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Escape to the sea

Pic of the week 31/5/20

Last week I wrote of my existence as medieval man.  This week Becky & I broke the bonds of our local lives and headed to the beach at Kilve.

It was another blisteringly hot day (its been the driest May on record, with high temperatures and sunshine, too) and we set of at about 0830, taking circa 45 mins to arrive at our destination.

We weren’t breaking the lock-down rules – you are now allowed to drive to places, but not stay overnight, and you must still socially distance. (The rules are relaxed further tomorrow, with Primary schools starting back for Reception, Y1 & Y6) Nevertheless, we did feel a little guilty about making the trip and did make sure, on our arrival, that we headed along the cliff top path to avoid others.

It was so worth it. It is a strange beach – the water a muddy brown, no way was I going swimming in that – and the beach a geologist’s delight, with a range of rock formations. It was wonderful to just sit and hear the sea, smell the “ozone” and be somewhere else.

At the start of lock-down all the advice was about the importance of maintaining a routine, and that is good advice. But the routine has become too routine, too monotonous – we were living our very own groundhog day. A change of scene, a broadening of horizons was wonderful.

“School” starts again tomorrow – 4 weeks to plough through. Normally I’d be looking forward to the next few weeks as the timetable inevitably lightens with exam classes leaving, and real sense of accomplishment and “coming to an end” before the long summer holidays. This year, I fear the remaining four weeks are just a chore to be endured, each day much like the last, to be ticked off ready for the summer hols.

But its not too long now until I can head west or south to the coast again.

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Half-term

Pic of the week 24/5/20

And so half term has arrived. But Groundhog day continues.

We remain under lock-down, I’ve concluded that this is how medieval man must have lived – never going further than his feet could take him, and his human contact limited to those in his immediate family.

It could be worse – I have a wonderful family and we live in a beautiful place – but I’ve come to realise that it is the consistency of life that is so crushing. No ups following downs, nothing different to look forward to, just one day seamlessly segueing into the next. Normally one would arrive at summer half term with a sigh of relief, catch your breath, enjoy a rest before the short final sprint to the glittering prize of the long summer hols. This year, I just seemed to have stumbled from working at home on Friday to not working at home on Saturday and Sunday.

(And, unlike medieval man, we can now hop in a car to go somewhere for exercise, which is why we’ve been up the Poldens a few times. The pic above was taken on Saturday when the weather was a bit breezy and cloudy.)

One beneficiary of lock-down has been my running: with all other forms of exercise (swimming, spinning and refereeing) denied to me, I’ve been doing a lot of running. And (at least when lock down began) we were told you could only go out once a day, for up to an hour, for exercise I decided I’d make the most of that time and run either my 9K or 10K routes (taking circa 45-50 mins). As a consequence, I’ve been racking up the miles, and yesterday passed the 400km mark. After today’s run, I’ve notched up 414Km.  Don’t think it will happen, but a though crossed my mind today – could I end up doing 1,000Km in the year? (I hope not, because I hope to have returned to spinning, swimming & refereeing, as well as running.)

Other news – and I mention this just so I have a point of reference when I look back in the future – the news this weekend has been dominated by Dominic Cummings and his refusal to resign, despite having been caught breaking lock down rules.

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Skills!

Pic(s) of the week 17/5/20

Skills!

The lock-down continues, and Becky could take it no longer.

She had to have her hair cut.

(I sympathise)

Fearing for their safety should they do a bad job, the children both refused the task. So it was left to me to step up to the plate.

And I’m rather pleased and proud of my handiwork. It can’t be too bad as I have lived to tell the tale. In fact, I would say as much that Becky’s hair looks much, much better.

In other news, not a lot has changed. Becky & Sam went on a long walk across the Poldens which was good, and today – at last – I went to the tip to dispose of most of my garden waste. Tomorrow night I put out the brown garden waste bin for the first time since mid-March: its the little things that I look forward too!

Toady, I ran my 10K in a new PB for the year in 47 min 22 secs, which also pleased me.

One more week of online teaching before a welcome break of half term.

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Lock-down life

Pic of the week 10/5/20

So, the Groundhog existence that is lock-down continues.

I’ve settled in to some sort of routine, and have sorted out my remote teaching. I’m getting up later – circa 7.15 am everyday, but going to bed later (typically after Newsnight ends at 11.30, and then read for a bit: lights out shortly before midnight)

Our daily Boris walks have been a delight (no doubt enhanced by the wonderful weather we’ve been having – although at lunch time today the temperature plummeted, and its due to be cold this week.)

Since March 24th I’ve worn nothing other than shorts, T-shirt, and sweatshirt if the temperature dictates, and I’ve been enjoying only shaving every other day.

But this week I donned my suit to record a video Year 11 assembly. I do like looking smart, and wearing a suit is not a chore. But my legs have enjoyed being in the open air for the last seven weeks, and that wasn’t going to change, just because I was being filmed from the neck up …

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Glastonbury 10K

Pic of the week 3/5/20

Today was the Glastonbury 10K road race.

But this being lock-down Britain, it didn’t happen.

But that didn’t stop me doing a Sunday morning 10K, and the pic above shows me in last year’s top, and the Tor – that you famously run around on the Glasto 10K – is just about visible in the background.

Annoyingly, my Map my Run recording has been awry both today and yesterday, so I don’t have accurate stats for the run, but I reckon I did it in 48 min 14 secs.

Yesterday evening (& on Friday, sans Becky) Sam, Becky & I went for a walk in the Poldens. We parked in the car park and headed further east than we have been before.  Its beautiful. The trees are in green leaf, and the sunlight glimmer through the gaps was pretty, but I (and I think I was the only one of the three of us to think this) preferred it when we broke out into open space and were welcomed with vast vistas across the levels.

Easy to say, but we must make a commitment to continue to visit the beautiful landscape more regularly.