Week 21 2026 - One Daily Positive and Project 365. Northern Ireland.

The negatives

I've not stopped all week and I'm absolutely shattered. Eldest grandson has been in childcare most of the week as it's not half term in Northern Ireland. I'm behind with my reading and I ache from head to toe.

The positives

The weather has been perfect in Northern Ireland, in the mid 20's. I got to spend lots of time with the grandchildren. I've finally caught up with all my blog commenting and TV programmes. I've slept and eaten well.

Saturday 23rd May We went out for a coffee and did a bit of food shopping. Gluten free food for me to take with me and for Peter for the weekend for home also. I finished packing the van. The neighbour came round with the children as they needed some rain water from the butt for a house plant they'd bought. I brought the fans down out the attic and tided and dusted my dressing table, packed the fridge in the van. After saying goodbye to Peter I drove to Bromsgrove for my annual eye scan and drove to Liverpool for the overnight ferry to Northern Ireland, stopping at Cheshire Oaks for a couple of hours to walk around. It's so expensive up there. I had an hours long call with my cousin in the States, then it was time to get changed, drive on the ferry and settle down in the lounge for the night.

Sunday 24th May Woken at 5.15am having been surrounded by snorers all night. Drove off the boat to the service station, had coffee, got washed and dressed in the van and arrived at son's house for 7.30am. Sat on the drive reading till they woke up around 8am. Son off into work for the next 24 hours. Eldest grandson and I headed off to the park after breakfast and I'd walked the dogs round the village. After lunch DIL and I went with the grandsons to B&Q and B&M to buy paint and oven cleaner and then off to her parents for dinner. I gave both the boys a bath and then home for bedtime stories. I put the oven cleaner on to work its magic overnight and retreated to the van to watch TV and was asleep by 10pm.

Monday 25th May I didn't wake till gone 8am. I sleep so well in the van. DIL and grandsons out for the morning, so I set about cleaning the oven. I sat down to have my lunch when they arrived home, son came back shortly and the outlaws arrived. Beds and wardrobes were dismantled and the van was filled with suitcases of clothes and the contents from the cupboard under the stairs. Round to the outlaws for a BBQ. Son and Dil went home to put the kids to bed, I stayed on for bit, back at 9pm, set the van back up and off to bed.

Tuesday 26th May No half tern here in Northern Ireland, so grandson off to preschool and wrap around care with his dad at 7am while DIL and I packed up the and cleaned the kitchen and looked after youngest grandson for the day. At lunch time I popped out to pick up and post a birthday gift. Kitchen packed up and several runs made to the outlaws in the van. BBQ for dinner, then back to the house for the last night. I was in bed at 8pm.

Wednesday 27th May Dropped off some stuff to a charity shop. I sat down for a coffee and son rang to ask where I was at they were at the outlaws already waiting for me to unload the van grrrrrrr. Doors, skirting boards, windows and bathrooms cleaned. Son's friend came round and they emptied the attic and moved some of the bigger items. Youngest grandson started his first afternoon in nursery. Off to the outlaws in the evening for dinner and where we're all staying for the night.

Thursday 28th May After breakfast, father in law and I headed down to the new house, he cleaned upstairs while I cleaned the fridge and finished downstairs and campervan was packed with TVs, cleaning stuff and last few bits there was no box for. Back to the outlaws for lunch with 3 of sons friends who had done the heavy lifting. DIL handed over the keys, collected eldest from preschool and waited for the new keys. We got the call and all headed to the new house. I was tasked with getting the youngest to sleep in his pram and took eldest to the new park. mother in law tackled the kitchen as less exit cleaning had been done than we'd done, shame. Back to the outlaws for dinner, then everyone went back down with the van and I baby sat for the evening. All back by 10pm. I set the van up and went straight to bed.

Friday 29th May Early morning wake up call from the bin lorry around 5.30am, dozed for an hour and woken by the second bin lorry, made tea and caught up with blogging. Went into Lisburn for the morning to do a bit of shopping. Off to the new house around lunch time and set about cleaning the oven and dishwasher, putting food and cleaning items away and helping son empty the garage with most of it going in the loft, was a good circuit training work out. he sat in the attic with me running up and down the stairs with boxes and heaving them up to him in the attic. Eldest grandson home from preschool and we played in the garden setting up the slide and garden furniture and he helped me in the garage find the rest of toys to bring inside. Back to the outlaws for a takeaway and after some cuddles once the grandchildren went to bed, I was in the van by 8pm jsut chilling out and watching TV.

