2016/17 – What Happened ?
Posted: Sat 4 November, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Bankruptcy, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Health, Introspective, Rebuilding, Single Life, Thoughts Leave a comment »So, a year ago I listed the following as the plans for 2016/17…
- Continue rebuilding the finances, and keep boosting the savings
- Exercise, improve health, lose weight
- Complete September’s walking marathon – ideally in under seven hours. (My target is more ambitious than that, but I’ll be happy with 7 hours)
- Write more. (And ideally complete/publish some)
- Do more of the ideas around my own business
- Get out less. Ideally, some kind of middle-ground between being ultra-quiet/sensible, and the idiocy of the last year
- Look more at some political ideas, and see how that goes. (This one’s the random ‘maybe’ one, I don’t know if anything will happen with it or not)
How did it go?
- Finances : Yeah, not bad. Not at the totals I wanted to be at (which is a familiar theme) but I did what I wanted to, so I’m happy with that one
- Health : Less so. I haven’t gained any weight, but nor have I lost much. Good intentions have been undermined by an utter failure on Number 6, and life getting in the way of things
- Walking Marathon : Failed utterly, as I’ve wittered about at length. But I’m already signed up for the 2018 one…
- Write more : Failed utterly. There are ideas, but as with Health, I’ve been abysmal at doing less, so yeah. Bugger.
- Own Business : Kinda. I’ve written out more of the plans, got some ideas in code, and been looking at other stuff. But actually done? Nope.
- Get Out Less : Also an utter failure. I’ve been out loads, and in many ways have kept even busier than I did in 2015/16 – less Michelin-starred restaurants, but more things
- Politics : Looked at the ideas, but in the current political climate of Brexit and so on, getting involved on that score strikes me as…. less than wise.
So what’s on the list for 2017/18? Well, we’ll cover that tomorrow…
Fancy Footwork
Posted: Fri 6 October, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, 2017 Inspirations, 2017/18, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, London, Single Life Leave a comment »[Caution : Contains a post about semi-manky feet.]
Following on from my foot woes two weeks ago, yesterday I went to a podiatrist to find out what the hell had gone wrong, and what could be done to fix it.
Happily, while the damage is unpleasant (you know that when even a podiatrist says “Oooh, that looks nasty” – fuck being someone who has to look at feet fot a living. *boak*) it’s not long-term or massively serious.
Indeed, what it looks like is that basically the whole ball of both feet was covered by a layer of corns and calluses. That was, in general, fine. However, when I damaged them at the end of August, the blisters disrupted a lot of them. And the healing process added a layer of hard (but effectively brittle) skin over the corns and callouses. So the walking in the marathon attempt split that brittle skin completely, reopened the mostly-healed underlying wounds, and generally made things a whole lot of Not Fun.
So yesterday she spent time taking off the layers of corn and callus, which has left them a bit sore and raw, but also feeling a lot better.
I’ve also got a treatment plan for improving my feet and hopefully not getting a recurrence of the same problem. But if they do recur, I’ve also got the plan in place for going back, getting them sorted again, and establishing a timeline for how long it takes to happen.
All told, I feel pretty positive about it all. There are a couple of other smaller foot issues that I’ll be working on sorting out at the same time, but the primary problem appears to have been sorted.
It’s also been a far more optimistic resolution than I’d been expecting – I’d had visions of needing two or three months worth of treatments, but thankfully that now doesn’t seem to be the case.
I’m still going to try and take more care of my feet, and carry on finding out more about what I need to do for next September’s re-attempt at that Marathon distance…
Fluffy
Posted: Fri 29 September, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Gigs, London, M1, Travel Leave a comment »This evening, I’m off to London to see a comedian called Gabriel Iglesias (AKA “Fluffy”) at Hammersmith Apollo.
It’ll be the second time I’ve seen him, and I’m looking forward to it. When the tickets were announced, I got them straight away – at the same time griping about it being a Friday night gig, wishing it could be a Saturday, but there we go, it was the one that was announced.
The Friday sold out pretty quickly, so there’s now a Saturday night gig too – which is kind-of annoying, but still, I’m happy to be going for the original date, the one that should have sold to the people who really wanted to see it, rather than the also-ran “yeah, kinda interested”s, who’ll end up at in the Saturday one.
It makes for a long old day, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it.
Marathonic
Posted: Mon 25 September, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, 2017/18, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, London, Travel, Walking, Weigh Less Leave a comment »[Apologies to anyone who’s already read a similar post on Facebook!]
So – Saturday night was the night of the Shine Walking Marathon. As I’ve said before, I knew it was likely that I might run (well, walk) into problems this time, because of other stuff that’s happened over the last six weeks or so, both with new boots (and resultant blisters) and the initial damage from the walk on National Burger Day.
