It's the end of January and just as soon as I start to feel better I get a cold. So you could say I've been sick now for at least 31 days. My hopes to run the Worcestershire Way went away when I told my wife it'd be fine if she went away for the weekend. Nothing ever really happens on my birthday anyway so I honestly didn't mind. Downside was this fucking cold stuffed my sinuses up and made me feel miserable and likely why I feel a bit down about my birthday. Even if the wife was here it wouldn't have been much different. On a positive note I did get all the laundry done, a bunch of cleaning, and some random jobs I haven't had time to do! 

In other bad news the Paddy Buckley Round won't happen. When the dates were finalized they unfortunately settled on the weekend we're in Scotland. Really bummed about this one as the opportunity won't ever come again. Scotland is fun but it's also becoming boring. There's lots to do, but only if I'm alone, and where we stay is fairly secluded and I've worn out the options in that area. If I'm lucky I get a day out alone but it's just that, alone. 

In other travels an opportunity to ski in Chamonix came up, I was really excited, even though a bit hesitant. I haven't skied in probably 9 years and was unsure of my abilities. It ends up that weekend I had to work and there's no way I can get out of it. 

So anything exciting has been scratched. I guess the Thames Path 100 is still a go but I need to get off this cycle of sickness to remotivate. Winter sucks here, there's probably nowhere worse, and it's damn hard to get my mind straight and charge forth with solid training once I lose the drive. We'll see, so many times I think about all this running etc. I do and wonder what the point is. No one here has any interest in it, it's just me, myself, and I. 

At the martial arts academy the Jeet Kune Do guys have been invited to the inter academy sparring competition. We would only kickbox, which is fine, but it has intrigued me a bit. It's very intimidating and scares me, both reasons to maybe give it a try. Contact is light supposedly but it can get a bit heavier and I'd hate to get injured. We don't spar much due to time and the JKD class has a huge variety of abilities, however they're adding more in which is great. It's such great practice. We're also invited to come to the Friday sparring class, previously it was mainly tae kwon do, kickboxing, and mma people I believe. I'd love to go to that once a week, it'd be super beneficial but family time restraints capped that. The escrima guys keep trying to get me to show up but once again time is limited. I regret not doing escrima when I started JKD. It's a lot of stick work, which I love in JKD, but different angles and protocols compared to the Kali we do. 

So here I sit typing away counting the minutes until the constant drone of "daddy" "daddy" ends, iPads are shut off, and it's finally quiet for the night. I'm exhausted and feel like crap but feel like I should stay up and watch a movie I want to watch for a change! Happy Birthday to me.