My Garden in May 2026

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

Word of the week - Moving

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Post Comment Love - 29th - 31st May 2026. Northern Ireland.

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. 

I'm over in Northern Ireland this week helping my son and daughter in law move house. The weather has been ideal, nice and dry but not too hot.

I took the eldest grandson to the park and when he was on the slide he asked me to take a photo of him to send to granddad to show him it was dry as every time Peter comes with me its raining.

They've not moved far at all just to the other end of the village and we now get to go to the other park.

I sleeping in the campervan. The first half of the week on my son's drive, the views weren't that great.

The second half of the week I'm camping at the bottom of the outlaws drive.

Eldest grandson has referred to me as 'My granny who lives on our drive'

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Word of the week - Moving

I'm in Northern Ireland visiting my Son, DIL and two grandsons for the week.

They're moving house and I'm here along with the outlaws helping out with lifting, moving, cleaning and childcare.

It's been a little tense at times with 5 adults trying to make decisions and the occasional fighting over who is getting the grandchildren hugs lol.

I've been sleeping in my campervan on my son's drive for the first part of the week and for the rest of the week I'm on the outlaws drive.

I've moved a lot and I mean A LOT.

As a child I'd lived in 4 houses in 4 different parts of the UK by the time I was 10. 

Between the ages of 17 and 24 I lived in 4 different places within a 50 mile radius of home.

Since then I've had three homes in the UK and two in South Africa and two in Dubai, plus we've had temporary accommodation in between our international relocations, plus long hotel stays.

The longest I've ever lived in one house is 8 years, our current home, which we're back in for then second time and we've been here now for almost 6 years.

They're in a chain and today is the day we wait for the call to collect the keys. The van is being loaded the house is being cleaned and we'll be done by midday and then hanging around waiting for the call as the money is transfered down the line.

My Garden in May 2026

Peter has been working hard in the garden in May. I've been supervising.

He's painted recoated the shed and the raised beds and set up a watering system on the raised beds for me.

With the extension pipe fixed on the wall in the back garden it's made it a lot easier to water the garden now.

 I've been using this Ikea planter for the over run from the waterbutt and fill up the watering cans and use them first to water the pots and collect rain water in this buckets. The neighbours child came round needing rainwater for a new house plant he had bought.

The brick wall under the canopy is going to be clad with wooden panels. Peter is measuring up this week. We're going to display my late fathers random collection of road signs, car parts and pub memorabilia and I want to put up some hooks for coats, a chalk board and some other random items.

The last job for the back garden is to move these path over to the left, it's for aesthetic purposes only, but the fir tree, jsut in the shot needs digging up and a lot of soil needs to be moved to the front garden, o it can wait a bit longer.

We have some gorgeous flowers blooming and some buds waiting to flower. I hope I don't miss them as I'm in Northern Ireland this week. I've asked Peter to send me some photos if they do.

The neighbours rose bush in the front garden and it smells divine.

May is of course the RHS Spring Festival in Malvern. My friend came with me on the Sunday. I also visited on the Thursday after work.

There were interesting talks with TV gardeners and chefs

Fantastic blooms

Fab displays

Gold medal gardens

Lots of ideas to take home and recreation, if not on a smaller scale.

Week 20 - One Daily Positive and Project 365

The negatives

The cat is on a curfew after a serious fight this week which took 3 adults in their pyjamas at 10 o'clock at night out in the street to break it up. Me, Peter and the next door neighbour, Claire.

The positives

Sad news from two friends this week. Two friends that have been my support network since Stephanie died, both worried about triggering me. I feel sad, the news was too close to home and in one case I did know the one person who has died, but with the support of these friends of the past 18 months, I've become strong enough to be able to become part of their support network.

