Week 3 2026 - One Daily Positive and Project 365

The Negatives

Dealing with disappointments, mainly people.

The positives

Overcoming disappointment.

Small achievements.

Saturday 17th We went out for coffee in the morning, followed by a Lidl food shop and I managed to keep up with the scanner and packed into the trolley at the same speed, which made me happy. My friend picked me up in the afternoon and we went to the Eastnor Castle Deer Park for a walk and a natter and a hot chocolate. The evening was spent watching Birmingham on Sky away to Swansea and a 1-1 draw. I was in bed by 9am as I'm still very tired.

Sunday 18th Had a lie in then Peter dropped me in town for 9am for me to join in with a group hike of the Malvern Hills. I was disappointed as it was a slow one with lots of waiting around for others to catch up and I was getting cold, so I left them at British Camp and completed the walk on my own at more than double the speed. Peter met me I town for a coffee. Hoem and straight in the bath, a video call with my friend and a chat with my cousin in the States, some blogging and in bed at 8pm with a headache.

Monday 19th Horrendous drive to work down country lanes with road closures, barely wide enough for one car, let alone the van and localised flooding and foggy. Covered PE with basketball, table tennis and dance. Collected Peter on the way home to buy flowers for MILs birthday tomorrow and have a coffee. home to cook dinner and start work in the attic after planning some dance for tomorrow, I'm struggling with the resources I've been given, thankfully a misspent youth has kept me going so far with the break dancing element.

Tuesday 20th More dance and got some really good lessons going now, finally got the boys fully engaged. Found an alternative route home, even worse, lanes so narrow that both me and another van were in our respective hedges to pass. The alternative route via Worcester is chaotic due to a landslide, so I may have to travel via Hereford tomorrow morning. Peter out visiting his mum for her Birthday. So I put the van on charge, washed my walking boots and trousers, fed the cat and waited for it to come back in then went for a run to the retail park, bought some new boots I'd had my eye on in the sales. Peter met me for a coffee, home for dinner. waterproof coats washed and reproofed. I watched Birmingham in one room, Peter watched another game on the big telly. Had a bath and in bed by 10pm.

Wednesday 21st A bit of a lie in as I had a blood test before work, a longer drive in via Hereford and straight into cover in science. A busy day and home via Hereford. Can't believe we're in the last few days of Traitors. I got my ticket for the Birmingham v Leeds game in the FA cup on Valentines Day and looked into booking the ferry for a trip to Northern Ireland to see the grandchildren in my half term, sadly theirs is the week before. Had a bath and watched Traitors in bed and asleep by 9.30pm.

Thursday 22nd Woke with a migraine. A long drive into work with flood waters adding to the days drive. Home via the retail park to pick up snacks for our day out on Saturday and of course a coffee out with Peter who walked down to meet me. Home for dinner, watched TV, packed my bags, had a bath, watched Traitors, did some blogging and bed by 10pm.

Friday 23rd Child 4 turned 31 today. Finally the road to work was open. An exhausting day mentally. Home to pack and head off to London for the weekend for the Winter Walk tomorrow to attempt to walk 26 miles in under 8 hours as part of my marathon training. Arrived at the hotel, unpacked, found the train station for the early start in the morning, all in time to watch The Traitors.

On the blog this week:

Feeling Unsociable but not looking it.

Word of the Week - Acceptance 

My Winter Garden

Post Comment Love - Link up with any post written this week.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Post Comment Love - 23rd - 25th January 2026

Welcome back to #PoCoLo with Stephanie from Bosworth.Life and I.

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo is a friendly weekly linky where you can link up any blog post you've written this week. If you're new or a regular visitor we're sure you'll find something of interest.

Please leave a comment with the host you link up with and we'd also appreciate your help spreading the #PoCoLo word on Twitter/X tag us and we'll RT. You can find us here: Stephanie - @BosworthLife and Suzanne - @ChickenRuby Please also add our badge to your post.

I'll be catching up with reading your posts, sharing and commenting over the next few days. 

This weekend I'm on a Winter Walk. 26 miles around London on Saturday aiming to finish in under 8 hours as part of my training for the Brighton Marathon in April which I'm running on behalf of Bowel Research UK in memory of Stephanie to raise funds and awareness.

