Sorry it's been a while

I do keep on meaning to post, but things have been manic, again! I even start posts that get about half a paragraph in draft, and then I get called away / distracted...

The last few weeks have been fantastic for friends, family and laughter. The Easter weekend was brilliant - there were ten of us round the dining room table (immediate family (including my gran), plus other halves), we had roast turkey with all the trimmings, and then played some very silly games - it's like having a second Christmas (including the crackers!) but with chocolate instead of Santa Claus...

I've had a hockey tournament, which was great fun - a hockey team is supposed to have eleven a side, and we managed eight from our club... We managed to persuade one of the organisers that she would like to play for us (and I really don't know how she did it - she was running around organising, then refereeing a match, then coming straight off and playing for us. She has to be in her late forties at the youngest!), so we were nine, with most of our team older than 30. We were playing full teams, where most of the players were under 18. In our heats, we won, drew and lost one game apiece, and our loss was only by one goal - this got us through to the semi finals, where we were soundly trounced! But we were very impressed overall - it's a good start to the summer season which starts next week.

I've also had two fantastic social gatherings - John and I went to a friend's post-wedding party - a slightly delayed reception (by a year...) - we met up with a whole gang of my school friends - the first time for two years that we've all been together. In that time, there have been two marriages and three babies born - John and I are the last of the group who are in a long term relationship who do not have a child (no, that isn't a hint at all - not till we get to NZ and I've then qualified for maternity pay!!). It was brilliant to be able to chat to everyone, progressively getting more and more random as we worked our way through the very generous free wine that Steve had provided...

Then yesterday, a group of us went down to Glastonbury for the afternoon. It was my first trip since I climbed the Tor as a child, and definitely my first into the town itself. Sadly, I wasn't overly impressed - the hippie shops were all very much a copy and paste of each other, though they were all trying to outdo each other with the amount of incense that they could burn... We did find a lovely cafe for lunch, and a fantastic Tea Room that did the most gorgeous scone tea. Plus, it was a wonderful chance to chat with friends, which again got more random (though this time no alcohol was involved!), and did culminate in a discussion of a radio show which included an ongoing sketch about Chicken Man...

I've also made some more attempts to up my fitness levels - I've gone for another couple of runs, and I walked in to work this morning (6 miles, because I took a slightly wrong turning, in 1hr 36 mins...). I'm still hoping that I'll be able to run the full 5K without stopping - six and a half weeks to go! I've also been amazed at the generosity of my family and friends - with only a few donations, they have already met and exceeded my target for fundraising (and my increased target!) I've definitely got a lot to live up to now!