Ran my LFT and it came up negative. The family also ran LFTs and they were all clear. Guess it confirms my suspicion that whatever I have is just the flu, even though it feels horrible.... :-(

I think I'm coming down with something. Fairly certain it's not covid, but just in case, going to LFT myself.

A long busy day at the office and we wet, windy, and miserable evening, so no running, but I did head out for a walk. I know from experience that slugs emerge after a wet spell, and I've on more than one occasion squished one unknowingly during a run, leaving a slimy mess when I made it back to the house.

No running today, but I did head out for a walk to get my dad some Valentines Day stuff (he was feeling under the weather but still want to get something for my mum)

Now it's just a matter of trying to sneak it into the house with my my mum knowing :-P

Day 2 on the C25K app and today's setup was the same as yesterday:

• 5 minutes walking warmup
• 60 seconds running
• 90 seconds walking
• repeat walk/run for 20 minutes (8 intervals)

GPS tracking was better since I allowed background tracking.

Leg was still slightly aching from yesterday, but I pushed through.

Decided to reinstall an old C25K app I used to use, and the first run was:

• 5 minutes walking warmup
• 60 seconds running
• 90 seconds walking
• repeat walk/run for 20 minutes (8 intervals)

GPS tracking was bad because I hadn't set it to allow background tracking. Will change that for the next run.

But now my leg is aching again. My lower back part of my right leg is hurting like it's about to spasm (it has done that before)

Went running again, and still having trouble lasting any reasonable distance. I might just revert doing a C25K plan again.

My calves were absolutely aching after two days of running, lack of exercise, then suddenly being pushed hard I guess would do that to you.

No running today, just walking, and I made it back just before it started raining.

Went out running again, did only 2.6 km this time, averaged just about 6m59s/km - a far cry from the 6m0s/k I used to be able to do last time.

At least that is now my goal -- to try to get to 5km, then try to get my speed to around the 6-minute mark.

My thighs are aching and my shoes do not feel like they're cushioning my steps as much as they used to. I guess I'll need to look at buying some new running shoes soon.

It's been a long, long time, but I've finally decided to pick up running again.

And BOY, am I out of shape. Could barely get to 2km before having to drop to a walk.

But now at least I have a baseline to improve upon.

And I forgot how good running feels after a good workout.

1st January 2022. A new year, a new start.

What are your plans for the 2022 year? I've picked up Zombies Run again after a few years away due to its memory footprint inflating so much it wouldn't run on my S5 without causing Android to force close other apps. It works fine on my OnePlus 9 Pro though.

24 hours after the booster and I can say I have one pretty painful symptom. Overnight, my arm where I had my jab became really painful to the touch, and when I rolled over in my sleep, the pain immediately jolted me awake.

Checked in case the jab site had become swollen or bruised, and nothing, so it is just the jab causing the pain.

I checked with a few others who had the Pfizer jab (both as the original jab and as booster) and they all said their arm was sore for 1-2 days after the jab so I guess I'm in pain until tomorrow. :-|

Completed by covid booster.

Looks like I got a Pfizer booster when my previous two doses were AstraZeneca. They stuck a time on me afterwards so I knew when I could leave

So far, nothing major symptom-wise, just a few aches already coming in on my right arm

It's been a long time since I posted on here -- my last post (before today's posts) was July 17 when I had to self isolate. A lot has happened since then, so this post will be a bit of an update list

I had to take my dad into hospital for a prostrate operation (this was planned before I had to self-isolate) -- he already had a PCR test and was cleared. My LFT was also clear, but I still had to self isolate. This was before the self-isolation changes happened. The operation was successful, but he needed to be held a few more days to see an ENT specialist due to them finding lumps in his throat. The concern was that they might be cancerous, but turns out it was just irritation so they gave him some Gaviscon to take after means and soothe the throat. Both my dad and I are prone to post-meal throat irritation so it might mean I might be subject to the same thing later in life.

I got a ticket after driving my dad to the hospital for taking a left turn when I was not supposed do, due to badly signposted roads. My appeal was rejected on the grounds I had paid the ticket. This is how the council screws you over -- if you pay the fine to avoid the 100% charge, they will claim that admits guilt. If you don't, they delay the response until after the 2-week window so you then have to pay the 100% charge.

I finally decided to upgrade my phone and went for a OnePlus 9 Pro. The phone is classed as a "Phablet" and much bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S5 I have been using for years:

The case on the left is for the OnePlus, the case on the right for my S5

I had problems activating the new SIM and eventually Three had to send me a new one, and soon after I got that new one, I got a message saying Three were going to be doing works on the mast in my area and ever since then I have had horrendously bad speeds at home. By bad, I mean speeds of < 1Mbps and even down to 0.2Mbps. Using 3G band sometimes helps, but only marginally.

