Day 72 - the day after.....

Woke up this morning and didn't need to put the trainers on....no running required. Wave 105 called to congratulate me on my achievement and interview me on how it all went - I was then on the news bulletins every half hour. They nick-named me 'Bournemouths Forrest Gump'!

The stewardess on the flight gave an announcement to all the passengers that I was on board and that people may have seen me on TV or heard me on the radio....I've got quite a celebrity status now! John met us at the airport and it was so fantastic to see him after such a long absence. It's the Wimbledon men's final today but luckily for us the match has been interupted by rain as John loves tennis and it would have been a shame if he'd missed vital games whilst picking us up.

Strangly I've forgotten where things are at home - not that John has moved stuff around it's just that my mind is so decluttered of 'reality' life that I can't remember. I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things slowly as I certainly don't want to lose sight of what I've achieved over the last 10 weeks. John must have been reading my mind as he's cooked a roast beef dinner for tonight...yum! For once, although I scoffed everything put in front of me he left half of his and I assumed that it was because he'd been snack-attacking during the day - this was part one of a cunning arrangement. I'd already mentioned to Sarah and Kevin that I wanted to pop over and see them and apparantely John had arranged for us to go over around 6.30pm as 'it was a school night and Will, Eddie and Max all wanted to see me before they went to bed' - this was cunning plan part two. Whilst driving over there John also 'complained' that recently the staff at the park had taken to leaving their cars behind their house which meant he sometimes had trouble finding room to park which was exactly the situation tonight but there was a space right outside her gate - cunning plan part three. As I gleefully yelled 'I made it', a dog ran out of the gate 'that looks like Buttons, what's she doing here?' - cunning plan almost blown to smithereens but I still didn't twig! One or two people that shouldn't have been over there meandering round the garden...still naive! It was only when I got into the kitchen and found the room full of friends that I realised I'd been well and truely surprised - the house was full and they were all there for me! The great thing was that they had managed to get Paul into the kitchen too. Eddie's trumpet teacher, Malcolm gave a fantastic rendition of 'congratulations' on the trumpet just to seal my arrival. Sarah and Kevin had also secured the services of a photographer to capture the moment so we all stood (freezing in the balmy July weather!) on the mansion steps for the official snaps. There was also a running buffet (hence the reason John was 'suddenly' full when it came to eating a roast dinner) and a karaoke (complete with welcome home message for me) and although this didn't get too much use on the night, I heard that it had been well tested the previous evening! I was still wearing my running top and my hair looked like the picture of the Llama that John had sent me a couple of days ago so I wasn't looking at my best but that didn't seem to matter to anyone!

It was a fantastic night and one that I certainly had no idea about. Everyone's been telling me lies albeit little white ones for my own good and I'm amazed that no-one let the cat out of the bag...they're all too clever and I'll never trust any of them again!