Following a fat, unfit 50+ year old to fitness!: For The Love Of Cefi

Following a fat, unfit 50+ year old to fitness!: For The Love Of Cefi: Wednesday 24 th August Distance: 2.52 miles Time: 37:29 Avg Speed: 4.03mph Avg Pace 14.52min/mile Calories Burned 439           ...

For The Love Of Cefi

Wednesday 24^th August

Distance: 2.52 miles Time: 37:29 Avg Speed: 4.03mph Avg Pace 14.52min/mile

Calories Burned 439                             Calories Burned TOTAL: 8604

Saturday 13^th August

Distance: 7.02 miles Time: 1:46:56 Avg Speed: 3.94mph Avg Pace 15.14min/mile

Calories Burned 1206                 Calories Burned TOTAL: 8165.

Wednesday 10^th August

Distance: 2.31 miles Time: 35:17 Avg Speed: 3.93mph Avg Pace 15.15min/mile

Calories Burned 397                   Calories Burned TOTAL: 6959.

Saturday 30^th July

Distance: 6.01 miles Time: 1:31:25 Avg Speed: 3.95mph Avg Pace 15.12min/mile

Calories Burned 1035                 Calories Burned TOTAL: 6562.

Saturday 23^rd July

Distance: 5.07 miles Time: 1:16:08 Avg Speed: 4.00mph Avg Pace 15.00min/mile

Calories Burned 881                   Calories Burned TOTAL: 5527

Saturday 16^th July

Distance: 3.56 miles Time: 54:04 Avg Speed: 3.95mph Avg Pace 15.12min/mile

Calories Burned 612                   Calories Burned TOTAL: 4646

Saturday 2^nd July

Distance: 5.06 miles Time: 1:12:07 Avg Speed: 4.21mph Avg Pace 14.14min/mile

Calories Burned 903                             Calories Burned TOTAL: 4034.

Thursday 30^th June

Distance: 0.77 miles Time: 12.21 Avg Speed: 3.75mph Avg Pace 16.00min/mile

Calories Burned 128                   Calories Burned TOTAL: 3151.

Monday 27^th June (Walking)

Distance: 1.79 miles Time: 41:13 Avg Speed: 2.65mph Avg Pace 14.27min/mile

Calories Burned 286                             Calories Burned TOTAL: 3023.

Saturday 25^th June

Distance: 5.01 miles Time: 1:10:55 Avg Speed: 4.24mph Avg Pace 14.27min/mile

Calories Burned 821                             Calories Burned TOTAL: 2737.

It has been some time since my last blog post and in that time my world has crumbled. My beloved, My Raison d'être the man whom I absolutely adored with every fibre of my being has died. He had been suffering with the most crippling depression for the last year and on Monday 18^th July he took his own life. I am left totally bereft and broken. My poor little heart is shattered into a million pieces that will never ever be rebuilt. I struggle to find the words to describe just how broken I feel. I have managed to keep up the running as I am determined to finish what I stared and now all the more I will run for him. Everything I do I do for him. He was the sun that rose in my morning and the moon that took me to my sleep. Without him I there is just a cavernous hole in my life that I know nothing or no one will ever fill. I was lucky, so lucky to have 25 blissfully happy years with him and I am grateful for those BUT I WANTED MORE! I wanted to watch his beautiful face age into our later years as a man so handsome would have grown old with the dignity and beauty (that he already possessed) that men gain in their later years. I wanted to travel more with him, it would have got more difficult but I would have coped. I wanted to sit on our porch in our rockers and reminisce about our memories. But more than anything I just wanted to be with him to wake up next to him every morning and to fall asleep in his arms every night. To cuddle up next to him, to breath in his essence, to hear him speak to me, to hear him sing and most of all to see that smile. Oh that smile, that smile that smile. He had a smile that would melt ice and eyes so beautiful they warmed your heart. This was a good man. This was a great man. This was my man.

We gave him a most beautiful funeral full of music and joy, along with all the pain we were feeling and for the rest of this blog I will share the eulogy that I gave at his funeral.

CEFI

First may I on behalf of myself, Ryan and all the family say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been so wonderful and shown so much love and kindness to us all over the past heart breaking days. You have sustained us.

