Day 14 fail and Day 15. Fail.

Yesterday was busy. I spent the morning watching the Royal wedding. As you do. I then spent the afternoon running around a back garden playing catch and Frisbee and various other energetic stuff with children and dog. I ate cereal and a sausage bap and drank lots of tea. I meant to do my blog when I got home but ended up rearranging my spare bedroom instead. I then got ready to go out with a bunch of old workmates - some of whom I haven't seen for years. I drank a silly amount of lager, danced like an idiot and had a late night.
Which brings me neatly onto today; an epic fail of the highest order. I have slept, eaten Chinese food and not left the sofa. I am crap. It is true. I clearly had a workout yesterday though because every muscle in my body aches so I deserve a day off... That's how I'm justifying it anyway.
I'm hoping to be back on form at some point. Honest.

Day 12 Fail and Day 13.

Do you know what? I don't actually know why I'm doing this blog. Nobody reads it.
Well, yesterday was my birthday! Yey! I turned the ripe old age of 27.... :O/
I took the stairs in work twice (although I did find myself in the lift heading back up to the office after lunch. I blame my colleague - he was distracting me by talking to me and my 'muscle memory' took me to the lift. I was sailing past the 2nd floor when I realised. Oops. Well, it was my birthday...) I ate a sarnie from Boots for lunch with 2 cookies and a doughnut. (Well, it was my birthday...) I took pooch out alongside the river for an hour - nothing too strenuous. (Well, it was my birthday...) I was then taken out for a lovely meal by my buddy where I had a lamb steak and veg. (and a couple of glasses of wine - Well, it was my birthday...) Then got back to my house and my lovely neighbour joined us for a bottle of rose fizz. (Well, it was my birthday...! Haha) I failed on the blog front and I don't think anybody noticed. Meh.
Today I felt a little wobbly (my 27 year old liver can't process alcohol like it used to!) so I got up (late), went to a funeral then went to work in the afternoon. I had more sarnies and a packet of crisps for my lunch and got stuck into the remaining tin of fruit salad in my drawer in work. IT HAD ACTUAL FRUIT IN IT! Not just pears! Yey! I felt so special!
I took the stairs once (not easy with a mild hangover).
Tonight I decided that I would walk dog on the secret beach purely because I would like at least one night where she's not smelling of poo. So off we went. I think we'd been on the beach 2 minutes when she found a lovely rotting fish to roll in instead. I think I prefer the poo. She is humming! The tide was right out too so I couldn't even chuck her in the sea. She did have a swim in the river but that was about 45 minutes later - the smell was dried on and there to stay by then. Marvellous.
We were out for 1 hour and 38 minutes walking on sinky sand. Hard work on the legs that is!
So, now I've just put some bangers and mash on for my tea and I am watching tv for an hour before bed. Nice.
Yawn.

Day 11. I fell asleep.

Woke up to an alarm this morning (after sleeping through it for over an hour), absolutely shattered, a little achy and more than a bit grumpy.
I took the stairs in work. 4 times. I actually ran up the first few flights on the first trip up them this morning. Check me out! OK so I felt sick and hot and unable to breathe but I wouldn't have been able to even think about that without dying last week. Rock on! I didn't do that again today.
I ate a healthy Market salad again. This one wasn't as nice as previous salads though - I must confess. Too much raw onion hidden in it and a funny tasting noodle layer. I ate it all though so it can't have been that bad. Dammit! I forgot about my last tin of fruit salad.... I'll have it tomorrow. It is my birthday after all.
Had a donation towards my cause by another non facebook user today so a big fat thanks to John for his kind donation. What a star! 
So got home from work (late) and went straight to Kilvey hill with dog. She rolled in poop again only I don't think it was of cow or horse origin. It was... how do I describe it? Meaty? Rank is probably a better word. This happened towards the end of the walk though (I assume). I'm jumping ahead of myself.
Made it to the radio masts in 21 minutes at a steady pace. Let me remind you - 4 x 160 stairs during work time.
It was all rather incident free, or so I thought until we got back to the car. Dog jumped in, a got in and shut the door. That's when I noticed the smell, turned around and saw poo-dog with a stinky neck. Why do dogs do that? Urgh. Anyway she went straight in the river. She still smells bad. Thanks, dog.
We did it 52 minutes.
Sorry this is late but I fell asleep on the sofa and woke up thinking "BLOG!".
Anyway - it's now officially my birthday so I'm going to bed. What a raver.

