Since I have started working full time again I haven't had the time to browse the shops for Christmas presents like I have in the past. This combined with being able to afford more by shopping online I decided to purchase Marias present online. For obvious reasons I cannot say what I have picked out but due to the ohh so helpful people at the courier company I might as well type all the details on here in text you can read from the other side of the room.

On the first deliver attempt there was no one home, just a card left saying they had tried. Due to the hours I was working I wasn't able to call them before Maria rang but since it was only to re-arrange delieverly I didn't see any problem with that. Oh how wrong could I be. Maria enquired about the size of the package so she could discover if it would fit in her cycle basket and could be sent to work or if it had to be sent directly home instead. An innocent question which lead an attack of verbal diarrhea from the lady on the helpdesk. Before Maria could get a word in the lady had spouted the size of the package its weight, the company it had come from and a guess from the lady of what she thought it was.

Sometimes I despair

Having recieved a start place in the London Marathon 2005 this blog is now on hold, for the next 150 days or so I can be found at Fake Swede Running

Life is continuing at full pace. Work is a little calmer now that the celebrations of mid summer are over for another year. Our allotment is growing like crazy, the spinach has been harvested and replaced by salad seeds and everything else is growing well, Maria can describe more if you are interested. My running is progressing back towards capacity again and last week I past the landmark of 1000 miles run since I began taking my running more seriously from the 20th February 2003. In other words longer than from Lands End to John O'Groats. So if you wish to find me in virtual reality running world look either towards the highland isles or the bottom of the English channel!

Kacroon asked what car we had adopted. Its a year 88 Mercedes 200 series and to me it feels a bit like driving a tank compared to the smaller cars I have driven in the past. Switching to the wrong side of the road hasn't been a problem but the daft handbrake is still having my grasp at thin air. Instead of what I would call a "normal" hand brake, this heavy lump has a second foot brake. How long will it take before I stop trying to use the hand brake that isn't there?

My training blog is now up and running, so I will no longer be boring you with the nit and gritty of the week in week out preparation that has to be put into these events. My running will still get mentions on here every now and then but for the more in depth reading you will have to look elsewhere.

Work has been crazy as ever. I have only been there about 2 months but already have 14 hours of flexitime built up, and that's after taking 5 hours of it! With it being mid summer the Swedes have been having there annual attempt to deplete the world of pickled herrings. In previous years this hasn't affected me in the slightest, let them eat their smelly fish if they want to, why should it bother me.

Not this year, not since I have to pack all the damn fish to be carted away to the supermarkets. It wouldn't be so bad if everything remained in the packaging but of course it doesn't. Bottles get broken, the liquid preserving the fishes runs down the back of the pallet to be forgot about until it stinks to the high heavens in the weeks to come. Or worse it gets soaked into your gloves, you feel your nose starting to run for working in a constant 4 degree environment and the inevitable happens. You might as well stick a fish up your nose and be done with it.

Of course being mid summer we are being treated to the longest days of the year. Driving home in the twilight at midnight still feels a bit bizarre. Maria has me paranoid about meeting a moose on the way home. Apparently they are more active during these hours so you have to be extra careful, they are large solid animals that would write your car off and then die before you get the chance to exchange insurance details. Twice I have spotted a large dark object lingering by the edge of the road. Twice I have been concerned and slowed considerably. Twice have I been very glad that few buses run after 11 in the evening so there was no one watching as I crawled past the bus stop...

Its been quite a while again since I last posted, work has been keeping me busy beyond belief and together with the traveling there and back there has been no energy over to blog. Hopefully that will all change now we have our own car. I am all for public transport but as my job is located on an industrial estate with no bus stops going to work by bus has been adding an extra hour to my day to get there than if I drove and then another hour to return home.

Work itself is still going great. Well apart from today when the modified fork lift like truck that we drive decided to play games with my patience. The front section where the driver stands can be raised a meter or so to enable us to reach items on higher shelves. In theory it should also go to lower but not the truck I had chosen so I spent the early part of the day looking down on all and sundry an undignified scramble to get my feat back on the ground.

The rest of the marathon report is on its way, but I will probably post it on my resurrected training blog instead. So if you would like to read more about what its like trying to run while holding off the impending threat of diarrhea for 6 miles or the after race I am going to puke stay tuned to fake swede running. Of course with this being me, theres nothing there yet...