It has been a funny old year in terms of both the kids and music (not so much the wife).
Both my son and daughter are now back at home. Having one of them back is not so bad but the two of them together is not a situation I wanted and it has met my ( low) expectations of being quite difficult. It’s difficult because neither me nor my wife is quite sure how to treat them. They are both adults and have lived independently but they are both still our children and the natural tendency is to parent them. These attempts to advise and guide them in their life choices (ha!) is classed as interference and any questions and suggestions are met with sullen and hostile answers and an air of why are they asking me this. Funnily enough this is how they reacted as teenagers to our attempts to parent them and thus perpetuates, at least in our eyes, the feeling that they are still children and need to be parented. In addition to this they don’t really get on with each other, which again is a continuation of how it was when they were growing up, so we end up intervening when they argue. See its complicated isn’t it.
We have a cooking rota and cleaning rota so in another sense it’s like a house share. Neither the parent approach nor the house share approach is satisfactory for me or my wife. I love both my son and daughter to bits but me and the wife had a nice quiet easy routine which has been turned on its head by them moving back and if I’m honest we wish they would both leave.
We don’t understand why they want to live at home anyway after being away at Uni. We didn’t go back home and lived in shit expensive rented accommodation rather than go back home. All we get is we can’t afford it it’s different now not like your day when it was easy to get jobs and places to live. Our retort is there were 3 million people unemployed when we graduated and we lived in cockroach and mice infested council and private rented shitholes and still survived.
Have we made it too easy for them?
My relationship with music has shifted this year. I passed up the opportunity to go and see two of my favourite bands this year and I’m not sure why. It wasn’t as if I would have had to travel to get to the gigs. They were both in my town in easily accessible venues. I even had tickets for one of the gigs but on the night I just couldn’t summon up any enthusiasm to go.
I’ve been thinking about it because although it is a cliché , music was my first love and has meant so much to me over the years and the bands I love have influenced and defined me as a person for such a long time, this change is a big deal in my life.
Perhaps I’ve finally grown up? I don’t know.
Monday, 17 November 2014
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Round Up
Well here we are. The clocks have gone back bringing the months of darkness.
I did Kielder 10k in 59.38. I was pleased with this time it is a bastard of a course. My Amsterdam Marathon time was a bit of a disappointment at 4:56:01. I finished in good physical condition, no pain but I had no energy from mile 23.
Outside of this my son is back at home and has a job on a local business park. It's hard having the house full again . We aren't quite sure how to treat them. As children or as adults?
Sadly we had to have our dog put down. He had cancer. He died in my arms. I miss him
I did Kielder 10k in 59.38. I was pleased with this time it is a bastard of a course. My Amsterdam Marathon time was a bit of a disappointment at 4:56:01. I finished in good physical condition, no pain but I had no energy from mile 23.
Outside of this my son is back at home and has a job on a local business park. It's hard having the house full again . We aren't quite sure how to treat them. As children or as adults?
Sadly we had to have our dog put down. He had cancer. He died in my arms. I miss him
Monday, 8 September 2014
GNR Blues
Did my 16th Great North Run yesterday. I put in a disappointing 2:14:02.And to make it worse, I wasn't even the Millionth Finisher.
I'm not sure what went wrong I've trained and I was well up for it. It was hot though and I don't like running in the heat. Miles 5 to 10 were hard.
This year my disappointment at my time was made worse by a guy in my new much bigger office who, having just turned 50, did it in 1:40. To be fair he didn't crow about it. So today has been a bit flat for me.
My next challenge is the Kielder 10k in 4 weeks time. I signed up for this in in a flush of excitement earlier in the Summer. Now I'm not so sure that doing a bastard hilly run in a wet and cold North Northumberland two weeks before the Amsterdam Marathon was a good idea.
I'm not sure what went wrong I've trained and I was well up for it. It was hot though and I don't like running in the heat. Miles 5 to 10 were hard.
