New Website and Blog

Last year I started a new little venture.  It was not even supposed to be a venture when I started it, but it is growing and I am super excited.  Mostly I am excited as I get to share my absolute love of running with more and more women.

Over the past few years, I have been getting asked quite a  bit about running. Mostly by the mom’s at school when I drop Kaylin off but also by other people I meet.  I seem to spend most of my time in running clothes (and it is my main topic of conversation – yes I am that person)

The questions I was getting were all quite similar.

• But how do you do it?
• I’d love to start running but have no idea where to begin…
• I’ll never be a runner, I can’t get around the block or even the next lamp pole.
• I can’t breathe when I run…
• I don’t even know what clothes or shoe to wear…

I was not really surprised to be getting these questions, I used to think most of them myself when I first attempted to run.  What did surprise me was how often I was getting them and then how many women came to me a month or two later and said I had been the motivation they needed to start running and my comments had really helped them.  Quite a few started running regularly and we now run races together.    A number of even suggested I put together something to help more women.  After thinking about it for a while I decided to do just that.  Informally at first, but last year October I made it a little more formal and held my first 8 Weeks to 5Km Challenge.  I had 50 women sign up – I was totally blown away!!!!  I did not realise just how many women wanted to start running but just needed a little bit of guidance and support.

Over the past year I have hosted a few more 8 Weeks to 5km Challenges, put together a website and am now trying to hold a new Challenge every 6 weeks or so.

I have a new Challenge that started today and I am super excited.  I love getting to share this journey with women who either have never run before or who have been out of running for a while and would like to get back into it.  I have also decided to start blogging again mostly about running.  My new website is www.8weeksto5km.com and my blog is over there as well.

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An achievement and a giveaway!

I know I have said this before, but I have been blown away by the support I have been receiving for SA Medal Hangers – and I know it seems weird to say, but I am stupid proud of them. I have one up on my wall and I stare at it all the time. I am not sure which I am more proud off, the medals that hang from it or the actually hanger.
I also know it is early days, I know I still have far to go and I know that having a full time job has been a huge cushion for me in starting this business, but I am really proud of myself for taking what could have been a blow and trying to make it a positive.
Before starting this I did keep most of my medals, but they were hanging on a broken clothes hanger in the back bedroom cupboard. I would not look at them, but just add another medal as I got it. It was actually Mr OL’s suggestion that we display them but could not really think of a solution and then I found this idea.
Now that the medals are up and I can see them I realise just how far I have come. I started running again in 2005 and did my first Ironman in 2007. In the past 8 years running and triathlon have become a huge part of my life and I love it!
I know that not everybody wants to display their medals, and a lot of people don’t even take them at races, but since putting them up on the wall I have started seeing them not just as the metal and ribbon, but as something more than that! As an achievement – and something I should be very proud off.
To give somebody else the opportunity to feel that sense of pride and achievement I have decided to run a giveaway on SA Medal Hangers’ Facebook page. The details are all there, so please go and have a look. You could win a 65cm triple bar medal hanger of your choice! (Sorry – Open to South African Residents only). CLICK HERE for details.

The little things

I am not going to say that I have things sorted with Little OL because 3 year olds change their minds at the drop of a hat, but let’s just say that last week was MUCH better than the week before.

I asked our nanny to come in 30 minutes later, so that we would have already left the house by the time she arrived (I had to laugh to myself about that one, I must be the only woman in SA that asked her nanny to come in late) and I have been fetching her at midday.  This unfortunately takes an hour out of my work day which I can’t really afford at the moment, but it is a small price to pay for a happy child.

She still moans when she wakes that she does not want to go to school but as soon as I mentioned that she would be all alone at home and that her nanny is only coming in much later she goes and gets dressed and ready. There have been no tears (her or me) and no drama….Ahhhhh, I love a peaceful house.

It is amazing what a difference those two changes have made.

 

 

 

 

oh oh! That’s not good.

Ok – not a good start to the day!

