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Gorge-ous

Pic of the week 25/10/20

Its not been Barcelona, but ….

This week we should have been in Barcelona but, of course, due to Covid-19 that hasn’t happened. (Flights got cancelled at the start of September, got the money back this week.)

So, dodging between the dodgy weather, we’ve hit the hills, and its been great fun. Today we went to Ebbor Gorge (pic above and below) and I really enjoyed it, particularly the scramble up through the middle of the gorge, it certainly wasn’t just a Sunday stroll in the park. And it was lovely to have lunch in the solitude and sunshine at the top of the gorge, with the Tor in distance.

On Thursday, we went to Cheddar Gorge. Another quite demanding – but rewarding – walk. Becky particularly enjoyed the first section as she found, and photographed, many fungi. It was quite an ascent, followed by a difficult descent and then another ascent, before a more gentle walk across the top and steady decline back into town.

And on Friday we donned the walking boots again, this time as we met up with Steve and Nicky and reminisced and chatted as we walked to the weir and along the canal.

So not the warmth, bustle and culture of Barcelona, we will make it there one day, but in the meantime Covid-19 has expanded our local horizons and life is the better for that.

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‘Shrooming

Pic of the week 18/10/20

Saturday saw the start of half-term and Becky and I headed up to Stockhill Woods, Priddy, to do some “‘shrooming”. There was quite an impressive array of colours and shapes to discover and it was a really pleasant way to spend the morning, ferreting around in the woods. We did also emerge from the trees to head over to Priddy Pool – I must admit I like being out in the open – but the pool itself, and surrounding landscape, did seem somewhat devoid of life, making it a little bleak. But I did like the first opportunity to try my technical trousers and walking boots. Given that C-19 has forced us all to change how we use our leisure time (we should have been jetting off to Barcelona on Tuesday) I’m glad I’ve bought this specialist clothing – now just got to get outside and use it.

Harvested my five pumpkins this weekend. I don’t know why, but I do take pride in growing these. They are not that big, the two biggest being self-seeders from my compost heap, the other three were all from plants that we bought from the garden centre on the roundabout during lock down.

Today, I changed the oil in the Micra, although I couldn’t remove the old filter (seized in) so that’s a job still to be done.  Did enjoy doing though.

 

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Poorly

Pic of the week 11/10/20

I’ve been a little bit poorly this week.

Not Covid – I have checked the symptons carefully, I had a sore throat that then became a bit “sinusy”, leaving me feeling tired and with the occasional headache. My temperature has remained normal, I’ve only coughed on occasion (certainly not a new or persistent cough) and my sense of taste and smell has remained undimmed. Just a seasonal bug, probably due to tiredness (and dehydration? Ran on Sunday, spun on Monday, sore throat began on Monday night)

Feel a lot better now, although I did curtail this morning’s run at 7Km, my legs ached, it was hard work (despite lovely weather), I was slow, and I wasn’t really enjoying it.

Have then spent much of the rest of the day pottering in the garden – mowing the lawn, removing the runner beans and their support and planting some daffodils in their place, and general tidying. The sun has shone, and it has been a pleasant temperature – I fell I’ve had a really peaceful day today, which is probably just what I needed.

And the pic of the week?

Well that’s Farrington Gurney Church were we got married nearly 25 years ago. Becky met her sister at the farm shop there (FG) yesterday for coffee and took this pic.

 

 

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Wet, wet, wet

Pic of the week 4/10/20

It feels like it hasn’t stopped raining since Wednesday.

Wednesday afternoon I refereed at school (1st XI v Filton College, good game) and I got soaked, Saturday I ref-ed another school game (3rd XI v Taunton, a bit agricultural) and got soaked, this morning I ran, and got soaked …

The rain has been relentless, with some localised flooding, but does, at least for now, seem to have stopped.

The picture above was a (double) rainbow on Wednesday evening, shortly before my Spanish lesson, and gave me the opportunity to find out from Daniel that a rainbow is “un acroiris” and I took the chance to practice my colours:
roja, naranja, amarillo, verde,  azul, violeta.

He was less sure about indigo – can’t find it in my dictionary and google translate merely offers “indigo” as a translation, perhaps its not really a spanish word? Maybe azul profundo  (deep blue) might be  a better translation?

El cielo estaba gris oscuro, pero el arcoiris estaba muy bonito, muy linda.

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Full time?

Pic of the week 27/9/20

So Covid’s making a comeback and, consequently, I’ve made a big decision.

I’ve blown full-time on my refereeing, at least for the time being.

I don’t fear contracting the virus whilst taking charge of a fixture – its quite easy to keep oneself socially distanced and being outdoors I feel pretty safe, but what concerns me is getting a subsequent call from track and trace to say that someone at a game I have refereed has tested positive and that therefore I need to self-isolate for 14 days.

I don’t want to have to do that as it would drive me mad, plus I would feel I was letting down everyone at school. So I fulfilled my commitment to referee today, but other than school games, that’s it for the time being. I’m limiting my exposure to the world to work and home.  I think that is now how things will be until Spring.