So I wasn’t fully optimistic about the day, but also I wasn’t going to duck out without at least trying. I still wanted to complete it if I possibly could, but I was also prepared to back out if it got too much.
And as it turned out, that’s what happened. Annoyingly, it was the damage from that first walk, which didn’t take long to reblister, swell with blood, and then burst/split. Indeed, it happened within the first three miles. After that, I still did another three, but it was hurting enough that I decided to stop before it became even more serious.
I’m still really disappointed in myself for having bailed – although everyone else I know has effectively told me to not be so bloody stupid – and narked that Life threw so many obstacles and hindrances at me in the last six weeks.
Of course, I’ve now signed up for next year’s one, so I’ll be working on sorting myself out and repairing all the damage over the next three months, and getting properly prepared for it.
Farce about Ace
Posted: Wed 20 September, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Charitable, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, London, Thoughts, Walking Leave a comment »In my standard way, I’m doing some things in the wrong order over the next few weeks.
As I’ve said before, on Saturday night I’ll be doing the Shine London Night Walk, which will be interesting, to say the least. I really don’t know at the moment what to expect, and it’s preying on my mind a bit (actually more than a bit, but there we go, not long now) as to how well I’ll actually do.
Once that’s done, and whatever recovery process is under way, I’m also going to be taking myself to a chiropodist/podiatrist, and getting the problem areas of my feet sorted out. And that’s what’s backwards.
Of course, If I’d had any sense (or done any real preparation or organisation) I’d have been doing the “sorting out of feet” well before it was time to walk 26-and-a-bit miles on them. But I left it too late – and in fairness, it’s only in the last month that I’ve been experiencing any real pains or problems with my feet. But fixing the issues now would result in greater problems by the weekend, so there we go, backwards organisation it is.
In fairness, this way will probably kind of be in the same vein as the whole [x] Anonymous thing, of having hit rock bottom and the only way being up. If I present my feet to the chiropodist/podiatrist in the expected post-Marathon semi-knackered state, that should be the worst they can be. Which will mean that only good things can result in the treatment.
Well, that’s the ‘plan’, anyway. Only time will tell how it handles first contacts with reality…
Stratford
Posted: Mon 18 September, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Theatre, Travel Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I went to Stratford-on-Avon. It’s somewhere I’ve only been once before, and had thought it was a long drive to get there. Then when I got in the car on Saturday morning, I discovered it’s actually only 70 miles, and so only just over an hour. Why had I thought it was much further? Because I’m an idiot – last time I went, I travelled via Cheltenham, for lunch at Champignon Sauvage (it was part of my Michelin Project last year)
So I got there a lot earlier than I’d originally planned/expected to, which gave me plenty of time to wander and explore the place a bit, and do some other stuff as well. Last time I went, I got mislaid a couple of times (not majorly – it’s too small a place to get properly lost in) so I wanted to do things differently this time.
I really enjoyed wandering around – or at least until midday or so, once the coach trip people had all woken up and descended on the place, along with usual weekend shoppers and the like. But it’s a nice place that’s easy to walk around, and my mental map of it is now a lot more comprehensive.
Then I met up with a friend, M, with whom I was having lunch, and then seeing a play later – see, there was a reason for going, it wasn’t just random!
We had lunch at Salt, a passion-project restaurant for the chef, Paul Foster, who used Kickstarter to fund getting it running. That was thoroughly enjoyable, and is definitely somewhere I’ll be returning to next year when there’s other RSC stuff on that I want to see.
Afterwards, we had some time to kill, so sorted out booking into our respective hotel rooms, then took a ride on the Stratford Ferris Wheel, and then pre-performance cocktails at the RSC.
Finally, we saw Coriolanus at the RSC (about which more another time) , and back to hotels. I’d booked the room before realising how easy the drive home would’ve been, so that was a bit of expense I won’t need to make next time, but it still made for a decent weekend away from home.
Broken
Posted: Fri 8 September, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, London, Thoughts Leave a comment »In what’s becoming a bit of a theme this year, I broke myself a bit last weekend, and the recovery from it has taken a while.
On Saturday, as written about previously, I went to Tobacco Dock in Wapping to attend Meatopia, and then a concert in the evening. It was a day that I knew was going to be silly, and I’d prepared as much as possible for it.
The plan was…
- Drive down to North London, park up, and get the Tube down to Euston
- Drop off a bag at Euston’s Left Luggage office, to collect on my way back
- Walk the five to six miles from Euston to Tobacco Dock.
