Party time!

Oh the shame. No blog for two weeks. Is this down to the massive amount of work I've been doing in preparation for the birth? Well, erm, frankly no. We've been making hay while the sun shines... enjoying ourselves!

Over the last weekend in June we made our annual trek to the Saab Salomon Mountain Mayhem 24-hour mountain bike race. It was a long and exhausting weekend for me as I rode through mud (again!) and equally so for Hayley as she drove back and forth to Wiltshire to visit family and friends while we were within striking distance. But ultimately it was a very enjoyable and rewarding weekend as we met up with old friends and fellow cyclists for our annual punishment.

This weekend we went to London to watch the Live8 concert in Hyde Park which we were lucky enough to win tickets for in the SMS lottery. We took the train down on Friday and that evening we went to The Royal Opera House where we saw "Otello" by Verdi (based on the Shakespeare play).

On Saturday we walked from our hotel in Westminster to Hyde Park. Unfortunately when we got there we found ourselves queuing for 2000 metres and two and a half hours around the park to get to the concert entrance. Hayley kept her cool with her handheld fan and sat on all available walls as we crawled along Park Lane. Resisting the temptation to pop into the Dorchester for refreshments we finally made it into the park after listening to Paul MacCartney and U2 open the concert on a transistor radio from outside the gates.

I felt a bit rotten that Hayley had to queue for all that time and offered that we abandon the effort in favour of watching on TV. But she's a tough and determined (if not stubborn) cookie and insisted we go on. In the end it was well worth it as we had a great day. We pitched camp in the park on our blanket, well back from the crowds at the front, and enjoyed the music in comfort with the benefit of one of the large screens. Despite the late finish we stayed to the end and walked some of the way home before getting a cycle-drawn taxi back to our hotel. (A scary ride!)

So, is this the last hurrah?

Many people have responded to this activity by saying "make the most of it while you can, you won't be able to soon enough". But I do wonder to what degree that is within our control and to what extent people abandon their old pastimes out of social expectations.

Don't get me wrong, I know our free time will be limited and we'll be partially reliant on the goodwill of family and friends to help us find free time for just the two of us. But I also think it may be possible to do these things in future with that goodwill and some careful planning. But will we want to when it means leaving our child with someone else for a day or maybe a weekend? I find it hard to gauge whether we'll be blissfully glad of the break or too continually worried about our offspring to enjoy ourselves.

Perhaps the answer is to continue to do what we enjoy and drag our offspring along! After all, it gives them the best chance of getting a taste for the excitement of mountain biking or just hiking and camping in the mountains. It would be nice to think that rather than party time ending, we are about to embark on the longest most exhausting party of our lives.