But first, the evening will be spent watching the finale of The Traitors that we've both been enjoying.

Our granddaughter gave us a potted bulb for Christmas, we had no idea what it was, but this morning it flowered and it was a lovely surprise to come home from work to.

I've written a post this week about acceptance and moved a large 'to do' list to the end of the month to take the pressure off myself and have got back into my reading and Peter and I have been spending more time together out of the house, just drinking coffee, reading and chilling out, rather than charging around.

Want to find out more about Post Comment Love #PoCoLo? 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Word of the Week - Acceptance

There are a lot of things I've had to accept this week.

It's not been easy and I've not been happy about it.

But with acceptance has come a lot of peace and with peace has come - moving on.

Initially I was going with unsociable, then procrastination, but I decided to go with acceptance as it is more positive and being positive is my focus.

I published my post on being unsociable, my initial #wotw if you want to read it, as it's how I'm feeling.

This week I've accepted that I'm 4 weeks behind with my marathon training. As a result I went for a run on Tuesday.

I accepted that my drive to work with pot holes, flooding and road closures is stressful, but it's the same for everyone else and I'm not going to worry if yet another delay sees me arrive 10 minutes late, as I'm arriving 15 minutes before lessons start anyway. Now I've stopped worrying about being late, I've reduced the stress and I'm sticking to the longer detours and the main roads.

Since Stephanie died I've accepted that my friendship group has become smaller, but I've recognised that my smaller friendship group has become stronger.

I had my 6 monthly blood test on Wednesday. I'm now in my 10th year of this malarky, bloods will come back out of sync, there will be a recall, doctors receptionist will have concern in her voice, nurse will tell me tests are for x, y & z and I will calmly just let them take the blood knowing no one has read my notes properly and this is normal. It's amazing how hard it is to get my medical records from Dubai uploaded and merged rather than just attached. I've accepted this, but I am fed up of explaining it every time.

I've accepted that there are a lot of things to be done around the house that just aren't getting done because I've been unwell and my to do list had just grown longer and I was getting stressed and putting pressure on myself to get things done. It was taking longer to get better and I started getting migraines. This was all impacting on my running, my journey to work and being unsociable.

My 'to do' list had rolled over from October, was re written as the pages in my diary were turned and a new diary purchased in January and was last added to on the weekend. So I put a big cross through my 'to do list' and moved it to the end of February to take the pressure off. 

*diary corrections to spelling SOW not SEW.

There were a couple of things that were ticked off this week and a couple of things left to be done in the morning for the weekend and one or two things to be done on Sunday, but the other stuff which is not urgent, has been moved away, out of sight, to take away the stress and with that, comes acceptance that I don't need to worry about these things.

I feel much better now I've accepted there are some things I can do nothing about. I've had a migraine all week stressing over my journey to work, not being able to run for the past 4 weeks with the flu and now a migraine and stressing over not getting the jobs done around the house and garden and I was just spiralling, hence the migraine making everything worse.

I'm now looking forward to a nice relaxed weekend in London on the Winter Walk, raising awareness and funds for Bowel Research UK in memory of Stephanie, celebrating her life.

I'm linking up with Raisie Bay with Word of the Week

Why I'm feeling unsociable, but not looking it.

I'm not unsociable, but I don't always want to be sociable.    

Especially in new situations.

I'm quite an anxious person. I was diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder back in 2017. I don't know if I actually still have it on my medical records or not. I was also diagnosed with PTSD in January 2025. Both related to witnessing sudden and traumatic deaths of my father and our daughter.

I don't receive any treatment for either condition anymore but I still have the symptoms of both, mainly in the form of catastrophising and just not thinking I'm good enough for a lot of things.

I hate doing new things, going to new places and meeting new people. It nearly cost me my job back in September after just 10 days, but I was able to vocalise how I was feeling and I was given a sabbatical, time to reset and restart the following month and things are pretty much ok now. I've even socialised and joined the book club and went out for a Christmas meal, but I left a 10pm and came home. Baby steps. I spend the first break in the staff room which is 15 mins, but for the half hour lunch break I leave site. It's too much for me to be there all day.

I cope better if I do things on my own and if I don't have to explain to people what I'm doing when and where and why. But I'm married, I have a husband who cares for me and wants to help me and when I'm talking through, out loud, all the things I have to do, making plan a, b and x, y and z, he naturally wants to input some advice and take the pressure off me, but it just exasperates the situation and I explode. 

