'. Programmes were sent out and then abandoned before the first date on the list. The whole set-up seems based on whim rather than solid training principles.</div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
The Husband found the whole thing ridiculous. He'd always wanted to have a go at rowing but, like many people, never got round to it. Having taken the opportunity to learn, he was keen to give it his best shot and willing to put up with a bit of frustration and annoyance to fit in. But he came within an ace of packing the whole sorry mess up as he and his new colleagues were told that, yes, they could go out in doubles, oh wait no, you can't: singles only. No hang on a bit we're not going to be on the river tonight (what! it's beautiful out there!) - there's going to be an ergo piece...2k...note your times. And by the way lads - you won't be rowing as a quad together: <em>we don't encourage private armies</em>.<br />
Okay, thought the Husband, keep the head down, don't antagonise the chief buck (who, by the way, is never seen on an ergo, in a boat and quits out of circuits to go home after one set of reps). Dutifully he did what was asked of him: circuits twice a week, 2k tests etc. etc. Even kept his frustration under his hat when beautiful autumn evenings went un-rowed. </div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
The first head-race of the season took place about a month ago in north Lincolnshire. At less than 3k and on a river that is merely a big, straight drainage ditch, the Husband and his mate thought it would be an ideal first race to have a go at, and put it forward that they could enter in a double, not with any expectation of doing particularly well, but as a first-time experience, a bit of fun. This was greeted with much humming and ha-ing and prevarication until - hey presto! - the entry list was closed. Through gritted teeth this was accepted: we were down there anyway as Daughter #3 was racing in a double and then a quad. More frustration ensued: more revised training schedules, broken coaching appointments, more reminding that the Husband and friends wouldn't be racing together at any point.</div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
Imagine his surprise when he got an email (marked high priority, natch) with a boat-list up for the next head-race a week hence (on a notoriously bendy river) containing....yes, the Husband and his LTR chums. With less than seven days to practise for it. Never rowed as a crew.... Assuming that the mick was being taken, they rearranged their work commitments to squeeze in a few sessions on the water. And yes, you've guessed it, when they arrived for the first one, they were told they couldn't go out on the water that night....Well, an explosion was due, and it happened. A few home truths were delivered. And from that time on things seemed to get a bit easier. A second early morning practice session was arranged and encouraging noises made. The head-race itself was windy, choppy, nerve-racking, included a minor crash (at a bend - bow had only steered the quad twice!), but they came away grinning from ear to ear at the achievement and enthused beyond measure. And that's where they all are this morning, happily going up and down the river.</div>
But why the stupid delays and aggravations? You would think that the club would want new blood to swell their ranks - particularly dedicated and enthusiastic blood. Not to mention the membership money! The problem, I believe, is the hierarchical nature of the set up. The junior section runs like an oiled machine, thanks to one person who gives up an unconscionable amount of time to organise it. Everyone knows what they're doing, when they're doing it, and with whom. The older rowers, the ones who have kids are fine, relaxed, helpful, keen to offer advice and even coaching. The middle section tend to be in their late twenties, early thirties, single, unchilded, and range from flint-eyed monomaniacs to swivel-eyed loons. There is a lot of testosterone about, a lot of competitive antler-butting and, as goes with the territory, an aversion to incomers - particularly those who just might - one day - end up as competition. I rest my case.Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-53023816142623412342011-09-29T08:36:00.000-07:002011-09-29T08:37:53.681-07:00A Test of What? Patience, Most Probably! <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1eCjY8Co4EPVthUqRqx3ZlP4Uw14nUTmuFRSDH57Kw4T2r3QS2CbnFZtEmmGCAh6tF6VJi7bBQLA_Q2mJ5oZF4_zA0ywir0G0lFoOjJfmPPuni1IxL4tW2WUHS18wujYcaYLQDHx_95XG/s1600/IMG_0073.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1eCjY8Co4EPVthUqRqx3ZlP4Uw14nUTmuFRSDH57Kw4T2r3QS2CbnFZtEmmGCAh6tF6VJi7bBQLA_Q2mJ5oZF4_zA0ywir0G0lFoOjJfmPPuni1IxL4tW2WUHS18wujYcaYLQDHx_95XG/s320/IMG_0073.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Indoor rowing at Manchester Velodrome</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
The weather is absolutely beautiful, unseasonably warm and almost making up for the dismally wet summer. You would think, then, that the rowing fraternity at our local club would be eager to take to the river as quickly as possible during the sun-balmed evenings. Apparently not!<br />
I have noticed a distinct tendency, very akin to that which I noticed as a former air-sports instructor, to stand around and <em>talk</em> about the sport rather than actually get on and <em>do</em> it.</div>
This is particularly true of some of the more experienced crews: they certainly look the part standing round in flip-flops and faded splash-jackets and gazing distantly downriver, but I could count the times I've actually seen them rowing on one hand. The Husband is distinctly aggravated. Not only does the 'training programme' (and I use the term loosely here) change <strong>literally</strong> week by week (actually, <em>none</em> of the proposed sessions have been fulfilled), but he can never tell if, when he turns up at the boathouse as instructed whether there'll be anyone to coach him, even if he's gone to the trouble of arranging a coaching session. What tends to happen is that he arrives (along with his new rowing buddies) and finds that, despite it being perfect weather, no-one is there, or that there's been a gym-session declared, or that by the time everyone's got their arse into gear it's getting too damn dark. But - hey - they've had a splendid time standing round talking about what they would have done.<br />
Last night he turned up promptly from work hoping to get a good hour plus on the water only to find that everyone was expected to do a 2k erg test. Even the poor guy who'd just returned, unwarned, from holiday. Fortunately the Husband wasn't too bothered - he's competed in the British and English indoor rowing championships and is currently following a Concept2 training programme at our local gym in order to compete again in the spring - climbed on his erg and did an easy sub-seven. Didn't push it, had something left in reserve and recovered quickly. This caused some consternation amongst the men. Husband is a total novice, so wasn't expected to perform well, yet he beat most of the squad with ease. There seems to be a mystique to the erg that 'real' rowers like to bang on about, as if it's some dreaded instrument of torture that they love/loathe simultaneously but that 'non-rowers won't understand; etc. etc., but in reality all it gives is a basic indication of stamina and cardio-vascular condition. <br />
It's not rowing. There is no point to it until you've got the technique sorted out - you'll never use the fitness it imparts unless you can row well enough for it to make a difference, and the best training for rowing is rowing itself. And as for using it to determine who gets a place in the best boats....well, that had to be quickly rethought!Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-34455565596234304642011-09-23T06:01:00.000-07:002011-09-23T06:05:45.015-07:00Autumn Break Point<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsweEtBKprUp1ShXcCBPVKaXAZgNj5XZXzA1IKmFLv7ysVDbDBs0dJG-zePEZniNwox7o_Bpwi9Xn5ODf0zHciD1tJaKYuqpSWbLiO_rXP3K7I_oylKd9bVbUwOu3pF1cJju1IXBdlRbSL/s1600/romerowing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" hca="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsweEtBKprUp1ShXcCBPVKaXAZgNj5XZXzA1IKmFLv7ysVDbDBs0dJG-zePEZniNwox7o_Bpwi9Xn5ODf0zHciD1tJaKYuqpSWbLiO_rXP3K7I_oylKd9bVbUwOu3pF1cJju1IXBdlRbSL/s320/romerowing.jpg" width="315" /></a></div>
I have actually ground to a halt. My best intentions to write 500 words per day for my thesis are foundering in slack-jawed apathy. The dissertation is growing - in fact, it's probably growing too much. My latest chapter (so nearly completed!) is now over 52,000 words, and it's going to need some heavy pruning before submission. But it's nearly one-thirty on Friday afternoon, and here I am blogging - not doing academic stuff, carelessly frittering the remains of the day away. <br />
My elderly parents came round this morning and regaled me with tales of their holiday in the Italian Lakes and I started to feel restless and very twitchy. I need a break, preferably abroad for a few days, but I have a feeling that just ain't going to happen this autumn. It's the financial climate, I guess. That, plus the rowing club fees are due for <strong>all </strong>for of us (and NO direct debit facility - ridiculous!), Daughter #3 wants to go on a residential school trip, the car needed taxing, new school uniforms, birthdays...the whole routine. Nor did we manage to get away this spring either as Daughter #2's second baby was due near the half-term holidays and I was on standby for minding the delightful Bouncing Babba #1. <br />
It really aggravates me how hotel prices shoot up in half-term holidays (cynical or what?) but we are practically threatened with excommunication if we take the kids out of school in term-time. I did think about going to Rome for the weekend, taking them out of school for the Friday and claiming it was a pilgrimage. Well, it would have been - to the Tazza d'Oro coffee shop near the Piazza Navona as much as to go to St Peter's!<br />
The weekend looms with all its usual activities. I just can't imagine what 'normal' (i.e. non-rowing) families do. Just lately, Saturdays consist of the rowing-convert Husband cycling off to the rowing club for 8am, hopeful of calm conditions, and me walking into town later to meet him for a much-needed latte and listen to his exploits. <br />
Sundays usually start early again with me accompanying him to rowing and helping him out with the boat, boating up etc., or with me arriving an hour later (9am) with Daughter #3 and the Bright-Eyed Boy for the junior rowing training session, where I'll either coach singles from the riverbank (trying not to slip on the goose-shit and fall into the water) or cox a quad (getting noticeably chillier by the day). <br />
