The snow has melted, my bronchitis has fully abated, my kit is washed, the Ipod is charged, and I’m left with no excuse.  Today I picked up running again after a seriously long period of absenteeism.  I half-heartedly ran in El Retiro in Madrid during the summer but, to be honest, running in 30 degrees plus is not the most pleasant of experiences.  I haven’t really run regularly in yonks.  But I’m back in the temperate climate of good ol’ Blighty, and it’s time to start up again.

It was brilliant.  I’d really forgotten the reasons I love running.  I turned back to it through feelings of guilt that I wasn’t doing sufficient exercise, that I owed it to myself to try to feel as good as I could, and that’s what motivated me to blow the dust off the trainers and get stuck in.  But that isn’t what will motivate me next time.  Today was just fantastic.  I wasn’t as unfit as I feared, managing a couple of miles without too many problems.  But it wasn’t the sense of satisfaction from this, but rather the intake of the crisp winter air, the bright sunshine filtering through the leaves, the deep blue of the sky, and the almighty great big endorphin rush it’s set me up with for the rest of the day.

For all those people too hard-bitten by the recession to think about joining a gym I recommend whole-heartedly that you consider running/jogging.  Health/safety tips including Beginner’s plans are available on Runner’s World http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/ (it’s crucial not to overdo things if you’re starting up again, or starting from scratch).  Running is cheap (unless you go all freaky kit-buying), great exercise, and it offers the great outdoors to you, and a feeling of being solitary which cannot be obtained in a busy, bustling gym.

I’ve never taken it super-seriously, but I’ve loved participating in the charity runs that I’ve done, the last one being a 10k race chasing men in banana outfits in aid of Leukaemia Research http://www.bananaman10k.com/.  It’s a great hobby and there are plenty of opportunities for those who do want to treat it with a more hardcore approach.  But there is one thing that’s vital: no matter how hard you’re training, no matter how well you’re doing with your times, with your distances, remember one thing: the moment it stops being fun, the moment you find it more of a chore than of a pleasure you need to stop, and reconsider your priorities.  Because running is one of the easiest things to stop doing, and it would be such a shame to lose all those health and psychological benefits for the sake of feeling bad and demoralised about a few seconds lost on a personal best.  If you can’t be the best, then at least be the rest: the long-term benefits of being a regular runner will leave you a winner http://www.therunningbug.co.uk/ArticleDetails.aspx?Title=The+Benefits+of+Running+-+Why+Start+in+the+First+Place%3F.

So here’s to 2010, and for another year of running for fun!

I love decorating the Christmas tree.  It’s the thing that first puts me in the festive mood, best done with a glass of mulled wine, dodgy santa hat, and crimbo songs on the hifi.  This year I’ve been lucky enough to do three, all in very different styles.  Last week I bought some incredibly sexy Christmas tree decorations from Debenhams.  I spied them in a magazine and headed straight to town, where I bought a high heeled purple shoe, a glittery ballerina, two sparkly reindeer, a silver Christmas tree and a bejewelled dragon fly to adorn my 6ft black Christmas tree (clearly I’m not going for traditional this year).  I’m sure boys will hate them, and purists will be disgusted, but they’ve made me very happy.  Here’s a photo of some of them:

According to the Telegraph, the most expensive bauble is £82000.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/6507914/The-worlds-most-expensive-Christmas-bauble-costs-82000.html It’s pretty swish, with a bjillion diamonds, pretty incredible stuff.  For those a little more skint, but into their kitsch, I’m a big fan of the photo baubles which allow you to stick in a photo of a loved one/dog so they can adorn your tree.  http://www.boots.com/en/Photo-Baubles-4-pack_124702/.  They’re not classy, but they are rather appealing.

 So what’s the origins of the humble bauble? Well, according to the gem of all knowledge that is Wikipedia, the bauble’s origins are based in the mock symbol of authority baton carried by a court jester.  They’ve been in production since 1847 and the Polish name for them is bombka (little bomb).  First made in Lauscha, Germany by Hans Greiner, they were imported from Germany to the USA by F W Woolworth.  

