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.