However when I stop to think why you were doing it I am then, not surprised at all. For the love of Cefin you called at our home. For the love of Cefin you sent flowers. For the love of Cefin you brought food parcels and wine boxes. For the love of Cefin you telephoned to check on us all. For the love of Cefin you sent beautiful words and cards. For the love of Cefin you prayed and lit candles. For the love of Cefin you are all here today. For the love of Cefin.

Cef was a man full of love. Cefi would do anything for anyone. On those occasions when someone called with an emergency he was by the door with the car keys ready before I even got off the phone. No matter what was asked of him if he could help then he would, without question. Sometimes he didn’t even know what was being asked of him but he still stood by the door ready to go. He would never pry or need to know why. Cefi was the kindest gentlest sharing man I have ever known. I am sure that if I was to go into teacher mode now and ask you all for a show of hands as to who here was ever helped by Cef:

to do something,

to respond to a request for assistance,

to offer sage advice,

to borrow something,

to sort something

to move something,

to give a lift……

To do whatever I know that practically every hand in this building would go up. Because that was what he did. He hated conflict and arguments and strived at all times to broker peace and mediation. Always going out of his way to help anyone who needed it. He NEVER saw the colour or a person’s skin or cared about their sexuality he just simply saw all people equally and if they were a good person then that was all that mattered to him Cef was a man full of love. For the love of Cefin we are all here.

For the love of Cefin. 

Cefi, My Cefi, was a wonderful man who inspired love and laughter. He was so many things as we have already heard in this service and he will have been something different to everyone sitting here today a son, a brother, a father, an uncle, a cousin, a nephew, a friend, a colleague and Ryan will speak about Cef’s actions as a dad. But to me he was my husband, my world, my love, my life; he was quite simply my everything. I loved him completely with every fibre of my being he was my Moon and Stars, My Night and Day. I cannot begin to imagine how my life is going to be without him.

For the love of Cefin.

Cefi and I first met in this very building, on the fourth year of his 3 year degree! He came to church one Sunday morning, for no apparent reason he and a friend just decided to come! He sat on the back row… there.   I, as I was want to do, arrived late and came in with my usual bluster and sat down with my mum on the back row ….there.     We both spotted each other; I nudged my mum and said ‘He has nice eyes’ she replied ‘Yes he has nice teeth too’ from that moment he did not stand a chance. Whenever I asked him why he came back the next week, he always said he had noticed my long hair and my high heels so for me it was eyes and teeth for him hair and heels we both had what the other loved!

I was just coming to the end of my marriage to Ryan’s dad and had just been granted my divorce papers so if he had come to church any sooner I would not have been ready.  I have always said that God sent him for me. Cefin always understood about Ryan’s dad and he always respected that fact that through Ian I had Ryan and there too so did he. I wonder how many men would accept their wife’s ex-husband as readily as he did; together we have had Christmas dinners, done car boot sales and shared in all of Ryan’s highs and lows. In fact some of the first people to our house on that fateful night were the family of Ryan’s dad, I think this just goes to show the measure of the man we are remembering here.

For the love of Cefin.

Once Cef had passed the eyes and teeth test it soon became apparent to me that this was a man who was to be mine in old fashioned parlance I set my cap at him. At first he was wary, I was older, I had a child, I was divorced. But then on New Year’s eve and full of beer, he rang me from Wales and stammered down the phone ‘ Why can’t we just be in love like other people?’ this was music to my ears as I had already known for some time that  I was in love with him. So he sneaked home a day early and tricked me into thinking he was not yet back in Leeds only to turn up on my doorstep 2 minutes later. The following New Year’s eve he proposed to me, with a homemade ring made out of a small shell stuck with epoxy resin to an unwound paperclip, I was on the phone at the time and teased him by saying ‘no’ his crestfallen little face was soon wreathed in that beautiful smile once I confirmed that I was only joking. We were married here on 4^th June 1994 and from that day to this I can say in certain honesty that there was never one single day that we did not say I love you. That there were probably only 2 or 3 arguments that I can remember, a few tiffs from time to time but nothing ever major and we never went to sleep angry. In fact on those occasions when I was cross with him his sad puppy dog eyes would just plead with me and I could never stay angry with him for long as it just upset him too much. Every time he dropped me off at school I would stand and wave to him until I could see him no longer. Every time either one of us drove off we would say the same thing to each other ‘Take care, drive carefully, watch out for those nutters and remember…(we would pause here whilst the other turned back to look then add)..I love you’. Every day when we arrived at work we would text the other to let them know we had arrived safe and if we didn’t do it then we would text one another to check that they were safe.

