Lovely jubbly time in the UK. I flew out on Wednesday night (slept most of the way) & my ace dad picked me up at Birmingham airport on Thursday morning. Had the most relaxing and brilliant two days at home appreciating the countryside & home-cooked food. Helped my dad out with his computer a bit but didn't do much else other than catching up & enjoying the company of my parents (& a very funny phonecall with Sven). Fab.

Got down to Bath on Saturday (again, many thanks to my parents for enabling me to avoid a 5-hour train journey starting at about 7am by driving me down there!) & had nice lunch with Will, Roj & all the ushers & associated people. The ensuing wedding was very charming & reminded me a little of our own in the fact that it didn't stop pissing it down all afternoon. The reception was also good. I sat on the head table (strangely) next to one of Pippa's brothers & talked vineyards & cycling in Europe for most of the time. Also managed to catch up with a lot of people I haven't seen in a long time which was lovely and sort of almost made me pine for the UK (not that we'd see any more of them if we were there). Spent a good hour and a half filling Will's car with balloons & decorating it in a suitable manner to be left in by the bride & groom. The shaving-cream messages would have worked better if it hadn't been pissing it down, so we had to improvise with parcel-tape!

Slept for a ridiculously short space of time before having to get back to Heathrow, but as we were flying Virgin, it was all made worthwhile by some good films (In the Bedroom, The Royal Tenenbaums), some reasonable food & the acquisition of 3 more ducks! Got back to the apartment at 7pm & felt like we hadn't been away. Sigh!

Back to the grindstone this week ... am still taking a few more days off training to ensure complete recovery from this niggling groin-strain, but otherwise have nothing planned other than the clear-up of our hideous apartment & the recovery of my suffering bank balance. Photos online soon.

Good and bad weekend. I find it very hard to sit around watching adventure racers doing their thing when I'm out of action. I did my best to help out as requested, but the phrase 'too many cooks' sprang to mind one too many times. Had a laugh with Yi Shun though, who has to be one of the maddest and (yes Yi Shun!) neurotic people I know ... and more than slightly paranoid, as she refused to agree.

Roj did fantastically. Despite his modest expectations, he and Bruce won the 2-man teams event, coming in second overall - very impressive. Of course he's knackered now but so he should be after pulling his thumb out that far! Just wish I'd been with them.

The best bit about the weekend for me was that I sold my Rocky Mountain to another adventure racing girl who beamed largely when she walked up to me at the end of the race (having rode it for 3 hours) and handed over the cheque. I'm very happy that it's gone to a good home - much like a grotty dog who never liked you very much but whose potential you recognised. I hope it works out well for her (it certainly looked to fit her better than it ever did me ...). Selling the bike not only means I don't have to faff around taking it back to the UK on Wednesday evening (eurgh!), but also that mum doesn't have to put up with a bike designed for hard-core downhilling adapted for the road. It might have worked ... but it might not. If only I could rave about the abundance of extra cash it also brought me ... but no ... it's going straight into the abyss left by the purchase of my Cannondale road bike a few weeks ago. Sigh!

Having been spoken to most rudely in the hat shop earlier today I'm now off home to prove that I can make a hat box as good as the next guy! Sod you Samuel's Hats!!

Oh, and au revoir nice weather - it's been pissing it down and freezing cold all yesterday and today ... hopefully the UK is having a turn at the good weather and sticks with it for Will's wedding this weekend ... I can't face shivering in me short skirt all day! ...

Had a lovely morning today. Couldn't sleep and didn't want to go to the gym so took the A down to Brooklyn and walked across Brooklyn Bridge at 7.30am in about 70 degrees! It was totally lovely - quiet and warm and beautiful. I'm really pleased I did it.

I've also decided enough of this stupid "it's ok to take the photo of the day whenever you want" malarkey. I'm worse with the liberation than I was when I was forcing myself to do it every day, so from today it's back to a new pic every day - you'll just have to forgive me if they get a bit substandard or repetitive. You'll see there are still a few outstanding gaps in the archive, but they'll get filled eventually ... there are photos lurking on my harddrive which I haven't sorted out yet, although I wouldn't hold my breath for anything good!!