Saturday 16th May Had a nice lie in, then after breakfast it was off to Fairy Farm in Chipping Norton with granddaughter for the day. They had an Alice in Wonderland ride opening with Sooty as the guest of honour and a queue of over 45 mins. The rest of the grounds were great and lovely and quiet as everyone else was at the launch party. We dug for dinosaurs, fed the animals, played in the park, loved the mice village, milked the cow and enjoyed all the fairytale stories. We got home at 4pm via a food shop to pick up dinner, there was a bath, stories and bed.

Sunday 17th May After a lie in, I took our granddaughter home, had a cuddle with grandson then off for a visit with mum then into Gloucester for a bit of shopping and a Starbucks which is always bitter sweet as it's where I used to go with Stephanie. I know there are other places I could go, but there is something nice about being near her, even though she's not here anymore, if that makes any kind of sense. Home for an early bath, sow some seeds and plant out my new plants. The weather looked promising but it chucked it down in the afternoon.

Monday 18th May Walked into town afterwork, with the intention of dropping off a library book and picking another one up, but I forgot to take the book with me and the one I wanted wasn't available, so we just went for coffee then walked home. I did some blogging and reading after I sorted out the campervan fridge and cupboards ahead of my trip on the weekend. I had a bath and read in bed before falling asleep before 9pm. I took some photos of the garden.

Tuesday 19th May Home from work, changed and down to the retail park, met my (hairdresser) friend for a coffee and a catch up then into the gym for a class. Home for a bath and almost straight to bed after dinner. My gluten free food has such a short shelf life. It has to be frozen or it goes off.

Wednesday 20th May I've had a migraine brewing all week since eating a gluten free cake I was given last week that I suspect had been mixed up. I managed a couple of hours in work before coming home to take some stronger meds that would interfere with my ability to drive. I picked up my prescription and dropped some flowers with a friend. I slept from 2pm till 7pm, ate had a bath and back to sleep at 10pm. Peter spent the day with his mum in Keynsham. View of Malvern from the school playing fields 12 miles away.

Thursday 21st May Woke at 6am and felt well enough for work. Year 11's last day in school. I've only known this lot since October and it feels much longer.  Home and did nothing for a couple of hours, then went to the gym for a spin class but I'd booked 6.30am not pm, whoops. Spent half an hour on the tread mill and 15 mins on the bike. Home to water the garden, sort some packing, bath and just before bed, the neighbour and I met in the front garden with hubbies help to separate our cat fighting with another. The cat took herself off to the naughty corner.

Friday 22nd May Last day of term. Met my friend for a coffee then popped in at the local jumble sale. Won a bottle of whiskey and lemoncello on the raffle. Packed my clothes into the wardrobe in the van and sorted out my toiletries and food for my trip tomorrow. Rest of the evening spent catching up with leaving comments on blog posts and am finally up to date. 

On the blog this week:

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

Word of the week - Support

My garden in April 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Post Comment Love - 22nd - 25th May 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 having some gorgeous weather at the moment in Middle England. I'm off to Northern Ireland tomorrow for the week to visit our grandsons as they're moving home so I'm going over to help out and sleeping in the van on the drives. Peter is staying at home and painting the shed and starting the work on cladding the back of the house under the covered area so I can display my late fathers collection of pub and road signs and car parts. We used to have them on the shed before we dismantled it, they're currently in boxes in the attic for the past 4 years. Yes, it's just a load of tat that one day the kids will have to get rid of, but I reckon, with any luck, that's a good 30 years off and I've plenty of time to enjoy it all.

It's not a large expanse of wall and will be a fun project to do.

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Word of the week - Support

Two friends who supported me when Stephanie died experienced traumatic events this weeks and were worried about telling me in case I was triggered by their news. 

My PTSD wasn't triggered, that is under control now, but I was upset by the news, it was too close to home and I realised that for the first time in a long time I had to deal with the upset by myself, my support network to turn to wasn't available for me. 

I realised this week how much I've relied on my friends and how much I've shared with them, phoning, dropping in and how much much they've given to me, not just in time, but also how overwhelming it must have been for them to have done what they did for me.

The one friend is in the same situation again this week, supporting another friend through a traumatic event with the sudden death of her husband whilst they were holidaying together. Her husband having been at home on his own when he died. She had to arrange emergency flights home, and drive her back from the airport and get her friend home to her family. 