Last Sunday the river was high, so the Husband and his cronies opted to stay in the gym (ffs!). The juniors put them to shame by blithely boating up and paddling off, although it was a bit 'exciting' on occasion, judging where to land etc. This again is followed by a welcome hot drink, coffee and rowing chat at the local Costa, which I surely must have shares in by now (that's probably where all the money's gone!). <br />
Both Saturday and Sunday afternoons see us two adults (and occasionally children, too) down at the recreational gym near our house (much nicer than the boathouse gym), trying to fit in the weights sessions that we have failed to do during the week (more correctly the guilt-wracked Husband has failed to do - I'm a goody two-shoes and get there most days before I start my work). Into this we must fit the usual colossal school/work clothes wash and iron, prepare and cook food, homework (for the Husband too, sadly), and shop for the forthcoming week's packed lunches etc. Housework and gardening doesn't get a look in, not that I'm really that sorry, but I'm increasingly aware of disapproving glances at the fluff-wads and overgrown grass and weeds. Sunday night and we're knackered -slumped with a pile of food and glass of wine having a marathon sport-watching session of stuff we've recorded whilst out.<br />
So yeah - I could do with a break, a complete break from the routine. We're going to tot up the air miles again and scan RyanAir and EasyJet. I seriously doubt it'll be on the cards...and if it is the only cards it'll be on is the Mastercard. I might have to live with that. Seize the day etc. Autumn on the banks of the Tiber....lovely!Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-41383525655621997842011-09-20T09:31:00.000-07:002011-09-20T09:38:25.052-07:00Full Stream Ahead: Again! <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrspXadb6SuRCsE0lJW6u99HuE0HvU1ZPez8Zux2FofgdSfANAtVrqN9QtfiLevTX_DIn-Tp1R3euDMq7nHWdnreKpKjfQ4mC3xhFi1Eku1IoHKwX4AE4LBR_7kVVxNahgRncuO3urvrFc/s1600/13032010176.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrspXadb6SuRCsE0lJW6u99HuE0HvU1ZPez8Zux2FofgdSfANAtVrqN9QtfiLevTX_DIn-Tp1R3euDMq7nHWdnreKpKjfQ4mC3xhFi1Eku1IoHKwX4AE4LBR_7kVVxNahgRncuO3urvrFc/s320/13032010176.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from the boathouse</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Our river, the Yorkshire Ouse, is a ridiculous river. Having spent most of the summer at such a low level that we were practically scraping the fins through the silt boating up, we are now in overnight flood season. The levels go up and down like a 'bride's nightie'. A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure(?) of coxing the J15 boys upriver in against a stream so rapid that it took them all their time to make any progress at all. Again this week after a torrential thunderstorm on Friday night (both in York and up in the feeder hills), the levels rose steadily. Sunday morning at the juniors training session, the tow path was covered, annoyingly only by two or so inches of water, which made boating up a real problem. If the levels are higher it's fine to plop the boats in the water just at the bottom of the boathouse steps -the fins and rudders won't catch. But because there wasn't quite enough clearance under the hulls, we had to (very tentatively) paddle through the water and put the boats out just past where the towpath ended. Very cold, especially for those without wellies. I had my Crocs with me, so I wasn't too bothered about the getting wet, although the getting cold was a bit unpleasant! Some of the juniors, who hadn't been out during such conditions, were a bit phased about taking their shoes and socks of and paddling about, but that's what seperates ruffty-tuffty rowers from ordinary mortals (as I pointed out to them). Because there was a fair bit of stream on the river (but not <em>too</em> bad) the younger ones went out in quads and the older in doubles. I had a crew of J13s - quad scull novices - including my own Bright-Eyed Boy (some quad experience under the belt) and one lad who'd never been in a quad before.<br />
It was a bit optimistic asking them to warm up in pairs 'arms only, body lean, quarter-slide' etc. Feeling the flow of the river I swiftly called for full slide and asked for a bit of a squeeze to get us through the arch of the railway bridge where the venturi effect was evident. Rounding the corner to St Peter's Straight, the onslaught eased a little and we made reasonable progress upriver until we reached the turning point before the next bridge. Spinning the boat was a doddle: just paddling a bit on bow allowed the current to drift the boat round and we easied (well actually, we didn't, we had to keep backing down slightly to remain 'stationary') as the coach shouted out instructions to me. Start rowing, then stern pair (the slightly more experienced pair) to square blades, then back to feather, then bow-pair (including the new boy) to do the same. It was the usual rocky old business, although I did (briefly) get all four on to square blades . Spinning the boat for the upriver leg by the boathouse wasn't easy: we had to turn earlier than we would normally and even then there was a bit of a hairy moment when we drifted slightly sideways nearly under Lendal bridge. <br />
Another circuit, same stuff. The new boy coped, and kept up, remarkably well given that everything in a quad scull happens much faster than in the single tracers that theclub normally starts them off in. As they were true lightweights, and the river was high, their session was a bit shorter than the normal one-and-a-half hour's stint. Landing the boat was rather tricky too - I couldn't quite see where the edge of the tow-path was, and not wanting to damage anything, had to shout to a rower in wellies for directions. I was a bit worried about plunging off the invisible edge of the path on getting out too!<br />
All safely landed, I had to co-opt the Husband to help carry the boat up the steps and, after washing it, help slot it back into its rack. The little guy at bow just wasn't tall enough to be able to half-turn it without dragging the gates on the floor. Aww! My feet, which had just got wet again were freezing - I felt that I'd never deserved a steaming latte and sticky-toffee muffin as much.....Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-84750268537078277122011-09-10T13:08:00.000-07:002011-09-20T09:40:05.322-07:00In Full Flow <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCbNuxop2cj4514sO1qEiEk0JM9EwHWahN0y5YNUEnXbN7OPkZoQlyv4-quSA0QDF7nLXHKNr4tuUf5uGlwewt5i1PmwcBTc_UuVTSUDE9VW5s2j_j7X-voAr6VMVKdeD1XyiXgmDHV6U-/s1600/Flooded+river.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCbNuxop2cj4514sO1qEiEk0JM9EwHWahN0y5YNUEnXbN7OPkZoQlyv4-quSA0QDF7nLXHKNr4tuUf5uGlwewt5i1PmwcBTc_UuVTSUDE9VW5s2j_j7X-voAr6VMVKdeD1XyiXgmDHV6U-/s320/Flooded+river.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not our river!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
Monday morning came around, as I knew it would, and I had to sit down at my desk and look with intrepidation at my thesis. Not a word has been written since the start of the school holidays (mid/late July) and, having made a commitment to submit 10,000 words for scrutiny in early October, the pressure was on. One thing I have learned over the course of my doctorate is that slow and steady wins the day: "It is quite possible" said my supervisor during one of our first meetings nearly three years ago " to get a PhD by sheer application and getting enough words down." <br />
I'd originally had some fancy plan about strolling through the groves of academe and reading for - ooh! about a year - and then putting down the fruits of that intellectual indulgence in a pure stream-of-consciousness argument of profound depth and cogency, but he had other ideas. "Write" he said "from day one. If the words are down, you can make something from them." And that turned out to be excellent advice, and the thesis has grown and grown (in size, if not in quality) like a piece of knitting grows even if you only knit two rows per day. So with approximately four working weeks to knock out the ten thousand, that's 4 lots of 5 days, 2,500 words per day, 500 per day: eminently achievable. Except of course, the actual writing is the easy bit, the quick bit. What takes the time is the reading, the formulation of ideas, the cross-referencing, bibliography and checking back for logical progression. And all the time in the background is the mantra of business guru Steven Covey 'The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing'. There is endless scope for fascinating digressions and if you're not careful you can end up several light years from where you should be!<br />
Coupled with this return to academic activity has been the loss of rowing activity. Having 'persuaded' the Bright-Eyed Boy to have a crack at rowing this summer, I've been accompanying him (and Daughter #3)down to the club up to five mornings per week in an effort to get him up to speed and feeling confident about the whole thing. It seems to have worked and he has progressed from tracer up to a fine(ish) boat, had a go in a quad (where he's held his own quite nicely) and, as of today, a double with another J13.</div>
I've got a real glow from seeing his confidence and satisfaction increase and hopefully he will soon be as competent and confident as his sister who started rowing two years ago. I am, however, feeling distinct withdrawal symptoms both from coxing and coaching the beginners from the riverbank. I'm still trying to get down once midweek and once at the weekend, although the oncoming darker evenings will soon put paid to the former. Actually, Daughter #3 was supposed to be at a regatta in the West Riding today, but it was cancelled due to unfavourable weather conditions: I didn't need much persuading to go and cox the J15 boys. We had a fabulous trip: our river was calm and, accompanied by the coach in a single alongside, we went 6k upriver at a low rating, working on balance with me calling for single strokes, two strokes, five strokes....they just got better and better, and we glid along magically under the willows, silent, balanced....<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
