A new year

Around my neck of the woods, you know the holidays are really over by the number of newbies striding around the park dressed in nice neat walk shorts, polo tops and trainers that are positively blindingly new. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a good thing. I love my walk/runs, even if I do look like a purple-faced turnip on legs dressed in an ancient T-short and leggings as I flounder around my chosen route. Gorgeous George never accompanies me as he has decided that exercise is a waste of time and prefers to kick back and read the paper instead, in spite of looking rather like a bald bumble bee.
But this holiday season, when I would usually have abandoned most of my exercise in favour of eating and drinking too much, I was baby sitting our daughter's young Kelpie. Said daughter, the Boho Babe, and her partner went to Cairns for a week of slumming it in the pool drinking beers while I dealt with Hurricane Hector. Hector needed to be run at least 4km every day or he would bark ... and bark ... and bark. Personally, I think he needs a job, but there aren't many flocks of sheep around here and as he's only 8 months old, a job in retail is at least a year or two away. Luckily my little old white fluffy dog, Bertie, came to the rescue and found himself being rounded up several times a day. he even discovered that when hit by 25kg of kelpie he was able to do a 360 degree somersault followed by a head first pike into the floorboards, no mean feat when you're almost 11.

But probably the worst thing was the early start. Hector likes to be up and out and about by 5.30am, so it was pretty usual for me to have run 5km, thrown the ball for an hour, read the paper, had a cup of tea and tidied the house by about 7.30am. After which I sat slumped on the couch like a beached flounder, waiting for bed time.
By the time the Babe got back, I was a shattered wreck. After that, the start of the working year is a bit of a relief. I can sleep until 6.30am when the cats start standing on my head demanding their breakfast. Who needs an alarm clock.