I need to run through every single event, outcome, possibility so I can put it to rest in my mind and then whatever happens I'll be equipped to deal with it all.

When I'm in this mood I just don't want to be around other people, anyone at all.

It could be something simple like going out for a coffee, a walk or as complicated as planning a holiday or maybe something stressful like a medical appointment or trying to work out something that is complicated such as a tax return. The thought process is the same and the outcome is the same.

What if I get hit by a car on the way to the shop? What if that car pulls out suddenly and hits the other car 3 cars in front. Will Peter have seen in and be able to react in time? Will it be better if I sit like this or like that? What would our chances of survival be? He needs to slow down, pull back a bit more. Just let me drive, then I can be in charge of my own fate. Then I end up wanting to just go out on my own, so I only have myself to worry about and I don't have to explain to anyone what I'm doing and why? I can just talk to myself to reassure myself, calm myself down and everything will be ok, it usually is, but only because I run through these scenarios.

I go to the football with 28,000 people a couple of times a month, but I go on my own. I can decide in a split second if I want to walk this way or that way or leave early without having to speak to anyone else and make plans. 

I joined a group on the weekend for a walk. I hate joining things. I joined the gym. I was so agitated when I joined. I got so anxious about it, that when they tried to show me how all the equipment worked I got in a panic and at first just let them show me machine after machine, but I wasn't listening, then I plucked up the courage to say 'no thank you' I hoped I sounded polite when I asked them just to show me the three machines I wanted to use. Then after a couple of visits, I plucked up the courage to ask about another one.

On the walk on Sunday I was agitated, I got on the bus and everyone knew each other, there was talk about all the walks they'd done, they had all the gear. The group info and said you needed to be of certain fitness level, I was anxious they'd make me drop out and I'd have to get Peter to come and get me and I started to panic I'd not be able to describe where I was and he'd be driving around for ages in the wrong place because I wasn't anxious and not able to give clear directions.

We started the walk, it was hard, but I wasn't the one that couldn't keep up and I got agitated. I was agitated listening to some of the people talking, their topics of conversations, the tone of their voices. I put my headphones in and isolated myself further from everyone. I thought we would be walking at a faster pace, a hike it was advertised at, we kept having to wait for people to catch up, I was getting cold and impatient. I left the group at a point where I knew my way home.

I was sad and disappointed in myself that I hadn't jsut been able to enjoy the day and make new friends. 

My whole day was ruined. I gave myself a headache. I thought about all the other things I could've been doing and could've done and instead of getting on and doing some of those things in the afternoon and evening, I did absolutely nothing and just got more and more cross and upset with myself for wasting the time.

But from the outside I don't look unsociable, I don't act unsociable (no one saw me with my headphones in, hidden under my hair and hood) I'm always told how sociable I am. How I'll have a go at anything, how out outgoing I am, how organised I am and often by family how bossy I am, but that's not me, that's not the person I want to be, that's the person I feel I've been forced to become. 'what's the matter with you?' 'why are you so quite?' 'go find out what's going on' 'where are we going? what are we doing?' 'where are we ... what are we ... food, places, who, what, where when. All with a gentle shove in my back. So no one else has to take the blame.

This post is a bit all over the place. It's random. Worrying. But that's how my brain works when I get like this. I cut myself off, I isolate, I become unsociable. I didn't want to go to work on Monday, but I didn't want to stay at home either. I just wanted to run away, but I didn't. I knew it's wasn't the answer.

It's not about putting a brave face on and just getting on with it. It's not even about putting into the place the things I've learnt to cope. It's just life and how I live it and when I'm in work and I'm asked what's wrong I'll just reply 'migraine' before they think I'm just a little bit barking mad or maybe it actually is a migraine that has me thinking and feeling this way or is it just normal and we need to talk to each other a little more, but then I'm not feeling very sociable to want to do that, am I?

My winter garden. December 2025 - January 2026

Nothing has been done in the garden since mid November. I'm sure things could've been planted. I could be preparing beds, but I'm not that invested. Gardening for me is fun, it's not meant to be a chore and I'm not trying to be self sufficient. Besides, it's not a big garden and I don't have space for heated greenhouses or windowsills indoors that I can grow seedlings on.

