Thawing out a little

Amazingly, we have woken this morning with less snow than when we went to bed last nigt. The temperature is somewhere between 1 and 2 C and I have a feeling that we may have seen the worst of it. Having said that, I can see from the weather forecast (on my ever unreliable iphone weather application) we should expect more sleet and snow next week and plenty of negative overnight temperatures.

I managed another hour and 20 minutes or so on the trainer yesterday which was pretty much in line with what my plan called for and I also did the 35minute advances Pilates work out after the kids were in bed. I am keeping up fairly well with the training regime and I think I have lost a kg or so this week as well. I am supposed to do 3-5 hours of riding today, but I think I'll switch that with the plan for tomorrow and get out on the roads then instead. That means that I just need to do 3 hours today. Hmm, I'm not at all sure that is going to fit into the plans for today, but I'll give it a shot...

More damned snow

For the second or thirs consecutive night we have had a few centemetres of snow delivered whilst we slept. We seem to have given up clearing the paths though because there is the odd chance that the new snow will melt during the day and save us the bother.

Lat night "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was on the TV. There were certainly no cloting inspirations to be had there but it must be said that I think Dianna Rig is my favourite ever Bond Girl.

The readers awake

It seems that I have finally managed to find something to get my readers commenting although the actual comments were not exactly what I had in mind...

MK watched Quantum of Solace last night with me (for her benefit more than mine this time as she hadn't seen it before) and she didn't seem to think it was too bad although she did have quite a lot of advice for Mr Bond as he was chasing the bad guy.
" why doesn't he just shoot him?" being the most commonly offered advice.

In the meantime I have now managed to complete the advanced Pilates workout without collapsing in a heap and I am getting the hang of the breathing part of the exercises too. (You'd have to try it to understand that) I opted for a rest day from the bike yesterday as I had planned a 4 hour steady ride. By the time dinner was over, there was never going to be time for that. I am now planning to split that workout into 2 and do half late afternoon and half this evening. I am not 100% confident that I will get through it all without losing the will to live, but I'll give it a shot...

It's actually all Steve McQueen style really...

Getting ready for summer

Over the last couple of weeks I have been forced to spend quite a lot of time riding my bike on the trainer in the basement. To while away the time, I tend to watch DVDs and in the last couple of weeks I think I have watched Casino Royale at least once and Quantum of Solace 3 times.

A natural consequence of all this time watching James Bond is that one is inevitably drawn into daydreaming about being him and in my case this has manifested itself in a desire to dress like him. A quick search of the internet will reveal a whole sub-culture of nerdy men aspiring to look like James Bond and in many cases it is rather sad. The guy in the Hawiian shirt, along with others clubbed together to get these shirts made specially for them for about £250 each!

Anyway, I thought I'd go for something a little more subtle and let Daniel Craig's wardrobe offer a little inspiration for my 2010 Spring/Summer (assuming it ever comes to Naria) wardrobe...

I'm going for some sort of cardigan with a shawl collar

A navy blue polo shirt (probably a long sleeved one and short sleeve (already on it's way from Sunspel). Some light coloured jeans or khakis and a white shirt.

The final couple of items on the list are dark brown desert boots and a Harrington jacket, but I suspect that MK will have well and truely grown bored of me buying clothes (or at least spending money) by then...

The Endurance Block

This was supposed to be a week off and I was supposed to be able to spend the time riding my bike outside. I was expecting the weather to be inclement, but I wasn't expecting this.
I rode for 2½ hours in gale force winds on Saturday. It wasn't snowing when I left and thankfully I was mostly riding downwind when the snow arrived so it was only little more than very cold and wet. I felt virtuous at the end of it, but it would be a stretch to say that I enjoyed the ride. The day got much better when we made pizzas in the evening though so I suppose it was a good day on balance.

Sunday was to be 2-3 hours steady riding with 40 minutes tempo. I rode for about 45 minutes in the morning before the film I was watching ended and I lost the will to go on. I got back on the bike in the evening for another 1 hour and 40 minutes by which time I was bored and my arse was hurting.
Today I have worked and babysat DK this afternoon so it is now 7:30pm and I am supposed to ride for 3 hours tonight. I think I'll watch the end of Casino Royale and the start on the Bourne Trilogy. Wish be luck and perseverance.

Plans for the week off

I have had week 8 planned for vacation for some time now becuase it fits in with a lot of other people being on vacation and the deadlines I have in my various projects on the go. Unfortunately it is beginning to look like I will have at least some work to do on most of the days so I think I'll have to abandon or at least semi-abandon the vacation and just try to get in my planned biking and do as much work at home as I can.

