I was going to say, we’ve done Tenerife early Jan and lucked out with 25 °C weather. It is about further south tho. Did Israel/Palestine Jan 2020 (got close enough to Jordan to pick up the mobile phone network!) and it pissed it down for most of the week. So I do see where you are coming from…

Once I was doing carparking at a local cross-country meet – so, runners, but obvs a lot of crossover as active people.

A good third of the cars were VW group.

We’ve had Skodas for yonks now, reliable, no fuss. A colleague has a Golf or Passat estate instead of a Skoda as apparently the back slopes less so more space to fit bulky equipment.

@didnthurt certainly.
I have not yet resorted to a single DownFace Dog, 2 bicep curls and 29 mins of Corpse Pose but I have that in my back pocket just in case!

Dog walk for 3.5 miles today (i.e. turned round when the dog dug his feet in and refused to go on). It was undulating though so I certainly feel exercised!
If the weather forecast holds I can go out for a ride tomorrow afternoon…

Cheers mogrim, bizarrely it does make it better thinking that at least SOMEONE is eating the ice-cream!
Slow jog (thank god) with my weekend running buddy – who is getting jabbed later, so is busy doing ALL THE WEEKEND THINGS beforehand just in case…

Cycle and a takeaway coffee (drunk v v briskly due to icy wind!) – keeping up the exercise and sensible eating but sometimes I could murder a 🍛 a 🍷and a 🍰 or 🍧. Tell myself I could have them all now but then I’d have to explain to my crumbling knee why I’d been so selfish, soooo I have a bunch of grapes and a cup of tea instead….

Stopped listening to radio years ago but does anyone still do a festive-50 style roundup of new music? I took a gander at the mainstream top 40 stuff recently and it’s not really my sort of stuff, I do like a bit of melody me. Back in the day I’d pick my new faves out after repeated listens to the F50 and get one or two new artists a year…

Just come back from a 5k jog with a mate – to find the dog considerately keeping my side of the bed warm for me 😉

Walk today, 8 1/2 miles in the rain, now v v peckish….

Screw fashion, they are awesome.
I’ve got a padded winter coat designed for Chicago-type cold, and if it’s REALLY parky the DryRobe GOES ON TOP.

It’s great isn’t it sandboy. Out running today NO hat NO gloves jacket off after ten minutes and just the short sleeved t-shirt, and it wasn’t as if we were going fast! It was 12.5km plodding with stops for the slightest excuse, but it’s the furthest I’ve been in 14+ months (maybe longer).

Snowdrops everywhere!

Well TiRed you know what, you’re right not to just chance it.
Ask me how I know that you can get plantar fascitis by running 5k in random shoes….

Anyway it’s warmed up here THANK MALLARD so out on the road bike for a decent ride (couple of hours). Saw ponies and a black llama!

I suppose it depends what people in general, and you in particular, talk about at work.
Some colleagues are very reserved and it wouldn’t be odd if they said,
“Well, I don’t discuss personal stuff in the office”.

I did once have a colleague grumbling a bit about their marriage to me and I said politely that it was best not to say any more to me as it might make things awkward later (I mean imagine working with someone who, 3 years ago knew ALL the details of your messy divorce…which now you kind of regret…).

Hopefully he will never mention it again but in your position I’d be just that extra bit formal and civil and distant.

The important thing is to get lifetime cover.

What happens is dogs are fine, fine, fine, maybe some minor stuff that you could afford anyway, and then either they develop a chronic condition that’s going to require £££ treatment for the next few years, or, aged 10, BLAM they get cancer AND a nasty injury AND dental problems AND another expensive condition that needs surgery and before you know it, the vets bills could have bought you a decent secondhand hatchback, and the dog then tops it all by expiring.

Petplan ain’t cheap that’s for sure – 9 year old large dog here => £111/month – but that’s the top ranked package. Basically we have completely decoupled the pain of losing the money from the distress of having a sick or dead dog.

We did once experiment with the “just pay bills from the slush fund” and had the (see paragraph 2) experience.

Essentially we are paying for our own emotional well-being 😉 as we can just go, “whatever’s needed” to the vets and just concentrate on looking after whoever has just splatted bloody diarrhoea over the kitchen floor.