- Go to Meatopia, eat lots, walk lots, etc. etc.
- Walk back to Euston, get my bag, get changed
- Head up to Camden (by Tube or foot, depending on timings)
- Meet other friends there, have some food, then go to the concert
- All done, walk back to Camden Town, get the Tube up to where I was parked
- Drive home.
And it actually all pretty much worked out. I ended up getting a Tube back to Euston – although we still walked from Tobacco Dock to Tower Bridge, and then from Euston Square to Euston – and didn’t get changed ’til I was at my destination in Camden, but that was the only real difference.
By the end of the day, I’d been on my feet – in new boots – for about sixteen hours, and it’s fair to say that I was sore and tired. Indeed, I changed my plans for the following day, and spent it as a quiet one, rather than doing a similar walk by going back to Meatopia for Day Two.
And after that, I kind of crashed, in my usual way. By Monday I was in the throes of an evil cold – not flu or man-flu, just a cold, but enough to leave me feeling like shit. Colds and chest-infections are my weak-point, they’re always the sign that I’ve hit my limits – and when I stop after being busy for a long period, they’re always what I go down with.
So this week has been spent working through a whole hail of sore throat, phlegmy chest, and generally feeling like hammered shit. I’ll be fine, and it’s on the wane now, but still, it doesn’t make for a fun time.
New Boots
Posted: Wed 30 August, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Gigs, London, Stupidity, Thoughts, Travel, Walking, Weigh Less Leave a comment »As I’ve mentioned before, at the end of September I’ll be doing the Shine Nightwalk marathon in London. I’m mainly looking forward to it, although I can’t deny that there’s a dose of trepidation to balance things out a bit.
Anyway, following a particularly ill-fated walk last week, I discovered that my boots – the ones I was planning to do the marathon in – are pretty much destroyed inside, to the extent that they’d caused me some really unpleasant blisters during that walk.
So of course that’s meant I’ve had to buy new boots for walking, and now have to break them in over the next couple of weeks in order to be ready for the end of the month. Thankfully, the ones I prefer are more like trainers inside, rather than being hard-core ‘proper’ walking boots, so the process shouldn’t be too complex/painful. (Crossing my fingers like no-one’s business there)
In fairness, it’s not the first time this has happened when I’m doing one of my bigger walks – I should know better by now. Indeed, the first 10km walk I did, the boots I was planning to use fell apart on the morning of the walk, so I ended up doing it in my normal everyday Cat boots instead, and came to no harm. But still, a marathon is four-and-a-half times that distance, so I’m trying to be a bit more prepared. (Not massively so, but enough that I don’t make a complete twadge of it all)
Anyway, the new boots arrived yesterday – fairly impressed, ordered them on Saturday through Cotswold – they were even on a better online price than expected – for supply to the local Cotswold store, and they arrived as expected, even over a Bank Holiday weekend. And the wearing-in process starts today.
The proper test will be on the weekend, when I’ll be using them to walk from Euston Station to Tobacco Dock (four miles, give or take, depending on which route I aim for) for Meatopia, then five-ish back to Camden for a concert – and then a similar Euston -> Tobacco Dock and back on Sunday for the same thing. If they’re not broken in by then, I’m going to have problems.
There are a couple of other walks between now and the end of the month (I changed some plans around to give me time to do so) and all should be fine by then. But we’ll know more when it happens…
Halfway
Posted: Sat 1 July, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Thoughts Leave a comment »Somehow, we’re now already halfway through 2017.
As usual, in some ways it feels like I’ve done (or achieved) absolutely sod-all this year so far. In others, it feels like I haven’t stopped at all, and have done loads. Time’s weird like that.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. Soon be the Festering Season again…
Five
Posted: Fri 5 May, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, A428, Bankruptcy, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, M1, Milton Keynes, Rebuilding, Single Life, The Future, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Amazingly, I’ve been in the current house for five years today. How time flies when you’re having fun, and all that piss.
As it stands, this is now the longest I’ve been in any one place since I moved out of the parental home. It’s certainly not my “forever” place (whatever the hell that means) but it does suit me for the moment – and even admitting that feels kind of weird.
There are two significant reasons why I’m more settled here than pretty much anywhere else I’ve lived…
- The location. To coin a cliche, it’s easy to get away from (as I’ve said before) with the M1 for North-South travel, and the A421 for East-West, both within easy reach. It gives me plenty of options, and lets me be away from here on a regular basis while still having somewhere that’s easy to come back to. Compared to (for example) living in Norfolk and Suffolk where it was an hour to get out of the damn county – or onto decent dual carriageway – and this is just easy. Because of that, I’m not keeping on thinking about where would suit me better.
