The UK winter preferring to save most of its snow for February and March when people are already sick of winter is not a new phenomenon, judging by our family photo archives. My February 1989 wardrobe heavily featured this, um, dashing snow suit, something I have most definitely not seen on any of the small children dragging sledges around the snow-laden streets of Newcastle this winter. ’80s fashion: nothing if not careful.
I am a lot more cavalier about snow in 2021 and have been going out in Doc Martens, leggings and a light trenchcoat this week. I love a bit of ’80s retro, but I’m not quite ready to do one-piece snow wear again.
It’s been a week of snow and power cuts and hence a week that has not really gone to plan. Other than the long-awaited outdoor 10k I managed last Saturday, the snow has derailed pretty much all my running this week. However, to be honest I’m kind of used to that after this long, bleak winter, and Geth and I have been looking into ways to make treadmill running less boring. I’ve ordered a Zwift Runn sensor, which you attach to the side of your treadmill in order to connect it to Zwift. I’ve been interested in trying Zwift for a while and a prolonged period of snow seems like as good an opportunity as ever… Of course, I thoroughly expect that as soon as it arrives, the snow and ice will clear up and I won’t need to use the treadmill again until next winter. Still, it’s a win either way!
In the meantime, Geth has discovered the RunDisney YouTube channel, which provides lots of nice video tours around Disneyland that enable you to watch the screen while on the treadmill and pretend you’re running round a theme park on a hot day in Florida (something that feels like a total fantasy at the moment). I watched one of the videos during my treadmill run this morning and it felt a lot less tedious than usual! Geth originally wanted to do a real-life RunDisney event for his 40th birthday last year, but obviously that has had to be put on hold for now. We’re determined that it will happen eventually, though.
The power cuts we had earlier this week, meanwhile, meant that work was disrupted quite a bit and I’ve not really been able to catch up. As such, I’m going to have to do a bit of work at the weekend, which is something I’ve been trying to avoid 🙁 Hopefully things will go a bit more smoothly next week.
This week’s earworm playlists:
Saturday
Cast of The Sound Of Music – ‘So Long, Farewell’* Kate Bush – ‘Wuthering Heights’ Barenaked Ladies – ‘One Week’
*RIP Christopher Plummer.
Sunday
The Bangles – ‘Hazy Shade Of Winter’ Lindisfarne – ‘Meet Me On The Corner’
Monday
Lindisfarne – ‘Meet Me On The Corner’ Duran Duran – ‘Friends Of Mine’
Tuesday
Cast of The Sound Of Music – ‘Edelweiss’ Cast of Mary Poppins – ‘Let’s Go Fly A Kite’ Queen – ‘Flash’ Ladytron – ‘Destroy Everything You Touch’ Duran Duran – ‘Ball Of Confusion’ The Weeknd and Daft Punk – ‘Starboy’ Duran Duran – ‘Five Years’
Wednesday
The Weeknd – ‘Blinding Lights’ Lil’ Dicky, Chris Brown, Ed Sheeran, DJ Khaled and Kendall Jenner – ‘Freaky Friday’ Queen – ‘One Vision’ Duran Duran – ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’ Robson & Jerome – ‘Unchained Melody’
Thursday
Adam & The Ants – ‘Prince Charming’ Randy Newman – ‘You’ve Got A Friend In Me’
Friday
The Bangles – ‘Hazy Shade Of Winter’ Revo – ‘Sylvan Tranquility’ Duran Duran – ‘Winter Marches On’ Traditional – ‘Bonnie Ship The Diamond’
I was born in a snow-laden January, so I should be used to putting up with winter weather at this time of year. Mind you, as a newborn I wasn’t worrying about trying to run in it!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Duran Duran – ‘Five Years’ Thought Beings – ‘Shakedown’ 5 Seconds Of Summer – ‘Youngblood’ John Taylor – ‘I Do What I Do’ Cee Lo Green – ‘Forget You’ Ariana Grande – ‘Thank U Next’ Ollie Wride – ‘Back To Life’
I’ve only been back at work for three days, but it’s been a pretty busy half week, so the weekend is very welcome! The combination of lockdown and snow lends itself well to videogaming, so that’s what I’ll be doing. Geth got me a Switch Lite for my birthday, I still have plenty of games in my backlog on other systems, and I still have lots of games from the most recent Adventuron jam to play and rate – so I’m not going to run out of entertainment any time soon.
It always takes me a while to find my feet again after Christmas. There’s a lot of stuff that needs sorting out in the house, but I’m gradually catching up with things. I’m sleeping late at the moment, which is a habit I really want to get out of so that I can get more done in the mornings. Hopefully once Geth is back at work next week, it’ll be easier to get into pattern.
I started attending a new Zoom music group this week. It’s very beginner-friendly, and Zoom music groups are always muted so I can happily bash away on my ukulele without worrying about anyone hearing me. As such, it’s a really good way to get back into playing; I haven’t found much time for practising since my previous classes came to a halt last March.
A good start to January, given the ongoing circumstances.
