The Butterfly Effect

Today I am definitely experiencing the chaos theory in action, I'm just taking a little break from re-painting walls, all because my husband bought a desk!

After officially getting home office status he decided that slob pants on the sofa was not a good, long-term, solution so off we popped to Ikea to buy a desk. But first we have to move a cupboard to make space, then get rid of the floor to ceiling (rather shredded) cat tree and re-arrange some other things to make it all workable. Another cat-scratching solution also had to go on the shopping list and cupboard/furniture moving motivated me to have a bit of a clear out. It also shows up the knocks and marks on the walls, hence the painting. However, once I’ve touched up one section, another part, which looked fine before now looks bad. If it doesn’t end soon I’ll just give up and start handing out dark glasses to my visitors so they don’t notice J

Another thing, having had to dig out the painting equipment means I can no longer deny how dis-organized our cellar has got over the last year, but that’s a job for another day.

One week in Lithuania

Written Thursday 24.5.2012

I'm currently in Alytus, Lithuania, staying with my friend Maria and her 3 girls, Janet, Sharona and Sade. Her husband is away on business for 3 weeks so I took the opportunity to keep her company, help out in the garden, house, with the kids and generally support in anyway necessary. Getting 2 girls ready for primary school and the youngest ready for kindergarden in time for a 7.30am set off is no mean feat and an extra pair of hands to braid hair or wipe a jammy face is much appreciated!

Lithuania is really a land of contrasts. This is my 3rd visit but my first in the springtime, so I am enjoying the lovely warm weather. So far it's been sunny and 27°C, a welcome change to the snow and -20°C of my last visit.

Having been annexed into Soviet Russia and oppressed under communism the land is now starting to develop and bloom in it's freedom. However the contrasts are quite extreme at times. Most people live in small flats or, whenever possible, a house with an allotment sized garden. The quality of the building is alot lower than in Germany, yet their gardens are a wonder to behold. In a tiny house there is not alot that can be done, plus building materials are very expensive, but with a few seeds, hard work and a bit of patience something beautiful can be created. Sunday evening Maria and I walked over to one of her neighbours and, as a new guest, I was proudly shown around the garden, every plant and flower, the tiniest of water features and the all the different vegetables and salad were pointed out to me. So there I am nodding and making appreciative noises when in reality I haven't the faintest idea what the different plants were and can hardly tell a dandelion from a dahlia. My only attempt at "productive gardening" at our cottage in Scotland turned into a water logged disaster of rotting potatoes that was soon reclaimed by weeds and brambles.

Yesterday we treated ourselves at the hairdressers, I had a cut and styling, eyebrow shaping, colouring and eyelash tint which all together cost a whooping great 8€, yet later in the day fueling up the car cost 70€. Diesel is only a tad cheaper than at home, at 1.39€ per litre. When the average wage for a semi-skilled worker (eg car mechanic or hairdresser) is 350 - 400€ pm yet food is only 10% cheaper than Germany, I can not begin to imagine how they manage.

Food shopping is an experience here, Tuesday we went to the local market to buy vegetables and flowers. Now I'd been to a couple of different supermarkets, one in particular is like a Tesco Extra (for my U.S. friends - an up-market Walmart), clean and shiny with shelves full of everything you could possibly want or imagine but the market is something completely different. Simple wooden tables with covers for the rain, some are full to bursting with lovely healthy looking vegetables, just like you would imagine, on others a lonely old Grandma sits there with a few bunches of radishes or 20 eggs in the hope of supplementing her meagre pension. Although everyone was happy to talk to us not everyone allowed me to take photographs. They wanted to know what I would do with them, perhaps I would give them to the police! They are still very suspicious even after all these years.
  

Out of the back of a van little chicks and duckling were being sold. I was allowed to hold one, so cute! Matt will be pleased to know I won't be bringing any home in my suitcase. 

The flower market was just row upon row of colour. We picked out 4 bags full of summer flowering plants for just 12€ which was my belated birthday present for Maria and we have now planted up all her window boxes and pots and they promise to be a riot of colour over the summer months. 

So that's my week of being able to help out a friend, however through certain conversations and one particular new contact I have a feeling I will be the one who will benefit most from this week.

Aschaffenburg Citylauf 7.9km 11.5.2012

The incredible shrinking lake

Hello from sunny Blackpool! Matt and I are currently in England visiting his parents for a long weekend. It was rather a spontaneous visit, had the idea on Wednesday, booked the Chunnel on Thursday, drove Friday night and arrived Saturday breakfast time.

This morning I was wide awake whilst everyone else was still busy snoring so decided to take the opportunity to go for a walk. Weather forecast is for rain, which it did in abundance yesterday, so the morning sunshine was a lovely surprise. I headed off in the direction of Stanley Park and walked round the lake. When we lived in Blackpool our house was only 1 mile away from Stanley Park so walking round it again brought back many memories.

