Category: Pic of the week

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War in Ukraine

Pic of the week 27/2/22

With no home matches this Saturday, I wasn’t needed to referee so finished the day a little earlier. It was a beautiful day and, as I arrived home, Becky – who had at last tested negative after two weeks of positive tests – was about to set of for a walk, so I joined her.  Parking at the Hood layby, we walked down into Compton Dundun, looped round the village and back to the car.  It was only a 40 minute romp, but it was lovely to get out in the sunshine and se definite signs of spring on its way. A real treat.

Today, after swimming (I pulled/tweaked my hamstring last Saturday, so haven’t run since – could possibly have run today, but decided to give it a bit longer to heal) I spent the rest of the morning in the garden – another beautiful day with blue skies and warm sun – when you were in it. I continued to tidy the area by the compost bins, and then gave the buddleia a significant chopping back, only stopping when the car could fit no more for a tip run.

And yet the dawning of spring is marred by conflict in Ukraine.  Earlier this week, Russia launched an invasion into its neighbour. It is bloody and brutal, full on shooting war in Europe. The only positive is is that it doesn’t appear to be going the way Putin planned it, the resolve of Ukraine has been steadfast, Russia has become a pariah state, the west is unifying around the need to support Ukraine and, I suspect, in the long term this will mark the end of Putin and weaken Russia as a global player – it has been shown that if you stand up to them,  they can be beaten. However, the price Ukrainians (and, to be fair, many of the Russian soldiers – mere conscripts who are not sure why they are there) will be high. I think we are living through an event as globally important as the fall of the Soviet Bloc in 1989, 9/11 and the Covid pandemic. The world will be different a year from now.

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Plague House!

Pic of the week 20/2/22

It was, perhaps, inevitable. Since the pandemic arrived two years ago, none of the four of us have had Covid, until now.

Last Sunday, Becky started snuffling, and blaming me for giving her my cold. On Monday morning she did a Covid test and it was positive.  She has since tested daily, and each day the two lines appear, returning a positive result.

So that scuppered our plans to meet Sam in Bristol on Tuesday, but he also did a test on Monday which came back positive.  So both Becky & Sam confined to barracks for the week.  Sophie & I (Sophie came home on the Friday before Becky tested positive) tested daily, but negative.  I suspect that Becky may have picked up the illness when she went to the theatre (with Sophie!) on Saturday 12th Feb.  Sophie returned to Reading on Thursday, but then, today, Sunday, tested positive.

I’ve kept my distance from Becky, been sleeping in Sam’s room, and the house is well ventilated so, one week on, I’m quietly confidence I will escape its clutches. However, if I do fall ill, not sure what I’ll have to do as tomorrow our idiot Prime Minister Johnson (the worst PM of my lifetime) is set to abandon all Covid protocols …

We wouldn’t have been able to do anything on Friday anyway as we were battered by Storm Eunice. At least we new it was coming, we were in a Red Warning zone and my, were the winds strong, starting a little later than predicted at circa 9am and lasting the morning and into early afternoon.  Next door (down the hill) had  a few ridge tiles blown off their roof, narrowly missing the Corsa (which sailed through its MOT this week – I had put two new tyres on the front, and new wiper blades – all it needed was a drivers side track rod end) and my recycling centre got blown over (fixed it yesterday), however given the damage that was done across the South West, I think we got off lightly.  Is now windy once again, but nothing as bad as Friday.

Storm Eunice – the aftermath

I have done a lot in the garden this week – plenty of cutting back.  A good time to do it before all the new growth kicks in.  All the while I’ve been outside I’ve enjoyed the clumps of daffodils that have sprouted in my lawn.

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Hall

Pic of the week 13/2/22

We’ve decided to have the hall re-tiled.  Becky has found the tiles she (we!) like, and a man to come and lay them. On Friday he announced that he was ready to come and do them – perhaps a little sooner than we had anticipated.

Anyway, I spent much of the weekend lifting the carpet, underlay,  gripper rods and lino from the utility room and taking it to the tip, and then giving the floor a good clean,  Today we ordered the tiles (circa £600) – will probably come later this week – and then hopefully get them laid the week after, so exciting times.

Relapse.

Having said how I’d got over my cold in last week’s blog post, it came back with a vengeance. Perhaps swimming on Monday evening was not such a good idea, on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday I felt pretty grotty; by Friday I seemed to be over the worst and that does seem to have persisted into the weekend – not having to work (am now on half term) has probably helped.

First daffodil.

Got home earlyish from work on Friday (Half term began at 3pm) and spotted a single, yellow daffodil flower in a trug at the bottom of the garden.  The first of the year! Just as one swallow doesn’t make a summer, one daffodil doesn’t mean Spring has arrived, but with its appearance, along with a number of others showing promise and lighter evenings (’til, say, 5.30pm?) one does begin to hope that the worst is over, and better days will come (although it looks like halve term is going to be grey, damp & windy, rather than filled with blue sky and sunshine, which is a shame.)

