It was another rather “blah” week. I’m trying super hard to stay cheerful and positive, but when every day is the same as the day before, with no hint of a change, it can get pretty tough. That’s not to say the week was awful – there were certainly plenty of fun/satisfying moments – but my goodness it’s getting hard to find a new way to write about how I’m spending my days! Still, the streak continued, training continued, and I achieved a couple more things from my “Lockdown List”.
Monday – 5k + garden workout + home yoga
Tuesday – 4 miles + garden workout + home yoga
Wednesday – 5 miles + garden workout + home yoga
Thursday – 4.5 miles + garden workout + home yoga
Friday – 4 miles + home yoga
Saturday – 6.3 miles
Sunday – 8.2 miles
I actually didn’t have a theme for my running tops this week – unless the theme was “random tops I pulled from my drawer”! I did, however, take this as a kind of recovery week. Normally a training cycle would build for 3 weeks then cut back for a week to allow the body to adapt to the training. Now while I’m not training for anything (who is right now!) I am running more frequently and my average weekly mileage has risen, so it felt like a sensible idea to give my body a bit of a break while still maintaining my run streak. Not that I’ve been running hard by any stretch of the imagination, but to consciously slow it down and take things easy did feel good and I do feel more refreshed as a result.
I also kept up with my weekday yoga and had a workout on 4 out of the 5 days (it was super windy on Friday and there was some rain in the afternoon so a garden workout wasn’t really possible, and a living room workout just didn’t fit with how we have been structuring those workouts, so we just gave that one a miss).
In a week of the same old Groundhog Day existence, there were a few other things to mention.
There wasn’t much of note on Monday. I usually have my Hatha yoga class (currently via Zoom) but my teacher was having a week off so I did a Yoga with Adriene video instead.
Tuesday was far more interesting. I ordered myself a little present which arrived around lunchtime:
I have been wanting these for ages and decided now was the time to splurge and treat myself. So far I love them. The quality is so much better than the wired EarPods that come with iPhones and they are great for listening to podcasts and things around the house. I know some people wear them to run but I have no plans to do that as I prefer the open-ear experience of wearing my Aftershokz for that.
I also did a bit of life admin on Tuesday. I had received a reminder letter than my driving licence was going to expire soon, so I went through the process to renew it online, which was pretty easy. I needed my passport to do this (since I can’t go and get a new photo I had the option to renew using my passport details) and when I got my passport out I noticed that my EHIC card had expired. Since technically I still have trips booked for later this year (although I’m not very hopeful) I thought I had better renew it as it’s still needed throughout the Brexit transition period. I suspect this might be the most optimistic thing I’ve done since we went into lockdown!
After all that adulting (bleugh!) I finished up the craft project I had started at the weekend:
Can you guess?
That’s right, a stand to hold my Disney ears. My sister made me something like this a while back but I needed more so after gathering together the supplies and interrogating her about how she did it, I decided it fell within my capabilities and had a go. I’m quite pleased with the result.
And I enjoyed some snuggles with my boy.
In all honesty the most exciting thing to happen on Wednesday was that I found a four leafed clover in our back garden. In fact, we found a patch of them growing! When I was little I used to always look for these but never found any and was convinced they were just made up, so this was quite a surprise!
I also prepped a big pot of chilli ready to slow cook for our dinner the following evening.
I’m glad I was so organised as I actually found Thursday a bit stressful. The First Minister announced the Scottish Government plans for easing out of lockdown, all of which seem perfectly sensible to me. We won’t be opening our schools up until the new school year in August, but staff will likely be in schools at some point in June in order to plan for a blended approach to teaching from August. What caused me some stress was not knowing the detail of all of that yet as some of it comes from a local level, such as when we might be required back in school. The other thing stressing me out was the fact that the start of the new academic year was standardised so that ALL schools will go back on the same day. Our new school year was not due to start until the following week and initially I was concerned that we would lose holiday time (I know, I know, it’s not like I’m getting away, but after dealing with a school fire, an inspection and a global pandemic I’m needing a bit of time off!) especially since one of the trips I don’t think I’m actually going on coincides with that date! But after getting a little more detail I felt much better. I think I felt anxious because a degree of uncertainty was re-introduced to my safe and stable little world.
On the plus side, the chilli was good and Steve experimented with making rice in the steamer. I think we’ll be doing our rice that way from now on rather than using those packets that you microwave.
Friday was day a better day. A fun highlight was Steve and I finding our photos had been shared in a post marking what should have been the Edinburgh marathon weekend. These pictures bring back great memories of Steve’s 2014 adventure and my challenge from 2015 (which I wrote about here and here if you missed it).
And to keep the kitty balance, here’s Sooty in one of her favourite places to snuggle:
On Saturday it was time to debut my new parkrun apricot top. It’s a good thing it was a nice run as my parkrun quiz score wasn’t much better than last week at just 6/15 (too many complete guesses again!). At least it tells me what day it is and retains a connection to the parkrun world.
The afternoon was spent in high glamour (ha!) dusting and tidying the house. At least having my AirPods meant I could easily listen to some podcasts while I did it. I also got a second holder for my remaining Disney ears underway. I’ll not finish it for a couple of days though, as it involves some air-dry clay which needs a chance to set.
And in the evening we watched the first episode of Little Fires Everywhere on Amazon Prime. I read the book a couple of summers ago so have been keen to see it since I started to see ads for it on YouTube videos.
Sunday’s run was the only one in the week with a particular focus to it. I had been aware of loads of discussion of “postbox bingo” on podcasts and social media posts and I decided to have a go. With a bit of planning, I was able to “collect” all the postbox ciphers available here in Perth, and actually found it quite good fun – a bit like having a quest to go on! If you had told me a few months ago that not only would I have gone out for a run with the express purpose of photographing a range of postboxes, but that I would conduct RESEARCH into where to find certain ones (and learn some interesting historical facts along the way) I would have thought you mad. And yet, here I am about to tell you that I found a Victoria, Edward 7th, George 5th, George 6th and the Scottish Crown (which is in place of Elizabeth 2nd here in Scotland following what has been dubbed The Postbox Wars in the 1950s). My research also told me of a super-rare Edward 8th about 10 miles away (a bit far as it would be a 20 mile round trip on foot!) but I also learned of a much more accessible one which bears the cipher of George 6th but is believed to have originally been intended as an Edward 8th and was hastily altered upon his abdication (it’s the one in the bottom left of my collage below). I really had no idea there was so much history in the simple postbox, such a common piece of street furniture that I hardly notice them any more, although I do have a recollection of being told about the royal ciphers when I was in primary school.
After all that excitement we ate lunch, did the food shopping, watched an episode of The Mandalorian while eating our Sunday afternoon hot cross buns and then I carried on with the housework by conducting a VERY thorough vacuuming of all the rooms – tools used and everything! Life is just a non-stop whirlwind right now!
I had my bath as usual, but by the time I was getting ready for bed I was starting to feel a bit fed up and done with lockdown. My emotions are really torn right now: on the one hand I just want things to go back to normal, but on the other hand I’m wary and anxious about being around lots of people and potentially exposed to lots of germs again. Hopefully the gradual approach here in Scotland will ease me back in, but it’s so hard to know when is the right time to do a bit more. I suspect all the things that have been cancelled/postponed are becoming more and more noticeable to me now as well. Absolutely right not to have them happen, but there’s still a lot of disappointment attached to missing out on something you have been looking forward to and I think it’s ok to acknowledge that as part of a process of moving forward.
For now, I just keep on keeping on.
How are you feeling about the easing of restrictions and some things beginning to open up again?
Have you had a go at postbox bingo yet?