For the love of Cefin        

Cefi and I shared 25 years, 22 of them married, of joy and happiness we did so much together he was as I so often said to him, the brightest star shining in the firmament of my existence. I suppose to some we may have seemed soppy but to us it was just one long honeymoon where the love and joy never depreciated. I loved everything about him but somethings I loved more than others. He was an incredibly devoted father and husband and tolerated all my excesses and exuberances he kept me level and steadied me. Sometimes if I was spouting too much I would just feel the gentle tap to my arm or to my leg that simply said ’enough now’ He gave me stability and guidance and never stood in the way of me doing anything and was always there at my side supporting in all I did. He never said no to me and as far as was possible for him he indulged me all he could. For example For HIS 40^th birthday Ryan, Judith and I took him on a surprise trip to New York, yet it was ME who came home with 3 pairs of Manola Blahnik  shoes, I could not make up my mind which one to choose so he just said get them all. He kept me in good shoes Cefi loved beautiful shoes and clothes for both me and himself his legendary blue suedes are with us today. That is one of the reasons I have requested the colourful dress code today. Cefi was a man who knew how to wear colours; he has some truly awesome shirts and fabulous ties. In fact all the men in the family are wearing one of Cef’s ties today as a mark of their respect. For the love of Cefin.

For the love of Cefin my life and the life of all us who knew and loved him will now never be the same again you will all have your memories of him and I do hope that you all take the time to write in the memorial book and don’t worry if you don’t get the time today I will leave it in church for a couple of weeks or you can always pop by the house and do it later. For the love of Cefin.

For me I will miss so very many things I will miss how he loved his food. I will miss how he loved riding fairground rides especially rollercoasters. I will miss how he precisely measured out everything he fixed or made in the House or here in church. I will miss how he developed little systems or gadgets for doing things. I will miss how he kept useful pieces of wood pile and the delight he took last year when he used it all up on a garden project. I will miss the fact that he never said I told you so. I will miss how he soaked stamps off envelopes so that he could reuse the ones that had not been franked. I will miss how he enjoyed getting new coins with different pictures on them to add to his collection. I will miss how when I told him I had had a dream about him the night before he would apologise for anything he may have said or done in MY dream. I will miss what we called his cumptious moments when he misheard or misunderstood an English word. I will miss how he would not even watch a copied video if he thought it was illegal. I will miss how his decent honest soul would not allow him to lie. I will miss how he never swore. I will miss how he never shouted. I will miss how he would lean forward from the choir stall and send me a coded I love you message down the church.  I will miss his gorgeous teeth. I will miss his beautiful smile. I will miss his soft sparking eyes and how those eyes looked at me. I will miss how we danced together round the kitchen. I will miss resting my head on his hairy chest and listening to his heart beat. I will forever miss my love and the way he loved me. I consider my life blessed to have known him. I will miss him for ever and forever my heart belongs to him. For the love of Cefin we are all better people.

For the love of Cefin. My love my life.

In the last days Ryan and I have thought a lot about what music we wanted at this service. The hymns were easy as Cefi loved all the Welsh tunes in particular Cwm Rhonda which we will sing shortly he was very proud of his heritage and in particular he loved singing hymns. Harder though was choosing the songs there are so many that we sang together or he sang for me. Some were sad most very emotive. He loved Elvis, Jim Reeves, The Eagles, Country, Eurovision, show songs, opera but in the end we have chosen two. This first one I would sing to him at the top of my voice and would always end up with a dance around the kitchen or a huge Cefi hug. It sums up everything I felt about him.

