For the second time in one year, my laptop gave up the ghost on Friday, and in the middle of the week that my desktop is strewn around the sitting room too. Being unable to connect for nearly a week is an unusual state of affairs, and brought both good and bad. I didn't miss email much, but I missed access to the Web (never thought I'd say that). There are several things that I'd have liked to look up at one time or other including what on earth Rosemary's Baby is like since it is one of our latest Blockbuster dvds.

Anyway. I reformatted the hard drive yesterday evening and reinstalled XP and all the other stuff yesterday. I'm a bit hesitant to install Microsoft Critical Updates though, since that was the reason for the sudden death. Better now than when I have a whole cache of new and important files though, I suppose.

We went to Gordon and Danielle's wedding on Saturday south of London. It was mostly enjoyable but there weren't as many people we knew as we expected, and Jody - despite spending some of the evening with a competent childminder - became extremely over-stimulated, impossible to put to bed and has since refused to go to sleep as she had been doing. She now screams blue murder when I put her to bed (when previously she would murmur gently, roll over, and start snoring), and requires me to rock her for an extra 20 minutes before she's ready to go quietly. On Saturday she woke quite late and for the first time ever was met with a stranger rather than one of her parents though, so she's obviously been mildly traumatised.

Sunday we spent a lot of time decorating. I'm the woodwork person and Roj does the walls. I've repainted all my 'office' furniture white to clean up the conspicuous blue. Each piece needs two coats and generally takes four sessions though (one coat every 16 hours minimum) so it won't be finished til Friday, at which point we're off to Abersoch for a week of sand, surf, sea, but absolutely no sun. Looking forward to it regardless.

I went up to Brent Cross yesterday to pick up some fabric for Jody's curtains. What an awful place! Makes you glad to be within proximity of Oxford Street, which is another thing I thought I'd never say.

Jody is very cute right now. She's toddling better every day, but still walks with both hands up in the air for balance. She prefers to hold something in each hand too, and the bigger the better, so has been known to lug around a pair of our shoes slung over her shoulders. Can't make it easy for the little mite!

Less of the 'little' I suppose. At her one-year appointment she was deemed to be in the 98th percentile for height and the 75th for weight. At least her mum will empathise with her being the tallest in her class. She's got a handful of molars through now. She did have some restless nights when the first one came through, and the gum was so angry and red it was hardly surprising, but at last check she has at least 3 emerging and has made no fuss whatsoever so she's obviously getting used to the pain! The best thing recently is the establishment of her first real words. She has certainly said recognisable things on the odd occasion - 'daddy', 'dog', 'hi', 'bye', 'light' - but none with any real consistency. But the other day she toddled up to my bare feet when I was lying in bed in the morning and said 'tickle, tickle, tickle,' along with relevant hand movements. Roj and I fell about laughing it was so comical. Now she takes every opportunity to 'tickle tickle' feet, whether it be mine, Roj's, her own, or those of unsuspecting people in the park. It's so funny!

I suppose this week can't go without mention of all the sporting things that are going on. Terribly disappointed in last week's football effort. I don't suppose we need to go there. Much more enthusiastic about the recent efforts of Henman at Wimbledon. For the first time ever I see what all the fuss is about as he's playing some pretty fantastic tennis at last. Even the consistency is improving (sometimes). Can't wait to see the result of that. Meanwhile have been lamenting the unfair balance of male and female players with my new friend and neigbour Rachel. Male spectators have got it all right this year haven't they, but where's the eye-candy for the women? That's what I want to know.

Right. Looks like a reboot is required. More later.

Fab Saturday. Spent the morning (and most of the afternoon) with the 260 gals in Richmond over a Slug lunch and rather too much wine. Absolutely brill to catch up with them all - Catharine for the first time in about four years - just a shame we were one short. Roj brought Jody down for a saunter in Richmond Park and joined us for the last hour or so, so I didn't even get Jody withdrawal symptoms which was even better!