I've been enjoying sitting outside in the mornings before going to work either with a cup of tea or coffee, but it's usually dark so I've been making the most of catching some sun on the weekends.

When we had our first floor flat in Monmouth where we stayed when we were visiting the UK, we didn't have a garden, but it was only a short walk from the River Monnow and was such a pretty place to sit with a mug of tea in the mornings. I'd often sit with a blanket wrapped round me on the tips in the winter also.

Sadly after the floods in early December the town suffered badly and the ground floor of the flats were flooded badly. This was a week after the flooding.

Santa stopped by with his snowy boots on Christmas Eve and it took almost 2 weeks for the (icing sugar) snow to disappear.

The real snow came soon enough though on January 3rd. we have raised the front lawn ready to plant a hedge in the spring, but the soil has settled quite a bit so we'll be bringing in more soil that had piled up after building work in the back garden to finish levelling it off once the weather warms up, so we may have to delay the hedge row planting till the early summer, but it'll give the hedge cutting a little longer to establish themselves after they come out from under protection after the winter.

You wouldn't believe this was the same day, later in the afternoon. Just look at that blue sky. There are buds on the fruit trees.

We lost the fleece covering from the Bay Tree while we were away over the New Year, it must've blown over the fence. It seems to be doing ok without the fleece and we've seen many potted Basils without fleeces in various National trust and English Heritage sites.

The cloche and cold frame are doing their job and the herbs are doing well despite the cold.

Parsley, basil, fennel, coriander all of which we've been able to sue throughout the winter months.

Both the memorial roses we were gifted for Stephanie are doing well. Both are in pots. One was in it's 2nd year so ok to keep outside without any cover, one hadn't had chance to harden off so it was advised to cover it and put it in a green house for it's first winter.

Again, more clear blue skies on January 7th, despite warnings of Storm Goretti.

January 8th. After an hours worth of snowfall.

We had a gift from our granddaughter at Christmas of a bulb in a pot. We are now assuming it's a daffodil.

The house plants are doing well. 

As our the cacti we brought back from Dubai that used to grow in our garden. We've kept them small on purpose as it was quite a vicious plant and not suitable to grow out of control in a house where small children come to visit.

One of babies that we've cultivated in the UK.

There are some plants, mainly succulents that were potted up for the winter and left under semi cover, along with some house plants that had seen better days, that actually look like they've survived the coldest winter months, that will probably come back with a little TLC.

How is your garden holding up during the winter?

Week 2 2026 - One Daily Positive and Project 365

The not so positives

I'm behind with my marathon training due to the flu. 

The positives   

Learning to identify and deal with triggers.

It's lovely to drive home in the daylight.

Enjoying Traitors.

Off to a good start with my fundraising for my marathon in Brighton in April.

Saturday 10th January We decided we needed a metaphysical day with Stephanie and despite me not feeling well we headed over to Gloucester for a coffee in Starbucks and a wander around the town remembering the happy times and the places we took Stephanie, it did us both good, despite it bringing a few tears. I cooked a fish pie when we got home and listened to Birmingham in the FA Cup. We rearranged some furniture in the loft rooms and had a video call with our grandsons. I had an early night.

Sunday 11th Still under the weather so a lazy morning watching Match of the Day and chatting on WhatsApp with son in Australia and catching up with blog comments and drinking coffee in the warm. Peter went for a walk along the Malvern Hills and rang me when he was nearly finished so I could drive into town and pick him up. I needed to stock up with cat food and we had a coffee. Home to cook a roast chicken and portion up some dinners for me for a few days and type up some mentoring reports from last week. A bit more organising in the loft room and the evening in front of the TV. The Christmas bedding went back on the bed.

Monday 12th Back to work, I covered PE most of the day and some mentoring. Peter moved the bed up to the loft the room and we moved a reclining chair from the lounge into the 1st floor bedroom. Now on the look out for a cot/bed on Facebook market place. Seen a few but no rush as we've still got a travel cot. This used to be child 4's bedroom and I've been using it as a craft room since we came back to the UK. Granddaughter was excited to the see her new sleeping space on a video call. After dinner I watched some soaps and went to bed early to read.

