Active April: Challenges, plus Fusion Skills and My New Writing Inspiration
I sign up for a lot of challenges on Strava, but I decided to do a couple more, feeling like a glutton for punishment.
So, I've added the latest "Le Col" challenge, which involves logging 7 hours of activity between April 19 and May 9. I've also managed:
Day 1 of 5 for Week 2 of the 1% Better Challenge, and
22 hours 41 minutes for the Move in Merino Challenge.
Sorry, having a lazy day and I don't feel like walking over to my phone to open the app!
I've also resolved to do a 30 day workout challenge, starting tomorrow. I won't religiously do it every day, just in my own good time, but I've been trying to arrange a workout schedule so I do it regularly - trying not to think too far into the future, particularly at weekends when I don't know what other commitments I may have. I've listed all the requirements for each day on a spreadsheet, which I can tick off when I do each one - it gets gradually more intense, so will end with doing the plank for over 1 and a half minutes. It should slowly get me used to doing the exercises though, in theory.
If the Thursday morning sessions continue from next week though, I'll have to do what is set though, so not count those towards the workout challenge, thus doing the challenge when I'm doing my own thing, and not on zoom with friends.
This morning, I took part in a webinar all about "fusion skills"; it was mostly about collaboration. I came away with mixed feelings; on one hand, the speakers had been charismatic enough to hold my attention, but on the other hand, it had felt like a load of people shouting out cliched business speak words, and nothing much else, although they did mention this helpful site that I have started to utilise to assess what my own skills are - I was maybe a bit brutally honest with myself over my own ability to speak to others.
Meanwhile, I used my coffee maker for the first time (and I have been approved to receive the free pods; I just need to finish the signing up process - another thing for my extensive to-do list). Here's a short picspam for today:
First coffee - a flat white.
Walks with flowers
Taekwon-do is back in the usual location tonight, but outdoors - I'm going to bring gloves after last Wednesday, particularly with the weird weather we've been having - light snow this morning, in April of all months.
Lastly, I must tell you of the new book I want to write - it's on my growing writing list; I literally thought it up in a dream. As a sort of sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the book revisits Augustus Gloop, Violet Beuregarde (probably spelled wrong), Verruca Salt and Mike Teavee as adults - they have families, and their experiences in the chocolate factory have affected their behaviour, and how they parent their kids - then they sneak into the chocolate factory under the noses of Charlie Bucket and Willy Wonka, and plan some kind of heist.
Of course, the names may be subject to copyright, so I'm thinking of not using their names (happy to do that when one of them has a name I can't spell) so I'll have names like "German Guy" and "Purple Woman"; a bit abstract, but I see weird stuff like that in other books. Other than that, I'd just make it feel true to Roald Dahl's style, and on my list of things to do is download Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on my kindle, to make sure I avoid any continuity errors.
I've been thinking up ideas like crazy - my creative juices have been really flowing over this one, so I hope to make a start at some point.
So, I've added the latest "Le Col" challenge, which involves logging 7 hours of activity between April 19 and May 9. I've also managed:
Day 1 of 5 for Week 2 of the 1% Better Challenge, and
22 hours 41 minutes for the Move in Merino Challenge.
Sorry, having a lazy day and I don't feel like walking over to my phone to open the app!
I've also resolved to do a 30 day workout challenge, starting tomorrow. I won't religiously do it every day, just in my own good time, but I've been trying to arrange a workout schedule so I do it regularly - trying not to think too far into the future, particularly at weekends when I don't know what other commitments I may have. I've listed all the requirements for each day on a spreadsheet, which I can tick off when I do each one - it gets gradually more intense, so will end with doing the plank for over 1 and a half minutes. It should slowly get me used to doing the exercises though, in theory.
If the Thursday morning sessions continue from next week though, I'll have to do what is set though, so not count those towards the workout challenge, thus doing the challenge when I'm doing my own thing, and not on zoom with friends.
This morning, I took part in a webinar all about "fusion skills"; it was mostly about collaboration. I came away with mixed feelings; on one hand, the speakers had been charismatic enough to hold my attention, but on the other hand, it had felt like a load of people shouting out cliched business speak words, and nothing much else, although they did mention this helpful site that I have started to utilise to assess what my own skills are - I was maybe a bit brutally honest with myself over my own ability to speak to others.
Meanwhile, I used my coffee maker for the first time (and I have been approved to receive the free pods; I just need to finish the signing up process - another thing for my extensive to-do list). Here's a short picspam for today:
First coffee - a flat white.
Walks with flowers
Taekwon-do is back in the usual location tonight, but outdoors - I'm going to bring gloves after last Wednesday, particularly with the weird weather we've been having - light snow this morning, in April of all months.
Lastly, I must tell you of the new book I want to write - it's on my growing writing list; I literally thought it up in a dream. As a sort of sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the book revisits Augustus Gloop, Violet Beuregarde (probably spelled wrong), Verruca Salt and Mike Teavee as adults - they have families, and their experiences in the chocolate factory have affected their behaviour, and how they parent their kids - then they sneak into the chocolate factory under the noses of Charlie Bucket and Willy Wonka, and plan some kind of heist.
Of course, the names may be subject to copyright, so I'm thinking of not using their names (happy to do that when one of them has a name I can't spell) so I'll have names like "German Guy" and "Purple Woman"; a bit abstract, but I see weird stuff like that in other books. Other than that, I'd just make it feel true to Roald Dahl's style, and on my list of things to do is download Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on my kindle, to make sure I avoid any continuity errors.
I've been thinking up ideas like crazy - my creative juices have been really flowing over this one, so I hope to make a start at some point.