Advent tree

We have a new Advent tradition this year - an Advent Tree! We bought this on our wedding trip in Berchtesgaden Germany, despite Mr W claiming that there wasn't any room in our suitcase. I'd never seen one of these before and thought it was quite a novel idea. The tree has 24 little hooks on it, and there are 24 little Christmassy ornaments on it, one to be hung up each day of the advent period. We shall endeavour to remember to do this each evening as we light the advent candle.

10k run run!

I'm very proud to share that, having been upping my runs since the completion of Couch to 5k, which I began in September, I took part in my first ever running race yesterday. Not just a 5k, I actually ran in a proper 10k event, the Eynsham 10k. (Eynsham being a large village about 20 minutes run from me). I managed not to get put off by the vast number of runners overtaking me at the start, got into a steady pace and slowly started overtaking the odd runner here and there. It was a little disconcerting when as I approached the end of the first of the two laps, I heard panting and then was overtaken by six or seven very speedy runners, but I managed to put on my own sprint for the last 500m (the marshalls were quite surprised to see someone who was finishing so late putting on such a spurt) and went under the clock at 1 h 4 minutes. When I looked up my timing chip time in the afternoon I found that I'd done it in 1h 3m 50 seconds, no mean feat on less than 3 months of running.

Less impressive was the resulting sugar-low which rendered me incapable of finding where I had left my car. Husband, in Leicester for the day, was completely unable to help, and it took half an hour of wandering around in tears before I found the car park. But small details...

Time to find a half marathon I think!

Advent

As I write, I'm sitting listening to the Advent Carol service on Radio 4 - this is one of my signs that Christmas is getting close. I love advent carols almost as much as Christmas carols, especially O Come O Come Emmanual and Lo he comes with clouds descending. I shall be lighting our advent candle tonight - it's always handy when advent starts before the beginning of December because you can get through that extra bit of candle before the numbers start.

I am excited about Christmas this year. It's been so long since Mr W and I had more than 2 days together (our honeymoon in fact), and it's the first time that we've been in our own house! We've worked so hard to get it to a presentable stage that it will be a pleasure to put the decorations up and have people around. I don't feel terribly Christmassy yet - well, there are 4 weeks to go - I think it is to do with the the still unseasonably warm weather. Just hoping that we don't have snow this December - the 8 hours in the car to take our nieces to the ballet in London last year was something that I'd rather not repeat with this year's excursion!

I'm not sure I'll have time to participate, but several of my very favourite bloggers are organising it, so here's a quick mention for Austen in Advent - do go over and check it out!

Beautiful books and carpet

The highlight of the past week has been finally getting new carpet in our dining room and hall.

Unfortunately, not having had a dining room before, and only having a small table (the kitchen table from my childhood) we are somewhat lacking in things to put in the dining room.

Well, that's not strictly true. As you can see...


(Apologies for the dreadful light in the picture...)

My non Virago fiction was currently residing upstairs in the third bedroom, but I didn't really like having the books in there. The room is somewhat grotty (and will be our next redecoration project, hopefully over the Christmas break), and as it's the smallest bedroom it was absolutely crammed solid. The plan is to move them back once it's decorated, but y'know, I quite like them there... (Poor Mr W's books are still in the garage)

This weekend

This weekend has been all about preparing for Christmas. I know it's not even advent yet, but I know how busy the weeks before Christmas get and I want to be able to enjoy events and be able to be spontaneous rather than worry about the things that I haven't done.

So this weekend has seen:
1. Wrapping of Christmas presents (extraordinarily exhausting, and still one more for Mother-in-law, yet to arrive to go).
2. Parcelling up Christmas presents to be posted
3. Ripping Christmas cds to itunes to create a Christmas playlist for advent tea party
4. Devising of cake menu for advent tea party
5. Reading of Christmas issue of Good Housekeeping magazine for inspiration
6. Purchase of poinsettia when Mr W offered to buy me flowers
7. Sampling of Waitrose Brandy Ice Cream (delicious)
8. Sampling of mini Christmas cake (oh how can I resist eating the big one?)
9. Attempted purchase of Christmas tree (foiled as the garden centre only had a paltry selection this early).

In other news, very tired and busy with work so things may be quiet on the blogging front but will be popping in and out over the next few weeks. Only 24 more working days until the Christmas holidays! Can't wait!!

An ABC of me...

...or "too much information". Reading with Tea did this meme yesterday and as I'm tired and uninspired, here are my answers!

Age: 27.5

Book Size: Something portable and in paperback.

