Easter frolics!

This last fortnight hasn't been very successful for me from an exercise and diet point of view as I've been a bit snowed under at work and everything else has taken a bit of a back seat. Angela and Flora (who I'm sure are also busy!) have managed to put a lot more into the exercise and activity. Things started well on the Saturday of Easter weekend when we met up and walked 9.8 miles from Hoylake to New Brighton along the Wirral coastal path. It was jolly cold but it was good to get out and blow the cobwebs away and we all felt like we'd achieved something at the end of it, despite aching a bit!

We even found some sand to trek across!

 The following day I went off to York with my family and didn't do a great deal of activity there, although it was very nice and I enjoyed visiting the Jorvik centre. I ached quite a bit after Saturday's walk so was very impressed to find that Angela had rushed up Moel Famau on Easter Sunday! Here's what she had to say about it:

'Trying to keep up the good work so when Sonia and Mart, my brother in law and his wife, asked us if we wanted to go up Moel Famau I was there like a shot. It was a lovely day yesterday but very very cold. Lots of people and lots of snow at Moel Famau so in parts it was difficult to walk because it was icy. The scenery was lovely and we could see Snowdon was covered in thick snow. Great views when we got to the top, unfortunately no loos! Slid our way back down to the car park. Enjoyed my cuppa when I got home. No doubt I will be back again before too long. A good training for the trek day!'

Flora has been out on her bike along the Wirral Way with her daughter and this weekend has been to Hayfield near Glossop where she visited Kinder Reservoir with her husband Amir:

 

 

 



I used my trekking prep as the perfect excuse to buy myself a new pair of boots. After a bit of research I found a pair which were no 2 in the Independent Top 10 women's walking boots list, on sale for £29.99, bonus! I was very pleased with myself :)

 

 

I set off this morning for a walk with the dogs across the fields which were horribly muddy last time I ventured out that way. They were much better today although the bridleways were still muddy and churned up.

 

 

My walking companions for the day, Flora and Angela were looking a little ruff!!! :D

 

 

I was merrily trogging along, apart from the occasional pause to poop scoop and was quite pleased as I was making good progress, mostly due to my badly behaved dogs dragging me along. Then Jessie, the beagle, started to limp a little and I thought for a while that I was going to have to pick the big fat thing up and carry her across the fields. That would certainly have been a workout and a half! No sooner had Jessie stopped limping than my toes started to get cramp in them and it was agony! That'll teach me to set off on what was meant to be a 2.5 hour walk in new boots. So I ended up calling my husband and getting him to pick us up after we'd only walked for about 1 hour 45 mins. Never mind, at least I got out, but it wasn't the 4 hour trek that the training programme says we're meant to be doing!

 

Our fund raising efforts have gathered momentum over the last couple of weeks. Lots of people seem to be having spring clear outs and Gill Hart, Catherine Jones, Sarah Vye and Kathy Burgess have all given us lovely stuff to sell on either eBay or at a car boot sale. We've all made progress organising supermarket bag packs which can raise, what sounds like, an awful lot of money! I ran a couple of sweepstakes for the Grand National and was very grateful to my work mates, neighbours and family for taking part. We raised £30 with the two sweepstakes, my husband donated his £5 winnings and my lovely Aunt Dot donated an extra £10. So in all we raised £45. I've booked Oxton Conservative Club on Friday April 26th for a race night. Tickets will be £5 and will include a small fish supper. Hopefully it'll be a good laugh and help to raise some funds.

 

We're all meeting with Sam at Clatterbridge Cancer Charity tomorrow to pick her brains about other fundraising ideas so hopefully we'll have even more plans after that.

 

Right, I'd better leave it there and head off to bed. My husband goes back to work tomorrow after a 3 month break so I'm intending to break my new boots in by taking the dogs out for a walk for half an hour every week day before we go to work. I'm announcing this in public because I really love my bed and will be very tempted to not get up in time! So I'll let you know next week whether I managed to drag myself out of my pit to give the dogs some exercise.

 

TTFN, Pauline.