On Saturday, @TheWelshWookie and I went for a little run around Tarbert Harbour. It was a damp day, with blustery showers, but we were lucky and managed to time our run between them: more by luck than design, I hasten to add 😉
And, the village has had a new arrival: our brand new ferry is here, and almost ready for action!
Our current ferry, MV Isle of Cumbrae, is a lovely little lady. But she’s a bit tired and ever so slightly old fashioned. But we’ll miss her.
Her replacement is a hybrid ferry, both diesel and electric, and she is much bigger than her predecessor.
She’s MV Lochinvar, and can carry 150 passengers and 23 vehicles. She’s brand, spanking new, and only the second of her hybrid-kind in the CalMac fleet.
I can’t wait until our next visit to Portavadie, so we can see what she’s like inside and on the water 🙂
When was the last time you were on a ferry? Where did you go?
Hello everyone! @TheWelshWookie and I competed our Race to the Altar on Friday, and have had a wonderful weekend with our families. This weekend involved plenty of fun, wonderful company, fantastic food and drink: it was everything I hoped for, and more!
Cheers!
As you know, our Wedding Day had the theme ‘Race to the Altar’, and we had lots of running touches throughout the day. We had:
A huge banner outside the venue, marking the Start Line to the race that is the rest of our lives together:
Each table was named after some of our favourite races, along with one of my ‘Wednesday Wisdom’ quotes!
Our cake topper were runners:
We had podium candles:
And a balloon arch over the cake table 🙂
We also had Nike IDs made especially for the day. We’ll be running in these in Madrid!
Our favours were personalised medals. The guests loved them!
We had a wonderful day, with a gorgeous Nuptial Mass in St. Margaret’s Church, Lochgilphead. I was delighted to see that the church was full!
Our dinner and dancing was in the village hall in Tarbert, and the band we had, The Democrats were fantastic! @TheWelshWookie and his brother got up on stage and did their rendition of The Beatle’s ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ which was fab!
We also had some ceilidh dancing thrown in, which was such a lot of fun.
At the end of the night, we finished the dancing with some Scottish classics: ‘Caledonia’, ‘500 Miles’, ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and Runrig’s live version of ‘Loch Lomond.’ Brilliant!
As the guests were leaving, and only those staying locally were left, we had some races up and down the hall! A perfect end to a great day! 🙂
After temporarily disappearing from Blogland over the weekend, I thought I’d explain why.
Friday night, @TheWelshWookie and I had the Hue and Cry gig that I was telling you about last week, and it was brilliant! The Kane brothers were entertaining as ever, and the play through of their ‘Bitter Suite’ album remained true to the original, with a few of the tracks updated a little. It was amazing!
We had a couple of drinks at the venue, along with a couple more later, including an apple & guava cider, and a nice GnT. Perfect.
On Saturday morning, we had a 5K planned. But, although I certainly felt fresh enough for a run, I decided to sleep in instead. It was bliss! We then hit the shops, as I had a few more bits to pick up for the wedding. @TheWookie got a new long sleeved running top from Run4It, which is lovely.
And, on Saturday afternoon, we had a great time: my nephew, Kieran, was a mascot at the SPL football match between Partick Thistle and Hibernian! He’s only five, but he was so great, and had a brilliant day. Kieran is a huge football fan, and Partick Thistle are his team: he goes to the games with his dad and granda.
Kieran went along early on Saturday with his dad and his granda, where they met the players and had a tour of the stadium. Next, he (along with the other two mascots) had a kick about on the pitch while the players warmed up. And just before kick off, Â they led the teams onto the pitch, and were there for the referee’s coin toss.
He must have been a lucky mascot, as Thistle won 3-1!
@TheWelshWookie and I went along to support him, along with his mum (my sis) and his brother, Aidan who – at three – was going to his first ever football match. He loved it too! My other nephews Ryan and Liam also came along, as did my other sis Angie, her BF Ryan and Kieran’s auntie and uncle Alison and Chris. It was a fab family day out!
I even, erm, ‘enjoyed’ a pie and bovril at half time 😉
After the game, we were all invited to the hospitality suite where Kieran was presented with a signed football by the Man of the Match, Kallum Higgenbotham. Lucky boy!
We then had a fab night back at my sis’ house, with a few vinos and a Chinese takeaway.
Sunday was grocery shopping, and driving home, tired after a busy-but-fun couple of days!
I’m just dropping by with a brief post, in case anyone misses me thinks I’ve disappeared over the weekend! I have a ton of stuff to do wedding-wise. Yeah, including a second Hen Do 😉 Lucky me! 😀
I’m planning to squeeze in my seven miler at some point, and I might be back to surprise you check in. But, if I don’t, I’ll see you on the other side of the weekend.