 

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Sore Throat

Pic of the week 6/2/22

This week I have been suffering with a sore throat.  It first manifested itself on Saturday last week (29th Jan) which coincided with me being pinged by Track & Trace as a close contact, so I initially thought “well, this is it …” but I’ve tested daily and all have come back clear.  So just a good old fashioned sore throat, five weeks into term.

I didn’t swim on Monday as it was really quite sore, on the right side of my throat, and also manifesting itself as a little bit of earache.  As the week went on, it swapped to the left side, was still quite sore on Wednesday and Thursday. I woke up on Saturday and it had pretty much gone by then and today has been fine as well.

The pic of the week is a today’s “Wordle.” I began playing this game in the Christmas holidays, and have got Becky into it, who got the children to start doing it too. I like the way that it is one puzzle a day – something to challenge on a daily basis, but not something all consuming.  I wonder if I’ll still be playing it on a daily basis when I re-read my year’s posts at the end of the year, or I’ll be going “Wordle, oh yeah, I’d forgotten about that.”

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They think its all over …

Pic of the week 30/1/22

… it could be now.

Way back in September I decided that I wasn’t going to referee on “my” Sunday league anymore – a combination of getting fed up of low level dissent, a lack of respect and appreciation of what I did, and the time it took up on my precious day off each week.

On Thursday I got a text from Rich at New Forresters: they hadn’t been assigned a ref this week, and would I do them a favour and do the game. I agreed.  It was foggy as I left Street, but the air cleared by Ashcott and beuatiful blue skies made me think it wasn’t such a bad thing to do.

But 5 mins into the game, I was reminded why I packed it in.  The opposition keeper – who is also the manager of this team (I won’t mention it here, but you can use Full Time to find it) – started gobbing off that the nets weren’t fixed properly.  I remembered this keeper/manager – always gobby, always questioning everything and today was no different. He set the tone for his team and the morning became quite unpleasant.  I sent a player into the sin bin, then later, another two.  Things were calming down now, but then a NF player continued to argue, called him over, he was going to get binned, but continued so I gave him a red for offinabus.  He then got aggressive.  Below is my report of the incident.  I am certainly done with this league now, quite possibly refereeing altogether.

This relates to the red card/sending off of xxxxxxx, New Foresters FC Having taken the players name & number, I showed the red card to indicate the decision. The player then took a step towards me and raised his hands in my direction in a threatening manner. I felt physically threatened by his actions and took a pace back to add distance between myself and the player. Other players – from both sides – immediately stepped between the dismissed player and myself to provide a physical barrier between myself and the dismissed player, who then lowered his hands and left the pitch. Players from both sides checked that I was OK, and happy to continue with the game. After a moment to compose myself, we continued with the game. Some 10 minutes later, I became aware that the dismissed player had returned to the side of the pitch. I was aware of his presence as he shouted out a sarcastic comment about my officiating. I know the player should no longer have been pitch side, but the pitch was a public space without the facilities, structures and officials one might find at some clubs. Whilst I felt safe on the pitch, I did not feel safe to go and confront the player and ask him to leave, or ask any of his team to do the same, so the game continued with him pitch side. At the end of the game, accompanied by his manager, he did come and apologise to me on the pitch. At the time of the sending off, some of his team mates told me they would accompany me off the pitch at the end of the game, to ensure my safety. By the time the game ended, this was not needed as the threat from the player had diminished, but I am grateful for the support and assistance offered to me by the club & teammates of the dismissed player.

[Edited to add: the pic is of the amaryllis flowering, grown from bulb planted just before Christmas]

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We march on

Pic of the week 23/1/22

Whilst I have nothing significant to report, we continue to move through January at a swift pace – it seems unlikely that the coming week is the last full one of the month, but it is.

The weather has been kind – on the whole cold, but dry, with the occasional beautiful afternoon thrown in for good measure, and it looks set to stay dry for the week ahead.  The lightening evenings are now just about becoming noticeable, and they certainly do lift the spirits.  Towards the end of the week,  I did find myself looking forward to today as I get to see the garden in daylight – in November and December it matters little as there is no change, but now its quite exciting to see what is starting to emerge from winter slumber and show signs of life, giving hope that Spring will, one day, come.

Sam is still with us, he’s done some exams and has another on Wednesday, and has worked a few shifts in the prep school kitchen. On Friday he and Becky did go out walking, hence the “time lapse” photos above. Very arty!

I ran today – annoyingly my split timings were not reliable, but I did feel fit & strong today, running my 10K a whole two minutes quicker than two weeks ago.

Every day seems to bring a new drama in the political world, and one hopes that B Johnson’s reign as our worst ever Prime Minister won’t last for much longer; and it also seems that Covid may (but it is a big may) just be on the wane.

So I type this tonight with a sense of hope – there will be bumps along the way, but one does just get the sense that everything is starting to get better.

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Mid-Jan malaise

Pick of the week 16/1/22

Tomorrow is “Blue Monday” – the supposed most depressing day of the year. To be fair, I get it. This last week has been a bit of slog – I’ve been very busy (curriculum days, A level mock marking, L6 parents consultations), Becky has been recuperating from the illness (not Covid!) that knocked her for six – I did have to spend a lot of last week looking forward to today, a day that I knew would come, a day that would afford me a little bit of a rest and mark the end of a tough week.