After Ryan speaks;

Our second choice of song is a song that Cef himself would always join in with gusto and especially the little spoken phrase. We chose this one because Cefin loved people and especially his eye would be caught by a pretty girl I cannot tell you how many times he nearly crashed the car whilst driving through Headingley when someone caught his eye. I would catch him looking and say I saw you and he would flash me a smile and say but you know I only love you and I did I knew he loved me.

For the love of Cefi I will  pull on my running things again on Sept 11th  so many family and friends have already sponsored me but if you have not and want to my details follow and I sign out  as always by saying thank you for your support and if you could please see your way to sponsor me  at https://www.justgiving.com/Janet-Lewis3 for however much you can spare I and www.musculardystrophyuk.org would be most grateful.

Thank you

Why brexit is soooooo very wrong

Saturday 25^th June

Distance: 5.01 miles Time: 1:10:55 Avg Speed: 4.24mph Avg Pace 14.27min/mile

Calories Burned 821                             Calories Burned TOTAL: 2737.

Friday 24th June               Quick jog round school field with Y4

Distance: 0.34: miles Time: 4.21 Avg Speed: 2.97ph Avg Pace 20.10min/mile

Calories Burned 46                     Calories Burned TOTAL: 1916

Had a good run today I turned left, so that was a good start, I trotted up the hill to St Chads and managed a nonstop run for most of that first mile. I had already decided that I would head for Lawnswood Cemetery as that is one of my target areas, I have a few along the route; St Chads, Lawnswood School, Lawnswood Cemetery, Golden Acre Park then Otley. It was a beautiful morning the sun was daring itself to come out the air was relatively clear and my head was set. I needed to run, I needed to pound the pavements, I needed to run away. I find running a therapy I get the same feeling from a brisk walk, the feeling of running and as I do I drop by the wayside those thoughts, those worries, those niggles that would otherwise fester and stew in my brain. So run I did all the way up to the cemetery and then home again by this time the sun was coming out and the day was promising to behave.

So why did I need to pound out my troubled thoughts so much today well one word, brexit! (I won’t give this word a capital letter as that names it and I don’t want to name it.) Did a nation ever make such a ridiculous decision? All the reasoned financial and economic arguments aside, although in that respect we are well and truly screwed, no the thing that has distressed this Middle-Of-The-Road Liberal has been the vile and poisonous rhetoric that has spewed forth like puss from a rabid wound. I could give this blog the sub heading of “the stupid things people say” but that would be too simplistic and would somehow not do justice to the maleficence that has been disgorged by the narrow minded, mean spirited and noxious people of this nation that I love and was proud to call myself part of. I am not proud any more, I am ashamed. So much deleterious, pernicious bile has been promulgated as reason that I have at times shouted at the TV or quite simply cried in disbelief. 

 

If nothing else this referendum has shown a large group of our nation to be racist, bigoted, xenophobic, delusional knob-jockeys. I cannot believe some of the vile vitriol that I have witnessed. The flimsy and inherently racist views published in both the written and TV media have been unbelievable. Now call me a simple minded fantasist here but I do generally tend to believe in the good of people. My dear dead mum (who’s anniversary of death is on Tuesday- still miss you mum) always taught me the very true maxim “There’s good and bad in every kind” and that is a truism that I hold dear to. Yet I have truly struggled to find any truth in that these last few weeks when all I have heard is a dictate of right wing scaremongering about immigrants and people who were perceived as ‘not British’

“They’re coming here taking our jobs” 

Which jobs? Who’s job? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/is-britain-really-full-up-we-put-the-most-common-assumptions-about-immigration-to-an-expert-10427400.html

There are some very interesting figures that relate to this, from the time around the turn of 2004 and 2005 when something like a quarter of a million Poles entered the UK. However, recorded unemployment rates went down between 2003 and 2005, and recorded vacancy rates actually went up slightly, which would seem counter-intuitive. There are of course other factors at play, and people will make of that what they will, but the data would suggest that they weren’t taking the jobs of Brits.

“Our youngsters can’t get a job because all these immigrants are taking them” 

Show me the British ‘youngster’ who is prepared to work 15 hour days picking fruit for minimum wage, show me the British ‘youngster’ who is prepared to wipe the backsides of elderly people in care homes for minimum wage. There may be some and to them I am doing a disservice and apologise but so many either don’t want to work or they think they can fall into an Alan Sugar position that will pay a 6 figure salary or worst still the XFactor Generation who want to be celebrities because “I really want this” oh how I loathe what talent and reality shows have done to our children creating a generation of wannabees and mind numb audiences. I digress.