This year my disappointment at my time was made worse by a guy in my new much bigger office who, having just turned 50, did it in 1:40. To be fair he didn't crow about it. So today has been a bit flat for me.
My next challenge is the Kielder 10k in 4 weeks time. I signed up for this in in a flush of excitement earlier in the Summer. Now I'm not so sure that doing a bastard hilly run in a wet and cold North Northumberland two weeks before the Amsterdam Marathon was a good idea.
Monday, 25 August 2014
August Bank Holiday
It's not raining but it is a bit chilly for a Summer holiday.
August has flown by. Not going on holiday in August still feels strange and work has been a drag because everybody else is on holiday. I have been building up my running mileage and am set for GNR in two week's time. I have also been decorating our new utility room. Don't get me started on this project, me and the wife fell out over this but I had to back down as I could see my usual tactic of just ignoring her was't going to work (which means that she is really serious about it)so, builders employed and 1500 quid later part of our garage is now a Laundry Room. Wife is happy for the time being.
Football has started Posh started well, still not sure when I will get to see them this season.It's been hard to get excited about another season in League 1 but your team is your team and I am feeling the call of the Posh.
August has flown by. Not going on holiday in August still feels strange and work has been a drag because everybody else is on holiday. I have been building up my running mileage and am set for GNR in two week's time. I have also been decorating our new utility room. Don't get me started on this project, me and the wife fell out over this but I had to back down as I could see my usual tactic of just ignoring her was't going to work (which means that she is really serious about it)so, builders employed and 1500 quid later part of our garage is now a Laundry Room. Wife is happy for the time being.
Football has started Posh started well, still not sure when I will get to see them this season.It's been hard to get excited about another season in League 1 but your team is your team and I am feeling the call of the Posh.
Thursday, 7 August 2014
Glasgow Commonwealth Games
Me and the wife were in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games last weekend. What a great city and what great Games.
We saw Bolt cruise the final leg to win the 100m relay.We saw England win the 400m relay and the Pole Vault. I sang Jerusalem proudly twice with a slight tear in my eye. The organisation was fantastic and the natives were friendly so all in all a very satisfactory weekend.
Our Hotel The Heritage Hotel,was on the Great Western Road just up from the Botanical Gardens a few hundred metres from Hillhead subway on Byres Road and despite being horrendously overpriced for the Games was fine , not in any way flash and not luxurious but I would recommend it for a stay.
There were lots of young people with "Yes" badges on and Hampden did roar when Scots did well on the track or field, but the Scots in the crowd cheered the English and Welsh and Northern Irish athletes with almost as much gusto. So I didn't get any sense of how the Scots will vote next month. Personally I don't care whether they vote Yes or not.If they want to stay in the UK that's OK, if they don't that's OK too.
The house is crowded as both my son and daughter are back with us, the son only for a few weeks, the daughter for longer. The dog is happy and enjoying having the pack back together.
Football season starts on Saturday. Posh away at Rochdale and so it begins again
We saw Bolt cruise the final leg to win the 100m relay.We saw England win the 400m relay and the Pole Vault. I sang Jerusalem proudly twice with a slight tear in my eye. The organisation was fantastic and the natives were friendly so all in all a very satisfactory weekend.
Our Hotel The Heritage Hotel,was on the Great Western Road just up from the Botanical Gardens a few hundred metres from Hillhead subway on Byres Road and despite being horrendously overpriced for the Games was fine , not in any way flash and not luxurious but I would recommend it for a stay.
There were lots of young people with "Yes" badges on and Hampden did roar when Scots did well on the track or field, but the Scots in the crowd cheered the English and Welsh and Northern Irish athletes with almost as much gusto. So I didn't get any sense of how the Scots will vote next month. Personally I don't care whether they vote Yes or not.If they want to stay in the UK that's OK, if they don't that's OK too.
The house is crowded as both my son and daughter are back with us, the son only for a few weeks, the daughter for longer. The dog is happy and enjoying having the pack back together.
Football season starts on Saturday. Posh away at Rochdale and so it begins again
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