I did a bit of pressups and weights on Friday and Saturday night. I think it was about 150 pressups, 3 sets of bicep curls, some lateral raises and presses, crunches and tricep kickbacks. Consequently I’m sore from all that – coming after that period of inactivity, though, that’s not surprising.

We celebrated my birthday on Friday evening. When I arrived at Kate’s I found that there was a home-made birthday cake waiting on the table, balloons blown up, and pressies from her family to be opened. Her sister and brother-in-law had got for me a metal CD rack, her mum and dad had got for me a pair of Nike trackpants, and I opened the remaining two parcels to find a black winter jacket and a book entitled Playground of the Gods. The winter jacket is nice – I’ve been wearing it all week! – and the book is a good read. It’s about this journalist who goes round spending a week with elite athletes of different sports. He’s spent a week in Brazil with the Flamengo football team, a week playing squash with Jansher Khan, and I’m on the chapter where he’s spending a week training with Kenyan runners. That ought to be interesting.

I’ve had a good weekend. I feel more relaxed after deciding to do part-time teaching. I’ve got more breathing space for myself, more time to devote to things outside teaching, more time to spend with Kate, and I haven’t spent this weekend worrying about work or too stressed out with preparations for the next week.

I hope everyone’s had a good weekend too!