“They are using up all the NHS services” 
EXCUSE ME! Our NHS would collapse if it were not for the immigrants 21.5% of NHS staff not including GP’s and temporary staff are immigrants.

"Overseas doctors have for many years made a valuable and important contribution to the NHS, especially in key services where there has been a historic shortage of UK trained doctors. Without the support of these doctors many NHS services would struggle to provide effective care to their patients."                    British Medical Association

https://fullfact.org/immigration/some-immigration-facts-factchecked

“We want our country back” 

I love this one! Our Queen has just celebrated her 90^th birthday she has ruled over us for 60+ years. Three of our Home Nations are currently holding their own in the European Cup, Our Olympic and Paralympic squads are about to launch themselves into competition in Rio. Our designers and musicians are celebrated throughout the world; our political leaders sit on NATO, G8, WHO, UN Security Council….. We have our country and more besides NO ONE IS TAKING IT AWAY numpties!

“We want to make our own laws.”   
This article from Lawyers In For Britain states the case in far more eloquent terms than I can and as far as I can see we always have made our own laws and pulling out of the EU will not mean that our little businesses can suddenly trade in Europe by new rules, they will still be governed by them the only difference being WE WILL NO LONGER HAVE A SAY IN HOW THEY ARE SET!!! Idiots!!!

In practice, the UK has had significant influence over the development of single market legislation particularly in relation to telecoms, energy and financial services where EU legislation is largely based on the UK model. In other areas, notably pharmaceutical regulation and competition law, UK legislation is closely modelled on EU law. That would remain the case even if the UK were to leave the EU but the UK would cease to have any influence over the future development of that law.
Indeed, if the UK were to leave the EU, it would have no real say on EU legislation, but much of its business would remain subject to EU law in order for UK products and services to be accepted in other EU countries.
http://lawyers-inforbritain.uk/b-m-a/does-membership-of-the-eu-prevent-the-uk-from-making-its-own-laws/
 

“It was better before” 

Sorry do you actually remember the 60’s and 70’s? Power cuts, strikes, corrupt police forces, rampant misogyny, Jimmy Saville, dull, dull, dull food, IRA, lead paint, asbestos,  2 TV channels, drink driving, smoking everywhere, corporal punishment, homosexuality criminalised, little or no contraception (until the pill in 1967), dirty beaches, dirty rivers, over fished seas? Granted there was great music and weird fashions but music and fashion are always there helping us through. We live today in an accessible world with instant communication and access to a life style the 60’s and 70’s had no potential for. I loved growing up then but I don’t want to go back life should only go forwards.

“They come here bringing all their foreign ways” and this absolute pearler

“I go to the supermarket and there is a whole row of Polish food!”

Well! All I can say to that is thank God they do. Imaging if you will a supermarket without “foreign” food……..no wine, no pizza, no wine, no curry, no wine, no spices, no wine, no pasta, no wine, no bloody anything. Go open your fridge or your pantry and take a look where the food comes from,  go on… I’m waiting…. In my fridge I found;

Mayonnaise           American

Butter                   Danish

Cheese                  Swiss, German and French

Chorizo                 Spanish

Lime Pickle           Indian

Yoghurt                 Greek

Wine                     Chilean

Champagne            French

Bacon                    Danish

Sauerkraut             Polish

Coke                     American

Hot Pepper sauce   West Indian.

Soy sauce              Chinese

Tomatoes              Spanish  etc. etc. etc.

Now I know I can get British cheeses, sauces, butters etc. but my point is I don’t Just want to. I enjoy having a world of variety in my fridge and pantry. I enjoy walking to Headingley where there are Thai, Chinese, French, Greek, Italian, Indian, American restaurants. I can go into the centre of Leeds and eat food at restaurants from every continent of the world. Migration has brought a wealth of variety and colour to our lives. My neighbours are Romanian, French, Irish, Indian, Pakistani, Greek and that is just the ones who I know for definite and my street is wonderful because of it. We have a street party every year and celebrate our neighbourhood. I don’t want to live in a place where the food is bland, the people are colourless. I want to live diversity, share diversity and celebrate diversity. I DO NOT WANT TO LIVE IN LITTLE BRITAIN WHERE FEAR AND SUSPICION ARE THE NORM AND WE EAT DULL FOOD.

