Saturday 21 January 2017

Birthdays, Bakes and Running

2017, so far so good.

January is mostly about birthdays at Vivod. The eldest turned 19 which was uneventful, she didn't even go out to celebrate! This year, for her, is particularly stressful as she's finishing her A-Levels and really hoping to get a place Manchester Uni to study English and Drama. She's working really hard and staying very focused, I admire her greatly.

The middle child turned 17 which, of course, can never be uneventful, it's the middle child after all. She went on her very first driving lesson which apparently went well, here's a quote from our family chat that she posted on her return:

"Dan (driving instructor) basically said I was mint and was well impressed"

Oh the confidence at 17! :-) Don't worry, she has no plans to study English at degree level, as you might tell, she has her own path to find in life but her priority right now is to learn to drive and to find a job that pays enough to fund the purchase of a car and insurance, but she's focused on that so I can't complain.

I'm always on the lookout for an excuse to use my new Kenwood Chef, so when I returned from work that day I made her this...




It's so hard to believe she'll be an adult in less than a year.

So in between birthdays and work I've been running as much as I can (well maybe not that much but lots) to train for the first half marathon of the year. The Four Villages Half Marathon took place on 15th January. It started and finished in Helsby, in Cheshire, but encompasses 3 other villages too along the way, as you may have guessed. It a scenic route even on a wet and windy day and you get one of these at the end to add to the collection:




I'm trying my best to finish a half in under 2 hours but I'm quite a way off at the moment. I did the 4 villages in 2:09 but it was hilly so we'll see how the next ones goes in a month. The next one's flat so I'm hoping to get in around 2:07 ish but you never can tell what will happen on the day.

One last photo to finish off which was today's bake: