Time Flies When You're not Having Fun...

It has occurred to me that I haven't written anything on here for nearly a week, and I guess that can be considered poor by some standards.  Things have happened, I just haven't found the time to report.  Which is something that upsets me, because one thing up there in my top lists of pet hates is people complaining of not "having the time".  I'd rank it somewhere in between those who pick up their dogs mess in bags, then tie it to a tree; and non-alcoholic beer.

I have a bee in my bonnet about this kind of shit

So what has happened?  I am beginning to find matters difficult balancing current demands occupationally with my personal life.  There really has been too much going on in the past few months that I don't want to discuss on here (maybe one day, but not now).  However, on Saturday the stress took its toll, and I did little for an entire day.  I did manage to take Olive swimming in the morning, and to take her to see the old donkeys that used to live by the Woodlands Trust Farm.  Luckily, I have a very strong family around me who can deal with these occasions, and pull me through it quickly enough. 

Sunday, I decided to sort myself out, get out of the way for a few hours clearing my head, and went for a near 35km run in 3:26:40.  This route took in 10km to the River Thames, then followed the Salt Marshes eastwards towards the River Darent, which I followed to the River Cray, and continued along to Foots Cray.  After this, it was a case of heading through Sidcup into Eltham, and following a standard route I use home.  All went well, until about the three hour mark.  My mind started playing games with me, whether I was heading in the right direction, whether I'd make it to Eltham, had I overshot the distance?  Then, out of the blue, it hit right between the eyes, nearly knocking me off my stride... 

...'The Wall'...

...a vicious little fucker as well, if you'll pardon my language.  Every step got heavier, my mind kept telling me to stop.  I kept looking at my phone to see how much further there was to go, 4km, make it to New Eltham Station; 3km, get into Avery Hill park, don't think about the small hill, get out the other side; 2km, that hill is so small, yet felt so massive, there's no way I'll be able to run home today, keep going; 1km, just get yourself to Oxleas Wood, stop checking the phone, once there, you must have done 34km, and can walk the rest of the way home.

I made it to Oxleas Wood, and spent a long time warming down, before heading home, getting washed, dressed and ready to take Olive to her friends for afternoon lunch.  I'm glad I experienced it prior to the Brighton Marathon in just 6 weeks time.  I've also felt good physically since as well.  There are the obvious signs of doing something rigorous in the muscles, but nothing that's absolute agony.

So the conclusion of this vile dribble?  Stress is bad, but running stupidly long distances and having battles with your mind over body can be rewarding come the end.

I'll end with a picture to keep the page colourful, I had to do a double take when running, and found this chap in Lesnes Abbey Woods

Nice Weather; Easy Running; Olive, and her Didicar

With the sides off of Olive's bed now, we are starting to get used to the early morning wake up call.  We don't mind to some extent, as she's quite good at getting into our room about 5-10 minutes before the alarm makes its noise.  Yet, on the weekend, we kind of got used to getting up when we were ready, and fetching her at our convenience.  This is, and forever shall be, no more.

It was the usual drill of taking Olive swimming first thing in the morning; have a play with her friends for 30 minutes after; meet her Mum; go shopping (Olive stayed awake on this occasion, so I had to endure 'the supermarket').  It was at this point, once home, I thought we could let Olive have her sleep, and I could go out for a 16.5km run.  As it happened, Olive didn't have her sleep, and I had a very slow 17.5km in 1:43:22.  I must confess I did spend a lot of time enjoying the run, so not caring about pace, as well as get reacquainted with some old friends of ours who used to live next door to the Woodlands Farm on Shooters Hill.

The route is one of my favourites, as it predominantly follows the Green Chain Walk, through  woodland, parks, and beside paddocks.  All in all, on a beautiful day, it's nice to get off the road, and see the greener side to London.

I started off running up to the top of Shooters Hill, which is marked by a water tower on the top.  From here, I always run into the park surrounding Oxleas Wood, and head through into Eltham Wood, and Eltham Park North, then Eltham Park South.

Oxleas Cafe at the entrance to Oxleas Meadows

Looking back towards the cafe; water tower; and Oxleas woods

Pond in Eltham Park North

From here, it's a case of following the Green Chain Walk, along towards Eltham Palace.  Unfortunately, I failed to get a good picture of the place as I was running alongside the moat that surrounds it.

I did run past the original water supply system to the palace.  It's an interesting structure, and sits with its pride of place.  I am surprised it doesn't show too many signs of vagrancy.

Some of the nice housing around Eltham Palace

Once past Eltham Palace, there are tons of paddocks.  I wasn't able to get too close to any of the horses.  I did come across some old friends of Olives.  These donkey's are used to do rides at Blackheath, outside the entrance to Greenwich Park.  They used to live in a paddock next door to Woodlands Farm, but have since been moved due to a project for the Olympic legacy.

The plans are to build an equestrian centre in its place.  There has been little support for this project, as it will be an elitist sport introduced to a non-elitist area.  It will also impact upon the farm no doubt as construction goes underway, and it has already impacted on the lives of these Donkey's who used to live there.  I was glad to read in a local newspaper they were re-housed here, and to see them again was nice to get some photo's to show Olive when I get home.



Just as inquisitive as ever





They get a lot of space, and a long view of the city

After this, it was a case of getting past half way, running through Avery Park, back into Eltham Woods, up Shooters Hill, and home, where I had a nice surprise waiting for me.

Avery Hill Park

Oxleas Wood

Eltham Woods, not far to go

I found these two on my door step

After this, I decided to take Olive out for a walk, and for her to use her Didicar.  This was a Christmas present.  If you haven't come across one, it's a car where you can make it move, just by turning the steering wheel.  It does work, but when you live on a hill, gravity comes to effect, it's not easy to go up hill, unless you invest a lot of leg effort, but coming down, well, that's well worth the going up.  I took her to Shrewsbury Hill Park and Woods, at the top of our road.  There we had a nice walk and run around, then the great ride home.

