Category: Pic of the week

Pic of the week 24/9/23

So last night it was a trip up to Cardiff to see Deacon Blue. It was, needless to say, brilliant.

It was in the Cardiff Arena, Becky had gone up the day before and stayed with Sophie before meeting her old school friend Mel, and her husband Ade,  I went up on Saturday afternoon and met them at Zizi’s for a meal

Deacon Blue were their own support act – coming on at 8pm to play a 40 minute acoustic set, this was good, better than any support act you’ve never heard of would have been. Then after a twenty minute break they came back for the main event, playing for just short of 2 hours and belting out all the hits. For me, the second of four encore songs – Dignity – was the highlight of the evening, a brilliant song belted out with passion by the crowd and band together.

A really fantastic evening, was so worth going (and made easier by staying at Sophie’s flat overnight – meaning in bed by midnight-ish, a good night’s sleep, breakfast and then a leisurely trip home)

Bloods

In other important news this week. I had my blood test on Wednesday and the results have come in via my app,  Slightly mixed feelings – although probably more because I don’t know how to interpret my results. On the one hand, my HDL level is up to 1.4 – this is the good cholesterol and needs to above a 1.0, so this is good, and my HDL ratio of 4.4 is also good, but it seems that my “bad” cholesterol is still too high, although it has come down significantly. Don’t know if I will get called to see the doc, will have to wait and see.

Pic of the week 10/9/23

Typical! After a pretty rubbish summer, weather wise, it was back to school on Monday to searing temperatures – it has been a record September for consecutive days over 30 degrees!

The pic above was my “back to school” photo on the Sunday before term started (I had to go in for a “Meet & greet” for new Y10s and their parents.)

It has been a busy, busy week with me barely able to catch my breath due to both the weather and my workload. Have enjoyed it, however, although I was glad when I came home after the Y10 BBQ on Saturday evening with the week “done” and a chance to put my feet up and have a breather.

Annoyingly, woke on Sunday to damp humid conditions – it didn’t rain whilst I ran, but boy was I hot & sweaty – but later in the morning we had thunder and heavy showers, although the rain did clear and the sun come out allowing me an hour or two sat in the garden, before it was back into school for dining room duty. Does it ever end …?! Looking forward to a normal week to come.

Becky was away for much of the week in Amsterdam, with Sophie – picked because Sophie didn’t want to go away in the height of the summer! I think they’ve had a nice time – lots of photos with plenty of blue sky.

Pic of the week 3/9/23

A few days ago, the calm tranquillity of the garden was shattered by the not unwelcome singing of a robin. We often have plenty of birdsong in the garden, but it is absent over the summer months (this is a known phenomenon, with food sources much more abundant, the birds abandon the garden). And so when we heard this robin signing loudly – and it was loud – it made you stop, listen and look. Watching it today, its be flitting between our tree and next doors Rowan tree, singing loudly, marking its territory. Summer is coming to an end.

Like all summers, its been a good holiday – Croatia was definitely my highlight, the poor weather the low,  On a personal level, I have lost a bit of weight – now nudging 12st 6 on the scales – and my running and overall fitness has improved, today clocking in my quickest 7K time (33:32) for some while. In fact, checking my records, you need to go back to August ’21 for a faster time (although I was regularly doing 10K, not 7K, then; and I’ve enjoyed swimming and spinning, generally being active.

But in true typical UK weather fashion, after weeks of rain and chill, the sun has come out and September is proving to be hot!  Back to school proper tomorrow, lets see what the new year brings.

Pic of the week

With a sense of inevitability, the latter weeks of August always see a gradual wind back up to work and, with GCSE results on Thursday, the middle of the week saw me back in school on a couple of occasions.  Sadly, the holidays are definitely winding down.

In what has been a bad summer, weather wise, this week has seen a couple of nice days and I have taken the opportunity to sit outside and read, as well as do a bit of pottering in the garden. It (the garden) does somewhat resemble a new year 7 student who has been given a close trim for the start of school. There are still some patches of hefty, verdant growth, but areas are far more spartan than they have been for years (this is a good thing)

This morning the yellow spider in the pic was spotted on a sunflower in the back garden. Apparently it is a … ” Yellow Sac Spider according to Google. Common in the UK, a beneficial predator in agricultural fields, also known to be mildly venomous, with bites causing itching and swelling”

The sunflowers, front and back, continue to bloom despite the lack of sunshine, I wonder how long they will hang on for? I’m not holding out much hope for a glorious late summer, I fear an early autumn will be descending upon us this year.

Pic of the week 2/7/23

School’s out for summer!

The term, for me, sort of fizzled out (not that I am complaining) – with most year 11s finishing their two weeks before the end of term, and all the week before, I’ve been on easy street as term drew to a close, but it was still great when it finally, officially, ended. To have the long summer hols stretching out in front of me is something to look forward.  I’ve kept myself busy and active so far: spinning on Thursday, swimming on Friday, Park Run yesterday and an 8K run today, with the intention of swimming tomorrow and spinning on Tuesday before I “let it all go” on holiday!  I’ve also spent some time pottering and tidying up in the garden.  The first sunflower has burst into bloom, which is nice to see, but now want them to slow down for a couple of weeks whilst we are away!

On the rat front, they have been consuming quite a bit of poison and I restocked all the blocks on Friday, but nothing more has been nibbled – beginning to hope that, perhaps, they’ve done their job …?

Had a doctors appointment on Tuesday to discuss my cholesterol – not really sure it was helpful or useful, he didn’t really know why I was their and needed me to him my results.  We then chatted about cholesterol for a bit, he suggested what I was doing was the right thing and wants to do a full blood test in September/October to see if the changes to my diet have had a positive effect.

Off to Majorca on Wednesday, so no post next week …