Day 10. I'm so tired...

All you need to know is that today I have walked miles, I've climbed a silly amount of steps, I've walked miles, I've driven miles, I've walked miles, I've eaten good stuff and crap. Oh and did I mention that I've walked miles?!
Had a really fun day with the family on the beaches of Devon. I've caught the sun and laughed a lot. I'm now back in Swansea - got in about 10 minutes ago (11.50pm ish) and I am knackered.
Bed for me - got work in the morning. They say there's no rest for the wicked. All I can say is I must have been an axe murderer in a former life.

Day 9. A day late... Soz.

Hiya!

Well, today was officially the only full day of my holiday. I was woken at 6am by my youngest niece. Whose stupid idea was it to stay in a tin can with 2 other adults and 2 children under 5?! Anyhoo – I got up feeling a little wobbly from last night’s wine and beer, but felt much better after a luke warm shower in a draughty campsite shower block, a gallon of tea and 3 toasted buttered hot cross buns. It is Easter after all.

Today we decided to have a little explore around Ilfracombe. My GOD! We walked miles!! Any guilt I have been feeling in the last couple of days for not doing much in the way of exercising has totally been cancelled out by the MILES we covered today. Seriously, I have a Border collie, you know, a ‘working dog’ that can generally walk, run and play all day and she is currently comatose at my feet. That’s how far we walked.

I was very good today too – I haven’t touched any of my Easter eggs. I had a healthy lunch of bacon, egg, chips and beans (I even ate my salad garnish) and a mint choc chip ice cream with a chocolate flake... Oh hang on – that’s quite fattening and crap isn’t it?! Well I’m not on a diet and I’ve walked a million miles so I’m not beating myself up!

I’m now sat with a glass of wine – surrounded by my sun-kissed family feeling all warm and tired, waiting for pizza to cook and enjoying my last day of freedom before I am forced to climb a million and one steps in the morning as penance for enjoying myself for the last couple of days. Thanks for the motivation, Dad. I think.

UPDATE – I’m now sat in the pub (10.30pm) with only HALF a lager – desperately trying to connect to the internet to post this stupid blog but stupid Devon has no stupid internet connection so it’s gonna have to wait til the morning. Sorry for letting you all down....  :O/

UPDATE UPDATE - no wifi on the beaches in Devon apparently so the posting had to wait til I got home. ie now. 11.52pm.

Day 8. I'm officially on holiday.

I'm gonna have to make this quick coz I'm sat outside a closed bar (gutted and cold) with only a crap battery on this laptop for company.
This is officially the 1st day of my only holiday this year and I spent it driving to Devon in convoy with my family. It was fun. Roof down, sun shining, music blaring... gotta love that!
I have done no exercise to speak of - a bit of walking around the campsite, a bit of chasing after dogs and nieces. I have however eaten ice creams, BBQ burgers, (I'm gonna be ill tomorrow) a lump of melted revels (left over from last night) and have drunk several beers and a couple of glasses of wine. I'm amazed I can type.
I am pretty much sat here on my own while all of my family is having fun half a mile down the campsite just for those who are sponsoring me for this daily blog.... I hope you're happy!!
My crap battery is on 'almost empty' so I'd better post before my laptop dies.
I'm having fun, I'm doing no exercise and I'm eating and drinking to excess.
Loves it! :OD

Day 7. The guilt is setting in...

