Bikes and cakes...

First of all, HUGE thanks to every one of you who has sponsored me - we have sailed past my target of £400 (thank you Charly for your donation to get me there) and are now up to £440 at the time of blogging. This is absolutely brilliant, and I am really, really pleased. It's all going to very good causes, and I am delighted to be able to hand over so much money on Sunday. If you're still thinking of donating, please do - especially if any part of this blog raises a chuckle...

Today has almost been a non-training day - I woke up with a VERY sore throat. With four days to go, this is not good... There are two options - (1) I haven't really ever recovered from the bug two weeks ago or (2) I've been eating all the wrong things (which I have) and I've got the usual symptoms I get when I forget why I don't eat them. It's not a lot to give up - just wheat, dairy, chocolate, spuds and alcohol. There's lots I can still eat - lettuce, fruit, lettuce, nuts, lettuce, meat, lettuce, fish... So apart from my knee exercises (still got lovely straight knees), I've done no exercise at all today... well, just a little bit after going to look at a bike...

I've had so many kind offers of bikes - Auri offered hers, and a bike rack to go with it, then Pippa offered me the one with the falling off pedal, then Sian (lovely ice-cream making friend) came up trumps with a selection of bikes that she said would fit easily into the back of the Fiat and that I could try! I duly donned all the Lycra (maybe I actually quite like it), put my Pink Girly helmet on, and walked up to her house with Guy for a look at the bikes. And I found one! It's absolutely fantastic, will easily fit in the Fiat, and I will look very stylish doing my 20k on Sunday. Result!

Before we went to look at the bike we'd put a chocolate cake to bake in the oven and then forgot what the time was, so Guy carried on to take Blunkett for a proper walk, and I took the short route home down the lane to rescue the cake. And I jogged! Yep, proper jogging! Like what real runners do! Only slower. I did go very gingerly, and I walked a bit on the steepest downhill parts but, basically, I jogged! I'm not entirely sure it was actually any faster than my walking, but my knees behaved themselves (and are still straight) and I am now hopeful that on Sunday I will be able to run the 5k. Or good chunks of it, anyway!

We did rescue the chocolate cake, and we finished the opera cake so we took a photo. Tomorrow it goes off to be delivered and on Friday it attends the wedding of Chris and Peter.

They're not drunks - we've tried to recreate The Drinking Song from La Traviata. And added a sound card in the theatre wall which plays the song. Tune. Aria. Whatever. I hope they 'get it' otherwise they may think we think they really are drunkards. And then they'll have a row, and it'll all end in tears... oops.