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January 2, 2018

2017 – A year in pictures

Some of my favourite pictures from the year just gone, in vague chronological order.

Sophie passed her driving test

I built a new deck

The Nissan Almera died, so we replaced it with a convertible mini. Practical? No. Cool? Yes.

dots and spots closed

I took up yoga (loving it)

Finished fourth in my predictor league

The weather wasn’t always wonderful, but the garden grew

Love this picture – but from ’87 not 2017, but came bout because of …

… our 30 year reunion.

A day in the sun at Burton Bradstock with Becky

… and a few days en-famile in Cornwall.

The birthday boy (age 15) is now taller than me

My Legends team finally won a game (and drew another!)

Sophie turned 18

Hard to remember them both as young as this

A warm, dry, colourful autumn …

… and I discovered napping as a new hobby.

December 31, 2017December 31, 2017

2017 – How did I do?

So how did I do?

At the start of the year, here, I listed my goals, aims and targets for the year. 2016 now draws to a close – time to review how I did …

Run 300Km – a much lower target than I set myself last year, but not a target I met, completing 296 Km in 2016. Should be do-able despite the demands on my time from other physical pursuits (swimming, spinning, referee-ing and who knows what for 2017) Smashed it. Ran 390 Km, running for 1 day 7 hours and 15 minutes. My only disappointment was I didn’t break the 400K mark. Was all set to do so, when on the Friday before Christmas, I tore/pulled/tweaked my hamstring refereeing and I haven’t been able to run since.
Run up the Tor. In the summer of 2016, when I was regularly running, I set myself this goal for 2017: to run from home to the tor, run all the way up the tor, and then run back again. This is a tough ask, particularly as I am not running as much as I did last year. Would be a real achievement to do so. If I don’t write it down, it wont happen. Think I’ll have to target the summer hols to do it, if I’m going to do it. Not even close. Didn’t even contemplate this once during the year. Perhaps a goal to keep on the back burner?
Swim 150Km (4,500) lengths. Toyed with putting in a higher total – I did 200Km, 6000 lengths in 2016, but don’t think I’ll be swimming as much this year as last, so have given myself a very achievable target to ensure that I do make it. Swam much less this year, probably falling into fourth place as activity of choice, after referring, running, and spinning. However, still managed to swim 2244 lengths – 74.8Km – over the course of 1 day, 4 hours and 15 mins.
Gardening: 2016 was all about the structure of the garden, this year I hope to focus more on the planting. So this year I want to: plant raspberry canes & rhubarb, grow and eat runner beans, peas, courgette and onions and grow some sweet peas and sunflowers. Raspberry canes and rhubarb planted, along with beans, peas & courgettes which were all grown and eaten. No sweet peas or sunflowers, though. Need to make them a target for next year. Built the deck where the old summer house was, really enjoyed the garden this year: creating it, tending it and just sitting in it.
Refereeing – enter the promotion programme from Level 7 to Level 6. Promotion year runs from March to Feb so won’t be able to clinch promotion in 2017, but hopefully will be a significant way down the track. Decided against entering the promotion scheme, it would have been difficult to have got in the required 20 Open Age games as I’m not normally available on Saturdays. Refereed circa 60 games and 7 as Assistant Referee. Did a couple of cup finals. Have continued to enjoy it, but not so sure I want to give up every term time Sunday to the whistle, have started to limit my availability.
Weight: before the Christmas excesses, I would say that my “normal” weight was 12 stone 7 (today its up around 12 stone 12). I aim to be back at 12 stone 7 within 3 weeks and establish 12 stone 6 as my “normal” weight (normal weight: allows a swing of 3 lbs each way, so range between 12 3 and 12 9 following a festival of feasting) Weight has crept up, and needs to be kept in check. Quoting my TwiXmas weight as 13 stone 0 and my long term weight in the last few months of the year was 12 stone 9.
My maths blog: this was an aim I failed last year, and want to rectify again. Write at least twice a month on my maths blog – A Maths Teacher Writes Not bad – 15 posts this year, so not twice a month, but a good healthy number of posts.

