Posts

Posted Nov 29, 2022

These days I have a bit of a mix of physical activities, each which I enjoy in different ways. Today I'm going to tell you a bit about my experience of yoga.

Posted Nov 28, 2022

I had planned to write about something else today, but just heard some awful news from somebody I know about the death of a close friend.

Posted Nov 27, 2022

Today has been a rare relaxing family day. All my children are home, and my brother and his family came round to visit in the afternoon. During the day my wife and I managed to get out for a short, easy run, which felt good and we didn't get soaked. We also fitted in a quick visit to the local spa for some time in the sauna and steam room.

Posted Nov 26, 2022

Today has been rather dominated by the concert I played in this evening. I'm a member of a local orchestra (the Misbourne Symphony Orchestra), and we were performing this evening at St Mary's Church in Chesham.

Posted Nov 25, 2022

I've been looking back at what I've written since starting this blog, and thinking about when in the day I have written it. I can see I have a persistent problem with trying to do things right at the end of the time available. Honestly, this has been a problem for me for as long as I can remember.

Posted Nov 24, 2022

Today has been a bit of a rollercoaster - but in a good way, generally. Let's start with work.

Posted Nov 23, 2022

Mrs H was talking to her parents earlier, and was told a family story that she hadn't heard before. She replied that they really ought to write these stories down, as otherwise they'll fall out of family folklore. This reminded me of something (I thought was) funny that happened when I was young. Pull up a chair - here's the three-minutes-remaining summary.

Posted Nov 22, 2022

I have just ordered a dehumidifier. Our house was built around 1930, at a point where cavity walls weren't considered worth the effort. As a result, and now that the weather is so cold, the building is cold and damp. The direction of motion has been pretty clear too - showers, cooking, laundry, breathing ... it all adds to the moisture levels in the house.

Posted Nov 21, 2022

Today's been a long day, starting early and finishing late. So I'm definitely opting for a diary-style post.

Posted Nov 20, 2022

This is your friendly reminder that you don't need to aim for the stars for every single thing you do. If you set up a book shop, you don't need a plan for world domination of the book trade; it's okay just to sell books, and make some friends along the way. Enjoy playing music, starting a band? Go for it - being an active member of the music scene will be interesting and rewarding, and it isn't necessary to have plans to top the billboard round the world. These things might happen, but it isn't necessary, and you haven't "failed" if they don't.

Posted Nov 19, 2022

Since about late 2019 when I started participating, Saturdays have been parkrun days. Obviously it hasn't always worked out that way (I'm looking at you, pandemic and injury). But it's a great thing do to, and here's why.

Posted Nov 18, 2022

As it turned out, yesterday was pretty well the peak experience as far as climbing the learning curve is concerned. I feel like I have been wrestling with a problem for absolutely ages, and then after a re-think on my approach - and learning some techniques I needed - the whole thing then kind of splurged out.

Posted Nov 17, 2022

Top of my mind at the moment is the subject of learning. I changed jobs a few months ago. My new employer, and the team and management I work with, I hold in very high regard; it has been a very positive move. However, the change has been a major shift for me. First, the company size has gone from a small handful of people to around ten thousand - quite a culture shock. There's also a shift in domain knowledge required, meaning that I feel like I'm right at the bottom of a massive learning curve.

Posted Nov 16, 2022

Today hasn't been a great day, which on reflection is probably because the last two days didn't feature enough sleep. So I'm going to keep this post short, get home soon, do my flute early and then tuck myself up in preparation for for a good night.

Posted Nov 15, 2022

Today I'm going off on a different tack. Last night, looking at diaries etc, I realised that my upcoming flute solo with my local orchestra is an awful lot sooner than I had been thinking. This subject is now occupying quite some mind space!

Posted Nov 14, 2022

Today, I'm going to go into some more detail on how this blog works. Given time constraints, this is going to be more of a how-to than a detailed explanation of what's going on!

Posted Nov 13, 2022

My original plan for today was to describe in some detail how I set this blog up - it was pretty easy, and free. However time is short, so I think this is going to be more of a "part 1", describing the context and giving a few initial pointers, before following up tomorrow/soon with the full, gory detail.

Posted Nov 12, 2022

Yesterday's blog post set me thinking about how I want things to be, as compared to how they are. There are some areas I want to work to improve, particularly:

Posted Nov 11, 2022

I'm beginning to realise that, down the line, I'm going to look back at what I've been writing in this blog and see clear themes emerging.

Posted Nov 10, 2022

I haven't really decided where this blog stands on the well-thought-out-article vs daily-journal-diary spectrum. Having covered a particular topic each day until now, I think today I'll see how it feels taking the other side of the balance.

Posted Nov 9, 2022

Ok, so here's how my day typically goes.

Posted Nov 8, 2022

My approach in setting up this blog was to try to follow the adage: slow and steady wins the race. My natural tendency is to launch into things with gusto, and then lose enthusiasm and focus. I've come to learn that mindset is really important, and that keeping on doing something is far more important than getting caught up on how things feel on a particular day. My approach here is to make the task easy enough to be able to stick with it, slow and steady.

Posted Nov 7, 2022

On the way in to work this morning, I was listening to an episode of the Huberman Podcast, which is often thought-provoking. The subject of ultradian cycles came up - I hadn't heard of them before, but apparently our bodies have 90-minute cycles that happen during the night / day. If you pay attention to how you are feeling, they can be used to help achieve focus, by planning periods of concentration to align with them.

Posted Nov 6, 2022

Hello, world! This blog has been set up as an experiment. I find it very easy to put things off, especially if they feel large and intimidating. However, I have been keen to get a daily blogging practice going for a long time. The answer I've come up with is this blog: one post per day, written in no more than five minutes.

Posted Jan 26, 2020

Well, it was Regent's Park again today, then a walk down to town to pick up the car we left there last night. Total: just over 16,000 steps, which I'm guessing is about 7 miles perhaps? (Oh, and a nice dog we saw while there). I had hoped to get a run in, but then I'd also hoped to finish some tax returns and both of those went a bit askew..!

Posted Jan 25, 2020

Mrs H was in London today for a training course, so I went into Town with her and we had a good walk through Regent's Park. Cutting to the chase, I have just hit 20,800 steps so with the round trip and some walking later I've done alright overall. Quite eventful it was, though - in no particular order:

Posted Jan 25, 2020

Mrs H had a pretty full-on day yesterday, starting very early and requiring some careful planning. So circuits was out of the question, realistically. Then, after the day was over, I couldn't really avoid my full Uber-Dad duties, ferrying children to/from Guides, jobs etc. Then I got sucked into helping my 16yo set up a revision timetable - where I found Get Revising, which seemed to do the trick pretty well, I may say, in case you need such things!

Posted Jan 23, 2020

I managed to fit in a sneaky 10K run this lunchtime, round Rickmansworth. Pretty muddy, hillier than I remembered, and worst of all - too much of a queue in the coffee shop when I got back. Boo!

Posted Jan 22, 2020

You might argue - third verse day, same as the first... Today was awfully similar to day 1 this week, with circuits in the morning and yoga in the evening. Why change something that isn't broken, I say. There - that definitely proves my love!

Posted Jan 21, 2020

As it turns out, the last couple of days of circuits have left my legs feeling pretty broken! That'll be all the squats, burpies, lunges and so on. However, having the idea in mind of doing a half marathon in a few months, I found myself thinking I ought to get some miles in the legs.