Well a light drizzle to be quite honest but I actually enjoy running in the rain. It cools me down as I’m such a Sweaty Betty normally. I had 15k left for my monthly target so thought I’d just do a 5k this morning and enjoy it. I set off and then partway through my warmup walk decided to record in Strava as well as in my Garmin watch. I miss seeing the map etc and can’t be bothered to faff with connecting my watch to my ancient laptop and downloading it all by hand. Not even sure my laptop would cope- I had a quick look a few days ago and it was muttering about “unexpected item in bagging area” or the equivalent laptop phrases. It’s probably about 15 years old now. I think but was running XP and one of the techs, when I still worked at PCW, updated it to Windows 7 and I’ve resisted all other offers to upgrade to 8 or *shudders windows10!!! I rarely use it as I use my IPad and iPhone most of the time.
Anyway, I digress.... So as I got to the end of my warmup walk I fumbled about, got my phone out of my Fitbelt, trying not to get it too wet, and loaded up Strava and pressed record... and off I went. About 3 minutes later I realised I hadn’t pressed On in my watch so I did that muttering crossly to myself!!! And I carried on.. down Yeo Vale and towards town, then doubled back over the Rolle Bridge and down towards Pottington Estate. I toyed with the idea of just going as far as the cut-through and avoiding my Nemesis which is Chaddiford Lane... the slow long uphill ( well slope) struggle but decided as I was only doing 5k today I should go for it and to be honest it wasn’t as bad as it usually seems. I kept a steady even pace and tried not to think about it too much and suddenly I was at the end and running downhill again. And about halfway through my run. Then I turned down into Abbey Road and ran towards the Primary School. Now this is where I usually turn and run through the cut-through but today I decided to cross near the school and keep going and onto Pilton Park.
The park was deserted so I did a couple of circuits there and then back up round, out the gate and across the road. And carried on back up Yeo Vale, popping in and out of a couple of side streets to finish my 5k and start my warm down walk home.
Now I quite often finish by going up this road but today was one of the few times I had started by running down it too and it surprised me to see that I am now, according to Strava, a Local Hero for this segment, having run it a whole 2 times in the last 90 days 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Well it amused me anyway. Came home and after showering and dressing decided to drive to Braunton to see my sister and to drop off some fabric and a cardigan for her great granddaughter and a bunch of sweet peas from my garden. Great idea. I texted and she said “oh I’ve made you a sandwich ready” so off I go and had to stop at the second set of traffic lights when I noticed a warning light in the instrument panel. I thought it was the “you’ve got a door open” one so I pulled in near Burger King and got out to shut all the doors carefully but it was still on so I got out my little handbook and it says *Diagnosis. This shows there is an electrical fault somewhere in the engine. Please drive to your nearest SEAT garage” . So I texted my sister I wasn’t coming and turned round and went home.
Funnily enough I’d been sat with my daughter, the evening before, talking about the pros and cons of spending £330 on getting a new compressor fitted to my aircon and then getting it regassed. The car is 2001 model. I love it dearly but would I be better off looking for a newer, more reliable, cheaper to run car?? Hmmm maybe I would.
I keep thinking “ I could manage without. I get my shopping delivered....Town is 10 mins walk away....Lol and Rudi live 15mins walk away....My sister is 5 miles away in a bus route and I have a bus pass.....”
Then I think “ what about the vets? I know this last month has been unexpected with Loki’s 16 visits to the vets for dressings but there are 4 vaccination visits a year ....
and it’s nice to just jump in the car and drive to a friends house or go somewhere for the day.....
But the kids all have cars and they could drive for a change....”
Can’t make my mind up now!!
