Saturday

​Early

We had signed up for a swim but it was on the other side of town and had an early start. We had to get up early which after yesterday was a bit of an effort

Rain

The clouds had looked threatening and half an hour before the start the rain came down. Thick heavy rain. We sheltered in the car watching it beat against the windscreen. It was over as quickly as it started.

Jellyfish

The swim went across the river, along the harbour side, under the bridge, across the river, back under the bridge and on to the end. No one mentioned the jellyfish though, in places the water was thick with them. They didn’t sting but the slimy feel of them made my skin crawl. In places I felt I could get up and walk on them. Despite the jellies it was a lovely swim, made even better by coming last in my age group. I took that as a sign of a relaxing swim.

Pub

After the post race warming up and presentations a group of us decided it was never too early for a beer and wandered over to the local pub. We all agreed it was a lovely pub in a great location, overlooking the harbour.

Jetlag

Back at home to jetlag hit me like a brick wrapped in a blanket. One moment I was a fully functioning human being the next I was a dribbling zombie in desperate need of sleep. 

Surf club

I woke an hour later feeling slightly more awake. A shower helped complete the transition back to human. We headed to the surf club for a beer. 

Prawns

We had prawns and salad for tea. Big juicy prawns dipped in vinegar. This was proper food.

Friday

​Waiting

The airport was full of people, I was expecting it to be a lot less busy. I made my way to the gate and, after a short wait wanders onto the next plane. This time I had a window seat right at the back. 

Request

One of the stewards asked the man next to me if he was travelling alone but he didn’t understand the question. They then asked the man in front, a few minutes later he swaped places with a rather large woman who wanted to be closer to the toilet.

Breakfast

The cheese omelette came in a little tin foil container like all the other meals I’d had so far. This was the second breakfast today and the second time I’d had beer with it. 

Sleep

I’d set my watch to the time at my destination so I had no idea of the actual time or the time my body thought it was. I dropped off whilst watching a film. When I woke an hour or so later there was daylight outside but must of the windows were covered. I think they want you to sleep through the flight.

Alarm

According to my alarm it’s time to get up. According to my watch it’s early evening. My body has no idea.

Arrival

The queue at customs was as long as ever but at least when I got to the front of the queue there were no hard questions to answer. My bag was on the carousel waiting for me and all I had to do was run the gauntlet of the vegetable police before being let loose on Australia.

Risotto

My loved one was there at the gate waiting for me. She guided me out of the airport, into the car and took me home. She had prepared a risotto for me to eat before I fell into a deep dreamless sleep. It had been a very long short day.

Thursday

​Alarm

One the day I didn’t need to get up I was awake and up at the normal time, I had a lot of fretting to do before the taxi arrived

Weight

I was ever so slightly lighter this morning and that was a good thing. There was nothing in the house to eat so breakfast was three cups of tea whilst I busyed myself turning things off and cleaning things away. I didn’t want to return to an grubby house

Taxi

The taxi arrived and the usual drugtest took me to the airport. We chatted about his sons milk allergy. I suggested that he moved to Japan as they eat very little dairy there. He thought his son would probably object,

Airport

The queue for the check-in grew from large to massive in the twenty minutes it took for me to get to the front, I prefer leaving a lot of time for flights as I don’t want to start a holiday feeling rushed

Breakfast

Once air side I headed for the bar, I was on a mission, I needed breakfast and as I was on holiday and in an airport I wanted a lager. The traditional English certainly did the job and I felt no guilt ordering the second beer, it was 5 o’clock somewhere in the world and after this journey my body clock will be completely out of it,

Big white bird

It what seemed no time at all my flight was called. The plane was massive a d swallowed up the passengers easily. I’d been allocated an isle seat so I could stretch my legs, this was a good thing and made me happy, now all I had to sDo was sleep for the first leg of the flight

Heart

The man next to me felt ill. His wife mentioned that he had recently had heart surgery. He wanted to lie across the seats. I took a stroll around the aircraft for an hour or so whilst he recovered from his hot flush

Landing

We landed just before midnight local time. I’d had no sleep a and my body showed no signs of wanting any. We were emptied out of the plane and ushered through security.  

Wednesday

Restless

The moon was so bright last night that it woke me up, I laid in bed for an hour not being able to get to sleep.

Alarm

Unsurprisingly I felt tired when the alarm went off. I didn’t have any need to leap out of bed this morning as it was another working from home day. It was also officially my last day at this job, even if the work had dried up weeks ago.

Weight

I ventured onto the scales this morning and instantly regretted it. I was substantially heavier than last time. This was disappointing but not unexpected. I hadn’t been that active recently and the volume of food I’ve been eating hasn’t reduced.

Work

I gave some semblance of working by sending a few e-mails but mainly I got on with important tasks like upgrading software and my German homework.

