Here is a great picture of Jordan orienteering. Is he making sure nobody has seen him at that control ?

So, in my attempt to be organised, I have bought us some tickets for the panto; Brian Conley in Cinderalla at the Royal Centre…. Oh no I haven’t….Oh yes I have !

We are going on a PGL holiday at half term, in Devon. Jordan has been on one before, but the rest of us haven’t. It looks like we will be able to try all sorts of new and exciting (read cold, wet and scary) new activities, like quad biking, abseiling, kayaking, archery, and even a spot of orienteering if we feel we need our fix.

Mustn’t forget to pack lots of changes of clothes !

I am determined this year to be well organised about Christmas, to avoid the stress and anxiety that accompanies this great time of year for most mums I’m sure.

I have started some hypnotherapy to help me to be more relaxed about the event, and so far so good, but it is a long way off yet.

I actually made my Christmas present list at the weekend, so I can see the task ahead. We went to a lovely Christmas craft fayre at Arnold Hill school, and I actually bought 3 or 4 presents, some cards and gift wrap. A good start already.

We will be having mum and Tony for the run up to Christmas day and for a couple of days after. I need to contact Andy to see if we will get together again over the Christmas period sometime too. We have done it the past 2 years and it has been fantastic.

Mum has offered to buy panto tickets for us all again this year. I must get them booked up if we are to get a good date.

Tonight our group met to practice some of the new stuff we have learnt in our last class. We are comfortable with our learning to date, having seen success with standard PMRs, deepeners, and suggestions for sleeping, self confidence, nail biting, and simple cases of anxiety. We have now learnt rapid induction techniques, which we really need to practice but we are quite cautious of at the moment. We had some good practice tonight, but really need to keep it going.

I am having some hypnotherapy from the group to help me to cope with the anxiety and stress in the run up to Christmas. I hope it works !

Today I recorded my best ever position in an orienteering event. I got 3rd !

I have been running light green level now for a few months and finally getting a bit more confident with the map reading. I will never be great at it, as I am not fit or fast enough. I am a reasonable map reader though, which is half the battle, and also means I can beat Jordan still from time to time (as I did today !)

I have run a couple of green standard courses. It is quite a step up for me, mainly on distance, so if I can step up my fitness…. who knows ?

Welcome to the “Blog”. This is my first post, hope you like it!