And it dose seem surprising that we are now mid-way through January, the evenings are getting a little lighter, bulbs are popping up with the promise of better days to come.  And even better, yesterday we booked our accommodation for Naples which, although still many (12?) weeks away, is now something to look forward to.

I have enjoyed watching the Hyacinth bulbs begin to grow and flower (particularly the few that I rescued from abandoned pots outside) and to see the bulbs beginning to burst through in the lawn is great to see ( although I don’t think we’ll be getting as many as I had hopped for.  Must plant more for next year, including crocuses) And for weeks I’ve been looking, and getting increasingly despondent as I could see no sign of them, for any signs of the snowdrops I planted last year – 100 of them. I’ve spotted the first few poking their heads up – two small and distinct clumps and nowhere near the 100 I planted, but the first signs are there. The pic above is of my gardeners garters, with some alliums starting to grow through them, green shoots bringing hope in a bleak month!

I ran today – 10K, was tough (ish) but I felt strong and quite quick, tomorrow I swim.

PMA – positive mental attitude: that’s what will get me safely through blue Monday and the rest of January. Little victories: look for them, and embrace them.

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Goals, aims and targets 2022

Pic of the week 9/1/22

First up, an apology!

I’ve gotten a little out of the habit of blogging every Sunday,  I didn’t blog last week and this is my first post of the new year, 2022.

One has to hope that it will be a better year than 2021 and 2020 and we begin to see the pandemic wane to an “epidemic”. The country is currently in the throws of the omicron wave which seems to be more infectious – the number of daily cases is staggering, regularly well north of 100 thousand new cases a day – but seems to be milder, with a smaller percentage being hospitalised, needing ICU, and dying. But the sheer number of cases means that hospitalisations are high. We are back in school – I think things will have to get very bad for us to have to return to remote teaching – but we all must wear masks in lessons. Becky has been poorly the past few days, but regularl lateral flow tests have shown its now covid, it seems to be stomach related.

So what are my aspirations for the year?

The first is to get my weight under control – this is a must do. Last year I slacked off on this and was only sub 113 stone for 3 weeks of the year. Inevitably Christmas has seen me pile on the pounds and I am declaring a starting weight of 13 stone 7 ounces. I want to be sub 13 by February half term, and then maintain sub 13 (allowing the odd blip for holidays etc.)

Running: I’ve set myself the goal of running 700 km this year. Injuries permitting, that should be an achievable task, particularly as I am refereeing less now, leaving more time for running.  Did my first run of the year today (a niggling groin strain prevented me running since shortly after Christmas) 10K in sub 50 mins. I will get quicker, the important thing is that I can comfortably run 10k.

Swimming: I returned to the pool in 2021 and – disputes with lifeguards and timetabling notwithstanding – I would like to swim 100 km this year.

Other goals? Not really sure I have any. Keep learning my Spanish, travel (have three foreign trips booked: Naples, Kefalonia & Dubrovnik), keep blogging here regularly and revisit my Maths teacher blog, which I have neglected for a while.

I think I need to use 2022 to shape my new normal – hopefully the pandemic will recede, the children are both away at uni,  after a groundhog couple of years, this year opens a new chapter in my (our, Becky & I) life and this is the year to begin to design and define how we live our next 10 years.

Happy New Year!

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Christmas ’21

Pic of the week 26/12/21

So Christmas has been and gone (and I am a little late blogging about it – oops!)

We had a lovely day, the four of us at home together, our “new tradition” of “breakfast bags” continues to take hold, with us each buying everyone else a gift from a randomly picked category (Becky, inevitably, bought many extra rounds, I bought a few extras), giving enough fun and surprises to open on the day, but minimising the unwanted and unnecessary tat that would have otherwise been bought and gifted. Now major dramas or calamities on the day, just some really nice family time together. In the evening we watched Bohemian Rhapsody together – a really good film and far better than anything served up by the broadcasters.

On the previous Thursday ( 23 Dec) we’d been over to Jane’s, the first gathering of my side of the clan since Covid. Really nice to see everyone.

Today, (Thursday 30 Dec) it was the turn of Becky’s side of the family to visit us and we had a very pleasant lunch and afternoon together.

The Omicron variant is running rampant throughout the country, but these family meet-ups do give a sense that we may be emerging into the new normal and finding a new way to live with the disease.

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Staggering!

Pic of the week 19/12/21

Both bambinos are now home – Sophie came home last week, Sam returned temporarily on Sunday evening, staying with us until Thursday when he returned to Cardiff for two days, for a practical and tutorial (he had been to Weymouth at the weekend)

On Wednesday we went, en-famile – to the Newt, a very pleasant afternoon roaming the grounds together. Becky took this picture of a stag, which I think is magnificent.

I’ve not been running this week as on Monday I tweaked my groin whilst on a run, but I’ve swum a lot instead, including 60 lengths – 2K – this morning.

Omicron is now running rampant through the country, and I begin to wonder if we will have to go into a new lockdown, or at least endure some new restrictions. Time will tell. Sophie had her booster done yesterday so she’s pleased about that.