Category: January 2014

Signing on part two – first published 10 January 2014

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January 2014 and it was time to sign on at the Job Centre for a second time. Even before I’d left the house I was feeling horrible about it. It’s such a demeaning experience I can’t imagine anyone looks forward to it. So I set off on the familiar walk to work route with a feeling of dread. Finally it really felt like winter, a proper cold and frosty morning. On the river path I stopped briefly to take a photograph of a skeletonised leaf on the ground and another couple of the mist over the water. Anything to take my mind of where I was going. Continue reading Signing on part two – first published 10 January 2014

Searching for the start of the Navigation – First published 8 January 2014

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Day two of my 2014 exercise program and I’d progressed to the second, tough Pump it Up section, all star jumps and elbow to knee stuff. Just when you think you can’t do another one it changes to something else, which is a relief until, shortly, you realise you can’t do another one of the new thing either. It made me wonder how I used to manage the whole thing from start to finish and then go off to work? I was shattered. What I wanted was a little nap, my eyes were actually closing. Still doing it for two days in a row was just a start, if I could stick at it I’d soon be watching those muscles tone up. Continue reading Searching for the start of the Navigation – First published 8 January 2014

Trying to create some kind of routine – first published 7 January 2014

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The beginning of 2014 seemed like a good time to try to get some semblance of order into my life again. Exercise was high on the agenda.  With a broken  DVD player in the gym Pump it Up had fallen by the wayside. Then I discovered some of the workouts were on YouTube. With a little fiddling and experimenting, I found out I could create a playlist on YouTube too. Who knew that? Ok, probably everyone knew that except me. Continue reading Trying to create some kind of routine – first published 7 January 2014

Signing on – first published 2 January 2013

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2013 was finally over and it was a year I was glad to see the back of. 2014 came in with a bang in Southampton. At midnight we opened the back door to let 2013 out and open the champagne. It was raining. We opened the front door to welcome 2014 in, look at the fireworks and listen to the boats. We didn’t stay out long because the rain started teeming down. As we sat back down in front of the fire there was a flash of lightening and a tremendous clap of thunder and all hell broke loose with the rain. We hoped it wasn’t a sign of things to come, 2013 had been stormy enough thank you very much. Continue reading Signing on – first published 2 January 2013

A promise not a resolution – First published 5 January 2014

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It wasn’t the greatest start to 2014. There I was, redundant again, ever so slightly depressed and feeling lost and bewildered. What I needed was something to motivate me, maybe something like a New Year’s Resolution. Of course I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions but promises and challenges, well they’re a different matter. This post was the birth of a personal challenge to walk one hundred miles a month in 2014.  Continue reading A promise not a resolution – First published 5 January 2014