Another successful year. Other key highlights from 2017 include:

Attending school reunion. Hard to believe it was 30 years since we left, was great to reconnect with so many from my formative years. A highlight of the year. Blogged about it here.
Sophie passed her driving test in March
Becky shut up shop, closing her dots and spots business in April
The silver Nissan Almera died, and we replaced it with the soft top Mini – our mid-life crisis car.
No mention of spinning in my targets for 2017, but I pushed the pedals for just shy of two days: 1 day 23 hours and 15 mins in the saddle, burning a total of 38,901 calories.
YOGA – took up yoga this year. One of the best things I have done in a long while. I’m far more supple than I was this time last year and, despite being a big cynic when I first took to the mat, I’m beginning to see the benefits of its relaxation and mindfulness. Meditate on that!

October 23, 2017

Near Death Experience

I’d been cleaning windows. I’d done all the ground floor and then decided to tackle the upper floors.

I got out my trusty old ladders, but they wouldn’t get me anywhere near the upper windows. So I got out the long ladders I bought a year or so ago.

I’ve always felt they were a little flimsy and so, with the feet firmly braced against the shed base plinth, I gingerly mad an ascent. The higher I got, the safer they felt, so back down I came to collect my cloth & sponge.

Up I went – I felt as safe as houses at the top as I washed Sophie’s windows. Then back down to get the squeegee cloth, back up and finish the job. Rock solid at the top, I did contemplate the embarrassment of being another statistic, should I fall from the ladder. But job done, all was good and I began my descent.

A few rungs from the bottom, I felt something give and the top of the ladder slide down the wall.

I hoped off from the safe height of a foot or two and did what I could to arrest the falling ladder – didn’t want it going through the French doors (it didn’t.)

On examination, the ladder had just buckled at one rung. I could have been another statistic, but fortunately I wasn’t.

I think I’ll buy an extension pole to clean the rest of the windows.

September 24, 2017

Shutting the doors

Pic of the week 24/9/17

Marathon runners talk of hitting the wall. As a teacher, I think I “hit the wall” this week – week 3.

Its always a tough time. The holidays suddenly seem a long time ago and the adrenaline fueled excitement of the first couple of weeks has past, leaving only tiredness, dampness and darkening evenings.

Wednesday I woke up whacked, it was a tough day – my wall. But you plough on through, and that evening I had my epiphany on a yoga mat and since then everything’s been good. In fact, I’d say better than good.

We now begin to enjoy the rhythm of routine as life settles down for the long march until half-term. There is certainly something comforting from order and repetition as the days shorten, a sense of starting to hunker down for the dark, cold months to come. I came home from spinning on friday to find the sliding door firmly slid shut, surely an important landmark in the changing of the seasons.

September 17, 2017September 17, 2017

The Battle Lost

Pic of the week 17/9/17

The battle is lost. It was inevitable, the only question was how long I would hold out before capitulation. And capitulation came today. I turned the heating on.

Weather wise, its not been a good summer, and any hint of an Indian summer was swiftly washed away by one of the many, many rain showers we’ve endured since the start of September. The evenings have begun to become a little chilly, so this afternoon the heating was clicked to “on.” Next summer’s warmth seems a long way away.

(Still wearing my shorts, though!)

June 18, 2017June 18, 2017

Scorchio!

Pic of the week 18/6/17

Its been hot, hot, hot this weekend with temperatures soaring into the high twenties and eclipsing Majorca.

Its been wonderful (& father’s day too) – spent all day outside in the garden and, at 8 pm, its still to hot to write much, so only a short post from me.

The heat is set to last – let’s hope so!

February 12, 2017February 12, 2017

Minty Fresh!

Pic of the week 12/2/17

A successful couple of days! I’ve got my ‘puter back up and running.

A couple of weeks ago, my trusty desktop PC started taking ages to load, before grinding to a complete halt. Long story short, I was going to whip the hard drive out and see if I could retrieve anything from it, but before I did that, I decided to fire it up again to see if I could get it running. It did, but all my old data was lost and it was slower than an asthmatic ant at an athletics meet.

Since the computer failed, I’ve given some thought to what I actually do with a PC these days and concluded that what I needed was email, the internet (most stuff I now do is online) and remote access to my school PC. I wasn’t sure about the latter, but I knew I could get the rest from linux, so I figured it was worth seeing if I could get old faithful to run using that, rather than windows.

