This morning, I woke up naturally at 8am and felt really good. I got up and took Honey for a leisurely walk along the canal and then had a shower. My phone had not charged over night and was not charging in the morning, so I felt a bit lost without it, recognising the amount of time I can spend in the morning looking at things on it – emails, Facebook, Instagram, News, etc…
The wood burner had some coal embers still burning, so I put some more on and kept the fire going. A wee treat to have a warm boat 🙂
Then at 10.30am, I signed into Zoom for my Sunday morning meditation group. The warmth from the fire, kept me focused, well a bit sleepy due to the heat, but the sleepiness stopped my mind from wandering and getting distracted.
The meditation was just what I needed.
At lunchtime, I finally got my phone to start charging, although seemed slow to charge.
Then I had a wee sleep and went for a run with Honey the Dog. My phone was only at 32% when I went for a run, but thought it would be OK.
I started at a gentle pace, but with the regular kilometre updates in my ear (Bluetooth speaker) I picked up my pace. When I used to run round Arthur’s Seat, I used to only have one earphone in so I could listen out for cyclists, cars, etc…but running along the canal I don’t really need to worry about this, just where Honey is, so I had both earphones in – I think the music helped me to go faster.
At 3km, I realised I had been going quite fast, so decided to turn back. Looking at my phone it was now at 1% battery!! So I ran fast back, managing to get back before the battery ran out. Doing 6km in 32 minutes (including the odd stoppage for photos, passing people and waiting for Honey to get out of the canal)!
The towpath was super busy and the canal was quite busy too!
Was a great run.
Once home, I did a quick rough calculation on the distance I have run since lockdown started. Just over 408km, which is 253 miles. Wow !!
I was super tired after the run, so just chilled out for a while, before mustering up the energy to go to Lidl to do some food shopping.
By the time I got back it was dark and the fire had gone out.
So I decided to light it again, which was probably not the best idea, as now I am writing this with sweat rolling down my face as it is too hot!!
I then decided to cook a pizza in my oven. I hadn’t used the oven before and in fact not had an oven in my flat for over 2 years! But I couldn’t get the oven lit, trying everything. I then text Rach, the previous owner and I worked out what I was doing wrong.
My first oven cooked pizza for ages 🙂
Lockdown Restrictions Corner
Today I read in the new that Boris Johnson is reviewing the 3 Tier Lockdown Restrictions system which were in place before England went into a full lockdown, with hints that they are going to change. This is exciting to have something closer to home to include in ‘Lockdown Restrictions Corner’, although I am sure most people will be getting very confused with all the changes!!
Today I am looking at Portugal.
(https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-53640249)
Over 80% of Portugal’s population, including people living in Lisbon and Porto are affected by lockdown restrictions.
- Stay at Home.
- Only leave home to go to work, school or essential tasks.
- Curfew – 11pm to 5am.
- No Movement between Portugal regions (municipalities).
- All commercial establishments – close by 11pm.
- No sale of alcohol in shops or petrol stations after 10pm.
- Alcohol can only be drunk in public places with a meal.
- Gatherings – limited to maximum of 5 people.
- Weddings & Baptisms – up to 50 people allowed.
Those last two points suggests, that there are going to be a lot of people getting married or baptised in November !!! 😉
Readers Corner
Today one post.
Susi
Susi posted a comment on yesterdays blog (Day 243) saying:
“Oh! I didn’t realise they were having to close the bars. That’s really sad. I lived in Leith when they started opening their bars, one small one then loads! I hope they can keep the two remaining bars open.”.
The word on the town is that, they are not shutting their pubs permanently, just selling off what they can in Hemma and Akva to make some money. Then they will reassess the situation once restrictions are permanently eased and pubs can open. But, their website has been down for a while now – https://www.bodabar.com and their Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/bodabaredinburgh) is just promoting their two bars Joseph Pearces and Victoria.
The reason Anna and Mike opened their first Swedish Bar (Bar Boda) on Leith Walk, was because some of their friends had moved to the area and were saying there were no pubs to drink in which weren’t football pubs or ‘old man’ pubs. Each one was so successful that they kept opening more and more. All their pubs have had many events in them over the years, including games nights, film nights, clothes swap, speed dating, jogging club…to name a few. All to bring people together and create a community. I was one of the original members of the Joseph Pearces Jogging Club, which went through a phase of doing Plogging! I was even on BBC Radio Scotland with Anna being interviewed about it 🙂
As I come to the end of this blog, I have finally kept to the accountability deal I made with Hannah on Day 242. Starting the blog at 8pm (well it was 8.20pm) and getting it finished by 10pm, it is now 9.45pm. Last night I was asleep by midnight and felt so much better today for it, so recognise how going to bed earlier can help with my energy, mind and mental health. I plan to keep to this all week, so I can be in bed by 11pm 🙂
It’s been a pretty lazy day, which is just what I needed after all the painting yesterday!
It has rained on and off through the day today and then got colder this evening. It definitely feels like winter is on its way!
Hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend.
Thanks for your continuous reading of the blog!
Lots of Love
Jim xx