Thursday we managed to catch a free showing of ‘Wise Fool New Mexico’ in Discovery Green. It was five women doing a mixture of a show on stilts followed by them using slings to move around their metal frame set up on the grass. Unfortunately my photos don’t really do it justice but it was certainly worth going to even though it only lasted 30 minutes – a bit of culture for a Thursday evening – it certainly beats watch a re-run of Law SUV or NCIS!! Actually to be honest we were home early enough to catch one showing of Law SUV! My course at work ran all week and so the week seemed to fly by also in the knowledge that my emails were piling up – next week’s fun!
I finally managed to motivate myself in going for a run on Friday evening after work – I am not sure but I don’t seem to make myself go easily anymore, I have got too used to going with others! I thought about just going for a quick three mile jaunt, however, I went a little too far out and it ended up five miles. The problem was, I was heading out for a girls night out and time was short. I rushed home, had a shower, and rushed out again, leaving poor Stuart to fend for himself :) It was a girl’s night out arranged through the HGS (Houston Geological Society). It was a bunch of female geologists, including Laura and me. We were first having a self-defence lesson at a martial arts club near the Galleria, followed by 
drinks at a wine bar next door – perfect! The martial arts place taught Ti Quan Do and the instructure made us all put on gloves and we practiced shuffling with our feet before getting to box and knee some hell out of a punch bag. That was then followed by the part in self-defence. So the first training was assuming you were astride your assailant a.k.a. the punch mat, and first you strike them three times in their nose with the bottom of your palm (inexperienced boxers would just break fingers and hands if you tried to do a conventional punch), then using your elbow for a final blow to the face. For the finale, ‘break the coconut’ – that is grab the assailant by the ears and bash their head on the floor three times before getting up and running. We then practiced, with our partners, getting an assailant that is on top of you and strangling you, off us and immobilised. You first pull their thumbs away fro
m your throat, wrapping your legs around their waist (so they can’t escape) and twist up and over them. Once you are on top it is back to nose and head bashing! There was also one in here for essentially breaking an arm or at least immobilising your attacker again if you were pinned to the ground (that is what is happening to mee in the photo!). Last but not least, getting away for someone trying to strangle you against a wall – this is simple yet hopefully effective and involves a bit of a twist followed by an elbow in the nose (again!). So now trained and dangerous we went off to the wine bar, Winetopia.
id have some knowledge about his wines. Apparently they buy end boxes of wine from all over the world. The idea is you go and choose what you want off the shelves because there is no menu. Obviously he can also recommend wines for you but it was more fun trying to choose what to have. We ended up with a nice Argentinian white (torrontes), and had it accompanied with some humus and cheese - it slipped down perfectly. However, I would say the humus was not as good as it should have been so you have been warned! Before we knew it, it was 11:30pm. My husband was waiting up for m
e when I arrived home, greeting me with, ‘and what time do you call this?!’ He was still miffed about getting take home at 9:30pm last Friday night!! I just said I didn’t need to get up for running so therefore I could have a late night :) For the first time in I don’t know how long there was no alarm set, except for the internal clock that woke us at 6am and then at 8am! We had decided to check out the Bayou City Arts Festival in Downtown. After taking some time to find a parking space (because we were being cheap and did not want to pay for it – but in the end we had too) we wandered the streets for about three hours looking at all the stands with paintings, sculptures, jewellery etc. There was some nice art 
and some of it very expensive. My favourite piece was a wax painting – unusual in itself, with 99 birds sitting on a wire. The thing weighed 50 lbs and cost a mere $4400!!! We had some disappointing ice cream as our lunch (it said it was a creamery and I would have expected better) before heading off to see Laura.
ent to try out one of her locals – Bohemeos Café. We had read about it in the Houston Press for its excellent fish tacos. It is hidden behind a strip mall and it quite quirky inside. Outside they have a large patio/grass area. We had beers followed by humus (again! – but much better this time) and tacos. Stuart and I tried both a fish and shrimp ones. Laura opted for a vegetarian taco. They were all very tasty and served with small thin whole 
grain tortillas rather than the traditional corn ones. I would highly recommend it. Later on there was a band playing, that were ok to listen to from outside, but inside they were way too loud. I must be showing my age :) Unfortunately for Stuart I was running Sunday morning so like clockwork we left at 9:30pm so I could get to bed before the 4:45am alarm clock! This morning Amy, Cecelia and I headed off for the Space City 10 miler down in Clear Lake, not too far from Nasa. It was the easiest trip down, with no traffic until we reached the race car park. There were 1000 runners at the starting line. It was very pretty running as there was lots of open space – fields and woods – and as the sun rose there was an early morning fog that was shaping the trees. It was also quite good at obscuring the long straights on the route as we all ran in the fog with the police protecting us from the cars. We were all done in less than two hours and after a banana and breakfast taco we were ready to drive back home! As we arrive
d home we met Bill and Stuart coming back from their cycle. While I had a shower, Stuart got a quick bite to eat before he head off for another cycle but this time with John, who was relieved from babysitting!
We managed to get to the British Isle shop in Rice this afternoon to go and buy a case of haggis and some HP sauce in preparation for a St Andrews day party – invites to follow! I also bought an ugly pumpkin to put at the 
front door!
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