Wedding bells, Christmas Bells, picture frames and all!

The last couple of weeks have been manic....in fact it's all a bit of a blur now it's all over. In amongst it all though the highlight has to be the wedding of fellow ERR member Sophie to James, simply beautiful! Alas after the celebrations though it was back to work. Just why people think we have picture frames under the counter in which to fit their football shirts, drum sticks and jeggings (yes I did say jeggings!) I really don't know. Now though, after two weeks of madness, including late nights, even managing to leave work and go to run club and then go back to work some nights, I can proudly say we didn't turn one customer away. Here's hoping those who received something in one of our frames this year were pleased with it. It's sure been a hard slog for the both of us. Arriving at our Gallery though on Christmas eve eve morning to find the door kicked in was unpleasant to say the least. Thankful that the hooligans hadn't managed to actually get inside, Martin managed to raise a smile as he popped his head out through the gaping hole as I took a photograph for nostalgic reasons, one to show the grandchildren in a few years.


One of the evenings I strived to get to club was the Christmas lights run - our route took us up to the very top of Idle and through Swaine House, stopping momentarily outside numerous houses to adore their decorations, it was apparent on some streets Mrs Smith was clearly trying to out do Mrs Jones. Arriving back at the clubhouse we proceeded to kick off the festive season with mince pies, amazing Nigella chocolate hazelnut cake and mulled wine.


I've managed to fill the gap of the first holiday from run club with a race. Today (Boxing Day) saw my first ever attempt at the Chevin Chase 7 mile, I've so far avoided entering the race in the knowledge that it would put a damper on Christmas day as I would be sure to avoid over indulgence. The last couple of years though I have regretted not taking part after no signs of over indulgence anyway! So I decided this year would be my first attempt. I was relieved when Lisa suggested that she, Gill and I should run together and treat it as a training run. We did just that. It was extremely windy up on that there Chevin, coupled with copious amounts of mud - we had a brilliant run. Rather hilly though it was, I'm now looking forward to next year's race already.


Due to yet another family party I'm unable to get to club on Wednesday so I'm now off to plot a route for a morning run - working towards the Brass Monkey next month I need to make sure I keep my mileage up.