Tuesday 13th A good day in work, quite a mixture. A good chat with the Head about how I've settled in. Home and plonked myself down in front of the TV, finished tidying and cleaning the two new bedrooms and started emptying the 2nd loft room with stuff for the charity shop and the tip. I watched some TV and went to bed early to read. 

Wednesday 14th Work was good, all day in Science and some mentoring. Home late, picked Peter up and managed a coffee out, but the rest of the afternoon and evening was spent on the sofa blogging and watching TV after tea and a bath and into bed at 9pm. I stopped on my way to work to take a photo of the sky.

Thursday 15th Work and home. So tired. Literally sat on the sofa watching quiz shows, scrolling through my phone and snacking. I had a bath, watched Traitors and was in bed at 9pm.

Friday 16th A really foggy drive to work. Been given some extra responsibility and got a new laptop from IT as the keyboard was too large and hurting my wrists. Straight to the nail bar for an infill and new colour after work. Really loving my acrylics, they lasted 4 weeks. Posted son’s birthday card for next week. Home at 6.30pm. Had dinner, got stuff ready for my walk on Sunday, had a bath and settled down for Traitors.

Louise - I wonder if our paths crossed in and around Portsmouth over the New Year, but with everyone wrapped up so warm no one was really identifiable.

Kim - Well done on spotting me at the football. My friend struggled this week.

Emma - I can assure you the cat is super comfy in the kids bean bag.

On the blog this week:

Post Comment Love - Link up with any post written this week

Word of the week - Preparation

Days out in the campervan in December 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Post Comment Love 16th - 18th January 2026

Welcome back to #PoCoLo with Stephanie from Bosworth.Life and I.

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo is a friendly weekly linky where you can link up any blog post you've written this week. If you're new or a regular visitor we're sure you'll find something of interest.

Please leave a comment with the host you link up with and we'd also appreciate your help spreading the #PoCoLo word on Twitter/X tag us and we'll RT. You can find us here: Stephanie - @BosworthLife and Suzanne - @ChickenRuby Please also add our badge to your post.

I'll be catching up with reading your posts, sharing and commenting over the next few days. 

We're well into January and before you know it, it'll be Christmas again. I know, there is so much to do before then and I'm not rushing to get through the year. It's unlike me not to have big plans for 2026, but I'm waiting to hear whether I'm successful with being a volunteer at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow before I go booking our summer holiday trip. I've just completed the second round of online questionnaires.

I've an ultra challenge later this month, a walking marathon in London.

February - A trip to Northern Ireland to see our grandsons. It's also Stephanie's birthday and I'm feeling apprehensive about it already.

Easter - Northern Ireland again and I'm running the Brighton Marathon in memory of Stephanie.

June - My cousin is getting married in Brighton.

July/August Commonwealth Games? and maybe South Africa.

October - Northern Ireland and the anniversary of Stephanie's death.

Christmas - We're planning on going abroad again - somewhere hot this year.

I've got my reading challenge well under way with 2 books down of the 52 I plan to read and I've 59 books to choose from on the top 2 shelves that will be added to by my mum and my cousin and I'm sure I'll pick up several from charity shops and the National Trust as the year goes on. There's also the Book Club I've joined in work. There are some classics hidden in there waiting to be read and I've inherited the complete works of Charles Dickens from my mum to plough my way through as well as rejoining the local library.

Do you have big plans for 2026 or are you just plodding through the year with a few ideas seeing what comes up?

Want to find out more about Post Comment Love #PoCoLo? 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Word of the week - Preparation

I've been under the weather since Boxing Day and I've been a bit foolish with dosing myself up on meds going to several football matches, going away over the New Year and even doing a parkrun on New Years Day and I ended up with the flu, a hacking cough, had a couple of migraines and even lost my voice. I went back to work on the 5th of January for the morning only then was off for two days. We then had a snow day, followed by a lazy weekend and then went back to work.

I'm still not 100%, but I'm getting there slowly.

Normally I can manage a day at work and out for coffee, the gym or a run and a couple of hours pottering around the house and weekends are spent at the football, housework, visiting, out shopping, work in the garden, a longer run, the gym or a combination of all the above. But since the new year I've either just managed to get myself dressed and feed myself or go to work or just go out.