- The finances. While I’m doing a lot better now, and could easily fund a move, it’s more about the credit-checking and so on that would go with any new tenancy. At the moment, I’d likely faily it (or at the least it would cause problems) so it’s easier to stay here. That wouldn’t stop me from moving if I really wanted to – but because of Reason One, that’s not currently the case. And without an urgency to it, why cause myself more problems or hassle than I need to?
As things stand, my tenancies expire in November – because the first tenancy was just six months, and then they’ve extended as 12-month ones. The bankruptcy comes off my record in August 2018. Unless things change radically in the meantime, I think I’ll be here ’til then, and from there I’ll see how I go. So the odds are, another 18 months here, and who knows after that?
Doing Less, Doing More
Posted: Wed 3 May, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Charitable, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, London, Weigh Less Leave a comment »After this coming weekend, life calms down a bit once more. (I know, it’s a recurring theme) From here, I’ve got fewer weekends with stuff already booked – at least until September, which is already idiotic. (Of which more later, or in a future post)
However, that doesn’t mean I’ll not be doing much.
Come the end of September, I’ll be walking a marathon distance, and I want to have an equivalent distance already under my belt by then, along with some other practice/training walks building up to it. I did a half-marathon distance back in October, but then haven’t done anywhere near as much since, and I’m aware that I really should have done. Oops, as they say.
So in the run-up to the end of September, that’s (part of) what I’m going to be doing. Taking some time, some days out, doing a shitload of walking. It won’t all be London-based, although the majority will be.
I know I could easily just rock up on the day and complete the course – but I do want to at least appear to be taking it more seriously than that.
Changing Routines
Posted: Mon 1 May, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Do More, Domestic, Health, Weigh Less Leave a comment »Of late, I’ve noticed that I’d been getting a bit complacent about exercise, walking and the like. I’ve still been doing it, and meeting my targets, but it had all got a bit easy, always making my target.
Since getting the Fitbit, my daily target has been 5,000 steps – about half of the recommended (but completely arbitrary) 10,000, but a daily target I could live with, and that was feasible with my work, commute etc.
Some days have been harder than others along the way, but I was always getting at least five out of seven where I’d reach my target, and some of those would absolutely beast the total, so I’d average around 60,000 steps a week.
This year, though, I’ve noticed that 5,000 step target has been easy – I haven’t missed a day this year so far. I also ended up not doing as much – if I’d done that 5,000 by the end of the working day, I didn’t do much in the evening.
So last week, I upped the target, this time to 7,500. It’s still doable, but does require me to do more. (Logically enough)
The only downside of this is that, because Fitbit have written abysmal code, the app can only handle one step target – so it’s updated all my targets since Day One to 7,500 – which means I’ve got a lot more missed days than I did have before I upped it. In short, this is known as Bollocks.
But hey ho, it means I’m doing more and walking more, and that can’t be a bad thing.
Outlining
Posted: Fri 14 April, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Creativity, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Ideas, Thoughts, Write More, Writing Leave a comment »At the moment, I’ve got several writing plans/projects in my head, but two that are really standing out, and that I want to work on. And already that’s a fair dollop of progress.
For now though, I’m trying something a bit different – I don’t yet know if it’ll work out, but so far it appears to be doing OK.
Basically, rather than just writing and seeing how things develop, I’m taking some time first to outline it all, so I know what the plan is, where characters will go, and how everything interacts. It’s also interesting, from the perspective of figuring out more about how my brain processes these things.
The only thing that concerns me currently about this process is that I know how I am, that once I’ve written something down or otherwise got it out of my head I’ll forget all about the details, and there’ll be something else to grab my attention instead. Oooh, shiny.
So it may be that doing these outlines is as far as I go on these ideas. Or it may be that the outlines gel everything together so that I know what I’m doing, and then just want to get it done.
And only time will tell which of those options will happen. Which is kind of cool, and kind of frustrating…
Slight Demoralisation
Posted: Thu 13 April, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, 2017 Inspirations, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Media, Television, The Future, Thoughts, Writing Leave a comment »Over the last couple of weeks, one of the satellite TV channels has been repeating one of my all-time favourite series, “The Closer“, and I’ve been recording and re-watching them. In some episodes it shows its age (it first went out in 2005) with the technology, phones etc., but that’s pretty much to be expected now.
Right from the start I liked it, each episode contained all the clues and ideas needed to solve the crimes, which raised it above an awful lot of the procedural dramas around. It was intelligent in a number of ways, but there was also a focus on personalities, clashes, and idiosyncracies.
