Anyone for tennis?

This weekend I had the chance to go and see the semi-finals of the tennis at the Queen's club.  My friend Clare - a school friend I hadn't seen in years - is properly into tennis, and she enters the ballot for tickets for Wimbledon and Queen's every year.  It was my good fortune that she'd got tickets for this year, and that she was looking for someone to go with her.  Hoorah! :o)  Here we are, enjoying the sunshine...:

We travelled down as a family, as the boys thought it would be a good opportunity to go and do some London things...  They dropped me off, and went to visit the Monument, Tower Bridge and have a general wander about.  This obviously had to involve going on a tube train.  Small boy heaven...

I met up with Clare, and we had the chance to catch a little bit of the Doubles Quarter-finals, before heading into Centre Court for the main event...:

Andy Murray was in impressive form.  A bit too impressive for us actually, as we would have liked the match to go on a bit longer.  Still, it's great to think that Andy is in this sort of form before Wimbledon, and he showed he can battle through a longer, grittier match by beating Jo Wilfred Tsonga in the final yesterday...

After Andy Murray had finished his demolition of Andy Roddick, we got to see James Ward have a good tustle with Tsonga.  I was chuffed that I'd got to see two Brits on my first ever trip to a tennis tournament.  James did very well.  I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him.  I'm glad his run at Queen's has got him a wild-card for Wimbledon; he certainly deserves it.

A lot of spectators left at this point, but for those of us who stayed - there was a feast of Doubles.  We even saw arguably the best doubles exponents of all time - the Bryan twins.  If you want to be good at doubles, play with your twin - one right-handed, one left-handed - start practicing when you're tiny, and basically read each other's minds...  Amazing to watch...

The end of the day came, and the rest of my family snuck in to find me...  Even being given some souvenir tennis balls on the way:

So now we are playing tennis in the garden even more than we were before.  Joel likes to pretend he's Andy Murray or Rafael Nadal...  Good choices, I'm sure you'll agree.  At the moment, Nathan just wants to be the ball boy :o)

Let's look at the map

Last week, as it was half term, it seemed like a good idea to let Joel (and thus, all of us...) have a go at orienteering...

Paul (aka Daddy), really enjoyed orienteering at school, and at university - as it combines two of his great loves; running and maps.  Recently, Paul has done a few orienteering events with a local club - The Octavian Droobers - and having talked to Joel about it, he was really keen to have a go.

So, on Wednesday afternoon, we packed a picnic, put on our sporty clothes(!), and set off for some woods near Harbury.

I have to confess to being slightly dubious.  After all, I am really not built for running; I'm pretty terrible at it.  I'm also prone to turning the map round when navigating, much to the amusement of my husband...  Also, the event started at 6pm - which is always tea-time in our house...  I wondered if the changes to the usual routine and general exhaustion might be a recipe for disaster.  Not to mention wondering what would happen if the smallest boy just decided he couldn't go any further... 

We got there early, and thanks to some spectacular organisation (by the organisers...) we were actually able to start at 5:30pm...  Marvellous.

They gave us a map (see below...), and an electronic gizmo, and then we had to start at the triangle, and navigate ourselves round the course - using our clever gizmo to show we'd found all the control points.  (NB - for the uninitiated - these are red and white flags, with numbers to search for...  A genius plan if you're trying to get children like mine to find anything: 'Come on, who can find number 118??'  Very clever...)

My cunning plan was to all stay together, but let Paul and Joel run ahead a bit - which allowed Nathan and me the chance to catch up whilst they were navigating where we were going next.  Amazingly, this pretty much worked...  Although it required running - it was short sharp bursts of running, whilst encouraging Nathan along - the best sort of running.  Nathan did also require the occasional piggy back - whilst also had the additional feature of slowing Paul down.  Very useful.

We made it round in the respectable time of 30:36, which wasn't bad considering three out the four of us had never done anything like this before...  We were also pretty chuffed when we discovered our Result! (click on the link and find us if you can...)

We all felt we'd very much earned our picnic afterwards; although (naturally) Paul didn't eat anything until he'd gone out and completed a much longer and more difficult course...

So - all in all, we had a good time together out in the sunshine, with exercise, and maps, and a crash course in how to use a compass, and a picnic tea.  Can't be bad.  Worth trying if you fancy doing some running, but don't want to be bored...

The biggest loser...

I can't believe there's actually a programme on the TV called 'The Biggest Loser'.  What's even more difficult to comprehend is that actually, this is a coveted title...  The contestants on it want to be referred to as 'The BIGGEST Loser'.  Oh my goodness.  They have actually made weight-loss a competitive sport.

I haven't watched by any means all of this programme; but I've pretty much grasped the premise.  Lots of over-weight people live together in a house (OK - huge mansion...), trying to complete horrible challenges (watching them trying to resist the chocolate was particularly painful), being encouraged (shouted at) by personal trainers whilst they exercise, all before a team weigh in...  The team with the highest combined weight-loss is safe from elimination (Yes, well it is 'reality TV' - you couldn't really get away without an elimination could you...  Best not to think about it in a dieting context though...  'Elimination' could refer to something else entirely...)

I'm not sure whether I'm impressed, shocked or just really sad for the contestants, but it does seem like a very emotional and stressful experience.  Each weigh in has them dripping with more sweat than the sessions with the personal trainer...  Still, I guess if it's working for them - you can't knock it.  And they do have Davina Macall there to be soothing / encouraging too.  I guess the big question is whether they will be able to keep the weight off once they return to the real world.

