Author: Jeff

This week I have been very tired. I’ve also had a bit of a cough and a cold although its a bit of a chicken and egg situation – did I fall ill because I was so tired, or was I so tired because I was ill? Anyway, the good news is is that I have crested the hump and feel 100% better today, and much more rested, in part because, due to the continued and unrelenting rain, all fixtures were cancelled yesterday, so I had the afternoon off, was able to come home, and enjoyed an hour long snooze. I had another 45 minute nap today, and feel better for that, too.

Wednesday was a rare day of no rain, and by the afternoon we enjoyed blue skies and a breeze. Becky took the opportunity to get three loads of washing done and I ran the line at Kingweston, enjoying the change in the weather, and hoping of better things to come. But come the next day, it was wet, grey and miserable again.

Given how tired I’ve been, I wasn’t planning on running today, but given I did no exercise yesterday, and was feeling human once again after a restful day, I decided to head out this morning. Wish I hadn’t. I had just about reached the Red Brick building, one and a half k’s in, when I felt a painful “pop” in my right calf, and pulled up. I managed to hobble and slowly run my way back, but my run was over, and I’ve been hurting all day. Oh dear!

Anyway, one week – the wind down to half term begins.

Yesterday was my Year 10 Formal Dinner – the pic is of me after Becky and I had added the balloons, but before the event, which passed off, on the whole, without major incident. Glad to get it done, at the end of a tiring week a in a tough time of term – end of week 4 in the first half the Spring term. I will admit I am tired now (because of the cumulative four weeks, not just last night’s event) and wondering how I can manage myself through the next two weeks.

And how it has rained. I got lucky with my fixture on Wednesday afternoon – we started a few minutes late, (oppo arrived late) just as the rain stopped, and it remained dry for the afternoon. Not so lucky yesterday, it hailed just before we kicked off, and then rained throughout the first half. Shouldn’t have really played – standing water all over the pitch, very wet, very muddy, and very cold. And then I compounded my woes today. Earlier in the week I had agreed to referee Ashcott U16s on Strode astro. Its has pretty much rained all day, and was raining when we kicked off, and rained throughout. It was heavy, cold, rain. It was a good game, and I enjoyed it, but would have preferred to not get so cold and wet. (And Sod’s law, within 20 minutes of blowing the final whistle, the rain had stopped, the skies cleared and a weak February sun began to shine.)

This morning I hit upon a new New Year’s Resolution – albeit a month late. I’m going to start listening to more albums on Spotify, rather than just whatever it serves me up. Began to day by listening to Sound Affects by the Jam. Some others to listen to in the future:

Setting Sons by The Jam

More Specials – The Specials

You can’t hide your love forever – Orange Juice

Love – Aztec Camera

Purple Rain – Prince

I would continue to describe the weather as wet, it has been wet for much of the week, and today, after grey start (in which I ran), drizzle has turned to incessant, continued rain, but we have had a couple of days respite from the rain, in which to hope of better to come. Yesterday (Saturday) was particularly good and, whilst not wall to wall blue sky, we saw quite a bit of sunshine. Refereeing an early (1pm) kick off I did, at times feel warm running around in my four layers, and the sun on your skin. As I left, and headed home, I would even go as far as to say that it was spring like, and the fact that it stayed light until nearly 5pm reinforced this feeling of hope of better to come.

Friday was also a pleasant day (although by the evening it turned – yes, you’ve guessed it – wet, and it poured overnight) and Becky got these three photos.

I do like this one. I imagine that I am the bird with its wings out stretched, soaking up the sun and, perhaps, saying to the world “look at me” whilst the one on the right on Becky looking on with a certain disdain: “what is he doing?” she thinks, with an almost imperceptible shake of the head.

and the pic above was taken on a frosty Wednesday morning.

Its January, so other than the weather, not too much to write about. I think I’ve finally shaken off my cold, and I enjoyed long snooze (in excess of an hour) this afternoon. At this time of year, there is little more to life than that!