Tea

I popped round to my neighbours for a cup of tea and a chat. It was far more preferable that actually doing anything.

Lunch

I had the last of the couscous salad for lunch. I was quite glad to see the last of it. I’m going to have to think of alternative lunches for next year.

Driving Permit

I went on a fruitless hunt for an international driving permit this afternoon. The post office website claimed that I could get them from my local post office, it lied. I couldn’t get one in the post office in town either. They suggested going to the big town, I couldn’t face that

Bike

I had another session on the bike trainer tonight prompted by the dreadful weigh in this morning. It was another short threshold set but I definitely felt a little wobbly when I got off. It must be doing me some good.

Potato

I had a rerun of last night’s dinner but instead of putting the potato on a plate I tried giving it cocktail sick legs. The theory was that the legs would hold it off the plate and avoid the hard patch. I successfully disproved the theory. As the potato got softer the legs got shorter, until it was sitting on the plate. I smothered it with tuna and sweetcorn mayonnaise and that made it taste a lot better.

Whisky

I finished off the evening with a few glasses of whisky in the hope that I won’t wake in the middle of the night.

Tuesday

Alarm

I slept through the alarm again today but I wasn’t too worried as I was working from home today. I managed to crawl out of bed a good hour after my normal getting up time.

Omelette

I avoided weighing myself today because I felt wobbly round the edges and all the scales would do is tell me exactly how much wobblier I was in cold hard numbers. I could do without that today. I made a bacon omelette and thought about a self-improvement plan. Things are bad when I have these thoughts.

Work

Working from home is much more preferable when I have no work to do. I log into e-mail and check that no one wants me and then I’m free to amuse myself. At home I don’t have to pretend to work, I can do useful things like getting up to date with my hobbies.

Lunch

After a highly productive (personal) unproductive (work) morning I stopped for lunch. I’d not planned ahead too well so all I had was couscous salad. I’d made it in batch on Sunday before I knew I’d be working from home. It was almost like being at work but with loud music.

Bike

After an afternoon of fiddling about I decided that I needed some exercise. So, I got onto the bike trainer for a swift threshold session. It wasn’t a long set but I still felt tired afterwards. I reflected on this whilst I stood for a long time in the shower.

Potatoes

I did another potato in the microwave this evening. This time I forgot to turn it round half way through. This led to a hard patch where it had been sitting on the plate. I piled tuna and sweetcorn mayonnaise on top of it in the hope that it would soften it. It didn’t. What I should have done was part cook it and then put it in the oven but that was beyond my evenings limited brain power.

Whisky

I rounded off the evening with a few glasses of whisky, mainly because I could. I wasn’t too steady walking up to bed but I was asleep before I hit the pillow.

Monday

Alarm

I heard the alarm go off, I’m sure I did but three quarters of an hour later I woke with a start and wondered who had moved all the clocks on. I think that the fun and games of the weekend had caught up with me.

Weight

I weighed myself before having a shower. The fun and games had definitely caught up with me. I was heavy, a lot heaver that I should be or want to be. It was time to go back to my usual diet of not very much and tea but before that I had a bacon omelette for breakfast, there is no point starting a diet on an empty stomach.

Train

There were a lot of people on the platform this morning which indicated that the trains were running late this morning. The train eventually arrived but it was packed. At least I could get a seat and fall into my travelling stupor, I was practicing for my long journey later in the week.

Chat

The inevitable happened at ten o’clock, my boss called me into his office and told me that I wouldn’t be required next year. I’d expected it for a few weeks so it was no surprise. I’m not expected to be in the office for the next few days, this fits my plans very well.

Book

I went for a stroll to the book shop at lunch time. I had to get the last present, a book for my Dad. Our reading tastes are very different so I felt a little awkward asking for it. I doubt that the shop assistants noticed but I did

Goodbyes

There are no trains tomorrow so I said my goodbyes to the people I’ve been working with for the last few months. A few handshakes later and e-mails to the ones not in the office later I was out of the office and on my way to the station. It had been a fund 6 months.

Sleep

The train was delayed. I stood around in the cold waiting for the train to come. Eventually a packed train appeared and emptied out more passengers than I thought possible onto the platform. I found a seat and fell asleep.

Potatoes

I cooked potatoes in the microwave tonight. My plan was to put them in the oven whilst I sat on the bike trainer but by the time I got home I’d lost the urge to do it. I topped the potatoes with tuna and sweetcorn mayonnaise. It was lovely and very filling.

Sunday

Lie-in

I was late to be last night but as I’d not planned to do too much today I could lay in bed for as long as I wanted. My body on the other hand craves routine and wanted me to visit the bathroom at the usual getting up time. I resisted as long as possible but eventually I just had to bite the bullet and dash downstairs. I took the opportunity to make a cup of tea and then headed back to be to complete my morning laziness

Poached eggs

Eventually I rose form the pit of eternal slumber and made my way to the kitchen. I wasn’t exactly hungry but I felt the need to have poached eggs on a bread roll. It was Sunday after all. I accompanied the eggs with a few cups of tea and eventually reached a state of normality.

