Hello there

Hello Clanettes

Its a horribly wet and windy Wednesday at the end of a wet August and I'm sat here with the urge to blog. I considered starting a new blog and wiping out the writing gaps, starting a fresh new and shiny record of family life but I couldn't think of an appropriate way to do that. So here I am.

Writing to fill gaps is pretty overwhelming because I feel the need to fill them with glitter and rainbows, but I'm not going to do that peeps. Instead I'm going to share a few photos for the last, lost, 8 months and then we're going to move seamlessly on. Kay.

Niamh turned 4

Lochie completed his first triathlon and smashed it

The girls had haircuts

Paul and me, dressed as a wench out for a friends birthday

My birthday

Away with VF

London for Taylor Swift, with my sister

Holibobbles in Cornwall

Leif, my nephew, came to stay

School shoe shopping

I have lots to say, but we are going to take this slow Clanettes.

Stick with me, Im getting there, prom prom xxxx

 

Mac

We have welcomed a tortoise into the clan this weekend, we're all a bit smitten! He's a teeny tiny Hermanns baby, currently weighing 50g and his shell measures 6.5 cm. I say He, but he could be a She.. It's too early to tell gender.. He has a little growing to do first.

With the right conditions, Mac could easily outlive us all, so it wasn't a light decision! 

Why did we call him Mac, I hear you ask! Well! Do you have family 'in' jokes, the kind that make perfect sense to those you live with, the kind that are hilarious in the right company.. But fall flat to anyone not in on the joke..? This is one of those moments.. 

We watched a film a long time ago, where the lead guy, an alien funnily enough, was called Steve. Now anything that requires a name, even things that don't need a name, are Steve. Right..?! Wai though, it gets funnier!

When we think of surnames for Steves, we think of Steve McGarrett, one half of the joint lead characters in Hawaii 5-O. So we named our tortoise McGarrett. Mac for short. After the guy out of Hawaii 5-O. It's an 'in' joke, do you see?

Ahem.

Anyway, here is the gorgeousness that is Mac

On the subject of selfies..

I mentioned previously that Vikki and I are going to attempt a selfie a day this year.. Well we've set up a specific blog to document the photos.. go and take a look http://selfiebloggers365.blogspot.co.uk..!

Happy New Year

Its a whole new year Clanettes, I hope you had a lovely Christmas and saw in the new year with people that you love.

I'm starting 2015 with a few new ideas in place. The smallest, but most significant in blog-land is that I am going to attempt a selfie a day this year, 'selfie365'. My friend VF suggested it and given that I intend to make a lot of changes this year, it seems like an appropriate tool for measuring such changes. Don't worry, I'm not going to post a pic everyday, I'll save them up and post collections.

Personally, or physically I guess, the biggest change is that I have actively decided not to work going into 2015.. Paul has gifted me a personal trainer, called Nick. I have gained a lot of weight. A LOT. Nick is going to inspire me in the gym, keep my workouts fresh and inspire my food choices. At home I am going to become 'Chief Economique' and work on keeping house, looking after Paul and the children. And mysef. I stopped working on myself quite some time ago and its time to remedy that.

It all sounds pretty idyllic really, doesn't it. Truth is, I'm terrified. I'm on a lot of medication right now and I want to start coming off it, so I've got my work cut out for me. I know its time, because this time last year I was m i s e r a b l e. This year I feel hopeful. Thats a good place to start, right?

I'll leave you with a few pics of our Christmas. The few blurry ones I have, were taken by the children, so excuse them, but they are good for setting the scene!

Happy 2015 x x

Wide broad on a big bike

IIt's s the end of November Clanettes. Lochie turned 8 last Tuesday and he had a little cinema and pizza outing with two of his friends. He had a pizza themed cake and was generally a very happy fresh new 8 year old.

I left Cycleworld yesterday. After nearly three months I had had enough time to figure out that being the only girl isn't what I'm looking for in a job. They have been great and I have learnt so much. During my final shift I was cheeky enough to ask for a last favour and they gave me great discount on a mountain bike I have been coveting. It's actually a hard tail (front suspension, no back suspension, hence it having a 'hard tail') and a 29er to boot (29 inch wheels, aka massive). 

I was feeling massively inspired anyway, the guys at Cycleworld are mountain bikers, rather than road bikers and so I have watched a lot of amazing footage of downhill races that I just 'had' to watch (aka they put on and made me watch). But when I got my new beauty home, I realised just how inspiring she was... Is..!

Look at her stem cap! 

I'm a little bit in love with Trek as a brand. Amy, my road bike is a Trek too, and during my time at Cycleworld I had to do a number of Trek online tasks and their motto is 'ride the fastest wheel that fits' - a 29er being the biggest wheel you can get. (Yes yes cycle buffs, I know, I know, it's a general rule of thumb!)

So this morning I was super keen to get out on Xena ( yes, I have really named her Xena) and find some mud! There are two extraordinary things to that last sentence... The terms 'keen' and 'mud'.. In the same sentence!

 

I'm quite a nervous rider at the best of times, and I'm not quite sure where I got the nerve from this morning, but I took myself off to the woods and cycled a fair way a long a small track and then turned around and retraced my steps. I wasn't very fast and I didn't go very far, but I enjoyed myself. I was thrilled at the bike and myself and I haven't felt like that for quite some time.

Riding a big broad bike with rugged wheels is so massively different to teetering on a road bike and I was a little giddy at my confidence. I hate going on unmade roads on Amy, but Xena just powered through the mud and track and kept on going. Brilliant.

I am about to embark on a new chapter at Marks and Spencer's as a Christmas temp and my hours will mean that I have an hour on a Tuesday and Thursday morning to myself.. Maybe to push myself a little further on my 29er. Who knows.

Catching up

A few pics from the last 6 weeks xxx

Boo

Hi there. Shocked eh? I know, I'm back and I'm a bit shocked too. So much to say, so much to catch up on.

Lets just say that this blog post here and this one too have made me think about blogging again, about reconnecting and coming out of my cave to find the wi-fi.

Today I pledge to dust myself off, get back on my bike and make a change.