So its been back to school this week, and after a few days, the holidays seemed some time in the past – and the next break a long way into the future. In the latter part of the week, I have succumbed to a “little” cold: at times a bit of a sore throat, runny nose, and just not feeling 100%. Consequently, I decided to not go for a run today (choosing instead to go for a hair cut!)

The weather has been either cold or wet. Predominantly cold, but Thursday was wet and miserable, and since mid-morning today it has been grey, bleak and drizzly. Yesterday we woke to clear skies and frosted cars, and I congratulated myself on having put paper on the Micra the previous night, as, on most Saturdays, I drive to work and then on to Kingweston for the afternoon. Whilst using the wipers (before heading off) to clear the windscreen, the wipers stuck at the vertical position. I could still her the wiper motor running, I suspected the linkage had popped of the ball joint. I spent a happy hour this morning removing the wiper arms and scuttle panel to reveal my diagnosis was correct. I have popped the linkage back on, but have also bought a clip of eBay to fashion a more permanent repair – when that arrives I’ll fit it for added peace of mind and longevity.

Happy New Year!

Thursday saw the new year dawn cold and clear, a little warmer than the day before which had been very, very cold! Sam spent new years eve in Bristol (and returned home yesterday – Saturday) Sophie was at home with Becky and I – we watched a film (Wake up Dead man (Knives are out 3) that rather enjoyed, but I don’t think anyone else did. Sophie then returned to Cardiff on Thursday morning (1 Jan), Sam has trudged of reluctantly back to work today and I am back in tomorrow morning, and Becky invigilates tomorrow afternoon. It seems a long time (because it is!) since I was last at school.

Goals, aims and ambitions for 2026

Looking back at my blog from last year, I didn’t make any resolutions, or cite any aims or goals. Reading through it, I was becoming increasingly fed up with work, stating that something had to change. Well, that change came in the form of a change of year group, and the last term (autumn 25) was much better than Spring and Summer ’25, and I hope that this positivity continues.

My big goal for the year is to learn Italian. I have already started, picking up the basics, and am challenging myself to do some Italian study each day – even if it is only a few minutes each day.

Running – I finished last year/ started this year in a better place than this time last year. I am enjoying my running again and finding it easier than for much of last year. Encouragingly, in today’s 7K run, I ran four of those k’s in sub 5 minutes, something I have not done for a long time. So my goal is to run 400Km this year.

Weight – I end the Christmas period with the scales just tipping into the 13 stone mark – this needs to change. By Feb half term I would like this down to 12 stone 6 and the stabilize at or below this value.

Refereeing – I am enjoying that again, too and want to continue with it, finding the right balance between doing non-school games, and having enough time for myself.

That’s probably it for aims and ambitions – nothing grand or lofty!

Yesterday evening, at circa 4.15pm, the moon began to rise from behind the Tor, quite a sight to behold, and worth recording:

So Wednesday was Spotify unwrapped day, when you get to find out what you’ve been listening to all year. A new metric this year was your listening age, and I came in at 62, a little over my actual age. (Becky is the baby in the house – having spent a lot of time listening to Benson Boon she has a listening age of 19) I have been listening to quite a bit of late seventies music, and it seems that Diana Ross was both my favourite artist, and sung my most played song:

In part, I suspect this is due to my running playlist – anything on that is going to get a fair few number of plays,

I’m pleased that I listened to fair few different genres – I’m not completely stuck in my ways!

That is one of the dangers of a service like Spotify – you can easily get locked into a loop of similar sounds and songs and unwittingly narrow down your listening habits.

Curiously, Sam’s consumption has fallen a little, although I still think we probably get good collective value from Spotify, despite the price continuing to edge ever upwards.

Riding the coat tails of Spotify unwrapped, YouTube have created a similar service called recap. It seems that, in the main, I watch aviation videos, car repairs, learning languages, and more recently, exploring my pension.

But, it seems, the music I listen to on YouTube is a little different from Spotify:

In other news, term finished this week (hooray!), other than Wednesday – which was a beautiful sunny day, and I enjoyed refereeing a good U16A cup fixture – the weather has been pretty wet.