Day 890 & Day 891

Day 890...Friday

The morning was bright, sunny and a little chilly but within 36 minutes we had our usual 1.9 mile walk completed.

My morning started off with a few household chores; some laundry and some cleaning around. But once those jobs were out the way I took the time to paint my nails; not something I do that often and apart from an odd occasion where I've paid to have them done, it's something I tend to do myself. I do have a UV gel nail kit that Simon bought me a few years ago but it still takes a fair while to get them done that way so a cheap bottle of quick drying, one coat varnish is my preferred go to option!

Not a bad effort for a £1 nail varnish from Primark!

Maybe now that I am retired I could take advantage of the extra time and actually indulge in a manicure every now and then. Trouble is I know once I start it will become a habit, and not a cheap one at that! Best dig out that UV light instead.

But with freshly done nails it gave me the perfect excuse to sit outside in the sunshine (to let them dry of course), enjoy a coffee and catch up on a little reading.

After lunch it was a mixture of little tasks. I had a present to wrap ahead of going out tomorrow evening, there was another 3D print that needed cleaning up, more research on the ideas for my next tattoo, some jigsaw time and re-connecting with an old friend over social media.

An old friend of ours had posted on social media about the different medications they now find themselves on and so both Simon and I had reached out to chat about diet and lifestyle choices. With both of us living a low carb/keto life we are keen to pass on what information we have gained over the years. Often people do not want to know what we do, they are content to carry on as they are and just take a pill that will make everything alright. Our approach is to do the utmost that we can to eat right and live right to try and stack the odds in our favour so that we can avoid as much of the possible downfalls of getting older that we can. No-one can ever rule out getting something horrid but at least we can try and put ourselves in the best possible position for dealing with it or avoiding it completely. For once our old friend didn't dismiss what we had to say and so we started chatting and hopefully we have been able to point them in the right direction. 

On this blog I have a couple of pages 'Eating Well, Staying Healthy' and 'Getting Real' which document my approach to a healthy lifestyle and my progress. Both of these pages are a few years old now so I think they are due either an update or a new additional page and I'm hoping to find some time to do just that. Please check the pages out if you want to know a little more about what I do!

Friday was rounded out with a gym session although I really wasn't feeling it tonight for some reason. My left shoulder can sometimes cause me issues and I think tonight was one of those nights and I perhaps just need to give myself a little more recovery time in between those sessions where I focus on my shoulders. But I still got down the gym and did something which has to be better than nothing.

Day 891...Saturday

We had a more gentle getting up this morning and with a coffee inside us headed out for our morning walk. As we had a few things that we wanted to get done today we just stuck to our usual 1.9 mile route and in 37 minutes we were back home again.

The morning was taken up with helping Simon with an interview he'd been asked to do for a retro gaming journalist in Russia! A fair few years ago (like over 20 years ago) Simon had been the lead designer on a game called Shadowman that seems to have developed a bit of a cult following as he often gets asked about his time working on it. Often Simon will be approached with questions for magazine articles but in this case the journalist is working on a documentary and so Simon thought it would be better to video his answers to the questions. This involved a little bit of set-up to get the positioning and lighting just right. We had decided to invest in a stand that will hold either a phone or video camera that comes with its own light ring as well as a small clip on microphone which once set made the whole process so much easier. And before we knew it the morning had flown by and it was time for lunch.

After lunch I decided to get caught up with writing this blog as I'd run out of time yesterday while Simon edited the mornings video before sending them off. It was also chance to get some more tattoo research done (yes I know more...but it has to be right!) so hopefully I can now get the images sent over to my tattooist at some point this weekend.

I decided to get a little jigsaw done before taking the time to get my make-up sorted ready for going out later in the evening. We are helping some friends of ours celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary and they have hired out a room at the pub across the road from where we live, which is very convenient. So for the first time in a while we are going 'out, out' so I thought I'd better put my best face on. I don't tend to do full make-up very often as it's normally just a bit of mascara, touch of blush, some lipstick and off we go so today I got chance to play with some eye colours. I'm not one for 'natural' colours and have always preferred to go for something brighter but I always feel out of practice so I made sure I gave myself plenty of time rather than rushing at the last minute.

And that is where I'm going to leave it for today...time to go out and have some fun.

See you all tomorrow.
xx

Monday Once More

Day 355...

Monday has rolled around yet again.

There was the usual trip to collect the weekly grocery shopping and once home and packed away there were some household chores to do. Simon has been working on his R2D2 build off and on throughout the day; a process of wet sanding, pieces drying, spray painting, more drying and then repeat for numerous different parts!

We did take a walk out for coffee and although it decided to rain while we were out it wasn't too heavy thankfully. Another 3.6 miles in one hour and eleven minutes...total for March so far stands at 16 miles.

After lunch there were a few more jobs to get done; cleaning round, a little garden tidying and sorting out a returns parcel. Simon has spent some time updating his website (simonphipps.com) as he has a new limited edition print up for sale; a piece inspired by a game he worked on in 1999 called Shadowman.

The day was rounded out with a trip to the 'gym' for Simon and a trip to the living room for me to complete my body-weight workout.

So here in England we have seen the return to school for all our children today. Those attending secondary school are having to be subjected to three lateral flow tests before they are allowed to attend and then each week they will have to be tested twice. They will also be requested to wear face masks all day, if social distancing is not possible - all seems so ridiculous and over the top.

The evidence is out there that masks make no difference what so ever, that testing will eventually turn up positive cases because of the false positive rate that comes with any test and yet all these kids want to do is to go back to school, see their friends and try and learn something. 

While some children will take this all in their stride I fear there is going to be a large amount that will struggle. Struggle with catching-up on missed education, struggle to relate to others, struggle to adjust to new routines. There will be those that have missed out on so much because of their home life situations, those that have suffered both mentally and physically and those that will simply slip through the cracks.

It is very easy if you have been able to 'carry-on' during lockdown relatively unaffected to assume that everyone else is like you and not appreciate what it could be like in someone else's shoes. But there are lots of families out there for whom lockdown will have been devastating in all sorts of ways and we will not know the true affects until much further on down the line.

Whatever you're doing, wherever you are, take care.
xx

Scotch Egg Saturday

Day 332...

Well here we are again on another Saturday and it was as action packed as it ever is at the moment.

A slow start to the day saw us wrap up warm and head out for our now usual walk into the next village and what is fast becoming our 'local' coffee shop. And today along with our usual coffee's we decided to treat ourselves and brought back home a triple chocolate muffin for Ethan and some pork and black pudding flavoured scotch eggs for Simon and I...which were amazing.

The afternoon saw Simon capturing yet more home video while starting his latest art piece. He has decided to do a drawing from a game that he worked on a number of years ago called Shadowman. He had been approached by a fan asking about artwork and so he has decided to produce a custom piece that he will then get printed and can sell via his website.

I spent a chunk of my afternoon finishing off some of my work from yesterday; unfortunately the knock-on effect of a temperamental laptop yesterday morning meant I had lost half a days work. So I decided to get caught up this afternoon, I will still have a little more work to complete but I will sort that next week.

And that was Saturday...again...take care out there.

xx