My Dad has been overweight (to a greater or lesser degree) for the whole of my life; but recently, he has become our family's own 'Biggest Loser'.  He's lost over three stone now with help from Weight Watcher's (and from my Mum - she's lost a stone herself, just by being supportive and not leading him into temptation... Well done Mum x) 

So Dad, this post is dedicated to you.  Congratulations on losing weight whilst remaining in the real world, and not being shouted at...  I salute you. Gxx

New year, new look

No. Do not adjust your set.  You are in the right place...  I have just changed the template I'm using for my blog.  What do you think?  Do you like the new look?  I thought the new year was a good excuse for a change.  Ah, the joy of being to change the look of something completely by just pressing a few buttons...

Have you made any new years resolutions this year?  I haven't really - I guess I just don't like setting myself up for failure like that... (sorry, not very optimistic that...) 

However, the new year does feel like a natural opportunity to make a new start.  I guess I'm not making any new resolutions - just dusting off some of the old ones, and seeing how I get on.

I wonder what precentage of the new year's resolutions that are made are health and diet related?  My guess would be that it would be at least 80%.  Unfortunately (or maybe, fortunately...  Goodness knows what we'd end up looking like...  Hmm...) you can't change the way you look just by pressing a few buttons.  Any movement towards a healthy BMI will take effort and perseverance.  I'm honestly not sure how this one's going to go, but the boys and I did manage a 5 mile cycle today, so I guess that's a good start.  The boys are also selflessly working there way through the remaining Christmas chocolate...  The things they do to love and support me!

So, well done if you're tackling any new (or old) challenges this year.  Be gentle with yourself.  Remember that making a few small changes can make a big difference...  (Like saying 'no' occasionally, when you might have said 'yes'...)

Now - where did I leave my will power?

Sweet Caroline

Those of you who know me well, know the truth about me.  I'm not a lean, mean, cycling machine; more like a wobbly, knobbly, cuddly mummy.  I feel I need to start with this fact - as I'm going to talk about going cycling - again.  I've confessed in a previous post (See 'I want to ride my bicycle') to being pleased about having finally found a form of exercise I enjoy; but to be honest - the main motivation has been having Joel master cycling over the summer holidays, and him wanting to practice his new found skill.

We went out today, on a mission to cycle round Draycote Water.  This is a local reservoir (the same one mentioned in 'One to One time') which is about five miles round.  This time we took a picnic (vital fuel for the intrepid adventurers), but we also took our new piece of cycling kit.

Our friends, the lovely Diane and Aaron, had passed onto us a tag-along bicycle attachment their sons no longer need.  This adds an extra seat, pedals, handle-bars and a third wheel to my bike, making it really quite long.  It opens up the possibility of cycling together as a whole family, as Nathan's only just mastered pedalling, and doesn't yet have the stamina to keep up with the longer legged members of the family.

I have to admit to being a little dubious.  Nathan is a wiggly child, and I wasn't sure he was going to be able to sit still, let alone for long enough for us to get around the reservoir.  So I decided to have a little chat with him about it before we set off.

We stood together looking out the back door, watching Paul assembling the tag-along.  He listened as I explained which bit was Mummy's seat, which was Nathan's seat, where he would hold on etc. etc.  I asked if that sounded OK to him.  He thought for a couple of seconds with his serious face on, and then replied that he was happy to go for a ride on Caroline.

Caroline?

I checked that he understood.  I know that Caroline is the name of a car in Thomas the Tank Engine stories, so I wanted to be sure that he understood that we wouldn't be driving round the reservoir...

He understood completely, he had just named the tag-along! 

And so it came to pass that we gained a member of the family.  I then had tantrums to deal with as both Joel and Nathan couldn't ride on Caroline at the same time.  In fact, one of us will probably have to take Joel out on it (sorry, her) later in order to keep the peace.

Our trip around Draycote Water was a storming success.  Joel managed to cycle all the way round.  So did Paul & I, and Nathan and Caroline were a beautiful, if slightly wobbly couple.  A picnic lunch had never tasted so good.

If I do manage to get fit, it won't be down to my efforts or discipline; it will be down to the boys harassing me for rides on Caroline... :)

I want to ride my bicycle...

I did some cycling today, by choice, just for fun.

There we go - I've said it.  Confession over.  I did exercise of my own free will.  Yes, I know - it was a lovely morning.  I never claimed to be anything other than a fair weather cyclist.  And part of my motivation was to get some time on my own.  Alone-time has been at a bit of a premium over the summer holidays. 

The thing is - I've never looked forward to exercise before.  It's an entirely new experience for me.  Maybe it's true, you really do just have to keep trying different things until you find something you like.  Odd really though, because I never liked cycling before...  The difference is made by having somewhere to cycle that you only have to tackle roads and/or hills if you want to.  I'm still avoiding hills - I'm too scared to go down them, and too unfit to go up them...  But - thanks to wonderful husband - I have now braved roads.  I can even balance well enough to signal if I'm turning somewhere...  I know - impressive stuff.

The cycling appears to be catching too.  Son number one has now mastered cycling without stabilizers, and son number two has mastered pedalling.  Surely it's only a matter of time before Sir Chris Hoy is coming round for tea! 
Hmmm...  do you think they have any family events in the 2012 Olympics?