I was well into it anyway, and then the last three episodes of the first season hooked me completely. I won’t go into the details, but the final episode of Season One has the best apology ever seen on TV, and it still makes me laugh, even knowing it was coming.
However, it also has a bit of a downside. The writing is so sharp, the characterisation so good (in my opinion, naturally) that I watch it – and a couple of other things, particularly “The West Wing” – and just find myself thinking that I’ll never be able to write like that.
I’m going to damn well try, don’t get me wrong, but yeah, it still makes me a bit demoralised about the whole thing. Fun and games.
2017 Inspirations – Photography
Posted: Sun 8 January, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, 2017 Inspirations, Change, Creativity, Day Trips, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Photography, Photography, Single Life, Thoughts, Travel 3 Comments »As things change for me in 2017 – well, as I do new stuff, or restart old stuff – I’m hoping/intending/planning to write more about it here on D4D as well, along with things about what’s driving those choices. So there’s a new subject/category to cover it all. And this is where it all starts.
As long-term readers know, I was into photography for a long time, did pretty well at it, and even ended up taking a course while I was in Norfolk in order to better understand what the hell I was trying to do.
But since Norfolk and Suffolk, I’ve been doing a lot less photography. Some of that is due to my mobile phone, where the pixel count is higher than the SLR I still have. It’s also about faff – lugging an SLR around for the day (particularly when doing anything else, like one of my idiotically long walks) is a hefty job anyway, and it’s simply never ready for a quick photo. Using the SLR is a much bigger commitment in many ways, and over the last four years, I really haven’t been making that commitment.
This year, I want to change that, and do more where I actually go out with the SLR, with the intention of taking photos.
The first real inspiration for that has been this story on the BBC, of Dean Saunderson’s photos of a deserted Nottingham on Christmas morning. It’s something that works for me, having been to many places at ungodly-o’clock, and seeing them with very few people around. Oxford, for example, is beautiful at 5am on a summer Sunday morning – and the same applies for many other cities. So this is a theme/topic/idea I could get into, and will probably have a few goes at over this year.
We’ll see at the end of the year how I do on these inspirations. It’s going to be a year where I (hopefully) figure out more about the things I want to continue doing, and which ones I’ll be happier to leave by the wayside in order to do other things.
More Posts in 2017?
Posted: Mon 2 January, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Thoughts, Write More, Writing Leave a comment »One of my aims/hopes for 2017 is to write more stuff here. It slackened off massively for a while, and I’ve never really got back to the same levels as back in the first few years. I’m not necessarily aiming to go back to those levels either, but it’d be nice to write more here, and it’ll be related to other stuff that’s planned, so it kind of makes sense.
As part of that though, I did wonder about my annual post counts, so through the wonders of databases, I came up with the following…
- 2002 – 411 posts
- 2003 – 987 posts – the busiest year
- 2004 – 882 posts
- 2005 – 950 posts
- 2006 – 823 posts
- 2007 – 666 posts – the year of the beast, obviously
- 2008 – 491 posts
- 2009 – 535 posts
- 2010 – 362 posts
- 2011 – 43 – all time low, for reasons known to regular readers
- 2012 – 141 posts
- 2013 – 245 posts
- 2014 – 233 posts
- 2015 – 179 posts
- 2016 – 151 posts
I’m not disheartened by that – I know I’ve had other things going on in the last couple of years, and that 2016 in particular has been madly busy with stuff that I haven’t written a lot about, so it all works out somewhat. And even then it still works out as about three posts a week, which isn’t abysmal.
We’ll see, come the end of the year, how things have gone. But for now, the plan is to write more here, as well as elsewhere.
What’s The Plan?
Posted: Sun 1 January, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Business, Do More, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Resolutions, Thoughts, Weigh Less, Write More Leave a comment »And here we are, at the start of 2017. Didn’t that come round quickly?
As with previous years, I don’t really make resolutions. It’s all pretty arbitrary, the whole resolutions thing, so I usually choose to make plans from one birthday to the next, rather than the whole “January 1st is for new starts” cobblers.
This year, I’ve got some plans for 2017 as a whole though – although they’re not much different to what I’d laid out back in November. However, in my head, I’ve laid some of these down as being “this year” instead. I don’t quite know why, but it’ll work for me.
So – what are they? Well, in no particular order…
- Finances
- Add a significant amount into the savings
- Work
- Figure out what comes next after the current contract (I’m sure that’ll happen at some point in the coming year)
- Learn some new stuff, because why not?