I parked my car outside work this morning and reached under my seat for my shoes…. and reached and reached and then panicked!!!  Yip, I had forgotten to bring shoes to work.

Crap! 

Decisions??? Do I phone up and say I am going to be late, well later than I already was or do I try and sneak in with nobody noticing and hide in my office till lunch time…….

Let’s just say that I am not good about sneaking – busted!!!  I think they are all still laughing.

And I can’t even blame porridge brain any more.

URGH!!! I am having a blonde moment at work and it is driving me insane! 

The IT guy at work set up a new email account for me and I can’t remember the username.  I can remember the password, I wrote that down incase I forgot it, but username…. NOPE. 

I am a Dunce!

There are only so many variations I can try and I think I have exhausted them.  Infact I think it might have already blocked me.  I had to phone the IT guy to ask him. And he can’t remember either…. Oops.  He is going to have to come in and have a look on the system and unblock it if it is blocked.  Yes, and to make matters worse we use an external IT company so it is not as if he can just wonder on down the passage….

EDITED TO ADD: I was being even more stupid than I thought!!!!  I had the right username, but I was forgetting to press shift to get to the # sign so was using 3 instead.  URGH!!!! DOFF.

Getting my own back….

Is it wrong to take a perverse pleasure in doing something that you know somebody else is going to hate???? 

The company I work for is growing quickly and they now need to put more controls and procedures in place.  That has been left to me.  Thankfully I love rules and regulations.  I like procedures and things must be done right.  For example, I have never had a parking ticket, I would just NEVER park somewhere where I am not supposed to and I get stressed when I see people doing it.  If there is a sign that says to stand behind the line then I will stand behind the line.  I know that not all people are like that, in fact, I know that people like that are few and far between.  

So you can imagine that when I was asked to draw up checklists, put procedures in place and set up controls I was a happy girl. Especially when I realised that the person who will be most affected by my controls is the person who will resist them

the most. And this person is also the one that said something that I had not comeback to a few weeks ago. So a perverse pleasure….. I had no comeback to his rudeness a few weeks ago, but now….hee hee hee!  Every little checkbox I create on my lists brings smile to my face.

to work and back

and not much else……

I have not even been back at work two weeks and I seem to have run out of blogging mojo….. I suppose the only things I am doing at present is going to work and then rushing home so the nanny can get her bus in time.  I don’t even have time to stop for some groceries or anything.

I am going to have to start blogging about stuff I see in traffic – NOT – but seems to be the only time I am out.  I think I need to do something about that.

I am hoping that when Baby OL settles into a bit more of a morning routine (and it is lighter) that I can run again before work.  Some days (if it were light) I could do it.  Like this morning, she woke up at 5am, I fed her and she went straight back to sleep.  Unfortunately there are also days like yesterday (and I say unfortunately solely in regards to running and not the fact that she slept late) when she woke up at 6:30am.

Back to her sleep patterns. She has always been very good, and slept through (12 hours) for the first time at 9 weeks and then did it for about 65% of the time.  However at about 14 weeks she started waking 2 – 3 times again.  Thankfully this week she has gone back to pretty much sleeping 12 hours or close to it again.  However, between Mr OL, the cats and the dogs they seem to be conspiring to keeping me awake.  Hmmm, maybe I should also put them all on sleep training???

1 more week!

I can’t believe I am due next week! Wow, it seems to have come around pretty fast. 

I plan on working for as long as possible – so far so good and I am not too uncomfortable or anything like that.  My intention is to work up until the birth or until the 19 February, which ever comes first remembering that I am actually due on the 18^th!  I might be mad…  

As for internet access and letting everyone know what is going on.  I can access Facebook on my phone, so if you are a FB friend, you will be kept in the loop.  If you want to be a FB friend then let me know. 

My mom also thankfully lives pretty close to me and she has internet access at her house.  Baby and I might be visiting her a lot more often than she thought.  I am also going to see if I can take my laptop home with me and possibly arrange something.  Mr OL is still against getting internet at home but maybe with some convincing……..

