“I hate china cats, but that one is actually all right.” Those were the fateful eleven words I said to Helen, my wife, some years ago. “Why fateful?” you ask. Because ever since that day I have been a “collector” of china cats whether I like them or not (and it really is not). Helen and our friend Suzanne delight in finding china cats in charity shops to add to my “collection”. Helen recently returned from a trip to Cornwall with eleven of the little lovelies which she had found. There were tears in my eyes that day, I can tell you.
So over the years I have built up a couple of bowls full of them, which I mostly put under the bed. So this year to ensure my collection was taken to the next level, as it were, Helen bought me a display case and this week after months of avoiding it, the case was put on the wall and the cats finally put on display for all to see. And do you know what? Hideous as they mostly are, put on display like that I actually find myself having a little look in the case as I go past and smiling at the amazing weirdness of them. People sat down and designed an produced these extraordinary things. And I feel a little bit pleased to have them out there now.
“That’s all terribly interesting, Allan,” You may (or more probably may not) be saying, “But what the devil has it got to do with running or fundraising?” Well not much really. But last weekend I went running and I had one of the worst runs of my life. I ran with speed and general demeanor of a wounded Water Buffalo. This weekend I went running with Helen and we ran together and talked and I ran better than I have since the operation. It was a very short run but it was one that felt OK.
And I have had a lot of support from lots of people during my training for the marathon and since. And people have helped me to get back out there running and encouraged me to stick with the blogging. So that’s a bit like the cats really. You know, something terrible surprising you by getting a bit better after all.
Clutching at straws really, I know. But at least I’m blogging. And I bet you can’t wait to see pictures of the cats! (Next time maybe.)
Hope you all have a great festive season and holiday if you are having one.
I’ll be back in 2009, hoping to run for NCT again!
This week’s haiku:
“I hate china cats.”
But the cats kept appearing.
Now I quite like them.
Tags: cats, china cats, haiku, NCT, running
