Wow! What a weekend!!!

Hey..I can't believe that it is Monday evening already!
We had a very busy weekend of training - hill repeats Friday for Dedan, following Chris and sucking fumes on a hard ride through Elfin Forrest and back along Del Dios Highway Saturday and then an easy recovery ride along the coast Sunday, making it home just before the rain came in. Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky. I had my head in a magazine article and was late getting out of the house...and I paid for it! The rain they kept telling us about actually came in and consequently I got dumped on..big time....wind, rain and freezing cold temperatures. I would have asked for my money back from the 'it never rains in Southern Cal and the sun always shines party' but I was too busy riding my butt home to a warm bath!

Before you raise your eyebrows and say..'don't they give that boy a break?'...Let us not forget that One: Dedan is an athlete, Two: Dedan is on the Road to London 2012 Paralympics, and Three: Dedan is here to train with a new leg.....BUT ahh...yes we do have a life other than training and hence our crazy weekend. We had invites to two parties during the weekend. One at Ingrid and Tims Saturday evening to celebrate their birthdays and an afternoon garden party..(thankfully the sun came out), Sunday afternoon at Jack and Barbara's, who are our neigbors and live only two doors away.

Jean Shopping:
So..as we had been invited to a couple of parties I figured that Dedan needed a pair of jeans to wear. With the morning training sessions out of the way, Dedan and I went shopping.We had a blast trawling the stores and treated it as an extended walking lesson for Dedan and the new leg. We hit a couple of fancy shops but they didn't have what Dedan liked, as he was looking for jeans that didn't look too new and so we ended up back at one of our local Encinitas stores.

It was really busy and we had to wait in line for a dressing room, so I warned the store girlies that we may take a while as Dedan had a prosthetic leg. No problems they said. Pair after pair were placed in the changing room and the saga to find the right pair of jeans began. Too big, too tight, too short in the leg, too long in the leg.....not that much of a problem until...too narrow.. too narrow?...hmmmm BIG problem.

So picture this. I'm outside the changing room, Dedan is inside. He calls me and says that the jeans are stuck. Stuck? What do you mean stuck? I can't get them off the bottom was the reply. Huh? What's the bottom I think to myself, then I click..oh the jeans are stuck on the prosthetic foot that doesn't have much movement. So without missing a beat I say...in my normal quiet voice...yeah right..(me quiet? hardly...)I say in my loud New Zealand accented english voice.....'Dedan, just take your leg off!'. Ah.....can you say 'politically incorrect moment'. Can you say 'explain very quickly to the people waiting in line, who are now looking at the floor or straight ahead pretending to not be taking any notice of you but they have totally heard every word you've said moment'.

I tell ya, it was hysterically funny as Dedan's reply was even funnier and more amusing. He poked his head out of the changing room, curtains on either side of his head and said,'I can not, no fitting sock'.Well that really had them wondering! When Dedan puts his prosthetic leg on, he first puts on a long fitting sock over his stump which then threads through the end of the socket, pulling the flesh on the outside of the stump down to fit nice and snugg in the socket. If you don't have the fitting sock, you can not fit the leg hence Dedan's concern. I managed to laugh off my comment, put Dedan at ease, unstick the jeans and foot AND find a pair of Lucky brand jeans with a sweet leather belt that made the grade. He looked good..certainly was 'wearing them jeans'.

Both parties were great fun and it was good for Dedan to meet and mingle with two different groups of people. His english has jumped to another level since the weekend and so we'll have to keep this party lark up..suits me!!!

It's late and time to go to bed. I'll get some photos from the parties and post them later in the week.
Hope you are all well..more stories from the hood tomorrow.
Cheers
Janet