My 100th post, this is. This post is A Day in our Lives: 1 March 2012
We'll start with the night. The middle of the night. In the middle of the night EW and I were awakened by a bird. This excited and energetic little dude seemed to pining for his mate at the end of our bed but perhaps knowing we could not satisfy his lust, neither one of us got up to take a look. But what bird would sing his heart out in the dead of night? I suppose the British Invasion asked the same question... (that's a hint, y'all).
So EW went to work, asked his birding fanatic friend Graham and came home with the answer.
oh DUH* was my reaction.
I am coming to believe that you can find anything on You Tube. To wit (in Norfolk no less):
I love comments. Clearly I have too much time on my hands. Yes, I am going back to work next year. And these comments do not disappoint. To wit:
I have a blackbird in my garden who has been singing morning and night, I played this video through the speakers with the door open, the bird copied the singing!
In the early Football Head** days we would play a bird call CD and our cats would go into hunting mode circling the speakers. Later, in the Doodile days, when we 5 all got iPhones, we used the screech owl call on a free bird call app to drive Rosie insane. (Note the massive upgrade in technology in just a few short years. Thank you Space Program!)
Breakfast is info central:
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| Sun is now well up by breakfast time. Rise time today = 06:41 |
Who won? Who posted what on Facebook? What idiot thing did a Republican do in the name of trying to win the nomination? Gosh, they are bloodying each other, aren't they? Is the table vibrating? Yes, the folks below are spin-drying their laundry.
On school days GW makes Alice's lunch and leaves it in a bag by the door.
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| Oh don't forget me, please! |
The ingredients of a typical Alice lunch:
Fruit: favorite is mango but alas today is grapes and an apple.
Crisps: only from 100% British potatoes only
Sandwich:
- Ham: Norfolk pork only
- Cheese: sliced motz, edam or havarti
- Lettuce: from a living salad pot that costs £1 and provides lettuce for a weeks' sandwiches from the windowsill. Best deal in the UK.
- Bread: EWs, no pictured b/c last 2 slices used today.
Soup: Tomato soup is her desert island food.
Yogurt: Lactofree-- smooth, creamy and digestible. Joan take note.
Alice's lunch bag is recycling at it snobbiest.
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| From freshman parents weekend. |
Just as Fred could not be bothered to pull the sheets up on his bed (and thus protect it from Rosie pee) because he did not have the seconds available in his morning routine, so has Alice perfected the timing of the school yard dash to the millisecond.
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| Note casual throw of blazer. It is carried, not worn. |
I walk out with her this morning. I spy large gym bag in addition to book bag and blazer.
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| She is trying to smile. Give her points for that. Note position of blazer. |
Alice: Netball. I'll be home by 6PM.
Me: Oh my, hockey all day yesterday (see below), Netball today. Quite the sporty life. What is tomorrow? (Note: I expected a sarcastic NONE.)
Alice: Tomorrow is swimming. I hate swimming. I thought it was over. You see we were swimming with our Form and at half term we went onto badmitten so I thought I was done. But. No. Now it is GCSE swimming. [eye roll].
[Yesterday Alice packed this gimongous bag of food and her hockey kit and was out the door at 0540 to catch the 6AM bus at school to Oxford. She played 4 hockey games (2-1-1) rode bus back to school, walked home at 1800, changed, checked Facebook, went to hockey practice 1915 back home at 2100 to soup and our nightly 2 episodes of Big Bang Theory.]
We recommend watching Big Bang Theory with your teen. No better way to consider all those awkward sex questions than through the eyes of nerds. Upon being told that his iTunes birthday present went towards Big Bang episodes, Jonathan complimented Alice on her good taste, saying that she must like the show because she too was raised by nerds.
Also discovering family members channeling Sheldon Cooper adds a certain spice to one's day.
Sport continues this weekend with parkrun Saturday 0900, followed by Dragon 3s, dinner out and then the midnight championship game in Durham. Damn right we'll be up.
This morning, after leaving Alice I ran up Newmarket Rd. to meet Eric. He has mapped out a long flat stretch of sidewalk along Mile End Road where he can run 400-meter repeats. I can assure you this is is NOT normal everyday activity here at Chez Ward; however, I am covering today and this is what we are doing today.
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| The cacophony that is Newmarket Rd. in the morning. Cars, bikes, busses, walkers, strollers, runners. Its like bumper cars without the bumps. Also, today is bin day. |
I get there and he is recovering from what must be his 10th or 12th or 100th repeat. How does he do it?? He makes it, the motivation anyway, seem effortless...
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| He does not know I am here. |
He takes off on another one.
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| Where he leads... |
I follow. I run the next 400 meters faster than I have ever in my whole life. Or so my body tells me. How the hell can he run 8 of these at 1:44 w/ 90 seconds rest? How can Carl and Fred run 16 of these at, oh, some really f#%$ing fast pace like 65?
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.
No comprende. Ich verstehe das nicht. Non capisco. Wakarimasen. Ég skil ekki.
My heart pounds and my vision blurs, the world tilts, then rights again, and I realize...slowly...this is..
FUN.
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| E&G having fun. |
I run 3 more
EW: don't do more than 4 your first time.
ME: ah, no worries babe.
and trot home. I am sure I ran them too fast because I was dead by 2/3 and was slow at the ends; still I did it. Carl gave me a web site where I can put in my times and get my intervals. I will write about that separately because it is already 10:30AM and I have written so much and I even have more pictures, phew.
Warm and sunny today. EW is excited to note that he has to wear only his high-visibility jacket today.
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| Most handsome biker in all of Norwich. That red lamp shade behind him is a story unto itself... |
ME: time to hit the shower, then ONWARDS with the day.
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* Blackbird. As in Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night. Beatles 1968.
**My life with Eric can be defined by the nickname he had for me at the time. Football Head was after we were married, before C&F.
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