I'm thinking about enrolling in a photography course actually ... just to learn a little more about the medium. I'm going to have a hunt around for a once-a-week-in-the-evening thing and see what I can find. Course I still want to get back into writing at some point, and have all sorts of other plans up my sleeve, but it's going to be easier to work things out when I'm at home 4 days a week and can be a bit flexible with which 7.5 hours I choose to work in ...

The biggest thing from this weekend?? HUMUNGOUS CONGRATULATIONS to Barnaby and Mat for completing the London Marathon (for Sparks) on Sunday. FANTASTIC job!! xxx

On a duller subject, this blog is turning into a strictly once-weekly thing. Mental note to try harder!

Strange things happened at sea to Bluewave New York last Friday. Not entirely unexpected, but not entirely promising either. Suffice it to say that in June we'll be moving to offices in New Jersey with a substantially smaller staff. Sigh. More later I'm sure.

The weather has been gorgeous this weekend. This morning, in particular, is one of those bright, fresh, cool mornings after substantial rain last night. One of my favourite weathers, I think (in close competition with walking out of OTT NY aircon into hairdryer blast in midsummer!). T-shirts were dusted off all round, and we spent a lot of time just wandering aimlessly, enjoying the lack of chill in the air.

I managed to finish off the wedding outfit shopping on Saturday with purchase of a nice smart bag (oooh, my mum will be proud!!), and then took Olly on the Bloomingdales tour (hopeless end-of-Spring stock). We wandered up to Central Park after lunch for an ogle at the rollerbladers' dance routines, and then chilled out in the apartment (appreciating the open balcony door) before heading off to the Gotham Comedy Store on 22nd for some raucous humour (highly recommended). During one of the first post-midnight nights Roj and I have had this year (sad old gits that we are!), we popped by the Empire State on the way back and saw the twin beams of light shining from the World Trade Center site for the last time (check for photos soon).

We slept late on Sunday and then decided to continue the week's tradition of stuffing our faces by taking brunch at the Carnegie Deli, where Roj and Olly had the piss taken out of them quite heartlessly by the waitress for ordering burgers instead of pastrami on rye! The cheesecake was, as usual, unbeatable. We then found out that Roj even gets a corporate discount at MOMA, so thanks to Ernst & Young for three free tickets. I wasn't overly impressed with the Richter exhibition, although the contrast between abstract and super-photo-realism was really quite striking, but the photo exhibition Life of the City was absolutely stunning. It was held in just two small rooms, and half the exhibition was of classic photography of New York from the museum's collection, the other half of amateur/professional photography submitted by hundreds of random people of scenes of the City that meant something to them (not just relating to September 11th). It also featured slide projections of photographs that formed an impromptu exhibition downtown straight after September 11th taken by various witnesses of the events.

Rather than being depressing or saddening though, I found the exhibition incredibly uplifting ... even laughing at some of the images that most captured the feeling of joi-de-vivre that was quite obviously at the core of the exhibit. There was the odd tragic photograph of the terror of that time, but they were very meaningfully juxtaposed with many shots which served to reassure the visitor that life goes on despite these things that happen ... perhaps because of these things that happen. Wonderful show (and very inspiring).

Both of the lads were too knackered to do anything useful in the afternoon (just shows you what late nights and lie-ins do for you!), so I wandered around a bit myself, gravitating towards Toga Bikes to buy myself a cadence sensor for my Polar s710 (although I'm somewhat reluctant to monitor my meagre power output at the moment!!) Roj and Olly managed to find the crappest TV possible in the aftenoon, which I boycotted completely by faffing around with boring stuff that needed to be done, and eventually had an early night.

As far as training is going, I've abandoned the Saddle and Paddle (adventure race) next Sunday, although I'm definitely going along to support & take photos. It's nice to take the pressure off my training actually, although I'm disappointed not to have the form to do the race. I can at last give myself another week off running & cycling (a necessary evil) so my pulled groin muscle can recover completely, without feeling the pressure to keep training. Lets hope it'll work this time!!

