Tag: Christmas

All systems go

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Geth and I have been up in Edinburgh for a few days to see Mum and Dad and to collect some interesting computer stuff that I will blog about soon. We are back now and I have had some good post through the door today (mainly Christmas-related). Time is hurtling on as ever and it won’t be long now till the end of the year.

It’s going to be a busy weekend as we have a gig to attend tomorrow evening. I need to start catching up with my gig reviews again soon! Another thing to target by Christmas…

Quiet week next week though. Might even manage another Shouldless Sunday!

Virtual LEJOG medal
My virtual LEJOG medal finally arrived today – probably the last of my virtual medals as I’ve got no need to do virtuals anymore now that real races are back.

This week’s earworm playlists:

Saturday

Ava Max – ‘Kings And Queens’

Sunday

Kevin Gillis and Lisa Lougheed – ‘Run With Us’

Monday

The Running Channel – ‘Run With Me’
The Sweet – ‘Blockbuster’
Dead Or Alive – ‘Something In My House’

Tuesday

Roxette – ‘Listen To Your Heart’

Wednesday

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – ‘Locomotion’

Thursday

Duran Duran – ‘Anniversary’
Cast of The Jungle Book – ‘Bare Necessities’
Marc Almond and Gene Pitney – ‘Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart’
Soft Cell – ‘Sex Dwarf’

Friday

Pixie Lott – ‘Mama Do’

Ticking things off (Christmas edition)

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I’ve had a fairly productive weekend, but it’s still felt like a weekend because it’s been different from what I’m doing during the week. I’ve got about half of our Christmas presents wrapped (the other half are yet to arrive), some of the Christmas food prepared and in the freezer, and a few more other random things booked. I’m determined to have all the Christmas prep organised and done by the end of November this year!

Geth was running the Town Moor Half Marathon this morning so I spent some time in the nearby café with my book. I had a good view of all the marathon and half marathon runners as they went round and round the lapped course! I’ve also been getting on with my hobby coding – I’m really glad I decided to combine it with my NaNoWriMo because it’s meant I’ve had the motivation to get a bit more done every day, even when I’m really busy.

Looking forward to another good week of software dev learning 🙂

Town Moor Half Marathon
Geth at the Town Moor half this morning. A tough and breezy one by all accounts!

The inbetween month

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The Hallowe’en decorations are down. Well, except for the pumpkin and neep lanterns I carved, which have still got a few good days left in them before they go in the bin. I always feel that Hallowe’en can be extended right up to Bonfire Night if necessary 🙂

November, when I’m not busy working and/or studying and/or working on some interactive fiction for NaNoWriMo, is going to be all about getting everything prepped for Christmas so that I’m all organised by the beginning of December and can just enjoy the festivities. This time next month I will hopefully have a fully decorated house and everything done and dusted!

Now, if I could just think of something I actually want for Christmas… I’m drawing a blank this year!

Hallowe'en cake
I made a Hallowe’en cake at the weekend from my pumpkin and neep innards. It doesn’t look like much (I need some spider decorations or something) but it tastes nice!

The greatest season

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Today is one of my favourite days of the year. It’s the start of meteorological autumn and the very first day of the glorious four months ending with -ber. It is officially now The Very Best Time Of The Year right up until the point when I have to take the Christmas decorations down on the 6th of January! (At which point begins The Very Worst Time Of The Year, but let’s not dwell on that just now.)

The length of the daylight is feeling more natural to me again now and I’m sleeping better. The weather has cooled down, and I hope it stays cooled down now, because it’s so much better for running.

NEXT MONTH IS HALLOWE’EN, which means I can start making decorations and watching Hallowe’en TV and horror films. It’s my favourite celebration and very much worth extending for two whole months!

I am also crossing everything that the pandemic doesn’t take another vicious turn and that we can all enjoy a normal Christmas at the end of this season. It will feel extra special doing all the things we didn’t get to do last year. I am really looking forward to an autumn that isn’t spent constantly worrying about the extent to which Christmas is going to be cancelled!