Olive was enjoying playing on her Didicar

I wasn't able to take a picture, but if we do this again soon as a family, I want to get videos of this.  The Didicar is designed to be used by adults, at the same time if need be.  I couldn't resist, but push the boundaries.  Just how far could I take the poor girl?  The truth was, there is a nice little slope at the top of our road with a footpath that kind of slaloms down.  She was screaming to "go faster Daddy," so I was in luck that I didn't scare her. 

I will wear shoes that I don't mind ruining next time.



All in the name of play.





Going on a Gruffalo Hunt

After the run on Saturday, and the snow that was beginning to settle on the roads, I went to bed with a great smile on my face, with great anticipation of getting Olive dressed like an Edwardian explorer in the morning to build a snowman.. as well as chuck tons of snowballs at her Mummy.

"CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE"

Instead, when I looked out of the window, I thought it looked like damp squib:

I was anxious to get anywhere where the white stuff had fell properly, and tick off the plans I had today, so found myself being followed by a big, bad mood.  Just like the one out of one of Olive's favourite books:

Big Rabbit's Bad Mood, by Ramona Badescu and Delphine Durand

I recalled an invitation to visit the Mum of Julia's friend who stayed over last week (we shall refer to her as Nanny Barbara (pronounced bar-bear-ra, in homage to the Royal Family).  Knowing they had a huge garden, and some woodlands behind, I decided we could head over there, and find something to do with Olive in the snow.  Julia could also indulge in her favourite sponge, fruit, jelly and custard based desert (you can imagine what that may be).

Click photo's for larger image:

the woodlands at the back of the house

the prospects were looking good

Once here, we were treated to a lovely roast pork lunch, with exceptional crackling.  The bad mood was slowly ebbing away.  Then Nanny Barbara nipped outside, and came back with an amazing sleigh, which I promptly put Olive onto, and then headed off into the woods in search of the Gruffalo...

Getting really excited

Our journey took us along bumpy paths, deep, but short slopes, we spotted snakes log pile house, and owls rooftop house.

We even stopped above (what I can presume was) an old, small quarry, and is now a basin in the woods to see if this was the Gruffalo's cave.

All this came to no avail, but we managed to have fun exploring, and Olive only came off once, right at the end.  Into a slushy, muddy, wet puddle.  She was alright though, it was a part of the fun.

Looking back through the photo's I discovered that I even have a twin daughter:

This made me want to take another photo with her in every frame of the panoramic, but the battery died by then on the phone, so it was time to head on back home, and have some more fun with Nanny Barbara, before the drive back to London and home proper... where there was a bit more snow all round.

Eyeing up yet more of Nanny Barbara's food

Perfect weather for giving the phone camera a test

We had a friend staying over last night, who will be with us for the week.  It made the timing for the bathroom etc that little more hectic, but we managed to all get away at a good hour, I dropped the ladies off at the station, took Olive to nursery, and then went home to get the bike out for the ride to work.

I'm now going to venture down a particularly English avenue, and discuss the weather, if you'll forgive me.  Personally, I like the colours as nature blossoms in the Spring; the relentless sun and the warmth of the Summer; and the colours in the woodlands that only Autumn can bring.  However, for me, there is nothing like a true Winters day.

The sun was as low as can be when I got home, no blemish tarnished the perfectly clear blue sky up high, there was a nip in the air, with no breeze.  Everything was calm, and your shadow seemed to stretch to infinity before there was an end to it.

Shrewsbury Park

Consequently, I thought this would be a good time to test out the camera on a new phone I got through work just before Christmas.  Some results were good, others were appalling (it certainly cannot handle being pointed anywhere with this sun in front of it), I learnt it could even do 180°.  

So avoiding the urban jungle, and tower flats of South Bermondsey, I thought I'd share some of the images from a cycle that made me late for work.  It was a shame the view from London Bridge didn't work, I must save this for the ride home when the nights get longer.  I did compensate by legging it up Charring Cross Bridge for an alternative view looking further west.  

To start, here's a South London resident up in the tree.  The woodlands south of the river Thames are home to Parakeets.

Shrewsbury Park

Entering Greenwich Park

Greenwich Park

 Riding Beside the Greenwich Park bandstand

Greenwich Park Bandstand

View to the Isle of Dogs... Canary Wharf is the pyramid topped building in the middle.

Isle of Dogs from Greenwich Royal Observatory

Greenwich Royal Observatory, where I like to say, time was invented.  Certainly the home of the Prime Meridian

Greenwich Royal Observatory

180° view from the Greenwich Royal Observatory, L-R... Observatory; London City; National Maritime Museum (foreground); Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf (background); Greenwich Power Station; O2 arena aka the Millennium Dome (you probably need to know it's there to see it beside the power station). Click photo for larger image.

180° view from Greenwich Royal Observatory

180° view from Charring Cross Bridge, L-R... London Eye; Westminster Bridge and the Palace of Westminster; PS Tattershall Castle (blue boat on the river); Savoy Hotel; Carring Cross Station.  Click photo for larger image.

180° view from Charring Cross Bridge

As a quick aside, the PS Tattershall Castle is an old ferry that was used to cross the River Humber, along with its sisters PS Wingfield Castle and the PS Lincoln Castle.  The ferry service was made redundant after the Humber Bridge was built and opened in 1981.  The PS Tattershall Castle is now a riverside bar moored on the Thames.  The PS Wingfield Castle is now preserved at Hartlepool's Maritime Experience.  The PS Lincoln Castle used to sit on the River Freshney at Grimsby, until it was scrapped in 2010.