Cocktails, friends and the runaway dog

What a weekend!

Starting with Saturday, Mr H and I got up early and got in some breakfast (usual porridge & berocca combo) before heading down to Southampton with the aim of getting holiday bits and pieces. I think I had a bit more success than Mr H, but he got a shirt and watch!

To start off my new additions, Mr H got me a fabby jumper from Oasis. I don't generally rate Oasis, I think their clothes are really expensive and don't usually wash that well. But I'll make an exception for this beauty. Mr H also treated me to a new pair of holiday sandals, for the first time in years I was able to buy shoes that go around my ankles, and have them actually fit around my ankles. Yay!

Then in M&S, I got a bikini I've been after since I saw it a few weeks ago. I got it in black and I think it completes my collection of holiday bikinis now. Must resist buying any more. Whilst in M&S I also spied a cracking pair of patent peep toe stilettos. They had to be mine and so they were. M&S really have excelled themselves in recent times in the shoe department, I've got several pairs of really cute shoes from there and they are not only really well made, but they are all super comfy too.

Then to finish off my purchases, I got a white cotton shirt from Gap and a blue tulip skirt from Zara with gold buttons down the front. I actually bought a size 14 in this! I wanted a slightly looser fit skirt, so instead of wearing it high waisted like I guess was intended, I bought a bigger size and slung it low on my hips. Looks fab. I also got some more Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish which I totally rate as the best stuff I've ever used on my face and some black polka dot tights :D

By about 1pm we were getting pretty agitated walking around the shops, we'd got into the car park at 10.10am and we knew we still had to tackle Ikea. So I fuelled up with a Nakd Bar, Mr H hit the Diet Coke, we walked back to the car with our purchases and then headed into the depths of hell itself.

We knew roughly what we wanted, but we didn't know which section in the self service area downstairs we needed to go to. We both hate Ikea with an absolute passion, it is the only place on earth that actually riles us up enough to break out in fully fledged arguements in the middle of the store. We go often enough to now know most of the short cuts and we know our way through the exhibits well enough to be able to bypass most dawdling people. We found our filing cabinet locations, picked up some trays to go inside them, picked up 2 toys for babies (which we thought the dogs would like), grabbed a photo frame and headed for the self service area. Once down there Mr H bravely grabbed both flat pack metal filing cabinets, one under each arm and we made our way to the tills. We really should have used a trolly, but surely we'd be able to get through the 50 metre dash to the tills without any major mishaps? WRONG, people with trolleys walking stupid slowly, ignoring Mr H's pleas to 'excuse me' with 10 metres until the till he was literally running as he was going to drop one or both of the packages! As we left Ikea it started to rain, just before we joined the M27 there was a boy'd up MX5 in pieces on the other side of the carriageway, i guess whoever had been driving it had clearly forgotten the dangers of wet roads. I was glad we were going the other way and had been down to Southampton early as the tail back was miles long. Also on that same stretch of road we saw two horses in a field having a fight. I've never really thought about horses fighting before, but it was pretty brutal. One of them kicked the other in the face twice in a row. Proper Buckaroo style.

When we got home, we had received a parcel from Mr H's parents for our anniversary. Good ol' Home Delivery Network, they really know how to make an impression. Beautiful huh?! The side of the box cleared stated not to drop kick the box, but it would appear that didn't bother them. Our beautiful rose plant had broken stems, the chocolates had soil in them, the card was damp and covered in soil - the only thing that really survived was the bottle of wine. Mr H was promptly on the phone with Waitrose to complain about the state it had arrived in. They did question why we were ringing and not the Original Mrs H, but as Mr H pointed out, they could either deal with him or her - I know who I'd chose. She would have been gutted if she'd known how our gift had arrived! They have promised to send out a completely knew package on Wednesday. Lets hope they make good second time around.

For lunch we had Moroccan Chicken leftovers in two wholemeal wraps whilst we watched the rest of Avatar (we fell asleep during it on Friday night) and built our filing cabinets.

In the evening we went out for dinner/drinks in Winchester with a couple of friends. We went to an American style diner for food, we had a sharing platter of loaded nachos to start and I had a coke float. For my main course I ordered a 8oz Rump Steak with Fries & Onion Rings. I managed most of the steak, 2 onion rings and about 10 chips. My stomach was NOT happy and remained unhappy for the rest of the night. If this is what eating out does to me, I'd like to eat at home please. For dessert I had a Woo Hoo cocktail, I don't know what was in it but it was pink and tasted nice. We then mooched down town to a pub where I shared 3 jugs of cocktails with my friend Nicola. It's weird having a friend of the same name. We've only known each other since October last year when we met at a gig, but we're both from the same home town, the same age, went to different schools but know alot of the same people and have a spooky amount of things in common. We got home around 1am and me & Mr H had a quick snuggle on the sofa with the pugs and then we went to bed.