30 mins (running) TT for a local virtual race series and managed to get just over 5k, which is not breaking any records, but last June when I got back to running after a parcel of foot problems, an (admittedly hillier) 5k took me 37+ mins, so I’ll take that!

Depressingly no weight shifted this week. I feel grumpy and resentful. No booze, vanishingly little bread. B****s I’m going to have to ask the OH to cut down on any fat when they’re cooking aren’t I …

This is making me sad that the annual tradition of bumping into at least one colleague in the cards aisle at Tesco at 10pm on Feb 13th is not being observed 🙁

Another walk today in the cold – at least the towpath ain’t flooded any more so we can walk by the river. Though the path is parallel to a railway line, so we were looking mournfully at the trains (all empty) whizzing past and wishing we were going somewhere…

That sounds like it WOULD give you DOMS – worth it long-term tho no?

Too **** cold for cycling, went out for a hike round the local hills & woods with my Friday bike buddy instead – returned after 3h with dry feet which was a pleasant surprise!

PS personally wouldn’t combine with Auschwitz – YMMV but the mood is very different. Chernobyl wasn’t on purpose and there is a lot of emphasis on the (often involuntary) heroism of the firefighters and “liquidators” and the engineering efforts to put the new sarcophagus in place.
Certainly in summer the zone is very very beautiful (yer untrammeled yet irradiated Nature).

I’d say at least make sure Kiev etc is *second*…!

Yes, summer 2018.

Was planning a trip back until lockdown intervened!
As sofaking says, spend a few days in Kiev too. So much to see.
Fwiw we went with soloEast tours.

Would recommend doing at least the 2 day tour so you stay overnight and get to see more e.g. the “woodpecker” receiver antenna (wow), talk to some of the oldsters who stayed etc. Also this tends to be a more reflective crowd rather than the one day tours.

Old enough to remember when it happened so meant a lot to me. One of my schoolfriends did a Russian degree and spent a year out in Kiev, a pal of theirs from that time had been a liquidator and died a couple of years later.

You’ll need longsleeved tops and trousers for the trip into the zone, a) because if contaminants get on them you just take them off (can’t do that with skin!)
b) big hungry mozzies!

Bring dog treats (or indeed chocolate wafers!) to feed the stray dogs and the tame fox. And lots of cameras and batteries. Sturdy shoes as there’s a lot of broken glass.

If you are a runner, they have a not-parkrun in Kiev https://runday.org/en/run/kyiv/tru/ though whether it will still be there in the After Times who knows.

Happy to answer questions!

+1 old keep the snow pix coming!
3+ mi jog first thing this morning, v heartening that when we started, the sun was rising as I came home, but this week the sun was rising as I headed out…

….I suspect having a quick Google ‘n’ read of old Mumsnet threads on the topic would be enlightening… (FX: reads a thread) my goodness what a minefield!
But one factor is that say a DB pension has a CETV of £X.
Someone given £X/2 to put into a DC pension is unlikely to get as good an income from it as the income from (half) the DB pension.
That’s one thing they’ll look at.

I still curse the day Young Me didn’t sign up to a DB scheme at a company I was at for 6 years – the equivalent pension I would be due from them would cost me one or two hundred thousand to get from a DC pot. Oh. Well.

7! miles! Jog! Yesterday
And today
Put on all.the.clothes and did an hour pottering round [what’s not flooded] for an hour in the (cold) sun. Kept feeling in extremities. A great triumph.

PS look at previous results to see how long people take for peace of mind

The smaller, off road races in summer are most likely to still be on.
Staggered start for 50 people in a field and footpath – no problemo – staggered start for 1000 people when you only have permission to close roads for mile 1 for 30 mins? Not so much…

In awe of people going out on bikes! Unless it’s above about 3°CI just can’t keep any warm enough. Sadly I have old crappy knees so I can’t just run every day (I used to). So it was 45 mins walk in a snow shower today with extra resistance (literally) provided by the dog, who is over 30kg and wanted to turn around the moment he’d “lightened the load”. But if you let him do that you regret it later!