The Husband, who has also taken up the sport, has had a less happy time. Being 6' 6" tall and 18+ stone (all muscle), it's been a struggle to find a boat he finds comfortable and confident in. Eventually the club decided to rig up a heavier weight one that's been hanging from the rafters for a couple of years. He's been going down as often as humanly possible (and crikey! that's been tricky in the family/dinner stakes!), but it's been a bit frustrating. It's not unknown for coaches to fail to turn up for arranged training sessions which leaves the novices frustrated as they can't go out unsupervised and things are, in general, slightly chaotic although friendly enough. Additionally, everyone keeeps giving him different advice about EVERTHING - even getting in and out of the boat - and generally bewildering him to such an extent that he's came within an ace of chucking it all in. This was crowned the other week when he turned up for a training session, was dispatched DOWNRIVER, along with another novice, by the coach who told them he would 'catch them up in the launch'. Well, he never did! The Husband fell in about 1k from the boathouse, breaking the sax-board of the tracer he was in. He <em>eventually</em> managed to get back in (don't forget, he's a BIG guy), cold and slightly shocked, and made his way through the heavy river traffic, gradually taking on water because of the breached upstand and other boat-wash.</div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
Arriving at the boathouse, the coach had apparently buggered off without even venturing out on the river, leaving the two novices get on with it! Fortunately, I'd just turned up and managed to help him out with the boat and explain what had happened to a club-member whilst he took a warm shower and changed. Not good. I guess, at base what it really needs is someone to volunteer to shoulder the burden of organisation, but as most members work full-time this is not practical.<br />
<br />
The sporadic and ever-changing nature and quality of the coaching has been a a bit of a let-down and is a real shame given the truly excellent nature of the junior set-up where the kids can train seven days a week, 363 days per year (if they so desire) and be assured of good, safe, coached rowing whenever the conditions permit. <br />Which they nearly didn't last Wednesday when I turned up to cox. </div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
The river was <strong>really</strong> high: the tow path had disappeared and we had to quickly boat up from the steps - seven boats out, one after the other in rapid succesion. We headed upstream accompanied by a coach in a launch. The stream and wind were incredible, and I had all on to steer it through the tricky 'S'-bends one and a half kilometers up. We just had to keep going: any 'easying' was rewarded by the bow swinging round, so we just kept plugging away. Once upriver we spun the boat (pretty rapidly) and headed back down doing pyramids of 10, 20, 30, 40 light and firm strokes, keeping up with another quad who'd also been due to race this weekend. I needed all my concentration to cox, not only steering and calling for adjustments for current and wind, but counting down into the firm pieces whilst keeping a tally of what we'd done/had left to do, <em>and</em> looking out for logs the size of alligators that the river likes to disgorge during its periods of flood. We got back early, unsurprisingly given the speed of the stream, and managed to spin the boat and land at the steps without too much drama.</div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
And do you know what? I found it the most marvellous and relaxing experience: having spent the day wrangling with grammatical features of the hellenistic Greek language, my mind was purged by not being able to think of anything that was going on except the rowing.</div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
Marvellous! </div>
Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0York, UK53.9577018 -1.082285553.9203308 -1.1612495 53.9950728 -1.0033215tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-45516934530060031612011-09-01T08:03:00.000-07:002011-09-01T08:03:27.368-07:00<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTGx6dIBNxGJrzE0iIJBJikn69BHNVqCvjBOh9lwA7EQqUxkYH6Eh51imlvK5oIQ0-0mSzTxmnlTKxrz5WmH7xoK0G7eHl4Q5622Qa5zCmY8TvK60JztW52zrf3e7Uuy3Q02IqlqUObvzk/s1600/IMG_4242.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTGx6dIBNxGJrzE0iIJBJikn69BHNVqCvjBOh9lwA7EQqUxkYH6Eh51imlvK5oIQ0-0mSzTxmnlTKxrz5WmH7xoK0G7eHl4Q5622Qa5zCmY8TvK60JztW52zrf3e7Uuy3Q02IqlqUObvzk/s320/IMG_4242.JPG" width="320" xaa="true" /></a></div>
I just cannot believe how long it's been since I last posted on this blog - nearly six whole months! <br />I guess life just got in the way....<br />Things have been moving on apace: my return visit to the practice nurse for a blood pressure check involved her telling me that I had, in fact, lost a stone in weight (wahay!) and that my BP was righting itself quite nicely (Woop woop!). <br />Spurred on, I resolved to stick with my new regime and, lo and behold, I am now more than <strong>two stone</strong> lighter than I was in January. <br />Am I pleased? You betcha!<br />There was some minor inconvenience as I found myself having to purchase a complete new summer wardrobe (nothing from last year fitted - none of the trousers would stay up) but that was trumped by being able to wear a bikini (yes! a bikini!) without shame on the beach, for the first time in nearly a decade and a half.<br />I've actually impressed myself with my tenacilty, and to be absolutely honest I just had to put my head down and get on with it. I initially started by swimming everyday, working up from 15 minutes a go for the first few days and working up to sessions of half an hour/forty-five minutes. Into this I added three sessions a week of weight-training, divided into back/biceps, chest/triceps, legs and shoulders. After a few light sessions, I worked up the weights and concentrated on deadlifts, bench-presses and squats, with additional curls and pushdowns for the arms. After Easter I brought in some abs and core and ergo (rowing machine) work and, finding I enjoyed it, fitted in a session every day (40 mins on its own or 20 mins post-weights) and dropped the swimming to a relaxing post-workout role, along with a steam or a sauna.<br />
I did all this by leaving for the gym as soon as the children were on the school bus at 7.30 in the morning, busting my ass, and then making sure I was at my desk working by 9.30 every day.<br />I daren't think about it too much - I just made it part of the daily routine and found that no matter how tired I was at the start of a session, by the end I was buzzing with endorphins and feeling totally energised and WELL!<br />So the hard work has indeed paid dividends - I bought (and fitted into) some size 10 super-skinny jeans last week and have no intention of letting this slip. <br />One of the major motivations was starting to cox the junior rowers in April.....no-one loves a fat coxswain although, as I told the kids in the early days, they should look on me as resistance training, much as athletes occasionally train with a car-tyre chained to their waists. I work on the premise that, having trained with me on board, a race with another junior coxing will be a piece of cake!<br />Much to my surprise, just before the summer holidays, the Bright-Eyed Boy finally capitulated and agreed to give rowing a go. Actually it was a bit of a stand-off: I told him I was not prepared for him to waste another summer holiday on the XBox and that I wanted him to try it out until the autumn at least. He agreed surprisingly quickly (maybe he'd already been considering changing his mind from his earlier outright refusal) and said that 'Maybe it would be quite fun'.<br />Well, he hasn't looked back: since his first tentative captive-rope outings in mid-July accompanied by the Husband (I was away at a conference, godddamit!), he has taken to it like a duck to...er...water, progreesing over the holidays into a fine single sculling boat and making a pretty decent quad-crew member, keeping up in the firm pieces with boys a year older than himself. <br />Proud or what? Even better when I get to cox them...<br />
And now the summer is practically over. Daughter #3 (who has had a pretty happy regatta and rowing season herself) is back to school for a year ten orientation day tomorrow, and the B-E B returns on Monday. So that's it for the daytime training: back to after-school sessions, which will get gradually curtailed by the earlier onset of dark.<br />
I <em>could</em> feel quite melancholy, as is my usual September wont (see previous years' posts), but I have way to much to do. WAY, WAY too much, with the thesis due for submission in March! <br />But that's a different story.....<br />
Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0York, UK53.9577018 -1.082285553.9203308 -1.1612495 53.9950728 -1.0033215tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-19641007527756997092011-03-25T08:53:00.000-07:002011-03-25T09:14:06.701-07:00Spring is Sprung<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxoPGDa1cs9-LY4SHtmUzcq7HQ9ozGsfyad6A_V7IpKV2qqFtuRlOy8yNEXB1p5Y9KAQjpc1G2EugZZ161mib5OX60_mvkKKGeVeLgpucc9RAQD86IcgGvkHJcZx0Q6ISs4vipZOhriN0s/s1600/cherry.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 248px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 204px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588051210593315762" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxoPGDa1cs9-LY4SHtmUzcq7HQ9ozGsfyad6A_V7IpKV2qqFtuRlOy8yNEXB1p5Y9KAQjpc1G2EugZZ161mib5OX60_mvkKKGeVeLgpucc9RAQD86IcgGvkHJcZx0Q6ISs4vipZOhriN0s/s320/cherry.jpg" /></a>The cherry tree in the back garden is covered in the most beautiful palest pink blossom, a sign that spring has come at last after a February that was grey, dank and dull. The extremely wet weather has caused all the grass of the lawn to be replaced by moss, which the remaining guinea pig Albino Seal-Point Arthur seems quite unimpressed by. Not much to nibble on I guess.<br />Last week also saw the last of the season's timed head-races, for which we bored and chilled riverbank spectators raise a stifled, but heartfelt, cheer.<br />Unfortunately, Daughter #3's crew did not acquit themselves terribly well and the rest of the day was spent in grumpy discontent, compounded by her getting the push from her latest (imaginary) rock-band and it being nearly 'that time of the month'. There was a lot of flumping about and dramatic expostulation and a few tears, which the Flame-Haired BF did very well to cope with, given that he, too, is only fourteen.<br /><div>Regatta season is just round the corner, a far better prospect for all concerned, shorter courses, better weather, visible action, obvious results. She is looking forward to the prospect as she reckons she is more of a short-burst athlete and is gratifyingly taking her training far more seriously since her coach took her to task for her lack of application earlier on in the year.