Very nice weekend, other than the stubborn cold which is refusing to allow me to do any exercise or breathe normally. Shouldn't complain though ... Rich (NYARA) is in hospital with pneumonia with lungs operating at 20%, poor sod!

I was rudely awakened on Saturday morning by the alarm going off at 4.30 and spent the next 15 minutes in a battle with myself over whether to get up and marshall the road race that CRCA (Century Road Cycling Assoc) were running in the Park. The idea is that I eventually get down to actually doing one of the races, but they don't allow this until you've demonstrated the appropriate level of madness by standing around in minus 2 degrees for a couple of hours of an early Saturday morning to blow your whistle at people who stray into the path of the oncoming pelotons. It was quite a nice experience actually - even I haven't been in the park that early before and it was very empty. The people that were actually around at that time were all particularly friendly and interested in what was going on - not that I could enlighten them much since I didn't know much myself and was too busy yawning. I also got to ride my new Cannondale for a few minutes (before aforementioned cold stopped me from breathing!) and realised that potentially (pending change of saddle!) it's a blimmin nice machine.

I got back with ice-cube feet and we did the tourist thing in the afternoon with Olly - taking a trip on the Circle Line around Manhattan first (great commentary, very very weird to see the downtown skyline looking so empty), followed by a tour around the Intrepid aircraft carrier & Growler submarine (haven't been in a submarine before - very claustrophopic and red, and full of plastic men!) We went to a very charming steakhouse in the evening up on 93rd and Columbus (Roth's). The waiters were far far too pushy, but the steaks were truly amazing.

Sunday Roj and I tried to go cycling in the morning, but quite apart from it being several degrees below zero, I felt utterly knackered & managed an all time slow speed around the park, so we packed it in and went back to bed to warm up. After a very pleasant diner breakfast we then hiked on up to the Bronx for the Yankees game in the afternoon. Again - freezing cold, but great atmosphere and lovely sunshine ... fully recommended to anyone.

I had plenty of NYARA updates to catch up on in the evening which I did in front of part one of 'Shackleton' with Kenneth Brannagh (much too slow-moving, but historically very interesting), the second part of which we watched last night after an unusually lame Fear Factor (the highlight being the man who managed to hold his breath in a tube of water for 2 minutes 7 seconds - 2 minutes and 7 seconds!!)

This week should be interesting. Some key meetings during the week, and more touristy stuff with Olly in the evenings. It's very nice to have a visitor over here - especially one who is so conscientious. It's a real pleasure to do the host thing once in a while.

On another note, JonP sent this link around with a hilarious article on blogging. Not that I listen to a word of it of course!!

Gah. How have I got a cold?? I thought I'd done my ill/injured quota for this year (and the next five!!), but nevertheless here I am, sniffling away and feeling knackered. Lets just hope it doesn't last too long ...

On the bright side ... I'm picking up my new bike this afternoon - can't wait to ride it. I fell for the Cannondale in the end (not just cos it's blue - honest!) and ended up spending far more money than I anticipated (what else is new!!). I also got a couple of the expert bike shop guys to fit me right (not being standard 6'-tall-average-male-cyclist-size) so I'm swapping out the stem and handlebars & have minutely tweaked the crank length, angles, seat position bla bla bla until I no longer have any excuse for riding slowly!! I applied for my USCF license on Monday, so I'm hoping to do my first Central Park circuit race on 13th April, providing all the paperwork comes through.

Meanwhile, am also finally getting all the necessary tables and extension cords so that our apartment isn't trailing cables all over the place. Forgotten what it was like not to have to do an obstacle course to get to the sofa, but it's actually quite nice!

It's astonishingly hot in NYC today. I'd almost forgotten how it went from coats and scarves to t-shirts in the space of a couple of hours last year. I do miss English spring a little - you get to enjoy the anticipation of summer and literally see things turning green and starting to grow, but I have to confess to loving the way the US climate just gets it done - no procrastinating - winter summer, winter summer! (I was never made for cool and drizzly). I love this city!!