Half term – painting, Cardiff, eye injury and more!

Half term comes to a close and its been varied and full.

On Thursday we went up to Cardiff to look round a few houses with Sophie (whilst it proved valuable in helping her understand what she actually wants, she didn’t end up putting in an offer on any of them) but first we met up at Llanishen resevior for brunch, meeting with Sam as well. The pic above was taken with my new phone – with which I am pleased, and also I woke up on Tuesday morning to find that Lebara had resolved my problem and internet was restored to me.

All week Becky has been painting the stairs and it is finally coming together. Looks good and will be even better in a little over a week when the carpet gets laid.

Thursday was wet – we spent much of the journey up to Cardiff, and quite a bit of it back home, in the rain, but it did mark a change in the weather, and it has warmed up a bit and, on both Friday and Saturday, we did see some sunshine. It is grey and v windy today (and rain is forecast, but not yet arrived) but it does feel like we are entering a new, more hopeful, phase. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the garden, and have been quite vigorous in (some of) my cutting back, particularly the ivy on the back wall, but also on the raspberry/blackberry bed by the side door, much to Becky’s chagrin who thinks I’ve been too vigorous and ruined any potential blackberry crop to come. The bulbs in the lawn are looking good, and those in the pots and front wooden trug are showing great promise. Hopefully over the coming weeks they will burst into bloom, giving a much needed lift was we march through March on the way to Spring and greater greenery. I also found some bulbs in a box in my shed – these would have been from the wooden trug from last year that I hadn’t planted out – that were sprouting, so I planted them out in various places – nothing ventured, nothing gained ….

One negative by product of my gardening yesterday, as we were finishing lunch I felt something in my eye, probably a bit of leaf or twig from my mornings labours. I tried washing it out, but couldn’t seem to get rid of it. I got increasingly irritated by it, stripped to the waist I went outside and poured bottles of water over my eye to no avail. Had a shower and basically forced/held my eye open in the water stream, but I could still feel something in my eye. I found if I sat still it helped, so read for a bit, then had a snooze. Awoke to it feeling a little better, but still not good. Becky & Sophie had been to the cinema in Wells to watch Bridget Jones (they both said it was very good) – Sophie then kindly took me to Glastonbury Minor Injuries Unit. I was seen in about 10 minutes, my eye was examined, nothing in it, but their had been and my cornea was scratched. I was given some cream to apply four times a day, for five days, and by the evening was feeling much better. I’m still “conscious” of my eye, but it no longer hurts and is well on the way to being fully recovered.

Whilst on my “health” (and as I age, it seems that more and more I am reporting weekly on minor ailments and the weather – is this my future?!) I’ve done little (no) exercise this week in an attempt to give my calf plenty of time to recover. This morning, when I got up, I spent 10 minutes doing stretching exercises – I still wouldn’t want to push my calf too hard, but I could stretch it without pain when I couldn’t last Sunday, so that is encouraging.

And just a little follow on note from last week – the repair of my car tyre went well, easy to do and (I’ve just checked!) the tyre is maintaining its pressure of 30psi.

Carpets, phones and and a blow to the head

At last, half term has arrived, but not before I was the victim of an industrial accident! On Thursday, I was in the staff room, chatting away, when I felt a heavy blow to the back of y head. Someone had accidently knocked over one of the vertical speakers, which swung down and hit me. It was a surprise, and it hurt! I wasn’t sure if I was concussed – I didn’t think I was, but wasn’t sure. Anyway, I had myself checked out and certainly by the next day I didn’t feel any the worse for wear, just waiting for the half term to finally end…

Yesterday I pulled up the carpet on the hall staircase. 90% of the job was easy, but its always that 10% …Where the carpet was furled up under the top and bottom step it was an absolute pain removing all the little hooks that had been used to secure it. But I’ve done it.

(Annoyingly, on returning from B&Q to buy some paint, I spotted a screw in the rear left tyre of my Micra. Have bought a £10 kit of Amazon to repair it – I’ll give that a go tomorrow.)

