… it’s late! In fact, it’s been late when I’ve written all week. Good job this is just for the one month, as juggling everything is getting tricky. I need to adopt a new New Years Resolution – Do Less.

Tonight’s lateness wasn’t because of work or domestic duties, it was due to us finally catching up with the Black Mirror episode which was shown before Christmas; and very good it was too.

Other than that, it’s been a busy but good day. The children are at after school club on a Monday and Friday, so I’m able to work through until later. Which feels like it should be a good thing.

The work was briefly interrupted by a very welcome visit from my parents. It’s my Dad’s 70th today and they had been to the Hop Pole for lunch before popping over for a brew. Tomorrow we’re all out for a family lunch which should be lovely, but it was nice just to have a coffee and chat – and a demonstration of the basic six step lindy hop that mum and I had been learning last night!

I got a walk completed by heading to the school at about 4:45. It was raining when I left and I felt terrible thinking about the idea of dragging the children home in the rain, just for the exercise. Thankfully the rain stopped and I didn’t need to deploy the umbrellas that I’d taken with me.

That was a 3km walk clocking in at 30 minutes – pretty much reaching the door to the school hall as I hit my time target. Heading home was slower, 1.8km in 22 minutes, but there were no complaints from the children. In fact they seemed reasonably happy to be pottering back with me.

I also sneaked in a quick run on the treadmill. Once dinner was sorted and it was apparent that Jude wouldn’t be home for about another 20 minutes, I jumped onto the treadmill to sneak in a quarter of an hour. Another step towards learning to love the machine. That was 2.4km in 17 minutes. Not fast, but I was happy to get something done. Tomorrow morning is parkrun and I didn’t want to be doing anything silly the evening before that run.

The other thing that’s looming is Jude’s imminent departure for Africa. I’ll be planning food for three tomorrow, which will feel very weird. It’ll also be an interesting challenge to get the quantities right. I’m tempted to make curries, chillis and stews. The kind of thing where I can save the leftovers (if there are any). But I’m also really tempted to just run through the Kitchen Revolution and see how it works for just the three of us. I’ll work it out tomorrow.

I’d better post this before it’s tomorrow, so apologies for rushed and bitty update. I’ll try to improve tomorrow. G’night!