Tag: Halloween

Another Tuesday

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I did my interval session somewhere different this morning…

…which was nice. Geth and I seem to have timed our runs well as since lunchtime it’s been raining and grey – one of those days where you need the lights on all day long.

I don’t mind it being typical autumn weather in the afternoons and evenings as it’s the time of year when I like to curl up and watch TV, and in the current situation that’s all we can do anyway. I do mind in the mornings, because I’m really having to psyche myself up to go out for my runs in the cold and wet. It’s always fine once I get out there, but when I first wake up, getting out of my nice warm bed to go running is the last thing I want to do, especially on a Tuesday when I need to do a tough interval session.

I always get out and do it eventually though. That’s the beauty of the run streak – I need to go out for at least a mile to maintain the streak, so I might as well go and do the run I’ve got scheduled.

I had a bit of day job work to get on with this afternoon, and am now finishing off my admin so that I can watch some Hallowe’en TV this evening. I started my annual Simpsons ‘Treehouse Of Horror’ marathon yesterday, and have also been recording all the Hallowe’en shows on Food Network. These days, for me, Hallowe’en is always about staying in and enjoying the atmosphere, so it feels like it’s the one celebration that the pandemic can’t affect this year.

I’m still sleeping later than I’d like, partly because I’m tossing and turning and worrying about world things late at night. Hopefully I’ll manage to get my run done fairly quickly tomorrow, as there’s a few things I want to check before taking the car for its MOT on Thursday.

Maisie meets her match, 1984
I loved this book as a child. It describes an ’80s Hallowe’en in Morningside, Edinburgh, and thus perfectly captures my childhood Hallowe’ens – all the Scottish traditions and customs. I wonder if it perhaps isn’t sold or has been changed these days, as Maisie’s ‘Red Indian Chief’ costume would be considered culturally insensitive now.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Liam Payne and J Balvin – ‘Familiar’
Bananarama – ‘Really Saying Something’
Wham! – ‘Club Tropicana’
Prince – ‘1999’
Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett – ‘The Monster Mash’
Barenaked Ladies – ‘One Week’
The Black Crowes – ‘Hard To Handle’
Pet Shop Boys – ‘On Social Media’

Taking a day off

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Rest day mile today…

…and I’m now taking the rest of the day off to read, watch Hallowe’en TV, and play videogames, which is a Monday habit I’ve wanted to get back into for a while.

The extra hour gained over the weekend has helped a bit with sleep, but not much. I think I just have to accept that I need a bit of extra sleep right now and schedule things accordingly.

Back to work tomorrow.

Clothes
Just some of the dresses I’ll be selling online soon. I need to get them all photographed this week.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne – ‘Shot In The Dark’
Glenn Miller – ‘In The Mood’
Sia – ‘The Greatest’
Sheena Easton – ‘9 To 5 (Morning Train)’

Quiet week, quiet weekend

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Rest day mile today…

…which will hopefully set me up for the two longer weekend runs I’ll be doing over the next couple of days. Currently planning them out in order to avoid the wet weather!

I would say I’m looking forward to a ‘quiet weekend’ (I am) but in all honesty it’s been a pretty quiet week. I keep reading about things starting up again in a COVID-secure way and getting the urge to go, but I know it’ll be a big adjustment when it comes time to start leaving the house for stuff again and so I need to take it slowly.

Running vlogs as usual over the weekend, and I’ll be back to update on Monday.

Hallowe'en 2004
Flashback Friday: Pumpkin carving in the lead-up to Hallowe’en 2004, with ‘help’ from the family’s new kitten, José, who was always fascinated by pumpkins. He used to stick his paws into the open mouths of lit lanterns and singe his fur. Miss you precious one 🖤

Today’s earworm playlist:

Sacre – ‘The London Marathon [Theme From The Trap]’
WG Snuffy Walden – ‘The West Wing (Main Theme)’

Still trying to wake up

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A 35-minute easy run today…

…and my deliberately slow easy pace certainly felt suited to my still-half-asleep state! I’ve had another fairly slow day – bit of day job work, bit of admin, but mostly dozing and reading. Hoping to be a bit more awake tomorrow.

Hallowe'en mask
More of my Hallowe’en decorations! Geth and I picked this mask up at a specialist Hallowe’en shop in Washington DC when we were there for Hallowe’en in 2008 – the only time I’ve ever been out of the UK for Hallowe’en. It’s a nice souvenir from a really special trip.

Today’s earworm playlist:

WG Snuffy Walden – ‘The West Wing (Main Theme)’
Justin Timberlake – ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’

Phone Box Thursday: A747, Monreith

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Another phone box from Mum and Dad’s Scottish adventures… but, somewhat appropriately for Hallowe’en month, there’s something a bit spooky going on with it!

Red phone box
Red phone box, A747, Monreith, 8th August 2020.

(Coordinates 54°73’72.6″N, 4°55’02.6″W.)

Dad reports that there is (or was in August) still a phone inside the box, but also a ‘closing soon’ notice 🙁 Unfortunately it seems that this box will be disappearing shortly, along with about 90% of other rural boxes in the UK. It sort of feels like we’re documenting the end of an era at the moment.

That’s not the spooky thing though!

If you click the Google Street View image linked above, you’ll see the same image I saw when searching for the box:

Phone box from Google Street View

However, if you then move slightly up the road (to the east, away from the A747 and onto the side street), the phone box suddenly turns green!

Phone box from Google Street View

My immediate thought was that the box must have been repainted at some point. However, I’ve never seen a box repainted this shade of green in the UK – it’s apparently quite common for old phone boxes in the Republic of Ireland, but I was surprised to see one in the south-west of Scotland.