Like the action shot of all the ducks heading towards you at top speed!
Run today – there’s a local virtual race series of which #1 (by end Feb) is a 30 mins time trial. Well I thought I’d give it a go before joining my friend for a jog, but in the way of things my morning commune with nature took too long so it ended up a 20 mins time trial. Which is just as well as I had to sit down on the kerb for a min or two to recover before continuing!
Good news – I actually managed 9:15 m/m pace average – let us put aside the memory of being able to go faster than that for a marathon, a decade ago and 10kg lighter…
The run after that was a scratch over walking pace though!
Had a cycle too as some COVID-suffering friends needed paracetamol so I got to whizz round Poundland and superdrug (in and out as fast as I could, shops seem to be where people are getting it) and drop it off on their doorstep. Nice to feel useful.

Walk today – not v exciting but there you go.

how do you fill your time during a winter like this

Cycling or running with friends (obvs 1 at a time ATM). Walking the dog and having the time to not stress as he stops to snack on goosegrass. Catching up with all the stuff I’ve not had the time or mental space to do while working – music, art, books, films. Doing more proper cooking as I’ve got the energy to concentrate on something with more than just one step in the recipe! Hacking away at the garden.

The best thing is being able to get as much daylight as I want in winter, not being stuck at my desk.

The sort of stuff they do for wetrooms, sharkbait, but it’s not as if I know much about anything (currently watching lots of YT videos on this stuff).
That *plus* a washing machine tray with a drain should be belt and braces hopefully.

I am getting quite keen on the idea.

I’m sure nobody will be surprised to learn that what REALLY needs doing is the bathroom, but we have been staring glumly at online catalogs for tiles / wetwall / taps etc and pulling faces going “not sure we fancy that for the next 20 years”, so this laundry room idea is kind of hoovering behind the wardrobe….

Sandboy that’s the stuff that really makes you feel alive!

2 1/2 hours out with a buddy this morning going up and down the local hills, deliberately, to keep us warm!

About half a kilo off so back to the Xmas Eve weight … trouble is, now I weigh less, anything I do uses fewer calories (and I suspect metabolism may have slowed too) so it’s harder to shed more weight. Taking a real effort now. Used to be able to have just whatever for Sunday brunch, now, treats are ” a teaspoon of marmalade” ” a single pancake with some strawberry yoghurt ” ” a weekly slice of toast ” .
Still, I look back to my old running photos, and remember how good it felt to, you know, have a choice of speeds…

If you’ve got old DC pensions, folks, check the charges and investments – might well save a few bob transferring them to a low cost SIPP with a decent range of index trackers, ITs etc

https://monevator.com/what-is-a-sustainable-withdrawal-rate-for-a-world-portfolio/

for the 75k earning – I wasn’t questioning this, just stating that if you earn 75k when you retire, you probably want to have a 50k pension to not have significant loss of lifestyle – whereas at 50k income you’d be ‘happy’ with 30k.

Well if you’ve been shovelling 40k pa into the pension and a chunk of the rest into ISAs for years then you’re not likely to notice a dip in lifestyle…

(puts “washing machine vibration and sound deadening mat” on the list!)

This is all very impressive, people out in blizzards and snowdrifts… I can offer a 3 1/2 mile jog in fog this morning, without gloves or hat (THAT mild). Snowdrops are in full bloom and daffs are starting to come out now.

Re pension:
If your employer offers matching, contribute at least enough to get all the matching

If you’re paying 40%, pay enough pension to, er, not

If they offer salary sacrifice, even contributing stuff you wouldn’t have paid the higher rate on makes sense as you don’t pay NI on the contribs either
which means…
If you get a windfall (e.g. inheritance) it may be an idea to funnel it into the work pension by just whacking up the contribs –
Watch out for the annual allowance / min wage constraints tho

Then fill up the isa

Anything left (if you get lucky) remember there are allowances for CGT, dividends, interest, so you may not need to pay much if any tax on investment outside the wrappers (up to a certain amount).

Jimmy, look up Corpse Pose for yoga – great for padding out a session when needed 😉

Two+ hours on the road bike today, heading north which is not AS flooded. At one point a crow was flying at eye level in the same direction as me, other side of the road, so I was up with the birds for that short moment!

Pensioners all vote tho!