Hiya.
Today is the first day of my Easter bank holiday weekend and I was up early in order to get myself organised for a weekend break in Devon with the fambly.
I had a banana for breakfast and had every intention of a quick walk up Kilvey Hill before setting off. I loaded up the car with all of mine and dogs holiday stuff so we could just be gone as soon as the walk was done. This is when I realised that I had no cat food in the house... I can't leave for the weekend knowing that there's not enough food for my house-sitter to feed my cat. So by the time I went to Tesco and bought some moggy-mush (and a case of beer) I'd run out of time for the walk. Self inflicted guilt trip number 1.
In order to relieve some of the guilt, I justified my general crapness by thinking that as I would be spending the day with my sister and nieces shopping for holiday food and BBQ stuff etc, I would probably end up walking miles around supermarkets and the like. I was right. I don't think I have ever spent so long in Tesco before or have I ever pushed such a heavy trolley for so long. The good news is that we bought some lovely barbecue food (and even picked up some salad!) and I had a 'Special Easter Turkey Roast Dinner' in the cafe. You'll be glad to know that I ate all of my veg (except for the black carrot).
My youngest niece fell asleep in the car on the way to the garden centre so I had to wait in the car while my sister and eldest niece went shopping for a dog cage. However I didn't have to eat half of the 'sharing' bag of Revels I ate while I was waiting for them. Self inflicted guilt trip number 2.
So we lugged all the food back to my sisters fridge, I played with the girls for an hour then we all went down (the slight hill) to the local pub for tea.
I had ham, egg and chips. Self inflicted guilt trip number 3.
I also had a couple of bottles of bud. Self inflicted guilt trip numbers 4 and 5.
The long and short of it is - today I have been utterly crap.
So to celebrate my crapness, I am working my way through the rest of the bag of Revels I started eating earlier. Self inflicted guilt trip number 6.
Meh. Sod it - I'm on holiday.

Day 6. I feel wonky.

Today I worked. I took the stairs this morning alongside a lady a good few years older than me. (She was going to the 4th floor) and quite frankly, she put me to shame. While I was puffing and panting she was chatting away with all of her breath in tact. She was lovely and even gave me the email address of her organisations communications team to raise awareness of my plight! Nice.
My esteemed colleague (and bezzy mate) was uber supportive at lunchtime and took the stairs with me both down and back up. And that was after walking around town for half an hour looking for sunnies. That was quite an effort. Cheers, Bird! :O)
I ate another lovely mixed salad with loads of good stuff in it from the Market for lunch and thought I would take a chance on another tin of (hopefully) fruit salad. I cracked it open and it was a delight to look at. In all it's glory there sat a cherry AND a grape! On top of an entire tin of crunchy chopped pears. I'm hoping that the next (and last) tin has a slither of pineapple too...
Anyway - I've been feeling a bit wonky today. Some of you may know that I broke my back recently. (Not literally broken - a couple of rotated vertebrae in my lower back was all it was. But it felt broken I can tell you.) Well today I've felt like I need a damn good clicking. Doesn't hurt but... I just need to be clicked. With this in mind I made a judgement call on my training.
Got home from work 4:15 ish, sun was warm... Alright, alright, we went to the secret beach. I actually felt guilty for not taking on a hill tonight but that guilt quickly dissipated when I stepped onto a warm beach totally devoid of people. Just me and dog. Lovely. 
We walked for about an hour and a half... yeah I was slack on the timings today too. Sorry.
So now, I'm sat in my kitchen with a glass of wine. I figured it's allowed because I've had a 'bad day'. I'll get back on it tomorrow. :O)
I'll be back tomorrow evening to inflict more of my lameness on you.

Day 5. Bored now.

