....watch out for the nanas

....so it's been a while since i've been out for a road run preferring to run on the treadmill over the last couple of weeks due to inclement weather and not liking running up our very dark road on an evening! so with an hour of so to spare i thought i'd head out for a few miles to get me sorted for running with paul over his 12 days of christmas challenge. [follow the link to donate to the percy hedley foundation] and it's when you do this that you realise that running on the treadmill is a good thing to do but bears no resemblance to running out on the roads.....

....so while running, with time to think i reflected on the week.... and it was a week of plans some of which happened and some of which didn't!

tuesday saw mordue and sons visit the arena in newcastle for mumford and sons and a night of their cheeky folk/america/celtic schnizzle - i've no idea what you say it is for definite but we were entertained both by the band, who put on a mighty fine show, but also by the antics of the audience. i want to ask you a question and you must reply honestly and i will offer an answer myself. have you ever actually videoed a part of a gig and then got home the next day and watched it back and thought - flip yes, cracking recording, i'm gonna keep that forever - i bet you haven't! i bet like me you've done, watched it, and deleted 'cos it wasn't worth keeping! the girl in front of us videoed the whole gig on her phone! i kid you not! the full gig! watching where her head and eyes were facing she watched the whole gig through the screen of her phone! i kid you not!!! and i love watching the people who act like big fans when the 3 singles they know are played and then spend the rest of the gig looking decidedly bored, going to buy alcohol, then going for a pee, then texting every one they know! the problem? no attention span these days and no ability to watch musicians play when you don't know the tune! i watch people who i feel are just racking up things that they've done but not really engaging. i can guarantee the fella sat in front who looked bored for the most part will have got into the work next day and been raving about it "f***ing great it was had a great f***ing night!" no you didn't - you had a great 10 minutes when they played the three songs that you knew! anyway! oh no i must mention this. the highlight of the gig was where the band came into the middle (where the mixing desks were) and into only one microphone played guitar and sang two beautiful songs in beautiful harmony. was this a beautiful moment? well it could have been if the idiots in the audience actually had the capability of remaining quiet for the 5 minutes they did this for. oh but oh no - whistles and shouts and more whistles and shouts! no idea about how to be just in the moment and appreciate something for its beauty!

i had plans for wednesday and thursday that fell through. wednesday was going to be faith doing some relaxation stuff with me for a course she's doing but the weather was atrocious so she couldn't get over - we will reschedule. thursday was a run with tony but he double booked so i got bumped for the runrig gig he was going to.

friday night we went to the millers! yes! we went there rather than them coming to us!! and a great time was had with babies and pizzas and a bottle of bombardier, and paperwork (christine is on a mission to sort all of chris and lynne's plastic bag's full of paperwork - it's going to take a while!)

saturday saw us heading into durham for eye tests and as anticipated i need a stronger prescription - it's 'cos i'm more academic now i'm a lecturer - you gotta have glasses to do that haven't you! and then we had to fight with the nana's in the card shops. i'll tell you what these old folks take no flippin' prisoners. two people walking towards each other - one if 45, male, a substantial figure, the other is 85, female, only about 4 foot 8 high - who gives way! well it's not gonna be the little nana is it! she's just plowing on through taking no prisoners! and i'll tell you what they get double dangerous when they've got one of those wheeled trollies with the tartan covers! they don't care you just gotta get out of there way. i was telling the students yesterday that when you work in social work with older people you think the majority of older people are frail 'cos that's the sort of older people you tend to deal with. here was living proof that the majority of them are actually like flippin' tanks! and then i was panicked when we were ushered into the queue in marks and spensers behind another nana. and i was like oh no here we go she'll be paying with her 1p and 2p's for her £30's worth of shopping!! no she wasn't! she had it going on! she whipped out her debit card - straight into the machine - pin keyed in without hesitation - and off she went with her shopping! mint! you see old people are just as capable as anyone else... love 'em!