first weekend

This was the sunny jubilee long weekend. In it I:

Destroyed a built in cupboard – I spent the Thursday smashing this down, and then had the rubble collected on Friday. I have now taken out all of the additions made to the house since it was built. I have uncovered all of the areas of broken floors and areas that will need replastering. I cannot build things, but I am very happy to destroy things! A step closer to getting a joiner/decorator to coming and fixing things.

Went to the shops – more than once actually. We generally order online and so it was nice to have a jaunt to the shops with the kids to get them involved.

Played board games – a quick round of Qwirkle with the family. We need to build up tolerance to game time as I would love us to play more often.

Played in the garden – we stuck a tent up for a couple of days and had fun using it to stay in the shade at the hottest times. Watched “Captain Nova” with the eldest in the tent. I have been routinely murdering bits of the garden over the last few months. Not enough to keep on top of it but enough to mean we can still use it as the lawn is not totally wild. On the Sunday I had a go at the more aggressive weeds/unwanted plants.

First Week

I went to see a live football game for the first time in a decade. It was Scotland vs Armenia at Hampden. It was fantastic to have a night out without the kids and to catch up with a friend I haven’t seen since my wedding. It helped that the game was a victory too.

second weekend

Went to a kids cellidh. Played games with the family.

I also watched Scotland get thrashed by Ireland at football somewhat inexplicably. It was a good time. But fairly low key.

third weekend

On the Saturday I dropped the youngest to their first ever birthday party for a friend that lives round the corner. The covid interrupted kids really missed out on things like this so it was nice to see them toddling back afterwards happy and loaded with a bag full of cake.

I asked the eldest what they would like to do with me for two hours and to my surprise the first thing they suggested was: “I want to take you out for a run dad. I will go on my scooter while you run”. In the spirit of saying yes to the kids more I did this and it was great. 30 minutes of that and then we played beyblades for 30 minutes ending on the final suggestion of chilling on the sofa watching some TV.

What I realised is I never really get alone time with either kid. It is sort of messy with both of them because they are at different developmental stages. What one wants to do is boring for the other and so it is always a messy time when it is me alone with both kids. I have taken the note and tried to ensure there are activities I do with each individually regularly. I have continued the exercise with the eldest, and the youngest still just wants to be tossed around the place a bit like a tiny acrobat.

On fathers day I was treated to a trip to Zippo’s circus. This was honestly brilliant. I was really up for it and the kids were mesmerised. The skill of the performers is amazing. What a fantastic show!

It is also notable because this is the kind of event I would not have dreamt of going to due to pointless and stupid anxiety that I have. I would have fixated ahead of time on nonsense. I am a lot better at pushing through and doing stuff anyway now, and every time I have it has always been excellent. Go see the circus when it is in town.

final weekend

On the Saturday I took my partner out to Golf Fang. In the spirit of trying something new. At 2pm it was a full blown raging nightclub but with mini-golf. I wasn’t prepared for the fact it really was a night club in the middle of the day. But there you are with music blaring out such that you cannot talk to your comrades surrounded by hen do’s spilling cocktails on each other.

I had a nice time. We then walked over to Mother India and had an excellent lunch from their lunch menu. It was excellent to have a meal out that was relaxed without the kids and to talk a bit about the optimistic future we want to be in.

On the Sunday the eldest took me out for a long run while they scooted. Later I tried to take the youngest alone to “The Unit”. It was rammed so we couldn’t get a table. This was aborted after the kid ran feral around the place for about 45 minutes.

short bits

Life:

• Exercise – I have been doing jogging regularly for a while now. Getting back into it. Aiming for more than 100 quality active minutes a week I have now achieved that for a full 5 weeks. In the final week of this month my eldest kid has gone out with me on a scooter. Long may this continue. My resting heart rate is heading south even if my weight hasn’t changed I am fitter, happier, and sleeping better. Time to change it up by counting calories again too as the final piece of the puzzle.

Media:

• Star Trek TNG – Obviously I have seen this before. But I started it again assuming Netflix UK will lose it too soon. I don’t much fancy getting another streaming service just to watch a program from the last century that I have watched 3 times before.
• Babylon 5 – I am watching this again with my partner and we are up to season 4. I haven’t re-watched it since it originally aired and this is really an excellent show. Everyone should absolutely watch this.

Music:

I have made a lot of music of late. I believe that when you leave a job you should do so on a song. Whenever a colleague chooses to hack new clouds from afar I put something together when I can. There have been a few colleagues moving on.

My Main Man:

A legend leaves my team.

We are grey:

This is actually the first leaving song collaboration! Where the leaver made the backing track but asked me to “I dunno, add some words to it”. Maybe want to adjust your volume before starting it as it is loud:

Message Deleted:

This is the nonsense I had part made before “We are grey” was made. Figured I’d share what I had made anyway. The schtick here was accusing them of quitting the band as we have long term talked about collaborating. We finally did (we are grey) above!