One must have great patience when buying an older house. I knew this, but never thought it would take this long to make progress with our house. We are not yet living there, as I can guess you are wondering. I have always considered myself to have a fair amount of patience, but also know that I lack it with things that make me excited... like Christmas, birthdays, eating dinner, and moving into our house. Practical things, like waiting to board a plane, or assembling flat-pack furniture doesn't seem to make me so agitated.
We have made some progress with our house this month. Our kitchen is now re-built; and when I say re-built, I really mean it! We knocked down the existing structure, ripped off the roof and started again. If I can offer some advice to first time buyers, pay the extra for the detailed survey when there has been a substantial extension made to your house with the planning permission mysteriously missing. Oh well, life lesson! We have purchased a brand new kitchen interior, which makes me very happy (progress), and are now waiting for it to arrive and be installed (patience). In the meantime, our bedroom is ready and waiting for our bed... new carpet installed and flat pack furniture assembled and many of the other rooms just need finishing touches. Apart from the kitchen, our family room still needs to be decorated and carpeted, but we will wait until the kitchen is complete as they are attached. I would like to think that I will have some progress pictures for you next month :)
Something else very exciting is happening in June. I will be taking part in the 3- Peaks Challenge on June 11/12: this is an attempt to climb the three highest mountains in Great Britain within 24 hours: Ben Nevis in Scotland (1344 m), Scafell Pike in England (978 m), and Snowdon in Wales (1085 m). There is a team of thirteen people from my research builing in Reading doing the challenge for Diabetes UK and Alzheimer's Society UK. Last month, I climbed Snowden and it gave some insight into the challenge... I am probably entirely underestimating this endeavour, but am not too worried about it.
I've been an entirely terrible team member and have not attended one group meeting (oops.) and the group have already completed two full weekend training sessions. I think part of this (lack of team participation) is my selfish motive to do this for myself and the fact that everyone else lives in Reading and I am in Birmingham, so it does make it difficult for me to join them on their weekend aways. The last thing I want to do on the weekend is travel for more than 30 minutes to anywhere.
I'm also in a bit of a pickle with the footwear situation. I have spoken to a few people, including the group leader, who have climbed one or all of the mountains and it is strongly suggested that I wear hiking boots. Our trip to Snowdon last month (see, I'm not completely not training), was completed entirely and COMFORTABLY in running shoes, which I would prefer to wear. I know the limits of my body and how it works in running shoes. Any climbing that I have done in the past (walking around the Rockies, climbing Fuji) was done in running shoes and I'd like to think that this will be best. To top it off, I borrowed a pair of hiking boots from my friend Tracy and decided to run in them this weekend where I had to stop after 6 miles because of a gigantic blister on my heel. One good thing about figure skating is that it hardens up your feet, and unfortunately my lacking of skating in the past three years has softened them up. So any suggestions about how to harden my feet in the next two weeks, please share. At this point I feel like I'm going to bring both hikers and runners and swip swap when necessary.
Happy Spring!
