Scout's Honour

My boys have both been through the ranks at cubs. Griffin has been a cub since he was 7 and in Grade 1. He has watched Quinn move up to Scouts and has been looking forward to being able to become a scout ever since. Although both really enjoy Cubs and it was really good for them, it turns out Scouts is even cooler and they LOVE it.

So Griffin has been attending Scouts since the beginning of this year, now that he is 11. This past Friday was his investiture, he is now a fully fledged Scout. 

 

Well done Riff Raff!

Cadiz Milkwood 10km Run

Yesterday saw my début as a club runner. I have been running since late 2005 and resisted the pressure to join a club until this year, when it almost seemed silly NOT to. So as part of an entry special for the Gun Run in Oct I joined AAC . I finally went to register and got my license and kit a couple of weeks ago, and even went to a social - which was admittedly fun. I entered 3x 10km races once I had my license number.

The first of these being the Milkwood 10km in Kommetjie yesterday. I shied away from the Half Marathon because it's quite a drive to get there and the Half starts too early (I am lazy like that!) and opted for the more civilised 10km at 7am, off I went and managed to get there just i time. I was not impressed with the horrendous wind. It was about 30km/h and pretty relentless. It was one of those races where I wonder what I am doing there because nothing about it seems like a good idea or fun. Still I had no real excuses and told myself I'd be glad I did it in the end. So off I went. I've done this race 2-3 times before (when it was in May) and this time they reversed the route. So we had to run 2km into a howling head wind and then UP a mountain with a howling cross wind! Thankfully there is also a nice downhill section to get off the mountain again and then the last 2-3km was again into a howling head-wind. Argh. 

So although my goal these days is to break 50-mins for  10km it was not to be, but I was satisfied with my finish of just over 50 mins, deciding it was 'decent'.

Until I checked the results this morning... WooHoo! Lookie here... I was 9^th female to finish the 10km. I had no idea!

Pos	Athlete Details
Over all	Age	M/F	Cat	Name	Surname	Final times
11	50	F	(50-59)	Mariette	Strauss	00:43:17
14	24	F	Open	Keri	Halliday	00:43:32
22	45	F	(40-49)	Jana	Trojan	00:45:54
26	26	F	Open	Kirsten	Sims	00:46:28
29	21	F	Open	Claire	Brayshay	00:46:43
37	30	F	Open	Saretti	Van Der Heever	00:48:27
38	47	F	(40-49)	Charlotte	Noble	00:48:29
47	42	F	(40-49)	Helga	Louw	00:50:19
48	38	F	Open	Jane	Fraser	00:50:39
53	16	F	Open	Londeka	Miya	00:51:29

Cadiz Milkwood 10km Top 100
04 March 2013

I didn't think I had done particularly well at all! But that winning time is way slower than usual (top female is usually 33-35 mins) so seems everyone was slower than usual.)

Spam Alert

My blog has been targeted by spam bot commenters for a while now. It has got quite bad and beyond annoying having to find and delete all the stupid comments so I have changed my comment settings so that some are moderated. I know it's annoying not just being able to comment quickly freely and/or anonymously. But it needed to be done.

Ktkxbye.

Valentine's 2013

Our Valentine's Dinner this year. We had home made sushi and pink sparkling wine. The sushi was a bit of a 'fusion' and not just traditional sushi. We used chilli, lime & soya salmon and added rocket, sweet peppers, sweet chilli sauce and blue cheese. Along with the more usual carrots, cucumber sand avo. It was delicious!

For dinner we had marshmallows and cup-cakes. Oh and the boys got PS Chocolates and Poems/Love Letters from me too. And they also got to have some sparkling wine, which they were thrilled about.

<3 .="">

I wear Red Socks on Fridays

Ok so I overslept on Friday morning and was too late to join the official Red Sock Friday run in Claremont, so I had to do my own solo Red Sock run on Friday evening. Still I did 15km, so that was a decent representation of the day I think! :)

Raised Eye-Brows

I love the candour and directness of Asian women. I love how strong, unappologetic and forthright they are. They speak their minds and own their opinions. It's refreshing.

It's no secret that I am not a girly-girl. I really can't be arsed with much of the 'girl' stuff. Shopping, grooming, preening, shoes, handbags, outfits, hairdos. All that Jazz.

But I almost snort laughed yesterday when a little chinese chickie looked me straight in the eyes and said boldly, 'Who does your eye-brows?... They are Very Terrible'. She proceeded to take a close-up photo, showed it to me and explained in detail what is wrong with them. Instead of being offended I was actually amused and appreciative. She is a massage and beauty therapist after-all, so I have no doubt that she does know way better than I do about these things.

So there you have it. My eye-brows are 'very terrible'. LOL

Goose Bump Monday leads me to Red Sock Fridays

So I have blogged before about how I have (finally) joined a running club. Not that I have actually run with or for them, or run a race at all yet this year but still... I have now got my kit and license and have entered 3x 10km races. So we are getting there.

Anyway, on Monday there was a club social so off I went to have a look-see and meet a few people and get a feel for what they are like etc. The club operates from Hamilton's Rugby Club in Greenpoint which is a lovely location. So we were upstairs in the pub looking down at the buff rugby players training - what's not to like!?

But the point of this post is to tell you about the goose-bump moment I had...

John McInroy - of Red Sock Fridays fame - was there to talk about the Red Socks campaign. I had seen and heard about them before so was vaguely interested but reasonably ambivalent about it. Until he got up. He is such a lively, animated and fun guy with a real zest for life. But as he was talking I got more and more intrigued and compelled by the story...

Read the links below for more details but the basic synopsis is that John and his best friend Ian worked in Dublin for a year. At the end of the year they moved on in life to separate parts of the world and were gutted at their parting so wanted to do something to remember each other always. Ian told John about a teacher back at school who used to wear red socks on Remembrance (Poppy) Day. It turned out that the teacher and his friend had been in WWII and captured at the Battle of Tobruk and sent to an Italian POW camp. They had made that pact that if they survived they would always wear red socks on Fridays after that to remember and commemorate each other.

In 1933, a man named Phil Masterton-Smith cycled I730km from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg (because he could not afford the train!)to take part in the Comrades Marathon. After his long journey to the starting line, Masterton-Smith took part in the Comrades the next day. He placed 10th and earned himself the nickname Unogwaja, meaning "the hare". This incredible story landed Masterton-Smith in the history books, and is at the heart of the UNOGWAJA challenge, Masterton-Smith had already won the Comrades in 1931 at the age of 19, making him the youngest Comrades winner to date, He was later killed in battle during World War II.... You guessed it he was killed at the Battle of Tobruk!

So John McInroy now takes part in the Unogwaja challenge and using Red Sock Fridays they raise money for charities, and there are Red Sock Friday runs all over the place and the idea has just taken off...

Why did this interest me..?

Well my very own Grandfather was involved in WWII and was stationed up in North Africa, and was captured in Tobruk and sent to and spent 2 years in an Italian Prison of War camp. He very well knew the Red Socks guys. It was a goose bump moment for me.

I now proudly own a pair of red Socks and intend to take part in a local red Socks Friday run with them tomorrow morning in Cape Town.

http://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/john-wears-his-heart-on-his-feet-1.1216072

http://allthingsjabu.co.za/?page_id=720

I WEAR RED SOCKS ON FRIDAY!

*In memory of my Grandfather Norman Vivienne Fraser aka Bobby Fraser.*

 

Happy Valentine's Day

This is what I gave my team at work this morning.

 

What can I say I am their new leader, and a little love (and bribery) goes a long way!

 

Happy Valentine's Day, hope you are having a good one!