We were leaders of our local church youth group and our house was often a place to hang out and stay over. Sometimes, late at night we’d motivate some bored teenagers to go for a walk round the park. We grabbed torches and whatever bread we could find before climbing over the locked gates to play tag near the clock tower and Italian Gardens or go wake up the ducks for a midnight feast (hence the bread). The park was always locked overnight and thankfully we were never caught by a park warden, even though our breaking and entering consisted of nothing more criminal than annoying a few sleeping ducks!

Another memory I have is after the car accident that damaged my spine. For many months it was excruciatingly painful to walk so Matt would drive me down to the park (yes a whole mile!) so I could walk on the lake-side path as far as possible before turning back. At that time, the idea of walking round the whole lake seemed more akin to the idea of walking round Lake Windermere (the largest lake in England at 18.8km long). Today, in comparison, it’s more like a big puddle!

It is now less than 2 weeks till the Aschaffenburg Citylauf and, as I mentioned before, my training schedule has completely gone to pot due to illness. However, even though I must admit to contemplating cancelling, having just read about Claire Lomas, a paraplegic, who is walking the London Marathon at a rate of 2 mile a day my excuses are definitely invalid.

Here’s the link. I hope it inspires you as much as it did me.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/london-marathon/9233873/Is-this-the-bravest-marathon-athlete-of-all.html

We all have our odd little quirks, right?

I don’t have much to blog from these last couple of weeks, not pertaining to my goals anyway but this morning one of my little quirks got the better of me and gave me a laugh so I thought I’d share.

It’s been tough health-wise since returning home from Spain and my training for the Citylauf on 11^th May has ground to a shuddering halt. (I’m still determined to take part but it will be at a slow jog-walk-jog-walk pace.) 

Anyhow, this week-end has been extremely painful and I spent all of yesterday in bed. We had arranged to have one of our darling “adopted” nieces stay with us so Matt had to take over and run the show. I ate supper with them but that was all L so after a busy day of joining in the work-day at church, shopping and swimming Matt dutifully puts all the wet towels in the washing machine and sits down to watch a film. This morning I realize that he only pegged out half the load of washing - half is better than nothing right? - so I got the rest and began pegging it out.

Now, those who know me well, know I have some little OCD tendencies, one being that each item of washing should always have the same coloured pegs! (I know, I know, I alphabetize my books and DVD/CD’s too.) So I didn’t annoy me that Matt had only done half the job it was his choice of pegs that got to me. Painful as it was to raise my arm above my head, there I was re-pegging towels with matching pegs! Laugh all you want, because I'm laughing too.

However, weird as that may be, it’s not a bizarre as Shannon getting Matt to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2! 

The Joy of Giving

I´m writing this whilst in sunny Gijón, northern Spain. Matt and I are staying with our good friends Joseph and Dani Contreras and their 3 boys, Isaiah, Andrew and Michael. They are American transplants and their work here is 3 part based through their association BeStrong, and they work to better the health of the community physically, educationally and spiritually.

Joseph is the strength trainer and honourary Pastor to the local American Football team – The Mariners, and “head honcho” in the bible teaching and main Pastoral aspect of the job. Dani schools her boys, teaches English as a foreign language from 5yrs through to adult. Runs ladies health and fitness courses both at the centre and one online plus leading a ladies Bible study. Their current building is quite new, they’ve only been there 1 year and are still working on renovating. That’s quite a novel concept to my British mind (plus 10 years of German influence) where a business wouldn’t open their doors to customers until the premises were finished, but here in Spain, life is a little more laid back and customers are quite happy to weight train in a room with un-painted plaster board walls and showers with no doors! (The doors are ordered but delivery will arrive………well, when it arrives)

This is now our 4^th visit, last time we arrived just as they got the keys and so got stuck in with scrubbing and cleaning and painting. This time it’s no different, after 2 days of hard work the main multi-function room is now freshly painted and looking good :o)

Since becoming ex-pats we’ve got to know people all over the world and, like with Joseph and Dani, the actual physical time we get to spend together is limited but our friendship is deep, so we feel almost like family. Therefore, spending some of our holiday working is not only fun but being side by side with close friends it’s so fulfilling too! Plus the locals we met last time greet us with big smiles and loving kisses.

So, in trying to be a positive difference we in turn have receive (and I don’t mean the cough and cold we’ve picked up). A deepening of friendships plus new friends and making memories.

So that´s what is meant when it is said, there is more joy in giving than receiving.

Optimist: someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it's a cha-cha. ~ Robert Brault

It feels like I’ve been doing a lot of cha-cha this last couple of weeks where my training is concerned. As I wrote on March 10^th I was doing really well, so well in fact that I decided to go against my training plan and train 2 days in a row. Big no no and boy did I pay for it with a major cramp in my right calf. Added on to that 2 days later I got cold when out walking with a friend and I ended up in bed with Fibro pain L

I took a little time out to rest up and started easing back in again last Friday with a 3k power walk. All seemed well and this Wednesday I was back up to 4.5k at 2min jog / 1 min walk rotations only to be struck with cramp again this morning!

I may be doing the Cha Cha however I’m not trading in my training shoes for high heels and a sparkly dress just yet!