Thursday

Gifts

We woke up at the normal time and whilst I made tea Loved One retrieved something from the dark recesses of the garage. When I returned a lavender plant and a bottle of very nice whisky was sitting on my bedside table. In return I gave Loved One a new charm for her charm bracelet.

Swim

I had planned to go for a swim today, I even had a swim set in mind, but the creeping fatigue caught up with me. I laid on the bed and the world passed me by for a few hours. I didn’t feel better for it when I woke up but then I would have probably felt worse if I’d gone for a swim

E-mail

For one short remarkable moment my e-mail in box was completely empty. It didn’t last long

Dinner

We started our meal with little bits of smoked salmon on toast and then moved on to a concoction that I’d made using a boxed meal kit. I’d made far too much so there was some for lunch tomorrow. We accompanied the meal with an overly sweet red wine. It was much too sweet for my tastes, even adding soda water only tempered it a little.

Wednesday

Ride

I joined the regulars for the fast boys ride down to the coast. It was a bit chillier today and as we started off it started to rain. A few took this as an omen and gave up while the rest of us carried on. I had always intended to turn early as I usually do but I wasn’t prepared for just how fast the bunch would be today. They seemed to disappear into the distance

Roundabout

I headed back alone and battled against the wind to the next roundabout. The change in direction gave a little respite but I knew I would be slogging against it again soon. I got onto the next roundabout and was almost knocked off by someone who obviously wasn’t looking. They just sped across as if I wasn’t there. I gave them a hard stare, it was about all I could do.

Mission

I had to go into town on a secret mission to buy Loved One a gift. I had a very good idea of the two shops I needed to visit and had planned my route so that I could get it done without raising any suspicions. Once I’d accomplished the purchase all I needed to do was to get home and that’s where the problem started. I didn’t notice the “X” after the bus number. The “X” signifies that it is not going to stop at my stop or the one after. At least I saw some countryside that I’d never seen before.

Dinner

I used the last of our meal kits to produce burger and chips for dinner. The added twist was that they were covered in a hoisin glaze. It was nice but a bit sweet for my tastes

Booking

Loved One and I spent the evening on the computer booking a few shows at the festival. These things always take longer than they should.

Tuesday

Wind

It was a very windy night and I woke feeling like I’d had very little sleep. Loved One likes to have the windows open so that the house is aired. The problem with this is that when it is very windy everything rattles and bangs. It’s almost as if we are on a sailing ship.

Breakfast

I added some honey to the overnight oats and we had a bowl each whilst sitting up in bed. The meal was pronounced “acceptable”. It was better than toast and jam in bed as it didn’t leave crumbs. I will be making this again.

Bottles

Our collection of empty beer bottles had grown by unreasonable proportions so it was time to cash them in at the recycling centre. There was only one car ahead of us so we thought it would be a quick visit. That’s when we found that the car was stuffed full of every conceivable item that could be recycled. I think it must have been owned by bin divers.

Trike

Gracie the trike had been in the shop for a very long time and even now I wasn’t confident that they had finished but we popped in anyway. Instead of being behind the counter she was sitting in the centre of the shop looking resplendent. She had new tyres and bar tape and had been cleaned and polished so that she sparkled. The mechanic went though what he had done, but all I wanted to do was take her out for a spin. It had been a long time without a trike.

Hearing

I had my hearing tested. My sister is going deaf and she suggested that I should be tested as it could be genetic. I sat in a sound proof booth wearing headphones and the operator played a series of tones of different frequencies and volumes. All I had to do was press a button when I heard the tone. After five minutes of intent listening and pressing I was informed that my hearing was within normal limits. This was good. I was also told that the reason I couldn’t hear people in noisy environments was because I was in a noisy environment. Sometimes things are so obvious that they have to be explained.

Cleaning

The house was starting to look a little grubby so Loved One and I set about cleaning it. I took on hoover duties. The hoover didn’t seem to be at full suck and a red warning light was hinting that something was wrong. After a little bit of investigation and a lot of blowing down the tube three or four large dust balls appeared. I reassembled everything but it still wasn’t quite doing the job. Further investigations and the use of a long stick revealed even more lumps of cat hair that were clinging to the tube. Once I’d removed those hoovering became a breeze.

Meeting

We held the community title AGM round our dining room table. It was interesting to watch peoples reactions as the meeting went on. One person was clearly disinterested in the whole process, whilst another was clearly clueless and only wanted to talk about his pet subject. The one that amused me the most was the man who thought he was running the meeting and had a superior knowledge. He deployed every trick to appear to be in charge. I’ve seen them all before: from stating qualifications to trying to backtrack on the agenda, but he was so clumsy in his application it was almost laughable. It wouldn’t have mattered how long the meeting lasted, it would have been too long.