- Launch at least one of the projects that’ve been in my head for way too long
- Writing
- Complete at least one of the screenplay ideas I’ve started in 2016
- and then figure out what the hell to do with it/them
- Complete a book idea I’ve got, and publish it (for Kindle)
- Health
- Lose weight (I’ve put some on over the Festering Season, and want to lose that, plus a bit more)
- Do some training/practice walks for that walking marathon in September
- and then complete it on the day
And really that’s it. There might be a couple of other projects along the way, but that’s the main objectives, all in one place.
Whether or not they happen, I don’t know. (Obviously, as we’re only on Day One) But I’m going to give it a damn good go.
The Last Bits, and The Next Bits
Posted: Sun 18 December, 2016 Filed under: 2016/17, Day Trips, Domestic, Festering Season, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »
It’s hard to believe that it’s only a week to Christmas Day, and two to the end of 2016.
This week we’ve had temperatures up around 10-13° C – which is ridiculous for mid-December – and I’ve been wandering around in shirt-sleeves. (While also wondering just how people are walking about fully clad in coat, gloves, and even furry hats. What the bollocks are they going to do when it gets cold, for fuck’s sake?)
Yesterday was my penultimate Michelin-starred restaurant visit of the year, so it’s all coasting down to the end of year. Which is no bad thing, to be honest.
I’ve got some plans and ideas for 2017, but really I think the theme is “do less”. I’ll still be doing all the stuff I’ve been doing in 2016, just less of it. That’s the idea, anyway. Whether it’ll work out that way, well, only time will tell.
One Month
Posted: Sat 26 November, 2016 Filed under: 2016/17, Domestic, Festering Season, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »Among other things, it’s good to know that in a month’s time, the Festering Season will be over and done with for another nine months.
Then there’s just New Year to get done with, and we’ll be all “Hello 2017!”
I’ve a lot planned for 2017 – although it’ll be a very different year to 2016. A lot quieter – intentionally so – in order to get done a bundle of stuff I’ve been thinking about this year, and wanting to have the time to do it.
In general, I’m currently quite optimistic about things, so it’ll be interesting to see how things work out.
Final Weeks
Posted: Fri 25 November, 2016 Filed under: 2016/17, BurgerCrawl, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Festering Season, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, London, Milton Keynes, People, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »We’re coming to the end of 2016, and things are (kind of) calming down a bit here.
Mind you, in the next month the main events are
- Seeing Glenda Jackson in King Lear at the Old Vic in London
- Seeing The Tempest in Stratford-upon-Avon
- A Festive BurgerCrawl in London – only Christmas Special burgers allowed. (That’s pretty much planned already)
- Meals at five Michelin-starred restaurants, including one for New Year’s Eve
and alongside that there’s also
- at least one techie meetup/socialisation night
- two social things with other friends and contacts
- a minimum of three films (that’re already booked) including Rogue One and Passengers, plus any others I choose to see
That’s about it – except for the standard stuff around the Festering Season as well.
And yet still, that’s a lot quieter and calmer than a lot of the year has been. Which just goes to show, sometimes I can be a spectacularly busy idiot…
Birthday Weekend – Aliens
Posted: Fri 11 November, 2016 Filed under: 2016/17, Cinema, Do More, Domestic, Films, Five Year Plan (now Ten), London, Reviews(ish), Seeing Films, Thoughts Leave a comment »For the birthday weekend, once I’d done Le Manoir on Saturday, and Dinner for lunch on Sunday, it was time to make my way down to the Royal Albert Hall, which was showing Aliens on a big screen, accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performing the soundtrack.
Aliens is one of my favourite films, and one I’ve seen far more times than I’d care to admit – both the original release and the Director’s Cut / Special Edition. But I hadn’t seen it on a big screen for a proper cinema-style presentation, and definitely never with a live soundtrack!
And it was great. I’d wondered how they’d do soundtrack/music from the orchestra while keeping the dialogue and other sound-effects, and there’s obviously been a fair amount of work involved in doing this. I assume that the music soundtrack is on a different channel (or whatever) from the other bits of audio, so it’s more a case of ‘not playing’ one track, but I don’t know.
Regardless, hearing the music live enabled me to notice bits I hadn’t appreciated before – subtle in the recorded version, obvious live – such as the drum roll that’s used for all the more militaristic scenes, and other small thematic pieces along the way.
I thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing – well, except for the seats, which were some of the most uncomfortable in Christendom – and now really want to see other films show in the same way. It’s bloody brilliant.
Birthday Weekend – Dinner
Posted: Thu 10 November, 2016 Filed under: 2016/17, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, London, Reviews(ish), Single Life, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »For the birthday weekend, once I’d done Le Manoir on Saturday, I was in London on Sunday for two things – the first of which was lunch at Heston Blumenthal’s “Dinner” restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental hotel.
