Mum and I went out to have our nails done for her 70th birthday present today. I have to keep my nails short and stubby for ukulele playing these days, but they still look very nice post-manicure!
Other than that, I’ve just been playing my 3DS. There’s also been some excitement going on with Dad getting some of the old DOS games fired up, so I may have a go at some of them (plus of course the BBC Micro is ready to play with too!).
Tomorrow Geth and I are trying a new parkrun. Touristing was not originally the plan for my 100th, but that’s the way it’s worked out. It’s not an ideal time of year for it, really – normally you celebrate a parkrun milestone with cake, but at Christmas time there’s so much cake going on already!
Not an OOTD: Mum and I have new nails. Mine are the silver and hers are the bright pink 🙂
No earworm playlist today as nothing got stuck in my head!
I was a bit nervous about going to parkrun this morning due to the enforced four-week mini winter running slump that resulted from my cold. However, I felt fine once I was out there, and my time wasn’t that different to what I was doing before… and I was able to make the most of that glorious downhill sprint during the last kilometre of Jesmond Dene parkrun. It felt so good being able to run that fast again, even just for a bit!
I’ve spent the rest of the day relaxing with videogames, which is Christmas in a nutshell. Geth and I have been reminiscing about Christmas 2010, which was the year that we ended up with some unexpected time to ourselves the week before Christmas due to our flight to Wales being cancelled and so I spent the whole week playing Super Paper Mario on the Wii!
A few bits of admin to take care of tomorrow morning, but hopefully I will be back on my 3DS by mid-afternoon.
Not an OOTD: Jesmond Dene is beautiful, even in the winter.
Geth and I have established a new pattern from last year onwards where we do pre-Christmas with Geth’s family around the time of Geth’s mum’s birthday, which is mid-December. This is a bit of a win-win, as it (a) means we get to celebrate Anne’s birthday with her and (b) gives us roughly a week to have our own bit of Christmas – just the two of us with our sofa and our videogames – before we join my family for Christmas itself.
Today has been a Christmas holiday kind of day. Geth has been off work for a week already and my work has thankfully been quiet this week as well (although you can never rule out a last-minute urgent client deadline on Christmas Eve, so I’m not declaring myself officially on holiday until 5pm on Tuesday!). I went and had my hair cut this morning, and since then have been relaxing with my 3DS on headphones while Geth has been playing the Switch on the main TV. I love Christmas.
Back to parkrun tomorrow morning… finally! My cold is properly gone now so I am all set.
Not an OOTD: I’ve been playing the demo of Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology. This is a really enjoyable game and I may end up getting the full version seeing as how it’s currently on offer in the Nintendo eShop.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Perry Como – ‘It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas’ The Communards – ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’
Definitely not better yet – I seem to keep veering between feeling totally fine and feeling like I can’t even stand up. At least I’m managing to get a few things done now during the ‘feeling fine’ hours!
I was too poorly to go to parkrun again this morning, so the date for my 100th parkrun is now the 21st December. If it gets pushed back any further (i.e. if I can’t parkrun next week either) I will be extremely cross (and also a bit worried, because the ‘bad’ stage of a cold really shouldn’t be going on for any more than a few days, let alone a fortnight!). However, I’m hopeful that I will be able to get rid of this thing in the course of the next week.
I did manage to get out and see the Marian Keyes talk at the Sage Gateshead this afternoon though. It was really good and I’ll do a more detailed post on it soon!
I have also finally managed to get my main Christmas tree up (a whole six days later than intended, but there you are). Just one last push to go tomorrow and then I will be done with the decorations (other than the few bits and pieces that I still need to do at Mum and Dad’s).
I now have two days in a row where I won’t be leaving the house, which gives me a really good opportunity to rest up and recover!
Not an OOTD: it’s always nice when I’ve got this tree glowing merrily away in the corner.
Today’s earworm playlist:
George Cole and Dennis Waterman – ‘What Are We Gonna Get For ‘Er Indoors?’ Coldplay – ‘Christmas Lights’ Martin & Shirlie – ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ Spandau Ballet – ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ Sister Sledge – ‘Lost In Music’ Kuana Torres Kahele, James Ford Murphy and Napua Greig-Nakasone – ‘Someone To Lava’ Duran Duran – ‘Winter Marches On’
I didn’t end up parkrunning today, because I came down with a cold overnight. It’s exactly a year since I last had an inconveniently-timed cold (it was the 30th November last year that Geth and I headed to Electric Dreams), although thinking about it I suppose there’s no such thing as a conveniently-timed one.
Because of some flu-like dizzy symptoms, it was a tough day finishing my NaNoWriMo project. Nevertheless, I hit the 50k, making 2019 my sixth win out of eight attempts, and my fifth in a row! Going to take a few days off from creative writing in order to give my brain a bit of a break.
Hoping to feel a little better tomorrow, as I’m not looking forward to going out in the cold right now!
