Well March is very nearly through and as such, it is time for another update.
As always, we will hit the four main points and add in a general section as well.
But first, the big news and probably the most stupid thing that I will do!
After my successful charity walk in 2022, where I did a virtual 1083 mile walk from Lands End to John O'Groats, raising money for Acorns Children's Hospice, I decided that I wanted to continue with my fundraising efforts in 2023.
However, another thousand mile walk was not on this year's agenda! So looking at what else I could do, I am pleased to announce that on April 23rd, I will complete the London Marathon.
Well, kind of! Being old, unhealthy and overweight, there is no way that a) I would get accepted from the hundreds of thousands of applicants for the real thing and b) me ... run 26 miles???? You having a laugh!
So I have decided that one of the many routes that I used last year around the outskirts of the village is about three and a half miles long. The marathon is 26 miles, 365 yards (26.219 miles) so my reckoning is that seven full circuits is 24.5 miles leaving me an additional 2 miles ish to complete it.
Walking of course!
I think it will take me around eight to ten hours to complete and if I alter the circuit in the afternoon to walk past my local pub, I am hopeful that I will get people cheering me home!
As mentioned, I am putting my body through this pain in aid of a wonderful cause, and you can go to my just giving page by clicking on the link below. Any donation is welcome and please tick the gift aid if eligible.
Health.
All was looking good with what I hoped would be my final physio appointment in the first week of March until Helen, the physio, came down with Covid! A two week postponement was agreed, which gave me more time to exercise myself into a position where my hand would probably be as good as it is going to get.
Unfortunately, after feeling under the weather on Saturday 11th, I woke up on the Sunday with a stonking headache, streaming nose, coughing and a temperature that was worse that the proverbial underwear of a female prostitute! One test later and the thick line showed that somehow, I too had now contracted Covid. Fortunately I can work from home in my day job, so it did not impact me too badly and once I got on to the paracetamol, my temperate got under control and my third time of having the C-Virus was not as bad as the previous two.
Anyhoo! Rebooked physio for the 5th of April and hopefully this will sign me off and I can stop talking about my hand!
Football
I give up! Well, I despair at times about what is going wrong with my beloved Foxes. After the defeat to Manchester United, more defeats followed by Arsenal, Blackburn at home in the FA Cup (very annoying!), Southampton (bottom of the league) and Chelsea (and of course, our former player Ben Chilwell scored against us!).
Last Saturday stopped the rot with a point away at Brentford, who are 8th but the high hopes that I had of a top ten finish now look very distant. We are 13 points off 10th with only 11 games to go. More worryingly we are now 1 point off the drop zone!
However, the relegation fight, (I certainly did not think that I would be talking about us being involved in that at the start of the season!), is now between 9 teams with 12th placed Crystal Palace, fresh from sacking their manager, on 27 points and bottom placed Southampton on 23 points.
Trying to be positive, we are seeing some of our better players recovering from long term injuries, and with a run of six games in April which involves matches against four teams in the battle, we do have the chance to turn it all around.
Writing
With the Covid enforced quarantine, I had a good week last week, writing through chapter eight and into chapter nine of 'A Soul Reclaimed'. 3000 words in four days certainly helps. However, despite plotting the chapters out, as I am writing I find that I am changing the sequence of events that I had originally planned for a better flow. All being well, it will make sense once it has been through the editing process!
It was a bit of a manic weekend, being allowed back out, (see the general section) so writing slowed up again, but with just over a week until the next meeting, I do need to crack on.
Having a bit of a tidy up of my folders, with the thought of the NYC Midnight competition still fresh in my mind, I found an entry to a previous 100 word version. This led me to having a bit of a scroll through of my previous entries and I will do a future post featuring these previously unpublished stories.
I am going to be running a couple of promotions for audiobooks in the coming weeks on twitter so make sure you are following me @forthelostsoul
Reading.
Less said the better! As my school report cards used to say ... "Must Try Harder!"
General
As mentioned, it was a bit of a manic weekend. After being let back out from quarantine, (I am the type of person who obeys the rules and also does not want to spread it!), Friday went a bit wrong as a female friend (see Libby Forrest in 'The Woodsman!'), and myself were left alone on our table in our local pub. Several pints for me and double gins for her, and the jaeger bombs came out before we attacked the 2-1 cocktail menu.
Saturday morning was horrendous but with the knowledge of another friend's birthday outing, I dragged myself to the kitchen for breakfast via the shower and back to the pub I went. A trip into Solihull, with eleven of us drunkenly throwing darts in the general direction of the board, was followed by watching Ireland gain the Grand Slam at rugby by beating England before we all headed back to our village.
Sunday morning brought on another feeling of unease but, in the UK, it was Mother's Day, so again, the morning sobering up routine was put into action, and a nice meal followed with my parents.
I managed to stay in the next few nights, catching up on The Mandalorian and Ted Lasso, while starting to watch a 2019 show called Defending Jacob, with the excellent Chris Evans and the ever impressive young actor, Jaeden Martell. I'm two episodes in and loving it.
Chess League is drawing to a conclusion but I, like Leicester, have under achieved, and am currently in fourth place out of eight. My chances of winning the league are next to zero ... mathematically still possible especially as I have to play the top two in my final games, but they each have an easy game left, so if I can sneak third place this season, that is looking like my best finish.
Well, that is enough drivel from me for the month. Stay safe everyone and keep on reading.