I can’t claim to be a huge fan of Blumenthal, but Dinner is an interesting concept, resurrecting and reinventing meals from previous times/eras, ranging from the 1300s through to early 1940s.
It’s also one of the few places I’ve been to this year that doesn’t do a tasting menu, opting instead for three larger courses.
I had a great meal consisting of
- Roast Scallops (c. 1830) – with cucumber ketchup, roasted cucumber, bergamot and borage
- Chicken cooked with Lettuces (c. 1670) – Grilled onion emulsion, spiced celeriac sauce and oyster leaf, with a side of some of the best mashed potato ever (as recommended by the waiter)
- Tipsy Cake (c. 1810) – fresh-made brioche on a beautiful sauce, with spit-roasted pineapple.
- And finished off with Liquid-Nitrogen ice cream, made at the table, which was a great finale.
There’s also a lot more stuff on the menu that I now really want to try, so I’ll be aiming to return in 2017.
Birthday Weekend – Le Manoir
Posted: Wed 9 November, 2016 Filed under: 2016/17, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Reviews(ish), Single Life, Solo Dining, Thoughts 4 Comments »As I said earlier this week, for my actual birthday I took myself to Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons for lunch, partly for birthday purposes, partly for the whole solo-dining project.
I grew up close to Le Manoir, and my parents are still close by, so I’ve never been able to justify going there (and particularly staying, which is the best way to book a table well ahead of time) but I did get lucky when it came to booking myself for lunch. They open the bookings for non-residents three months in advance, and I’d called them before lunchtime on August 5th. (That was more about lucky ‘why the hell not’ thoughts and decisions on that day, rather than anything I can claim to be planned)
So it’s fair to say I was looking forward to this one quite a bit. Happily, it lived up to the expectations.
Le Manoir is well known for its garden, where they grow a lot of their own vegetables, fruit and herbs. It’s an impressive setting, and guests are free to have a wander round the garden, either before or after their meal.
I had the November tasting menu, and it was bloody good. It included…
- Roasted Pumpkin and Butternut Squash soup, with a biscotti loaded with pumpkin puree, cashew nuts and Cashel Blue cheese
- Beetroot Terrine (which I’d been recommended to ask for, and managed to get as a complimentary extra course, because Birthday)
- Confit Salmon with Lemon Verbena, Apple Pieces and Apple Puree
- Free-range Hen’s Egg, watercress, ham and toasted hazelnuts
- Quail, beetroot gratin, bulgur wheat and “leaves”
- Comté Cheese, aged 12, 24 and 36 months
- Ravioli of exotic fruits (a mix of exotic fruits under a shell of apricot) with a coconut foam/jus
- Millionaire Shortbread to finish, a soft toffee with bitter chocolate on shortbread, and salted butter ice-cream
It was a fantastic meal, and one I thoroughly enjoyed. Admittedly, it wasn’t in the top three meals I’ve had this year – but some of that is because I’ve massively spoiled myself this year with other places. In any normal year, it would definitely have been one of the best.
Birthday Weekend
Posted: Mon 7 November, 2016 Filed under: 2016/17, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, London, People, Single Life, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »In general, I don’t really do much on/for my birthday, or surrounding it. Birthdays aren’t something I see as generally important, they are (to me) just another day. I try to recognise them for others and so on, but honestly, I’m not that bothered when it comes to my own.
This year, though, the weekend of my birthday turned out to be a fairly epic one – albeit still not massively social, and more because of the way things worked out, rather than anything else.
The first indicator that it would be a non-standard weekend came a lot earlier in the year, when I discovered that the Royal Albert Hall (RAH) was going to be showing one of my all-time favourite films, Aliens, with the soundtrack being performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I’d have booked it for any damn time of the year, to be honest – but the fact it was being done on the day after my birthday made it even better. So I booked tickets for myself and a friend to see it. Happy day. And really, that would’ve been enough to make it a good day/weekend.
But then same friend suggested we make a day of it, and do a decent lunch before the film. And wouldn’t you know it, there’s some decent places just up the road from the RAH. So he booked a table for us, as well as his wife and son. (Who wouldn’t have let him eat around there without them, all being foodies) Where? Heston Blumenthal’s Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. Because? Well, why not?
But both of those were for the day after my birthday. So, with the Solo Dining project in mind as well, I decided to book somewhere for lunch on the actual day. And ended up with a booking at Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons, which had been on my list for a while, and was generally regarded as being bloody good.
And that’s what happened.
And you know what? It was bloody good. I’ll write more during the coming week, but safe to say, yeah, it’s been a good weekend. Although today I do feel just a bit broken. Sad, but true.
