So, I push this bin with about 4 weeks worth of garbage out and as I'm pushing, I think "this'd be a good morning to go for a run"  Well.  I should maybe just not have thought that.  It jinxed me.

I got to the front of the house, positioned the bin and let it drop ... with my right big toe neatly in place for the back of the bin to grab hold of that toenail and flip it up in the air... while my toe stayed stationary. 

With tears streaming out my eyes and blood streaming out my toe I wobbled my way back to the house before whimpering until I got to the plasters, wrapped my toe in one, hobbled up the stairs to the bedroom, grabbed a pillow and screamed like a pig being slaughtered (the neighbours at this point probably wondered whether I was being killed, but thankfully they did the British thing and didn't butt in) . 

Then I phoned Peg-Leg for a bit of sympathy before texting my whole family to let them know that I was in the process of dying.

So, now the question is, with a foot that I can't step on because a certain toe punishes me each and every time that I dare to, how am I going to do that 5 miles this afternoon?

Pictures to follow

The run itself went well - apart from my lungs still feeling that tight feeling that you get after a bout of flu.  It kept reminding me that I was coughing and spluttering away last week and every now and again I thought I was going to start coughing again, but thankfully that didn't happen.

Afterwards we rushed home for the semi-finals of Euro 2008 (heaven forbid we miss one match) and to a warm bowl of pasta, prepared by Peg-leg himself.

I woke up this morning and it felt like a good morning because (1) I could breathe and (2) I wasn't coughing up my lungs and (3) I didn't feel like I was stuck in the middle of the Namib desert and sweating like there was no tomorrow anymore.  And I came to work and life is still good because I have yet to erupt in fits of coughing and spluttering and sneezing, although it seems I did a good job of handing out that virus to everyone at work because everyone sounds like me now!

Then the inspiration to look for some new running shoes struck me (<i>if only it was other shoes, but running it was!</i>) and I surfed the net on my keyboard and found the ideal pair... but they're not available anywhere near me!  So I phoned the local running store and they said that they would be only too glad to order me in a pair and the day was saved!

Of course this means that there needs to be a little running in the future... and then I remembered that on the 5th of October I'm supposedly running the Great North Run in Newcastle which reminded me that I sent in my ill-or-injured form for the London marathon and panic erupted because the organisers said that if 'your cheque has not been cashed by the 23rd of June your entry got here too late' and mine hasn't been cashed yet!  Even if I did send it in in good time... guess I can wait another 7 days in some form of hope and see what happens before I go into a flat panic and start looking for another March / April marathon.

But yes, that in short is what's been happening in my day so far... and I haven't lost it completely yet :)

That's a bit what I've felt like this past week.  Overwhelmed and tired and generally grumpy ... but that's at an end now because I finished that little piece of work that has had me bashing my head on the table and got me smiling while on the treadmill because it felt like I was running away from it for just that little bit of time.

Peg-Leg's been in London for the past week on an Oracle course that should make him more valuable to his company, but they'll no doubt fight that statement with every breath in their bodies until he leaves and they're forced to bribe him to come back because of the fact that (even now), they can't manage to find anything on their systems because

1. He's the only one that knows the whole system and
2. The others in his team are far too lazy to do some logical thinking and find things themselves.

Training this week has been up and down.

Monday evening I biked and did some cardio at the gym (staying off the dreadmill for a bit) by rowing and using the x-trainer and various other machines they have stationed across the room.  I actually quite enjoyed that - the a/c was just that little too hot and that meant that I had sweat pouring off me by the end of the session.  Of course, I forgot to open the door at home when I got on my bike and ended up losing enough liquids to make me thirsty for the week to come :)  Tuesday afternoon I headed back to the gym and ran on the treadmill for almost 4 miles while listening to my angry music (not really angry, but a small boy that was walking at 1mph on the treadmill next to his mom thought that it was angry music) and once again enjoying the fact that I was working up a good sweat.

Last night I had a planned supper with friends, so that became my weekly day off and tonight I'm heading onto some of the trails near our house to get some running done before I may or may not get back onto that bike...

Of course, being alone at home helps to get into the swing of things, but its been a relatively fun week.  I hate being alone in the house at night, because I've become used to certain sounds of someone else being there and now that it isn't, paranoia-supreme has struck.  I lie in bed and see shadows (the trees casting their shadows) moving and my heart rate goes up a few beats.  Then I turn over and the bed creaks... another thing that makes me jump.  Then PL sends me a text and I'm just about read to grab a rolling pin and go through the whole house to make sure that there is genuinely no-one else there but me.

Yes, paranoia like there is no tomorrow.

Thankfully PL is back tomorrow evening... and I'll get my rest again.

