A Simple Life of Luxury

It’s hard to believe it but Saturday was Morgan’s First Birthday. I’m not sure where the last year has gone to but it has gone somewhere and Morgan is no longer the little helpless baby we brought home from hospital. He’s a lovely active one year old, just learning to walk and attempting his first words. Life has certainly changed, definitely for the better, even if it can be a bit hectic at times.

Anyway, you can’t be one without a party so we invited a few of Morgan’s friends from nursery and a few neighbours to join the celebrations and I think it’s safe to say we all had a lovely time. It was good to meet some of the parents from nursery and learn their real names, rather than knowing them as X’s mum and dad! Sarah next door made an amazing cake, much more artistic than I could ever have attempted and very tasty too.

I hope the next year is as enjoyable and eventful as this one and Morgan continues to be the happy little boy is his now, interested in absolutely everything that goes on around him, finding out new stuff every day.

I may be jumping the gun here a little bit, but ‘Spring has Sprung!!!. The sun is shining there are lambs in the fields and the daffodils are out in the garden. All a little early, but that’s global warming for you!

My new fish-tank is coming on well. Not too many occupants yet as I’m more interested in creating a natural looking picture with lots of plant growth.

Here’s a photo of the progress so far. The plants are doing well due to the bright lights, CO2 and nutrients. Once the light have been on for an hour or so, streams of oxygen bubbles can be seen rising from the leaves all over the tank showing that they are photosynthesizing well. I’ve already had to cut the rapid plant growth back a couple of times. The fish (6 Bood fins, 4 lemon tetras and 5 shrimps) are happy because of the plants.

I’ll add more fish and some more interesting plants soon.

I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly not getting any younger and over the past year or so I’ve let my fitness levels drop. Maybe I’m going through a mid-life crisis, but when in Bristol last weekend I actually bought myself a pair of running shoes!! Hopefully they won’t be just for show either.

I nearly didn’t even get as far as that in my quest to regain some fitness though. The first sports shop I went in had, as exepcted, a wide rainge of fashionable trainers and good selection of ‘proper’ running shoes too. But when I looked at the prices I almost instantly resigned myself to a life of increasing flabbines as the cheapes pair was £109!!!! Can that be right, not only am I getting a little less lean but I’m now expecting consumer goods to be half the price they actually are, maybe I’m accumulating years quicker than I thought. Surely I’m not that old.

However, the next shop restored my hope as I found several pairs of running shoe for around £30. Of course, they only came in sizes 4,5 or 13, but eventually I found an affordable pair and decided to buy them. The assistant put them behind the counter and I went up to pay. At which point the girl behind the cash-desk said “Which ones are your, the Reeboks or Nikes”….. “Ummmm, I’m not sure, they’re size 9 and £30!” I replied and got a quizzical look from the girl. Something tells me they weren’t used to people buying running shoes in order to actually go running and the most important thing to most of their customers is the name on the shoe… Oh well, I’m showing my age yet again!

So, the big question.. Where are these ‘cool’ Reebok running shoes? Still in the box? Nope, I have actually used them (OK, only twice so far) but I have been for a run. Not far, not particularly fast but it was a run and it was quite enjoyable. Gone, for now are the days when I ran, cycled and swam almost every day, gone are my days of competing in and winning triathlons, but hopefully I can put those days behind me and now simply exercise without competitive impetus but simply for its health and well-being benefits. How long it will last I don’t know, but at least I’ve made a start and who knows this time next year I may be fitter, leaner and feeling younger.