Going Dark...

Well, if you're an eagle-eyed type of person - the sort who never misses a thing - it can't have escaped you that it's getting very dark these days. There are certainly a lot less hours of daylight. This is bad for lots of reasons. I'm not really talking about S.A.D. (although I know a few people who always get really down at this time of year). It's more that there seems to be even less time to get what needs to be done, well, done...

I've taken to running in the dark. I'm trying to stick to streetlit areas, but even when these are available, you still end up stumbling over tree roots and falling into potholes and puddles. , Of course, there are positives too. I did one of the prettiest runs I've ever done on the evening of Wednesday 5th November and got to watch everybody's fireworks for free (including the people on Ecclesall Road who were setting them off just a bit too close to the road for comfort). However, on the whole, the dark is not really helping the training regime. And it's not just training in the evening which is depressing me - the morning runs are pretty dismal as well (it just seems to be cold, wet and dark all the time now).

It's not just the training that's suffering due to the lack of daylight hours either. There just seems to be so much to do that I just can't fit it all in (did I mention we were moving house?) I bet I did. It's become something of an obsession over the past few weeks. I'm not thinking about anything else. I'm not doing anything else except working towards this move. I don't even seem to have the time to sleep anymore. Of course I've paid a price. We all have. We can't find anything (everything's in boxes). I thought I'd packed only the non-essential items. Turns out I was wrong. Unable to find the egg cups the other day, the children were reduced to eating boiled eggs out of candlestick holders. It was only partially successful, but they seemed to enjoy the novelty of it. The swimming training has gone completely out of the window. As soon as we've moved (next Friday) I'm going to start again. Well, as soon as we've moved and unpacked the boxes and had the washer plumbed in and... oh God, all the other things which I don't want to even think about. The lack of daylight hours definitely isn't helping. I find myself packing items well into the night. Some nights all I do is pack. (How have we accumulated so much stuff?) I don't even sit down until the 10 o'clock news and then I'm too knackered to concentrate on it. I'd complain to my husband, but he's in exactly the same state as me. If anything, he's even more stressed.

I suppose all that box-lifting has got to be good for my muscles (see "Who needs a gym?" from the other week)...

Anyway, I suppose the point of all this is that there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day anymore. I don't even seem to be able to fulfil my training regime, never mind get to work on more fundraising. So, it was a big surprise to me this week to be able to tell you that actually, this week, I've had a really good week on the fundraising for the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity front. In fact the fundraising has received a massive boost, and through doing one really simple thing as well. I told my boss what I was doing and she's been, well, amazing. She's trying to persuade my employers to match anything I manage to raise. This is a BIG boost. They haven't promised anything yet, but they're looking into it and have said that they should be able to do something towards providing a contribution for the fundraising target anyway. I'm hoping I'll be able to exact a promise from them soon. (I know, I know, we're in difficult economic times, but surely an organisation of the size I work for should be good for at least a tenner? In fact, they should be good for a lot more than that, but as they said, they're not promising anything yet.) On an individual basis, my boss has also sponsored me herself and then went onto say that she would probably sponsor me again as I complete the events! What a star. She then stuck a poster of what I'm doing on the noticeboard and from this one of my other colleagues sponsored me. And it was one who I thought didn't like me too. With this in view, maybe the ones who do like me will sponsor me more.

All of the above cheered me up immensely. I am now over 10% of the way towards achieving my fundraising target. It's not much, I know - but I have got nearly a year to get there and there are other people out there who have definitely promised to support me, but who just haven't got round to it yet. With just a little more pestering, and Christmas out of the way, who knows...? Perhaps they will get round to it.

I didn't want to just moan about dark nights this time (or the move for that matter). I've lived in this country my entire life. I know November is the most miserable month of the year. (I also know I've got the coldest, the windiest, and the wettest months to come before I get to run along some amazingly scenic route near to my new home in the Peak District in beautiful summer sunshine and be able to return to a box-free house in which I know exactly where the egg cups are stashed). Difficult times lie ahead, but boosts such as the one which my boss has give me this week, should help get me through. Anyway, as I was saying, the purpose of this is not just to moan about the dark; because, due to the house move and the various intricacies of phone lines/internet connections and other things which I'm not even going to pretend to understand - it's the husband's department: he's the technical one -we are "going dark" in other ways too. In fact, due to the loss of internet connection over the next month, I won't be able to contribute to this blog for a short time. I know, I know. The three special people out there who are actually following this (you know who you are) will be devastated. Or maybe you won't. Either way, I will be back in the near future to update you once more on my efforts towards achieving this ridiculous challenge which I have set for myself.

In the meantime, should anybody who is reading this feel the urge to support me in raising funds for the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity, then please do so. Don't let the economic crisis/the credit crunch or the fact that Christmas is just around the corner put you off in anyway whatsoever. In fact, supporting me now may even cheer you up, in this, the most miserable month of the year. You can do your own personal good deed at http://www.justgiving.com/valderbyshire

I'll be back shortly to pester you some more.