Fired Up

Good evening, mes chers amis, I've been absent I know and duly apologise for leaving town without so much as an adieu.

Bright and early on Saturday morning family McLoughlin saddled up and headed for the country side, to see my mother-in-law. "AAAAAAAAAAAgggggggghhhhhhh" I hear you say in unison. Actually not so, I must admit that I get on quite well with her and enjoy getting out of Paris to breathe in the cow sh*t. So off we went in the milling rain with the two little ones strapped in, wife at the wheel and me in charge of the music. Educated the kids on the new 'Muse' album and I think I have sold it to them, its so good it sells itself really, bring on the gig in Nov I say. OK, back to the narrative.

Upon arrival it was still raining, but a feast had been prepared and was unceremoniously devoured by the hungry troops. After a good hour of relaxation while Pearl slept, it was time to stretch the legs. One of the many joys of where my mum-in-law lives is that it's nothing but fields, forests and lakes. Bliss. The lakes it was then, where I tried to impress my son my skimming stones across the water. In the beginning I was cooler than the 'Transformers ' and 'Batman' combined, by the end I was "crap Papa". Ah bless him, and not even 5 yet! Pearl on the other hand had obviously not enough to eat at aforementioned feast and decided that munching flowers was the way to top up her desert. She soon learned the error in here choice of post meal snack. The rest of our day was largely uneventful and as the evening closed in, it was time for baths and books.

With the wee ones washed and tucked in I spent the remainder of my evening getting stuck into 'Shutter Island' by Dennis Lehane. Boy can that man write. Loving every page of it. A good book beats the TV every time.

The clocks went back which meant at 6 am it was still quite dark. I jumped out of bed, had a quick coffee and a snack before throwing on my running gear and heading for the forest. What followed was just sublime. One and a half hours of pure silence, only punctuated by a chirping bird and the rhythm of my breathing. I took a route I had never explored before and was rewarded with the sunrise breaking over a lake, the mist hovering just above the water. When I say it was close to heaven, it's not an overstatement. I get a tremendous amount of inspiration from seeing and hearing nature wake from its slumber. The unadulterated joy of being there, by myself with my thoughts, to share the dawn of a new day. But I couldn't stay too long as with the half marathon in 2 weeks I needed to get the legs moving again. I eventually made it home after 1h 31min, covered 18kms and burnt 1,600 calories.

It was hard to leave the countryside as Dylan stayed with his Nana for the rest of the week (school holidays). It is now Tuesday and I miss him terribly, but it's giving me a chance to work harder with Pearl on many things. She is doing OK and needs not only her family's support but yours also. I would like to mention Neil and Monica, my dear friends who had a baby girl in the early hours of Sunday morning. So happy for them. Also a huge thanks to Kieran "Q" Egan at mill-yard computing for all the work on the site. It's nearly ready folks, and it looks great.

Dash I must, indeed I must.

See you round the bend.

Mally.

Pfizer taking on Autism

http://www.theautismnews.com/2009/10/12/new-pfizer-unit-to-take-on-autism/

Good afternoon Y'all,

Please take 5 minutes out of your day if you can to read the article I have linked to above. Its a work in progress, but these experts are taking it to the next level and..... hope springs eternal. Just think of the future kids could have ten years from now....Ya gotta have faith.

See you round the bend.

Mally.

Change of plan

"It's very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit." -- George Sheehan

Good evening one and all. There has been a change of plan regarding my planned 100km run next September, I'm afraid I will not be able to do it. Its terrible I know, so... I will be running 100km in May instead. Yeeeeeeeehaaaawwwww.

I have been inspired to do this because of the sense of urgency that that has been instilled in me by the support of my friends and loved ones. My spirit is soaring and my legs have just 7 months to catch up. Its in the Vendee region, below Nantes, on the French west coast. The race itself is a circuit of 25kms x 4 laps, which will be nice for my family as they will be able to view my spectacular deterioration over and over and over and over. Once I have posted this there is no going back. Somebody check my brain please?

See you round the bend.

Mally

Welcome

I can hardly believe it. The response to my original e-mail which was the launch pad for this blog has been beyond great. So many messages of support from many, many people. Some I haven't seen in a long time, hell, there were even messages from people I have never even met. The power of the human spirit and the sheer joy I felt reading those e-mails astounded me. So thank you.

Today was a pretty good day, we had an appointment with Pearls 'Pedopsy' (psychiatrist for children). She is like the Queen Bee of the therapy hive. Basically we have a speech therapist, a physical therapist and a psychologist and Pearl spends a lot of time with each during the course of the week. As she progresses, these three therapists assimilate their reports and all the info goes back to the Pedopsy. She then swivels around in her big comfy chair and tells us whats the next plan of attack. Still with me? Good. Any-who, all seems to be going well according to our expert as she is of the opinion that Pearl's communication is improving, only slightly but its better than being in reverse. Patience seems to be the key at the moment and when it gets tough I try to imagine what the world looks like through Pearl's eyes. Does she see differently than us 'normal' people? What sounds irritate her? Does she know how much she is loved and that her family would do anything for her? I think she does, her little voice is in there, we just have to get it out.

I have posted some links relating to Autism for anyone who would like to educate themselves further. There are also links about some running sites too, if you feel like dusting off those old trainers and getting out the door then go for it. Your body and mind will thank you after it. It doesnt matter whether you run/walk 1 km or 10, every step is one in the right direction.

Thats my lot for the moment dear friends. See you round the bend.

Mally.

Its time for action

Ah, the first post. Nothing earth shattering to commence with except to say 'Bonjour'
I am looking forward to documenting all things relating to Autism, Music and Running from here on in. Unfortunately there will be no running today, the good lady herself (my wife) was up at 5 this morning and heading for Brussels, not to return until about 9 tonight. So I will have to wait until tomorrow, never mind, a cycle to Pearls speech therapist this afternoon will loosen up the legs juuuuuuusst fine. Then its back to pick up Dylan who has become something of a soccer nut as of late. The kid can tackle I'll give him that much. Its the Irish in him.
Well my pedigree chums I intend to get a lot more done on my little blog later, but for the moment I is out the door. M x