Sometimes we book a little trip away for one of the half term weekends, but with house hunting at the top of our list right now, we didn’t. Although that is easier said than done, as most places around here host open houses, and even if you phone up on the day the house gets listed, often the slots are already full. It’s stressful!
Anyway, this week has been half term, and it has been just what I needed.
Saturday was house viewing after house viewing, a walk into town, some baking, some movie-watching. Sunday was a long run, recovering from the run and seeing family.
On Monday I went over to a friends house where a group of us met up. It was lovely and relaxed and great to catch up.
As two of my friends can’t eat gluten I had made this orange and almond cake which was really tasty. On my way home I popped in to see my mum, before coming home and having a walk with Andy.
On Tuesday I was meeting some friends for breakfast at The Waffle House. Last week I had a problem with the tyre pressure light on my car coming on, and due to parents evening it meant I could not get to the garage until Friday. They checked, and thought it was down to cold weather (it does keep on coming on when it’s cold), but the light came back on again on Monday. So before meeting them I went to the garage- it turned out there was a screw in my tyre, but luckily they could patch it up. I then had a lovely breakfast waffle topped with chocolate sauce, banana and hazelnuts, and had a good catch up with those friends. Then I had to rush home as we had an appointment with the solicitor in the afternoon. Luckily that didn’t take too long, and after a little lunch I made the most of being home in the daytime for an afternoon run in the sunshine. I went to the fields, and really should have worn my trail shoes. Some of the paths were covered in some sort of fine gravel, and my shoes got so heavy as they just picked up the earth.
Hard to see but there was a good cm of mud attached!
I even braved the cow field! I was going to turn back as I saw all the cows very close to the path (the path is along the right of the photo) but some people walking their dog (not on a lead, I might add, even though there are signs on all the gates asking for dogs to be kept on leads in grazing areas…..) and so I decided that if the cows were not spooked by the dog they would be OK with me. I did run through it very quickly!
Once home I had to log on to the computer, because for months now we have been wanting to sign up for the inaugural Disneyland Paris half marathon. The US Disney races always look good fun, and have the most amazing medals, but they never fit with school holidays, so they have never been an option. As soon as the date was confirmed we booked a (cancel-able) hotel nearby, and Eurostar tickets back. You could sign up ages ago if you booked it as part of a package, but the Disney hotels are crazily expensive, plus you only got one race entry per room so it was no good for us anyway. The date to book just a race entry was also put back once (the cynic in my says they are hoping to sell as many package deals as possible to US runners), but it was finally changed to Tuesday at 4pm (because that is the morning in the US).
After a bit of frantic refreshing we both managed to book a place for the half, and then went on and quickly booked flights out for the Friday night! It’s going to be brilliant!
After my shower I did my first bit of school work for the half term- it felt great to have a few days break from all of that.
On Wednesday I was meeting another friend for a Starbucks meet- it has become a bit of a tradition for us to have a cinnamon roll when we meet up, so I had a bit of fruit for breakfast (as we weren’t meeting until half 10) and then we spent about 3 hours catching up! This break has been so needed!
I had to get a few bits in the shops, came home and had a late lunch, caught up on some more work and then headed out on a walk across the fields. It was raining a bit, and it was very cold, but I was well wrapped up, and enjoyed my fresh air fix.
On Thursday morning I went out for a run before breakfast. I would usually run on a Wednesday evening, but it was raining and cold so I left it until the morning.
I ran through the fields to a park (just under 2 miles away) and then ran up and down this hill- it’s short but pretty steep- I aimed to do 10 times, but lost count, did one “for luck”, and when I got home and counted the bumps on Strava it turned out I had done 12.
The sun was coming out and I was treated to some lovely views.
I was being watched by some geese too (luckily the nice ones).
All in all I did 5 miles- a good start to the day. After getting on with work, I had a walk in the afternoon and then baked some banana bread. I had booked on to pump, but they gym rang to say the class had been cancelled, so we had an evening in.
Today I briefly considered a run, but as I am going to parkrun tomorrow (for the first time in what feels like ages!) and doing a longer run on Sunday, I decided to have it off.
I know it’s very British to talk about the weather, but it has been pretty good this week, and although we have had some frosty starts, the days have been mostly sunny (and the wind has at least died down- it’s never fun getting my car out fro the garage in the wind as it blows the door back down)- spring might even be on the way!
Have you had a good week? Have you ever raced abroad?
Also, I just signed up to a free trial of Strava premium- if anyone already has it- what do you do on there and do you think it’s any good?
I am so jealous about Disney! I tried to convince my husband that we should go but it’s really too expensive, we would have to take the children.
I hope you had a good Parkrun this morning.
Sounds like you had a fabulous half term. One of my favourite things to do is meet friends for coffee (I spend far too much money in starbucks!)…..also, VERY jelous about disney! Take me? 😉
House viewings can be really stressful, can’t they. Especially with open houses as it all seems so panicked with a lot more pressure.
I’m really interested to hear about what you think about Strava Premium. I haven’t got it but have been intrigued. I might sign up for the free version too – makes sense to at least try it!
Your weeks sounds lovely – so many good meet-ups with cake, food and friends (the order of those words is not indicative of my preference…!).
On the note about the dog walkers. I would never let Alfie off his lead if there were animals about like that. I once let him off when he was a lot younger and we were walking around a normal dog walking field but in the field next to it (past a ditch and a barbed wire fence) were horses and he spotted them and ran across into that field. A horse started chasing him… god it was AWFUL. I thought Alfie would get trampled on by the horse or kicked. We got him back though thankfully. That’s mainly why I never let him off his lead again for many years. Now I’m very lucky that the field right next to my flat has no animals other than other dogs and it’s very safe. And also he seems to be a lot more calm than his puppy days and actually comes back to me when I call.