Dinner

I prepared a chicken and rice dish from our meal kits for tonight’s meal. This one was a lot better than last nights.

Sofa

We had some quality sofa time for the rest of the evening as there wasn’t much evening left.

Monday

Lie-in

It was that time in the week when we could have a glorious lie in and we took full advantage of it.

Café

Loved One had arranged to meet some old friend down on the coast for a catch up before they left town. We picked them up and went to a café which had a secret garden at the back. We chatted over pots of tea and breakfast rolls. They were particularly good breakfast rolls.

Swim

As we were by the coast Loved One and I decided that we should have a swim. The water was a lot choppier than yesterday. That made the swimming much more adventurous. I prefer swimming in the sea when there are a few waves and it is moving about. It feels different.

Shop

We came home via the supermarket to pick up some milk, without this my constant supply of tea would be severely curtailed and life as I know it would cease to exist.

Making

After a little bit of sitting and reading I became restless and felt like doing something. I started the bread off in the bread machine and then made some hummus. I was still a little restless so I made some overnight oats from a recipe that I’d found on a blog post. It was hidden at the end, I skipped most of the post as it seemed unrelated to leaving oats in milk over night and more about what sort of container should be used to look trendy. I rarely have a trendy fridge so I didn’t see the point of that particular discussion

Gardening

Loved One wandered round the garden with a pair od secateurs, the plants knew that is meant some of them would be for the chop and visibly shrunk back into the boarders. Eventually, she settled on trimming the bird of paradise plant. The rest of the plants breathed a collective sigh of relief. It wouldn’t be them today.

Meal

We had had some meal kits delivered in the morning so I set about preparing the first of the meals. I should have read the instructions a little closer. The parsley, garlic and lemon weren’t supposed to be roasted. They were meant to be added to the other vegetables once they had been roasted. I thought that I’d picked all of the lemon out but Loved One got a bit of a surprise when she bit into the one I’d missed.

Sunday

Late

Despite getting home at a reasonable time we still managed to leave the house later than normal. The consequence was that we arrived at the beach a little later that normal and all the traffic lights on the way to the beach were red.

Swim

The sea was lovely and calm today although there was a lot of suspended matter churned up from yesterday’s storms. The sea bed was never visible, just a green tinted haze that enveloped the undersea world. The long-distance swimmers were doing big distances today in preparation for an event in a couple of weeks’ time. I wasn’t. I am still in the getting back to speed stage

Café

We met up in the café for a touch of breakfast and gossip. One of the long-distance swimmers was still out there and we suspected that he would be some time. The conversation drifted round to ice miling. A few of us are interested in doing an ice mile but none of us really want to travel overseas to attempt it. I feel a research project coming on.

Friends

We popped in on some friends on the way home to drink their tea, eat their biscuits and to arrange a meal together. A few weeks ago, we had given their daughter a book about inspirational women in history. She had liked it so much that she had recommended it to her friends. That made me happy.

Nap

I had enough time of a nap before we were due out again. I wasted no time in falling asleep.

Balcony

We joined the others on the balcony for the now usual Sunday afternoon drinks. We supplemented the drinks with a bowl of sweet potato chips. They so nice that I didn’t want the bowl to empty.

Soup

We weren’t that hungry when we got home so we thawed a container of courgette soup and had that with some slices of buttered bread before falling asleep on the sofa whilst pretending to watch television.

Saturday

Rain

I woke to the sound of gentle rain and water dipping into the rain water tank. The sound drove me to the bathroom.

Tea

I made Loved One a cup of tea before changing into my cycling gear and stepping outside. It was all very damp but is wasn’t actually raining so I set off to the meeting point. The rain found me a few minutes later.

Meeting

I stood at the meeting point hoping that no one would turn up. If they didn’t, I could quite happily go home and go back to bed. This plan was foiled by someone turning up.

Glasses

We headed for the hills, a little way down the road the rain came down. I started wondering why my eyes were feeling so wet. It then dawned on me that I wasn’t wearing my glasses. I knew I was wearing them at the meeting point. We doubled back to find them laying on the ground. The rain had got heavier.

Café

We made a tactical retreat to the café to wait out the rain and to discuss our next move. We decided that if the rain eased up, we would meet the other group and head to the coast.

Start

There was only one other person at the meeting point when we arrived. He said that the others had all sent their apologies. We headed down to the coast as a group that slowly split into us and him.