I met this friend the very night my father died suddenly, back in 2017. She was a neighbour of my parents. She stood with me at the end of the drive while I phoned my husband who was in our home in Dubai, to tell him what was happening, as the emergency services came out the house to break the news to me that my father had died. She was a total stranger that night. Then in 2024, she supported me through our daughter's death, through the funeral and is still supporting me now.

There have been so many other people that have offered us support and continue to do so. 

I've always been grateful and I've always been thankful and I know my time will come and I have already been the supportive person many times for various reasons and I hope everyone has known how much they've helped me through those dark times.

It can be a message, a virtual hug, a card dropped through the door, a random check in, an invite for coffee or even a 'I'm thinking of you' 

Right now I'm just messaging both my friends, I've dropped flowers and a card to one. I'm grateful that they both shared their news with me, I'm grateful that they were both concerned about me being triggered despite the trauma they are going through themselves. It's time to give back now and I'm grateful that I'm strong enough to so and grateful that I have such good supportive friends.

My Garden in April 2026

There was a lot of tidying in the garden in April.

The garden furniture was cleaned and returned to the patio once it had been jet washed and all the pots were taken from their winter storage and the cloches and fleeces put away and everything put into place for the rest of the year. Still looking for a home for the orange buckets with the bay tree cuttings.

The temporary metal framed green house that I bought during covid has been dismantled now and taken to the tip. The compost bins with an old scaffolding plank have made an ideal potting bench.

The raised beds were weeded and planted out with veg I'd grown from seeds.

The parsley, strawberries and rhubarb had been under cloches from last year.

I bought two tomato plants that were almost dead from a supermarket as I was late planting mine and I still haven't put them out yet.

I left the cosmos in the second raised bed to flower first before digging this bed over. I've seen them in the garden centres at £7 for 6 plants. No idea where these came from, they just grew here. I'll have a lovely display.

So far this year I've grown from seeds and planted out: Courgettes, beans, sweet peas and coriander. 

The tomatoes, melons, peppers and cucumbers are too small to be planted out just yet.

We eat a lot of basil, especially in the summer. We take lots of cuttings and create new plants throughout the year. At the moment we have 5 large plants and several more cuttings on the go. There's always one in the kitchen on the windowsill.

After moving the greenhouse I discovered the neighbours ivy is creeping back. When I got the house back in December 2019 she had allowed it grow out of control and it caused our fence to collapse. I now spray it regularly with weed killer and at some point we'll remove our fence panel and let the ivy fall into our garden so we can hack it back as far as we can without going on to her property.

We're almost at the end of May now. There's been a lot more planting and a visit to the RHS Spring festival in Malvern.

 

Week 19 May 2026 - One Daily Positive and Project 365

The negatives

Been having too many late nights, so rectified that with setting an alarm and getting into bed by 9.30pm a couple of nights.

The positives

I've joined in with some classes at the gym. I'm not one for joining in with things or having to be in places at set times but I've been enjoying the classes and I've been booking ahead to make sure I go regularly. I went running again, it was hard work after a few weeks off.

Saturday 9th May Had a lie in then went to the retail park for a bit of shopping and pick up my charity box from the coffee shop. In total there was £2.08 in the box that cost me £11.99 to purchase and has been in there for 5 weeks. There was a poster and a QR code with it and only one donation online for £30 with a name I didn't recognise. Home to break up out cat attacking a stray that seems to have made it's home next door. I had a tidy round and dusted and hoovered our bedroom. We then drove to Cheltenham for a walk round and an early dinner before collecting my friend of 34 years. The evening was spent stopping the cat from fighting with help from the neighbour, which included me climbing on a wheelie bin to look over the other neighbours fence. I'd had cocktails in the afternoon, neighbour had been drinking wine. Neighbours kids running through the house to retrieve rocket lunched missiles that they'd fired over into the garden.

Sunday 10th May After breakfast we headed off to the RHS Malvern Spring Festival for the day, stopping for coffees, lunch and buying lots of flowers for both indoors and outdoors. The weather was warm then chilly but dry. We sat and listened to Nicky chapman and Adam frost in the Festival Theatre for 45 mins and my friend asked him a question which I videoed and sent to her daughter whose response was 'who?' I replied with 'escape to the country' and 'gardeners world' I know Nicky Chapman more for her music and DJ career. we drove my friend home to the Forest of Dean, stopped for a cuppa, then home via collecting a take away, watched TV, bath and bed.