On Friday I ordered a new phone – a Motorola G34 – which arrived on Saturday evening. Unfortunately, on Saturday afternoon my Lebara sim stopped giving me data which was annoying and that, coupled with not having time today due to having to take up more carpet, meant the excitement and fun of getting and setting up a new phone has been lost, becoming more of a chore to fit in around everything else. Anyway, other than not being able to get mobile data, the new phone looks nice and appears to be a definite upgrade on my old phone, but I haven’t really had the chance to explore it properly yet.

This morning I went for a run – was only ever planning a slow 4 or 5k-er – but about 1K in I felt my calf “go” again (not as bad as before, but a definite moment) so I looped round and came home, which is a shame as I was enjoying pounding the streets again.

The weather has not been good so far this half term – yesterday was wet and miserable, today has been cold, v cold with a biting wind, not what I’d hoped for for this week.

Pottering

Although the weather remains cold and claggy, I had a happy couple of hours today pottering around outside. Seeing the sun and some blue sky, I was tempted out to the front garden to clean my football boots – all togged up in my warm “outdoor jobs” tops, and enjoying the sun I continued with some tasks in the back. First, I chopped back a bit more of the buddleia – I would have done more, but my garden waste bin if full! – then I had a little tinker looking at, and lifting, a couple planks on the deck path by the side of the house that need replacing, some prep. work ready for half-term in a week’s time when I will replace them.

I also cut the planks ready to re-surface the workbench, and removed the old planks from that table. Removing the wood was fairly easy, the rusted, stubborn coach bolts less so. But I enjoyed being outside, and am in a position to fairly quickly complete this project next week.

Whilst most are still some way of blooming, the first one or two daffodils have flowered. The pic above was taken at school today – the crocuses are giving a bit of colour, but still we await the grand symphony of spring flowers to come.

My calf: yesterday I ran the line for the 1st XI. The first half was problem free, but soon into the second half I “felt it” again. Not as bad as last week, but still not 100% either.

Half-term beckons at the end of the week to come – looking forward to it!

Calf muscles, the apple tree and the great migration begins

So the week begun with biblical weather: dark, dark skies, strong winds and heavy, heavy rain, but by the end of the week – on Thursday in particular – change had come and we enjoyed blue skies, a bit of warmth in the sun, and a sense of promise and hope that Spring will, one day come.

The back road to Glastonbury has been closed for much of the week due to flooding, although by yesterday it was open again and I had planned to go for a run this morning and see, at first hand, the results of the flooding we have endured of late. But my plans were thwarted yesterday when 20 mins into refereeing a game (on pitch 1)I felt a spot on my right calf go “pop”. I knew instantly it wasn’t good. I tried running, but couldn’t. I seriously thought I’d have to come off, but I gave it a few minutes, walking in the area of the centre circle. By half time, it wasn’t so bad – I could run slowly, and so kept going for the rest of the game, gratefully hobbling off after 90 minutes. It stiffened up on Saturday evening as I sat with my leg up, and an ice pack strapped to my calf. Today I can certainly still “feel it”, but its not as bad as I feared. I think I will put myself “off-games” for Wednesday, but I’m hopeful that I might be able to give it a gentle run out on Saturday.

With the weather dry – and even a bit of sun at times – I took the opportunity to do a bit of work in the garden today for the first time in a long while, cutting the apple tree down a little, and thinning it out, and also taking a few branches of the buddleia down. I hope that half term – in two weeks time – offers similar weather so that I can get out and get the garden ready for spring. This is a good time for chopping things back, just before they burst into like again. Lots of my bulbs – in wooden trugg, pots and lawn, are proudly pushing through the cold soil, some snowdrops are providing flashes of white, and a couple of daffodils are threatening to flower.

I’ve begun the big migration from BT – have bought myself a new mobile sim with Lebara, £5 a month for 5GB, monthly rolling, no contract. Its working fine so far – on Tuesday it should take over my old BT number. Then I need to move Sophie & Sam off their mobile sims with BT and then change broadband.

On Friday & Saturday Becky went to Cardiff to take Sam the stuff he’d left here after Christmas, and also go house hunting with Sophie. They looked at one house, but didn’t like it; she has another to look at on Wednesday, and this one seems more promising …