<br />I am even considering the possibility of offering myself to train as a coxswain, given that I have already lost a stone on my new exercise regime (so wouldn't necessarily get stuck in, or sink a quad) and would love the chance to shout bossily at people in a good cause.</div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-70055478564419463802011-01-24T04:42:00.000-08:002011-01-24T05:09:07.112-08:00Death and the Guinea Pig.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisX5kwXSVG2Fo8i1ctJXNdU63AWThDteRvPjqB4YezieMyqdweCU6VuSe9eCfs_IpQN7R6894sMJP9oPUqx1KdV22PSh26OREAskO7E5Chdti7QSsYaKOKQvXdWx2Omkwcso0tC5VOz1JB/s1600/07012010049.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5565737984096746930" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisX5kwXSVG2Fo8i1ctJXNdU63AWThDteRvPjqB4YezieMyqdweCU6VuSe9eCfs_IpQN7R6894sMJP9oPUqx1KdV22PSh26OREAskO7E5Chdti7QSsYaKOKQvXdWx2Omkwcso0tC5VOz1JB/s320/07012010049.jpg" /></a>(right: Albert in former days)<br />Despite the fact that there is now some glorious sunshine pouring down from the blue (ish) sky I am definitely feeling a bit <em>low</em> today.<br />This is largely due to lack of sleep (Daughter #3 had a rowing 'head race' which necessitated a 4.30am wake-up to get us over a hundred miles distant for 8am start) which was compounded last night by being woken with a start at a loud noise (drunkards down the street) and an inability, it seemed, to get back to sleep fully.<br /><div>Coupled with this, I went out to the guinea-pigs' hutch at bedtime and found Albert, the littlest fellow, inert and cold.<br />This wasn't totally a surprise: he had been failing gradually since before Christmas. I'd been bringing them both in faithfully every night and ensuring that they both had plenty of fresh greenery in their diet (g-p's, like humans and unlike many other creatures, cannot manufacture their own vitamin 'c') and keeping their quarters spotlessly clean. Alas, to no avail! Sometime whilst we were in Lincolnshire he shuffled off his mortal coil and headed to the Great Clover Patch in the Sky.</div><br /><div>As usual, I got quite weepy (I don't even manage to dispose of the deceased goldfish without a snivel) and called upon the Husband to prepare a suitable grave under the back lawn, where so many other Small Creatures lie.<br />Albert was still reasonable flexible, and his little head lolled over my wrist as I lay him gently in the ground. I had to leave at the moment of inhumation itself to comfort a sobbing Bright-Eyed Boy who had just been made aware of the situation, and to dab my own eyes.<br />It's very strange but even had Albert still been warm, it was obvious that he was quite <em>dead</em> - there is something that leaves the body at the moment of death that is perceptible even if your were not a believer in the soul. It is a life-force that exits, a vital spark that seems to be more than just the sum of biological processes. The <em>essence</em> of Albert himself had left the building.<br />Alfred, big, daft, pink-eyed and pinked lipped ('like a woman, m'lord') appeared agitated. When I put him out in the hutch on his own this morning (life must go on, even for guinea pigs) he snuffled about where the body had been laid before retreating to the bed-department, no doubt to have a little weep of his own (anthropomorphism). I shall feed him spinach for his tea to strengthen and sustain him in his loss.</div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-61309945474213913642011-01-10T08:03:00.000-08:002011-01-10T08:23:54.060-08:00Pigged Out<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq6vGSsIrw78X66h1xYSNSNTszrxqu85VDPSR6pC6-zWieWo1dFuzHAKJ2BEydr4paUisn1Mi0_c6Hvoy6EiKTU7r8qyQrhGPKHCjhBVtPfnkDtiCvZobRi4SXp3-6CNR-_tUwtOFMKwyE/s1600/pig.bmp"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 275px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 183px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560593648290271618" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq6vGSsIrw78X66h1xYSNSNTszrxqu85VDPSR6pC6-zWieWo1dFuzHAKJ2BEydr4paUisn1Mi0_c6Hvoy6EiKTU7r8qyQrhGPKHCjhBVtPfnkDtiCvZobRi4SXp3-6CNR-_tUwtOFMKwyE/s320/pig.bmp" /></a>Well, tomorrow it's one week of from receiving the hard word from the practice nurse concerning my raised blood pressure.<br /><div>How is it going, I hear you say?</div><br /><div>We-e-e-ll, actually not too bad! I've adopted a far healthier eating pattern: bowl of low fat cereal first thing, 100cal snack mid-morning, lunch consisting of a pitta stuffed with salad and a dessert spoon full of houmous, 2 portions of fruit, mid afternoon cup of tea with low fat/low sugar snack and dinner consisting of two pittas stuffed with salad and a can of healthy eating tuna with some sort of dressing. I'm allowing myself a postage-stamp size portion of <em>any</em> dessert that's going, 2 squares of 85% cocoa-solid chocolate when desperate for a treat, and a regular sized of red wine with my weekend evening dinners. I've taken to power-walking as and when I can (for example, into an out of town, a good 20mins either way), and I've rejoined the gym (at vast expense, but I don't, as I've said before, want to have a stroke), more of which anon.<br />I'v also purchased a RespErate breathing coaching machine: it's supposed to reduce your BP by encouraging you to breathe more slowly thus causing your heart to slow and your blood vessels to relax. In fact, after the initial session today my BP registered at a very healthy 145/82, a good ten points down on both readings! Most encouraging! It's also recommended for relaxation and stress-relief too, so a bonus there - I'm aiming to do two 15 mins sessions a day.<br />It's going to be quite tricky to fit everything into my new regime, which includes a number of academic new-year's resolutions, and keep on course with writing up my thesis. Extra organisation will be required to make sure no one project slips, but when it comes to organising I'm as happy as a pig in what's-its-name!</div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-59509757115912796102011-01-07T07:12:00.000-08:002011-01-07T08:11:41.216-08:00The Weight of the World<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhChC_P1_UK46RQJs-wEBLB7arYHycyfmU4WCyQLMw402fOzjEryrDwPuY-8kWeKUJbzp5o-zqhp3hpBvPGI2GaPQ43PzPAuwIce4husmyClIMxWTaXAgRg1QT-efZ5ZeiL6-ZgFE4MQ9uE/s1600/BP.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 230px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559472991279679906" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhChC_P1_UK46RQJs-wEBLB7arYHycyfmU4WCyQLMw402fOzjEryrDwPuY-8kWeKUJbzp5o-zqhp3hpBvPGI2GaPQ43PzPAuwIce4husmyClIMxWTaXAgRg1QT-efZ5ZeiL6-ZgFE4MQ9uE/s320/BP.jpg" /></a><br /><div>....a a and...you're back in the room!</div><br /><div>Re-emerging after the Christmas hiatus, I am pleased to note that it all went a lot better than expected. Silly of me to have been so gloomy and pessimistic, I think: I have decided that it's not Christmas that I dread, but the <em>prospect</em> of Christmas. </div><br /><div>The Husband took the week before off work and threw himself into emptying and re-organising the cupboards and replacing worn-out and clarty pans and baking tins . I was so impressed by his dedication and the quite staggeringly rapid improvements that I was enthused enough to down lap-top and join in on a mini pre-Christmas spring clean. The result was a tidy, smear and dust-free house, and with a little bit of co-ordinated effort, it has remained thus, despite the vagaries of wrapping paper, extra <em>stuff </em>everywhere, Christmas dinner and more food and bodies around than usual. I have to say my mood was much improved to see it all so pristine: maybe we really <em>should</em> consider getting someone in for an hour or so each week to maintain the standard once both our noses are firmly back at the grindstone. For morale's sake.<br />We generally slobbed about a lot over the holiday, eating and drinking, which for me has come to a sudden halt as a visit to the doc confirmed that my blood pressure was <em>still</em> higher than desirable. Two alternatives were unequivocably given: a formal diagnosis of hypertension and tablets thereafter (possibly for the remaider of my natural) or some life-style modifications.<br />It's a no-brainer really - I know that being sat on my arse all working week in front of a computer screen and eating what and when I like will inevitably end badly. I am pretty lazy by nature and I don't like exercise much, never having found one that I didn't get bored with. Running?: hate it! Boring, boring, boring! And it hurts my dodgy hip. Swimming?: takes too long to dry off - and that smell of chlorine - phew! (also boring). Cycling? Er, no thanks!</div><br /><div>Trouble is, there's no way (or time) to fit an hour's power-walk into my daytime routine, so I'm pretty much looking at joining the gym again so I can go and do something in the evening.</div><br /><div>It's just <strong>got</strong> to be done: I'm overweight, and at my age it <strong>just</strong> <strong>ain't</strong> going to miraculously disappear. Measures have to be taken, and that invloves (duh!) eating less (and more healthily) and exercising more. End of.<br />I absolutely <strong>don't</strong> want to have a stroke/heart attack or get vascular dementia. Nightmare.</div><br /><div>The awful thing is, I <strong>know</strong> <strong><em>exactly</em> how to go about it</strong>, <em>exactly</em> what exercises to do (and how long for), <em>exactly</em> what proportion of carbs to protein to fat is optimal. I <em>know</em> because I used to be well-fit (though I say so myself, ahem!), in my thirties pursuing a regime of restrained body-building that made me lean and toned and lighly muscled. I have photos from the year before Daughter #3 was born , but I don't tend to look at them.<br />The arrival or Daughter #3 and soon after, the Bright-Eyed Boy, changed all that.<br />As an 'elderly' multigravida mother (the B-E B was born when I was 41) I didn't cope very well with the tiredness and didn't lose the weight I put on during the pregnancies. I <em>did</em> make a couple of attempts to start training again, but lack of time and exhaustion took their toll and I just gave up. Looking back at pictures of me then when the children were small, it would have been relatively easy to get back into shape, but I just lacked the impetus.<br />Starting on a degree course absorbed any energy I had and meant that I no longer defined myself in purely physical terms (no bad thing really). It gave me a different sort of pride in myself, and as I have always enjoyed food and wine I unconsciously (Ithink) allowed my appetite full rein, eventually becoming rather dismissive of those who spent any time exercising (jealousy?).