Month: January 2022

These last few weeks were always going to be tough, as my work bestie, confidante, all round top person and job share partner for more than a decade left work on Friday. She’s been such a part of my daily life, we’ve gone through personal and professional highs and lows together and I’m not quite sure how I’ll cope without her come Monday. These last few weeks have been building up to the big goodbye and its been emotional, she’s such an amazing person loved by everybody. We were determined that we would walk out together for the last time on Friday afternoon, we always laughed we would drive out a la Thelma and Louise (obviously without the final act) but instead we walked together sobbing and hugging. The crazy thing is that whilst we won’t see each other daily, she is one of my closest friends and will always be in my life. My leaving gift to her was a print from the movie Thelma and Louise with the words ‘No matter what happens, I’m glad I came with you.’ I ended her leaving speech with this line. With a little creative thinking, we were able to hold a leaving celebration. We chose an outdoors event for Covid safety as we couldn’t risk have our whole team off! One of our local beauty attractions is holding an illuminated trail so we went there after school to do the trail and cake and hot drinks. It was beautiful and such a lovely way to spend time with our team.

Friday was quite simply the crescendo in what has been a crazy fortnight. Both my friend and I have decided to leave the company we work for, the values and ethos are not ones we can share or promote. However as the sole earner in our house, I need to stay in position until I have a new job. I did apply and have an interview for a new position this week but did not get it. It actually came as a relief, as I had misgivings at the interview, something didn’t quite sit right and I have learnt that your gut feeling is probably correct. It was quite a different role to what I am in at present and I think I need to work to my experience and strengths. I am an extremely prepared person and had spent all of last weekend preparing for the interview, pages of notes and research all neatly written and mock questions answered. I also needed to dress for an interview as I had not had one in 17.5 years. A smart outfit was more of a challenge than expected as there were no blazers in stock when I went shopping on Friday! Fortunately the Next next day delivery service came to my rescue and the outfit was sorted. I also needed a pair of court shoes as I didn’t think trainers or Converse pumps would suit the look. I had tried to buy some heels for Christmas but my foot was still swollen from the operation so I was a bit nervous about finding a suitable pair now. The manager in Clarks could not have been more helpful, bringing me so many pairs to try and we did find a pair that fitted. It is so nice to be wearing heels again. My foot has been so bad for around the past 5 years that heels were not an option, so it really is a novelty and one I intend to enjoy lots.

There has been so much going on this fortnight, parents evenings, medical appointments, ill time car break down etc.. that it has felt overwhelming and I know that I’m off kilter. I watched an episode of This Is Us last night and one of the characters talked about being off balance and that is me at present, emotionally I’m a bit all over the place whilst trying to portray the professional and parental front that everything is good. I know I’m wobbling but have simply tried to do the basics, eat healthily, keep up my running and get to bed on time which seems to have kept me on an even keel. Fortunately life has calmed for the moment and its time to look after myself.

This weekend its been lovely to have family times. We went to the local forestry commission, where the girls did the parkrun. It was a slightly different course to the one I did there in October and it was beautiful through the forest and around the lake, a one lapper! It might be my favourite parkrun course I’ve run, although the mild morning and bright sunshine helped too. We then hired bikes and cycled for the rest of the morning before a picnic. Life is all about simple pleasures.

Next week is about fresh starts and looking after myself and my little family. Sometimes you cannot avoid mad, crazy times, but its good when they finish and you can relax a little.

Its been the first full week of term and we’re all getting back into the routines and rhythm of daily life. January always seems such a long month so we’ve been trying to plan something different at the weekends to give us something to look forward to.

My week has been very work focussed and my day off was spent doing a long run as part of my half marathon training and then simply pottering around at home doing some life admin. It is good to have a day like this, its been a long time since my last and my diary looks quite busy in the coming weeks too. I ran as early as I could when the children left for school, it was a rare daylight run as I generally run very early in the morning or at night so in winter these are dark runs. I took advantage of the light to do the lanes, it was a clear bright blue sky and the sunshine was melting the frosted fields, it was an absolutely stunning run. As it was my longest run for nearly 9 months, I did warm down and stretch after and it worked, there were no pain or niggles.

