Ashley ran a marathon

Ashley ran the London Marathon on Sunday, and did incredibly well! I was soooo proud of her! Mish and I went to the 24 mile mark and spent a couple hours in the rain cheering on random people (who mostly seemed to be named Dave, Chris, Steve (with Steve-o being a popular variation) and Mike. We were at risk of being blocked from seeing the road by rude umbrella lady (who insisted it was pouring even when the rain had stopped) but in the nick-of-time we saw our Ashley go running past...claiming she was going to die. We, being the supporting friends we are said "No you're not. Just keep running". See, years of counselling training have clearly paid off. At any rate, apparently she hit the wall at mile 18, but she still looked pretty good to us! The last time I saw her (Sunday night after a great pub dinner with her parents and a few friends) she was displaying the proud marks of a marathon runner - an agonizing looking hobble, and the "backwards down the stairs" manoevre we've all heard so much about. I'll leave out the details of Monday's report of how her toenails looked, but just to say I have even more respect for her now! I wish I had pictures. I was doing the video and Mish was doing pictures, but she came upon us with such speed that no pictures were taken and the video consists mostly of her back and me saying "Wow - we almost missed her"

Oh yes, and I saw James Cracknell too!

All this has inspired me to get running again...once my knee's better. But I had an appointment this morning and the physiotherapist said he doesn't need to see me for another two weeks now, and he said I should be up and running again in about 3-4 weeks (as long as I keep doing my exercises and tape my knee the first times out again) Yaaaaayyyyyy!!!!!!

One of my friends...

..ran a "find" over my blog and was shocked to see her name was only mentioned four times, considering we speak pretty much every day and hang out regularly. I won't mention any names.

Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley Ashley

I assure all of you that times mentioned is not indicative of the degree you're appreciated... :)

Oh, what a sap I am!

I decided that if I want Annual Leave time this year at Christmas (having worked the last two) I'd better be super keen and get my request in now...

So, booking early for the couple weeks before Christmas was only £441. I haven't booked it yet (better make sure mom and dad want me) but I got "I'll be home for Christmas" going through the brain and I got all teary - oh I can feel it happening again! I'm going to see snow (I hope) and experience proper cold weather (I'm becoming soft over here) and eat mommy's Grandma S's stew recipe...and decorate german biscuits and see the Christmas Tree decorations we all made when we were little and hear mom singing "here comes Santa Clause" and have a Christmas beer with dad and have Sarah and Matt arrive home on perfectly coordinated time schedules into Belleville and go pick them up at some insanely early hour from the train and have Sarah make wondeful Turkey Soup with the leftovers and have Matt bring his Cheapass Board games home and then go up to camp for New Years (well, perhaps...don't mean to invite myself, Zoic) and it will be sooooo nice! I was excited to the point of just having sent an email to my parents, I then sent one to my manager and signed it "Love, J"

But it's only April.

In other news, Easter this past weekend was amazing! My dear friend Patrik came to visit from Sweden. It was grand to see him again! We chatted and wandered and sang (My favourite is when he sings me "Give me Hope Johanna"...never mind that it's actually an anti-apartheid song!) and I was introduced to the world of Quorn, and he was introduced to the world of Borough Market (and even the "feathers and fur" section, bless him). Ashley and Anna came around for Easter Lunch (and Patrik and I turned about 20 minutes of conversation into a musical and I think poor Ashley was about to kill us...but we all know how I wish life could be a musical...we made it rhyme and everything!), I added more Swedish to my vocabulary: "here", "there", "What?" "Is my Swedish really that bad" and "Six salmon in a salmon box" and we sang Beatles songs (with a brief tribute to Simon and Garfunkle) all the way to the airport on Monday. I wish I could post videos (I must figure that out) so that you all could witness a performance of Give me Hope... but these photos below will have to do for now... (and Ashley, I'm sorry I don't have a picture of you to post here, but you featured in the videos instead!)



Lunch at the National Gallery


A night out with the Flatmate and Sigrid



A Whiz with the guitar...

How does one recover?

I've just heard the unimaginable...

I was plugging away at my end of year report listening to CBC2 (which is the same type of station as BBC3, to put it into context for some of you) and somehow, Andrea Ritouski (the announcer) got her words all mixed up and out popped the bad word to end all bad words...the one you'd never hear on CBC, or BBC...or anywhere else really. I was shocked and wondering how she'd recover, but in calm CBC style she said "I'm sorry - I meant 'The final cut of the ninth'"

There's CBC elegance for you.

The Big Update

Sorry to all of you who have been emailing me asking where my updates are. They're all in my brain, I'm afraid. Had I internet access they'd be here, but as per Feb 14th's post, the internet is something I have to wait patiently for.

The past few weeks have been busy. In life, at work, etc, etc, etc. As the writers among you will know, business and (dare I say, for fear that the Parental Unit will worry) stress leads to non-updates. No worries though - the stress will subside once we are back to being full staffed at work, and my reports are in and funding is applied for (and even better still, obtained!) Hey, I'd still think I'd prefer this to trading fruit and vegetables!

The NLC concert on Saturday was great (according to my little group of loyal fans who came - bless them!) and next week we're full-on into Mozart's Requiem - I'm really excited by this one! My dear little Swedish Brother is coming down for Easter Weekend (note Patrik: with Bilar, if you please!) and I'm really looking forward to the weekend with him. My Swedish is rusty though, so I'd better practice up a bit! Danni and I are (hopefully) off to France for a day so that I can try out my Residents Permit in my passport and that's about it really...

What else can I say? I had a profound thought about one of the tracks on a Massive Attack Album, but I've since forgot what it was, and I'm saving up for my splurge of the month - the new Zutons is coming out soon. Hooray!

So, that's it. I promise to write all witty thoughts etc in my Moleskine for ease of transfer in the future....

How anticlimactic was this one, eh chaps?

Until later...

Joanna

PS I know someone who has a Moleskine but doesn't use it because he can't find anything important enough to put into it. I thought that was tragic...