<br />Well, I am now reaping the harvest of that lazy gluttony, and it serves me right too.</div><br /><div>At the end of the day, it might all be to no avail - my dad has high blood pressure for which he has to take daily medication, so it could be hereditary and I make no impact.<br />Nontheless, I am going to give it a proper go: eat less, exercise more. Groan!<br />I have 4-6 weeks to get my BP a bit lower, and I am damn well going to do my best and use the knowledge I have to make a difference. </div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-56099645507379162922010-12-17T08:29:00.000-08:002010-12-17T09:34:51.225-08:00A Donkey's Christmas<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLpkecZhMnzngRDdxLLGTbq5He4rHXEPPbjWERZ9p95-Lt4dfCAR7JoKjprzNYPsiPvSDS2ygtfdJ6anwsn8GkPmauWFn3qL_2xHCpvUNf0VEuC7C7K0FxKN8QDmTVBdG4GNzje_IdVT_-/s1600/eeyore.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 203px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551705882313907378" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLpkecZhMnzngRDdxLLGTbq5He4rHXEPPbjWERZ9p95-Lt4dfCAR7JoKjprzNYPsiPvSDS2ygtfdJ6anwsn8GkPmauWFn3qL_2xHCpvUNf0VEuC7C7K0FxKN8QDmTVBdG4GNzje_IdVT_-/s400/eeyore.jpg" /></a>Well, here it is: Black Friday.<br />Apparently, this is what today is known as in the hospitality trade as one of the busiest days of the year, when venues are packed to the rafters with drunken carousers on office Christmas 'do's'. The Husband is going to his <em>second </em>one today, and had the ill-grace to complain that he didn't really want to go as 'he had a lot on' and 'could have done with a full day at work and come home at the normal time'. Really? R-E-A-L-L-Y? <strong>Not</strong> a good thing to say to someone who hasn't had a sniff of a works do for years, nor the prospect of one in the near future. I actually used to really enjoy them - probably because I got on well with most of my colleagues and actually miss that sort of non-complicated work-based relationship, you know the one where you discuss work, life, kids, holidays without the feeling that you have to pursue the friendship any further than those friendly chats at the table, in the pub, or over a desk.<br /><div>I am not very good at friendship. I am a poor friend. The two close friends I have had died tragically young, one by their own hand during a severe bout of depression, the other of a cancer almost certainly brought on by a rigorous diet of alcohol and cigarettes. I failed both of them near their end - not at all deliberately - but by failing to realise the seriousness of their situations. No empathy, you see?<br />I'm a pretty poor mother, wife, sister- and daughter-in-law too, if it comes to it.<br />Nowadays I keep pretty much to myself, but I do occasionally miss having friends.<br />Actually, I am not <em>totally</em> friendless, having a one-time colleague that I meet on a fairly regular, if sporadic, basis. But our meetings have become much less frequent over the past six months or so largely, I <em>believe</em>, due to pressure of work, but also I think because I am lacks-a-daisical in pursuing friendship. I don't put in the required effort. I don't wish to impose on a hectic life, and I guess that could be construed as remoteness, or lack of caring.</div><br /><div>I think I shot myself in the foot a bit on this: They contacted me this week to see if I fancied meeting up for lunch (and it would have been a Christmas lunch of sorts!) but only gave two days notice which, forgive me if I'm wrong, I felt a bit annoyed about. I felt that I was being 'fitted in' and in a tiny fit of self-important pique, I played the 'up-to-my-eyes-in-it' card, which I was...but REALLY! How pathetic!<br />So - no Christmas meet-ups for me, nor any cards addressed to me in my own right. </div><br /><div>So Black Friday it is, and for me it represents the beginning of the White Noise and Shapelessness of the 'festive season'. The children have finished school, and when the Husband rolls in a bit later (neither too late nor drunk, he prides himself on his self-control too much for that!), that'll be it until January 4th when Normal Service resumes. I can feel my sanity spirally rapidly away from me even as I type. Daughter #3 has her boyfriend round: no doubt he will be another regular mouth at the table over the Christmas break, since she seems joined-at-the-hip with him, and has for the past year (he's actually a fine young man, witty and intelligent).<br />The Bright-Eyed Boy is currently playing on his X-Box, and I envisage even more of the same as the Husband asked the In-Laws for another game for him, and we have one for him too.<br />I am also exiled from the 'study' where I work on a daily basis during the evenings, weekends and holidays as the 'family computer' is there.<br />I <em>did</em> set up a 'satellite' study (up in our bedroom), but it all <em>desperately</em> needs dusting and hoovering because housework just isn't being done anywhere in the house at the moment and, really, who <em>wants</em> to sit in one's bedroom during the day?<br />Additionally, it's north-facing, so rather dismal in the winter months, plus the desk/chair combo gives me fearful back/hip ache.<br />I keep thinking of things we (don't) need to make the celebrations go with a swing: a nice tablecloth and napkins, crackers, mistletoe, mince pies......and I have a running list to add to and cross off stuff as we go. It seems endless.</div><br /><div>I used to have <strong>so</strong> much more energy for it all than I do now, and I think I must have set a precedent in the past, because I now get asked if we're having mulled wine and baklava on Christmas Eve, or a curry feast with pickles and poppadoms on Boxing Day.<br />I just can't be bothered to organise any more. I <em>know</em> the Husband would happily do it were I to ask, but why should it be <em>me</em> that instigates, or even <em>thinks</em> to instigate action? Where's the initiative? I do know, by the way, that that is a mealy-mouthed attitude, and all to do 'unknown unknowns', to borrow a phrase from Donald Rumsfeld</div><br /><div>In truth, I don't think I did myself any favours by cutting right down on the wine over the past couple of months. Actually, that's not true - I don't get the palpitations or hot flushes half as much nowadays, but mentally I feel much more on edge and tonight I just feel plain gloomy - and not a drop touched! (Nor likely to be either as I am on taxi-duty).<br />Why do people keep wanting stuff from me?<br />Why can't they just leave me alone?<br />If I had my way, I'd curl up in a corner until summer comes.<br />I know I am becoming more and more isolated as the years go by, but it's just less exhausting that way. Eeyore!</div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-88331706066454317532010-12-15T00:16:00.001-08:002010-12-15T00:58:10.774-08:00Christmas. Ho ho ho.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGZINxw9WITru-QYBh1M3MBd5WRdGf1PrIOaLNnQ7Mw_r_fI203iftIdeAvTleW3pxOSXmxViJnX1EmjUGfsKJB57WuJx0S5dpS3i7k-T5_E8zINPCeuSQHp4kELpx0EVjtnHKK7GflBp_/s1600/bauble.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 239px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 211px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5550827935887350402" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGZINxw9WITru-QYBh1M3MBd5WRdGf1PrIOaLNnQ7Mw_r_fI203iftIdeAvTleW3pxOSXmxViJnX1EmjUGfsKJB57WuJx0S5dpS3i7k-T5_E8zINPCeuSQHp4kELpx0EVjtnHKK7GflBp_/s320/bauble.jpg" /></a>Christmas looms ever larger and this year, more than ever before, I feel ambivalent about the whole thing.<br />I am, I have finally admitted, a pretty unsocial creature: I enjoy my own company, I enjoy reasearching and writing up my PhD, I enjoy a routine of sorts.<br />I dislike banale conversation - the sort that erupts as people flap their gums to fill the silence, I dislike the mindlessness of television and I dislike chaos.<br />That's not to say that I sit here surrounded by pencils in a neat row, or that my books are alphabetically lined up on the shelves. Not at all - my 'study' (ahem!) is a model of lawlessness, but it is <em><strong>my </strong></em>lawlessness. Similarly, the plates that are on the work-top in the kitchen, the breakfast pots, are <strong><em>mine</em></strong>. I am not uncomfortable, because I can lay my hands on any volume I like within moments and I will either use my crumpet-plate for my lunch or stack it in the dishwasher.<br /><div>I can't cope with mess that isn't mine, and there's a lot of it about at Christmas. But if I were to say that shoes and glasses and crumpled paper strewn about made me feel uncomfortable, I would, quite rightly I suppose,be accused of being uptight and pernickety, and lacking festive spirit. </div><br /><div>Through general boredom, I also tend to drink rather too much at Christmas - not get steaming drunk, but generally end up feeling below par and somewhat self-disgusted. Ditto eating.<br />I feel, once the schools close and the Husband finishes work, that I enter a sort of limbo, and I think a lot of people feel like that. Speaking to others it would appear that the first week of Januaryrepresents a real epiphany (no pun intended) and the refrain, spoken with a sigh of relief, is that indeed it <em>was lovely</em>, but it's nice to get back to <em>normal</em>.<br />Yea, it is that normality that I miss at Christmas. You see, because I work at home, I guess that I subconsciously feel that the house is my territory, and I resent people camping on, and sullying, my patch (yes, I know, how selfish and crass of me, I know it's their home too and I love them all dearly).<br />I also dislike <strong>intensely</strong> the expectation that I am responsible for feeding people ("What's for tea?" "You tell me!"), and am slighly nauseated by the constant munching that accompanies Christmas. I do love eating, but not really at home. I am bored by my food, and by the whole process of shopping/cooking.I resent it immensely. And I hate going into the shops and seeing row upon row of coleslaw, mince pies and Quality Street leering at me.</div><br /><div>I am depressed by the whole grubby house/home thing which I can ignore during most of the year, but deprived of any mental stimulation, I tend to notice smeary windows and cobwebby corners and feel intense hatred towards them without any motivation or desire to do anything about it.</div><br /><div>So I will end up feeling bored, grumpy, slightly ill and resentful. Not a good combination, and not one conducive to cheery fireside evenings.<br />Every year I scrabble around in an attempt to preserve my sanity, and this year I have a little side-project lined up: to get to grips with the ideas and works of Galen, the Roman physician.