Wrapping

Over the last week, I have taken delivery of a whole host of parcels containing gifts for various friends and family. Now was the time to get them all wrapped up and ready for Christmas. It had to be done now as I will be flying off in a few days. It was now or never. I made yet another cup of tea and set to. Wrapping up presents always seems to take much longer than I think it should and today was no exception. Loud music and tea helped me though the task. I’m glad my neighbours are deaf.

Cleaning

The house was looking a bit untidy, things had been left in places that they shouldn’t be and it was starting to annoy me. I spent a good hour with yet more loud music, cleaning, tidying and hovering; by the end the house was looking a lot more presentable. Now all I need to do is to keep it that way for the next few days. That way I will not come back from my travels to a messy house. I can’t think of anything more dispiriting that doing that.

Ordeal

My tablet computer has finally given up on working. It has survived a number of significant drops but has the battle scars to prove it. The last straw was me tripping over the charging cord and pulling it violently to the floor. This resulted in the plug on the end of the cord being bent out of shape. I bent it back but it wouldn’t deliver electricity. I tried a number of other cords but none of them worked. Then the tablet refused to start. It was time to buy a new one. I left it until late in the day in the hope that most of the shoppers will have bought everything they needed before going to the computer store. It was still packed. I did a quick circle of the tablets looking for something about the right size and in my price range. Then I had to wait and age before an assistant deigned to drag themselves away from a conversation with their colleagues to talk to me. That was when he gleefully told me that my selected item was out of stock and had been for the past week. He then went on to point out all the others that were out of stock. It seemed daft to me to have models on display that they didn’t actually sell but the sales assistant seemed to accept this as normal. Eventually I found a model in stack and in my price range. Then I found that it was cheaper to buy it with antivirus (that I didn’t need) than without. There are reasons why I hate the whole shopping experience and I can find most of those reasons in computer stores.

Set up

I spent a happy hour setting up my new toy so that it would do all the things that I needed it to do. My demands on it were fairly small but it still took a while to get it “just so”. I feel that I’m going to have a few more sessions of fiddling around before I have it just how I like it.

Dinner

I went over to Mum’s for dinner tonight. She had prepared slow cooked lamb shanks and served them with boiled potatoes, broccoli and peas. It was divine. The meat peeled off the bone and melted in the mouth. The boiled potatoes soaked up the gravy and the broccoli had that slight crunch of a properly cooked vegetable. We followed the main course with cheese and biscuits and then mum brought out some mice pies. My mum is an excellent cook.

Saturday

Breakfast

I didn’t sleep very well last night so I didn’t feel on top of the world this morning. The poached eggs helped lift the tiredness.

Swimming

I went to the club swim session this morning, It was an easy paced set with lots of drills, just what I needed. I rounded off the session with a cup of tea in the café and a chat with a few people I’d not seen for a while

Errands

I had a whole host of errand to run this morning, including getting stamps and a new pawer cable for my tablet computer. It’s amazing how long it all took.

Parking

I parked my car in the public car park and then took the short cut though the pub car park to get to the high street. Just as I got to the road a man with an armful of cleaning products challenged me. “are you parked in the pub car park?”, “no!” I replied, giving him the ‘why are you even asking me this question’ look. He apologised and wandered away. I’ve no idea what that was all about.

Haircut

A long time ago I read that an adventure should always start with a haircut so I went to the barbers today. More practically I’m off to a warmer climate and chances are I’ll come back with a tan. If I get my hair cut when I come back, I’ll end up with a white line on my scalp. I doubt that anyone will notice but I would. The Barbers was unusually empty so I didn’t have to wait. I asked for a summer cut sat back in the chair and fell asleep. I woke up with shorter hair.

Death Ray

My brother was under the death ray again today, this time to have a cyst removed from his back. He asked me along to video the procedure. I found the whole thing fascinating. The doctor cut along the lump and then started pressing on both sides. When the cyst didn’t jump out he started to get a little flustered and started muttering things about it being deeper than he expected and being attached. After a bit of digging he started to remove lumps of gunge from the hole. I couldn’t get close enough to see exactly what was happening but the smell was enough to know that these weren’t nice things. After a few more bits had been removed the doctor was satisfied that it had all been removed and stitched up the cut. My brother looked relieved that it was all over, he thought that the aesthetic was wearing off.

Pub

We went to the pub a few doors away; my brother was looking a little uncomfortable and thought that a sit down would be better that driving straight home. We chatted for a while and at one point he did look a little glassy eyed.

Bow tie

I have two bow ties, I’ve worn them both once. I decided that tonight would be the second time out for one of them.

