FF#6: Join the Marathon Maniacs

On 25 May I completed the Edinburgh Marathon in 3 hours 54 minutes. This was my third marathon in three months (after Blackpool in April and The Meadows in March) which qualified me to join the Marathon Maniacs. Hurray!

My acceptance email from the Marathon Manaics - woo!

Why do I want to be a Marathon Maniac? I want to be a member of a club whose membership must be earned. It's been a while since I've been in a professional organisation, and that's the only equivalent I can think of. My running coach Angie Spencer is a member and talks about Marathon Maniacs on her MTA podcasts. My brain must be suceptible to suggestion when I'm running. Almost all of the members of MM are in the USA.

So by running three marathons in three months I earned the right to pay $45 dollars (£27) and call myself  Marathon Maniac #9397. This entitles me to spend more money on merchandise so I can tell the world I'm a Marathon Maniac; to access the forums on the MM website; to a newsletter; and to print out a generic membership certificate.

Awesome!!

And yes, pointless. Especially when three marathons in three months has left me in less than great health - my recovery has been slow (combined with college deadlines, end of term work and family busy-ness and lots going on at home).

But some of the FF things have to be pointless. That's why their on the list - they're so pointless I wouldn't do them unless I was celebrating something. Which is what the FF list is all about.

I'm hoping to run my Autumn marathon (Loch Ness at the end of September) in my MM vest. I wonder if anybody will notice.

FF#24: Host a fundraising hafla (or 3)

June was my busiest bellydance month of the year so far. It was also my college deadline month. It was foolish to choose June as my "get more sleep" month (FF#26).

On June 17th I hosted Another Little Bit of Cairo on Duke Street: the Leith Festival Hafla. It's the fourth time I've hosted this free event because I like to put something I enjoy into my own community as part of Leith Festival. It's also my way of trying to get more of my students to become part of the bellydance community, by letting them see what a hafla is, in a very informal setting. The venue is The Parlour, a pub on Duke Street in Leith, and the event is free, so the idea is that people who are a bit interested but also a bit nervous will find it easier to come along.

It's also great when people walk in to their local for a pint and find it filled with bellydancers making a racket. It's fun to watch the expressions of surprise, joy and/or terror on the faces of regulars when they walk in. You might detect some of it on the face on the man at the bar while I'm performing:

There was a smashing atmosphere and all of the performers were smashing. There was a raffle at the hafla and we raised £83 for Parkinson's UK.

Two nights later was the Marvellous Musselburgh Hafla. This one is also annual, and this might have been the 6th time I've hosted it. This year it was plagued with problems - the date I wanted wasn't available; the only date possible was two nights after the Leith Festival hafla; then the venue was getting renovated and the new one they offered wasn't suitable; several of the performers didn't show up. But in the end if it was a fun evening in a smashing new venue (Wire Mill Social Club, next to Musselburgh Racecourse) and we raised £236 for Parkinson's UK.

Thanks to all the bellydancers who performed at my events; to everyone who helped organise and made them run smoothly, at the Parlour and Wire Mill; and to the lovely audiences who came along and cheered.

If you're interested in bellydance in Ednburgh or Musselburgh you can find me at www.swishandhips.co.uk

FF#25: Finally visit The Scottish Parliament

Debating Chamber selfie

I used to be into politics. Quite heavily. Student politics to start with, and I went on to be a Westminster candidate in 2001. I worked for a Member of Parliament and went to on be a Parliamentary Officer, lobbying the Scottish Parliamentarians for the interests of enviromental organisations and later, community pharmacy. I was seconded to the Scottish Parliament as a political party researcher.

But until the end of July 2014 I'd never been to visit the purpose-built Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood. Back in my day, the Parliament met in the Church of Scotland Assembly Hall on the Mound and kept it's offices round about George IV Bridge. I went on maternity leave in 2004, the new Parliament building opened later that year and I never went back to work. And kind of lost my enthusiasm for all that stuff (but not my enthusiam for social justice, feminism or the Labour Party, I hasten to add).

So what do I think? I like it. It's an irregular, unpredictable kind of building - it make me think of the irregular, unpredictable nature of well-executed politics, addressing problems as they arise and avoiding cookie-cutter solutions. There was an exhibition of a tapestry showing Scotland's history, which I really liked. The staff were helpful and fairly friendly. The debating chamber was shiny. My lovely hubby visits there with work and could give us directions, which helped.

Scott and Helen quite liked it.

Parliament visited! Another one off the list!

FF#5: Spend a night under canvas

Polyester not canvas but it'll do. Our Wickerman home.

I had never been camping until now. Not as a child, not as a brownie or a guide, not as a student. Childhood holidays involved self-catering cottages in Germany or up north. I dodged constant requests from Labour Students fundraisers to steward at music festivals. My mum describes camping as "something [she] never had any desire to do". I don't feel especially deprived but I have a lot of friends who see the world with their young children while camping and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

I bought our four-person tent in Asda for £40. Second-bottom of the range so I wouldn't feel too bad if we never made it past the first night. 

Other outgoings included:

Blow up mattress - £10

Tickets for the Wickerman Festival in Dundrennan, Dumfries & Galloway - £210 for four of us

Passes for posh loos at Wickerman Festival - £40

Three nights of camping AND Dizzee Rascal, and the forecast was pretty good.

Helen rocking out in the sunshine at Wickerman 2014

It was the last weekend in July. We arrived, we pitched out tent in the family campsite, we festivalled for three nights, we survived.

Good things:
Dizzee Rascal's show was brilliant and the four of us loved it - small people on the shoulders of tall people, bouncing and singing along.
Really nice chips
The chemical toilets were not bad at all and nowhere near as bad as some of the race toilets I've encountered
My children are more or less old enough to weather the detrimental impact of a late night and early start now and again, which seem to be necessitated by festival camping

Things I wasn't too keen on:
It rained on Saturday night and there's no way to dry yourself/clothes out once you're wet, is there?
The first two days were far too hot. Sorry to be fussy but it was just too hot to do anything and I woke up feeling like I'd had a bottle of vodka before bed
Five minutes walk to the loo. In the dark of night, or first thing in the morning.
The campsite was *mobbed* and we were surrounded by bacon-frying professional campers with chairs, gazebos, extended families and fairy lights, making me feel very amateurish
Drinking water that tastes like a swimming pool. 
As it was my first festival too, I banked on the power of musical performance to bring the family together and keep us entertained. Which was foolish. Next time I'll bring playing cards.

Morning campers!

A few nights back at home and we felt much better so we spent a night in the lovely campsite at Aberlady, 30 minutes from our home. That was much more enjoyable - the toilets were closer, there were hot showers and a well-equipped kitchen, the drinking water was less chloriney, it didn't rain and we'd brought our loom bands to keep us busy.

I'm happy to go camping again as long as you can promise me as many creature comforts as possible and appropriate weather.