As you can see above, the week is already fairly full, but appearences can be deceptive as the orange blocks are actually bike rides and the red one is babysitting whilst MK has an appointment to see if she can have here eyes fixed with Lazik surgery. The green is a bike race in Sorø on Sunday and the other bits and pieces are meetings and hair cut.

That leaves me with a fair bit of time for getting out on my bike, tidying and painting the basement and havi some time off. The next problem is the weather forecast:

It looks like it is going to be cold and wet at best and at worst, cold wet and icy. I am now considering cancelling taking any time off at all and just working as usual or finding a cheap flight to anywhere with some sun so that I can at least have a decent couple of days on my bike. That wouldn't really be fair to MK or the kids (they haven't earned a break from me) and I probably shouldn't be spending the money anyway. Perhaps I'll just spend a lot of time in the basement on my trainer with the computer on next to me...

More damned snow

J is much better, but MK is still struggling with her ear and cold. If her ear isn't better tomorrow then I'm sending her back to the doctors to get something stronger...

We've had another 5cm or so of snow this afternoon which made the roads very slippery and makes my plans of taking a week of bike training next week look less and less likely to happen or at least be much fun. I had planned to take the week off, but I now have some meetings that I can't really miss and I seem to have rather a lot on my plate at the moment.

I have climbed back on the culinary wagon for the last couple of days. I've been hitting the grated carrots hard and leaving the chocolate and cakes well alone. With a bit of luck I'll be able to hit the 90kg mark at some point this year, but I can't really imagine it yet. Last night I did an advanced pilates workout which would have been histerical for anyone watching, but was rather a challenge for me. There's work to do on my core befoer I can manage that properly.

Ear Ear

MK seems to be getting better since she got her penicilin this morning, but now J has decided to have an ear infection in both ears as well. We were sceptical at first, but it seems that he does in fact have an infection and he is now taking penicilin as well.

The latest nes is that MKs ear drum seems to have burst as there is a load of blood and puss coming out of her ear.

It's fun fun fun here today...

Narnia

It seems that the white witch has been visiting us in Denmark as the snow continues to lie on the ground and periodically fall from the sky.
We have had a very relaxed few days with J&G visiting, we've done a lot of crosswords, eaten and drunk a little more than enough and generally enjoyed each others company.

I am now looking forward to some spring in the air although I am not sure that we need any lions roaming around to make it happen.

The worst thing today si that MK has an ear infection and is feeling pretty terrible. I just took her to the doctors to get some antibiotics and pain killers. Hopefully they will work fast.

Walkies

We've had a nice and relaxed weekend with little done beyond 4 Guardian cryptic crossword, a short pilates session and a bike ride for me. MK now has the cold that DK and I had last week which is making her a little crotchety, but other than that all is well.

DK is making good progress on his walking and he can now get all around the house unsspported although I think it will be a while before he can manage the combination of snow and big boots outside...

Bollox-logging

I really haven't had much to say on here for a while and I am not really sure why. Perhaps it is because we haven't been to the hospital quite so much with DK or that he is so much better than he was. Perhaps it is the snow that has stopped me from riding my bike outside or perhaps it is because I am busy at work and don't have time to do this properly.

I don't know

Mum and AJ are coming to town this afternoon to experience the joy of the Danish winter. An unfortunate side effect of them being 2 people is the fact that we will not be able to fit in the car together so we will be somewhat restricted on what we can get up to over the weekend. I'm sure we'll think of something to entertain them.

In the meantime, here is what you really want:

Remembered to do it

I managed to remember to weigh myself this morning for the first time in many months. As is the way with these things, I was a little heavier than last time I hopped onto the scales, but not by much. I was 99.6kg which means that I need to drop about 4kg before my health check on March 19th.

That means that I need to lose 100g per day between now and 19th March I need a daily deficit of 560calories which actually sounds like quite a lot now that I have worked it out...

If I manage that and then keep it up unti 18th May then I will apparently hit my ulimate goal of 90kg and incase anyone is interested, if I do that until November 2012, I will cease to exist.

I guess I need to hit those grated carrots HARD!

Snowing again

I was exhausted last night so I couldn't face the bike trainer in the basement and MK and I did a hour of Pilates on the living room floor instead. (That isn't a euphemism unfortunately). This evening I will certainly hit the trainer and I there is at least on of this weeks DVDs that MK won't want to watch that I will be able to pass the time with. I am really missing getting outside on my bike, I'd hardly call myself a fair weather rider and I have been out in some pretty cold weather this winter (I think -9C was my coldest ride so far) but when the roads are really slippery and icy, I just can't justify the risk of getting hurt for a bit of fresh air so I tend to stay indoors at the moment. I think I'll have to get out this weekend, even if it's just for a short ride. I'd love to head south for a few days or warm riding in March, but I haven't seen anything that I can join in with (my club is going to Bornholm at Easter but I have to work over that weekend).
Any ideas?
Today I am out and about again and it is currently snowing fairly hard again. I can't imagine this snow going before April at this rate and it is getting rather depressing although it does make everything a bit lighter and brighter than it would be otherwise.