I teach and I cannot begin to imagine a classroom without diversity neither do I want to live in a society without it and for that reason I fear that brexit is bad for our country, bad for our economy, bad for our standing in the world, bad for everything that makes Britain great. You got it so wrong people, I hope that the world will forgive us as right here, right now I cannot forgive those who have made this catastrophic choice, a choice based on misinformation, lies, deceit, racism and bigotry GOD HELP US.

So I will keep running and pound out my frustration and do all I can to raise some funds for the charity I am supporting. A huge thank you to all those who have sponsored me so far and for now I will close as always by saying thank you for your support and if you could please see your way to sponsor me  at https://www.justgiving.com/Janet-Lewis3 for however much you can spare I and www.musculardystrophyuk.org would be most grateful.

Thank you

Following a fat, unfit 50+ year old to fitness!: My Game of Thrones Passion and my EU vote

Following a fat, unfit 50+ year old to fitness!: My Game of Thrones Passion and my EU vote: Saturday 18 th June Distance: 3:50 miles Time: 50:41 Avg Speed: 4.15mph Avg Pace 14.27min/mile Calories Burned 538                ...

My Game of Thrones Passion and my EU vote

Saturday 18^th June

Distance: 3:50 miles Time: 50:41 Avg Speed: 4.15mph Avg Pace 14.27min/mile

Calories Burned 538                                      Calories Burned TOTAL: 2408.

Saturday 11th June

Distance: 2:14 miles Time: 31.31 Avg Speed: 4.08mph Avg Pace 14.58min/mile

Calories Burned 335                             Calories Burned TOTAL: 1870

Saturday 4^th June

Distance: 1:09 miles Time: 14.58 Avg Speed: 4.25mph Avg Pace 14.23min/mile

Calories Burned 159                             Calories Burned TOTAL: 1535

Well dear blogosphere today you are getting 3 for the price of 1 due mainly to the fact that over the last 3 weeks my Saturdays have been very hectic and I have had to get out, run, get home, shower and go straight out again. Week one; go to help build a bug hotel in the church yard; week two to go organise a coffee morning at the exhibition and flower display for the Queen’s birthday, both very pleasant and most successful mornings. So today finds me with slightly more time to catch up although later this morning will find me swinging from a ladder polishing Jesus’ head! No that is not a euphemism for something dark and deviant but is yet another job day at church where a team of co-opted/volunteer (hear, read ‘pressganged’) regulars will don their gardening togs and get out there and do the practical things that need doing. For those of you who know my church there is a quite spectacular reredos with carved statues of the Northern Saints including folk like Cuthbert, Aiden and Hilda and sitting atop in the central position is the figure of Christ, who it has to be said is currently sporting a very dusty barnet. So today he and all the men and women of The North, Ok so I know that is a tenuous Game of Thrones reference more of that later, will get a good old dust.

As I have not written for three weeks I have a few things to catch up with today first off this week has seen the most horrendous events in Florida USA where a right wing nutter murdered 49 people just out enjoying themselves and in my own Northern town the MP for Batley and Spen Jo Cox was murdered by what looks to have been another right wing nutter, whilst just out doing her job.

