Cold (and Parkrun)

Today has been mostly about being really cold. This really kicked off at parkrun, at which point it was a sunny and frosty -4C.

Mrs H came along as well - her first time at parkrun - and we ran together. I was pretty cold, and my fingers were a bit painful (I didn’t bring gloves, but don’t tend to suffer too badly from cold). Ellie was absolutely freezing, despite being wrapped up in a scarf and lots of layers - and her hands suffered particularly badly. Having a coffee afterwards did help though.

The house is now a bit more bearable to be in, with the boiler having been changed. The Hive seems to be panning out better than I feared yesterday; I’ve set up some rules to make it easier to have a quick heat boost or switch everything off. I have also found out that the boost option seems to remember the last temperature you boosted to, and that’s going to help.

Later on we headed out for some Christmas shopping. We started in John Lewis, which was full of lovely stuff but which didn’t sit well for me after listening to Tim Harford’s recent episode of the Cautionary Tales podcast. He pointed out an economics study that found that for each $20 spent on presents in US, recipients got $16 of value. The shortfall is around presents that people don’t want / like etc. I would like to get presents that people will appreciate. Combined with a follow-up trip to Marlow, in the end I think we actually did alright.

Finally, we met up with my oldest friend and some of his wider family in the evening. We felt honoured that my friend travelled all the way down from Northallerton for the gathering. I hope we are able to meet up again soon.

Anyway, now it is late and I am cold but I have a hot water bottle. This gives me a cunning plan…

Photo by Joyce McCown on Unsplash