WS Bring a kid or two to work day.

Last Thursday I went canoeing again with Wiki at her Canoe club in Reading. This time I felt confident enough to attempt the 5km time trial. I was thinking I could do half of it and stop since it was a figure of 8 around the river.

In the end I did the entire time trial. Well I got half way around and as usual felt it would be a shame to only do half of it so continued on. At the end my hands did feel a little numb, probably because I was holding onto the paddle too tensely. I managed to complete the time trial in dead last in a time of around 45 minutes. I was quite pleased but could have gone faster, mind you I could also have fallen in as well.

Wiki was quite pleased and impressed that I had manged the entire time trial, more so because it was only my second attempt on the water.

The next time below mine was around 38 minutes but that was by someone that had been canoeing for a year, so I have some time to improve my canoeing. It was really good fun to do the time trial and what was even better was that I didn't ache at all the following day. I look forward to the next time I can do some more.

It was national Slave labour day at work on Saturday. I had my nieces working for me at the office for the day, while I played on the bouncy castle, bungee trampoline, inflatable slide, electronic clay pigeon shooting and ferris wheel.

They look like they are enjoying programming for me in C# and C++. They took to MS Dev Studio quite quickly after an intense course.

Alternatively it could have been the Wallingford HR summer BBQ day on Saturday and I could have taken my two nieces out to it for some fun.

When we got to my work place the main gate and side gate to the site were closed. Very odd I thought so I gave Becky a call to find out whether she was there and how she got into the site. At first I had a horrible feeling that I had arrived on the wrong day as from the entrance you couldn't hear anyone else and no one else was around. Thankfully other cars started to arrive behind me and one poor woman was inside the site trying to get out too.

I eventually managed to call security for the site and they promptly arrived and opened the gate for us. When I asked them why it was closed they just said that they were on a break! What can I say...

Here I am being mugged by Aimee after she had just had her face painted.

We all had lots of fun at the BBQ. Everything was free and there were plenty of fun things on for the kids to play with. They both initially ran straight to the big bouncy castle for a good jump around and then onto the inflatable slide.

After a quick go on the bungee trampoline, Elise and Aimee had a round of crazy golf with Becky's daughter Bethan. Fortunately Elise, Aimee and Bethan got on very well throughout the day. It was a shame for Becky's son Sean though as he definitely wasn't going to go and play with the girls today, being a boy obviously.

Elise just after having her face painted as a tiger! I wanted to have my face painted as a tiger too, but there was too long a queue for it and they said that they would only do my face after they had done all the children first. They obviously don't know me...

We also had lots of fun on the ferris wheel that had been set-up in the car park. It wasn't that big a wheel but it did move quite fast!

From the top of the week you could see quite a distance. You can make out the climbing wall, bouncy castle and inflatable slide beside the manor house in this video. The girls were screaming all the way around the wheel, as was I!

The terrible threesome after some face painting.

Elise, Aimee and Bethan at the top of the slide. They both got a couple of small nasty burns from sliding down it though.

Our support manager, Tony had obviously had enough of some of the kids...

We were all quite surprised at how quickly the stalls started to pack up in the afternoon, much to Becky, Bethan and Sean's disappointment as they were about to get on the ferris wheel. Even though the event was listed to end at 6pm, the ferris wheel stopped at 5, and other things started finishing quite quickly afterwards. I think only the electronic clay pigeon shooting actually went no till just before 6.

Afterwards when most people had left I showed Aimee and Elise around the manor house and grounds. I took them to my desk at work, they were particularly impressed by the machine room and the main entranceway to the manor house.

Then we went for a brief walk around the grounds to see the boat house and allotment. We looked out for some frogs but didn't find any around the pond.

We all had a fantastic day out and my nieces really enjoyed themselves. I'm already looking forward to the next time when I can take them out for a long weekend extreme mountain biking in the Welsh hills... :-)

On the high seas.

Seeing as my ankle still isn't good enough to cycle or work out properly on, Wiki suggested that it would be an ideal time to try some kayaking and canoeing.

On Thursday after work I went with Wiki to her canoe club in Reading. Here's Wiki coming in after doing her time trial.

The conditions weren't exactly perfect to be out on the water. Quite a few of the people in the canoe club said that the strong winds weren't very good for canoeing and even worse for a beginner like me to start out on. Needless to say I was a little nervous and this really didn't help my confidence!

After a shaky start I soon took it it and I really started to enjoy myself. I think my own tenseness didn't help at the beginning, but as I relaxed and got used to it I started to get much better. On my first go on the river I did bump the front of the kayak on the side bank a few times. Fortunately it's quite strong on the front and no one noticed.

Here I am just paddling by Wiki with my phone camera. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my proper camera along for the day.

After Wiki finished the half hour time trial we both went out in a Canadian two-man canoe. It was really good to get out on a much more stable boat and paddle up and down the river together.

We then had a quick go on an indoor paddling machine which is specially made for improving your paddling technique. It was quite good as you didn't have to worry about balancing the kayak and could concentrate on your paddling motion instead.

I then went out for a second time on my own in the kayak while Wiki watched on as she was tired from the time trial and the Canadian paddling. I almost rolled over at one point, when I was trying hard to turn the kayak around I lent into the bend and started to tip to one side. Fortunately I managed to balance myself again and didn't fall in!

I really enjoyed my time out on the river and would really like to do some more. It was quite good exercise for my upper body and an ideal complement to all the cycling that I do.

Here I am just coming in after my second go in the kayak. Can you see how tightly I'm gripping onto the riverbank?

As usual for me, I managed to cut myself on my right knee while getting out of the kayak. Well it wouldn't be the same if I didn't have some sort of injury.

I can't wait to get a chance to get out in a kayak again. It's something else to have fun doing and to get some exercise!

Lola's been getting braver and braver around my house now. She quite happily wonders around the ground floor now as long as I leave the doors open for her. Here she is working on her tan in my back garden.

Dodgy Ankle.

After three weeks I still have a dodgy ankle. :-(

I've done my best to rest it as much as I can and it did feel quite good at the end of last week. So good that I went to the gym on Friday, only for a gentle work out, no cardio exercise.

On Sunday I went for a brief twenty-mile bike ride. I stayed on the tarmac and just explored bits of Bristol. My leg still felt generally fine after this.

However, on Monday evening it started to swell up again around my ankle. I decided to give the gym a miss on Tuesday morning and rest it, but during the day the swelling didn't go down at all so I decided to visit the doctors for a second opinion on Wednesday.

After seeing the doc today all he said was that my tendons around my ankle were badly damaged and they would take a while to heal fully, anything up to two months!

I'm still hoping that it will be much better by the end of this month as I plan to do a lot of cycling in July.