Irish Madness....or how to not make travelling by train simple

Ok, I now this post is pretty random, but I just had one of those OMG and WTF moments. This is just proving once more that a lot of big Irish companies are totally stupid and backwards. Soooo, I was thinking about travelling to the big smoke (aka Dublin) by train in the near future.  If I bought a single ticket at my usual station on the day I would be handing out nearly 30 Euros. Now, funny thing is...if I book a ticket online, I can only book from certain stations...yes, you heard right...only the ones that do have a machine that can print your online ticket by you bringing a printout of your booking confirmation. That ticket would be nearly 10 Euros cheaper. Because our local train station has no ticket machine it's not listed to book online. Ok, so logic makes me think why not book a ticket for a station before mine that has the machine, get on the train at my usual station and show them the booking confirmation to prove I have paid for this

Life is catching up on me...

Right, the last post was a good while ago...actually 2 months to the day...
Things have been a bit manic and life has been catching up on me.

I have been trying so hard to keep active, and I succeeded until my other half hurt his back, and for some reason my motivation just went out the window. Part of it could also have to do with the preparation for a badminton competition less than a couple of weeks ago. While running doesn't do any harm to me anymore since I changed to minimalist shoes, badminton still seems to permanently do damage to my knee. I should probably know better at this stage and think about retirement, but I just love the sport too much. Anyhow, so I was training for that, my knee got worse from session to session, which also then affected my running...which then made me damage some ligaments in the opposite foot because I must have unconsciously put a lot more weight on that leg to protect my banjaxed knee...a vicious circle...so now I'm out of action for a while, trying to rest. At the same time I'm getting restless and really want to get out and run again...

Happy 2012!!!

Yes, I mean it!!! This is going to be THE year! I'm pretty positive about 2012...why? Well, for a number of reasons...

I am my own boss now work-wise and everything is up to me...if I screw up it's my bad, nobody else to blame. I will have to work hard to make a living out of my profession, but I'm prepared to do that as I love what I'm doing. No sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day, being able to help people and make them feel better. What more could you want. It's early days yet but I'm looking forward to it. So glad when I have my next qualification as well as that'll give me even more scope in what I can actually do.

New Years resolutions. I know a lot of people only see them as a fad, something they will attempt for a few days, maybe a few weeks, just to fail and decide to drop the resolutions altogether. Well I say: Fail! Fail again! Fail better! :)

2 Weeks of Minimalist Living

I recently went to Germany for a couple of weeks and purposely only packed minimalist shoes...this meant 2 weeks without foot coffins. :)

The first few days were a little tough as I normally would generally wear regular shoes the odd time even though I much prefer the minimalist ones. Shoes with any sort of a heel to toe drop make me feel like I'm falling forward these days. After a couple of days in minimalist shoes I could feel my ankles and calves getting a little stiff, especially in the morning after just getting out of bed (I have a bunk bed in Germany, so climbing down the ladder first thing is always great fun). Soon the stiffness went again though and I was really comfortable. I went for the odd run with my other half, too, and felt good.

Ikea moods

Yesterday in Ikea...

Cara and the budda bag

Cara loves our big budda bag, but I'm not sure if some of her positions are too comfortable. She definitely loves snuggling into any body that's on the bag. Here are a few snaps of her poses. :)









She's also had some howling practice, doing well, but I don't know if that's a good thing...she's very funny though once she gets started. :)

Some sunshine at last!!!!

Today was one of the very few dry days we had in nearly the last 2 months. So I took the opportunity to test the camera on my new phone while I was out walking with Cara.

Check this out...it's sunny but there's still a rainbow...

It was cold but sunny, the air felt really fresh, crisp and clean. I love this about the place I live in. Unfortunately, we have a lot of bad weather, which makes living out in the country a bit miserable at times. In good weather this feels like the nicest place in the world though.

Happy out

Decisions made - well, some anyway...

I haven't been writing anything in a while now, so I thought I'd just give a quick update on the decisions I had to make and was pondering over in my last post.

Some of them have still not been fully made, but I'm getting closer to a decision. Especially the business one is a hard one. There are tax implications, a lot of forms to fill in and a lot of other factors to consider as well as getting a website, stationary, business cards etc. This is currently all work in progress.

The naughty VFF Bikila continued

I finally managed to fix my left running Bikila.

I was impatiently waiting for the shoe goo I had ordered to arrive. Once it got here I made an attempt to reattach the soft arch bit to the actual rubber sole as they had come apart. Not sure what caused it - they might just not have been glued properly initially. I was glad to see that there was no damage, just a bit of detachment ;o).

So I got a bit of surgical spirit, some cotton buds and some clamps. I cleaned the area with the surgical spirit, using the cotton buds to reach inside the little gap as well. I then went and put some shoe goo in with the cotton bud end minus the cotton. It seemed to go in pretty well, and I probably even used a bit too much. As it's a big tub though I didn't worry about that (there's enough to fix another ton of shoes, but I hope I won't have to use it again anytime soon). I put loads in and then secured the two parts with a big clamp. I wiped off any excess goo that was coming out of the gap as soon as I put the clamp on and put the vff into a safe and well ventilated spot....and left it there for the next day and a half to allow the goo to cure.

The fixed Bikila with excess shoe goo

Decisions decisions...

I am currently in a position where I have to make a good few decisions. Some are going to affect my life more than others. They just all seem to come at the same time and anybody who knows me has a fair idea of how difficult it can be for me to make up my mind.