Monday 11th May Home from work to collect Peter and the cat and off to the vets in Worcester for Pushkins annual jabs. We had a coffee while we waited. Pushkins shouted the whole time she was in her cage. We got home and I got changed and went to the gym to a legs, bums and tums class. Home for dinner, bath and bed. Had a video calls with the grandchildren and phoned a friend.

Tuesday 12th May Woke up feeling sore. I honestly felt better than this after running the marathon. Good day in work. Home and time spent in the garden, then off to a spin class. Fell of the bike going from sitting to standing whilst peddling, was ok, bit of a muddle trying to get my feet out the straps whilst lying on my side and laughing. I potted up some house plants, watered the garden, had a bath, my dinner, watched some TV and was in bed by 9.30pm.

Wednesday 13th May Peter took the car for a service at 8am in Worcester, met a friend and did the food shopping. Home from work and booked my flight to Paris in June to meet up with my friend from South Africa, as this is the third year in a row we've done this, we can now officially call it our annual meet up. Went to the gym for a Pump class, then home for dinner that I'd cooked previously and frozen. Had a bath and in bed by 8.30pm with a cup of tea, chocolate bar and read my book for an hour.

Thursday 14th May Struggled to get out of bed, incident at work that left me a bit frazzled physically. Straight into town after work to meet a friend for coffee. The nail bar had closed by the time we'd finished, so that'll have to wait till next week. Home for a video call with the grandchildren. A bath, then a late dinner and into bed at 8.30pm to blog and catch up with the soaps. Peter had two new tyres fitted on the car.

Friday 15th May Peter collected our granddaughter for the weekend and when I got home from work I went out for a run which was hard work and they met me at the coffee shop. Home via the chip shop for tea then round the neighbours for a play date. Bath time, stories and an early night for all of us. 

On the blog this week:

Days out in my campervan 2026

Word of the week - Joining - Mental Health Awareness Week 2026

Post Comment Love - Join in with any post written this week - Mental Health Awareness Week 2026

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15th - 17th May 2026 Post Comment Love - Mental Health Awareness Week 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. 

It's Mental Health Awareness Week 2026 in the UK and Thursday was wear it green.

My mental health has not been good for quite a few years with constant changes in identity with living abroad and the sudden death of my father in 2017, dealing with health issues, then another move and our daughters death in 2024 and a diagnosis of PTSD. It's been a lot to deal with. But I've got through it, still getting through it. There's not a lot of professional help and support out there and once I realised I had to find my own my to deal with things, life got a lot better.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't have to deal with things on my own, I'm just talking about professional support. My husband and close friends as well as our adult children have been there for us, but everyone has their own lives to live as well and also our children and some of our friends live quite some distance away.

I hope by sharing what's helped me, might help others in some way and as it's Mental Health Awareness Week, I thought this would be the best time to share it.

Exercise.

OK so I trained for and ran a marathon.

But I didn't just run a marathon.

I started with couch to 5k and I started with walking. It took me 2 weeks before I was able to run for 90 seconds without every muscle and bone in my body hurting like hell. I'm on my feet everyday in work, but I was also smoking 15 cigarettes a day. I stuck at it. 6 days a week. I repeated week one twice in the first week. It took me three weeks to run for 5 minutes and all of a sudden at the end of week 4 I ran 5k in 37 mins. I can walk 5k in 42 mins. I'm not fast with my running by any means, I've improved and have run 5k in 32 mins, but my average parkrun time is around 40 mins as I walk a lot of it.

Get out there and walk, go on your own, do a parkrun, walk to the corner shop, park a bit further from the shops or on the school run or from work.

Do something new

I hate joining in with things, but I've taken the plunge. Meet new people, step out your side your comfort zone. This relates to exercise, but it could be any class. You can read about it here. I've also joined the library and a book club that meets once a month.