My word of the week should have been UNWELL, but as I'm trying to focus on the positive I've gone with PREPARATION. Whilst I can't run or go to the gym I can do quite a few other things to prepare for my marathon on April the 12th.

I've already signed up to an Ultra Challenge on the 24th January in London the Winter Walk which is a Marathon walk which I'm aiming to complete in under 8 hours. I need to complete the Brighton Marathon in under 8 hours to get a medal and as well as running in memory of Stephanie and raising funds for Bowel research UK, I want to get a medal for myself. 

So this weekend I've signed up for an end to end walk over the Malvern Hills. An 11 mile walk with an elevation of 900ms/3000ft to be completed in 5 hours.

Whilst I was at my worst I was able to write a couple of birthday cards and letters that needed sending the first half of January and a gift for the neighbours son that was dropped round yesterday. We went out for a couple of hours last weekend and I picked up a couple of gifts for February birthdays and some gifts to send to my son and his girlfriend in Australia and there is a pile of cards and gifts in the hall waiting to be posted. 

Over the past week Peter and I also moved furniture around and I'm now sharing my craft room in the loft with a single bed so when our granddaughter and eldest grandson come to stay we have room or the cot for their younger sibling to sleep over in their own room, eventually we will purchase a toddler bed for when they outgrow the travel cot.

We've now prepared room in the lounge to move stuff out the other loft room to get rid of stuff for the charity shop and the tip and then we will have room to finally sort though and upload some of my late father's stuff onto eBay along with some stamps that I’d sorted through and researched previously that need to go down to Stanley Gibbons in London after already making some initial enquiries.

I'd set up a Vinted account that I've been selling some baby clothes on from my DIL prior to Christmas and I'm going to upload some vintage clothing  from the 1930's that belonged to my Gran up to the 1980's that I used to wear.

Unfortunately whilst preparing the room above the other loft room is now a bit of a mess, but there's no rush to get it sorted.

I'm linking up with Annie over at Raisie Bay with my Word of the Week.

Days out in the campervan in December

Yes, I managed a nights camping in the van in December. I was cold and actually snowing when I pulled up in the Cotswolds and set up after work on a Friday night.

A little bit of benga takes place while I set up the van, much easier when there is only one of you.

My work stuff gets packed into this bag and placed onto the front seat out the way.

When I camp on my own I just pack my clothes straight into the wardrobe.

Whilst I waited for my friend Chrissie to join me, I cooked some soup for my dinner.

Directions given were 'turn right at the toilet block and drive straight on till you see the Christmas tree, I'm the pitch just after that'

Thankfully the shower block was heated and as always spotless.

The dry robe and yellow welly crocs are shared by all van users for bathroom runs, you don't mind going outside when you're properly wrapped up.

Filling the van with water and plugging the electricity in seems a big effort for just one night, but is so worth it as it saves going out in the cold and wet to wash up and it means we could run the heating all night.

There were a few house chores to be done after the trip, cleaning the fridge and replacing all the towels.

Removing everything that is likely to go out of date and restocking tea, coffee and sugar for day trips.

And making sure the water tanks both fresh and waste have been emptied correctly to ensure nothing freezes over the coldest months and valves have been properly closed.

I'm not sure there will be any camping in January as we have a weekend away booked in a hotel, but I may try and sneak in a trip the last weekend for a parkrun.

Week One 2026 - One Daily Positive and Project 365

I want to start with a big thank you to you all for dragging me through 2025 with your comments, messages and love.

The positive                                                                        The not so positive

I've been able to rest and recover.                                        I've had the flu and time off work.

I was able to get an appointment with my GP on                Desperately missing Stephanie.
the same day.

The Christmas decorations came down with ease.

Birmingham beat Coventry 3-2. Chatting to my son
on WhatsApp throughout the game.

We've had snow.

I caught up with 3 weeks worth of blog comments.

Thursday 1st January Up and a 30 minute walk to Southsea for a parkrun. I was cold on arrival, it was a straight 1.5 run, turn round and run back. I wasn't feeling it, I couldn't judge the distance. The wind was in my face all the way back and I gave up and walked. I was chivvied along by a guy in a wheel chair and we finished together. A cold and miserable 30 minute walk back. I had breakfast, got changed and we walked into Portsmouth. Had a coffee, back to the Quays, to the sea front, I had an ice cream, we played on the 2p slots, back to the hotel, watched Birmingham lose 3-0, then I went to watch a firework and drumming event back in Southsea while Peter stayed in the hotel, which cheered me up, despite a bitterly cold 50 minute return walk, we had dinner in the hotel, a couple of drinks and an early night.

