adore amy

and i love to live so pleasantly…

…even though it may not be a life of luxury (although a quick peep inside my gloriously full refrigerator could possibly form the basis of a persuasive argument to the contrary) I am enjoying a busy yet leisurely few days, until today having shamefully not shown my face at the gym since last Sunday (mostly almost entirely sauna) and spent a large part of the week lying cocooned among my leviathan of a settee’s new cushions eating macaroni cheese, the spare Christmas pudding (phwoar) and far too many half price strawberries. Happy days.

I began the week with a day out in Leeds on the promise of a free lunch (I know there isn’t) from my ever-charming accountant (and the pinkly soft lamb cutlets at Restaurant Bar & Grill didn’t disappoint, although lunchtime ran out before pudding and I was compelled to head over to the nearby M&S for a iced bun fix after coffee) and with bookkeeping business completed and professionally tasteful gossip over I repaired immediately to Briggate’s flagship credit-card-worrier Harvey Nichols for a treat, whereby the heavens opened with a mighty thunderclap for the second time in two days and I was imprisoned within for exactly the length of time it took me to decide on a practical waterproof trench from Prada and briefly debate whether to celebrate with Act II of lunch in the Yo Sushi (I didn’t).

We have also seen, for now at least, the calling off of the Tube strikes – my London visit is filling up already and anybody keen to book may well be advised to get in soon! I am particularly looking forward to my new digs in NW1 having stayed there a couple of years ago, and I suspect the proximity to Kings Cross station will become even more of a plus by the time my usual Sunday afternoon dash for the train rolls around, given that the ‘with suitcase’ leg of the dash will now involve little more than crossing a road- yay! As for Scotland, I am taking appointments for Edinburgh and Inverness, although these trips tend to be notoriously last-minute affairs appointment-wise; I have never quite understood why the Scots leave it quite so late to make arrangements but the tide does seem to be turning, and keen would-be callers may be well advised to organise things at some point in the next couple of weeks, especially as I am planning a few excursions during my Inverness stay including a visit to Culloden, monster-hunting at the loch, coo-finding (with thanks to Amanda) as well as some good old-fashioned general fresh air and exercise.

Our current Race For Life total is £420! Thank you again to everybody who has mailed, commented and otherwise wished me well – I do intend to keep up the running (and following news that Laura Lee and others are taking part in the Glasgow event just days after I check out of Inverness I was almost tempted to take a detour and join in too, but six nights away from the fishes is more than enough to make them pine and sulk terribly without adding another three on) and whilst I haven’t completely written off the idea of a repeat sooner rather than later, I suspect I may wind up concentrating on my awaydays too much for the next weeks to even think about more training. Maybe even a marathon in a few years time; special mention this week must go to Lloyd Scott who finally crossed the finish line of the London Marathon yesterday after twenty six days of crawling through the various unpleasantness of the capital’s pavements in a nine foot Brian the Snail costume, and whom you may also remember for his comparatively rapid five day finish in 2002 dressed in an old fashioned deep sea diving suit complete with helmet. Only in England (which is one of the many reasons why I like it, another being that Mr Scott’s race times appear comfortingly achieveable, even for me).

Hopefully the £500 of my original aim is very much in sight – having had another look at the information provided by Cancer Research, this would be more than enough to fund (for example) four special cancer information nurses for a day each (£492), buy thousands of glass slides and Petri dishes for laboratory research (£10 for 300/£30 for 250 respectively) or cover eleven day’s running expenses for an important current lab project into a type of children’s cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma. This study aims to identify molecules that are involved in driving tumour growth, and this could lead to improved treatments so that more children survive the disease in the future. Every bit counts.

To this week, and I will be in Scarborough for the majority with a couple of exciting excursions planned – the skies may be dark but the new raincoat is at the ready! There does seem to have been an distinct upturn lately in rude/stupid/Can’t-Read-Won’t-Read enquiries, so please do note that my phone will now be switched off completely between nine pm (and I still won’t be answering calls much after six) and ten am – text messages sent between these times will be dealt with then and the only exceptions will be on those mornings when I am beginning appointments early. After taking a call this week from a gentleman who has actually met me not once but twice, and still regularly rings expecting to just turn up at some point in the next hour (or in twenty minutes time, in this particular instance which would have been interesting given that I was out doing my regular prossie-shop in Wilkos) I am getting heartily sick of it, and I strongly suspect that the days of my advertising a telephone number at all are numbered. Or one that’s switched on, anyway.

More news next week. I have guacamole, carrot and celery sticks (good), fig rolls (debatable) and chocolate milk (well, it is milk). It’s Saturday night, raining outside and the good ship Eurovision sails in under an hour. Despite all of my best intentions, I will undoubtedly be on it.

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