I've taken my complaint up to the Ombudsman but Three are still refusing to do anything about it -- even charging me to leave contract early.

I've been with Three many years but I will not be recommending them going forward. I will be checking other providers when my contract expires.

We've started to go back to the office. My team is doing three days a week in the office, and you pick which three days as long as there are a max of 8 people in the office (due to some office reorganisation, we only have 8 seats for the entire team).

Surprisingly many people have left jobs during and post lockdown (some might have been nudged due to the lockdown, and not just in my office, but generally.)

I won a Twitter completion by Curve for a swag bag. Just had to tweet them three images of their different adverts -- all of which showed up on the same station, so that wasn't too difficult.

Then we had the annoying as heck "Panic at the Pumps" causing shortages.

This video from my dashcam shows the queue of traffic. This is the queue leading into the Alperton Sainsbury's. I was there at around 5am and it took me 30 minutes to clear the queue even with less people in the queue. This queue will probably take 90 minutes to clear, assuming the fuel was not gone by the time they got to the front of the queue

This video, also from my dashcam shows the queues that built up outside the petrol stations -- this Esso I actually went into at 4:30am that morning and they were not open, even though there were staff in the shop (so maybe they were waiting for delivery?)

You'll get people tooting impatiently and even people cutting the queue and then blocking the lane for the people behind (they must be luxury car drivers)

My house purchase has progressed and we have moved on and are now ready to exchange. However, one of the two sellers is unable to complete his purchase (he's part of a chain and needs to complete his purchase before he can complete the sale on the current house).

Finally, I got a letter from Principia Law who are the ones trying to claim money back from the drunk driver who wrecked my previous car.

They want me to release my bank records for the period of time I had the hire car. But everyone I have discussed this with seems confused as to why this is required since the accident is a "no-fault" claim on my part, so they should not even need my bank details.

I asked them to call me today to discuss this. I may also speak to the office legal team for their thoughts.

Missed logging from yesterday. I did my walk later than normal, as I had to pick up my dad from hospital after an operation.

England were playing in Wembley against Germany last night, though I am not much of a football fan and don't really follow matches.

I didn't even think England would beat Germany, based on their history.

On my way back from my walk, I came across a group of teenagers with England shirts on. They saw me and started singing "It's coming home" to me. I just looked blank and confused (being a chinese person, I guess they thought I couldn't understand them). One of them put their fist out for a fist bump. Now *that* I knew and met the bump before heading off.

England won 2-0 against Germany but you never would have guessed. Normally, when England score a goal or win a match, you hear massive cheering from the neighbours and then celebrations in the streets -- people driving their cars with the windows down screaming "En-ger-land!"

None of that this time.

I've been slacking a bit with logging my walks because it's been a bit monotonous -- not much happening during those runs, so I need to fix that.

Lots of rain today and heavy rain too. Eased up a bit so I got my walk done. Had to go in jeans and coat with a cap on as the temperature had dropped enough that t-shirt and shorts were not a recommended choice.

Cooler today, cloudy and a spattering of rain, but at 20degC still humid

I didn't do my walk yesterday since I was in the office again this week. I took the Victoria Line back from the office and two people seemingly had passed out -- one at Victoria, one at Oxford Circus. The heat was almost unbearable.

Oxford Circus is an oven even on normal days. At near 30degC heat it is more like a furnace.

There was immense relief in the evening when it started to rain, but that relief was soon turned in comfortable, sticky, sweaty feelings as the water then evaporated and made the air really humid, making it almost impossible to sleep. I didn't get any decent sleep till around 2am and FitBit noticed that with my sleep pattern.

Fortunately, it seems like there's rain forecast for the rest of the week at least.

Have been slacking off logging my exercise again, but there's a reason.

It's TOO. DAMN. HOT.

Like, crazy hot. And when the sun shines into your bedroom where you're trying to work so you have to have the curtains closed while you work, and the fan only provides some minor relief, it doesn't help

Meanwhile, today, my walk was comfortable -- even though it was hot, the breeze helped matters a bit and made it not feel too bad.

No walk today as I was back in the office for one day this week. With the 25degC heat, it was not a pleasant journey. I tried to offset it by using only the airconditioned trains route (Thameslink, Great Northern, District/Circle) but that didn't make it much more comfortable.

Still topped my step count for the day, as I normally do for the commute.

And we're back to hot weather again. No rain at all today and a nice day to walk

After several days of extremely hot weather, today was pretty much constantly raining.

Did go for a walk, but got caught in some (light) showers. Nothing major, fortunately.

My walk today was bit interrupted as my dad lost his driving license and Freedom Pass (memory + age are bit of a pain) but oh, well.

Another hot day on the trot, and yet another day without a cloud in the sky, although somehow it did seem to spatter with rain for short periods, I've been told (but I never noticed that happening)