title
04.20 – 04.26
date
Sun Apr 26 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
updatedAt
2026-05-03T17:43:28+01:00
tags
  • note

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04.20 – 04.26

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Life

I spent all of Monday watching telly with my feet up.

Ηη (at his request) started Performing Arts Club on Monday and, unsurprisingly, we’ve been able to glean almost nothing about it out of him. He didn’t immediately complain that he hated it, so that’s good enough for me.

I’d been planning on taking the tube in to work on Tuesday, but the strikes convinced me that I should have a go on the bike instead. It wasn’t too bad – only getting on and off brought about a slightly slapstick bit of achey-leg choreography. It’s a slightly uncanny sensation when you know your brain is telling a part of your body to do something but that body part outright refuses to respond.

On Wednesday my immune system finally gave up the ghost and the illness floodgates opened up. I lay down for a ten-minute nap and woke up five hours later. It is frankly a miracle that it held out as long as it did given that Αα seems like she’s been composed of c. 80% snot for god knows how long (and Σσ confessed she’d also been hiding how unwell she’d been feeling so as not to stress me out). I found there was actually something weirdly comforting about succumbing to feeling properly ill and not really caring.

Αα’s moods and whims continue to be as wild as fuck. Σσ described living with her as being like trying to keep Anna Wintour happy, which is pretty much spot on. Every week I feel like she must have reached peak wobbler, but somehow she keeps pushing up the bar.

Σσ went to the parent-teacher meeting to talk about Ηη. Sounds like he’s improving well and there’s not too much for us to be concerned about.

I got to witness first-hand the kid who we’ve long believed to be the class bully behaving like an absolute shit. He obviously didn’t think there were any adults who knew him in the playground. Unfortunately for him I was looking straight at him (while pushing Αα on a swing) as he punched Ηη in the back repeatedly. Ηη to my surprise and delight didn’t react and just got on with what he was doing (I can only assume because this is such a common occurrence, and it has been my advice to him so far). I obviously wasn’t going to stand for it though and unleashed a stream of verbals. I haven’t been that angry or had such an adrenaline dump for years. Probably not since the last time I saw a kid who didn’t know he was being watched teasing Ηη about two years ago.

We went in search of another running track on Hackney Downs for Ηη to do his best Usain Bolt impression around on Saturday. Unfortunately it no longer existed (damn you Google maps satellite view) but as luck would have it there was a brand new adventure playground next to where it once was. The weather was glorious, and I was only slightly disappointed that we hadn’t had the foresight to pack a picnic. I think we’ll be going back again soon though, and won’t make that mistake twice.

Running

I’ve spent a lot of time being a massive egotist poring over my marathon stats on Strava. But I think a lot of it has been just to check it really happened. I’ve accepted all the available plaudits from friends and colleagues at this point, so it’s time to accept I need to move on with my life. I’ll be sure to enjoy the fact that I won’t have to do x miles at y pace six days a week for quite a while. But I also think it is basically a given that I’ll be entering another marathon. And buying some carbon-plated shoes.

I went out for a very pleasant 5 miles on Saturday. Then tried 10 miles on Sunday and managed to hobble my hamstring. I’m obviously not nearly as recovered as I’d thought. Hopefully it isn’t too bad (I don’t think I’ve had trouble with my hamstrings since I was at school, so it’s a bit of a mystery).

It was nice to be able to go back to junior parkrun with Ηη on Sunday morning. He totally smashed his previous best.