Ah. Another beautiful day in Swansea and my muscles are healing nicely. Or at least they were.
I was in the office all day today which meant some serious stair action. My morning stairs nearly killed me again. I found myself walking on jelly legs from the top of the stairs, down the corridor and into the office. (Singing the Softmints 'Mr. Soft' tune off of the 80's all the way.) That was fun.
I sent out a mail shot to everyone I come into contact with through my job, alerting them to my mission, my Just Giving page and this pile of dribble. I had some very generous donations as a result! Thank you to those who sponsored me - your names are at the end of this blog! :O)
At lunchtime my lovely colleague (and bezzy mate) took the lift down to the ground floor, I took the stairs and I don't think I kept her waiting too long... Actually, I think that she should be taking the stairs with me. You know, for support like... ;O) 
So had a walk into town at lunchtime and bought myself a really special mixed salad from the market containing rice, pasta, egg, potato, olives, beetroot, peppers and various other nice salady type stuff and a pack of 3 mini tins of fruit salad for aaaafters.
You'll be glad to know that the 2nd trip up the 160 stairs was actually a little easier and I wasn't puffing and panting and feeling (as) sick at the top. I'm getting all fit n stuff! Yey!
So I ate my lovely salad (and I think I ate a prong off a plastic fork too - I had 4 prongs when I started eating and only 3 when I finished.... I never did find it and my plate was clean so I'm guessing it's in my belly somewhere...) and cracked open a tin of fruit salad. Seriously disappointing times - my tin of fruit salad was very quickly renamed a tin of chopped pears. Crunchy chopped pears at that. With one tiny chunk of peach or something. (I couldn't actually tell you what it was because it tasted like pear.) Don't get me wrong, I like pears but I wanted mixed fruit - you know, a cherry or 2, some grapes, pineapple.... you get the idea. But no. Just pears. Bummer.
About 3pm I needed to pop to the car, so I got up, walked to the lifts, pressed the button, stood there for about 3 seconds when I remembered that I am not using lifts until September! Dagnammit! I very nearly didn't go to the car. 3 times up and down those stairs today. 3 x 160 stairs.... This is going to kill me.
So Got home from work and unfortunately Kilvey Hill was NOT on fire tonight so there was no excuse not to walk it. (D'oh!) So me 'n' dog got on it. It was a painful slog all the way up to the radio masts (22 minutes) but the sun was shining and my music was loud so it was all gravy. I don't think dog was really feeling the love today, mind - she was dragging her paws and I had to keep stopping to let her catch up. At one point (the bottom of the steepest section of the hill) she stopped, looked at me as if to say "You're joking, right?! I'm knackered!" then turned around and started heading back to the car! Today it was like having a stroppy toddler in tow. I felt like I was saying "Come on, Mills!" like every 30 seconds! In fact I probably was. She perked up a bit on the way down though after she had had a little lie down in one of the streams to cool her belly. It can't be fun having a fur coat on in warm weather. Perhaps I should clip her...
We did it 1 hour and 4 minutes.
Now after eating a bacon and mushroom omelette and drinking a gallon of tea I'm gonna join the dog on the sofa and reward my good work with a bag of mini eggs. Shush! It's allowed!!
Big thank you to:
Anonymous (you know who you are!), Allan, Neil, Debs and Maynard - you guys ROCK! :OD x

Day 4. (Oh Man! Is it only day 4?!)

Howdy peeps.
Day 4 eh?! I'm amazed I'm still blogging!
Anyhoo today was fun - beautiful sunny day and a jolly to Cardiff for work, that was nice (no stairs. Yess!) I kept the healthy diet on an even keel at lunchtime by having a chunk of cow and a jacket spud with a buddy. And I only used the 2 packets of butter on my spud. Good, me. Although it's just occurred to me that I didn't eat the salad garnish... I ate all my fried mushrooms though, do they count towards my 5 a day? Oh and I had a couple of deep fried onion rings too - they were slightly overcooked and crispy but they were tasty in all fairness.
Anyway - I hit a milestone today - I reached 10% of my £3000 fundraising target! Yey! Thank you to everyone who has generously got me here in less than a week! You're amazing! For those who haven't donated yet - why not?! ;O)
So - training.... urgh. Today I have been aching like an achy thing from Achesville. I'm sure I've been walking funny as a result. Well, after my healthy and balanced lunch I drove back to the office. (With the roof down. Sweet!) As I put my rucksack with my laptop, papers, chargers and various other work related stuff on my achy back I remembered that I am not using lifts until mid September... 160 stairs mind. ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY stairs from reception to the floor I work on. And that's not counting the 9 or so steps outside the building! It nearly killed me - I don't mind telling you.
Going back down - I thought my shins were going to fall off.
So Kilvey hill was certainly NOT on the agenda. Actually - I wouldn't have been able to walk up Kilvey hill today even if I'd wanted to - it was a little bit on fire...
Secret beach was calling. We love the secret beach, Dog and I. So we walked for about an hour and a half on soft (sinky) sand with my legs killing (approximately 2.5 miles) but it really was pleasant. Dog was belting back and forth chasing the waves, the sun was shining and some tunes were pumping into my head via my mp3 player. It was good.
*sound of bubble bursting*
Back to the tiring hilly leg-aching stuff tomorrow then. Meh.
Oh my god! It's 10 past 11! I'd better get this hair dye off my head before I end up bald!!
Lataz!

Day 3.... oh my GOD!

