What a week it has been!
This is going to be quite the mixed bag of a post ranging from hi's to lo's and in the middles. But its not like any of my posts to ever follow a specific theme. I already kinda know what I'm going to put into them and just think of some random "meh" title before I even write anything. I could put it down to pure laziness as the title is the first box on the blog editor screen and I really cannot be arsed to scroll up or even move the mouse once I start writing away.
So it all started last Monday, the day before the 11 hour snowboard-athon at the Hemel Snowcentre. I got to work and still wasnt entirely prepared for the next few days. Fortunately I was able to arrange a last second half-days annual leave which was awesome to do as I've had a .5 day on my annual leave for ages just waiting to be used up and it had been bugging the crap out of me, a lot more than it really should have been but thats just me and one of my oh so many foibles. So, I get home to a very excited Sasha and finish up with the packing to head to Hemel and the Finnimores. I'd never put Sasha in the back of the car as well as the snowboard and a load of baked goods, but being the good girl that she is, she knew not to go through the gap in the seats (I have to take a seat down to fit my snowboard in). Fast forward to Hemel Hempstead, Claire and I are finishing off our toys for the next day (my snowboard, Claire's planks) and my phone rings, its my sister, nothing new of her to call in the middle of the day so I pick up. You know whenever you hear the person's voice at the end of the phone, you know whether something is wrong or not. My grandad had died... Yes I know, 43 years old and I still had 1 grandparent remaining isn't something everyone gets to say but I cannot say that any longer. I'm glad that he passed away in his sleep on the previous Friday as thats how I want to go but I wont care about the day. If I'm still working then it'll be great if its a Sunday night, if a bank holiday weekend then hopefully a Monday... but what surprised me was the funeral itself was on Saturday. I mean, how can anything like that be planned in the space of 24 hours? I still haven't gotten my head around it all and its well over a week on. But I'll always remember flying around the streets of Almeria on the back of his Vespa, being shown around at his workplace which was the plaza del toros where he worked essentially as a member of the support staff, maintaining the building or going fishing in the evenings at the harbour and we'd eat the fish we caught for dinner the next day. For quite a few years I held the family record for 23 catches in a single night. Years later on my cousin Norman took that from me with 25
Anyway, a mini break to deal with that and then finishing up the ski's / boards. Then the most incredible, loaded with garlic, beef joint I've ever had. We just sat at the table with a sliced joint with two forks (not each). No veggies. Normally when you talk about garlic going into a dish its in units of cloves. Oh no, not this baby. For the first time ever it was in units of bulbs. OK just half a bulb, but bloody hell it was fantastic! Could have repelled vampires from 300 yards but we just sat there, with a cup of tea and garlicky beef. Then the rest of the day / evening baking goodies for the other skiers / snowboarders.
Day of 11 hour charity event
So the day was finally upon us. Claire, Sarah (a.k.a. Stabby) and I running on auto pilot as we were starting at 7:30am! But it didn't take too long for the legs to warm up and us to get into the swing of things.
You can tell you've peaked too soon when theres 5 hours to go and this is me at the top of the main slope.
Then I saw that my parents had shown up so I got a mini second wind and wanted to show off, to the best of my ability, with whatever I had left in my legs, which to be honest at that point was absolutely bugger all. So I just start doing rotations down the slope, kept on going, keep going Dave, oooh I'm getting dizzy, keep going! I catch an edge and fall backwards hitting my head (well, helmet). One of those falls you know would have REALLY hurt if it weren't for the helmet. I get to the bottom of the slope, and realise my tongue hurts. Turns out when I hit my head, I must also have bitten my tongue hard enough to draw blood. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't gushing out, but the annoying paper cut type thing at the end of my tongue was bloody (no pun intended) annoying.
So for those of you into your gore, this is the best I can do to show you my sleeve / bandage I was using for my tongue.
Everyone that took part did incredibly well (the snowcentre even put it on their events page) even though those of us that did it last year felt it was much harder going than the year before. Personally speaking I was counting down the clock from 3.5 hours to go. It was absolutely painful how time was dragging along. A couple of good moments when watching two separate incidents of skiers having full head on collisions on the slope. I'd never seen anything like that before and I felt it was a real treat to see two of them on the same day. Plus there's a new bit of terminology I'd never heard before "exploding skiers". Typically reserved for whenever smaller skiers would mess up on the drag lift, or just crash on the slope. But the phrase really does work.
As you can imagine the remainder of the week was pure agony for my legs. I spent the evening in Hemel Hempstead and finally got down to Woking the next day in time for me to get Keegan. But I knew I needed to do something aside from a course of ibuprofen. So I was a member (past tense) of a singles group on Facebook and last week I started talking to a massage therapist in the group. Now, before you even think about it, NO, special services were not on the menu. So I contacted her and asked if she could book me in for an evening appointment which she (Magdi) was able to do. Thursday evening came along and I got myself down to hers. WHY did she have to live on the top floor (my legs screamed)!? yes, only the third floor including the ground, but I had to deal with stairs... I had asked for the sports massage at her advice when I was booking it in, purely because of the snowboarding. £45 for 60 minutes, I opted for the citrus oil which, yes, meant I was coming out of there in my opinon smelling like a chocolate orange, but it was lovely. The fun and games started when she started working on my legs, OMFG and then she started to stretch them for me. I'm face first in that towel-like polo thingy trying to stifle my audible pain noises and I think I did quite well in that regards. Next thing I know my nose is running which apparently is quite normal due to blood pressures etc. Anyway, completely lost in the moment, when it was all finished, 1.5 hours, can't complain at that at all. My back was a little sore afterwards but nothing majorly so. It was exactly like this guy Colin at work said when I told him I was going for the sports massage... "Its going to hurt". Fortunately I can now say that my legs and torso have recovered. OK sure they're a little sore, but nowhere near as bad as what they were at the end of last week. So about a week to recover which is what it took last time.
The apology / the lack thereof
I've been in two minds whether to talk about this but most of you will know that I can be quite an active poster. Yes ok, its feast or famine with me where I'll do nothing on a FB group one day and 4 million entries the next. I think my favourite meme thats been used to describe me was on the facebook Tuesday mischief snowboarding group page. I can't remember who posted it, initially but it essentially was cats / kittens just typing away maniacally. Anyway, thats the scene which is now set. Now, as you may recall, or you can simply look up in the previous paragraph, I was a member of a singles group which I obviously have now left. Some people I got on with, others not so much where, after me making a comment about Rylan Clarkes teeth being so white and someone taking offence to it, I made an apology. OK, I couldn't see the harm in what I had said, but this person didn't know me and my sense of humour so I could see where they were coming from. Hell, even the group admins got involved. But that was it, apology done, all sorted.
More recently though there was a post done specifically about me, even mentioning me by name. The post was done on Saturday evening but I didn't see it until Sunday morning. Now what with the past weeks events I'll admit that I wasn't in the best place and the knee jerk reaction would have been to put some non constructive response in there, but, still, even I can see now that would have been an overreaction. So, I left the post there, I wanted to see how people would react to it. Let me cast your mind back to the previous paragraph. I made a comment regarding a person being jealous of Rylan Clarkes teeth to someone that didn't know me, so she doesn't know my sense of humour. For all she knew I might have intended that to be spiteful / mean / bad. A few people jumped on the bandwagon so I felt an apology was justified so I did. Now I'm in the same situation, the proverbial receiving end (but more about the amount that I post). Yes, I'll also admit to being overly sensitive that morning so you don't need to tell me that. All bar one person reacted positively to that post, hell, even the group admins got a laugh out of it. Nevermind it was a reversal of the situation that happened a few days earlier. In case you're wondering, that one person wasn't me and I never even mentioned the post to anyone or even said "I cant believe it"
Still, I'd previously been told the group was a tad "clicky" and that pretty much confirmed it for me. I don't and never will subscribe to that social structure. If I see it coming then I back the hell off. Nah, I'm good thanks. My friends are about quality, not quantity. So, to that end I bid you a goodnight and a fuck you very much*
* Yes, thats banter :-)
So it all started last Monday, the day before the 11 hour snowboard-athon at the Hemel Snowcentre. I got to work and still wasnt entirely prepared for the next few days. Fortunately I was able to arrange a last second half-days annual leave which was awesome to do as I've had a .5 day on my annual leave for ages just waiting to be used up and it had been bugging the crap out of me, a lot more than it really should have been but thats just me and one of my oh so many foibles. So, I get home to a very excited Sasha and finish up with the packing to head to Hemel and the Finnimores. I'd never put Sasha in the back of the car as well as the snowboard and a load of baked goods, but being the good girl that she is, she knew not to go through the gap in the seats (I have to take a seat down to fit my snowboard in). Fast forward to Hemel Hempstead, Claire and I are finishing off our toys for the next day (my snowboard, Claire's planks) and my phone rings, its my sister, nothing new of her to call in the middle of the day so I pick up. You know whenever you hear the person's voice at the end of the phone, you know whether something is wrong or not. My grandad had died... Yes I know, 43 years old and I still had 1 grandparent remaining isn't something everyone gets to say but I cannot say that any longer. I'm glad that he passed away in his sleep on the previous Friday as thats how I want to go but I wont care about the day. If I'm still working then it'll be great if its a Sunday night, if a bank holiday weekend then hopefully a Monday... but what surprised me was the funeral itself was on Saturday. I mean, how can anything like that be planned in the space of 24 hours? I still haven't gotten my head around it all and its well over a week on. But I'll always remember flying around the streets of Almeria on the back of his Vespa, being shown around at his workplace which was the plaza del toros where he worked essentially as a member of the support staff, maintaining the building or going fishing in the evenings at the harbour and we'd eat the fish we caught for dinner the next day. For quite a few years I held the family record for 23 catches in a single night. Years later on my cousin Norman took that from me with 25
Anyway, a mini break to deal with that and then finishing up the ski's / boards. Then the most incredible, loaded with garlic, beef joint I've ever had. We just sat at the table with a sliced joint with two forks (not each). No veggies. Normally when you talk about garlic going into a dish its in units of cloves. Oh no, not this baby. For the first time ever it was in units of bulbs. OK just half a bulb, but bloody hell it was fantastic! Could have repelled vampires from 300 yards but we just sat there, with a cup of tea and garlicky beef. Then the rest of the day / evening baking goodies for the other skiers / snowboarders.