Dinner

I went to the Triathlon club Christmas meal tonight, it was held in a local hotel. We had three tables of the nine or ten tables in the hall. The meal started with asparagus wrapped in ham on top of a cucumber and yogurt sauce. For some reason, there was a slab of melted cheese on top which I though spoilt the starter. For the main course, I had haddock on a bed of pureed parsnip, this came with a selection of vegetables and roast potatoes. There weren’t enough vegetables, I like me vegetables, well cooked vegetables complement and enhance the centerpiece of the plate. This is a concept that the hotel chef had never been introduced to. The veggies were over cooked and watery and they detracted from the already mediocre haddock. The meal finished with a strawberry something. I’d lost interest by then, as had the cook. If it wasn’t for the company, the food would have made for a dire evening.

Friday

Pain

My heel was still painful this morning. I limped down the stairs to the bathroom for the pre-breakfast post pee weigh in. The limp was strange in that the least painful way to walk was to keep my foot flat. The cat looked at me strangely. I need professional help.

Eggs

It was scrambled eggs on toast again today, I’m running out of bread so the slices are getting smaller as I’m getting near the end of the loaf.

Work

I’ve still got very little to do but at least it’s Friday so I can plan for the weekend. It’s either that or listening to podcasts. It’s a bad state of affairs when I’m looking at the train time for the trains home at eleven o’clock in the morning.

Call

I got a call from head office today, it looks like they have something for me to do in the new year. I’m not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, it’s paid work which keeps me in the style I have been accustomed to but on the other hand it would have been nice to have a few months off. I’ve been slowly building a list of things that I can do with acres of spare time and now they will have to be shelved.

Stroll

I took a stroll to the book shop at lunchtime. I like my strolls to have a purpose. I ended up buying two books by one of my favorite author’s and another non-fiction book. I have a long journey next week and I like to have a book with me. The chances of me actually reading the book are fairly slim but I do like having the possibility of reading them.

Checking

I keep checking the trains whilst listening to another podcast, a sure sign that I’m bored

The Thing

When I got home I had a quick look at my e-mail, there was an email from the burocrats. My heart sank, I thought that they wanted more information or there was another hurdle to jump. I opened it and found it was none of these. It was the result, I’d got it. I did a little dance round the living room.

German

I had a German lesson tonight, more practice with using the past tense whilst speaking. I couldn’t really concentrate because of the success of the thing

Whisky

It seemed only right to celebrate with a glass of whisky. I went to bed a little tipsy.

Thursday

Pain

The thing I was hoping wouldn’t happen happened, I woke up with pain in my heel. My Achilles had objected to the short slow run I took last night and I was back to limping in the morning. The pain was a lot more intense that I remember and the heel was warm, all sure signs that I’d done something silly. The stretching I’d been doing obviously hadn’t helped the recovery as much as I thought.

Weight

Even though I’m now limping about I’m still the same weight as yesterday. This is a good thing. I celebrated with scrambled eggs on toast.

Stretching

I attempted to go through my stretching regime. The first heel raise on the left leg was pain personified. It was at that moment that the reality of the situation hit me. I’m probably going to have to stop running for quite a while; this means that the 10k run I’ve entered in January, the half marathon in February and the Marathon in April are probably not going to happen. That realisation just added to the pain.

Train

A toddler sat opposite to me today, he was intrigued by me tapping my fingers on the table and ended up offering me his drink bottle. It’s not often that I get offered a drink on the train.

Bag

I’ve forgotten to bring my lunch to work today, not only that I’ve managed to leave the house without the bag that contains my lunch, a rain coat, an umbrella, a book (un-started) and an umbrella. I always have this bag with me, I have no idea how I could have left it at home.

Search

I took advantage of the complete lack of work at work by researching Achilles tendonitis. As far as I can work out it can be caused by a number of things including shoes, over training, running up hills and / or over pronating. The cures range from icing through to major surgery depending on which bit of the internet I’m referring to. It all looks pretty gruesome and all points to not running until the pain goes away. I think that I need to seek professional help, but that opens another can of worms as I’m not sure where I’m going to be in January and I’m disappearing to the other side of the world next week.

Stroll

To relieve the boredom, I went for a stroll round town, via a store for a packet of popcorn to replace my missing lunch. I ended up wandering around a clothes store and buying some underpants, just for something to do. The cashier asked me if I wanted a bag, I didn’t. As wandered out I took the underpants from there packaging and stuffed them in my coat pockets. It didn’t dawn on me until I was a long way from the store that there was nothing to distinguish me from a shoplifter. I might get a bag next time.

Out

I went out for a meal with a friend tonight. We went to a local pub that serves particularly good food, including chicken breast with black pudding. I like black pudding a lot. We spend the time complementing the food and putting the world to rights. This mainly concerned her floorboards and my work situation. It was good for the soul to have a chat.