It was decided that this weekend, we would spend some special time with a child each, I had our son, Mr S our daughter. Its nice to have this 1:1 attention and the children had the choice on what they wanted to do. Although Little Miss had a session at the farm, she then went shopping with Mr S. Little Man chose to visit one of his favourite museums, The Aviation museum. It is just a giant playground for him, its all outdoors and is a field of planes where you can climb into the cockpits of all the planes on display and be a pilot. It is also right next to the airport so you can view close up, the planes coming in and going out. Its so close you can wave to the pilots! After a morning here, we went to the neighbouring town for lunch and a little wander around the shops, although not too many shops as my son isn’t too keen! The final thing my son asked for was to visit the Smyths toy superstore on the way home which we did although he did feel he was a bit grown up for a lot of things now. It was a lovely SaM day, this is our special name for our son and mum day, perfectly finished off with a curry and all the trimmings for dinner with us all back together around the kitchen table.

Its another ordinary week next week, I need to pop over to ‘big’ town on my day off for an appointment so it’ll be nice to potter around too and see if the Spring stock is in shops yet. I do worry if it’ll be quite eerie now the big M&S has closed and there’ll sadly be no food treats to take home which has always been a thing if we were in town. We also need to plan our weekend surprise next weekend, I’m wondering if we can combine a trip out and some parkrun tourism, we’ll see what the week holds.

And just like that, Christmas was over and the new year began. The week did feel a little disorientating with an extra bank holiday on Monday. We hadn’t planned anything for Monday, just getting ready for the week and maybe a little walk. However, at lunchtime we got a call from the local vaccination clinic inviting the children in early for their second vaccinations and offering a spot in the afternoon. We took this invitation and headed over to the big town, it was so smooth and easy although the children were disappointed by the lack of lollipops. The clinic is next to the football stadium, so we took a walk around and popped into the shop. My son got a new calendar and I got a superb bobble hat with a rainbow pompom, I love it!

Tuesday saw the return ish to school, my son and I returned on Tuesday but due to the LFT testing, my daughter not until Friday. She has missed a surprising number of school days due to this staggered return to school over the past year and there haven’t been any lessons or work set in this period. I took her over the farm where she helps out on Thursday to give the day more focus and structure, this also freed up Saturday. As we had nothing planned, I decided to do a little parkrun tourism and visit a new parkrun in the county. The weather was wicked, rain, wind and so cold yet it turned into one of those life affirming and positive mornings. Everyone was so friendly and chatty. I saw my first ever 500 t-shirt and as an added bonus someone was completing their 500th parkrun too, that’s such commitment I also got to say the catchphrase from the With Me Now podcast, so despite the weather it was a great morning run.

I was sad to hear that when I was listening to Marathon Talk that the next episode, 600 will also be their last. Despite never having run a marathon, I’ve listened to the podcast for years and its a great pod on all things running. One of the original presenters Tom was back on guest presenting a few weeks ago and the interview this week was with one of their old regulars too. With those two featuring, its been a nice and nostalgic ending to one of the original podcasts. I’ll be sad to listen to the final podcast, I hope Tony comes back too!

A couple of weeks ago on Marathon Talk, the film the Rescue was highly recommended and I noticed it was on Disney+. Mr S and I sat down to watch it last night and were totally transfixed, it was an incredible watch on the discovery and rescue of the Thai boys stuck in a cave. It was documentary film, with real images of the time. I had a little cry at the end, its so emotional and I have such a deep respect for the deep sea cave divers whose hobby saved 13 lives.

One of my #22for22 is to write a few positive lines daily and I bought the rainbow book to do this. So far I’ve recorded 3 things daily and its telling me what I probably have always known, its the little things in life which make life sparkle, a clear and star filled sky, a good run, playing a game with my son.