Great weekend and a pretty good Monday start

First of all - THANKS CECILE for awarding me with The Literary Blogger Award. It was such a nice surprise for me this morning. "This grand award (and I quote Cecile), acknowledges bloggers who energize and inspire reading by going the extra mile! These amazing bloggers make reading fun, and enhance the delight of reading!"
It's such an honour to receive it and it really did make my day (especially because it's that dreadful Monday:)). There are rules for passing it to the other fellow bloggers:
1) Put the logo on your blog/post. CHECK
2) Nominate up to 9 blogs.
And the nominees are:
Sanna @ Misbehaving Angel
Mistress Heidi @ Wips and Chains
Barbara @ Happily Forever After
3) Be sure to link to your nominees within your post. DID
4) Let them know that they have been nominated by commenting on their blog. NEXT THING TO DO
5) Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award. THANKS CECILE!

And now about the reason I found out about this award only today (although it has been awarded to me on Saturday) - I went to my first MTB XCO race! No I didn't drive (I'm not that crazy) but my boyfriend did. He won the 7th place, which is great because He had a bad season this year. For those of you who aren't familiar with this stuff - it's an extreme bicycle race through mountains. The path is 5,5 km long and there are different categories on which depends how many rounds you drive. He drove 4 rounds (22 km). Each round took him about 29 minutes. How hard this is you can conclude from the time it took him to finish it. When he's practising, he finishes 5,5km long mild trail in about 10 minutes and now it took him 29 minutes!
But enough about the technicalities. I have to say ladies - go to the cycling races! Oh, what a gorgeous men, half naked and six pack is compulsory. They get ready on the parking lots (yes that means they get undressed there :) It's a scary too (not because of the men but because of the way the track looks :)). We went the day before the race so He can try out the track and I've decided to walk the track. I usually go with Him to these tracks seeing and then try it out on foot. But, oh boy, I've never been to one steep like this one. Half way downhill I was stuck - didn't know what to do, if I went back I would have to crawl and if I continue I could easily fall on my head! I decided to be brave and continue. Nothing happened, luckily, and I finished the trek in 1,5 hour. In the evening we went to the cinema and decided to see Angels and Demons. A very good movie, I liked it better then The Da Vinci Code. And I think that Tom Hanks is a great actor, but the end was a little predictable.

On Sunday was a race day. Oh my, I had to be in the feed zone (that was one of the reasons I went with Him to the race) to pass Him a drink every lap and to take the pictures at the same time. I thought I was the only one stressed out with all the instructions but when I arrived (and to enter this zone you had to have a special permit dangling around your neck) I met half a dozen other girlfriends with the same tasks, rehearsing their moves - how to pass the bottle into the drivers hand while catching the thrown one (because the feed zone was uphill and you could easily lose the spare bottle - a big no-no) and taking a picture without moving. Imagine that! We got a few pointers from the professionals. Did you know that there are people who get paid to pass the bottles to the drivers? OK, they have to know how to change the chain if needed during the race or how to change a wheel (they don't change the flat tires during the race but the whole wheel - it's much faster) - but how hard can that be?
Anyway, after the race we went to watch Elite category (from around the world) drive. We were standing on the track, and it was scary - the way they go downhill without even touching the breaks, truly scary. And the women drivers (there are women too :)) are so petit.
We arrived home at 6.30 p.m. and I fell asleep immediately after taking the shower and slept until this morning. Twelve straight hours of sleep! I blame the adrenaline (but as my friend said this morning: "And you didn't even drive the race!" while sadly nodding with her had :)) and the cold (the wind was blowing hard and it rained the night before so it felt wet cold on the race day). But all in all - it was a really funny weekend.

P.S. I'll post some pictures later - I have to recharge batteries from the camera (they were mistreated a lot yesterday:))

HERE ARE THE PICTURES:

The Track (downhill)

Him (it doesen't look too steep, but if you look closer you can see how He's bent forward to keep the balance)

This girl was late for the bottle exchange (I wouldn't want to be in her shoes)

NO NAKED GUYS, sorry girls but I was too ashamed to even look (a few peeps were allowed:))