Chore that you hate: Taking out the garbage/doing the hand washing-up.

Dogs: As long as it’s nowhere near me, you can keep yours (I stole this answer from Yvann, but how true for me too!)

Essential start to your day: A swim. Immersion in water wakes me up and makes me feel I've done something useful before getting dressed.

Favorite colour: Pink. If there's a choice of colour, I want it in pink.

Gold or Silver: Silver generally, but I wear white gold wedding and engagement rings - but that's silver coloured rather than gold surely?!

.Height: 5' 6"

Instruments you play: Euphonium, baritone, trombone, piano - I used to play the flute too. I also play the triangle with considerable skill.

Job Title: Reading Room Supervisor (Radcliffe Camera and Gladstone Link)

Kids: are best when you only borrow them and can give them back..

Live: Oxford, UK.

Milk: semi-skimmed (1.5%-2%) or soya if on my cereal. Soya doesn't work in coffee or I'd have it all the time.

Nicknames: V, Veri, and at work I seem to get called "pet" a lot by my new team.

Oldest living relative: My Gran - 83 I think.

Pet Peeves: Husband watching fail videos on You Tube, it raining when I have to cycle home.

Quote from a movie: "It's a bloody euphonium" (Brassed off)

Right or Left handed: Left!

Siblings: Nope, but now I have a sister AND brother in law! Yayy!

Time you wake up: Just before 6.05 due to the fact that the wake-up-daylight-lamp is set a tad earlier than my phone alarm. I don't actually wake up properly until mid morning, sometimes not even til after lunch.

Underwear: Yes. Except when I forget to pack it...

Vegetable you hate: Where to start? Brussel sprouts, turnips, swedes, parsnips, beetroot. And do not even mention cabbage to me…

What makes you run late: Struggling to get out of bed, having an extra cuddle with my husband.

X-Rays you’ve had: Teeth. But the latest one did not show up the fact that my roots on my wisdom teeth were growing at a funny angle and that I should really probably have gone to the hospital for its extraction. Also had a chest xray aged 10 for a heart murmur.

Yummy food that you make: Cake, in all sorts of forms.

Zoo animal: Penguins!

Phew! Are you still reading?!

Christmas cake baking

Have made a Christmas cake, using the wedding cake recipe (but using gluten free flour) - I hope it will be tasty. Since the recipe gave quantities for a square tin, I used the mix left over to make a mini 4" cake, which I decorated with leftovers from the wedding cake I made the other weekend... Isn't it cute?

This weekend

This weekend has been only a half weekend as I was back at work today; I hope this will be my last Sunday for a while. But not all is lost; I spent my teabreak rereading the Persephone Books A place in the country by Jocelyn Playfair - had forgotten what a wonderful tale it is.

I had a productive day yesterday, and now all of our Christmas cards are written - just awaiting Mr W to sign them, seal and stamp them. The Christmas cake spent four hours in the oven and smelt wonderful. And all of this followed on from a race around the shops on Friday lunchtime which leaves me just 3 presents away from completing my Christmas shopping. Two of these will be books, I just need to decide quite what my mother in law and Mr W's sister in law would like to read... Always tricky!

One of the reasons that it's been difficult for me to blog so much is that I've upped my sports a bit and am now running twice a week after work and on Saturdays. I've mentioned the Couch 2 5k programme several times now, and on Wednesday I proudly completed the penultimate week, running for 28 minutes. On Saturday I absolutely smashed that on a run with Mr W; we went out over 4 miles and were running for a grand total of 41 minutes. I'm really proud of the progress that I've made from not being able to run at all, to injuring myself on the second session, through to this and have reward myself with some running leggings with pink go faster stripes on. Am sure they helped on Saturday! I find it really good to be outside for half an hour or so after a day indoors even if it's dark and it really provides a way to clear my head from some very busy times at work.

Cross Stitch Christmas cards

I've finally managed to get around to finishing off the cross stitches that I did whilst I had mumps and in the weeks thereafter and turn them into Christmas cards. I'm really pleased with them.



Now I need to make some cards in bulk for the rest of the Christmas card list!

More Autumn treats

Another firework inspired cake using my bundt tin - have had it for two years and never used it but the occasion seemed right just now. It's just a simple orange flavoured sponge - and at least it came out of the tin!



Also made some parsnip, blue cheese and pumpkin seed muffins - recipe from the Sainsburys magazine. Very Autumnal and beautifully cheesy even if you can't really taste the parsnip.