Barbara Comes To Visit

It was exactly a year ago last week that I took up running seriously, covering a massive 20-kilometres for the whole month of June. My running slowly progressed, however I'd hit a wall and couldn't improve, so joined The Sydney Striders in January of this year, to improve my running, by being around experienced runners and to make like minded friends. Since January I've done countless long distance runs of up to 35-kilometres on the weekends, competed in a marathon, half marathon, a 20K road race and five Sydney Striders 10K races. All of these achievements have made me a happier person and more settled in Sydney, but the biggest reward has been making some wonderful friends through my running club.

So it was that in March that I found myself running in complete darkness on one of our Sunday 30-kilometre runs next to a woman wearing a lamp on her head. Being into gadgets, I just had to strike up a conversation and find out more about this great device, that was just the coolest thing I'd seen in ages. It turned out that the fellow runner was called Barbara AND was from Wellington - Cool. We chatted away and decided that we'd buddy up and do the 30-kilometres together. This is one of the major things about Sydney Striders runs, in that they are not just about getting out and covering the kilometres, but more about making new friends and helping each other to the finish.

At the Canberra Marathon the whanau got to to meet Barbara for the first time and everyone got on so well, but hey, why wouldn't we, being Kiwis and all. Since then we've been talking about Barbara coming over for some kai, so we could get to know each other better, but until today we've never been able to match up diaries. However, after yesterdays 10k race, Barbara and I finally settled on today as being the perfect oppurtunity to get together for a feed. It nearly didn't happen though, as the arrangements were made minutes after the race, when both of us were desperately sucking in air. In our oxygen depleted states, we got confused and I think I invited Barbara to dinner, when I actually meant lunch. My fault.

So yeah, when Barbara didn't show at lunchtime, as she was recovering from a 30K club run that I sensibly piked out on, poor wee Jarvis was devastated. All day long he kept asking "When is Barbara coming to see me?" Poor wee guy. Luckily a quick phone call sorted it all out and we rearranged for a evening feed.

Jarvis was ecstatic when Barbara arrived and straight away coerced our guest into forming a rock band with him. I say coerced, but I think Barbara, who used to front a band back home in New Zealand, actually encouraged Jarvis more. Anyway, they put on a wee show for us, with some wonderful renditions of ABC, Old McDonald and that other children's favourite Oasis's Rock and Roll Star!

Next it was onto snuggling up with Barbara to read from his Learning German book. I don't think Barbara speaks German, but Barbara is one VERY smart cookie, and did a wonderful job of pronouncing the words. From German, it was then onto English and Maori, both of which Barbara excels at, with a reading of some Kapai The Kiwi books. Jarvis snuggled up on the sofa with blanket and cushions and happily laid there while Barbara read to him.

Sadly Barbara missed out on the wonderful roast lunch that Adrienne made, due to my stuff up, but all was not lost, as we had some excellent pizzas delivered from Crust, who make the most gorgeous gourmet pizza. And to finish off we devoured the magnificent chocolate dipped strawberries that Barbara brought over. What a great chocolaty end to the most splendid visit from the newest member of our extended Sydney whanau.

House Dad.