N is for natural medicine

If you've read either of my previous two posts you'll understand why a five-year old's birthday party was not top of my agenda for things to do this afternoon. And indeed we'd initially planned that my wife would take the children, and I'd try and get some stuff done on our allotment.

But after an early start prompted by our youngest (6.30am on a Sunday and you want to get up?, yeah thanks son) followed by a morning of 'challenging' behaviour from our eldest (sickness driven I'm sure, he always acts up when he's not well) the plan changed, and we decided we probably needed a one:one adult/child ratio to head off the risk of mutually assured destruction at the party.

As it turned out, our fears were unfounded. The party was held in Leigh Woods, a lovely patch of woods about ten minutes drive away, and the calming effects of putting children in woods is a sight to behold. At this age most kid's parties degenerate into sticky red-faces and ear-splitting shouting within about a quarter of an hour (which, to be fair, if you can be zen about it is part of their charm) but there was nothing like that today - sure there was a fair bit of stickiness on faces, but something about having the shouting framed by tree canopies and bird-song seems to change the nature of it for the better.

Professionally the best interview I've ever had the pleasure of was with Margaret Atwood (a truly gracious, and fascinating interviewee), and one of the things she was big on was nature deficit disorder - the idea that our kids are missing out on interaction with the natural world, and suffering behavioural problems as a result. One of the things she said was that studies have shown that simply walking in the woods for an hour lowers blood pressure and heart-rate. I never looked up the studies, but I know for sure that my children were calmer at the end of the party than the beginning, and that as a result my blood pressure seemed much lower. So next time you're feeling rubbish or sick, try a walk (or a birthday party) in the woods - truly a natural tonic if ever there was one.

Manic weekend

Well it's Sunday night now, and I'm two posts short of keeping up with the A-Z challenge. The weekend's been pretty busy: the cold has got worse, my last day in the office before Easter was hectic for various tedious reasons, and the kids are both still suffering. On the bright side today is my seven year anniversary of being married to the most wonderful woman in the world, and we went to a lovely birthday party today that I'm about to blog about on N. So with the need to catch up I'm going to draw a discrete veil over M.

Running log
Not likely with the cold I've got!

Lack of inspiration

I'm tired, the cough/cold/ear infection that has been playing havoc with my kids for the last week seems to be catching up with me, and try as I might I can't think of anything to blog about on an L theme (well that's not strictly true, I've been sitting here trying to brainstorm Ls, and I keep coming back to Luton, a dreary town outside London that I've never even been to, which if I embraced could turn into the dullest blog entry of all time).

To spark my creative thought I've been cruising some of the other blogs on the A-Z challenge, and have come to the conclusion my time would be more productive just enjoying these blogs for what they are, rather than trying to read them to steal ideas. So I'm giving up trying for a decent L and moving on to the next day. Now, about an M. . .

Running log
Played my weekly game of football tonight - shivery and light-headed, it wasn't fun

K is for kilo. . .

. . . or a thousand page views, a milestone this blog hit today. Not bad in a month or so, so thank you to anyone who was one of those thousand or so visitors (and by definition is still reading afterwards!)

The numbers are down, in their entirety, to my post on Goldie's Band - somehow it was picked up by the BBC website, and I got a link from there. So the moral of the story is that if you want to drive traffic, blog about a BBC programme. It's a shame Jamie's Dream School (that I've just finished watching) was on channel4, or I could have added an extra J post!

J is for Just William

I missed yesterday's post - the combination of two sick children meant I was literally left holding the baby last night, as my two-year old's blocked nose meant he could only sleep while upright. . . To make up for lost time it will be two short posts tonight.

My J is Just William, which I'm half-way through reading to my eldest son as his bedtime book. The truth is it's probably a bit too old for him yet, as he's only five, and he happily admits to not understanding a word of it. He doesn't seem that bothered though - I think he likes listening to the rhythm of it rather than the story - and I'm persisting because I've never read it before, and it's hilarious. Between working and running around after two small kids most of the reading I do these days is to my children - so it's lovely when you come across a gem that you're glad to be reading anyway.

Running log
Nothing since Monday, and I think I'm getting my kids' virus, so this state might become catching.

I just wanna sing!

So, after a fairly long night with a sick two-year old, I was tired this morning, and had to force myself out at lunchtime for the run I'd already put off from the weekend. As ever, once you make the effort it's worth it, and I set to thinking about an I for my blog.

By the time I'd completed my four miles I'd sketched out an idea about intensity of effort and incremental improvement. Something about an analogy between running, blogging and a metaphor for life; you can't reach the stars every time you run/blog/take part in some undefined activity.

To be honest though I wasn't really feeling it fully. And as I got back into the office I realised why - my ipod was halfway through my favourite track on Radiohead's OK Computer, No Surprises, and I had to bite my tongue to stop from singing out loud (something about being professional means you're not allowed to do that kind of stuff or something). And it struck me: incremental improvement, shrincremental improvement, I just wanna sing! For now, I'll leave it to the professionals:



Running log
Distance: 4 miles
Pace: A little shy of 9 minute miles.
Location: Bristol harbour

View this running route at FriendFit.com

H is for hearty chuckle

I've got two young boys - they're five and two respectively - and alongside being amazing, beautiful, creative, imaginative, sensitive little creatures, it's fair to say they can be hard work at times. They're both a bit under the weather at the moment, and this evening we deposited them in a shared bath and took five minutes to compose ourselves for the final bedtime push.

Being the first chance in the day I'd had for independent thought, I mentioned to my wife that I needed to think about an H to blog about, and my well was running a little dry. At which point my youngest's special laugh drifted across our kitchen from the bath - there's probably nothing in the world as pure and innocent as a baby's laugh; or as uplifting. After a long, hot day it was tonic indeed, and instantly gave me a topic for H.

So this particular entry is for my children, and their hearty chuckles.

Running log
Distance: Interminable (as anyone who's got small kids will tell you)
Pace: Unrelenting
Location: My house, my allotment, the park. (Again, no maps necessary)