This article suggests that clumsy children are more likely to become obese as adults because they exercise less. It is based on a study that found children with poor hand control and co-ordination are more likely to be obese later on in life. I'm not entirely sure the link is down to the children being clumsy, its more likely to be down to lack of exercise as children. I was a very clumsy child and have always managed to break pretty much everything I touch, I still amaze myself how quickly we seem to get through glasses in my house, I never have a set for more than a few weeks before an accident occurs. Whilst naturally clumsy, however, I have not grown up obese, although I was quite an active child.

My ankle has eventually healed after a frustrating week of not being able to do any exercise and I am now back to running every day. It is getting easier and I am now looking forward to my daily run, the only problem appears to be fitting it in around the dreadful weather. I also came across some further motivation in the form of this article which suggests running can help halt the ageing process. The article talks predominantly about older people and the fact that elderly joggers are less likely to die prematurely. I'm guessing the same principle applies to younger people who run on a regular basis, so hopefully I will not only get fit but live a bit longer as well, either way the exercise has to be good for me.

I have been taking a forced break from my new exercise regime over the last few days due to trying to do too much and ending up with a swollen ankle. I am actually finding I am missing my morning run, and am getting a little impatient with the slow healing process of my ankle. For those who don't have the time to exercise there could soon be a new solution in the form of a pill. The pill fools the muscles into thinking they have worked out which means they burn fat and increase fitness. In effect it should give you all the benefits of exercise without leaving the sofa. The bad news is it is not going to be available for several years. Back to running then as soon as my ankle is better.

As most of work involves using my computer I spend a lot of time sitting on my bottom. I decided that its about time I spend a bit more time getting fit. It is, however, really hard to find the time and by the evening I am usually just too tired to make it to the gym. That's why I have taken the rather painful decision to start running in the mornings. My new exercise regime involves getting up at 6am in the morning and going for a 30 minute run. Having never run before in my life this is proving no easy feat. The first day of running was two weeks ago and I honestly thought I was going to die. That day I spent more time walking, than running. Since then I have been running 6 days a week with a day off in the middle of the week to allow my muscles to recover. Every day I seem to be able to go a little further and I can now manage all of the 30 minute circuit followed by a short walk. I am already starting to feel fitter and slimmer so although it hurts I will continue to run. Perhaps after a few more weeks I might start enjoying it.

Insects really like to bite me and every time they do I seem to suffers quite bad reactions. I don't know when they got to me this time but today I have at least three insect bites on my thigh. The combination of the three bites has meant that my entire upper leg has swollen to about twice its normal size, and it really is painful and itchy but also numb in places. In fact I think this might be my worst insect bite so far, it looks so hideous that I'm not going to post a picture this time but if you check out the last time I got bitten and imagine this but much redder and four times as big, then you are nearly there. Needless to say I am in a really bad mood today.

I had a very unproductive weekend last week because I have been revisiting some of my old computer games that I have never got around to completing. The main reason for doing this is because I am feeling a little poor at the moment so rather than spending money on new movies or box office films I thought I would make use of what I have already. That said, my husband is obviously not feeling poor because another box arrived today with a Playstation 3 inside. I'm not sure where he managed to find it because its one of the 60GB versions which will also play Playstation 2 games (yes I have already tried it, even though I am meant to be working). I expect there will soon be more details on Rory's blog shortly as well as a more technical view of my new laptop. I see another unproductive weekend ahead.

It was our wedding anniversary a few days ago and I was surprised to receive a parcel from my husband. I was even more surprised to find that it contained a new laptop from Dell. Its a Dell Inspiron and it makes my old laptop look very inferior. I am currently busy installing everything, so am still mainly working on my old machine for now. So far I am very pleased with the new one, its certainly a lot faster and it has the advantage that it doesn't constantly overheat and of course its nice and new and shiny.

We found a recipe for strawberry souffle and thought we would give it a go. Unfortunately we must have done something wrong because although the end result tasted quite good, our souffles failed to rise. Below is the recipe we used.

Ingredients
Souffle aux Fraises
Strawberry souffle
to serve 6
450g of strawberries
350g if frozen
3 eggs size 2 separated
1 extra egg white
200g of caster sugar
25g of cornflour
50g of double cream
1 dessertspoon strawberry liqueur or kirsch
juice of 1/4 of a lemon
18cm / 7 1/4 in diameter souffle dish
Strawberry Souffle

Heat the oven to 190c or 375f gas 5 hull the strawberries and blend to a puree.
If frozen thaw and drain first. Butter the souffle dish, beat the yolks and sugar together until white and frothy.
Add the cornflour, cream, liqueur and a few drops of lemon juice and beat until smooth.
Add the strawberry puree and mix well.
Beat the egg whites to a stiff peak and fold into the strawberry and egg yolk mixture very carefully.
Pour into the souffle dish about three quarters full.
Bake in the oven for 30 mins serve straight away.
You now have a strawberry souffle

The mixture before it went into the oven.

I and Rory checking the progress of the souffle.

The finished dessert, tasty but disappointingly flat.

We will try this again in a few weeks, perhaps with a different recipe. Watch this space for attempt number 2.

