With all of the to-ing and fro-ing, I wonder how I ever found the time to have a job. Seems day to day life is keeping us busy, or at least my mother-in-law is as we still visit her every day.
I have already blogged about the underground water pipe and our decluttering the cellar but it turns out this has only half solved the problem. There is now water at full pressure downstairs but not upstairs. Next we need a plumber who can be a detective and solve this problem. Having spoken to the water softener man, it seem likely there is a problem with a non-return valve which is in the complicated criss-cross of water pipes. Now I had never heard of these, so I’m learning about plumbing, even if I can’t do anything about it myself. If anything, we are down-playing the possible upheaval so as not to unsettle my mother-in-law.
This week also included a run, just 2.75 miles to see if my little injury has repaired itself. I have concluded it isn’t quite right but probably good enough to run a bit, but not too much. So on Saturday I did the Parkrun, albeit a bit slowly at 28 minutes.
Afterwards Dave, Rosie, Damon and Steve came back for coffee, toast and some dried tomato bread rolls I made especially for our post-run breakfast. As I hadn’t made these before, they were willing guinea pigs with no ill effects. I do enjoy their company and the easy going banter.
At the Tuesday art group, I had another go at my previous sketch of the mischievous Lewis, creating version two. Lewis is such fun to be around, although he does have a tendency to start talking in German which totally throws me, as does the occasional bit of Latin. Anyway, I was feeling quite chuffed as friends on Facebook could recognise it was Lewis.
My urinary tract infection might be returning I’m afraid to say, however I’m not completely sure. So I have a feeling I’m heading back to the Doctors and another course of antibiotics will follow. I loathe being unwell, I really do. Importantly I need to keep any infection away from my kidneys to avoid further damage.
Thursday evening our friends Val and Maya came around for a bite to eat in the week. We love hearing about their lives before we knew them. Life in communist Bulgaria would have been very difficult for us; post-communism would hardly have been much better.
I had a meeting with an officer in the blummin Council about fundraising for the charity I sam involved with in Dunstable. Turns out our paths had almost crossed a few years ago in Hertfordshire when she worked for the Police. Thankfully our discussions did not make me feel as if I was returning to work; in my mind I keep all that at arms’ length.
While talking about the blummin Council, I am looking to join the leisure centre, as do many people at this time of year. I had a trial session and, having tried a few resistance machines, I am seriously out of shape. Even selecting a mere 10kg on the chest press machine, I found that hard work. I remember I used to do 20 reps of 30kg without too much bother. It’s not as if I’m wanting to put on lots of muscle, I just need to keep myself in good health. I think using the cross trainer (and the Vario version) is going to be useful along with whatever else I need to work more of my muscles. My goal isn’t about losing weight, moreover it is maintaining a good cardiovascular system. Apparently people rarely die of kidney problems, it is more likely to be heart related problems which are inextricably linked.
All of this is just a little glimpse of this last week – and it feels a quiet week. Nevertheless I still wonder how I ever managed to find the time to work full time!