Not an OOTD: this stash that Geth brought home is making me feel marginally more alive.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Duran Duran – ‘(I’m Looking For) Cracks In The Pavement’ Duran Duran – ‘My Antarctica’ Andy Taylor – ‘Bringin’ Me Down’ Duran Duran – ‘Falling Down’
So this morning I had roughly 8,000 words still to go on my NaNoWriMo project. I now have 4,000 to go, so am on track. Once I’m back from parkrun tomorrow (this is assuming Jesmond Dene is still on in the icy conditions… *update – just as I was writing this, Facebook informed me that Jesmond Dene is off, so I don’t know where I’ll be parkrunning tomorrow if anywhere!*), I’ll get stuck into it and get it finished.
Sunday’s going to be busy as well – I’ll be getting the Christmas decorations out, and also going to a Slimming World consultant opportunities event to see if it’s something I might be interested in doing – so it looks like it’ll be Monday before I can have that long-awaited post-NaNo gaming day on the sofa. Of course, I might be itching to get into the next project by then…
Not an OOTD: as a retro phone fan, I do appreciate that hotel room phones always look as if they were installed several decades ago. The one in my London hotel room on Wednesday night was burnished in this fetching ‘late 20th century beige’.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Duran Duran – ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’ Cast of The Muppets – ‘Mahna Mahna’ Andy Taylor – ‘Love Or Liberation’ The Power Station – ‘Get It On’
It was mine and Geth’s seventh wedding anniversary today. I think we would probably have both liked to spend the whole day in the house chilling out companionably and listening, given that it was REALLY miserable outside! However, I am absolutely determined to hit that 100th parkrun on the 7th of December, so we dragged ourselves out of the house and headed to a very wet Jesmond Dene. It was not a fast run in the slightest, but that’s ninety-eight out of a hundred done. Celebratory cake in two weeks’ time!
We then spent the afternoon in town, as Geth was interviewing pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd in front of an audience for the Books On Tyne book fair. It was a really interesting discussion, and I’ll be reading Dr Shepherd’s book as a result. Lovely to see so many friends in the audience as well!
The evening was all about cards, pizza and nosecco – the last of which has been an absolute lifesaver since I got sober in January, because I think I would have felt really miserable without a celebratory fizzy option on special occasions.
Looking forward to a nice quiet day working on my NaNo tomorrow!
Sort of an OOTD as you can just about see my Sunset Highway jumper: anniversary picture with Geth! Seven years married today.
Today’s earworm playlist:
USA For Africa – ‘We Are The World’ Chris Rea – ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ John Williams – ‘Leaving Hogwarts’ Hitoshi Sakimoto – ‘Opening Movie (FFXII Theme)’
Not doing very well in terms of staying awake today! I’ve had two giant glasses of Pepsi Max and three coffees and I still can’t keep my eyes open. It’s probably partly because I had to get up for parkrun this morning … but I wasn’t THAT late last night. Hopefully I’ll perk up a bit this evening!
Geth’s folks are visiting at the moment, and they’ve all gone into town to go shopping, so I’m sitting on the sofa trying not to snooze. It is most definitely hibernation season now.
Not an OOTD: I’m not sure how much more of this I’m going to have to drink in order to stay awake!
Today’s earworm playlist:
The Midnight – ‘Shadows In The City’ Georgia – ‘About Work The Dancefloor’ Ollie Wride – ‘Back To Life’ Faderhead – ‘Dancers’ Koji Kondo – ‘Super Mario Bros. Theme’
I’ve not had a lot of time for running over the last couple of weeks, but for the last few days, I’ve certainly been getting my daily step goal met! I doubled it between yesterday’s parkrun and dancing to Adam Ant last night, and tonight Geth and I were back at the Sage Gateshead to see Shakespear’s Sister – a slightly more sedate gig but still a very enjoyable one! I also managed to fit in a vintage fair trip today, which was fairly successful.
I had originally planned to go to Manchester tomorrow to see a talk at the Central Library, but given that I’ve had zero time for NaNoWriMo the last few days, it’s sadly looking unlikely. I think I’ll be having a quiet day with my project (and my text adventure updates) instead!
Not an OOTD: it’s a bit faded now, but I do like the hand stamp you get at Judy’s Vintage Fairs.
Today’s earworm playlist:
The Midnight – Shadows In The City Adam & The Ants – Antmusic Kygo and Whitney Houston – Higher Love The Knack – My Sharona Shakespear’s Sister – Stay
It was so cold this morning that it was a real struggle to get out of bed and go to parkrun! I’ve got one eye on that 100th parkrun celebration in a few weeks’ time, though, so I shivered my way to the Jesmond Dene start line. It was slightly busier than usual because both Leazes and Newcastle were cancelled due to the ice, but the tree cover meant that most of the course was unaffected by the cold, so it was a nice relaxed run. I didn’t take my hoodie off though.
I spent the afternoon catching up with various things, including my NaNoWriMo project and my text adventure game updates, and then headed out for the third of the many gigs I’ve got booked during November! It was Adam Ant tonight, and it was a great show. I’ll post a review later this week once I’ve caught up with my backlog!
More weekend catching up tomorrow.
Not an OOTD: that moment when you try to take a picture of the Bridges of the Tyne all lit up from the Metro…and succeed only in photographing the grimy reflection of the train window.
Today’s earworm playlist:
The Midnight – Los Angeles Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber – I Don’t Care Adam Ant – Puss In Boots Colonel Abrams – Trapped
