Tag: Halloween

A month of two halves

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The first half of September has been almost back to pre-pandemic levels of Being Out And About! Weddings, races, gigs… it’s been a busy time, but so joyful to be able to see people and do normal things again. I even finally got to see Duran Duran this week! They announced a couple of short-notice gigs about a fortnight ago and I jumped at the chance… especially seeing as I already had a ticket for Andy Taylor on the Wednesday and so it was set to be the best coming-out-of-the-pandemic return to gig-going week I could have hoped for!

I’ll review the gigs in depth here eventually but I’ve also written pieces on them for a couple of fansites/publications so I want to wait until those are out first.

Anyway, the second half of September, in contrast, is empty, and I plan to make the most of that. I will only be leaving the house to do parkrun and an occasional long-ish run (my short daily runs are now all being done on the treadmill to reduce my risk of injury in the lead-up to the marathon) until I leave for London, with the one exception being the day I’ll be helping Geth unpack boxes in his new office. I am guarding that time very carefully as I want as much physical and mental rest as possible over the next sixteen days!

I am also getting organised for Hallowe’en so that I’m not rushing around with that in October. Some exciting things coming in the post soon…

Gig t-shirts
T-shirt collection well stocked up this week! Love both of these 🙂

Saturday

The Wombles – ‘The Wombling Song’
Duran Duran – ‘Come Undone’

Sunday

Mika – ‘Grace Kelly’

Monday

Mark Knopfler – ‘Local Hero’
The Running Channel – ‘Run With Me’

Tuesday

Meat Loaf – ‘Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through’
Duran Duran – ‘Invisible’

Wednesday

Duran Duran – ‘Tonight United’
Andy Taylor – ‘Bringing Me Down’
Gloria Gaynor – ‘I Will Survive’
Duran Duran – ‘Friends Of Mine’

Thursday

Duran Duran – ‘What Happens Tomorrow’

Friday

Tom Jones – ‘Delilah’
Duran Duran – ‘Ordinary World’

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!

Playlist Pick: John Carpenter, ‘Halloween Theme’

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This will be the last Playlist Pick for a while, as I’m starting a new Wednesday series next week!

I put a few tunes together for my current game on Beepbox yesterday and had to work fairly hard for them NOT to sound like they were aping John Carpenter. I don’t think I succeeded with all of them. Geth kept telling me he was visualising pumpkin lanterns.

It is a classic, though….

…and I found myself staring at my lineup of Halloween DVDs on the shelf this afternoon while lying down to start my recovery from Zombie Eye III: The Reawakening (my first uveitis attack in two years). I think the film may be getting a run out soon. Possibly even before this Hallowe’en.

And while my current game mostly doesn’t suit a Carpenter-esque soundtrack, there will be plenty more suitable opportunities in the future…

‘Race’ Review: Great Run Solo Hallowe’en Challenge 2020

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I’ve mentioned before that, pre-pandemic, I was absolutely not a fan of the idea of virtual races. I miss real races a lot, and I’m fervently hoping that I’ll be able to race again later this year, even if it has to be in a COVID-secure manner.

However, I also miss medals, and doing virtual races and challenges means I still get medals during this strange time. Furthermore, it gives me extra running motivation, which can never be underestimated, especially in the colder months.

Since summer 2020, with all Great Run events cancelled or postponed, one of the things the Great Run company has been organising is a series of accumulator challenges, starting with the first Great Run Solo challenge over the summer and then monthly since October 2020. Accumulator challenges involve aiming to run (or sometimes walk / cycle / swim) a particular distance or number of runs over the course of a longer period, rather than all in one go.

October’s Great Run Solo accumulator was Hallowe’en-themed – and I LOVE Hallowe’en, so I thought I might as well give it a go, especially as it meant I would get a Hallowe’en medal at the end!

The option was there to log my runs on the Great Run website, but I found it much easier just to log them on Garmin Connect and Strava as usual and then confirm the total mileage / number of runs on the website at the end of the month. In order to finish the challenge, you had to complete fifteen runs, and if your mileage was over a certain amount then you could download a certificate. There were three levels of certificate to aim for, and I think I managed the middle one. Not bad considering I needed a break after the Virtual London Marathon!

I didn’t bother ordering the t-shirt as I have plenty, but I was really excited for the medal to arrive…

Great Run Solo Hallowe'en Challenge medal
I feel autumnal again just looking at it!

It glows in the dark (or bits of it do, anyway), which will be interesting when I finally finish putting up the medal display on our bedroom wall!

This challenge set the pattern for the Great Run company’s monthly accumulators. I’ve not been doing them every month, but the Hallowe’en one wasn’t the last. More on that next week!

Juggling November

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Another slightly frustrating mile today…

…but tomorrow I have a plan for getting a longer run done. Hope it works!

I spent another day doing piecemeal writing and editing projects – NaNo, jam game planning, short story planning, a bit of day job work. This is going to be every day in November unless I finish the short story early, which I don’t think I will unless I really get into it. I’m being strict about finishing writing and editing by 6pm so that I can get my admin done by 9pm and squeeze a couple of hours of videogaming in before bed, as I know that’s the only thing that’s going to keep me sane this month.