</div><div>Whether this will prove to be absorbing and fruitful remains to be seen: what I really need are some totally noise-cancelling head-phones so I can block out the TV, but remain, semi-socially, in the room. I am not hopeful.</div><br /><div></div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-63805029379709521342010-11-17T06:32:00.000-08:002010-11-17T07:50:10.460-08:00A Bit of a Mess<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhknNF6sX45iadU1nmiaTc0YywskigzgiSIH5V_6v94eNuLybxVyypdEzjohrJmNcTw8BPHAzovoy8h6XWPMnE5qTcZzRcrD6elHXStmLDmpFSU8PvGT8owAkXOO7VPWQruJb-7HovliFr8/s1600/gentleman%2527s+desk.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540544322375887970" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhknNF6sX45iadU1nmiaTc0YywskigzgiSIH5V_6v94eNuLybxVyypdEzjohrJmNcTw8BPHAzovoy8h6XWPMnE5qTcZzRcrD6elHXStmLDmpFSU8PvGT8owAkXOO7VPWQruJb-7HovliFr8/s320/gentleman%2527s+desk.jpg" /></a><br /><div>I have to say at the outset, the Husband does not expect me to 'keep house'. He recognises that washing, cooking, cleaning and child rearing is a joint effort that one contributes to as and when required, and is not the default task of one parent or the other.<br />It's just as well, because my efforts at 'housework' (and here I'm talking about anything from de-crumbing the kitchen worktop to weeding the flowerbeds and spring-cleaning the attic) have got fewer and more desultory with each passing year. And so have his.<br />When we first married (fifteen years ago today!) and bought our first house, we had so little in the way of furniture and possessions that maintaining the cleanliness of our austere and minimalist environment took a joint hour every Sunday morning.<br />As time progressed, and the children arrived, we acquired more 'stuff' and as our careers zigzagged and progressed, time became more and more limited and mere housework got lower and lower on the agenda. Sunday mornings got swallowed up in footie and rowing practice, walking the dog, homework sessions, preparation for the week to come and the hoover and duster (let alone the lawnmower and paintbrush) saw action less and less often.<br />Usually we have to have an imminent 'visit' to spur us into action, but then we have to shelve a more important activity to fit it in. Having given the house a bit of a blitz, we're generally content to let it go for a few months.<br />Now, we're not <em>complete</em> slobs....the laundry is still rigorously done (in fact, TOO rigorously....where does it all come from?), the plates, cutlery and pots are blasted in a hot dishwasher every day, and the bogs get bleached as often as required, but the less pressing (to us) tasks like vacuuming up the dog-hairs, or washing the kitchen window-sill with soapy water, or dusting just gets left. Everyone has clean clothes and hot food and is (relatively) ready to go to <em>where</em> they have to go, <em>when</em> they need to....but that's it. the fluff-wads and tea-stains accumulate, not because we don't care - we just don't have the time to address them.</div><br /><div>My research is at such a stage that I now sit down at 7.30 in the morning, and often don't stop until the children get home at around 4 - 4.30pm. (No, that's a lie....sometimes I have to stop because my head is buzzing and I have written myself into a stupor).</div><br /><div>The Husband disappears off to work at the same time to his highly stressful and unenjoyable job. Come evening time, 6pm, we sit down to a meal (usually some form of pasta bake or casserole - never, ever, complex or time-consuming) and afterwards generally nothing much happens unless the Husband goes to the gym (mercifully he has stopped his relentless rowing regime) or I go to my language night-class. I suppose we could fit some 'housework' in then......yeah right! That ain't EVER gonna happen! </div><br /><div>Why blog about this today? Well, as it is our anniversary, the Husband secretly booked a trip to London, where we will go to the British Library, the National Gallery (both his suggestions, bless him!) and to see a classical concert in St Martin-in-the-Fields. Wonderful! I am <strong>so</strong> looking forward to it! Daughter #2 is coming to stay at ours (c/w the Bouncing Babba) to look after the young 'uns and will sleep in our big bed. OK.....that entailed me having to wash the one remaining decent bed-sheet (currently in use) and finding it has a rip in it. Actually, I <strong>knew</strong> that, but was ignoring it.</div><br /><div>Drove to a nearby shopping mall this morning to look for a cheap bedding set, but they didn't have anything in super-kingsize, and as I needed proof-read and email my latest portion of work off to my supervisor before lunch, I couldn't afford any more time out. I'm fear that I am actually going to have to do some 'mending'!<br />My lovely In-Laws will be also round tonight to bring us a card and their best wishes (bet they didn't expect us to last, ha!) and I am conscious that, by their standards, the house leaves much to be desired in the cleanliness stakes. My M-i-L is one of the last generation of stay-at-home mothers (actually, she is fairly unusual in her generation too - many of her contemporaries work at least part-time) whose day has been devoted for 40 years to the daily rhythm (grind) of housework and cooking. Her one-time remark to the Husband was that, if a woman was out at work, she was not doing a proper job at home. Quail!<br />I don't think she quite realises the amount of time I spend on my work (which is mostly produced on the laptop in the front room 'study') and probably wonders (though she is far too polite to say so), given that I am at home all the time, why the house is so filthy. (I've caught her examining my plug-holes and the inside of my kettle, you know....)<br />By and large I <em>don't </em>care, but I would <em>really</em> like to care less. It seems really unfair that any shortfall in the household cleanliness will probably be down to me somehow, because I'm the woman.</div><br /><div>Just because I am, doesn't mean that I have any interest in housework, soft furnishings or the like. I guess I'm not very nurturing. Don't get me wrong, I <strong>am</strong> capable and caring, but will not be whipping up tempting little snacks, plumping any pillows or bleaching the paintwork. </div><br /><div>The Husband once called me unsympathetic, but my response was 'I will sit up all night with you, and dose you with medecine and run you to the hospital if you need me to. I will wash you and feed you and make sure you are comfortable. Just don't expect any snuffling and maudlin noises of empathy. That's not my style. I am not your mother.'</div><br /><div>I am not going to look at the overcrowded worktops in the kitchen. Granted it would only take a couple of hours to clear them (and the cupboards bulging with out-of-date dry goods), but it's time <em>I just don't have</em>. Nor, in truth, do I have the inclination. What I <em>would</em> like is a cleaning fairy, and I've told the Husband this. He said he'd rather do it himself than pay someone to come in....but that isn't very likely, seeing as he has even less time (and not much more inclination) for such matters than I do! Impasse.</div><br /><div>The house is a cluttered mess.<br />But it is of our (mostly my) making: the books piled high threaten to take over every surface, but that's the way it currently is.<br />At the moment, this house is my office, my library, my laboratory, my reasearch my all-consuming passion. Time will come, I suppose, when I'll consider cleaning the windows a profitable and attractive way of passing an empty hour. Or not.<br />I know when I visit houses that are as mad and cluttered as ours, I feel an overwhelming sense of relief and I hate 'show-homes' where no-one has any of their 'stuff' on show and everything is pristine. What I really dislike is when people act like their homes are really disgustingly dirty when there isn't a smeary window or sticky cupboard front to be seen. I know their game!</div><div>However, it <em>would</em> be extremely nice for a change to snuggle down in crisply clean sheets (not prepared by me though!), next to a bedside table that was not covered with fluff-wads and tea-stains. Just don't move the books.<br />Any offers? </div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-332655620274633022010-11-07T05:49:00.000-08:002010-11-07T06:41:49.147-08:00Alone in Paris<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWTEjLg8MSC5XkqAfANpeGcVww7w6FGwouv2VOUAWOwfBnPq3XeaW34dQfvgrfoLlSm1yuJZNy6kqbOuuDxNHobWtW7XjRS2pQCWH5HBziMWsrjtFpKbH9yM6T2j6Wfp05LIbvTq4l0Mdp/s1600/shakespeare+and+co.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5536817912777645330" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWTEjLg8MSC5XkqAfANpeGcVww7w6FGwouv2VOUAWOwfBnPq3XeaW34dQfvgrfoLlSm1yuJZNy6kqbOuuDxNHobWtW7XjRS2pQCWH5HBziMWsrjtFpKbH9yM6T2j6Wfp05LIbvTq4l0Mdp/s320/shakespeare+and+co.jpg" /></a>Back from Paris, and contrary to our fears EVERYTHING was working as per normal. In fact so efficiently, that on arrival at the Gare du Nord, we made our way to the metro just as a train arrived, boarded it, made our way to an interim station, changed lines and arrived on the platform just as a train arrived again. Consequently we got to our hotel, in the east of the city, less than thirty minutes after arriving in the capital. The hotel, a Novotel, was functionally fine (although it appeared that the interior designer had previously worked on the set of the Austin Powers movies) and the self-service continental breakfasts were epically satisfying and a good start to the sight-seeing day. The weather was extremely kind to us, save for a torrentially wet start to Saturday that cleared by lunchtime, and walking through the falling leaves of the Tuileries was a delight, as were the chocolats chauds that we availed ourselves of in the various cafes we frequented. I won't bother to detail the itinerary, except to say that the highlights - for me at least - was the lovely autumnal light, the bustling market next to the Montparnasse cemetery, the cemetery itself, the view from the top of the Montparnasse Tower, onion soup near Montmartre, the brilliant white dome of the Sacre Coeur against the azure sky, the Eiffel Tower sparkling on the hour and a (very) quick visit to Shakespeare and Co. bookshop on Rue Bucherie. I could have spent a lot longer looking around this last, but as the Husband and two children were waiting outside, I made it a brief visit.