Don’t Forget: TOMORROW is day one of the Around the World Running Blog Relay 2014. Make sure you’ve signed up. If you haven’t, now’s your chance. Do it now, here. 🙂
I’ve been clearing out my phone of the hundreds of pics I’ve had on there since Christmas, and thought I’d share some belated Christmas crackers with you.
Hi everyone! It’s the weekend for me, as I’m off Friday and Monday, soooo it’s vino night tonight!
I thought I’d give you an update on my Hal Higdon half marathon training. The main headline is: it’s going great!
I think that the plan is really suiting my running style, but it is early days. Last week – week one – was a 3 miler on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, a four mile ‘long’ run on Saturday and cross training on Sunday. This week is similar: a 3 miler on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, a five mile ‘long’ run on Saturday and cross training on Sunday. So far, so good, but it has ten weeks to go.
It feels great at the moment!
I did my three miles tonight on the treadmill, in my new trainers. All will be revealed soon, in a later post! 😉
Something I’ve been trying to do is to post my training runs on Instagram, so prepare to be bored, if you follow me there.
I’m struggling to figure out how to fit in my five miler this weekend. You see, I’m off on my Hen Weekend, to Alton Towers, and I can’t wait!
Do you think that walking around the theme park, queueing and screaming while riding roller coasters could count as cross training?
@TheWelshWookie and I got stuck in to domestic duties this morning, with a spring clean of the living room and bathroom. I’m pleased to report that I have sparking surfaces, and TheWookie managed, at long last, to rid the carpet of the large wax stain caused by a slight candle meltdown incident a while back 😉
We were finished in time to enjoy some lunch before the beginning of the Six Nations rugby. I had some vegetable biryani: delish!
As I’m sure you can tell by his twitter handle, @TheWelshWookie feels rather strongly about Welsh rugby 😉 So, while he was glued to the TV, I half watched, and spent the afternoon catching up on the past couple of month’s Women’s Running and Women’s Health magazines. I had already had a quick scan through these, but it’s lovely to have time to sit, mug of tea in hand, and really read them.
I also had a slice of my grandma’s Jock’s Loaf:
It is amazing!
There’s a couple of interesting articles in them, I thought I’d share:
Tonight, we’re having some lovely salmon for dinner, and perhaps a glass of vino. Well, a girl’s got to fortify herself to finish the spring cleaning: tomorrow, it’s the turn of the bedrooms 😉
When was the last time you had some quiet reading time? What did you read?
We posted our wedding invites on Monday, which means that MOST guests will have received their invites over the past couple of days! 😀
If you are reading this, and you are a family member who has yet to receive their invite, then heed this SPOILER ALERT and stop reading NOW! 😉
Our wedding invites were non-traditional. They were……….
Race Bibs! Yes, we had TYVEK race bibs made up, with the date of the wedding in place of the participant race number. We also sent out safety pins, so that guests can take photos of themselves wearing their bibs, and send them to us 😉
We included ‘race instructions’ along with the invites, which included details that we’d usually find at any race event: race registration (RSVP), start line details (Church details), race photos, post race refreshments, post race entertainment, etc. 😉
We also had a QR code printed on each letter, which means that all guests have access to a specific wedding website, where there’s information about the wedding itself, accommodation, things to do in Tarbert, links, etc.
It’s so exciting!
So, what do you think of our wedding theme: Race to the Altar?
In many ways, marriage is like a race. The wedding is only the start line…. I’m having great fun, combining my love of running with my wedding planning!
It’s the restaurant we visited for my mum’s birthday on Saturday night.
Jacqueline and Pauline O’Donnell are the sisters behind these two Glasgow restaurants, and we visited their Glasgow Kelvingrove restaurant.
The venue is quite small, but very comfortable, and it was very busy when we arrived. The menu was amazing: all freshly prepared, locally sourced ingredients, and it was cooked so well. I’d love to make a return visit!
To start, I had brioche topped with mushrooms and a port and red onion chutney. The portion was very generous. I then had the fish of the day, which was a fillet of sea bass in a lobster cream sauce, with some chive mash and queenie scallops. Wow. It was amazing.
While everyone else tucked into dessert, I had a coffee, as I couldn’t fit one in!
The service from our waitress, Kirsty, was fantastic.
I also found out that Jacqueline, who is head chef, will be one of the chefs representing Scotland on the 2014 Great British Menu, which is great! It’s the first time that a chef from Glasgow will be competing, and the first Scottish woman to compete. She will be following in the footsteps of other Scottish competitors, like Tom Kitchin, Alan Murchison and Tony Singh.
A taste + rate / debate of gluten free dining in Glasgow Scotland. By newlyweds team The Murphy’s. Want the latest on her fashion updates too ? Join writer/ blogger @cityslickerinthestix.com
TartanJogger 