Decision number 1: when am I going to start my own business. I have the qualifications, can get insurance and membership in a professional organization and have most of the gear I need as well. But am I ready yet? Do I know everything I need to know about being self-employed? I'm not sure. Doing a course at the moment to learn more about starting a business that will still be on for another month. I guess it would make sense to be patient and not dive in too soon and at least hold off until the course is finished.

Decision number 2: I need a new car. What car to buy? A smallish cheaper one that would cause more trouble taking Cara anywhere and later fitting my work gear in? Or a bigger one that has enough space to carry all the above but might be slightly more expensive to buy and to run? I tend to option 2 for convenience reasons. No having to fold down seats and the dog cage fits in easily too. Starting to look at cars next week hopefully.

Fun Dog Show

Today I took Cara to her first ever dog show. It was a fund raising event for "Halfway there Hounds", a greyhound and lurcher rescue organisation. It was held at our local boarding kennels as they are heavily involved and give a temporary home to the dogs before they are being brought to England to be rehomed.

So for the laugh I entered Cara into a few classes. I didn't expect her to win anything and just wanted her to get to know other dogs and have a bit of fun. At the same time we were helping the good cause.

Reconsidering life

On Saturday my life changed. Drastically. Before Saturday I was not too happy - holidays over, job lost, no jobs around so trying hard to get my own business set up. Everything just seemed to work against me.
Saturday morning was no different. I got up to go to college, just starting a new massage course, which I was really looking forward to. But I never made it to college, missed my first day there too, what a pain. That's what I thought initially.

Barefoot Treadmill Running

I was dying to go for a run today as I haven't been running in a week. The last time was still in Germany. My VFF Bikilas are still not fixed, waiting for the shoe goo to arrive.

As the weather here has been anything but pleasant since we got back on Sunday, I opted for a treadmill run (otherwise I would have used my new Bikila LS on the road). No need for Bikilas there (they're slippy as hell on the belt because it's quite worn, kinda like sand paper that has been used a lot). No need for any sort of shoes for that matter. I decided to go barefoot and work on my form. I find the treadmill quite good for that as it is unforgiving. One wrong step and a blister is guaranteed.

The naughty VFF Bikila

During my last 5k race one of my beloved silver/green Bikilas started to disintegrate... The rubber sole is starting to come off the EVA arch yoke (not sure does it actually have a name...). I spotted it after the race. Not sure if it was due to the amount of water on the course - we were pretty much constantly running through puddles. When I took the shoes off I saw an approximately 3 cm long gap under the left shoe. I was not happy...to say the least. Cian helped me to do some research on the interweb to find out how to best deal with the issue at hand as I was not prepared to give up my Bikilas because of that. And we found an answer: SHOE GOO! :)

Back in Ireland....

We have just arrived back in Ireland. And - as expected - it was raining again. (It never really stops raining here). I was wishing my life away and so wanted to be back in Germany.

A little shopping in the big smoke on the way home lifted the mood a little. Another pair of VFF's richer (even if not the ones I actually wanted as they had no women's Komodo Sport in the shop....will have to save up now for the winter and might be able to get the Komodo Sports then - at least I was told that they would stock them towards the end of the year...) and plenty of other goodies later (crocs wellies, board shorts and some habanero nibbles) we hit the road to lovely (and wet...) Leitrim.

My new classics

Cian's new classics

Holidays in Germany - week 1

I couldn't wait to finish work and head to Germany with Cian for our well deserved 2 week break.

The first day would be a tough one straight away. We were up at 2am as we had to drive to Dublin to catch a 7am flight. Arriving in Germany around 10am we had some breakfast. Then we started to prepare for our 5k race in the inner port that afternoon. The weather was so different to Ireland, really hot, the air a lot more stuffy. We ran in a team of 4: Cian, my brother René, Judith and myself.

Team Potoothsenmeerschweinschken :)

Kayaking on Lough Allen

Last week John, a good friend of ours, asked if we would like to go kayaking with him and his wife Lorraine. And as we're always up for anything outdoors, we agreed to meet them at Lough Allen on Saturday afternoon for a bit of water fun and madness.

Kayaks "on the rocks"

 So we set off on an overcast but dry (at that point anyway...) afternoon. The lake was a bit choppy but that just added to the fun. Our kayaks were all sit in tops, so no need for any eskimo rolls at any stage (nobody capsized either, so we were all good). We also brought Cara as she is a total water baby and loves to swim.

A morning run at Lough Key Forest Park

After a 5k run on the treadmill yesterday I was delighted that my friend Caroline had asked if I would go running with her today. She is just starting back into running and is happy to have me as a running buddy (at least that's what she said ;o)). So hopefully this will be one of many runs.

Cara - all excited about the run

An unexpected hike up Sliabh an Iarainn

Friday evening I got home from work, all set to clean the house for a party we were having on Saturday evening. As we had planned to hit the big smoke in the morning we wouldn't have much time during the day to get anything done. At 7pm we got a phone call from our next door neighbour, who is also a local mountain guide, asking us if we would like to join him and his grandson for a hike to the summit of Sliabh an Iarainn. Initially we said we were too busy, but thinking about it again (for about 2 seconds) we agreed to go with them.

A VFF Sunday out

Last Sunday Cian and I went into Carrick for a relaxing morning/early afternoon. We took Cara with us to get her more used to people and other dogs. She is very good and normally isn't bothered with other people and dogs at all, but it's good to put her to the test every now and then, as there is not much happening out where we live (extremely rural :)).

KSO feet

 We both wore our VFF KSO's and got some strange looks. But we don't care, we love them and what other people think doesn't matter to us. Some people also thought they were extremely cool. (Yes, we agree!)