<br />Too brief, and yet again I feel like I'd been sidelined. Nor did we visit <em>Les Deux Magots</em> or <em>Cafe de Flore</em> (which I'd wanted to do <em>last</em> time we were in Paris, godammit!). Fair enough, I suppose, the guidebook <em>did</em> contain a warning about the prices charged for a cup of coffee in those places. But still - there's a limit to the amount of times I actually want to see the Eiffel Tower or Arc de Triomphe.<br />Once is quite enough for me - likewise the rather bland civic architecture of places like the Madeleine, or the Pantheon or Les Invalides. Impressive in scale, yes, but not what makes up the <em>real</em> essence of a city. Paris is just SO big that macro-scale sightseeing just doesn't work for me. Everything is so far apart that you either have to metro it across the city, popping up like surprised moles at an adjacent station, or (as we did this time) sit for an inordinate amount of time on the open-topped tour bus and it contended with the Parisian traffic, which takes an age. I'd hoped that we would indulge in a little micro-scale tourism, taking an area and patiently exploring it street by street and getting to know some of the city's character. I'd picked the area near the Luxembourg Gardens, pinpointed a few destinations and interesting novelties, but alas it fell by the wayside. The only thing remaining of that itinerary was Shakespeare and Co. and a curious little Melkite Catholic church (which in truth was rather a let-down) St Julien le Pauvre.<br /><br /><div><div>I'd also managed to choose completely the wrong footwear. Having bought a pair of 'proper' walking boots to replace the ones I'd got last year (that never, <em>ever</em> got any comfier despite the saleswoman's assurances), and I thought I'd broken them in sufficiently to take abroad, having walked into town in them a number of times. They certainly didn't rub at all, and we weren't -on account of the open-top bus - doing an unfeasibly large amount of foot-slogging, but by mid afternoon the left boot was feeling agonisingly tight across the top of my foot, and causing it to go into spasms of cramp. I can't understand it, other than reason that the left boot has been made somewhat smaller than the right. The Husband thought it was something to do with the peculiar anatomy of my foot, but as I pointed to him, I've never had this particular problem before - not even with last year's boots which were patently a size smaller than they pretended to be!<br />The lasting legacy has been a numb side to my left big toe, and I find that my knees, which became increasingly stiff in Paris, have almost now almost entirely seized up, especially the right one.<br />It's incredibly hard to stand up at the moment - I don't think it's the joint itself, rather the ligament arrangement around it. Support doesn't seem to help and I'm a bit worried about restricting the blood flow. Coupled with a diagnosis a couple of days after we returned (during a routine appointment and on my birthday of all days!) of rather high blood-pressure (probably hereditary) I feel that I am getting old, creeky and about to fall apart at the seams. </div><br /><br /><div>Having been delighted about visiting Shakespeare and Co., I was eager to tell of my experiences, but realised there was actually no-one to tell. No-one I know has heard of it, and if you have to tell someone what it is before going into raptures, it kind of removes the pleasure of relating your story. What I really wanted was someone to say 'Oh wow! What was it like?' But no.<br />Once again I find I am the only person living in my world.</div></div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-31618737860521244782010-10-26T07:26:00.000-07:002010-10-26T08:15:02.432-07:00En Vacances en Automne<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZQSZrGEgjYKq-27mQpvPUZd0m8cV-AXL5Hw5p_sO6tDT7RpqbTB2tS9LYKKaBmbk-cAES8nAID_AZkJsQK01S0o7eg5RhwSoRE5PeQ6618sNB5TpH_b01d_tZBjq43pMmofc1-ZURVjpD/s1600/jardin_des_tuileries_Nov2006.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 207px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532371665555120626" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZQSZrGEgjYKq-27mQpvPUZd0m8cV-AXL5Hw5p_sO6tDT7RpqbTB2tS9LYKKaBmbk-cAES8nAID_AZkJsQK01S0o7eg5RhwSoRE5PeQ6618sNB5TpH_b01d_tZBjq43pMmofc1-ZURVjpD/s320/jardin_des_tuileries_Nov2006.jpg" /></a>Our Autumn city-break looms.<br />This year I am a wee bit less enthusiastic about going away as our destination is Paris, currently gripped by protests and strikes. Unfortunately, the day we travel has been declared an industrial day of action, so there is the prospect of arriving (DV) in the centre of Paris and being unable to get the metro to our outlying hotel. We chose one well out of the centre for financial reasons: they're so much cheaper than hotels in the city-centre. We also chose one from an international chain as (a) they're one of the only places you can get a reasonably priced family room (the two youngest still being fairly happy to share accommodation with us - we couldn't afford it otherwise) and (b) the buffet breakfast facilities mean that you can stoke up for the day ahead on endless croissants, ham, cheese, jam, cereal, yoghurt and coffee. I've looked at maps and have worked out that it's about 6km from the Gare du Nord to our hotel - not ridiculously far, but far enough to walk at the end of a day of travel, and probably in the dark. There exists also the possibility of a taxi, though I imagine that if the metro is on strike, or running limited services, the taxi queues will be ridiculous.<br /><br /><div>I don't like having to plan with worst-case scenarios in mind, but this time I just <em>have</em> to.</div><div>What if the protests turn to riots (police, tear-gas etc.)? Go in opposite direction immediately.<br />What if the tourist attractions are shut tight? (I know the Eiffel Tower was last week)<br />Plan stuff that just needs to be walked through and looked at (Champs Elysees, Montmartre, plenty of churches...).<br />We will make the most of it, whatever the situation is, and if the worst comes to the worst, we have the trusty credit-card to bail us out.</div><br /><div>It's funny the reaction I seem to get when people ask what I'm doing half-term and I reply 'Oh I'm going abroad (to Milan, Barcelona, Rome wherever..)'. I get the strangest 'old-fashioned' looks that rather convey the impression that they think 'It's alright for <em>her</em>!' or 'Hmmmph!'</div><div>This really p*sses me off!<br />All our planning is done on a shoestring, on the internet hunting for cheap fares and accommodation, cashing in the Tesco Clubcard vouchers for Airmiles, buying railcards, saving month by month for our trips throughout the year.</div><br /><div>You see, it's a question of priorities: Some folk believe that having a pristine home, furniture and <em>stuff</em> is important to family life. Some folk (like us) prefer to spend carefully set-aside money on broadening their children's minds and horizons which, unfortunately cannot be done by plonking them on a DFS special in front of a 42" plasma travelogue, or dragging them around the local attractions (again).<br />Daughter #3 and the Bright-Eyed Boy are fairly well-seasoned little travellers by now. The first trip to Rome (about 5 years ago) was done with (our) fingers crossed, but they were both <em>so</em> good, trotting around with their little back-packs on a ne'er uttering a single word of complaint. They seem to love the continental lifestyle and atmosphere as much as we do, and it's a real pleasure and privilege to be able to take them along. </div><br /><div>However there seems to be an undercurrent of envious <em>Schadenfreude</em> when I say we're off to Paris - a general smirking that things might not run smoothly and maybe we shouldn't bother going.</div><br /><div>Nonsense! Say I: We will<strong> not</strong> be put off! We shall prepare for the worst, and expect the BEST - as always. </div><br /><div>And when we get back, I'll show you our photos...and you can show us yours.....he he he!</div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-48510295428444255672010-10-04T02:44:00.000-07:002010-10-04T03:44:19.117-07:00Thank Goodness It's Monday!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOqAGbLR4xbuzckYbsCs-STM6-yUmDlYVZPzOtyxuqktmXgpcPTnXCxrx7DNPARkdBuDKX9U34XM6jfF2JRX4dHUD0iF2VwA1UFWZ6GQjqCmqxFLu2zaqvv1AehgZuWhCPmgFGaK7zzjqZ/s1600/mess.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 223px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524134498736238722" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOqAGbLR4xbuzckYbsCs-STM6-yUmDlYVZPzOtyxuqktmXgpcPTnXCxrx7DNPARkdBuDKX9U34XM6jfF2JRX4dHUD0iF2VwA1UFWZ6GQjqCmqxFLu2zaqvv1AehgZuWhCPmgFGaK7zzjqZ/s320/mess.jpg" /></a>Although I am generally a fairly upbeat person, the sheer grind of day to day living occasionally gets to me, and it generally gets to me over the weekend. When it gets to Friday evening, I feel a tangible sense of relief that Saturday and Sunday lie ahead - we open a bottle of wine, dine late, watch a film and relax. Saturday morning, croissants and black coffee over the paper and a general sense of well-being: I read the recipes in the magazine and vaguely make plans to cook something tasty or go into town and browse the bookshops.....but soon thereafter the good mood begins to slip a bit. I think the problem is that there is so much <em>routine</em> maintenance to do: the Bright-Eyed Boy needs transporting to and from his football practice, Daughter #3 tends to go rowing and returns home boyfriend in tow to take root on the front-room sofa for the rest of the day, so no-one can really access the house-computer because they are watching some teen-drama reruns on iPlayer. Daughter #2 often texts to try and lure me into town with her so she has some company, and sometimes I capitulate.<br />There are generally a couple of <em>massive</em> washes to do - all the school uniform, sports kit and the Husband's work clothes find their way into the laundry basket overnight and require immediate attention if they are to be returned clean to their owners for the following week. A deal of time is taken in putting it in, and extracting it from, the machine, hanging it up, then taking it to the tumble dryer later on, and finally folding it to avoid creasing. Not to mention the redistribution and putting away.<br />The Dog requires walking too.<br />Saturday lunchtime, and if I haven't managed to get out, my good mood has curdled somewhat and I don't feel inclined to cook anymore..<br />The B-E-B returns home hungry and generally a bit cranky ('hangry' = hungry + angry) if he hasn't been picked to play in the team match the following day, turns on the telly and stations himself in front of either sport or endless repeats of the bloody Simpsons.