Thursday 27 June 2024
Fire pit
Birthday trip to the pub
On Saturday night a bunch of us went to Chiddingstone (Penshurst Station) for a friend's birthday. We popped to the Little Brown Jug then a short 10 mins walk to the Greyhound for a lovely Kent summer countryside walk. It was beautiful.
Arthur's learning to ride his new bike
April found the scarf method on line and although was pretty hard work lifting up the big lump he was very good on his first outing.
Friday 21 June 2024
That woke her up
No weight loss
Excluding weekends I've been to the gym 15 days in a row and i've still not lost any weight. I've definitely trimmed down though so unless i'm storing up a really big shit I must have replaced it with muscle.
I'm beating my distance on the elliptical, up to 10.8km in 45 mins now and I just beat my fastest 500m swim (12m59s). When I would normally have done 1 at a push 2 front crawl swims per 20 laps i'm now doing 10. Let's hope I can keep it up.
Thursday 20 June 2024
Who knew I actually snored?
I usually charge my watch overnight so have never used the sleep monitoring feature. I've tried it for a few nights this week and it turns out I do snore...
Wednesday 19 June 2024
New contract
Well looks like i'm going to be fully employed till the end of the year. My company has offered me a new and improved ftc (fixed term contract). It's a new role that they created that spreads across Risk, Capital and aggregation management. It comes with a £20k per year increase in base pay, plus due to the timings will get a 15% retention bonus (if I stay to the end of the year) instead of the normal company bonus scheme. That's a win win for me as it's due to be another heavy year in terms of US landing hurricanes so the company has a high chance of not making targets. This is more of a guarantee! To top that off i'll be here in July too which means I trigger another bonus, a nice little £2.7k for taking part in a successful project last year.
Hello birdie
Since i've scared off next doors cats (with a water pistol) i've started to see a few extra things outside my office window. Here's a friendly bird.
Last night's game
We managed to hook up one of the TVs in the function room above the pub last night. We're going through a huge cave system at the minute. Pretty good fun.
Monday 17 June 2024
Honey, thyme, walnuts and brie for tea
One of the survival (outdoor boys) guys on youtube I watch has this for a snack fairly often so thought i'd give it a go. We both enjoyed it. Now to work out how to turn it into a good looking starter.
It's been a while
I cooked my first Sunday lunch in ages yesterday. Pretty decent effort. I used my crinkle cutter for the potatoes, carrots and parsnips for extra surface area.
Sunday 16 June 2024
Party time
We went round Flo's twin friend's house yesterday for their birthday party. It was supposed to be the whole year but due to the weather they had to scale it back considerably. We were one of the lucky families to still get the invite. The kids had a lovely time. They're a lovely family but they've changes schools so a lot harder to stay in touch.
Height comparison update
They still both quite a bit above average in height for their age. Arthur is 6 cm taller than average as a 4 year old. Flo approx 4 or 5 cm
Saturday 15 June 2024
New salad
We've been meaning to make this salad for a couple of weeks now and finally got round to it for lunch today. Very nice. Will work well as a starter.
New toy
A very generous friend gave this to Arthur this morning. He's very pleased. Her daughter is a bit too old for it now so passed it on to us.
Friday 14 June 2024
5 out of 5
Another 5 / 5 work days where I went to the gym. I've not lost much weight, but i've certainly toned / bulked up. I've been enjoying it.
I always end with a 20 lap swim which i've been speeding up. The pool's fairly quiet which is good but there are a few swimmers with flippers and hand paddles. Apparently it's for improving your swim posture. But I think it's cheating.
Thursday 13 June 2024
10 Years!
It's the 10 year anniversary of moving into our house today. Wow. It's certainly the longest i've ever lived in one place. Here's for another 10!
Wednesday 12 June 2024
Pre gig burgers
I went to see NOFX with one of my friends last night, we decided to have some burgers before the event.
Monday 10 June 2024
5 days in a row
I went to the gym 5 days in a row last week. Pretty much did the same thing each day. 45mins / 10km on the sit down cross trainer thing and 15mins / 500m in the pool. For those shit at maths or without excel in front of you. 50km cross trainer, 2.5km in the pool.
Bbq at the rugby club
My rugby club has a new caterer for next season, she decided to have a short notice tester event at the club this Sunday for all of the junior sides coaches and their kids. As soon she mentioned hog roast, 210 of us replied with a yes!
It was a good event and the club should be doing more of them.
Grilled Mackerel
Last week I grilled some mackerel topped with chilli, lemon grass and ginger. Not bad. Thanks Nigel Slater
Thursday 6 June 2024
39,000 steps yesterday
Walked the kids to school and back, went to the gym, walked the dog over lunch then played touch rugby in the evening. A bit tired today, but still managed to get to the gym.
Wednesday 5 June 2024
Only 2 chapters left
Tuesday 4 June 2024
Exercise update
I've been going to the gym for a little over a month now. 40% days. If you include me playing rugby / touch rugby it's up as high as 51%. My aim is to keep this up and try to lose a bit of weight. The problem is I think i've been bulking out instead. I'm about 94kg at the moment which is the same as when I started. I basically just sit on a cross trainer bike thing for 45 mins (10km), then go for a swim (500m) and finish of with 5 mins in the sauna.
I definitely feel better though which is good and think i'm a little trimmer.