January 2024

We've had some pretty busy weekends in mid/late January 2024.

The start with, we managed to quickly shoot up to Durham/Sunderland on Friday to see Hull Vs Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. It was great to go to the 40,000 attendance game on a Friday evening. The atmosphere was great, but sadly that match wasn't so much and the crowd were largely frustrated. Colin went home very happy as Hull snuck a 2nd half goal in and held out for a 1-0 win.

We were sitting next to a season ticket holder who was telling us all about his past and what was going on with the football. It turned out he'd lived in Yeadon for a few years, as well as working in Hull for a while. Certainly seems like most people in the North East have moved around a bit. Even myself, I've worked in Sunderland, Newcastle and Leeds.

That same evening, we drove all the way home, as I had to work on the Saturday. I picked up the first extra weekend shift. It'll be a while until I get paid, but I'm hoping for +£200 per shift at the weekend. And I am planning to use them to overpay the mortgage. My current aspiration is to try and get the mortgage paid off near the end of my PhD, which will be in 4 years time.

Then just to maximise my weekend, I went and did a half marathon on Sunday. It's called the Brass Monkey half marathon and hosted over in York. It was easy to get to, the weather was surpassingly okay given the amount of storms we have coming in at the moment.

I was trying my best to go under 1:23, which would be a qualifying time for the New York marathon. Sadly, I had a terrible second half of the race and finished in a disappointing but respectable 1:26.

During the week I amazingly saw the heron who is resident on the University of Leeds campus. He/She tends to sit on the duck house. I've seen it a couple of times now, I didn't believe the person who first told me about it.

Durnig the week, I met up with Chris for a short bike ride around the reservoirs.

The last Saturday this month I had my first public and parent advisory group meeting for my project.

After we finished the meeting, I went to Netherfield to watch the football. I was brave and this was the first time I went to stand by the side of the pitch to watch the game. It was a great match and good atmosphere as we were playing Macclesfield who are quite a big club and have professional players. They are looking to get promoted this year, and were just able to win 2-1.

Then on Sunday, I went into Leeds to see Graham. He suggested we go to a record fair at the Brudenell Social Club. This is quite a famous venue in Leeds.

A photo after swimming on Tuesday.

Another photo of the nice sunset from the window of our building.

The first weekend in February is the Rombalds Stride event. This is 23 miles around Guiseley. It was warm but quite windy this year. I was wearing some trail shoes instead of the usual studded mudclaw fell shoes I wear. I got around in a respectable 3:30, but really suffered in the last half with sore calfs.

Kathryn went out to see Stuart in Leeds in the afternoon, so it was just me and the puppy when I got back.