On a roll from painting the kitchen woodwork on Friday, I got back and blitzed the walls, expecting it to take about 1.5 hours. 3 hours later (and with a very aggravated hangover), I finally emerged from paint hell with just one wall to go (and no paint). Never paint when you've been drinking!

Sunday was much less fun. Spent six hours sanding the woodwork in the stairwell. Six hours. Got thoroughly fed up and only managed half of it before I packed it in. Then realised the whole flat was covered in a fine layer of white dust despite dust sheets and shut doors. Gah.

The sanding put me in a horrible mood for 24 hours, and I knew the only way to fix it was to finish the damn thing on Monday. Unfortunately an unsleepy baby meant that I had to devise some ploys to keep her entertained while I blasted my ears to kingdom come. Thank goodness for Baby Einstein.

Jody made up for two sleepless days this afternoon by sleeping for four hours. She woke with (another) cold yesterday so I decided the best bet was to leave her to sleep it off when I'd usually wake her up after 2.5. Couldn't believe it when she woke up at 5:10. And she still went to sleep at 7 as usual. Just wondering whether that means she'll be up at 5 tomorrow morning!

So while I was painting shelves today I couldn't resist tuning into Henman getting thrashed in the first round against somebodyorother. Joined it at the beginning of the second set when Henman really did look like he was going to lose the game. Carried on watching (in the background, and while I got rid of the damn W32.Sasser.E.Worm) and finally saw him claw his way back to win the match. Phew!

... Which was much the same as England versus Croatia wasn't it? Looking like they were messing it up in the first quarter and then spectacularly clawing back to victory. Phew again. (This is more sport than I've watched in a very long while).

So this week it's going to rain (it feels like we're due some rain since it's been so dry and sunny recently). I have plenty to do (you don't think sanding's the last of it do you?) and a wedding to look forward to on Saturday. Luckily my own outfit's already sorted, though it'd be nice to get something pretty for my little girl. What a softie eh!?

Not too much to report in the first half of this week. My aching has finally abated, but as I've been awake since 2:30am it's unlikely that I'll capitalise by going running until at least Friday.

Found shoes for the (July) wedding outfit on Monday, which was a big relief particularly as I'd spent a day and a half looking, with no success, and these were the last in the shop. Now it's just hat and bag time and I'm sorted.

Enjoyed toddler group on Monday although Jody was a complete thug. Usually there are some over-one's at the group who race around and make her seem quiet and cute, but this time she was the most boisterous and mobile, and proved it by shoving all the little uns around! Ah well.

The last two days she has had a long sleep in the middle of the day which should enable me to catch up on lots, but mainly just makes me feel tired. The day I decide to catch up on sleep myself, she will decide the nap is extraneous. She has also decided in the last couple of days, to have a tantrum when put into the buggy. This involves full-scale screaming and arching her back to the extent that I just can't get her in there. I'm not sure where it originates except that she must be bored sick of it as I haven't let her run around in the park much this week. All will be rectified in the next few days (pending weather). I am still proud of her sleeping progress, as she is now going to sleep without crying at night and has even started to go to sleep when put down mid-afternoon, providing she's tired enough. Her progress is always astonishing.

We had Zac and his girlfriend Heidi over for dinner last night and I used them as guinea pigs for a (fortunately successful) Persian chicken salad which I initially thought had gone horribly wrong. It was lovely to see him and meet her (she is fab), but the copious wine has led to partial insommnia. Just as I was catching up from the last lot of indulgences!

I'm meeting a neigbourhood mum tomorrow, with her 3-month-old, who I keep bumping into on the streets around here (and at baby clinic). Turns out she lives just two doors away so we agreed on a walk and a coffee. Oh this life is all play!

And Saturday I'm very much looking forward to meeting all the 260 girls - for the first time in years - for a leisurely lunch. Despite having to travel to Richmond for the privilege.

Back home now after a fab weekend, and aching somewhat.

