don't mess with the leopard seal

Not my best night's sleep last night with the girls tag-teaming to make sure I didn't get more than a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep. AJ came in to tell me she was coughing, which I knew because I'd heard her coughing. Then H came in for some reason or other, then I think AJ came in again, possibly en-route to the en-suite, before H came in a second time with her Pillow-Pet. It was wet she said. Because she'd spilled a bit of water on it. Not happy to simply put it on the floor next to her bed she handed it to me and I put it on the floor next to my bed.

H seems able to get by on interrupted sleep, maybe because she got used to it when she was very young and suffered with some breathing difficulties. She's fine now, but does like to go to bed as late as possible and can often pop up next to the bed, arms outstretched like a female, midget Christo Redentor* wanting nothing more than a hug from dad before toddling back off to bed with the gait of an Ewok. I can, usually, fall back to sleep as well as she does; we've both had plenty of practice.

*Christ the Redeemer, that sodding great hilltop statue of Big J in Brazil. I was just trying to sound all traveled and interesting and probably ended up sounding like a bit of a try-hard twat.

Somewhere in between last night's awakenings I had a dream. I was walking or running along a bush track next to a body of water that looked a bit like a lake but couldn't have been because a fisherman, who lost the fish he had hooked, hauled in an enormous leopard seal. I stopped, and was part way through telling the fisherman that the animal he'd landed was probably quite dangerous when it scooped him up in its mouth and took him into the water. The seal had a large pink tongue but none of the impressive teeth you would expect to see. I don't recall any screaming from the fisherman, nor seeing any blood. Maybe because the seal was toothless. The seal dragged the fisherman underwater while I fumbled for my phone and a spear fisherman took off in pursuit. I have absolutely no idea where the spearo came from. The next thing I remember is being puzzled when the returned spearo told me he was going to kill the seal while typing a knot in its "tail." The Ewok probably woke me up at that point, denying me the chance to tell the spearo that he'd come back with the wrong animal. Far too small. And it had a tail.

I'm not sure where all of the elements of the dream came from, but this may account for the leopard seal. A couple of months ago I was with Rowlf at the Spit when a ranger approached. I expected him to tell me I couldn't let the dog swim and I should move on. But no, he advised me to throw the stick to the south and not north because at the northern end of the little not-really-a-beach was a leopard seal. If a leopard seal and dog were to have a bit of a tussle it is extremely unlikely that it would have a happy ending for the dog. As it was, the seal was far less interested in swimming than Rowlf was. The animal, young and little underweight but otherwise healthy, hung around for a couple of days. It didn't seem to mind the procession of kayakers - it parked itself right outside of a kayak rental store- and photographers who came to take a look. The running bit of the dream is fairly obvious, I'd been talking to my father -in-law about spear fishing recently. Dreams - the brain doing a tidy up while you're offline. I suspect we're not really supposed to see them.

So I woke up this morning tired, confused and dehydrated but at least I could chill out while Sal was taking Rowlf for his Friday morning walk. It gave me the opportunity to get some fluids onboard while not sweating them out too early.

Once Sal and the dog returned - both knackered by the humidity - I ran to work, knackering myself in the humidity. Then I cheered myself up no-end by having a read of Paul Lewis's blog and finding he'd thrown down a 28mile day. Hmmm, miles. More miles than I'd done kilometres.. I'm starting to go off him.

The run to work was a typically sweaty affair. humid - tick. Not a breath of wind - tick. Sunny - tick. But I've done the run to work that many times that I sort of just churn it out. As I sit here after lunch the thought of running home has very little appeal. Temperature will probably creep above 30 and I'll have a warm headwind. Yuk. I'd rather the unlikely thunderstorm give me a soaking. The work beer-fridge opens in a couple of hours, I'll see what I feel like then.As it stands, 11km for the day.

Of course I ran home. The weather gods really don't like me this month. Having spent all day rehydrating, and just about making it by the time I went to get changed, I was hoping for a nice cooling storm to run through. It had clouded over and the bureau of meteorology were showing some storms out west; I might be in luck. Overcast and sticky outside. A few km in and a few spots of rain, but no storm. Then a few more spots of rain that, if anything, seemed to just add to the humidity and certainly didn't have any cooling effect. There were brief pockets of slightly cooler air, but then patches of warm treacle. It really was quite an unpleasant end to the week. Thanks weather. No really, THANKS.

Janathon km total - (Peugeot) 205 (GTi)

My second 205GTi. I do miss them.