Go for a coffee

Invite a friend, a neighbour or just go on your own. I go for a coffee on my own quite often. I take a book or my laptop and go straight from work and sit and read or blog, sometimes my husband walks down and joins me, sometimes I bump into a friend, or just strike a random conversation with a stranger, or I arrange to meet a friend after work. Sometimes it's planned, other times it's a last minute thing and the coffee shop varies.

Treats

I like to treat myself to a little reward from time to time. It could be having my nails done or buying some fresh cut flowers or some bubble bath and having a super long soak in the bath with a book. It could be making time to watch a movie or a series on Netflix or just wasting the day away in the garden. Next month I'm going to Paris to spend the weekend with my friend I met whilst living in South Africa.

Just start something that works for you

You don't have to run a marathon or travel to Paris. That's a one off and an annual treat. 

The weekly gym classes are just till the end of the year as I joined the gym to help with the marathon training so I'm getting my monies worth, the walking and the couch to 5k and the parkruns/walks are free and can be done alone or with a friend. Personally I like my own space and time so I do them alone and it gives me time to just be.

The coffee shop visits can be alone or with a friend or as often as you want or can afford. You can also take a flask and walk to the local park and meet a friend or take a book to enjoy on your own. I often do that as well, take a flask and a picnic and just go on a walk. Sometimes I just walk round the block and eat and my lunch, other times I'll walk for hours and go up the Malvern Hills or walk into town and do a bit of shopping and ask Peter to come and collect me in the car as there's too much to carry back.

Mostly for me what improves my mental health and makes me feel good about myself and makes me feel happy is to surround myself with people that make me feel good about myself and make me feel happy and that I enjoy spending time with and being outdoors as much as possible.

The change starts with you. Don't just read this and think 'it's ok for you' remember my starting point, we all have different goals, different skills, just try something new, who knows where it'll lead?'

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Word of the Week - Joining in and improving my mental health.

I don't like joining in with things. So I've picked Joining as my word of the week.

I do a lot of things but I'm not a fan of joining in with things. I get apprehensive about joining in with groups of people and activities that are already established.

I've got a lot of friends but not many live locally, not many have the same interests as me and not many are available with family commitments to come with me to join in. A low of my friends who live locally are a lot younger than me and therefore have families at home and a lot more commitments after work, dinners to cook, homework to do and activities to ferry their kids to and from, so it's harder to join in with activities on a regular basis.

I'm also not good at commitment. Yes, I managed to train and run a marathon, but it was a short term goal with very little thought and planning and with running I could just come home from work, get changed and go out the door for a run. I didn't have to think about anyone else. Peter was 100% behind me with it.

I'm not a fan of having to be a certain place at a certain time either. It's something I've been struggling with since Stephanie died, getting out the house somedays is still hard for me. I like routine, knowing what I'm doing, but I like to be in control of me, not dictated to by timeframes. I can just about manage getting to work. But give me a doctor's appointment or a coffee date, a parkrun or even a beloved football match and I can struggle to get out the door. I'm frightened something terrible will go wrong. Once I've left the house, I'm ok, but getting out the door is hard, so often once I've gone out, if I've got an appointment, like the Dr's at 6pm , I stay out after work at 4pm and go for a coffee, so I don't have to come home and start the issue with going out again. I even changed my nail bar to a sit and wait to bypass this.

I joined the local gym in November at £32.95 a month for 12 months so I could run during the winter months, but I didn't get on with the running machine and I just ran in the wind, rain, cold and the dark.

I've been a total of 13 times since joining. I could've donated that money to the charity instead. I've got 6 months left on the membership and discovered last week that there are free classes I could've been going to that would've supported my running and I was entitled to a 1 hour introduction session and a training plan to help me reach my goal.

So why didn't I know about that at the time? Because it's all on the app. I'm computer savvy, I do online banking, I run my own blog and website. I'm on tiktok with views into tens of thousands on a couple of posts. 

I told them when I joined what I wanted from the gym. I did have an introduction and said I'd never been a member of a gym before other than one where I just used the pool and sauna (there's no pool here) Said I hadn't been to an exercise class since Step aerobics in the late 80's and had no idea how to use the gym equipment.

I was shown how three pieces of equipment worked, the running and rowing machine and cross trainer and was told if I wanted to know how anything else worked to just ask.