Left on Thursday evening for Shropshire to spend a hurried few hours with Jody's Nana on the morning of her first birthday. Cards aplenty, wobbly jelly and even a cake with a candle for breakfast. The highlight had to be the first ride on a horse though (if a Shetland pony can be considered a horse), under the auspices of Aunty Zo.

Off to Manchester for Roj's business meeting and a meander into the biggest Mothercare I've ever seen for Jody and myself, then continuation of our trip to arrive in North Yorkshire as planned at 4pm, followed closely by the Grandparents Wardle.

Lovely evening with modest wine and a fab spaghetti bolognese prepared by Sven and Charlotte, followed by map and pack preparation and a reasonably early night.

An early morning on Saturday to enable digestion of breakfast and getting Jody ready before setting off at 8am. Couldn't have been luckier weather-wise; clear and dry but with a refreshing and much-needed cool edge. Registration and an inadequate warm-up run and at 9:30am we were finally off up Fremington Edge.

It was a good run for me. Like many of the competitors I walked most of the uphills and ran the flat and the downs. I had a vicious stitch coming off Fremington Edge which meant that my first major downhill was horribly stilted, but luckily the stitch seemed to ease when I was on the flat. Lots of varied terrain and incline, and several checkpoints later I got my map out to see where on earth I was. Checkpoint 5. Over halfway. And with only 2:40hrs gone it looked like I might make it in just over 5 hours. I stopped at three checkpoints to get my cup out of my pack and drink some water, despite carrying 100oz of Accelerade in my Camelbak. By two thirds of the way round I was feeling sick to death of the stuff and was desperate for some basic water (lesson learnt for next time - particularly as I finished with over 50oz remaining). The penultimate half hour was definitely the worst. I felt so sick I thought I was going to have to kneel by the trackside at several points, despite feeling that there was plenty of strength remaining in my legs. My new trainers finally kicked in for the last thirty minutes too, and eroded my feet in around 4 different places. But I passed a fella near the end of the flat who said there was only 1.5 miles to go, so I pulled some energy out of the hat and legged it for the finish line. Which I made in 5:03. A good 30 minutes quicker than I had been imagining. Fab.

And the even better news was that Sven made it in 3:39, coming in 9th overall and helping his team win the fastest team trophy. And this his first major competitive run. Absolutely amazing stuff!

Roj blew somewhat in the last 1.5 hours, but made it back in a respectable 4:43, so all in all we felt quite pleased with ourselves and thoroughly deserving of way too much wine and an amazing barbeque in gorgeous evening sunshine back in Richmond.

Of course the aching has got progressively worse and will probably peak tomorrow. My feet are still sore and I have worn a strip of skin off my back, but my quads came off worst. That said, the pain was nowhere near as bad as the road marathons I've done - the physical punishment you undergo is nowhere near as bad when the terrain is so varied - and didn't even kick in until after the finish line. But 4.5 hours cooped up in the car this afternoon wasn't the best therapy so I anticipate a sore walk to toddler group tomorrow.

Spent a very pleasant morning today with Sven and Charlotte who took us to a local organic working farm in the Dales (the things you can do when you have a kid as an excuse!) followed by a delicious Sunday pub lunch. Rounded off a fantastic weekend very nicely indeed. Thanks must go out to my parents for looking after Jody for the whole of Saturday (she was brilliantly behaved as usual, which helps), and to Sven and Charlotte for making us so welcome at theirs.

We are, by varying degrees, enthusiastically looking into more trail-running challenges for the future. Perhaps the 3 Peaks, or even the Kimm. Which is remarkable since we are still nursing the aches from Saturday. Bonkers.

Happy First Birthday to my fabulous little girl! xxx

Had a fab day yesterday thanks to Camilla who took the day off work and came down to London to help me shop. Selfridges personal shopping had a waiting list of 7 to 8 weeks, so Camilla volunteered to take on the task herself, which is brave considering my shopping amateurism.