Now call me cynic here but I am just a tad tired of all the right wing crap and bullshit that is permeating our press and media. We are not better for having guns in our world they are a hideous invention and are responsible for millions of deaths. We are not better for standing alone to fight. We can only grow stronger and safer with a unified and concerted effort towards deep and lasting peace. We do not grow stronger by pulling apart we grow stronger together, working together, sharing together. For those of you who know me well you know that I am wholeheartedly committed to remaining in the EU. The UK is an island in the geographical sense and I fear that if we vote out we will then become an island in the literal sense, alone, isolated, without neighbour, without community. For me that is not an option and my ‘REMAIN’ vote has never been in question I have been for ‘IN’ right from the start. The UK is a nation of immigrants; Romans, Vikings, Normans, Jews, Christians, Muslims…. I myself have Peruvian ancestry. We are an immigrant nation let us never forget that. The only true remaining ‘Britons’ are the Red Headed Brethren north of the border in Scotland, the poetic and mystical brethren to the west in Wales and a few Cornish and Northern Irish folk. So don’t spout to me your poisonous rhetoric of immigration and Britain First or Britain for the British because if you send home all those who were not true Brits or had a fleck of immigrant blood in them you’d be left with no one. My colours nailed firmly to the mast to quote Dale Winton; “You have to be in it to win it” I am IN no question, no qualms, no doubts. The EU may not be perfect and we must work to change it, from within, but it is a dammed sight better than isolation and seclusion outside a lone voice shouting to a wall.

So I mentioned Game of Thrones, as I so often do, earlier in this epistle. Now this is an obsession that borders on compulsive, nay it is compulsive. It consumes my life. I have never loved a show before with so much passion and commitment. Never have I cared so much about what happened to characters or willed so much that those deserving will get their dues, both good and evil. This latest season (S6) has had me stopping up until 2am on a Monday morning, just to watch the next episode. Then going to school on just 3 hours sleep only to come home at tea time and watch the same episode again just in case I missed anything!! For the last 3 weeks though, having found this continued sleep deprivation was taking its toll I now get up at 5am and watch it first thing in the morning and all because I cannot bear the thought that I may accidentally hear a spoiler before the regular viewing at 9pm on a Monday night. In fact the ‘Hold the Door’ episode I did not stay up nor get up to watch only for someone at work (JH you know who you are!) to have watched it and let just too much slip. The pain was unbearable so I now ensure I do either the 2am or 5am slot.

I know that amongst my friends there are two camps those in and those out. The staff room at school can often be a wash with excited chatter about Starks, Lanisters, Riverrun, Bravos, Tyrion, Cersei, dragons and battles, whilst the rest look on as if we were speaking Russian. Nowadays I find myself starting most conversations to friends, colleagues, new acquaintances or random strangers in the street, with the opening salver of ‘Do you watch Game of Thrones?’ This weekend will see the much awaited ‘Battle of the Bastards’ and for those of us who are awaiting our weekly fix of our opiate, this will be the episode where our dreams and hopes for a brighter GOT future may well see fruition or come crashing down in a pile of bitter sobs and tears. We wait for 2am Monday with a sense of ‘this is it’ that will see us as gibbering wrecks by the time we hear the strains of that fabulous sound track. I know that the anticipation, the hype, the buzz will be worth it. I know that the producers will deliver because they always do. I can hold my hand to my heart and say without fear of contradiction that this is the greatest TV programme ever devised that I have been hooked on. I have had a passion for many over the years from MASH to Friends, via SITC, Cheers, ER, Will and Grace, Downton and many more but none has held my heart, my soul or my commitment to characters like GOT does. I long for each episode and sit in bated anticipation watching it. Whilst watching I awe and gasp and wince at the machinations, the plots and sub-plots, the gore and bloodletting, the lust and the passion.  I never miss an episode and will organise my life around it. So yes I am addicted and this weekend the anticipation is all consuming, I simply cannot wait. So if you meet me I will ask do you watch GOT and if you say ‘Yes!’ we will then have an ongoing discussion about just whom we think will eventually sit on the Iron Throne and how the White walkers can be defeated. If you say ‘No!’ then we will talk about the weather and maybe the footy or the EU.

I do get consumed by passions and GOT has me. I have also this week felt my running passion a little stronger. Today I turned left at the top of the street (I went left for the first time last week) and ran up to Lawnswood School then home again. I accidentally paused the tracker and ended up going round the block and round and round the circle in my street just to ensure that the tracker registered 3.5 miles, yet did it I did. I am now getting into my swing and I am working on building the miles into my legs as September is only a few weeks away. A huge thank you to all those who have sponsored me so far and for now I will close as always by saying thank you for your support and if you could please sponsor me  at https://www.justgiving.com/Janet-Lewis3 for however much you can spare I and www.musculardystrophyuk.org would be most grateful.

Thank you