Stop

The vast amount of tea took its toll and we had to stop at a public loo. It was quite disconcerting to be welcomed into the stall by a science fiction narrators voice.

Wind

We struggled along the coast being buffeted by the wind. Occasionally a squall would wait until we were just dry and then soak us again. It wasn’t very pleasant. We decided to go back via an inland route in the hope that it would be less windy. It wasn’t

Puncture

I remember thinking that with the rain and the wind would sharpen up the stones in the road and that there was a high possibility of punctures. Five minutes later I was at the side of the road repairing a puncture.

Home

I got home feeling wet, dirty and exhausted. It had been an epic ride and I felt that I’d been a lot further than I actually had. I was revived with a few slices of toast, a cup of tea and a warm shower.

Sleep

I sat on the sofa next to Loved One to have a cup of tea when suddenly the tea was cold and Loved One was in a different room. Apparently, I’d fallen asleep mid-sentence and started snoring disturbingly.

Party

We went to an engagement party this evening. The centre piece was a table groaning under the weight of food. There was a lot of cheese and processed meats whispering “eat me! Forget about your cholesterol” I resisted as far as someone with high cholesterol that loves cheese can.

Diversion

We followed the route we took but we were thwarted by a closed road and had to make a diversion that took longer that the journey to the party.

Friday

Ride

I got to the meeting point to find that there was no one else there. I didn’t feel like going home as I’d made the effort to get up so I did the ride anyway. It was a lovely morning for it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I skipped the café and took the hiller route home as once I’d climbed to the start of the free=way I could almost freewheel the way home. I felt so good that I had a crack at the local Strava segment. One day I’ll break the top three but today wasn’t the day.

Sleep

I made a cup of tea and sat on the sofa to drink it. An hour later I found that the tea had gone cold. I hadn’t realised how tired I was

Video

I spent the morning finishing off the road trip video. I was pleased with the end result. So pleased that I started working on the second part of the video. This one didn’t take as long as I had a good idea of what I was doing.

Nibbles

When Love One got home from work we sat outside with a drink and some nibbles because it was Friday. It was a little windy but no enough to dissuade dark cat to stop playing her new game of climbing onto the water tank.

Dinner

Loved One suggested that we cooked some sausages and chops on the BBQ and I had no objection to that. I prepared a salad and whilst the meal was being offered to the god of the BBQ, I knocked together some mashed potato. It all came together very well.

Sofa

Once we had cleared up, we fell asleep on the sofa watching television until it was time to go to bed.

Thursday

Tired

The alarm must have gone off to wake us up to go for an early swim session but I don’t remember it. I wasn’t ready to get out of bed and neither, apparently was Loved One. She got out of bed at the last possible moment to get ready for work.

Call

I received a call from a potential employer this morning saying that I’d not got the job and that it had gone to an internal candidate. I was glad that they told me personally but it didn’t make me feel too good about myself and my worth to society. I felt myself being dragged into the void. I needed to find something absorbing to take my mind away from the dark thoughts that were forming.

Video

I started putting together a video of our recent road trip and as is the way of these things I got sucked into the process. It didn’t take long to put the bulk of it together but as always it was the little pretty bits and over coming the issues with my editing software that took the time. I dragged myself away after a few hours as I felt I was starting down a rabbit hole. I needed a break and to do something physical

Chat

I met a friend on the way to the pool, she had just come back from putting her mother into a nursing home. That was far harder than anything I’ve had to face recently.

New

The pool was almost empty when I arrived and that was good. There was a man introducing his partner to the water. She told me that it was her first time in the pool as I slowly got into the water. She clung to the side while her partner encouraged her to put her head under the water.

Swim

I had a session in mind, it was the same as the session that I did last week. I started with a few long intervals to warm up and then followed it by a set of short intervals at threshold pace. It was a hard set and as I got to the last few repeats, I started to question why I was doing this. This is my normal internal monologue. I finished the session with some long easy repeats top warm down. My body felt used when I got out of the pool. I would sleep well tonight.

Watering

The lawn had been cut whilst I was out and it was looking very thirsty. I watered the pots and then gave the grass a long drink in the hope that it would retain a nice green colour rather than a dead looking brown that is common for this time of year.

Meal

Loved One had met an old friend in a store a few days ago and had arranged to go out for a meal with him and his wife this evening. We arrived at the pub within seconds of each other and caught up with the trials and tribulations over a drink and choosing what to eat.

Steak

It was only when the food came that we discovered that everyone but me had ordered steak done medium rare with mushroom sauce. I’d gone for the shepherd’s pie as I’m not a fan of steak. We carried on chatting over the meal and for sometime after. It was a really pleasant evening.

