Mutterings for the Minority

I’m glad to report that Team Thomas successfully completed the Swansea Sport Relief Mile 2010.

Thankfully the torrential rain of Saturday was long gone and was replaced by glorious spring sunshine by the time we ventured into Singleton Park – the venue for the Swansea Sport Relief Mile – in readiness for our family challenge.

With me opting to do the 6 miles at 11am and the rest of the Thomas clan doing the mile at noon, time was going to be tight, especially as I wanted to join them for their event.

I was hoping for a sub-50 minute time for the 6 miles, but the rather hilly setting put paid to any chances I had of doing that and I ended up coming home in 51 minutes 41 seconds.

The course was somewhat confusing as the 3 and 6 mile events consisted of doing 3.5 and 5 laps respectively – and shared with the 1 mile participants it all got a little confusing (in terms of keeping tabs on others and pacing yourself!).

In fairness the stewards did a grand job encouraging everyone and making sure that people went the right way – but the layout did nowt for my time keeping! Well I’m not going to blame my fitness levels am I

Still we had lots of fun and even the kids got in on the act with DDWT Junior running off and on for his mile (with Mrs DDWT) and Baby DDWT being quite content to walk along splashing in all the muddy puddles with me (although lagging behind somewhat!).

In fact it was fantastic to see so many families (including pets!) taking part in the events and having so much fun whilst doing so. Most of the kids seemed intrigued by the ‘fire’ juggler and were well chuffed to see Cyril the Swan present as well (well done Cyril for running the 1 mile event). Lee Trundle was also present to start off the proceedings at the 11am event.

The kids were well chuffed with their Sport Relief goodie bags – especially the medals, which my no doubt bring back a memory or two in years to come for both of them. I’m not sure what they made of the mini box of cereal or singular prune sachets, but they were welcome running food for me

I’d also like to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has sponsored us so far. Thus far we’ve raised £66 – our target was £100 – but with more sponsorship pledged I’m still hopeful that we’ll beat our original target.

If you’d like to donate then please feel free to do so via the Team Thomas Sport Relief page.

Yes it’s true I’m making a visit to the new Cardiff city stadium – or Legoland as us Jacks like to call it – to watch arguably the most fierce local derby in British football on Saturday, 3rd April 2010.

It has been many years since I visited our arch rivals at the old Ninian Park and I can remember the healthy amount of loose change I pocketed that day as a result of the post-match coin storm that ensued over the rear wall of the grange end!

So here I am, in 2010 making the journey once again only this time it’ll be to see the Swan’s very first game at the new Cardiff stadium.

Here’s my bus ticket for the “bubble” trip…

The fixture has the potential to be explosive on-field encounter considering ALL of the ingredients with both teams are vying for promotion to the Premier league via the play-offs (well currently they are anyway!). The Bluebirds being at home and at their new stadium will be out for revenge having not beaten the Swans over the last 2 seasons (2 draws and 2 defeats).

From fan’s perspective, it’s a bank holiday weekend, it’s a 17:20 kick-off and for the armchair fans it’s live on Sky. I do wonder what South Wales Police make of it all though….

Whatever happens I’m in no doubt it’ll be an interesting day!

Did you know that today marked World Book Day 2010? Well nor did I until about a month ago when DDWT Junior came home from school branding a £1 book token and explanatory note!

So what is world book day? Well quite simply it is the biggest annual celebration of books and reading in the UK and Ireland.

I must confess to not being a bookworm by any stretch of the imagination but Mrs T and DDWT Junior are and I think it’s great that such a ‘day’ exists – if only to generate interest in books for children and adults alike.

Our local school also got in on the act by asking all of the kids to dress up as their favourite character from one of the many books written by Roald Dahl – such as The BFG, George’s Marvellous Medicine, The Twits, James & The Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Enormous Crocodile and many more.

Here’s a picture of DDWT Junior sporting his Enormous Crocodile outfit!

Incidentally if you haven’t read ‘The Enormous Crocodile’ – like I hadn’t up until a couple of weeks back – I’d recommend it, it’s quite funny for little kids and big ones!

Yes it’s official, Team Thomas have decided to take part in Sport Relief 2010!

On Sunday 21st March 2010, Team Thomas – all four of us – will be heading down to Singleton Park to take part in the Swansea Sport Relief Mile in order to raise money for poor and vulnerable people.

The Swansea Sport Relief event offers a choice of distances to enter – 1, 3 or 6 miles and to make things a little more fun we’ve decided to do something a wee bit different.

I will kick things off at 11 am by doing the 6 mile event before joining Mrs DDWT and the little ‘uns for the 1 mile event at noon. That is assuming that I run the 6 miles in under an hour of course LOL! We haven’t decided if fancy dress is in order or not yet (any suggestions for costumes?).

We’ve never done a family fundraising event all together in the past, so we thought it was an ideal opportunity to try something different and help people both at home and overseas who aren’t as fortunate as ourselves.

So why not sign up and enter the event, it’s only £5 per adult and £2 for children under 16 or for just £12 you can register 2 adults and 2 children.

If you don’t fancy taking part then why not sponsor Team Thomas instead? Remember every penny helps so even a £1 would be extremely welcome.

So go on you know you want too…