One last pre-weekend ‘recovery’ mile this morning…
…before a slow shakeout parkrun tomorrow morning and then the race on Sunday. I’m so excited about this race that I’m starting to wonder if my 2019 autumn running strategy was a bit of a mistake. For context: in 2017 and 2018 I ran my last races of the season in October and November respectively, meaning that I felt a bit burnt out after a long race season each time and ended up having a ‘winter running slump’ (i.e. six to eight weeks with no running at all) both years as a result. As such, I decided to end my 2019 race season with September’s Great North Run, in the hope that I would feel more refreshed and avoid the slump this winter.
This sort of semi-worked (I did have four weeks off between late November and late December, but that was due to a really bad cold rather than not wanting to run!). However, because this last six-month period has been my longest break between races in three years, I find that I’ve really built this race up in my head and am bouncing off the walls about it. I sort of wish I could calm down a bit, because I’m nervous about going out far too fast on Sunday now.
However, it will not be my last half marathon this year – I’ve got quite a few booked – so if for any reason it does all go wrong, I do have several more chances to get it right. It’d be so nice to have a good confidence-boosting PB going into the final stages of London Marathon training though!
After that nice gentle parkrun (Geth’s 100th!), we’ll be doing some shopping tomorrow 🙂
Today’s earworm playlist:
Justin Bieber – ‘Love Yourself’ Ram Jam – ‘Black Betty’
…because we woke up to snow. While it melted quite quickly, I didn’t fancy wading around in the slush!
I’ve been having a bit of a think about my blog structure today, as I’ve been finding that I’ve not had much time to get my review posts done. There may be a bit of a change in direction soon, but it’ll take a bit more time for me to work out the details.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Paula Abdul – ‘Straight Up’ Janet Jackson – ‘Together Again’ The Lancashire Hotpots – ‘Shopmobility Scooter’ Brotherhood Of Man – ‘Save Your Kisses For Me’ Calvin Harris and Rihanna – ‘This Is What You Came For’ VNV Nation – ‘Beloved’
I’m back in Newcastle after a few days in Inverness. Apart from some travel stress on Saturday due to missing a connection, Geth and I have had a really nice break, and it was good to spend some time in a city I hadn’t visited for a while.
Once we got home, I spent an hour or so this evening battling the complex and stressful online system for getting into the Blaydon Race. The website had a lot of problems due to the demand, but happily I’m in for the third year running!
It’s nice to be home, but I’ve got a busy few days ahead.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Tiffany – I Think We’re Alone Now Swing Out Sister – Breakout Jason Donovan – When You Come Back To Me Deep Blue Something – Breakfast At Tiffany’s Squeeze – Up The Junction Lily Allen – LDN
Well, all the snow melted overnight and the temperature suddenly jumped from ‘depths of winter’ to ‘more like spring’, so after getting all my writing done for the day, I ventured out to go get my hearing aid admin done at the hospital. This, as I should have expected with hearing-related medical stuff, was not as straightforward as it should have been.
In short: I need new earmoulds for my aids as my existing ones are starting to crack, but the technician said that before they can take impressions for the new moulds, I need to go to the GP to get my ears syringed, and then go back to the hospital. I’ve got the feeling that this is going to turn into one of those medical sagas that takes up a lot of time.
Time to get on with some ukulele practice, then back to writing for the evening, with some nice BBC4 music documentaries in the background.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Bananarama – Shy Boy Haircut 100 – Love Plus One Wilson Phillips – Hold On Post Malone – Wow Jax Jones and Years & Years – Play Post Malone and Swae Lee – Sunflower Tears For Fears – Head Over Heels
There was still too much snow on the ground to go for a run this morning. I didn’t even fancy venturing out in it to go to the vintage fair that was on today, which tells you how much I am done with being out in the cold. Still, a lot of it has melted today, and Geth reckons it’ll be okay for his run tomorrow, so in the morning I will head out to get my hearing aid admin done at the hospital.
We did make the decision this weekend to buy a treadmill for when it’s too snowy for runs (or too wet, or too cold, or when I just feel like running in a nice warm living room with the TV on rather than going outside). As such, I’ll have no excuse for missing any more training runs after it arrives on Wednesday!
Today was another day in, then, and so I’ve spent the afternoon logging books for my collection on Goodreads and semi-watching the rugby from yesterday that Geth has had on TV. Wins for both Wales and Scotland this weekend, so it’s a happy house.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Adam & The Ants – Prince Charming Duran Duran – New Moon On Monday Tears For Fears – Head Over Heels The Communards – Don’t Leave Me This Way Brian May – Too Much Love Will Kill You Duran Duran – Ordinary World David Bowie – Fashion Alison Moyet – All Cried Out Siouxsie & The Banshees – Happy House
It snowed overnight, which cemented my decision not to leave the house today (I need to go to the hospital for some hearing aid admin, but that can definitely wait till next week). Having looked at the weather forecast, Geth and I decided this morning that parkrun will also be a no-go for us tomorrow (and in fact it’s just been announced that Newcastle parkrun won’t even be on), which means two glorious days of hermit living in a row!
This meant I got lots of editing done today, as well as a good chunk of ukulele practice. Our latest song from class is a bit of a step up technique-wise, so I need to have a good few goes at it this week.
More quality time with my sofa tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Haircut 100 – Love Plus One Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan – Especially For You Duran Duran – Hungry Like The Wolf Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus – Nothing Breaks Like A Heart Dire Straits – Romeo And Juliet