One Year On

Today is the anniversary of the start of my 2 days a week working... the start of my first 5 day weekend. So now is a good time to reflect on progress against plan - yes I had one! Thanks to my coach Christine, I had identified and prioritised what I would spend my non-working time doing, as described in my About page.

The biggest element of that has turned out to be walking, and the associated blogging. Starting with the Suffolk Walking Festival, I kept up my walking by joining the Bury St. Edmunds Ramblers and the U3A Bury St. Edmunds Walking Group, and recently, the Long Distance Walkers Association. But it was meeting Joyce, who was leading the 3 Churches Walk, and becoming part of her small Weekly Walks group that had the biggest impact, so a special thanks to her for inviting me along. I was encouraged to do the Orwell Challenge, Marbella Walking Festival, LDWA Daffodil Dawdle and Mallorca Walking Festival, none of which I would have done on my own. With 65 walks blogged in 2018 and 35 so far in 2019, I've started to build a nice little catalogue. What is more, from doing an average of only about 25 miles of steps a week a year ago, I am now averaging over 60 miles a week... with a total of (according to my tracking devices) c 2640 miles in the year. Even on work days I keep walking by not taking the bus from the PArk&Ride and walking the 2 1/2miles to and from the office instead.

Not much more than a year ago I was well overweight, suffered from high blood pressure and had just been diagnosed with Type II diabetes. Thanks, as much as anything, to the walking, but also through healthy recipes I've collected from BBC Good Food,  I have lost a stone in weight, reduced my blood pressure significantly and am no longer diabetic.

I've also enjoyed the brewing (5 new beers), making chilli-based pickles, relishes and sauces, making cheese several times and now gin, so that part of the plan has progressed too.

I continue to do the Times crosswords every day and blog for Times for the Times. I attended the 2018 Times Crossword Championship (although I didn't do as well as I hoped) and went to my first Sloggers and Betters event. I've not had time to try compiling as yet, so that's still on the to-do list. Meanwhile I got runners-up prizes in 2 Times prize crosswords in the last couple of months.

As for the music, well that has taken more of back seat. Although I've enjoyed a few concerts, I've not been doing the practice I should and not much singing. Time to get on with improving my saxophone skills then.

So, thanks to Christine for the coaching, my boss Martin for supporting my move to working 2 days a week, my colleagues for putting up with that, and all the friends I've made through walking for a great year. I was expecting to give up the job after a year, but I still enjoy the work and the people, so I'm not going to stop yet! With the Suffolk Walking Festival to come, The Orwell Challenge, some LDWA events and Marbella again, I've got plenty more walking planned. We have over 50 chilli plants flourishing in the greenhouse and an other beer to bottle soon.

Yes. I think I can safely say I am keeping busy; I think I need an 8th day in the week to fit everything in!