I started the month just getting over whatever cold and sickness occupied me for February. As always with renewed energy for the month and optimism. As it turned out March was ok but I got ill again in ways that disrupted the relentless exercise progress once more. There is always April!

First Weekend

We got our shit together and out the door early on Saturday. We took the train into town and went to the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) where there was a kids arts and crafts event on. Kid A did quite well just drawing while Kid B ran out of the room about 200 times until eventually we had to come home.

Minor point but when I was struggling more getting on a train was excruciatingly challenging. This day there was a minor wobble on the way out and then big smiles on the way home.

Second Weekend

I had used my two remaining days of annual leave to make this a long weekend. It was brilliant. On the Friday the kids were finally out of the house while me and my partner had a full 9am-> 2pm to relax at home. Only relaxation was achieved and that was enough. I very much miss days like this so it was great to have one.

Kid B was invited to a birthday party on Saturday morning so we drove out to that. I then took an unplanned 2 mile jog around the car park of the soft play before returning to collect. This was good on my return to exercising regularly as I wanted to get back to around 120 active minutes a week.

Me and my Partner went out to a Vegan restaurant in Partick and had a lovely long walk there and back. It was the first “date night” we have managed since before December for one reason or another. It was absolutely brilliant just to exist without kids for a bit.

The exercise target was obliterated by having that extra long walk to and from Partick. March started out absolutely great!

Household Sickness

My partner and Kid A were then down with the sickness for a few days. I gladly take on all the duties when I have to but it is exhausting long days. Precisely how single parents do this and work is beyond me. 7am to 9pm days of doing everything are knackering.

Third Weekend

I honestly cannot remember what happened this weekend. I think because my partner and one of the kids was a bit sick we took it easy. Also to try and help me recover from the long days I had done in the week being a parent, carer, and good worker bee.

My Sickness

In typical staggered fashion I ended up feeling ill somewhere on Monday afternoon. Probably I had been incubating it from my partner/kid over the third weekend. It really knocked me out so I had a day off on Tuesday. Which was so tedious that I returned on Wednesday when I possibly should not.

My partner was well again so they dropped off and picked up the kids the whole week while I sort of moped about and tried to just work and sleep better.

Fourth weekend

My partner flew to London (though they were sad to leave me looking a bit sick still). The kids and I had a chilled weekend as I could not take them anywhere. I also thought I had lost my wallet picking up meds on Thursday so in the area of doubt cancelled my bank cards. Even if I felt fine I would have been unable to go anywhere other than the park of library so it was completely relaxed.

We got as far as the garden for some light exercise, and spent the time playing games.

Once again worth noting that there was a time me being left alone with the kids was just a relentless anxiety day and nightmare. Not because they are evil kids or that I feel I cannot cope. There was just a wee voice that used to say things like “what if you collapse?” and no amount of saying HEY MATE! YOU HAVE NEVER COLLAPSED! IT’LL BE FINE. Could drown out whatever part of the lizard brain triggered the illogic in the first place.

So once again good solid evidence of the progress I am making that this nonsense could not take root and instead we had a very relaxing weekend. A bit frustrating that we had to stay entirely at home but honestly it was nice.

Music

I had a go at making a cover of Behind Blue Eyes by The Who. I did this because it is mostly an acoustic song but when you listen to it there is some simple vocal layers that add complexity. I am not a great singer and I also wanted to push myself to do more than a single take vocal and to add those layers in to make it sound fuller. It sort of worked I think. I learned a lot from doing it and actually ended up not hating my voice after listening to it a lot.

Then I had a go at a cover of Sweet Dreams are made of this by the Eurythmics. I went deep into it getting the drum pattern right and playing the most common synth part. I mixed it up with an acoustic guitar doing the chords and arrived at something that was kind of fun to put together.

Again it is a hobby where I am learning a lot and the key is to just do “something” regularly to progress. What the something is has almost no quality control what so ever!

Other bits

• DIY Guitar Kit – I have *still* not started work on the kit guitar finishing like I thought I would. I have all the items. But I lacked the energy to sand a guitar for hours and hoovering up the dust from the living room is going to be an ongoing chore. I will get on it in March April!
• Football Manager 2023 – As I felt pretty miserable when I was sick I picked this up and have just about completed an entire season. While I love FM and have played it since it was CM back in the 90s. I think I am starting to like it less because there is now so many things in the game. I just want to sign players, play them, and win some stuff. Now you have a Squad Planner than I don’t really want. I was happy having a view of my players and their suitability for a position over my current tactics like before. Now they really want you to care about the playing time you promise people and about squad hierarchies etc. Honestly I just can’t be bothered with it. It throws up too many mad things like at the end of my first season I had a 36 year old captain playing as a striker. I was happy to keep him for his experience from the bench but the dude asked for a non-negotiable 2 year contract with a 3rd year happening if he played 5 times and on about4-5 times the salary he had been on. Obviously this is wildly unrealistic so I had to eventually sell them and watched the squad morale drop like a stone in the ocean. Like… Seriously.. Couldn’t afford that deal at all! Also I have been bitten by a bug where selling a player tells you “X amount has now been added to your transfer funds” but then it has not. So I had sold a tonne of players to reshape the squad but now I cannot replace them! Which seems mad. I think these two things have killed this save game.
• Scotland National Football Team 1 – When my partner was away for the weekend I watched Scotland vs Cyprus with the kids. I could never interest kid A before but kid B seems into it. Sadly the match with Spain was too late on a school night to sit-up and watch with them. I would love to get to the point where I can take them to a game but I don’t think we are quite there yet.