House sitting and tax form with time for a cycle and run!

Tuesday 29^th July

This morning  was spent sorting out my tax self assessment, I couldn’t find the form I had carefully put somewhere safe! So ended up doing it on line, scary as I do like to go back over it several times with a time gap in  between, however I did check several times and the money I owe the tax man seems to fit with what I thought it would be. the rest of the day just seemed wasted, pottering around without achieving anything.

The previous week.

Last week [Thursday, Friday and Saturday] we had 3 very pleasant days house sitting with 2 cats for my son and his family in Gloucester. In the time away we managed to get a day in Bath, with its splendid architecture, always an amazing site. The weather was stunning once more, and the city was full of tourists, which was nice to see. Lunch by Pultney Bridge was a treat. We were able to take advantage of our ‘bus pass’ on all 3 days, but we did invest the money saved in morning coffee.

A day in Cheltenham, a reduced version of Bath with its architecture, a lovely day out again, with Burger and chips in Yates!  The final day was back in Gloucester with lots of time spent in the Docks, a remarkable area tastefully resurrected from derelict warehouses. We also managed to fit in a nice walk round the canal and river in Tewkesbury, you can see why it floods so badly in the winter, but it was beautiful in the summer sunshine, ice creams went down well by the river.

I managed to fit in a cycle ride when we got back Sunday a good 50 miles round Martock, Muchelney, Athelney and back over Staple Fitzpaine. Weather continues to be very hot and dry, lovely!!!

A phone call from Tim made me panic about running, he informed me he ran 34 km from Middlesborough to the coast including the Cleveland Way – he’s not done much lately so that was a good distance, he said he did it on water and fig rolls!! Anyway I have the ‘Beast’ 13 miles at the end of August and I have done no running since getting back from France a month ago – must get my trainers on asap.

Which I did on Monday[28^th]  afternoon, Neroche, not been up there for a long time but set out to do my usual 7 mile run. It was a very hot run with the car temp saying it was 24 degrees. I felt good most of the time until, that is I was about 2 miles from the car and a large hill in front, sweat pouring off me, soaking shirt and ‘glugging’ water as though its going out of fashion. I decided to cut the run short, telling myself it was my first run and there would be time for more when the weather is not quite so hot, so it was 6 miles instead of 7 miles completed. I felt the run went well and the pace seemed good keeping under 10 minute miles for most of the way with occasional bursts of 7 minute miles!! Not bad for a month not running.

28^th of July  was also my wedding anniversary, 1973, 41 years ago!!!