I did ask a few weeks later when my shoulders and thighs hurt from running and was told to do 3 reps of certain exercises, but not how many per week.

So I just stopped going. I work on the theory of 'how do I know what I need to know, if I don't know, what I don't know?'

So this weekend whilst exploring the app to find out if there was anything else I could do. I booked a Legs, Bums and Tums session for Monday night at 7pm.

I arrived 15 mins early and everyone was there with a mat, bar bells and dumbbells, all chatting and friendly. I said hi and said I was new and a woman said 'grab a mat and find a space' and yep I ended up right at the front, with the mirror, with everyone behind me, looking straight ahead and I wanted to bolt.

The instructor was friendly. I told him I've never been to a class before, ever and he said it was ok, he was covering for someone else and was new here himself. He grabbed everything I needed and said just follow him and everyone else and he'd help me out as we went along.

And true to his word, he did. Everyone worked at their own speed through the routine he'd written up on the board. It was a bit of a competition with a few and it took me one rep to work out what I was doing and get my coordination going before I fell into routine and I really enjoyed it.

On Tuesday morning I could hardly walk.

Tuesday evening I went along to the spin class at 6pm, I fell off the bike. I'm not very coordinated and we had to go from sitting to standing and back to sitting. 

On Wednesday morning going downstairs was a major issue, it really hurt. I had less issues after running the marathon.

On Wednesday evening I went for a pump session at 6pm, this one worked the upper body as well and on the Thursday I felt so much better.

For all 3 sessions, I came home from work first, got changed and went back out for them, 15 mins before the class started.

I can book online. The classes run for 45 mins. The gym is at the retail park. I can take part at my own speed, be part of the group if I want, ignore those who are competing with themselves or others.

I've been enjoying the running, it's been good for my mental health, it's been good for the grief. It's been good for my physically.

Do you like joining in with things?

I joined in, but I ran alone. it's how I prefer to be.

Days out in my campervan in April 2026

We're not actually having many days out in the campervan, just weekends away. Which is ok with us as I aim to spend at least one night a month in the van this year. I'm booked for May and July/August, but struggling to fit something in for June, at this rate It'll be a night at a campsite near work. 

I take the campervan to work once a week to give it a run or when Peter needs the car as it's cheaper to run being a hybrid.

In April our trip was to Brighton, which of course *yawns* was for my marathon.

We're members of the Caravan and Motorhome Club and there are massive savings to be had, but you need to book early. Showers, toilets and washing up facilities are amazing, but they do shut the blocks at set times for cleaning, which does work out well on sites like this where there are 2 blocks, unlike the site in Newport.

There's loads of space between the vans as a 'fire safety break' and it's easy to find a space and pitch up.. We didn't have the awning for this trip as it was supposed to be just two nights, but we struggled to find parking for the Sunday with the marathon on and roads closed so we stopped an extra night.

It only takes around 5 mins for us to set up. We each have our own jobs. I pop the roof and sort the bedding out and the table and organise the kitchen area, while Peter sets up the electrics. We fill the water tanks when we arrive on site and quite literally that's all there is to it. We just repeat the process when we leave. The Caravan and Motorhome campsites have drainage pits when you leave so we just drive over and empty the tanks before going home.

We do have to be very careful with the wildlife, no leaving anything outside unattended or it's away. Shoes included. In Tenby last weekend, something got into the awning overnight and made away with a parcel containing a bar of chocolate and ate it all. I discovered the wrapped in the morning.

The campsite is at the top of the hill a short walk from the Marina and handy for the parkrun on the Saturday morning.

It's a 35 minute walk from the centre of Brighton, which I had to do on the Sunday before the mArathon. On the Saturday we caught the bus in and out and explored the Laines.

It looks warm, but we're in winter gear on the beach.

Fish and Chips on the pier.

I spent a lot of time in Brighton as a child. We caught the bus into Peacehaven on the Friday night to meet up with my cousin and her fiancé for dinner. We're back in June for their wedding, but staying in their house as they'll be in a hotel over the weekend.

My next trip in the campervan is to Northern Ireland for the Whitsun week where I'm staying on my sons drive for the week.