Heather Fell, Olympic modern pentathlete silver medalist, writes about her life 'on and off' the track.

AFTER a hard week of training and a whole weekend competing I allowed myself the night off to enjoy the Plymouth Evening Herald sports awards.

I managed to disguise my bruises sufficiently and dust off my heels and party dress; although I had to choose carefully to disguise my training wounds. It was a great evening — only at times like these do we realise the sporting talent there is in the area. I was a little embarrassed to be among the shortlist of several gold medallists after a slightly below par year.

My third parking ticket in not much more than a week was the final straw and I decided it was time to take the plunge. I've at last moved into my new flat! After subsequently finishing the painting; I hope never to see a paintbrush again.

There is a lot more to living on your own than I had realised. Starting with a bed, bean bag and a table it was time to go shopping, I never knew there was such a variety of kitchen appliances, I played it safe and went for the best looking ones (but I did avoid pink!). Although I don't think I can quite claim to be fully independent as I tucked into a delicious ready meal on my first night; home made stew courtesy of my wonderful mother.

This weekend I had my first full pentathlon of the season, which due to the availability of the facilities started at 9am on Saturday and finished at 5pm on Sunday. The only advantage of this ridiculously drawn out competition was having a Saturday night free — it was my first since the X-Factor/Strictly Come Dancing season started, I was very excited about watching the shows live. Unfortunately they didn't live up to my expectations, the fast forward button is more valuable than I realised!