December 13, 2024
Chicago 12, Melborne City, USA
Dear Diary

This Week I…..

Hi there! Howā€™s things? I genuinely canā€™t believe weā€™re so far into December already. Where does the time go? Etc, etc.

My Sunday this week consists of a client session at the gym, then rewarding myself with a trip to TK Maxx in the hope that they have some candles I can waste my money on.

Iā€™ll then be having a very quiet Sunday evening as I have an early start tomorrow.

But before all that, this week I…..

Ran far too fast

After a few weeks of ā€œploddingā€ on my training plan, this week was the first week some faster runs started creeping in.

On Monday I was supposed to do a tempo run, a pace that my calculator had decided was approximately 10:27 minute miles or ā€œcomfortably hardā€.

It seems, however, that those weeks of plodding have led to me loosing all sense of pacing. I went out far too fast on a downhill, suddenly realised I was going to fast on an uphill, tried to slow down a bit, got all confused and ended up running my tempo run at 9:50 minute miles. I have no idea what that means for my carefully written training plan, but it was a) really hard and b) actually quite good for my confidence as it proved I could do it.

Started decorating

So. 7 years ago in the midst of the 2012 Olympics, we moved into a new house.

We did several things, including ripping up the dining room carpet and knocking out a window to replace it with a door. Then we ground to halt and for the last 7 years the dining room has been a depressing cupboard with grubby walls with wires sticking out of them and a grubby curtain over the new door.

So this week me and my credit card decided enough was enough and we spent a lot of money we couldnā€™t afford on paint and rugs and new light fittings and spray bottles of sugar soap and over the course of 3 days I painted the entire room, scrubbed the floor (I donā€™t have the time or money to sand it nicely, but at least itā€™s a bit cleaner!) and put all the pictures back up nicely.

Mr LLL put a new light fitting in, which doesnā€™t work as itā€™s not wired up to anything and we canā€™t afford an electrician, but it looks better than wires sticking out of the wall.

And now we have something that nearly looks like a room. I have a few finishing touches to make this week, but Iā€™m already feeling far happier when I walk through it!

It is bodged, but at least it is attractively bodged.

Had Chips, but not the chips Iā€™d planned on.

Honestly, all that decorating was exhausting, so we decided to treat ourselves to MotherChips at the local pub, the best loaded fries ever, and I was really keen to try their Christmas menu.

However, when we arrived the pub was packed. It always is and I donā€™t know why I thought this Tuesday night would be different to all the other Tuesday nights Iā€™ve been disappointed and not able to find a table.

So instead we went to another local pub, we were just going to have a drink, but then their food menu looked quite tasty, so we did get chips after all. Not quite the massively loaded Christmas chips I had planned on, but chips all the same.

Had a Slightly Festive Night Out

I say slightly festive, because I guess technically it was anti-festive? The pub near me held a Krampus party on Friday night. Krampus is kind of the anti-father Christmas. Found in many Germanic countries folklore he punishes naughty children at Christmas instead of bringing them gifts.

We had a few drinks and there was a visit from the Ickeny, a huge folk horse with a skull head.

Then Krampus and Kettā€™s Horse did some dancing, to Black Sabbath, which led to some fun reminiscing about that time I won the heats of a talent competition when I was 11 dancing to Black Sabbath, but didnā€™t win the final because the vicar on the panel was unimpressed.

Celebrated the fireplaces birthday

Yes, because that is a thing, ok!

Turns out it was 6 years yesterday that we installed our lovely open fire, so we thought we ought to celebrate by, er, lighting a fire.

It also gave me a chance to catch up on my whisky drinking as after a busy week I hadnā€™t drunk any of the contents of the Drinks by the Dram advent calendar they so kindly sent me. It was a lovely cosy Saturday and I almost felt a festive twinkle.

And that was another week in my life.

How was your week?

administrator
Personal Trainer, blogger, red lipstick wearer and Cocktail drinker. Learning to enjoy the journey.