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March's Journal
May's Journal
30/04/2025
Rachel came back from Malawi/Zambia/DRC at the beginning of the month, which
was great as she'd been away for a while and I'd missed her terribly. She was
able to come to me straight from the airport though, which was lovely. I think
I looked after her well enough, but she's a strong, independent woman who does
not really need anyone, so although I was nice I think she could probably have
recovered from the trip just as well on her own! A day or two later was the
free lunch we get from one of our vendors, which was lovely. In retrospect it
was even nicer and more poignant as the person I sat next to, a colleague and
good acquaintance (friend, maybe?) died a few weeks later (potentially in a
car crash, but the circumstances of his death haven't been confirmed). In any
event, that was then and I've tried to accept what happened and move on.
The next weekend was when I had my chimney cleared (externally) of the large
amount of foliage, and repointed in various places. It happened mostly while
I was out for a long run, but I'm fairly sure they did a good job. The week
following that was just a standard working week, but Rachel came towards the
end of it so we could spend my birthday together quietly, which was lovely.
That Friday we headed down to Worthing and an Air BnB so that Rachel could run
a 50 miler on the South Downs and I could volunteer at registration and a few
aid stations. Somehow, in a nice hot shower the night before I managed to
severely pull a muscle in my neck/shoulder, but managed to get through the
night and the following 48 hours with the help of some super-strength Ibuprofen
thank goodness. It was an incredibly early start for me though, and not
something I'd recommend. Rachel did really well, though. Especially as we got trains all the way home afterwards, which took a very long time when I was
tired and she was exhausted.
The following weekend I headed to Sheffield to meet Rachel and her mum and then
we drove to her mum's for dinner. After a fairly relaxing Sunday we spent the
bank holiday Monday doing almost all of a 'dry' (it rained a lot) run of the
race we'll be doing in June. 60K broken up into sections, with breaks between
as we move from venue to venue. More on that after we've done it in June.
The last weekend of April I spent at my parents doing the usual helpful jobs a
son should be doing. Then suddenly it was May and Rachel had spent four days
fastpacking on the Pennine Way to help a friend recce for the Summer Spine Race
and then meeting me, with her mum in London Waterloo so we could head to the
Isle of Wight.