Where is the week going?

My cold is getting better, but the week is also passing me by at an alarming rate. I didn't even realise that I hadn't blogged today until we just ate.

I need to get back into training this evening and do my workout to make up for the ones I missed with this cold over the last few days.

I have another work health check on the 19th March so I need to find out what the numbers were last time and make sure that I am going to hit the tagetted weight loss that he gave me. I think I had to lose 8kg but I can't find anything in the blog archives. Perhaps I got a mail from them somewhere, I will have to look.

In the meantime, I'll wiegh myself in the morning for the first time in a long time. I wonder what the outcome will be...

Slush Cup #6

Yesterday was the penultimate round of the slush cup. The race was near the northern coast of Sealand, about 2 hours drive from our house. There are around 30cm of snow covering the country, it was -3C and I have a stinker of a cold so I decided to bail out yet again.

Oddly enough I don't even feel too bad about not doing the race because I know that it wouldn't have been fun at all. On the race website, it said that most riders would be happy to complete 1 lap within the hour time of the race and I can see from the race report that most people had a long walk with their bikes. I am very glad that I opted to stay home instead.

DK has had a check up this morning and the surgeon was really happy with him. He has gain ½kg in 2 weeks and she could no longer feel the join in his colon (don't ask how she does that...) That means that the dynamic duo don't have to go and see that particular member of the medical profession for another 5 weeks.

.....NEWSFLASH......

DK has started walking. He has just spent the last 15 minutes walking up and down his bedroom between me and MK.

Chuffed

Weekend plan

There is no way that I can bail out on the Slush Cup race on Sunday like I did on the last one. None of the family is in hospital and I therefore have no excuses other than the fact that I have pciked up a cold and have some niagra style snot issues to contend with this morning.

I assume that there will be plenty of snow to contend with, I am just hoping that the temperature can remain below 0 for another few days so that we don't have a total mud bath on our hands (and all over the rest of us).

Our vacation or holiday plans for the rest of the year are starting to crystalise. We are going to England by ferry in April for a week. The flights were >4000DKK and we'd have to rent a car for some days apparently whilst there, an alternative was to fly somewhere cheaper which would mean renting a car for the full week (>6000DKK) of we could take our own car on the boat for 5700DKK. The only real problem is that we also have to pay for petrol and bridge tolls, but on the plus side there are no planes, airports, security checks and I can take my bike.

Technology on the way

One of the reasons that I have problems with my neck and shoulders is that I spend many hours each day working on a lap top. At our office we have a few large monitors that we can use as an external display and this makes life better for 2 reasons, firstly everything is bigger and clearer and secondly, I don't have to look downwards all the time.

I've decided to get a big monitor to use at home as well and it should be arriving any day now for our viewing pleasuse.

Whilst we were deciding about monitors, MK began complaining about the costs of our satellite TV each month. Part of that cost is a rental charge for the box that we have so I decided to see if we could buy one cheaply. It turned out that we are paying for several HD channels that we can't watch and, guess what? There was an offer on HD boxes and even better, HD boxes with hard disc recorders in them so we'll be getting one of those at some point in the next week or so too.

All I need then is a ipad...

Still in the snow

Everything is being somewhat messed up by the snow today. J's nursery asked that kids be kept home if possible so J is home today and apparently there are only 10 kids there. We had another 10-20cm yesterday afternoon and evening so we are now struggling to find places to pile the damned stuff.

Lucky me

This is straight forward gloating. I am very luck to have such an attractive family.

I was supposed to me travelling around Denmark a bit this week, but as we are in the midst of a terrible snow storm, I am safely tucked up working at home instead. Nice.

Snow, snow, snow and yet more snow

Our friendly neighbour has been complaining to the local paper and the local council for a couple of weeks that they have not been clearing the path alongside our house this winter as they have in years gone by. The result is that we (and I assume everyone else living adjacent to the road) had a letter from the council on Friday telling us that we have to clear the path.

Thanks

That was 1½ hours on Friday and then another hour clearing snow on Saturday and Sunday. I think we have had about 40 cm since Friday so it is really piling up now.

At least the big and little kids are enjoying it.