Holiday = Cream Teas, Ice Cream and Sunshine

Just back from a week away in the Isle of Wight, and what a glorious week we had for it. Rather than holiday park or B&B we had chosen to rent a house, and a very nice house it was too (that's it in the picture above), with 3 double bedrooms, a south facing lounge with a view down to the sea, and located on the south-west of the island, away from the madding crowds, and some 4-500m from the beach. I made the point of getting up at 0700 every day and runing on the beach, including some basic exercises along the way (press-ups, squats, sit-ups, dorsal raise, burpees etc), except for Thursday when I had a real ale induced hangover and only managed a brisk walk.

The weather was fantastic, with brilliant sunshine every day. The house was just over half a mile from a pub with an award winning restaurant that we ate at regularly and we did the tourist bit in the mornings (Osborne House, Roman villas, Carisbrooke Castle as well as tourist places like Blackgang Chine), usually arriving back at the house mid afternoon to sunbathe on the lawn.

The house didn't have an internet connection; once we got over the shock this turned out to be quite pleasant, and I listened to music and read. The book was 'Life', the autobiography of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards; I've not quite finished it but it's been a fascinating read. I've also re-discovered a number of albums I've not listened to for many a year, such as 'The Kick Inside' by Kate Bush, the early Undertones albums and some of Morrisey's early solo stuff. Not everyones cup of tea but it was nice to be able to sit quietly in the sunshine (did I mention the fabulous weather?) and listen.

And yes, I did fall off the primal wagon a little, as I indulged in one of my favourite holiday pastimes of samplig as many cream teas as possible; fresh scones, clotted cream and jam - DELICIOUS!!! And of course no holiday is complete without the odd '99' thrown in for good measure, so we also had a few of them.

The upshot of all this is that there are 5 days to the Inter-Services duathlon and I'm am a long way from being fit and lean, let alone race fit and at race weight. So I'm looking forward to the social side of meeting everyone next Wednesday, and expect the race to be a whole world of pain for me.

All the best.