I am slightly happier today after my bad day yesterday. My laptop is alive once more, for how long I'm not sure, but for now it works. I might still look into purchasing a new one soon, as the problems appear to be caused by it simply overheating.

I have had a really bad day. It started when I turned my laptop on this morning, only to get a blue screen of death moments later. The laptop appears to have died completely and I'm not sure whether it will live another day, it depends on whether my husband can do anything to fix it. In the meantime I have been using a really old really slow computer. It doesn't have most of the software on it that I need to complete my day to day work and I am also unable to access most of my email. It has been a very frustrating day. My only consolation is that I don't store any work locally so whilst I am inconvenienced I have not lost any data. If my laptop is dead though, I might have several more frustrating days ahead whilst I wait for a new one to be delivered. Watch this space, will the laptop live again? Who knows?

An extended end terrace property situated within a cul de sac and located within half a mile of Egham high street amenities and mainline train station. Accommodation comprises entrance hallway, lounge, kitchen, dining room, shower room, double bedroom, first floor bathroom, mezzanine study area, own private rear garden and off street parking.

I am still enjoying playing with my new camera so I will probably be posting lots of pictures in the next few weeks. I took this picture of Oscar using the close up setting and was quite impressed that you can see the wet part of his nose in the picture. The second picture was taken last night when we went out for my 30th birthday. I had a great evening and had 16 of my friends join me for dinner which was great. Thank you to everyone who made the effort to come out and also to all the people that have sent me messages on facebook, sms, email etc. If you are my friend on Facebook you can see more of the pictures there.

Its my birthday today and I have just opened my present from husband. I have wanted a new camera for a while now and am now the owner of a Nikon D40. So far I have just about figured out how to charge the battery and attach the strap. As the rest of the buttons are rather similar to my old SLR camera, I'm sure I will taking lots of pictures soon so watch this space.

We are now back in the UK after a week in St Lucia. I spent most of yesterday recovering from jet lag, hence no blog posts, but am feeling a bit more awake today. Further to my post about our open top jeep ride around St Lucia, I have now been able to get to the pictures. I found that the jeep ride was a particularly good way to see the island, mainly because there are only 8 people to each jeep, so if you have any questions you can ask the guide at any time. You can also ask to pull over at any time, if there is anything you want to explore further.

The tour started by driving through some of the more built up areas of island including the capital Castries. Pictured left is one of the islands many Catholic churches.

Pictured right is the tour guide Chris and our friend Dave who also came on the trip with us.

Here you can see one of the many places along the road where the local farmers offer some of their fruit for you to taste.

Pictured right is just one of the many banana plantations that we drove past.

Pictured left you can see me at the front of the jeep and next to that some pineapples growing in one of the plantations.

Here you can see the landscape as it starts to change as we reach the range forest. At this point the air becomes much cooler and the tracks through the forest are at times no more than dirt tracks.

To the left you can see a view of The Pitons, St Lucia's most famous landmark  that stands over 2,000 feet tall. To the right is a picture of Rory enjoying a dip under a waterfall which is meant to have healing properties.

On the left is a picture of the Sulphur Springs at the dormant volcano and on the right myself, Rory and Dave at the springs.

This shows our visit to a cocoa plantation. The picture to the far left shows the cocoa beans drying in the sun and the other picture shows a lady pealing the roasted beans before they are made into cocoa sticks. According to the guide over 90% of the cocoa from this plantation ends up in the US.

In the afternoon we made our way  back by boat. Here you can see me enjoying the boat trip and Rory swimming in the sea.

We had a busy day yesterday as we went on an open top jeep ride through the rain forest. We set off just after 8 in the morning. Seeing St Lucia by jeep is definitely the way to do it and although it gets a little hairy on some of the steep tracks in the forest, you see a lot more than if you were confined to the coach. You also have the advantage of being able to stand up and take photos whenever you want. We also stopped at a cocoa plantation where we were able to see how they make chocolate, one of my favourite things. Needless to say there are lots of photos but these will follow when I get back to the UK tomorrow.

We arrived in St Lucia yesterday evening for a five day stay during which we are attending a friends wedding on Tuesday. I must say I was dreading the eight hour flight but it was better than I expected, perhaps because I managed to watch three movies on the way. We did, however, arrive very tired and so last night we just stopped for a bite to eat before heading off for an early night.

So far I am impressed with the hotel. We are staying at the Bay Gardens Beach Resort in Rodney Bay. On arrival we were greeted with a glass bucks fizz and the staff couldn't be any more helpful. Obviously I have the promised internet access, which is essential for keeping track of my various businesses whilst we are away. I will also post some pictures of the room shortly. We ate in the resorts Hi-Tide Restaurant last night and once again my first impressions were good. Rory had red snapper and I had a baby rack of lamb that came with a sweet potato mash. We are just about to head out for breakfast now, so more on this later, hopefully with some pictures of the island.

This is Ollie, fast asleep.

I woke up this morning to find that it had snowed during the night. Although there is not a great a deal of snow it was still enough to create some entertainment for the cats, well for Willow anyway. Oscar and Oliver pictured to the left went out to investigate before coming straight back inside and sitting on their bean bags refusing to leave the house again. Lucy pictured on the right simply sat under the bench looking miserable before also retreating inside.