What an awesome long weekend.  Today being a public holiday in the UK, I was keen to lie in this morning and woke up to the sound of strong winds attempting to blow down the trees next to the house.  I love days like that. Even though I do prefer the sun and warm days.  But today was different.  And I was enjoying waking up and feeling like I should snuggle deeper into my duvet and stay there all day.

But unfortunately I couldn't stay there all day. Instead we decided to be healthy and walk to the shop to get some bread and milk and cheese and on the way back have a cheer at some local cricket club playing a match.  Of course nobody really appreciated us, but that didn't stop us... and then we were on our way home again to watch a movie and snooze and be generally lazy until this afternoon when I finally got on a bike.

My back hadn't really sorted itself out in the past week, but I was going crazy and I figured that if I got on the bike and it hurt, I would get off again.  But the bike seemed to sort out my back and now I feel good as new!  Now if only I can get up early enough tomorrow morning to go for a run before swimming and work.  That'd be the true miracle :)

Time to go watch  Britain's Got Talent...

Quote of the Day:
Vegetarian is an old Indian word meaning bad hunter.
--Anonymous

Firstly, the phone is ridiculously easy to use.  The standard Nokia navigation should make it easy for any person to jump from one feature to another without any problems whatsoever.  GPS, a great 5MP camera (with GREAT quality), and the ability to have music on there to listen to while you run away with yourself just makes it a great thing that us runners might be interested in.  The downside might be the price - or in the case of the UK, signing yourself into an 18 month contract with more minutes than you could possibly use in a lifetime.  And that's before you use the ONE thing that you HAVE to have if you have this phone.  The Nokia Sportstracker Software.

I downloaded and installed it on the first day that I had the phone and couldn't wait to get outside and test it out.  The GPS kicked in quite quick and I was off for a walk... and afterwards... a run.  And then another walk and another and another.

I loved the fact that I could upload pictures to flickr (once again... taking pictures with this phone is EASY - you slide down the protective cover, the screen turns into the viewfinder and you click a button!, Who would've imagined!?!?) as I was running, or alternatively I could upload the workout to the sportstracker site afterwards and it would ask me whether I wanted to  upload the pictures as well!  Of course I also had the option of uploading the pictures from my pc as I was ooh-ing and aah-ing at the map and workout information afterwards.

Another thing that I loved about the SportsTracker was being able to share workouts live (as mentioned by Jeff in one of his posts) and having Jeff and Andy and a few other people follow me as I was walking from work and running.

The of course I could also have a look at a summary of the last few workouts I did and at the same time see when other friends have been using the tracker software.  And I could follow them live!  A great feature for safety - as someone mentioned... they were ready to phone the police the MOMENT my dot stopped moving!  I had a guardian angel (still wonder how the police would respond to that call....)

Now on to the other features - the camera.  That camera is G-R-E-A-T. 

I played with it on the runs and on my walks and even in the office!  It is good enough for those moments when you wish you had a camera handy, but only have your phone ... and the quality of the pictures that comes from it might even be good enough for printing!  No more pixels that gets expanded to the point where you wonder which painting you took a picture of.  This camera is a piece of gold. Quality lens, quality flash.  Quality piece of work.

And I'm all about taking pictures, so I'm all about having a camera handy at all times (you'll find a small one with me 99% of the time!).

Then there's the video calling functionality... another VERY nice feature if you want to have a face-to-face conversation with that special (or not so special) person in your life.  I only used it once (there was only one person willing to try it out with me), but I could easily see that as something that I would use to give my folks over in South Africa a call... whether they want it or not :)

And just in case you're wondering - the battery life seems remarkable... I didn't have trouble with it and only had to charge the phone twice in the last 11 days. It worked miracles on the amount of battery power that I expect it has, but then, maybe I was just lucky.

Size-wise I think Nokia could've done a little better. I found it to be a little more dense than the little camera I carry around and a tad too big for my bike goodie bag... and on the run, it didn't quite fit into the pockets that I currently use for my little camera.  It was either too long, or not broad enough, but I guess you can't really complain about the candy-bar style phone. It would at least have made sure that anyone could get hold of me whenever they wanted to, but unless I invested in some other equipment I could see myself getting to the point of desperation and just leaving it at home when I went on long runs. I'm not one that can run or walk with something in my hands for that amount of time. And it would only take so long of me watching that screen (for distance and to see what the tracker is doing) before I would get bored and HAVE to put it in somewhere that isn't my hands.

Other than that, I can't find fault with the N82.  Its a phone/camera/GPS device that I would gladly use, if I didn't already have a Garmin, a GPS enabled Blackberry and a very light 7MP camera that travels along with me everywhere I go....