Another busy day tomorrow, but it’s the good kind of busy!

Great Run Solo Hallowe'en medal
My medal for my Great Run Solo Hallowe’en accumulator challenge arrived today, which means I can finally complete my decor project from a couple of months ago! Hoping to get it all up on the walls this weekend…

Today’s earworm playlist:

Duran Duran – ‘A View To A Kill’

Onto the next thing

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Just a mile this morning…

…which is standard for Mondays, but unusually is the fourth streak saver mile in a row for me as I’m having to take a break from my 10k training due to feeling a bit ill. Hopefully I’ll be able to step it up again towards the end of the week.

Hallowe’en weekend was lovely, but I woke up this morning feeling as though it was time to take the decorations down and start thinking about prepping my Christmas crafts for this year. I’ve started my NaNoWriMo project as well, so I’m well and truly in November mode.

The new lockdown coming in from Thursday in England won’t much affect me and Geth, as we never really came out of lockdown the first time – we rarely leave the house for reasons that aren’t running or supermarket shopping. I don’t have a problem with being in lockdown during November as I’m a total homebody anyway – especially in the autumn and winter – but it does feel pretty gloomy that December is so uncertain. I’m not holding out much hope for my 10k race going ahead on 6th December, or that I’ll be able to nip up to Edinburgh in early December to decorate Mum and Dad’s tree like I usually do. However, so long as I can celebrate Christmas itself in person with them, I can live without everything else this year. Just have to keep hoping.

Tomorrow will be similar to today – NaNo, house tidying, craft planning – as I settle into my November routine. There may be some late night watching of the preliminary US election results too, if I’m brave enough.

Neep lantern
From the weekend: a traditional neep lantern, part of my eclectic array of carved fruit and veg this year.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Dead Or Alive – ‘Something In My House’
Cliff Richard – ‘Mistletoe And Wine’
Mariah Carey – ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’
Traditional – ‘Carol Of The Bells’
Tom Jones – ‘Help Yourself’

Hallowe’en weekend is here!

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Just a mile today…

…which was good, because I had a lot to do today! I might take the weekend running a bit easier than planned on the training schedule, as I’ve felt a bit fatigued this week. Besides, I’d like to enjoy Hallowe’en properly tomorrow and get a good start on my NaNoWriMo project on Sunday.

I drove to Asda with Geth this afternoon to pick up everything needed for the weekend, including cake baking supplies (I want to find a use for my Hallowe’en lantern innards this year) and a final selection of Hallowe’en chocolate (which was a bit limited – it seems Asda have decided it’s now Christmas rather than Hallowe’en). I’ve also made a start on my polystyrene pumpkin project. I’m hoping to find an actual pumpkin at Sainsbury’s tomorrow as Asda had run out. I do have a turnip and a melon to carve in an emergency.

I’ll just be posting my running vlogs over the weekend. Hope everyone has a great Hallowe’en!

Spooky Oreos
These were the only Hallowe’en-themed sweet things in the shop. They’re not bad! Gutted I couldn’t find any Jaffa Cake Spooky Cake Bars this year.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Liam Payne and J Balvin – ‘Familiar’
Rockwell – ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’

Well done car

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Fitted in a run back from the garage today…

…as it was MOT day for the car. The garage gave it a really good once-over and a bit of a wash, so it’s looking very shiny again!

Today was centred around my dropoff and pickup trips to the garage so I’ve not managed to get much else done. Tomorrow should be a bit more productive.

Classy Hallowe'en decorations
The hearth is full of candles and pumpkin-shaped objects… but not together yet and at the moment it looks a bit too classy for Hallowe’en! I’ll be decorating these polystyrene pumpkins tomorrow (and also procuring some real veg to carve).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett – ‘The Monster Mash’

Very nearly settled in for Hallowe’en

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Four fairly tiring miles today…

…and then I spent the afternoon doing housework and making sure I’ve got everything I need for the car’s MOT tomorrow. It’s a more complicated process at the moment because of things needing to be COVID-secure and so I’ve had to check in online and do various other stuff, but hopefully the dropoff itself should be fairly straightforward.

I’m really looking forward to getting everything finished for the week so I can settle in for Hallowe’en weekend. I’m still enjoying my seasonal TV shows and have got a few more decorations to make before Saturday. I’m also looking at some recipes in the hope that I can start using up all the pumpkin and turnip that’s been in the freezer for some time!

Tomorrow’s a bit out of routine because of the MOT, but I should still manage to get quite a lot of stuff done.

Treehouse of Horror
I’m still enjoying my Treehouse of Horror marathon, which will take all week. Having access to the episodes on Disney Plus is much easier than fiddling with the DVDs (and the collection is a lot more up-to-date!).

Today’s earworm playlist:

WG Snuffy Walden – ‘The West Wing (Main Theme)’
Harry Dacre – ‘Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)’
Liam Payne and J Balvin – ‘Familiar’
Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett – ‘The Monster Mash’
Michael Jackson – ‘Thriller’
Rockwell – ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’