Sunday was our first wedding anniversary, Happy Anniversary to us! We began the day by opening the cards that had arrived in the post. It was really sweet that so many people had remembered. Mr H got me the cutest card with ladybirds on, I didn't do so well in the card department, I'd wanted to write him a letter on nice paper but never had the chance to get any nice paper. So I ended up writing a message in a card I found in the spare room - FAIL! Still, it was paper and the message was from the heart so I guess it doesn't really matter what it was written on. Gift wise I got Mr H a picture. Its a screen print I found on Folksy. It's now framed and up on the wall outside our bedroom. Mr H really treated me, made me feel a little stingey having only spent about £40 on his picture though. He got me a Pink ipod Nano and an arm band so I can stop taking out my 20GB second gen Ipod on runs (its like running with a brick) and he also got me an Alex Monroe necklace I've been coveting for ages. As for our plans for the day, we got up and had breakfast (usual combo for me) and then after a little bit of filing in our new red filing cabinets we got dressed and headed down to Petersfield for a trip down memory lane. We went for lunch at the pub we'd eaten in the night before we got married (I had Roast Beef and Chocolate Brownie for pud) and then we drove over to our wedding venue to take a peak. It was a shame the weather wasn't as good as it was a year ago, it was drizzly and over cast most of the day. There was another wedding on at the Tithe Barn, so we didn't hang around long, but it was nice to see it again.

We then drove home, both struggling to stay awake after the food! We nipped into town on the way back and I bought a jumper from Joules. They had a sneaky 20% off sale so I got it a bit cheaper. It will be fab for those cooler summer nights & I totally love Joules jumpers, so it was about time I got a new one :)

Before heading home, we popped into the tanning centre (I know, I know) and 6 minutes later were back in the car and heading home. When we got home I went to bed for a few hours as after the food and the heat I was pretty snoozy. I think this was partly due to not having much water over Saturday/Sunday too. I got up around 6pm and we fed the dogs and took them to the park.

This is where the runaway dog comes in. We had walked around the majority of the park and were on the final stretch back towards the exit. Mr H was lagging behind and I was up front Edie, Dolly was somewhere in between. I saw another dog entering the field we were in and I managed to get Edie's attention and we walked down between the Croquet Green & the tennis courts. I could see Mr H running to catch up with Dolly (who had headed over to see the other dog). I waited for a bit and then decided that Mr H must not be walking my way, but had already made his way to the other field, so I turned around and started walking. A few seconds later, I see Mr H running faster than I have ever seen him run across the other field. I yelled to ask him what was going on and he said that Dolly had gone. I leashed up Edie who was by my feet and joined in the running. As I entered the same field as Mr H, about 200 metres away I could see Dolly, followed by a little white terrier type dog leaving the car park - which is about 20 metres away from the main road through the village which people drive much more than the 30 limit in. My heart sank but the adrenaline was rushing through me. Mr H and I were running parallel by the time we exited the park with poor Edie. There were some kids at the end of the road on bikes and we asked them which way the dogs had gone - THEY DIDN'T KNOW?! Mr H went down the road towards our house, I ran straight on and the kids agreed to help look. I was literally screaming Dolly's name and also screaming at all the cars driving through the village at what seemed like a million miles an hour. All I could think about was if she was being chased by another dog, what would stop her from running straight out in front of a car - and 90% of the cars were travelling too fast to stop in time. I couldn't see her in any of the gardens on the road I'd taken, so I ran back to the main road. As I got to the cross roads, the guy who owned the white dog was coming out in his car. I said that no one had really been up the road so he should try that. I felt so helpless. Suddenly a cry from down the road came 'her she is' I heard. Then the white dog came pelting out of a side road, being followed by some of the kids on bikes. As it ran past me I tried to grab its collar (as it was running in the road), but I missed and it headed straight back to the park. It was hard work explaining to the kids that it wasn't my dog, my dog looked like the one I had on the lead next to me. The guy who'd gone up the road in his car came back down and I said that the kids had followed his dog back to the park and he should find it there. I'd still not seen or heard from Mr H, he'd been gone a while now but I didn't want to leave my good position on the main road where I could see up and down most of the village. I saw a kid cycling up the hill towards me as fast as his little legs could carry him, about 20 metres from me he leapt off his bike and ran the rest of the way. Out of breath he told his friends that he'd been given £10 for helping out. I was trying to extract from him whether he'd been given the tenner as bribery to help or as a reward for finding - he really wasn't sure! Soon after Mr H appeared on the main road with his thumbs up - Dolly had been recovered. From what we can gather, she must have run from the park all the way home. Poor love, must have been petrified. We did try calling her in the park, but now the trees have leaves our voices bounce all over the place so I wonder if she thought we'd gone without her. Makes my heart break thinking she might have thought that. Looking at the state of the gravel on our driveway it would suggest that she practically flew across it, the gaps between paw impressions were huge for such a dinky dog.

Both Mr H and I had major breathing problems for the rest of the evening, the downside of running outside this time of year without an inhaler! We had planned to run in the evening, but after sprinting around for 20 minutes we both agreed that we probably didn't need to and opted just to do some weights at home instead. I didn't have any dinner that evening, just had a protein shake after my weights session.

Reviewing my weekly goals as an overall for the 2 days...

1. Drink at least 2 litres of water a day. semi check, I didn't on Saturday, made up for it Sunday afternoon

2. Exercise at least 5 times. check - 6/5 completed

3. Run at least 15 miles. FAIL- 6.5 miles completed

4. Continue with the extra exercises outlined last week. check

5. Try to eat at least 1/2 of every meal (excluding breakfast) salad/fruit/veggies. semi check

6. Prepare my work lunches the night before. check

7. Dust off my bike and go out for a ride. Fail

8. Hold my abs in a bit more in day to day life! check