Friday 2nd January Woke with a migraine and a heavy chesty cough and cold, Peter has been under the weather for a couple off days and hasn't moved far from the hotel. We shared the driving home after a light breakfast, unpacked, made some soup and just bedded down for the afternoon and evening.

Saturday 3rd January I was so ill I didn't get dressed yet alone leave the house. We woke to a thin layer of snow and it was so cold. Peter went to Worcester to do a food shop. I spent the whole day taking down the Christmas decorations, which are now sitting in boxes behind the sofa. I managed to drink loads of fluids and after a nap late afternoon I had something to eat. Evening spent on the sofa watching Big Fat Quiz of the year. Had a bath and was in bed by 8pm and asleep quickly.

Sunday 4th January Dosed up on meds and wrapped up warm I caught the train to Birmingham to the football. I met 3 guys from Portugal who were going to the game and asked for information, I offered to show them the bus stop, the club shop and to their gate, they said yes as they wanted to make the most of the day. They were great company and as they were seated near me anyway and I wanted to go to the shop it was no hassle for me and it saved them a long walk to the ground. We won 3-2. I got the train home, had dinner, a bath and re watched the game. Several friends had spotted me on ITV and Sky. I was in bed by 8pm.

Monday 5th January Back to work for an inset day, roads were clear of snow and ice once I got off the drive until I got to work. It was cold and I didn't take my coat off. I really wasn't well and made it till lunch time before going home. I managed to get an appointment at the Doctors at 3pm and picked up some medication, home, bath and watched the new Knives out movie, before going to bed at 9pm. I managed to get some proper sleep.

Tuesday 6th January Had a lie in after calling work to say I wouldn't be in, my voice has almost gone. Spent the morning under the duvet in the back room reading, then back to bed for a sleep and pretty much spent the day like this. Watched some more of Stranger Things then caught up with Eastenders and Corriedale, bath and in bed by 9pm.

Wednesday 7th January Another day in bed, unwell. TV watched, book read. Cat has claimed the grandchildren’s bean bag as her own.

Thursday 8th January Still not well but back to work now the coughing has eased. Day spent mentoring. Peter and I walked down for my B12 jab then went for a coffee and walked back in the snow. Evening spent in the warm in front of the TV.

Friday 9th January There was still snow on the ground when I woke up, but not enough to consider it dangerous to drive on. however, the school where I work is rural so school was closed. There was some online training which I completed but I was unable to access my remote files as there was a power cut in school for most of the day, so I'll catch up over the weekend. We went out for coffee and did a food shop. Work started on making one of the loft rooms into a bedroom for the oldest grandchild in each family when they come to stay. 

On the blog this week:

Word of the Week - Running away from 2025 and into 2026 and into a Marathon 

Post Comment Love - A friendly link with Bosworthlife & I where you can link up with any post written in the week

What I read in 2025

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Post Comment Love 9th - 11th January 2026

Welcome back to #PoCoLo and 2026 with Stephanie from Bosworth.Life and I.

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo is a friendly weekly linky where you can link up any blog post you've written this week. If you're new or a regular visitor we're sure you'll find something of interest.

Please leave a comment with the host you link up with and we'd also appreciate your help spreading the #PoCoLo word on Twitter/X tag us and we'll RT. You can find us here: Stephanie - @BosworthLife and Suzanne - @ChickenRuby Please also add our badge to your post.

I'll be catching up with reading your posts, sharing and commenting over the next few days. 

We had a pre Christmas visit from the family in Northern Ireland.

We took our granddaughter to the panto and then her dad, mum and baby brother joined us for a christingle service on Christmas Eve, the day itself, then hubby entertained on Boxing Day and I went to the football.

We went to Portsmouth for the New Year and I did a parkrun on New Years Day at Southsea.

All the decorations are down, there's been snow and I'm back in work. It feels like Christmas and the New Year was a long time ago now.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and here's to a prosperous 2026.

Want to find out more about Post Comment Love #PoCoLo? 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter