Today has been bliss. I'm the kind of person who likes to feel as though I've had a rest on the weekend. And what counts as a 'rest' to me is two hours on the sofa on a Sunday doing absolutely nothing strenuous at all. I read a book, watch a film, sometimes blog, or catch up on the pile of magazines that are still waiting to be read.
DC is not this kind of person. He likes to keep on his feet. And keep going. And going. And going. Whereas I can happily wash the dishes and let them drain before putting them away two hours later, DC has to do the whole lot in one go. If he has a spare twenty minutes on a Sunday, he will mow the lawn. He just seems to absolutely hate sitting down!
I haven't exactly been doing nothing at all today. But DC has been out since 7.30am on a training walk for a three peaks challenge he is doing in June, and he's not due back until late tonight. So I've had the whole day to myself to do whatever I please. Well, apart from spending two hours cleaning the house top of bottom, which was not exactly top on my to-do list today, but it needed doing.
This morning I got up at 09:00am - I like to get up early on Saturday mornings, around 7.30am to get out early and run, and then I make up for it on Sundays by not getting up sometimes until about 9.30am (the man who does not rest is obviously up and about by this point). I had some breakfast before spending almost four hours sitting on my bum watching the London Marathon.
(BBC)
I've never known anything so inspiring and motivating! It makes me feel so proud of my country and proud of the 37,000+ people who have trained hard for the event and have something to run for. I've always seen snippets of the marathon and thought 'hmm, mad people' but now that I am a runner myself, this is the first year I've watched it from a completely different point of view. Instead of looking at the endless people running and thinking they are all crackers, this year the thoughts running through my mind were different:
- Could I ever run a marathon?
- Could I ever run a marathon in four hours?
- How are these people still smiling at mile 18? I'm grumbling at mile 3!
- No one seems to have any belts holding gels etc - how do they keep their energy?
- I wonder what they are feeling as they cross the finish line?
- Will I ever get to experience that marathon crossing the finish line feeling?
- Will I ever be good enough to do this?
I absolutely loved watching it this year, and am completely in awe of all of the people who finished it, no matter how long it took them. The runners who completed the race in 3 hours are just so inspirational, and the elite athletes are unbelievable!
It actually made me want to go out and run (which I hoped was the effect it would have on me because I was in a really lazy mood) so I changed into my running gear, did my stretches and then hit the pavement for a 5k. It felt as though I was running it as fast as I possibly could, but I only made 31:24, which I need to remember is still a good time!
After my run I sat down and brainstormed a few blog posts before spending a couple of hours cleaning the house, putting two loads of washing in, stripping the bed, taking the meter reading (it took me 20 minutes to open the box outside, before then realising the British Gas app is down for maintenance until 10pm tonight, so no gas readings submitted today!), trying to order a Zatchel, washing the dishes, half making the bed before realising the duvet cover was still damp in places (back to the dryer I went) before FINALLY sitting down and trying once again to order this:
Yes, it's beautiful isn't it? Well, don't talk to me about it, because
Zatchel were having a 50% flash sale today to celebrate their birthday, and I spent probably an hour or more, over five different occasions, hitting 'place order' to try and order this bag that was only £22.50 in the sale. Would it let me buy it? No. I understand the website was probably busy with everyone catching onto the sale but the pages were loading just fine, my basket was fine, I entered my billing details, delivery details, card details - but it just wouldn't let me complete the transaction. Argh!
But then I thought, well I've spent a LOT of money in the past couple of weeks, digging into my car savings fund, and I still need to be J another birthday present plus pay for petrol and food for our spa day away on Tuesday (more on that later). I also still love my Cambridge Satchel Co. satchel that DC bought me for Christmas, and use it every day. (Can you tell I am simply using all of these excuses to cover my disappointment at not getting my hands on this beautiful bag!)
Never mind.
So now it's gone 6pm and DC should be home in an hour or so. I'm going to do a bit of online browsing for J's present, before making a yummy fish pie that has become my favourite most easiest meal to make ever.
Happy Sunday!
Dans
