It has been a busy, although quite productive week, with a generally positive trajectory.

Despite 'solid' runs at Lake Ginninderra (37:35) on Tuesday, the BBQ Stakes 6k (34:25) on Wednesday, and Customs on Friday (26:53) it was the discovery on Thursday that Rudi could "fetch" was the highlight of the week.

By Friday morning, the little boy was obsessed. Finding a plastic cap was great fun to toss around and chase, he would faithfully return to our feet and drop it before looking up at us expectantly. One of us would throw or kick it away . . . upstairs, under furniture, around corners and off he would rush to retrieve it, having a bit of a play with it along the way.

By the time we left to go to Customs, he would have chased around fetched it around 100 times. Good Dog, uh, Boy!

I have logged into blog umpteen times over the last month, and never succeeded to get cyber pen to virtual paper.

The Gordon River and Cradle Mountain in Tasmania were spectacular, and I don't know what has really happened since then.

"Little Boy" Rudi revelled under the PRB's care, finally being able to suss out how to enter and exit the house on his own through the hidden cellar door.

I have returned to running, sort of. It started to go OK, and then !phlat! ~ a bit of a backward step. Nevertheless I managed to do the Sri Chinmoy 10k on Sunday after an ignominious should-have-DNF'd on Friday at Customs. I got around the 5km, but only by walking and having the PRB alongside me, where I felt too embarrassed to cut the course short and cross the road early.

An early trip to bed after getting home, and sleep for much of Friday afternoon and Saturday meant that I was able to lob up to my pre-entered Sri Chinmoy event on Sunday, not knowing whether I would get through the 10k. Despite a pretty rough time over the first few k's (the shivering and chattering teeth returned - a shock-like reaction I suffered from last year whenever I started to run no matter how hot the temperature) I settled into it, and managed to finish far more strongly than I began.

Although rather embarrassed my the tortoise like time of nearly an hour, I was 10 minutes faster than the last time I ran the event (in October?).

Small steps to begin with. It's good to be running.