Selfridges itself was a complete let-down. Great colours this year, but no nice styles whatsoever. And Jody started to object vociferously in the middle of the 3rd floor, until we decided to bail out for lunch. Both of us were astonished that Selfridges could yield nothing suitable whatsoever, but I think that reflects more on me than on the stuff available. Losing hope, we took a walk down Bond Street (in 31 degrees), which resulted in nothing of note either. It was only a last-ditch attempt en route home that surprised us with a rather nice skirt and top. Which we celebrated with slabs of cake and Starbucks coffee.

I would have given up after half an hour when Jody started whingeing, and there's no way Roj would have had the patience for what we went through, so I'm very indebted to Camilla for being my pseudo sister. I just need to finish the outfit off with shoes and a hat and I'm all sorted. Hooray.

I'm kind of glad it's not looking to be quite as hot today. 30 degrees this last couple of days has been just too hot to be stuck in the middle of a city with no aircon. It made me think of New York though (surprise surprise), and coping with that sort of heat on a regular basis (which didn't seem so bad over there). Thank goodness it's going to be cooler on Saturday or the Swaledale will be even more of a challenge.

Talking of which I'm sort of ready. Despite going for a short run up Primrose Hill yesterday and barely getting to the top. I don't know what was causing the racing pulse and tired legs but it doesn't bode well for Saturday. Here's hoping it was just a temporary glitch.

We're heading up to Shropshire tomorrow evening to spend the night at Roj's Mum's where we'll celebrate Jody's birthday in the morning. Then off to North Yorkshire via Manchester (where Roj has a lunchtime meeting) to stay with Sven and Charlotte where my babysitting parents will also be arriving. The Swaledale starts at 9:30 on Saturday morning so hopefully by 3pm it should all be over. Eurgh.

Wow. What a busy (but enjoyable) weekend. I don't seem to have stopped since Friday morning.

First of all, happy 30th birthday on Saturday to both Dave and Barnaby.

The not-so-good were the accidents-come-in-fours that happened to Jody on Friday, two of which were luckily near misses. In the morning I nearly dropped her putting her into her buggy. She just wriggled the wrong way and nearly right out of my arms. Later I came back from the kitchen to find her wriggling out of her high chair. She'd got both legs on one side of the leg strap, so her head was on the seat, her legs were dangling halfway to the floor, and the only things holding her in were the arm straps. Quite disconcerting. Later in the evening we had Martin and Anna over for lasagne (homemade I'll have you know!) and Jody tripped and hit her mouth on the corner of our coffee table, causing a huge amount of screaming and a modest amount of blood and worry. Not exactly what you want happening as your (pregnant) guests are just introducing themselves to your baby daughter, but we don't choose these moments. Within ten minutes she was right as rain again until she tripped again and grazed her chin causing yet more screaming. Sigh. Being awake an hour beyond her bedtime was certainly a contributing factor to the wobbles, but I think it's definitely time to get corner protectors.

It was lovely to see Martin and Anna though, who were both on very good form and enjoying their pregnancy (after recovering from a rather gruesome miscarriage last year). We even had my belly cast out at one point, which was tried on by just about everybody!

On Saturday - after not nearly enough sleep - we rushed around a little in the morning (in the vain search for a specific birthday present), and then headed down to the South Coast for lunch with Simon, Jo and little Charlotte. Unfortunately we listened to the Toyota sat. nav. and got stuck in horrendous traffic through London on the A23, so we arrived an hour later than anticipated. Nevertheless it was great to meet their little daughter and have a look around yet another house with oodles of square footage and garden. And this one within a stone's throw of the beach (down which we subsequently took a leisurely stroll). Roj took Jody down to the water's edge to see if she would be interested in paddling but made the mistake of not removing his shoes. So as she strained to go further into the water while he strained to keep his shoes dry, it was lucky that shoeless Simon managed to step in and take over or it would have meant sodden baby (note Roj's priorities!)