Day of 11 hour charity event
So the day was finally upon us. Claire, Sarah (a.k.a. Stabby) and I running on auto pilot as we were starting at 7:30am! But it didn't take too long for the legs to warm up and us to get into the swing of things.
You can tell you've peaked too soon when theres 5 hours to go and this is me at the top of the main slope.
Then I saw that my parents had shown up so I got a mini second wind and wanted to show off, to the best of my ability, with whatever I had left in my legs, which to be honest at that point was absolutely bugger all. So I just start doing rotations down the slope, kept on going, keep going Dave, oooh I'm getting dizzy, keep going! I catch an edge and fall backwards hitting my head (well, helmet). One of those falls you know would have REALLY hurt if it weren't for the helmet. I get to the bottom of the slope, and realise my tongue hurts. Turns out when I hit my head, I must also have bitten my tongue hard enough to draw blood. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't gushing out, but the annoying paper cut type thing at the end of my tongue was bloody (no pun intended) annoying.
So for those of you into your gore, this is the best I can do to show you my sleeve / bandage I was using for my tongue.
As you can imagine the remainder of the week was pure agony for my legs. I spent the evening in Hemel Hempstead and finally got down to Woking the next day in time for me to get Keegan. But I knew I needed to do something aside from a course of ibuprofen. So I was a member (past tense) of a singles group on Facebook and last week I started talking to a massage therapist in the group. Now, before you even think about it, NO, special services were not on the menu. So I contacted her and asked if she could book me in for an evening appointment which she (Magdi) was able to do. Thursday evening came along and I got myself down to hers. WHY did she have to live on the top floor (my legs screamed)!? yes, only the third floor including the ground, but I had to deal with stairs... I had asked for the sports massage at her advice when I was booking it in, purely because of the snowboarding. £45 for 60 minutes, I opted for the citrus oil which, yes, meant I was coming out of there in my opinon smelling like a chocolate orange, but it was lovely. The fun and games started when she started working on my legs, OMFG and then she started to stretch them for me. I'm face first in that towel-like polo thingy trying to stifle my audible pain noises and I think I did quite well in that regards. Next thing I know my nose is running which apparently is quite normal due to blood pressures etc. Anyway, completely lost in the moment, when it was all finished, 1.5 hours, can't complain at that at all. My back was a little sore afterwards but nothing majorly so. It was exactly like this guy Colin at work said when I told him I was going for the sports massage... "Its going to hurt". Fortunately I can now say that my legs and torso have recovered. OK sure they're a little sore, but nowhere near as bad as what they were at the end of last week. So about a week to recover which is what it took last time.
The apology / the lack thereof
I've been in two minds whether to talk about this but most of you will know that I can be quite an active poster. Yes ok, its feast or famine with me where I'll do nothing on a FB group one day and 4 million entries the next. I think my favourite meme thats been used to describe me was on the facebook Tuesday mischief snowboarding group page. I can't remember who posted it, initially but it essentially was cats / kittens just typing away maniacally. Anyway, thats the scene which is now set. Now, as you may recall, or you can simply look up in the previous paragraph, I was a member of a singles group which I obviously have now left. Some people I got on with, others not so much where, after me making a comment about Rylan Clarkes teeth being so white and someone taking offence to it, I made an apology. OK, I couldn't see the harm in what I had said, but this person didn't know me and my sense of humour so I could see where they were coming from. Hell, even the group admins got involved. But that was it, apology done, all sorted.
More recently though there was a post done specifically about me, even mentioning me by name. The post was done on Saturday evening but I didn't see it until Sunday morning. Now what with the past weeks events I'll admit that I wasn't in the best place and the knee jerk reaction would have been to put some non constructive response in there, but, still, even I can see now that would have been an overreaction. So, I left the post there, I wanted to see how people would react to it. Let me cast your mind back to the previous paragraph. I made a comment regarding a person being jealous of Rylan Clarkes teeth to someone that didn't know me, so she doesn't know my sense of humour. For all she knew I might have intended that to be spiteful / mean / bad. A few people jumped on the bandwagon so I felt an apology was justified so I did. Now I'm in the same situation, the proverbial receiving end (but more about the amount that I post). Yes, I'll also admit to being overly sensitive that morning so you don't need to tell me that. All bar one person reacted positively to that post, hell, even the group admins got a laugh out of it. Nevermind it was a reversal of the situation that happened a few days earlier. In case you're wondering, that one person wasn't me and I never even mentioned the post to anyone or even said "I cant believe it"
Still, I'd previously been told the group was a tad "clicky" and that pretty much confirmed it for me. I don't and never will subscribe to that social structure. If I see it coming then I back the hell off. Nah, I'm good thanks. My friends are about quality, not quantity. So, to that end I bid you a goodnight and a fuck you very much*
* Yes, thats banter :-)
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