Checkered past…

Charisa wrote about her first summer job and it got me thinking about jobs I have done. And there are LOTS!!!!  

I applied for my first permanent job in 2000 at the grand old age of 28. What can I say I am a late starter?  Prior to that I did temp jobs, which I LOVED!  Unfortunately it is not something that you can continue doing indefinitely. 

Some of the jobs I have done were pretty – hmmm….interesting.  A lot of them I would never want to repeat, however the do make for the best memories and stories. 

So here goes (and I am sure I will forget some).  EDITED TO ADD – this got a bit long, so I have cut out some of the more conventional jobs. 

1. Waitressing – at quite a few different places with varying results.  At the first place I lasted 1 ½ days at another I lasted nearly 3 years.  In 1994 I vowed I would never waitress again and I have not.  My first tip ever was R5.00 a lot to me at the time, especially considering I had spilt an entire bottle of red wine over the woman who happened to be wearing a white summer dress.  I thought I would be fired. (Plettenberg Bay, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town)
2. Packing CD’s – the result of vowing never to waitress again.  Not easy finding work in London if you are unqualified and won’t work in a restaurant.
3. Sticker Remover…  Don’t ask. (London)
4. Credit Card Counter……  It was boring and tedious but the most exciting part was that I got to use a computer with Excel so was able to add that to my CV. I must have been quite good at counting as they offered me a full time job.  I left. (Edinburgh)
5. Pharmacist assistant at a hospital; first for out-patients – I hated it and after the 2^nd day I told them I was leaving, so they moved me to in-patients.  I had to go into operating rooms and count supplies.  URGH!  I could never be a doctor or nurse or anything in the medical profession. (London)
6. Receptionist – at a drug centre.  To close to medical stuff so I left.  After that I had 2 more criteria for jobs I would NEVER do!  (London) 

After that I had 2 more criteria to add to jobs I would NEVER do!  Nothing medical, no reception work and no waitressing!!  I was getting fussy. 

1. Envelope stuffer (yes, that was the actual job title that was on my pay slip).  Yip, very fussy. (London)  Then I got promoted to..
2. Financial advisor….????  Who knows…I must have shown some promise in stuffing those envelopes.  I remained “Financial Advisor for 10 months.  Actually until they offered me a full time position and I freaked and left. (This was a trend).  (London)
3. Garlic picker – this has to be one of the WORST jobs in the world, it is back breaking and you stink of garlic.  I did it for 2 days the first I got sunburnt so I covered myself in sunscreen for the 2^nd day.  It rained and the mud stuck to my sunscreen and it ran into my eyes.  NOT FUN (New Zealand)
4. Peach picker, slightly better than garlic, but only slightly. Who knew you could be allergic to the fuzz on peaches.  (New Zealand)
5. Apple packer – better than picking peaches but not by much. After a couple of weeks I decided to quit!  I walked over to the manager to tell him but before I could say anything he asked if I could type – YES!!!!  I got moved to Apple Control.  FUN!!  I stayed a few months.   When I asked him later why he chose me he said I had the longest legs and the shortest shorts.  Woo hoo!  Glad I bought those shorts (New Zealand) 

I have also worked as a cleaner (Sweden), a Guest House manager (South Africa), a Buyer (also SA) and as an event planner (SA).  Now I work in insurance – go figure!!! 

Talk about having a checkered career – it was fun (at times) and at least I can look back now and laugh.

Out of Office!

I’m on leave from 4:30pm today!  

Today is my last day at work for this year!  It means that it is also my last day of blogging.  I will be taking a holiday (enforced).  I don’t have internet at home, so will only update when I get back to work on the 4^th January. 

So – I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Hope you all get to spend it with your families and loved ones and that this time is safe and restful. 

I can’t wait for the break.  Just to spend time at home, try and resurrect my garden and just potter around.  Although resurrecting anything with water restrictions is a bit difficult and probably explains why it looks the way it does! 

Merry Christmas – will miss you all!

And just before I go – my baby is due in 2 months today!!