Thirteen

This past Sunday was the 30th Annual London Marathon. My friend and colleague, Hachie Gal, was one of the 40,000+ competitors. It was her 13th marathon. Like last year, she ran in support of the Guide Dogs. It's not too late to donate. Here's the link where you can donate online.
Here's Hachie Gal with a Guide Dog at the marathon expo.


There goes our girl from the first pit-stop. Spot the flag.


And here comes our girl at mile 18. Texas flag shorts a blaze!


Despite the vast numbers of Road Crew members, we managed to miss our girl at two consecutive stops. You just can't get the help these days. We were disappointed with ourselves for leaving her without supplies for nearly half of the race.

This is the third marathon I've witnessed and I continue to be in awe of people who can muster the strength that making it 26.2 miles to the finish line requires. It is truly amazing.

Blondie and Drama and other friends/family of Hachie Gal joined the Road Crew this year. And we made posters:


Like last year, many of the competitors were in fancy dress [costume]. The full complement of characters were around. The most odd was a giraffe that had to have suffered when the wind picked up.


Of course, a few celebs were on the course. The only one I spotted (thanks to his giant butterfly wings) was Sir Richard Branson.


A highlight of the day was pushing Drama and Blondie out close to the runners with bags of Jelly Babies. For the US contingent, these are pure sugar gummy bear-type candies that make perfect fuel for runners. We had our poster up and called out to the runners that we had Jelly Babies for them and they ran past, grabbing candies and trucking on. It took a bag getting dumped on the pavement to perfect the technique...but we managed to give out 6 bags or so throughout the day.


Road Crew members: Martini, C1, & K gearing up for the day ahead.


And Crew Chief, Budman with newbie, M2.


And post-race, M&M flanking Hachie Gal and Budman.


Again, an awe inspiring event with energy that sets the whole city on fire.
Hachie Gal, you are simply amazing! Congratulations on completing number 13.

It's a Good Friday

...for baking cookies!
My little helpers are here for Easter Weekend and today and Monday are "Bank Holidays" (officially no work). So what are we to do when it rains all day in London?
Bake, of course.
Thanks to Nigella Lawson, the UK's Domestic Goddess--we have a recipe for butter cookies with icing for our inspiration.
So off we go...
Dough made, check. Dough rested in the fridge, check.
Roll out the dough to start the cutting, check. Here's Drama doing her bit.


And Blondie with her cut outs ready to pop in the oven.


The fun part is making the icing different colours, as you can see by the grins.


And then of course, putting the yellow, orange, red, purple, and blue icing on the cookies.


Here are a few shots of the finished project.




You can see the resemblance, can't you?!


Random ending to the blog post!
And during all that...a squirrel visited the backyard to eat the birdseed.

(Of course, I had to take the picture through my filthy kitchen window so as not to make him run off) Unlike Texas, this is the ONLY squirrel in my back garden. They aren't overunning the place--thankfully.