A great weekend

What an awesome weekend!

I woke up early on Saturday and went out for a run - I managed 13km, which is the longest I have run in probably over a year, and although the coming back up the hill was tough, I still managed it in under 1hour 20mins. (This is the problem with living at the top of a hill... what runs down must run back up!)

The route that I ran can also be extended a little bit for longer runs. The problem that I have is that I drink 1litre of water for every hour that I run, and I can't carry much more than a litre. I managed to eke it out on Saturday, but if I do increase my distance I'm going to have to figure out how to carry more water with me (the amateur side of me refuses to invest in anything like a Camelpak).

After I had recovered from the run, I went off to a bigger town near us - picked up wrapping paper and a birthday card for Hubby, and then took myself off to the pictures. We have Cineworld cards which means that we really need to go twice a month to get our money's worth, but we have failed miserably. Because I have no local female friends, I miss all the chick flicks unless I go on my own. However, there were none playing at 11:00 in the morning, so I went to see "Percy Jackson & The Lightening Thief". I actually enjoyed it, despite not being the intended viewer! As a kid I was really into the whole Greek and Roman mythology.

I then hurried home as we had an appointment with someone coming to see if our fireplace can be opened up and used as a working fire. He was 40 minutes late (no call), but we picked out a fireplace we liked and a mantel and hearth and are just waiting for him to price it all up.

Then I took myself off into London to meet my sister for our Dave Matthews evening - it was awesome, brilliant, and I can't believe I have waited 15 years to see him in concert! We were sat behind 3 lads from New York (there seemed to be quite a few Americans in the audience), who, like us, were incredulous that people standing in the dancing area were barely moving, while we were up and dancing and probably blocking everyone behinds us' view (sorry for that).

That said, the crowd did go absolutely wild when they played the first bars of Ants Marching. I was sooooo chuffed that they played it as it was one of the first tracks I ever heard, and even though it's years old, everyone was really getting into it and singing along. Electric!

My sister was disappointed that he didn't play Satellite, but all the new material from the Big Whiskey sounded really great. Probably my second favourite album after Under the Table and Dreaming now, I think. We had to leave to catch a train just as he was playing another favourite from UTTAD, but we sang along as we climbed the steps.

It was an incredible evening, and I only wish that we could go and see him again soon (ironically, they are playing gigs in the same states as we'll be when Hubby and I are in the USA in September, but the towns are still hundreds of miles away from our route).

On Sunday, I was so stiff, from the running and the dancing (but weighed in at an incredible, if brief, 12st 8.5lb - back up to 12st 11lb this morning - how?!), so hobbling around like an old lady. Cleaned the house from top to bottom, and rearranged the furniture in the sitting room to see how it will look when we have the fireplace and new t.v. in place. It feels weird, but I guess we'll get used to it. The coffee table is going to seem a little big though, but it's new and we love it, so it'll stay.

I spent most of the day watching movies and dozing on the sofa after my morning of cleaning. I cooked a healthy dinner of stuffed marrow and jacket potato, and watched "The Secret Life of Bees" - a great movie, with some great actors in. Very sad in places. I still find it hard to believe that the history of segregation is still relatively recent - it still appalls me that "Coloureds" were ever considered second class citizens and forced to subject to white people the way they were. I am glad that portion of history is over, although I know there are still small minded people out there who believe that anyone with a darker skin is not as good as them. It's just ridiculous. Anyway, I loved the movie.

So - that was my weekend. I'm hoping my calf muscles and shins ease up their aching in time for a run this evening.