13.1
Posted: Sun 23 October, 2016 Filed under: 2015/16, 2016/17, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, London, Travel, Weigh Less Leave a comment »A while back, I laid out one of my main targets for next year, to do the Shine Nightwalk Marathon. And because of that, I also set myself the “lesser” challenge of walking a half-marathon, as a proof that I was at least capable of it.
I wanted to prove – as much to myself as to anyone else – that I could walk that 13.1 miles in a reasonable time, not fall apart by doing so (or afterwards) and really just that it was doable. I also wanted to be get a rough outline of how long it would take, to give myself a feasible target time come September.
Yesterday, with sod-all planning or training, I went down to London (might as well do the trial in the same kind of place as the actual event, after all) and did it.
It wasn’t as fast as I’d hoped for, but at the same time it was about what I expected. There’s still stuff to be done, and I’ll be working on all of it – more walks etc., better distances and better times – but for a first attempt, I’m pleased with how it went.
All told, I ended up walking about 15 miles in the end – as the map shows, the 13.1 miles took me so far, but I’d mis-judged things a bit, as I’d aimed for it be a lot closer to my destination at Euston station. Instead, I was a couple of miles away, so ended up still walking those miles back to Euston as well. (As has been said before, I’m a bloody idiot on occasion)
I’m less sure now that I’ll be able to do it in my intended six hour target, but an eight-hour will be certainly be doable, with seven being (I think) realistic, and I’ll be happy with that, although I’ll continue to aim towards the lower times and see how I do. I slowed down significantly after about 8 or 9 miles, which was partly being tired, but also partly being held up by lots of slow-moving people.
I hurt a lot less than expected afterwards, too. Sore feet and some muscle aching in my legs, but that’s about it.
I’m pleased that I’ve done it, and that I’ve proved to myself I can do the full thing. I know the full thing is still double that distance, and that it’s still a big thing to complete, but I do feel more confident now that it’s something I can do.
Booked in Advance
Posted: Thu 20 October, 2016 Filed under: 1BEM, 2016/17, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Thoughts Leave a comment »Considering that I’m planning on a quieter year in 2017 without quite so many busy weekends, is it a good or bad thing that I’ve already got two things booked in for September 2017?
And of course, me being me, they’re both on the same weekend.
I suspect I may just be an irredeemable idiot.
Adding to Savings
Posted: Wed 5 October, 2016 Filed under: 2015/16, 2016/17, Bankruptcy, Change, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Introspective, Rebuilding, Thoughts Leave a comment »About six weeks ago, I wrote about the changes to my intended savings plans for this year, and how it was affecting things.
Basically, I’d had a plan of how much I wanted to put into my savings account this year, and that hasn’t happened. There’s been a lot of other stuff going on instead, but all the same, it’s been a bit annoying to have not managed that target.
Since then, though, I’ve been adding in to the savings account, and making progress. I won’t get to the original target figure for this year – but putting some in is better than putting none in. So since that first post, I’ve put in the full amounts of a couple of invoices for work I’d done, but also a bit more than 10% of each piece of income has gone straight back out to the savings, so I don’t even really notice it’s gone.
In honesty, that’s what I should’ve been doing all of this year, but I was looking at it from a flawed perspective. (I can’t be bothered to explain that right now, but may do some other time) I’m intending to keep doing the same for the rest of this year, and do the same but with more money next year, and see how we go.
2016’s Smaller Target
Posted: Thu 1 September, 2016 Filed under: 2015/16, 2016/17, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, London, Thoughts, Travel, Weigh Less Leave a comment »Following on from my decision about next year, and doing the Shine Moonlight Marathon (which is a much better name than the Night Walk, IMHO) I’ve also set myself a smaller challenge for completion by the end of 2016.
You guessed it, I’m going to walk a half-marathon distance. Not sponsored or owt (although if I do it, I might just chuck some money Cancer Research’s way anyway) but a bit of a reality check, a “can I do this?”. I know the answer to that is “yes”, but it’ll be interesting to have some quantifiable evidence of it before I plunge into doing the full 26-and-a-bit miles.
I’ve certainly done days with more than 13 miles of walking, so this plan should be utterly doable. Indeed, it might even be easier than usual, if it’s done in one dollop rather than two 5-ish mile walks interspersed with breaks, food, stopping/starting, standing in queues etc. I don’t know – and that’s why I want to find out.
It’ll also hopefully give me a rough outline of the time to aim for on the full event. I’ve got a target time in mind, but again want to check whether that’s even vaguely feasible when faced with reality.
I’ll write more about it once it’s been done, but it’s definitely a goal for now…