Candles and hot chocolate at the ready tonight. This autumn is going to be amazing.

Autumn 2020
Last year’s leaves. This year’s are already on the turn but I’ve not started taking pictures yet. A task for tomorrow’s long run!

‘Race’ Review: Great Run Solo 12 Runs Of Christmas Challenge 2020

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This December challenge was the second (and last as of now) of the Great Run Solo accumulators that I’ve entered, following October’s Hallowe’en event.

It followed a fairly similar formula to the Hallowe’en version, this time requiring participants to complete twelve runs between the 1st and 25th of December. Usually you don’t get the medal until the following month, but on this occasion they sent them out early (before most people had even completed the challenge) so that we could all use the alternative ‘tree decoration’ ribbon to hang them on our Christmas trees!

There were three medals designed for this challenge, and it was a surprise as to which one you would be sent. Mine was a Santa medal, but I’d have been equally happy with a snowman or reindeer!

Great Run Solo 12 Days Of Christmas medal
A little bit of extra sparkle for my 2020 tree!

The basic challenge wasn’t really a challenge for me as I run every day anyway, so my main interest was in seeing how much mileage I could rack up. It wasn’t as much as I would have liked as I was still on a bit of a post-London slump, and so I only managed the lowest of the three certificate levels, but anything was a win in the first part of December.

Post-Christmas I was a bit more refreshed and was able to move onto slightly bigger challenges, which I’ll discuss in the next few weeks!

Last few days of Christmas, and a bit of blog admin

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I’ll mostly be doing photo posts this week as I’ll be busy with putting the Christmas decorations away and getting back to work. From next Monday onwards the blog will be back on schedule, though it’ll be a different schedule from what it has been over the last year! With the pandemic continuing to rumble on, life is a bit too quiet for daily diary posts, and so I’ll be doing weekly life updates on Fridays instead. The rest of the week will be dedicated to ramblings about my various hobbies, which remain over-numerous.

I’m excited about a slight change of direction as there are lots of things I want to write about in more detail. More info about this next week (as I haven’t quite finalised everything yet!).

Colourful leggings
The leggings I wore for my birthday yesterday. 2020 was the year of colourful trousers and I do not imagine that will change for 2021!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Tears For Fears – ‘Shout’

Post on 2nd January!

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I feel in between today, as usual.

However, a Christmas gift came in the post today to cheer me up. I’ve always been in Scotland (where 2nd January is a public holiday) for New Year in the past, so have never known post to arrive on the 2nd of January before.

The gift was a tree decoration from our family friend Chris. We always see her at New Year but obviously couldn’t this time round.

Tree decoration

I also made my own birthday cake for the first time ever, with instruction from Dad over video call. I’ll be able to tell you tomorrow if it turned out okay!

Today’s earworm playlist:

The Weeknd – ‘Blinding Lights’
Coldplay – ‘Christmas Lights’
Heaven 17 – ‘Let Me Go’

Christmas presents, 2007

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Today’s picture shows the haul under Mum and Dad’s tree on Christmas Eve, 2007. As a family we are very lucky and are able to give each other lots of nice things to open on Christmas morning. It’s a really special time and I’m already looking forward to next year.

Christmas presents, 2007

Today’s earworm playlist:

Traditional – ‘I Saw Three Ships’
Black – ‘Wonderful Life’

And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:

Traditional – ‘On Christmas Night All Christians Sing’

Christmas cat, 2005

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Today’s picture features the wonderful and much-missed José, who was the feline love of my life. He was always able to unearth his own presents underneath the tree due to the unmistakeable* scent of the catnip contained within.

*to a cat, anyway.

Christmas cat, 2005

Today’s earworm playlist:

Pet Shop Boys – ‘Heart’
Ed Sheeran – ‘Castle On The Hill’
Carter USM – ‘Bloodsport For All’
Beyoncé and Jay-Z – ‘Crazy In Love’