… my musings on, er, "stuff"
Always a significant day in the calendar – the flowering of the first daffodil.
Today was that day, 15th February 2018. Two brave, plucky yellow souls open to the sun that shone today.
It was a warm, dry end to 2017, but has been cold and wet since Christmas. With the daffodils come hope, although just as one swallow doesn’t make a summer, two daffodils don’t make a spring.
Track of the week 11/2/18
Given the weather we’ve had today, I thought that this may be appropriate for TotW. Sun and showers – when the sun has shone it has warmed the skin, but when it’s rained, boy has it rained, and that rain has been cold.
Pic of the week 11/2/18
For the last six weeks, I’ve been watching Derry Girls – a “sitcom” about a group schoolgirls (& James) in Derry in circa late eighties, early nineties. I’ve enjoyed it, its been funny with a hefty dollop of nostalgia lumped in (although it has, on occasion, niggled a little, when some period details were wrong.) It was recommended to me (via the radio) as the best thing since the Inbetweeners. I can see why the comparison is made, but they are really apples & oranges: The Inbetweeners was/is laugh out loud funny, interlaced with painful cringing, Derry Girls was a little be lighter, a little bit softer, but still funny, still worth watching and still worth immortalising on this blog!
The pic of the week this week has nothing to do with Derry Girls. Yesterday we (Becky, Sophie & I) went to Reading University for an applicant’s day. Up far too early, the sun began to rise as we headed for the A303, but later on it just rained, cold, cold grey rain. Anyway, a useful day – looks like Sophie will make Reading her firm choice, to read BSc Economics, therefore needing ABB. Also, very impressed by the prospect of a year “out” working in industry in her 3rd year. Another chapter in all our lives will soon open.
Track of the week 4/2/18
Have been listening to this quite a bit of late.
Perhaps I like it as I am now justified and ancient (although I don’t drive an ice cream van.)
Pic of the week 4/2/18
So January has been and gone.
To me, it went quite quickly, which is no bad thing as it is always a cold, dark month with little to commend it. The mornings seemed dark long into the day and the evenings not much better. February can be a cruel month – and we are set for a cold snap – but at least it is now light at 5pm, and that makes a big difference. The couple of pics above show that the garden is beginning to wake up and showing signs of hope, signs that one day, warmth and sunshine will return.
I began the month feeling slow, sluggish and fat – I end the month fitter and thinner. Today (OK Feb, not Jan) I ran 9K, clocking up a PB at each of the major markers:
5K 22m 45s, 6K 27m 18s, 7K 31m 50s, 8K 36m 27s, 9K 41m 05s
Those times don’t come from being idle: in January I ran 57.14Km in 4h 33 mins, I’ve kept to my goal of swimming each week and in Jan I swam 264 lengths – that’s 8.8Km – and I’ve spun for three and three quarters of an hour.
My weight is beginning to come back under control. I’ve taken Friday as my weigh day, it had been down to 12 stone 9 and .75, but was up to 12 10.75 this Friday, but that was a blip as I did an extra duty on Thursday evening (and therefor tucked into a snickers bar at 10.45 pm)
So only a week ’til half term – always a major milestone when one can sense that the back of winter has been broken as the days lengthen and warm.
Track of the week 28/1/18
No particular reason for this week’s TotW, but a great oldie (just like me!)
Pic of the week 28/1/18
When the new year dawned, I hit the roads, but slowly. I knew Christmas, and my pre-Christmas injury (pulled left hamstring) would have taken their toll, but I must confess that I was surprised as to how slow I was running.
Four weeks on, and that has significantly changed. Today I ran 9K (my typical 7K loop, with the extra 1K from the Hinhayes loop added on, but continued onto the High Street to push it up to 9K) and I ran those 9Ks quickly.
To be fair, last week I was fairly swift around 8Ks, but today I logged PBs for 7K, 8K and 9K:
I’m impressed with myself. Next step must be to start making 9K the standard Sunday run (although, ironically, shan’t be running for next two Sundays: refereeing next week, Legends game the week after) and then push it up to 10K.
And the pic of the week? Nothing to do with running, but Becky’s been painting the bathroom. Today we ordered the lino, so in three weeks time, it’ll all be done.
Track of the week 21/1/18
Always liked this. I think it marks the passing of my engagement with the “current” music scene – much music from the early nineties onwards is a void to me and I have tended to look backwards from about this point.
Of course, Scouting for Girls have proven to be the exception to that rule and I was not deaf to Oasis, Blur, Pulp etc., but much after this song and I would start to lose the chronology of what came when.
Anyway, not a bad track.
Pic of the week 21/1/18
It’s been a wet old week, and today it has not stopped raining at all.
What do you do with grey January days? Not a lot. Get up, go to work, come home. At least the evenings are noticeably lightening – on a bright day its still light at 5pm, but on another, when the clouds cover the skies, its just damp and gloomy.
Went for a run today in the incessant rain. Perhaps it was the desire to get back into the dry and warmth, but I’m covering the k’s quickly – did 8Km in 37min 00 secs, a personal best. Chuffed with that.
Was due to referee today, but the game was called off yesterday – must admit I was pleased about that. I enjoy refereeing, but it takes up too much of my Sunday when it is my only day off. Have settled into of a nice routine of getting up, running, stretching, showering and then enjoying my breakfast, before just loafing for the rest of the day (which will include reading & snoozing in the afternoon) Have just been appointed to ref a cup game in a couple of weeks, which I’ll do, but don’t think I’ll offer many/any other working week Sundays to the whistle.
On a side note, just been out to do the compost and noticed that some of the daffodils are starting to show their flower heads. Still sometime ’till they’ll bloom, but a sign of promise of what is to come. So here’s a pic of some daff’s in the house:
Track of the week 14/1/18
Another one from the spinning stable. Heard a snippet of this track on some spinning mash up on Friday night’s session.
A great bit of early ’90’s House.
Glad I’ve been true to myself – nearly fifty and still pumping away to tracks like this on a Friday night whilst clad in day-glo lyrca (albeit pumping the pedals on a static bike alongside 12 other middle aged men and women fighting the battle of the bulge, more like the winter of our discontent than the second summer of love.) 🙂 🙂 🙂