Miscellaneous

Training is going rather nicely, I am satisfied with the speed I am running. It is not incredibly fast, but after months and months of pain in the shinbones, I am happy to be almost pain free and faster than the Nordic Walkers! The Berlin marathon is a little more than a month away and my greatest problem is psychology. After today's run just the thought of doing the same distance again for 2.5 times made me feel sick. I fear, that I will not manage to run the marathon through just because my head is playing tricks on me. It does not help, that I have done it before. Right now, the distance seems undoable.

Here are the training stats for week 33:

Total running time: 4 h 33 min
Total distance run: 43.71 k

In other news the balconies of our house are currently being done up and I cannot let the boys go outside; don't really want them to drop into my neighbours garden. So to keep them entertained I bought some new toys. One was a big success with both of them, but especially with Filou. If he wasn't neutered, he would have mated with this thing. It smells of catnip and after intensive scratching, licking and rubbing against it, he fell asleep:


Right now the boys have blocked the sofa for an afternoon nap, there is no room for me:

Back at work

The first day back at work after three weeks hols was not too bad. Another three weeks off would be better. The trip back home was a nightmare. For some reason only known to Deutsche Bahn, the train had just half the number of carriages it normally has. So we were packed like sardines in a tin. And the express train that leaves a couple of minutes earlier and takes the same route, but doesn't stop at all stations, was out of order. The commuters from that train squeezed in with us, too. I am only small and my nose is on a level with the average adult's armpit. This is all you need to know to imagine what my journey was like.

Filou has chewed off the aerial of my clock radio. What was left was too short and I did not receive any stations anymore. So I went and bought a new clock radio last Friday. This is what he did to that one:



Fortunately the aerial is still long enough for radio reception. I have secured it with sellotape. They are not expensive, but I really do not want to buy a new radio clock every two days. I hope, Filou did not swallow parts of the aerial. Mmh... On the other hand I may then be able to receive radio stations if I adjust his ears accordingly.

Changing rooms

My holidays are almost over, just this week and then I am back in the office. I managed to relax and trained a lot for the Berlin marathon. Only two months to go...

This week was spent doing up the bedroom, which was necessary since the carpet had been approximately 12 years old and Mr Cat had torn big holes into it. This blog is called "Changing Rooms", but I cannot be arsed to DIY and I love my family and friends, but I wouldn't let them do it for me, especially without me knowing what they're up to. So I hired a professional painter to do the job and I restricted my input to chosing a new carpet, a new colour for the walls and new curtains. Of course, I removed all stuff from the bedroom before he started the work and I took the opportunity to clean out the wardrobe. Five big blue bags with clothes are going to charity and one is going to the dump. Paulchen of course is going to neither:

The old carpet was dark blue...

... the new one is much lighter in colour and makes the room look bigger...

They boys were not entirely happy with the refurbishing, even though the painter and his tools intrigued them. Curiosity and the cat, you know. But when he used a very noisy machine to remove the old carpet they cuddled close to each other on the sofa for comfort:

All three of us agreed that project "do up the living room" is postponed indefinitely.