Sunday 17-01-14 Wet Saturday

Yesterday we started the day by Skyping Mum and wishing her Happy Birthday. She and Dad are in Singapore visiting my sister and her family, which is nice, especially when the weather in the UK is so dreary at the moment.
Then it was the Park Run, obviously, it being a Saturday morning. I did okay, I finished in 29:01, which is my second best time. Apparently I have managed it in 28:14 once, but I am sure that was an anomaly and they got it wrong that week. It was dry for the Park Run and TW also did well, coming close to her PB (personal best) time. TE wanted a slushie but the machine wasn't working at Splashpoint, so TW offered to make her a hot chocolate when we got home. TE agreed, surprisingly, and so we stopped and bought some squirty cream from Tesco Express at the Worthing rail crossing on the way home. We also picked up some halloumi and as soon as we got home, TW started frying that as a snack / late breakfast for the girls. Then she went out to pick up some clothes & deliver some make-up, while I washed.
I was looking forward to a lazy day from there, but TW had other ideas. She was on the go pretty much all morning and then suggested we go out for a walk. The girls protested but I could see that they needed some fresh air; the youngest two had been glued to YouTube all morning and were beginning to mong out. They did suggest Woods Mill, but couldn't all agree, and eventually we plumped for Southwater. That was a nice compromise, I thought, because it's quite a relaxing park but most of the paths are paved, and so we wouldn't end up getting unnecessarily muddy.
I didn't count on the rain though. Although it was dry when we left home, by the time we got there, it was raining, and it didn't stop. It was an okay walk, and the girls got their fresh air and some exercise on the climbing frames in the park. Everything was wet though, so playing on the swings and slides was out of the question.
We stopped at McDonalds Buck Barn on the way home, initially for a snack, "something off the 99p menu" TW said, but when we got in the girls asked for more substantial eats, and so they had burgers and fries, and I had some Nuggets and a Quarter Pounder with cheese. It was 4pm by this time, and TW realised that we were planning to have burgers for dinner, which wasn't going to work any more. The girls ended up having a snack at about 18:30 and that seemed to sate them.
Then it was an evening of crap telly; the Gary Barlow vehicle Let It Shine, which seems more kindly-spirited than X Factor, but is limited to men only, and then The Voice on ITV, which I think comes in second place, but that is due to its familiarity. The Barlow show is a suppose a retread of the previous talent search How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria, which of course was limited to women only. But the whole show (Let It Shine) acts as a big advert for the forthcoming musical, which isn't the precise story of Take That, but is based on their story, and incorporates the music of Take That. So Barlow is being paid to appear in a show which promotes a musical which he has written, which contains songs for which he will receive royalties. That sounds like a nice little earner.
And then it was bedtime, and I slept.

Monday 17-01-01 I A New Year

...and relax. The decorations are down, and things have returned to normal. The bacchanalian urges which have been driving us to dive into a sea of hedonism and consumerism have abated again, and we'll probably hibernate now for a month or so. The weather yesterday was quite appropriate; it was raining pretty much all day and it became heavier in the evening.
I am considering becoming a Dryathlete for the month. That was on the cards even before I woke up with a dry mouth and a blurry memory this morning, and even before the festive season started. Maybe now I'm back running, I can properly shape up. But I've made starts before and never seen them through and they do say that madness is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.
On Saturday we made it to the Park Run and made some space for the prosecco I drank later. We popped over to Angmering to see the GiL, and it seems that she's had visitors - she was drinking wine, so someone must have brought it to her. We didn't stay long, she seemed okay but a bit fed up, as she is liable to be these days. She is going to be 98 in February, and she just sits in her chair, drinking wine and not really talking to anyone or having any stimulus except the TV. I'd be fed up in her shoes. But she won't accept any help, so it's best not to offer or make suggestions - she'll just ignore them.
We saw the New Year in with friends, at a house party. I had a lovely time, and then bailed at about 1am. TW and the girls were going strong though, and didn't get to bed until 4am. Yesterday was obviously a slow day, and we didn't get up to much - except, of course, we went ice skating (or the kids did) at the Worthing Ice Rink. They enjoyed it I think, and it was fairly quiet too, which was good for them. TY complained at the start that she wanted a penguin, which is a kind of stabiliser / skating aid, but within five minutes she was zooming around with the best of them. I was a little disappointed that we, the grown-ups, didn't go on, but I was still pretty wiped out from the New Year's Eve festivities.
Happy New Year all, and I hope that you have a good 2017.

Saturday 16-10-01 Soaked

We did another Park Run, despite the rain. It wasn't supposed to rain between 9am - 10am, but apparently the forecast was wrong. And it was torrential. Some of the runners were squealing because the rain was coming down so hard. It was bouncing up off the tarmac to knee-height, it was coming down so hard. At one point, and then for the remainder of the race, I felt like I was running in a corset because my top had absorbed so much rainwater. I did think at one point I would be better off taking it off and dumping it in the hedge, and recovering it after the run (but I didn't do that). Nevertheless, I was only 45 secs slower than my time last week. I'm quite happy to have run through the deluge, and I am happy that the deluge didn't slow me down - noticeably. I did predict that PBs would tumble, and I was wrong, but there is always next Saturday morning.

I spent a long time moving and alphabetising my CDs, so they are now arranged nicely in the living room. I realised that I have a couple of CDs missing, and I also have a couple of duplicates, most notably Circlesquare by The Wonder Stuff and Comforts of Madness by Pale Saints - they will probably go on eBay. 
I think I will have to prune my collection; they should fit into two of these units. I will digitise as much of it as I can (I've digitised a lot of it already, but I find it hard to let go of the physical discs) and there are some CDs that I've never listened to, so I can probably get rid of those without too much of a problem. I do find though, that when I get rid of CDs I always want to listen to them the following day/week/month, even if I haven't listened to them in years. So I don't want to sell or bin discs completely so that I don't have them at all, but it would be nice if they were stored tidily across the two units. 

In the afternoon we went to see the GiL, who seemed to be in good spirits. She had been out to The Spotted Cow for lunch, as is her habit most days. For a 97-year old, she is doing well. I think she could do better if she accepted help, but that's not in her nature. Her short-term memory is shot; she kept asking if she'd given the girls money, and she asked me several times how my job was going: "any sign of promotion, Rob?" We'd bought her a few bites to eat, some pork pies and a quiche, and some biscuits. And a bottle of wine, of course. We stayed for a while and then headed home. 

TW went out in the evening, and I caught up with the last episode of Banshee, a really good, enjoyable gangster/criminal/satanic thriller. I don't think I've ever seen such a relentlessly bloody, vicious series. I also watched a bit of Kate Tempest on BBC2, which was great. I'd heard a lot about Kate before, I know that Scroobius Pip is a fan, and I was interested to hear her stuff. I was blown away, and now I'll need to go out and get another CD or two... :(

And that was Saturday.