Day 892 & Day 893

Day 892...Sunday

We had a lovely evening out at our friends anniversary party yesterday...

We don't scrub up too bad!

...and it was great to be able to catch up with people we hadn't seen for way too long!

So, after a slow start to the day we set off on a shortish early morning walk of just 1.8 miles in 36 minutes and stopping to pick blackberries along the way.

We then decided that today would be all about catching up with a few things on our joint 'to do list'. First it was a trip to Lidl simply because we were running out of too many things and I couldn't put it off any longer.

After lunch we got our tattoo ideas finalised into one document that I could then send over to my tattooist. When we see him in a couple of weeks I have two tattoos that I would like doing and Simon also has one planned, so we just needed to commit to what we both wanted. Over the course of the day we have had the 3D printer working hard printing more sections of the model that we are working on which has meant some more clean up of finished prints along with a little 3D modelling work for Simon.

Mid-afternoon we decided to escape the four walls and go out for coffee; a chance to chat and re-connect without distractions.

Back home and I was able to complete my latest jigsaw...

...and Simon was able to make a start on his next piece of digital art.

That was pretty much it for Sunday; a quiet and chilled out sort of day.

Day 893...Monday

Today was a bank holiday which meant that Ethan had the day off from work along with Simon's usual Monday off.

We decided that we would get up and head into Nottingham for a wander and a poke around the shops. So rather than our morning walk over the fields we instead had an urban stroll which ultimately led us to Caffe Nero for coffee. We did cut our walk a little short as it tried to rain at one point and we had no umbrellas or jackets with us, this just meant we got to have coffee sooner.

Around lunchtime we had our first meal of the day which was burgers from Five Guys; as I've previously talked about Five Guys is a great choice for anyone following a keto or low carb lifestyle as you are able to order the burgers without buns. Double bacon cheeseburger with green peppers and mushrooms for me!

Although we had popped into a few shops we came back empty handed as there was nothing that really caught our eyes. But it was simply just nice to be out and about and taking in the sights and sounds of the city.

The remainder of the day saw Simon add the two pieces of R2D2 that he's been working on over the last few weeks. A couple of arms that were missing from behind a couple of the panel doors. They were a little tricky to put into place so I was needed to assist and hold things! I was also able to clean up some more 3D prints...I think I'm getting quite adept at it now! And our new printer is proving to be very reliable and is generating solid prints each time, a definite worth while investment in replacement of the old printer which was slower, smaller and would often run into hiccups!

And to finish off the day we headed down the gym for our first workout of the week. I'm trying to be mindful of my left shoulder and avoid any moves which seem to aggravate it, not sure what I've done to it but I think it just needs some rest before I try and do too much with it. Time will tell!

See you all tomorrow all being well.

xx

 

Day 872

Day 872...

Monday has rolled around and it was a beautiful morning with clear blue skies and warm sunshine as we set off on our early morning walk armed with a Tupperware tub! Yep you read that correctly as today we were on a mission to pick some blackberries. We took a steady one hour and seven minutes to complete 3.4 miles and by the end we had a tub full with berries.

While I got myself ready for going out Simon was able to apply some varnish to the 3D printed pieces that he'd airbrushed yesterday. He's also done a little more work on a model that he's currently building as well.

We then jumped in the car and headed just a few miles up the motorway to the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet mall. It had been a while since we'd last visited here and we just thought it would be somewhere different to have a look around with no specific reason for going.

Because we have now adopted an intermittent fasting approach to our meals we no longer eat first thing in a morning instead we have our first meal of the day around a traditional lunch time of the day. So as that time of day approached we decided to 'break our fast' with burgers! One benefit of eating low carb/keto for these past 8 years is that we have moved away from the traditional breakfast type foods and therefore making our first meal of the day burgers is perfect for us and Five Guys is great for anyone who eats like we do. We were able to order bacon cheeseburgers with whatever toppings we wanted (I go simple with mushrooms, green peppers and mayo) but without the bun. You can opt to have your burger in a lettuce 'bun' or, like us, simply in a tray. Great way to break our fast and this was followed by a 200 Degrees coffee, which is always a great cup of coffee.

On our wander around we decided to pick up a pair of Converse Hi-tops for Ethan as he'd mentioned getting a pair and these were too good a price to pass up. We also came away with some bargains from Superdry as not only were all their prices discounted to 'outlet' prices but they had another 20% off on top. This meant we came away with three t-shirts for Ethan and a pair of short denim dungarees for me all for under £50! 

Back home and we decided to make the most of the remainder of the afternoon by 'going down our gym' and throwing some weights around. Simon is making great progress at getting back to where he was before he broke his wrist and was able to lift some heavier weights again today. He even had me proper bench pressing at one point and I was quite pleased that after a first set of just the bar I was able to add 5kg to it and complete a full set of 10 with relative ease. I might need to keep at this one and see just what I can manage, I might surprise myself!

And then to finish out the day I managed my first three minute cold shower!!

See you all tomorrow.
xx