Category: post

Not a restful Sunday

It’s been a busy, tiring morning.

The day so far

Woke up at 6:30 with plans of curling up with coffee, and the book I’m reading (Anita & me, by Meera Syal).

I’ve done everything but that.

Made coffee, caught up on email, news, greader, and Instagram.
Read the Ulysses a couple more times.
Copied and pasted Ulysses here on SpkEasy.

Took Chewie for a short walk.
At turnaround point, he indicated he wasn’t ready to go back. So made it a slightly longer walk.

Returned home, freshened up, fried eggs for breakfast. Gave him his second breakfast.

Washed of dirty exercise clothes.

Emptied the dishwasher. Restacked the dishwasher. Hand washed a few of the dishes in the sink.

Mowed both the lawns. Spent as much time cleaning the mud and grass collecting around the blades, as doing the actual mowing. Had planned 40 mins. Took 1 hour 40 🙁

Now, sitting with my treat – a glass of cold, full fat milk, and a Madeleine.

Continue reading Not a restful Sunday

Definition: Flexible working hours

What does it mean when the job description says “flexible working hours”?

Old definition:

We, the firm, are flexible on the hours you want to work. You choose the hours you want to work, we just want the work done.

New definition1:

We want you to be flexible, to work the hours that we want. Don’t expect fixed, or predictable hours. Be ready to work when we say, for how long we say.

  1. Mostly seen in the startup and on-demand (Uber/Deliveroo) sectors. ↩

One of those days…

… when I got off the bed at 9AM, and the next time I sat down to rest was at 6PM.

Freshened up,
fed the boys,
made and fed myself breakfast,
coordinated Jyoti’s arrival,
stretched,
went for run (part 1) with the boys,
dropped Dudley at his place,
went back for run (part 2) with Chewie,
returned and gave Chewie a shower,
picked up Dudley, and gave him a shower,
started my post run stretching,
interrupted stretching to feed the boys their lunch,
continued my post run stretching,
gave up on stretching to go pickup Jyoti,
mopped and vacuumed B’s kitchen so Jyoti could work there,
returned home to shower and shave,
went to town for lunch and coffee,
made myself proud by parking beautifully in a spot that everyone else was scared of (and it was packed in town),
had lunch at Tortilla, coffee at Nero,
researched whether to buy the 2016-17 iMac,
browsed books in Waterstones,
returned home to be told Jyoti needs coconut milk,
made a quick trip to Tesco to get coconut milk,
returned to take boys out to empty their bladders,
changed into home clothes,
changed a couple of broken bulbs around the house,
started weekly wash of exercise clothes,
poured myself a glass of cold full fat milk,
sat down to enjoy with a Madeleine.

Rest.

Just another manic Saturday!

Continue reading One of those days…

Work days, workout days, both & neither

There are days when all I want to do is workout – swim, run, ride, walk. Whatever it takes to burn some energy, and get me away from staring at the screen.

There are days when all I want to do is work – just sit in front of the screen, and crack on. Something that also gives me an excuse not to go workout.

Today is one of the latter kind of days.

Continue reading Work days, workout days, both & neither

A thing I don’t like about her…

She never walks with me.

She usually walks a few steps behind. Always has.

Her excuse used to be that I was walking too fast for her. But she didn’t keep dropping farther back. She kept pace, just a few steps behind.

Some times, when she’s pumped up – after a successful project, exercise, or from an exciting news – she walks ahead. Literally, leading the charge.

I’m a laid back kind of person, so I like her more leading, than trailing.

Yet, what I prefer the most, is walking side by side. Something she rarely does 1.

  1. The only exception is when we take Chewie for a walk, together. Then, often, we walk together.
    Unless Chewie is on lead, and decides to pull the holder ahead, sideways, back, up, or down 🙂 ↩

I broke myself

It felt good.

3 act Wednesday - run intervals, swim & gym
3 act Wednesday – run intervals, swim & gym

I could barely walk last night. Raghs had to drag me in from the sofa to the bed. I’m still sore, after 8 hours of good sleep.

I’m also happy. Body is clearly getting into good shape if I could still stand after doing all three activities well1 (and about 6 focused hours of work in between).

I’m happy. Hurt, and happy.

  1. Don’t judge the effort by the pace stats on the chart. It includes rest/recovery time between the intervals/laps. I don’t pause/stop the watch while resting. ↩

I bought a grapefruit coloured yoga block

My 'grapefruit' coloured yoga block
My ‘grapefruit’ coloured yoga block

It’s bright1. It’s beautiful. And it’s unmissable.

Beautiful and unmissable – Those are top qualities in a product that I have to use thrice a day, to stretch my troublesome hip flexors and back.

No one likes stretching – it hurts, is boring, and has no adrenaline (or ego muscle) boosting effects of other exercises. Moreover, I need to do these thrice a day, unprompted!

So, I put on my self-designed design thinking hat, and ordered the exercise block in a colour that I can’t, and don’t want to, miss. Every sight of it reminds me I need to stretch, and it’s hard to not catch sight of it. And in a colour that beautiful, I want to use it – even if for painful stretches!

Yes, it’s grapefruit, not pink! ;)

Get yours here.

  1. In a room where almost everything is either black, or a shade of cream. ↩