So I missed two days posting here, which is a bit of a pain. There wasn’t ever a decision to post every day, but when I got to 50 days in, it felt like it was becoming a thing. However, the past couple of days have been very full and I was both up early and late to bed, and on both days, I simply forgot that I would normally post something here.

I had reached 74 days in a row. However, I’m not going to start posting things as day 1, day 2, again as that was really only ever the day of the year; but I’m now wondering if I can get through to the end of the year only dropping two days. As it stands at the moment, it feels like that could be a challenge.

The past three days have been full. The main problems have been distractions from the main work. So there is the new project that I’m working on, but I’ll still get calls and there is the flotsam and jetsam of other projects that will insist on getting in the way. I’m not really complaining, it just means that the days can get long when dealing with everything.

Alongside the missed blogs, the other casualty has been the training. I missed my 3.5km run on Tuesday and had good intentions to do it on Wednesday at the gym before my strength training programme. However, it was late when I got to the gym on Wednesday and so it didn’t happen.

Today, however, I did get out to do my 8k run — which had been originally scheduled for yesterday. There should have been intervals in it, but that’s quite difficult when running around Ormskirk at midday, and so I was happy just to get from point A, back to point A via the other side of Edge Hill in less than 48 minutes, which meant that I kept under the 6 minute / km threshold. The first half was all uphill and the second half was downhill, but peppered with road junctions and crossings. At the junction by the Cricketers, a car ran a red light as I was crossing the road which almost hit me — not cool. Then crossing Derby Street I was waiting for what seemed an age until I could get to the other side. It felt like I was the target for every car, bus and lorry hurtling through Ormskirk, but at least I got out and did the run.

I’m feeling a lot more positive about my weight as well. It continues to creep downwards, and while I’m still sporting a delightful spare tyre around my waist, the scales were reporting a fat measurement of 17.7% today. I suspect that is a mis-reading, but is in line with previous readings of 18 point a-bit last week. I know that the fat measurements can be thrown by hydration and recent exercising but it looks like those effects are to add fat to the measurement. I’m not really complaining, the scales are basically telling me that all my extra weight is around my waist, which I sort of knew… just by looking.

Yesterday’s dancing lessons went well. We were pulling things together in the starter lessons — mainly six count and eight count basic moves; and we were doing similar work in the improvers lesson — this time it was running and tandem charleston. It’s all very well but at tonight’s social dance I still found myself unable to put them together into a coherent dance or to feel confident about different moves.

This worries me less than it used to. When I started I would get terribly self-conscious and I wondered if I was actually learning anything. However I learned to give up worrying. The couples at the dance this evening seemed to be split into two groups — the ones who started the same time as Jude and I, and others who had been doing it for 3,6 or 12 months longer. The ones who had started around the same time were generally dancing with their partners and were conservative in what they were trying. The others seemed more adventurous. I had a few dances plus some with the children and then we went through the “shim sham”. The last time we had tried it, I had felt like the whole world was determined to make me feel incompetent, and that the dance was invented to remind me how rubbish I was. I hadn’t enjoyed it. However, tonight it was much more fun. I was still a bit crap… getting out of step and unable to keep up with the “break”, but this time it was fun to try rather than it feeling like some terrible burden (which didn’t exist in the first place). I put this down to personal growth! Unfortunately we couldn’t stay for too long and we left at about 10pm. I’d left the children at the bar, talking to Peter the barman, who did a sterling job of babysitting while I was dancing.

The other fun thing today was the meal that the children and I went out for this evening. I’d got my 30 minute walk in by taking a long route to pick up the children from school. I picked them up at about 5:30. On the way home, Joel was complaining about having been bullied in after-school club. As soon as I had arrived a staff member had asked me to sign a book that had a report of another child grabbing Joel and pinching him. When he told me about it, it sounded all harmless and like a bit of fun. Later, when Joel recalled it, he was in tears and said that he had been bullied, that he’d been jumped on, pulled to the ground and then pinched, then they’d taken his bag and sat on it. It didn’t sound like the happy accident that I was told about earlier. However, I’m aware that events can feel different and be recounted differently depending on the point of view. I’m minded to ask a few more questions on Monday.

So Joel was upset as we walked home and nothing would console him. I didn’t have anything planned for dinner and I thought that taking some time out and having a nice meal together would be a pleasant thing to do. Plus, I’m quite happy for any excuse for a tasty meal. We checked the menus outside the different restaurants in town and settled on Left Bank. We piled in, with rucksacks, book bags and a slight sense of chaos. But we were seated and things settled down quickly.

The children seemed to really enjoy it — I was asked “why do we never come here?” and “can we come again, soon?”, etc. as we left. Basically if they get parma ham and melon as a starter then they’re happy, regardless of what else they’re presented with. Joel hasn’t mentioned the problems at after-school club since we had our meal, so in that sense it worked. Also, it felt like some proper decadence to be walking home and then going for a meal with the children. It’s one thing popping into the sweet shop and getting a bag of sweets for the children to share (bad, I know…) but I felt like I was taking it to another level. Less bad, and much tastier.

So Jude is away until Sunday, I think. Actually, I realise that I’ve got no idea when she returns from Twickenham. The weekend looks like it will be mostly working on the new project but the children will be happy with that, as it means being left to their own devices, on their own devices.

Whatever way the weekend unfolds, I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t have time to post something at the end of the day. I don’t intend to break the chain, again, any time soon.