Three runs, all the same (5 mins brisk walk at start and end, 8 repeats of 60 secs running with 90 secs walking between each). The first time out (Monday 28th Dec) sure felt a bit rusty, with various aches and pains but by the third run, I felt ready to progress to Week 2. Bring it on!
I've now done my second run of the official UK “Couch to 5k” programme, using the podcast rather than the app. I used to run but it's been over four years now since I was a regular and since then I've put on 20 lbs due to middle age finally catching up with my once fast burning metabolism. Although my mind remembers many 5ks, 10ks and even two painful half marathons, my body will appreciate the slow pace of the 9 week gradual build up to 5k!
I just read Scott Nesbitt's latest Weekly Musing, and it definitely struck a chord with me. He was writing about embracing your inner geek but in a way that feels right for you. My career in academia has given me the opportunity to research specialist subjects to the edge of current knowledge and beyond, which in many ways is making the inner geek an outer geek. However, what is really fun is indulging my inner geek in an amateur rather than professional fashion. There is a heady freedom in this, as it allows me to pursue an interest flexibly, or drop it when my focus changes.
Spoiler – it's trickier than installing it! Back at the start of lockdown, I distracted myself by installing Kubuntu as dual boot alongside Windows 10 on my wife's Dell XPS 9360. Then I went and bought my own little Linux laptop instead. Fast forward half a year and my wife was running out of space on her hard drive and was getting fed up of having to restart the machine when she forgot to select Windows from the Grub start menu. So, the mission a few weeks ago was to upgrade the SSD and get rid of Linux from the machine. Right then!
When I started this blog, the “100 Days to Offload” challenge of 100 posts in a year seemed like a good target and it still is! It is an aspirational target and it doesn't really matter whether I hit it or not, what matters is that it has got me blogging again, putting words down on virtual paper. I've been having fun with it, typing out blog posts that range from serious to light-hearted, journal-style to the odd poem or two. It's been an outlet in a year of global lows with the pandemic and personal highs with the birth of my daughter. Still, let's see how I'm doing with the challenge itself!
Behold and rejoice! The vaccines are coming! Spread the good news in this season of joy and hope! The roll-out will soon start in the UK and across the world. One vaccine first then others to follow. It'll take time, starting with our most vulnerable and our front-line workers, then reaching the rest of the population as logistics allow. We will see how different countries proceed (e.g. China and Russia with their own parallel programmes), in the same way that they all responded differently to the global march of the pandemic.
It's been a year and a half now since my last trip to Islay and my whisky stocks are starting to run low. Well, the no-guilt bottles anyway! Those are the ones I can drink without needing to consult The Canadian first! This time I've decided to buy something not distilled on that wonderful Scottish island – shock, horror! My aim with these bottles is to have some undemanding but interesting bottles for more regular consumption. OK, let's go then!
Last weekend I posted about realising how much time I've been spending on my smartphone, calling it a “parasitic distraction”. I tried reducing the number of apps on my home screen but the couple of extra swipes needed to get round that rapidly became automatic and annoying! Time for a more drastic solution!
Finally defeated the cardboard boxes again! After licking their wounds for a bit following the pre-baby box-clearance back in May, the boxes have been steadily re-infiltrating the household but enough was enough! I made time today in my leave to fight back and filled ten (yes TEN!) big green recycling bags with broken-down boxes from beer and baby purchases. Phew! That feels better! Must try to be more vigilant to prevent their next attempt to take over the apartment...
I have the apartment to myself this afternoon, The Canadian and the babe having gone off to see our friends and their little one now that we can resume our social bubbles here in Wales. What to do, what to do?! Well, I'm kicking off by sitting on the rocking chair with a mug of black coffee, my Linux Star Lite laptop in my lap, blogging away and listening to Whitesnake's Greatest Hits album on the CD player. Old-School I know – but there is still something rewarding and pure about listening to an album you physically own from start to finish.