<br />The Husband either goes to the gym or opens up his laptop to tackle the workload that threatens to swamp him or turn him mad. The day slides into evening and I get uneasy that I haven't done anything worthwhile. I can't really do any of my academic work without isolating myself at the bedroom workstation that I set up last year - and who wants to sit up in their bedroom on a Saturday afternoon? I can't <em>read</em> anywhere - I need silence to prevent getting distracted during the tricky bits and the constant hum of the telly, and music of different genres coming from the front room, plus the constant trotting up and down stairs that goes on is <strong>not</strong> conducive to study in the least!<br />Tea usually consists of pizza, and after a couple of accompanying glasses of wine, I am slumped, fretting at where the day has gone.<br />Sunday morning: generally up early for either football, rowing or Mass - if I can persuade anyone to go (an increasingly difficult task nowadays, I'm afraid). If the weather is good I <em>will</em> make the effort to walk into town for a coffee when the shops open at eleven, returning home shortly after lunchtime.<br />Thereafter, there is a noticable decline in the household mood: the Husband and I set about the tasks that need performing before Monday morning; shopping for packed lunch ingredients, ironing (taken in turns), preparing dinner for as many people as are present, persuading the children to do their homework....and before long evening has fallen and we're sitting down to Sunday dinner, usually consisting of a large home-made pasta bake or a roast dinner if it's winter time. I do manage to stir myself to do that. The puddings are a major and much-treasured feature - the Husband actually <em>enjoys</em> trying out pudding recipes and has had a number of triumphs in this department (especially in the bread-and-butter pudding department - his chocolate and rum version is awesome!). I encourage this. It's frankly one of the best bits of the week.<br />After dinner, a pause while we find out what homework is still outstanding, hard-boil eggs for pack-ups, transport Daughter #3's boyfriend home, lay out school uniforms and pack schoolbags for the following day. By nine o'clock it's all done, but so is the weekend! All done and gone!<br /><div>And then comes Monday, the work and school week lies before us and we look longingly towards Friday night and its promise of scant rest and respite.<br />But secretly, I love it when peace and quiet returns to the house. The Dog gets an early walk, then I go over to the shop and buy a single pain au raisin, put on a pot of espresso and turn on Radio 4. I review my emails, a couple of blogs and the news headlines then exchanging the radio for a CD of subdued classical music, I settle down to read or write for the rest of the day, keeping an eye on the clock until its time for the wanderers to return.<br />I am put in mind the scrap of a poem by the poet Sappho, written about 600BC where she addresses the evening star ('Hesperus') who brings home all the things that dawn has scattered 'the sheep, the goat, the child to its mother'. Thank God it does!</div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-80481070062530874272010-09-27T02:03:00.000-07:002010-09-27T02:21:58.771-07:00Flick the Switch<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh52LeqGjreDzT8NvbnM2SbvNyPiKNms-D4TUU3UKRHPeD2l2ihj5AVL9RrOBtzd4hcSo9rWlTxS9FnfZoSdXDWeCsu0UjumJbgdZ4s54E43xJMgswfkpcnx1FO6d-Pe0gK47bDey3ejlcn/s1600/woman+in+shawl.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 226px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521520949876779138" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh52LeqGjreDzT8NvbnM2SbvNyPiKNms-D4TUU3UKRHPeD2l2ihj5AVL9RrOBtzd4hcSo9rWlTxS9FnfZoSdXDWeCsu0UjumJbgdZ4s54E43xJMgswfkpcnx1FO6d-Pe0gK47bDey3ejlcn/s320/woman+in+shawl.jpg" /></a>I am <strong>very</strong> reluctant to turn the heating on.<br />In my head, summer is only <em>just</em> over, so no way am I going to cave in and turn it on.<br /><div>However, back in reality, it was still firmly dark at half past six this morning.<br />It's grey. It's miserable. The washing is hanging up on drying racks in the bathroom nowadays (the sun's angle is so now low that the back garden sees only a sliver of it on a good day) and unfortunately stays damp and starts to smell a bit funny after a couple of days. Not good.</div><br /><div>Sitting at my computer in the front room, I'm a bit chilly and have goose-pimples on my arms.<br />Sometimes I wrap myself in a big lambswool shawl, but that looks a bit mad, especially as I can be seen clearly from the pavement. The room itself is south facing and gets whatever light there is. The days are long gone when I had to move my laptop and books into the north facing dining room to stop overheating and sit with the french windows open for the breeze - it's dark and gloomy in there today.</div><br /><div>So I guess I'm going to go and turn it on and let everything heat up a bit.</div><br /><div>It's admitting that summer's gone.<br />But there you go.</div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-4358600647447901702010-09-16T11:06:00.000-07:002010-09-16T11:18:42.359-07:00Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep<div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 227px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 225px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5517576753539241074" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfivmXKwha7kd1AkXFylvA-Wzd-IGL4UxgTP6omzA0ZtFv7KxAto8LnUEEmVEh-NW6T9BySazePW1xtNViBKqVykpezTGSEIxxtIifzGj5eC_ta5IIKURepY_XT2u8_H0PIanWC-54d0y8/s400/kingfisher.jpg" />Went to visit my old friend's grave today. I haven't been back since she was buried fifteen months ago. I was pleased to see that there was a lovely headstone, engraved with a kingfisher (her favourite bird, the sight of which once persuaded her in the depths of despair away from the river), a loving dedication and the full text of Mary Elizabeth Frye's poem 'Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep....'<br /><br /><div>The sun was shining, a gentle wind was blowing small clouds across the sky.</div><br /><br /><div>I am not ashamed to say I did just that.</div><br /><br /><div>R.I.P. my dearest friend....<img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 267px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5517576591517089010" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge_0a06NAcXsGPE2Fp3YuyK9pT0Q_YfTmWXuazItGKORhZQD8pMcLXpuICOILCRdW4z1FS1CWQRpXxc07ODcWJIVszcDHb1CQRcKIDhjFzs9M3GbLX2b31BuXHT5tvlmEOTOYmmLe5ZEr5/s400/graveyard.jpg" /></div></div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9159989306299326105.post-35566836710198507422010-09-15T03:42:00.001-07:002010-09-15T07:03:39.862-07:00Ouch! Why Sometimes We Should Ask Questions....<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe9INyiF95NROM6XbW1vwYcAdN94ns3UQ4RkYirNjiL8RTpzILZK-5Jo5cS3dz0tKDW8IShtDgxUDbMuZX_a1WFURPb96Rsvq1mW1b5Q0-PWmTOlzQwVpIKBe1aAK8Vf51kQu2rbOH0mix/s1600/Medieval_dentistry3381.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 338px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 156px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5517097515893043234" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe9INyiF95NROM6XbW1vwYcAdN94ns3UQ4RkYirNjiL8RTpzILZK-5Jo5cS3dz0tKDW8IShtDgxUDbMuZX_a1WFURPb96Rsvq1mW1b5Q0-PWmTOlzQwVpIKBe1aAK8Vf51kQu2rbOH0mix/s400/Medieval_dentistry3381.jpg" /></a><br /><div>I have just returned from the dentist, having had a small filling replaced. The side of my mouth is numb: it was my choice to have an injection, not having the highest pain threshold in the world - the dentist thought that the discomfort of the injection would probably be greater than that of the drilling, but it wasn't really uncomfortable at all.</div><br /><div>Over the years I have had a variegated relationship with the dental profession.<br />I had a feeling that the dental treatment I had in my youth was largely unneccessary, and this was indeed confirmed when I asked some questions a year or so ago. Puzzled by the fact that my own children's teeth were filling-free, and that when I was young my access to sweet stuff and fizzy drinks was even more restricted than theirs, I wondered aloud why I had a mouth full of ugly amalgam fillings when as a child/teenager I was regularly seen by our dentist.</div><br /><div>Apparently - my very honest lady dental sugeon tod me - it's all to do with how dentists were paid in the sixties and seventies - they received money for work done: a tooth left unfilled was lost revenue, so my probably sound teeth were drilled into to get them cash.<br />If I spent a lot of time thinking about this I could get <em>really</em> mad: I have been exploited for money - not exactly maimed, but needlessly 'treated', filled with mercury.<br />I don't have (except for my incisors) one unfilled tooth in my head and, of course, fillings don't last for ever so I am a docile cash-cow that is obliged to drop in for 'milking' every so often.<br />The Husband's mouth is an even more extreme case: at least my fillings are discrete and I can floss around them. He has what I believe was referred to as the 'Australian trench' method of filling, whereby adjacent teeth were drilled and a slab of filling laid between the two, with no attempt to conform it to the individual tooth. He too, like me, has to go to the surgery regularly to have crumbly bits shored up and replaced. Thank goodness for the National Health Service!<br />My M-i-L's teeth are, and always have been I believe, in pretty poor condition, but for some strange reason she has opted to have her treatment done privately. I'm not sure if it's a good idea - she has spent hundreds (if not thousands) of pounds over the past few years on extensive treatment that doesn't seem to have benefitted her one bit. But of course, a private patient is another, far more bountiful, sort of cash-cow. Tell them they'll need some complicated stuff done and they'll mildly cough up.</div><br /><div>A colleague of the Husband's, who had not been to the dentist for a few years needed, to re-register with the NHS to get treatment for an aching tooth. He decided in the interim to go private because of the discomfort, and was told that he needed the tooth extracting, a post inserted into the jaw and a porcelain cap fitted for £600. Coincidently, he found himself, almost immediately after, registered with an NHS practice and (horrified) popped along for a second opinion. He emerged from his 20 minute appointment having had a clean, descale and a small filling. He was charged £46.</div>Hypatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16323726587896751718noreply@blogger.com0