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Winter is here

Pic of the week 31/1/21

We are in the grips of winter. The pic above was from a week ago, when we awoke on Sunday to a lovely snowy scene that then soon turned grey, cold and damp. Today we’ve had more snow – a lot has fallen, big, wet flakes, but its not settled, and has now stopped, but it did enough to dampen any opportunity to do much outdoors today.

On the metaphorical (rather than metrological) front we have entered a big freeze – I’ve been told that my AHoY role is to be scrapped. On the one hand, I’m not completely surprised, but on the other hand I am rather miffed. In part because of the “process” – I don’t think it is being done properly, in part due to the significant finacial hit I will have to take, and partly it means going back to square one, and one has to question what is the point of being a “good teacher” and doing all that one does. Given the stage of life that it is happening, it is a significant event and could well be pivotal in my relationship with my career and Millfield School for years to come – perhaps it will now just be a job, my relationship with the school purely mercenary and I prostitute myself for money, and nothing else.  Time will tell.

Running: January draws to a close with me struggling to average 5mins a km. The good news is that I am now running again – its tough, certainly not the cruise around town it was before I hurt my back, but I did manage an 8Km run today which is progress. I’ve run 46 Km this month – not bad, I now need to look to increase that significantly next month. My weight is stubburnly sticking at around the 13 stone 4 pound mark: with lockdown, it may just be a case of accepting this post-Christmas/bad back weight for longer, until lockdown eases and general movement increases. But I must guard against any move northwards.

Some good news: this last week saw Dad, David & Anne, and Granny W all get vaccinated, looking forward to the day that I join their ranks.

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Haircut

Pic of the week 24/1/21

So we are three weeks into the latest lockdown, and its been five weeks since we had our haircut, so on Saturday the clippers came out.

All was going well until:

Oops!

(or, more truthfully, something a little stronger).

Admiring her handiwork, Becky felt the front needed a little more off so she took up the clippers and applied them to the top of my head, having forgotten that she had taken off the guard to tidy up my neck and ear hairs.

So just behind my fringe I have a barren patch.

My fringe/quiff acts as a barrier, and front on, the calamity can’t been seen. But look from above, and there it is – a patch of pink scalp in amongst a see of grey hair.

The good news is is that lock-down looks like its going to last for quite some time so I’m sure it will have grown back before I’m allowed back out in public.

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Birds

Pic of the week 17/1/21

(I was going to call this post “Nice Tits” but figured that might get me into trouble)

So lockdown continues, remote teaching continues, and one needs to seek out alternative hobbies and interests in these alternate times. Becky has taken to feeding birds in the back garden, with her feeding stations set up to provide good photo opportunities.  I must admit, I too enjoy looking at the birds and have put a couple of feeders outside my window in the hope of attracting some feathered friends to watch whilst I teach.

One of my “new” hobbies is tinkering with the cars – well, more than just tinkering, fault finding and rectifying. The Micra has begun to make the most dreadful noise – a rattling shriek. Anyway, after some fault diagnosis today, my suspicions were confirmed and the problem is the alternator bearings. I think it will need a new alternator ( I don’t think it will be possible to replace the bearings). Not a difficult job in terms of complexity, but access will make it blummin’ difficult. More research needed.

Hummed and hah-ed about running today, but glad I did. Still slow – I can only manage 7K, and average about 5mins a K, but did feel so, so much better for it afterwards. And my back feels a lot better, to. I think that maybe now the aches and pains I am still getting in my back are from sitting at my computer for most of the day.

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Cars, Computers, cold and lockdown

Pic of the week 10/1/21

Well, its been an eventful week.

We’re now in lockdown 3, and schools are closed so I’ve begun remote teaching again. Looking at the positives, I’m not as tired as I would have been as I can get up a little later, no duties, no Wednesday or Saturday games; I’ve got a bit more time to crack on with a few projects, and I’ve learnt lessons from lockdown 1 (mainly don’t be too rigid with a daily timetable. Teach when you have to teach, but other than that work at times that suit). But it (teaching remotely) is not as good as being in school. I reckon we could be in for the long haul, all the way to the summer term …

Its been cold, bitterly cold, this week. Indeed, that was a definite silver lining on Wednesday when I walked home at lunchtime (I taught from school for the first day, but at home from then on) – I figured we would have otherwise have been at Kingweston and it would have been perishing. Temperatures have been at or around freezing all week. Today, I thought the sun was going to burn through to give us a beautiful January day, but no, the freezing fog never lifted.