On a more cheery note, the pic above shows my pumpkins nicely turning orange. The leaves are  (have!) turning into crisps, it’ll soon be time to harvest them. I have enjoyed watching them grow. With the leaves now a shadow of their former magnificence, the chard plants are once again beginning to thrive, it will be interesting to see how long they last through winter.

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Life rolls on …

Pic of the week 20/9/20

Nothing major to report this week, but nevertheless an important week, a week in which work (sort of) got back to normal.

By the end of the teaching week I think I had come to grips with the “new normal” way of teaching. I’d got my classes all set up on One Note and we (both students and I) were beginning to become familiar with how we will work from now on.  Normally, by the end of week one in September some semblance of normality has returned, this year it took an extra week, but I’d go as far as to say that I am now enjoying work again.  I’m even beginning to “see” more people (colleagues) at work and enjoying a chat with them. This does remain a challenge – one of the great things about working at Millfield is the huge range of people I work with, and now we are all bubbled (I think, for staff, silo-ed might be a better word) those daily random encounters just aren’t happening. To help overcome this, at break time and lunch time, when I can, I’m leaving my room and just going for a wander around campus to see who I bump into.

On Wednesday evening, after my Spanish lesson, Becky, Sam & I raced up to Windmill Hill to try and grab a glimpse of the setting sun. It was lovely to go back up there – but did make us question how we found the time for our Boris walks during lock down.

 

 

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Ankle

Pic of the week 13/9/20

I came home on Saturday to find Sam mewling with pain and generally feeling sorry for himself.

The night before he had been staying with pals and they went on a night time (drunken) ramble and Sam fell over some logs and hurt his ankle. It was heavily swollen and he couldn’t weight bear.

Fearing it may be broken, this morning Sophie took him to Bridgwater A&E, where they diagnosied a sprain and sent him home. He can now walk gingerly on both feet, although he’s not going in to work until Friday. (He now needs to use his “time off” to focus on his physics  revision.)

The first week of term is over, and its been a tough start working in a socially distanced school. The pupils aren’t really socially distancing, teaching is harder (than normal) – its been a tiring start to the year. I hope we all begin to settle into some sort of normalcy soon, I don’t think the demands of last week are sustainable.  Normally, a day or two into term rhythms and routines are established, but that is yet to be the case.  An “interesting” term awaits, I think.

 

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Back to school!

Pic of the week 6/9/20

So the long summer holidays are over and its back to (physical) school for the first time since late March.

This last week has been INSET week and I’ve been in on most days, but it was Thursday and Friday that were the official INSET days. It was good to be back and see so many people in one day! On Thursday evening, sat on my sofa, I felt exhausted, in part because I’d “done” a full day, but I suspect it was also because of the many social interactions I had during the day.

However, things are very different from September ’19, staff wise we are “bubbling” in the department which is fine, and understandable, but it will be a shame to not so easily see friends and colleagues from other deprtments. We’ll also be teaching much more “electronically” (rather than using paper), and lunch times etc will be different.

The picture above shows me “suited and booted” as on Friday I had to record a short piece to camera for the Year 10 assembly, no more physical assemblies for now. I’ve enjoyed loafing around in shorts and a T-Shirt for six months, but it was good to be “looking good” in suit and tie again.

As predicted, I didn’t run as much in August, as I have done plenty of refereeing, and have swum 4 times, but still managed 115 Kms

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New Car

Pic of the week 30/8/20

Picked up our “new” (old) car on Friday, a 56 plate Vauxhall Corsa (D) 1.4 Design, with 90K miles for £995.

I’m pleased with it. It looks good and drives well.

Fixed the dripping kitchen tap today, having finally figured out how to remove the collar/shroud around the head gear (bodge tape on said collar, and the mole grips …)

I also ran a 10K pb today, 46 min 32 secs. Before this week, I had a week were I didn’t run at all (referee-ing, swimming) etc. and then ran on Tues, Thurs, Fri & today. I do feel very fit at the moment, so a PB was probably a just reward. I do find having a few days off from running does then boost my pace on my return. But, I fear, my running will soon start to diminish as term begins and the football season kicks off.

Weather – its a bit chilly! Yesterday & today have been bright but cool, but earlier in the week we’ve had a lot of rain and thunder and lightening, including one bolt that i’m sure was almost directly overhead – the loudest rumble of thunder!

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Aloha!

Pic of the week 23/8/20

A rare sighting of Sam in a shirt.

He was off to a semi-formal party on Saturday, so wore his “smart” trousers and an old pink shirt of mine.

Oh, and never one to fully conform (aka do as he’s told), he decided to give his appearance an Hawaiian feel with some leis he bought on e-bay, and sun glasses.

He did have something to celebrate, earlier this week the government caved to public pressure and U-turned on A level results, giving students their Centre (ie teacher) assessed grades. So he now has BBC (maths, chem, physics) and he still intends to retake his physics in October (all the weeks are passing swiftly …)

Other news, the Mini failed its MOT and with the repair bill to be at or around £600, I decided its days were numbered, and we sold it for scrap/trade (got £175 for it) and after much family debate & discussion, we are replacing it with a 2006 red Corsa (6 months MOT) for £995. Pick it up later this week, so will probably feature in next week’s blog.