One for the road...

No line on the horizon...

Well first up happy new year!  Hope you've had a cracking Christmas!!  I took a week off work and came down with the flu so all my running plans were drowned in flem filled lungs :(

I can't believe it's 2009, seems 5 minutes ago it was the turn of the century! But I'm excited as well, not only is it the marathon year but U2 have a new album out!  Yes 'No Line on the Horizon' is scheduled per Amazon for the start of March so it must be true.  I do love a good U2 album and so far the critical reception has been +ive.  So here is a sneak preview of the tracks on the new project [just click on the picture to make it bigger]...

 

So what are you looking forward to in 2009?

Wishing you all a very happy and blessed Christmas!

 "The Word became flesh and blood,
      and moved into the neighborhood.
   We saw the glory with our own eyes,
      the one-of-a-kind glory,
      like Father, like Son,
   Generous inside and out,
      true from start to finish."

                                                    

Advent reflection: what if God was one of us...

Heres the vid i pulled together to introduce the advent reflection that I did...

5 things I'm loving...

5 things I am loving at the moment:

1. The tash has gone, long live the tash!  Yes I survived Movember.  Yes I grew a tash.  Yes it did have a ginger tinge.  It was impressive enough to raise £170 for prostate cancer charity (for which I'm very grateful for support).  Yes you can still give if you want to: http://tinyurl.com/623lh2. But no the tash did not stay and my top lip is bare once more.
2. Despite being half American I had never ever celebrated thanksgiving before.  Well that was until last saturday when we hosted a thanksgiving dinner with 3 other couples for an american friend of Deb.  My only association of thanksgiving is sweet potato with marshmellows so I had to make it.  I was shocked that it turned out that something that seeemed sooooo wrong turned out to be soooooooooo deliciously right and that by the way the dish disappeared everyone else agreed.
3. New kid friendly but also great adult food cafe discovery of the week is a chain called Giraffe. Discovered when saying a farewell lunch to australian friends of ours heading back to Oz after spending 7 yrs and 2 kids later in europe (they were only going to stay for 2!).
4. My running has kicked up a gear and I've upped my standard run from 8 to 10 miles at a time.  Averaging about 1hr 30-40.  I've signed up to do the Edinburgh marathon at the end of May and pressing on with training even when it's c-c-c-c-cold outside!  (you can follow my progress on facebk as i've just installed a widget which supports mapmyrun.com the site where i log my training).  I've also dropped to my lowest weight in yrs, just over 12 stone or 176lbs.
5. Finally advent is here the season of weight and preparation for christmas and as well as having my own fantastic handcrafted advent calender full of chocolate (thanks Deb!) I've also written a couple of posts for deep church site:  Let the wait begin and What if God was one of us?

    So what are you loving at the moment?