Come rain come shine

Below freezing

I've decided that I shall pick up the pace of this blog again. I want to reach 100 posts; due to the magic of the decimal system we can all agree that this is a nice number to strive for. Come rain or come shine, news or no news, from now on you will be forced to read about my adventures every single day until the Twente-York connection is finally broken.

Looking back, I also see that I have been complaining about lack of time and other shortcomings in at least three out of the last ten posts, so there'll be no more of that, thank you very much! Or at least I'll try to keep it to a minimum: the theme is running through my mind a lot, and with my having to finish up here, the topic of time is pretty much unavoidable.

In training

Today both shine and rain came, in the typical way of the climate here. In the morning, because I fancied another portion of fried eggs, I had to take a run first (still trying to get to that Pavlovian stage where thinking of fried eggs will set my legs in motion). It was sunny and cold, probably still a bit freezing I think.  I've gotten in the habit of running in short sleeves, which is a bit chilly when you start but fine after 5 minutes or so. As a concession to the temperature I put on gloves: the hands are suffering most. A lot of the runners here actually do it barelegged, but I am not that brave; after a calf injury half a year ago I try to be careful of my legs. The English lasses get their training early on, going out at night in the fashion of the country with very little in the way of leg covering. Blokes are allowed trousers at such times (and probably suffer a lot fewer bladder infections).

At times I catch myself thinking that I am getting old. Not a thought I should linger upon, or I might start believing it.

When I was 20 I had eternal youth, but then I changed.

In the evening, after another fruitscarce day of programming and a few pints of Grolsch at the Glasshouse in good company (venting my frustration at my slow progress by being unusally outgoing and talkative) I went for my last games night through a veritable downpoor. I dropped off my stuff at the appartment and took the opportunity to put on my rain gear for the very first time I am here. Too late obviously, as I was already wet, but now I can claim that I could not have done without.

Through the desert once more

Not surprisingly given the weather, it was very quiet at the Bar Convent - the quietest of all the times I have been, I think. Nevertheless I had fun playing Through the Desert (not the same game as Timbuktu last week, but involving camels all the same) and Heckmeck, a rather silly game where you have to collect as many worms as you can, preferably by stealing them off your fellow chickens (pardon, players).

Like two weeks before, I joined a small group afterwards to the Punchbowl across the street for some food and drinks. These are the main group of non-university people I've gotten to meet, though a lot of them have come to study at the U of York from other parts of the country and then sought jobs here. The converation degraded a bit into grumbling about work and wages (a lot of bitterness, I've not been here long enough to fathom that); when it degraded even further into complaints about Microsoft word I decided to rather go home, do some typing, make sure the wine is finished before I leave, and give Early Arend a chance tomorrow to beat the Arend of two weeks ago at parkrun tomorrow.