Perhaps because of the cold, the birds have been flocking to our feeding table in the back garden. On Saturday morning, whilst teaching, I was distracted by a long tail tit in the bush outside my window, so I have put a couple of feeders out there in the hope of attracted more feathered friends to break up the monotony of the teaching day.

Because of teaching from home, I felt that the time was right to furnish myself with a Windows 10 computer, in the main so that I can use OneNote for Windows 10 – much quicker than using the browser based version I relied on in lockdown 1. So I found and bought a refurbished ‘pooter on Amazon (£125, 256 SSD Hard Drive 8 GB RAM) which duly arrived, but wouldn’t start. I phoned the helpline for help, but they weren’t any good. In the end, after much intial frustration, scratching of heads by Sam and I, and swapping parts in and out, I figured the problem was one of the four 2GB Ram cards. Long story short, I now have it up and running, albeit with only 6 GB instead of 8.

Today I had another crack at the top mount on the Corsa. Using penetrating spray and a long extension pole, I manged to crack the nut holding it on. So now having loosened a number of bolts that probably haven’t been loosened fro over ten years, I reckon I’m in a position were I can remove the strut next week (Saturday?) and replace the top mount. I am enjoying tinkering with the cars.

Ran today – once again felt slow and difficult, averaging about 5 mins per K (ran 7K) but did the run in nearly 30 secs less than last week, so that is progress. Although annoyingly, I tweaked my right calf, I hope that’s not going to put me out of action for too long – with my weight spiraling upwards I really do need to establish an exercise regime to help control it.

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Adios 2020, y bienvenidos 2021

Pic of the week 3/1/21

So farewell (and some may say good riddance) to 2020, and welcome 2021.

2020 was an “unprecedented*” year, in early January we begun to hear of a strange new virus in the Wuhan province of China,  by February it was on Europe’s shores and beginning to enter the collective conscious, by March we were in full lockdown. Unprecedented times.

(*I think unprecedented must be the word of 2020, utter so often to describe the new world we found ourselves living in. Covid 19, coronavirus and furlough also all deserve a mention.)

Sophie came home, holidays and exams were cancelled, and my best buy of the year was a pair of fleece lined walking trousers. It began with our evening Boris walks, but has developed into a new normal (another pair of words worthy of mention) with Becky & I regularly striding out into the hills, to take the fresh air and gaze at the beauty of the countryside in which we live.

I started learning Spanish, and begun a weekly “chat” with Daniel – my Spanish tutor in Mexico – and I also ran over a one thousand kilometres. Looking back at the blog, I begun the year with a calf strain, and I finished the year with a really bad back injury – in the last week of the Christmas term I could barely walk, and it has taken me the holidays to recover. I did run today – and feel so much better for it – managing 7Km in 35 min 23 secs, a v. poor showing, but not surprising after a month of inactivity and Christmas weight gain; hauling my lard-ass frame around my 7K route was not easy this morning, but I am delighted that I was able to do it with no serious after effects. In fact, many parts of me feel a whole lot better, many niggles and aches and pains have disappeared.

So what does 2021 hold?

Who knows, but a rocky few months to begin with, I’m sure.

Although term starts this week, (Wednesday), we are beginning the week teaching remotely with Y11 and U6th starting back face to face on Monday 11th Jan, with all students in on the 18th. That’s the current plan, but I don’t see the plan lasting. Cases continue to surge and many people (myself included) think schools should not be going back yet. I expect (another) government u-turn before the end of the week.

On a more positive note, we do now have a vaccine, but we are hearing worryingly little about the gov.’s plan to get us all vaccinated. This could and should be a game changer, get it (the logistics right) and come Easter the back of Covid could be broken, ready for the return of the better weather.

So what are my goals for the year?

Other than the immediate, obvious and tangible: get my weight back under 13 stone, and get back to comfortably running 10K in sub 49 mins, I’m not sure I have any. I think the year is too unpredictable to make any resolutions. I’m enjoying work – hope that continues -, have been enjoying walking and I must make sure that continues, I hope to get some overseas sun (and culture) at some point.