 Many of us have special family baubles: I still have my “Baby’s First Christmas” bauble, which is still going strong over a quarter of a century later.  I also made various Christmas decorations as a small child.  Until recently, every year the same decorations would come out: the little gnomes with the bendy legs, the Santa with his hand chewed off by the dog, the little gold glittery apples which the cat used to like to eat, the tiny wooden nativity scene, and the “vermicelli” tinsel.  Our family has changed in recent years so it seems right that the tree has changed too.  I think it’s one of the lovely things about Christmas that the Christmas tree can end up representing the history of a family, the shared years and memories.  So whilst I love the new decorations I’ve bought, and plan to use them for many years to come, there’ll always be a place in my heart for the old ones and, when (if!) I have my own children, I’d like to think that decorating the Christmas tree with baubles old and new will be an action which will reignite happy memories of Christmasses past.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Hallowe’en is one of my favourite holidays so I’m pretty up for this weekend – I’ve always loved horror films, and it’s like having a whole day dedicated to the genre.  It wasn’t a big deal when I was a kid, but USA influence has made it a stronger holiday in the UK, and the past few years see it as a widespread celebration.  It’s horrifically commercial, of course, but that’s half the fun.  The holiday originates in the Celtic celebration Samhain (pron. sow-in), which commemorated the death of the summer sun god Lugh and the beginning of the darker half of the year.  On Hallowe’en night, traditionally the barriers between this world and the world of the dead become thinner, and spirits (both good and evil) could get through easily.  This accounts for costume-wearing, as people disguised themselves as evil spirits so that the evil spirits didn’t notice them.  Evil spirits sounding a bit stupid there, but I guess it worked since people continued the tradition.  The omnipresent pumpkin, or Jack-O’-Lantern, is due (according to some) to a dodgy Irish bloke called Jack, who was so bang out of order that neither God nor the Devil wanted anything to do with him; consequently he spent his life wandering around trapped, with only a candle in a turnip for warmth.  Read here for more versions of the legend:

http://www.pumpkinnook.com/facts/jack.htm

Hallowe’en traditions hit the US along with the mass migration of Irish to the States during the Great Potato Famines, and the Irish discovered a gourd called a pumpkin was a hell of a lot easier to carve. 

I’m a big fan of Hallowe’en parties, (if you’re planning one check out Nigella’s awesome recipes for witches’ hair, slime soup, blood and guts potatoes and ghoul-graveyard cake in Feast)  but this year due to the being ill thing I’ll be celebrating in a more sedate manner.  Will try to drag myself from my deathbed to the veggyshop opposite to see if they have any pumpkins to carve, then I’m going to curl up with some pumpkin soup, warm bread, and a horror film.  Bliss!  Happy Hallowe’en everyone!

About a year ago I came across a fantastic learning resource on the net, and was recently reminded of it again.  Run by the Open University, “OpenLearn” is a free site which allows you to sign up for various modules from undergraduate to masters level, on a wide range of subjects, from art, history, business, languages, to science, social science, economics, education and IT, and to follow the course like distance learning.  But FREE.  For those of us who kinda wished that General Studies had been a valid degree course choice it’s an excellent way to learn about subjects which you would not have the opportunity to do otherwise without wondering about the hodge-podge mess it would make of your university credits.  Last year whilst training for a 10k I completed modules in sports science, including “Funding elite sport”, “Improving aerobic fitness” and “Exploring sport online: Athletes and efficient hearts”.   Over the past couple of years I’ve become increasingly interested in topics such as human rights, international relations and development studies.  Having spent 7 years at university I wasn’t so keen to do any more paid study, but OpenLearn has provided me with the perfect chance to learn more about these subjects by experts in the field.  I’m currently studying an MA module entitled “Introducing international development management” and another advanced module called “Who counts as a refugee?”.  I hope in the future to take these studies further and to take a full-cost Open University course, but for now, whilst I’m poor and overworked (!), I’m very happy to have found OpenLearn.

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/