Rather than have the faff of downloaded and burning to disc or memory stick a copy of Linux, I bought a copy of Linux Mint from Amazon prime on Friday evening. It arrived before lunch on Saturday, and now, Sunday evening, I’m now up and running and happy as Larry. I’ve even just worked out how to Remote Desktop to my school PC, so I have all that I want, although it’ll be Open Office for me now rather than the Microsoft suite – this may cause some issues, but I suspect they can be resolved. The only snag I currently have is that I wasn’t able to upload and image to my blog from Linux ‘puter, I had to use the laptop to do so – strange? One to ponder on.

Other news

‘Tis now half term (hooray!) Ref’d a game down at Strode yesterday and played for Millfield Legends v Oakhill today in a friendly veterans game. Really enjoyed it, despite losing 4-1. Had a (longish) spell in goal, in which we kept a clean sheet (Stu was absent – with him in goals I think it would have been a very different score). Was a cold day, but great fun.

Have just updated the blog to Twenty Seventeen Theme – I do rather like it, plus the big header photo has a stripey cactus just like mine!

January 22, 2017

Stuff

Pic of the week 22/1/17

A bit of an odd week, characterised by the demise of my computer from Wednesday.

It wouldn’t fire up in the morning and I left for school with that nagging away at me. Was able to pop home at lunchtime and managed to get it going, so I saved most of the files that I thought would be important onto a memory stick. Once it was up anad running I should have left it, but each night I shut it down, and each morning it took longer to get going. On Friday evening I tried restarting it again as it woudln’t connect to the internet (would connect to the router, though) and its never started again. It is an ex-PC, it has shuffled of this mortal coil, its pushing up the daisies etc. All a bit of a faff, but I’m less bothered about it than I thought I might be.

I now have the laptop fired up (with PC keyboard and mouse) – all I really use the ‘puter for is emails, surfing the net and a bit of Word & Excel, which the laptop is handling fine. Remember all my logins and passwords, however, that is a right royal pain in the postierior.

Ref’ed on Pitch 1 yesterday, a first for me, and a bit of an honour! 2nd XI (although boosted by approx 5 1st XI players who needed game time) v a side from University of West of England. Enjoyed it, was hard work, both physically and mentally, but I enjoyed the challenge and felt I did a good job. Today I reffed a cup game in the U16 Yeovil Youth Shield – Wessex U15 v Avishayes Combe. Thoroughly enjoyed it – a beautiful sunny afternoon, good football although Wessex ended up 8 – 2 winners. Flattered them a little, but another really good game and great to be out in the sunshine.

The pic above shows the hint of spring to come – its been quite a pleasant January thus far: pretty dry and occasionally sunny. Although I’m sure February will bare its teeth, with the evenings getting lighter one does begin to hope that Spring is now somewhere on the distant horizon.

January 15, 2017

Cactus

Pic of the week 15/1/17

I bought this cactus in mid-December from IKEA.

I rather like it, and it seems to be thriving in my new room. Thought it’d be a good idea to have a pic of it now, so I can compare it in the future.

Fortunately I am better at looking after plants than I am at taking pictures.

December 30, 2016December 30, 2016

2016 – That was the year that was

The year began with us living on a building site – although the main structure was up at the start of the year, there was still much to be done:

I would say it was the start of the Easter holidays that the build was finished – although there was still much to do. If 2015 was characterised by the build, 2016 will be remembered for re-structuring the garden. I built the deck:

I removed the side panel, took out a lot of bushes and built a shed:

I tackled the front hedge (in several goes!)

… and took down the old summerhouse:

Sophie took, and passed (and excelled) in her GCSEs

I did, and passed, my referee’s course, and “caught the bug”

Sam continued to grow. And grow. And grow.

We “did” the sitting room – I laid the floor, Becky painted & styled everything:

Taking down the stone fireplace ... — Taking down the stone fireplace …

I swam a lot, I ran a lot and I took up spinning. All this led to me being the fittest I’ve been for years, and also the leanest I’ve been for years:

And Christmas came around – fun family time, gathering of the clans before Christmas, just the four of us on the big day itself:

The Peabody Massive, December '16 — The Peabody Massive, December ’16

Despite all the turmoil in the wider world (Brexit, Trump, seemingly endless celebrate deaths) 2016 was a good year in Peabody Towers, who knows what 2017 will bring?