Burn

Loved One noticed that my back had been slightly burnt whilst I was swimming this afternoon and admonished me for not using sun screen this afternoon. I’m still not used to slapping on the sunscreen and normally I do stuff early when the sun isn’t quite so harsh.

Wednesday

Weight

The alarm went off at early o’clock to get me up for the early morning ride. The forecast was for rain but I couldn’t hear anything. I got up and checked, it really wasn’t raining. I had no excuse to stay in bed. I checked my weight on the way past the bathroom and was pleased to find that I was now below a significant number for the first time in many weeks.

Ride

I go to the meeting point and found that I was the only one there. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Maybe the reports of rain had put everyone else off. I didn’t really have an excuse to go home so I went off on the normal ride on my own. I was quite happy in my own thoughts peddling along the sea front. As the fast boys were not out, I turned at the farthest point rather than cutting the ride short as usual. It only rained a little bit and if it’s not raining it’s not training.

Lunch

I was ravenous by lunch time. Breakfast had been a slice of bread spread with lemon curd but that had been many hours ago. What I wanted was a sandwich of immense proportions that contained many of the major food groups. This was not possible as I’d had the last slice of bread for breakfast and it was a silly idea as I was meant to be eating out this evening. I made do with a very small salad and the last of the plums. I knew I was going to be hungry later

Hunger

I got to half past four before the hunger started to strike. There was nothing in the house that I could stuff into my face so I tried the time-honoured technique of drinking a lot of tea. This had the effect of making me feel hungry and wanting to go to the loo.

Dinner

We met some friends for dinner in a Thai restaurant this evening. We got to the restaurant first and the other two couples slowly appeared. We filled the time by having a drink and looking at the menu. It all looked nice but it wasn’t too hard to pick a few things that really appealed. In the end the group decided that we would share the platters so that we got to taste everything. Some of them contained celery, I don’t like celery.

Chat

As always, I felt a little out of place with this group. They have all known each other for a very long time whereas I haven’t. When the topics of conversation are things like shared memories from their school and university days, I feel I have very little to add.

Late

We got home at a reasonable time but considering that I got up early to go cycling it felt very late. I needed sleep and I needed it rather badly.

Tuesday

Lie-in

Today was the first day of Loved One not working on Tuesdays so we celebrated by staying in bed a little bit longer than normal.

Pool

After multiple cups of tea, we managed to crawl out of bed and headed to the pool for a lovely long swim. At least that was the plan. It was thwarted by a school swimming gala; the pool wasn’t going to be open until after lunch. We could have gone to the other pool but we felt a little deflated and Loved One had a hair appointment.

Hair

Loved One returned from her hair appointment looking exactly the same as when she had gone. I wondered if I was missing something. Then she explained that they were running late so she had rescheduled.

Flights

We went to the travel agents to finalise the flights for our adventure in September. It seemed to take a lot longer than I had expected but we got there in the end. We now have the framework on which to hang the rest of the adventure. I feel detailed planning coming on.

Trike

We nipped into the bike shop to see if they had finished working on it. As I’d expected it wasn’t ready. The man explained that the tyres had only just arrived and that he would be fitting them this week. I’ll be visiting again with higher expectations next week.

Nap

We had a little time before the pool would be open to people who didn’t go to school so we used the time to do nothing. I laid on the sofa and according to Loved One I was snoring within seconds. I wasn’t sure about this, I felt that I’d just been lying there quietly.

Swim

We go to the pool to find that we were restricted to only a few lanes as there were lessons and a school group. I don’t know why Loved One selected the slow lane to start in but that’s where we started. After a few repeats a few much slower swimmers joined us. We moved to the next lane. After a few more repeats the lane next to us became free so we moved to that. A few repeats later and the pool attendant asked us to move to another lane. This was getting a little tedious.

Dinner

I prepared a seafood Pad Thai for dinner. I made enough for a small army as I was very hungry. We devoured half of it and put the other half in the fridge for another day. I could have easily eaten the whole lot but Loved One kept reminding me that it wouldn’t help with the weight loss plan. I reluctantly agreed

Ants

The cat food bowls had been overrun by a troop of ants. I felt that I needed to something about this even though I’m not too keen on killing anything. I found the poison in the back of the cupboard and reluctantly put it down. After five minutes many of the ants were taking the drink of death.

Planning

I felt that my cycling was lacking some goals and long-term planning so I spent a happy hour looking up events and filling my diary with events that I would probably not do. It made me happy.

Tired

The afternoon’s swimming caught up with me and I suddenly felt tired and fatigued. I needed to lie down in a darkened room for many hours.