But then, if you move a step further…

Phone box from Google Street View

…the phone box is suddenly red again – and it can’t be a repaint, because the exact same couple are still walking past the phone box with their dogs!

I was a bit freaked out by this and took a closer look. In the second picture with the green box, it also appears that the lady’s face has also turned green, making her look like the Witch of the West from The Wizard Of Oz (complete with Toto no less!). A similar thing has happened to a wooden shed and gate if you rotate the third image to look further up the road. As such, Geth and I have concluded that it must be some kind of strange effect from the camera used by the Google cars.

It’s still pretty spooky though!

We’ll stay in Scotland next week for another (hopefully less freaky) phone box.

More slight sleep issues

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Four miles today…

…and I’m glad I got them done because I really did not want to leave the house this morning. The weather was fine but I felt lethargic and tired and could easily have gone back to sleep, despite the fact that I didn’t wake up till 10am.

10am has been my usual wake-up time for a week or two now. I’m not happy about it as I prefer to be awake a couple of hours earlier than that. I like to have an hour in bed after waking up (for caffeinating and social-media-reading purposes), so if I don’t wake up till 10am then I don’t get my run finished till lunchtime and I don’t start work until early afternoon… which means I’m working all evening, and I would rather that not be the case.

I’m not staying up particularly late (bedtime is around midnight), but my body has decided it needs ten hours of sleep a night at the moment, and I think it’s important to wake up naturally if you have the luxury to do so, so it is what it is right now. I’ve always been a bit of a hibernator and it seems I’ve started early this year. Trying not to succumb to an unplanned afternoon nap right now.

I have managed to catch up with a bit of writing today, so that’s something. Same again tomorrow I hope.

Rubber skeleton
My skeleton is managing to look sinister despite his unseasonal floral background. I should maybe make some special coverings for those boxes next year.

Today’s earworm playlist:

WG Snuffy Walden – ‘The West Wing (Main Theme)’

A grey Monday

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A tiring mile in the strong breeze today…

…which I’m going to take as a sign I worked hard on my running over the weekend. Hopefully I’ll have recovered a bit of energy by tomorrow’s interval session!

I’m struggling quite a lot with anxiety today. I think I’m just getting a bit worn down by all the small stresses of the last few weeks and months. I need to find some forms of escapism, possibly via getting back to my writing and videogaming again. Geth is playing a tabletop RPG online with friends this evening so doing some of my own gaming might be a good idea.

I’m waiting for work to come in at the moment so I think my non-running activities this week will mainly be admin, house sorting, and trying not to worry about stuff.

Hallowe'en tealight holder
Now that it’s dark by 6pm, the tealight holders are seeing a lot of use.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Ultra Naté – ‘Free’
Cast of The Greatest Showman – ‘The Greatest Show’

I’ve decided it’s Hallowe’en now

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A 30-minute easy run this morning…

…which I was a bit wary about when I saw it on my training plan as I prefer to go by distance, but it was fine.

After finishing off my day job work, I spent the afternoon decorating the house for Hallowe’en, as I want to be able to enjoy my decorations for a couple of weeks this year. This evening, Geth and I have been catching up with the recent Strictly ‘Best Of’ specials in preparation for the series proper starting this weekend!

Another good productive day tomorrow I hope.

Hallowe'en window cling
I’ve had these Hallowe’en window clings for years and they’re starting to lose their static, but I love them.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett – ‘The Monster Mash’
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Unflinchable Courage’

Back to a bit of house sorting

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Three miles today…

…which was a nice distance for midweek. I’m enjoying having a proper running structure again. It stayed dry this morning as well!

I’m doing a bit of household-stuff-sorting again. I’ve decided to try and sell most of my old clothes that I don’t wear anymore online, in order to try and make a bit of cash for more leggings and clear some space in the house for more leggings. The first lot to be sold are the clothes that are still in good condition but don’t fit me anymore since I lost weight, and that have been sitting around in the garage for the last two years. I’ll be spending part of the weekend photographing them and putting up the listings. I also have quite a lot of clothes in my drawers and wardrobes that will probably go the same way, because I’m just not wearing them anymore – this pandemic-stricken year has been all about finding the most comfortable and cheerful clothes possible, and so stuff that’s a bit more fussy in terms of fastenings has fallen by the wayside. I’ll keep the quality timeless items as I know I’ll want smarter clothes again one day, but I really do need to start decluttering again as I’d quite like there to be a time when I’m no longer depressed by the untidy mounds of stuff in my house.

Any clothes that I can’t sell, I’ll donate. They all need to be out of the house in the next few months.

A last-minute bit of day job work came in today, so I’ll be finishing that tomorrow, and hopefully starting to get the Hallowe’en decorations up 🙂

London Marathon medal
One thing I’ll never sell is the London Marathon medal that arrived earlier this week!

Today’s earworm playlist:

The Running Channel – ‘Run With Me’
Journey – ‘Don’t Stop Believing’

A positive Tuesday

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I did an interval session this morning…

…and I was a bit apprehensive about it, but it was great to get some speedwork in again after all the longer race training!

I then spent the afternoon doing day job work – that should be the bulk of it done for this week as a couple of clients have rescheduled – and am now catching up with a bit of admin.

Similar day tomorrow, with a bit more time for getting caught up with things in the afternoon I hope.

Hallowe'en chocolate eyeballs
The Hallowe’en chocolate has been well and truly cracked open. These eyeballs were delicious 😀

Today’s earworm playlist:

Zara Larsson – ‘Lush Life’
Matthew Wilder – ‘Break My Stride’
Journey – ‘Don’t Stop Believing’
DNCE – ‘Cake By The Ocean’
Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse – ‘Valerie’