Hallo!
Blimes! Well, back in work after the weekend today and I decided that part of my training regime would be to no longer use lifts and take the stairs wherever I am. My office is on the 8th floor.... *shudder*
Fortunately for me I had a meeting in Pencoed this morning and only had to tackle one flight of stairs (18 stairs in total - I counted them!! Oh dear.)  and this afternoon I was at a meeting in Velindre Cancer Centre... no stairs to tackle. Shame.
I also had grand plans of getting a salad of sorts from the local pub in Pencoed before leaving for Cardiff but alas, I ran out of time and HAD to have a McDonalds in the car on the way.... Only the chips were deep fried... oh and the southern fried chicken in my deli sandwich... but it comes with a strip of lettuce and 2 slices of cucumber. That counts, right? (I removed the cucumber - can't stand the stuff.)
The way I see it is I didn't drink any alcohol on the weekend so I'm allowed some crap, surely?!
Anyway. Got home and into my 'walking gear' (pair of jeans, a sleeveless hoody and my walking boots - not officially 'walking gear' apart from the boots but who's arguing?) and headed out to Kilvey hill with dog once again. Seriously! My muscles are rubbish! My backside and thighs WRECKED all the way up (20 minutes to the radio masts) and my shins were on fire all the way down! I'm clearly working them too much. I think tomorrow I'll have a walk on the beach to 'rest' my poor little self!
I did it in 1 hour and 6 minutes. (And that includes 10 minutes looking for the ball that dog lost within 5 minutes of being out.)
Time for pasta and a brew.
My life is riveting.

Day 2 of the Training Ordeal...

Today I figured that training without adopting the healthy diet to go with it would be a little silly so I headed to Tesco *shudder* and bought a shed load of pasta, meat, fruit and veg... Got it home, ate half an Easter egg (It was looking at me! What can I say?!) then made some homemade tomato sauce to go on my pasta which I then ate. It wasn't as good as the Easter egg.
I watched an hour of the Chinese Grand Prix when I decided I should get out there again.
So once again, with dog in tow we headed for Kilvey Hill and took the same route we took yesterday. My dog is so thoughtful - about a third of the way up she found a nice fresh cow pat to roll in covering herself in poofume. Just for me. You smell delicious, dog. Thank you. Well, this encouraged me to walk a little quicker in order to create as much distance as possible between us and I made it to the radio masts in 15 minutes. Speedy Gonzalas, me! Ok so I thought I was going to puke by the time I got there but that's irrelevant. As I'd made such good time to the top I figured we'd take a slightly longer route back down in order to stop at the pond so dog could have a swim (and wash off the stench!). And that's what we did. Little did I know that it would be so busy at the pond... about 15 people all hanging out and throwing random stuff into the water. But it was cool - as soon as they caught a whiff of 'poo-dog' they cleared off leaving me to soak up a few rays and chuck the dog in the pond. Very pleasant it was too. So we hung around there for about 10 minutes and headed back to the car. And that's it. Another anti-climax!
I did it in 1 hour and 7 minutes.
Now, sat in my kitchen there really is an overwhelming stink of cow poo. Great. I love my dog.
Come back again some time for more of my exceptionally boring ramblings!! :O)

Great Wall of China Challenge

Well, as my 'about me' section states, I am going to be walking the Great Wall of China in September and thought that it may be fun to share my training woes with you lot!
So Day 1 of the new fitness kick was today... I must be honest, I wasn't feeling particularly motivated this morning so I went back to bed until 11am (good start, Kel!!) However, when I did drag myself up I decided that given I'm so unfit  I'd start 'small' and take a stroll up Kilvey Hill in Swansea and time myself in the process to monitor my general fitness levels.
So with dog in tow we started the ascent to the radio masts at the very top. Half way up we were almost run over by a nutter tearing down the path on his mountain bike! That was fun. So adrenalin pumping, legs aching and my lungs burning we continued onwards and upwards. I was actually quite impressed that I made it to the top in under 20 minutes! Go me! So we stopped to admire the view for a couple of minutes and have a bit of 'stick time' then headed back down along a much longer route than the ascent. I nearly lost a shoe in a boggy area halfway down (note to self - dont text and walk at the same time - it's perilous!). And that's about it really! Haha What an anti-climax that story was!
I did it in 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Come back soon for the next thrilling installment!!