It would have been very relaxing to spend a leisurely afternoon on the south coast, despite substantial cloud cover, but we had to leave Simon and Jo at 4 to make it back to London (via a different route) in time for dinner at the Coq d'Argent. Roj volunteered for baby duty on this occasion but I had a very nice time indeed indulging in Conran food and stunning wine in the company of the handful of people I've shamefully been meaning to catch up with since our UK return over three months ago. Three months! Lovely evening.

Yet more lack of sleep, then off to Dulwich on Sunday for drinks, this time with Roj and Jody in tow, the latter for the first time (since her proficiency at walking has increased) in a dress! Lovely to play catch up again, but by mid-afternoon I was quite ready to crawl into bed and sleep til morning. This, you understand, is more socialising in a shorter space of time than I've done for months.

Off to bed now (and it's not even dark yet), ready for toddler group tomorrow, wedding outfit shopping with Camilla on Tuesday, Jody's first birthday on Friday and then the small matter of the Swaledale Marathon on Saturday. Eeek.

12 reps of the hill again this morning, in a feeble attempt to get a last hard training session in before 'tapering' for the event next Saturday. It was all going very well until I realised that I will have to do three times the ascent, three times the lenth and nearly three times the distance on the day. Which isn't all that appealing!

Still ... I've done the run and it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. And I only have a couple of small blisters to show for it (eek), and even my hip isn't playing up as much as usual (how old does that make me sound?). So all is well.

Rose popped over to see me yesterday afternoon. Was great to catch up with her (for the first time since getting back, though not for want of trying), although we did spend some time being nostalgic about NY, which was inevitable really.

Took Jody into the playground in the morning and watched her steal a little boy's action man, another baby's rattly toy and a little girl's crisp. I see the shape of things to come! She's making good progress with the walking though. She still defaults to crawling once in a while, but is prefering to walk most of the time. It's so cute to watch her wobbling all over the place with her arms up in the air and the most focused look of concentration on her face. Until she sees you watching her and then she claps and smiles or comes running over. Fab!

I'm finally running again. Which should mean that my cold has gone shouldn't it? Only it hasn't. But I have to wear in these trail runners, at least a little bit. Just hoping that the snotty nose clears up in the next ten days or the Swaledale will be a nightmare.

The long weekend wasn't exactly spectacular, but it was very enjoyable. Saturday was just a day spent doing things we needed to do - Covent Garden to buy overtrousers for next week's compulsory gear list, Vauxhall to order floor tiles for the bathrooms and then B & Q for various bits and bobs. Found just enough time in the evening to watch Magnolia which was much more bizarre but also much more enjoyable than I anticipated.

Bought Jody her first pair of shoes on Sunday (flexible Clarks things) while Roj spent some time polyfiller-ing cracks in our walls. Turns out Jody's already at the top of the size chart for pre-walkers, which is hardly surprising considering her height and her heritage, but still. The good news is that as from yesterday she's officially choosing walking as her preferred mode of transport, so the next pair of shoes will happily be a pair of real ones. In about six weeks I expect.

Sunday evening we had a lovely visit from Jody LaPar who was over from NY for a brief conference over the bank holiday weekend. Really enjoyed catching up with her, despite feeling a little wistful over the whole NY thing. She was on very good form having just completed the Appalachian Extreme in ninth position and mercifully recovered from a brush with an 18-wheeler. Definitely hope to see more of her in the future, on one side of the Atlantic or the other.

Monday we went out to Cambridge to visit Ian, Emma and Lottie and then Annabel and Neil. It was a gorgeous sunny day and both sets of people had ample gardens and outdoor furniture so we found it very relaxing. A hint of the green-eyed monster of course, when our nearest outdoor space is ten minutes' walk away and shared with half a city, but lovely nontheless. Emma was generous enough to give me about a million of Lottie's cast-offs too, so I won't be buying baby clothes in the next several months.

In all a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend and just what we needed after spending much of Saturday lunchtime discussing the seemingly inadequate reasons that we left New York.