One step forward three steps back

Real life has a habit of getting in the way.  By now, I had fully expected to have dragged my sorry carcass round (at least a small section of) Pollok estate, in my (triumphant?) return to running, but so far it's not happened.  Real life and the weather - ok, mainly the weather - have put paid to it, but not in a bad way, as it's all been stuff I've been out doing, like visiting the RSPB nature reserve at Lochwinnonch.
Anyway, that's the backward steps, and while it's not really a step back as I didn't start anyway, I was psyched up for getting out again, so I'm claiming it as a fail.

The good stuff is that the guitar lessons are still progressing and - just as, if not more, improtantly - are still fun.  There's also a new karate night started up on a Tuesday, so that's a plus.

The other things going on are a crown that's fallen out, but I've a check-up on Thursday, and have called to make sure it gets popped back in again, and oh yeah on the subject of Thursday, I'm taking part in a one-day strike.  I think though that by the time I'm out the dentist and at the picket line, it'll have dispersed.  Anyway, the weather is probably going to be mince, so maybe that's a good thing.

Karate and getting to a calm place

The last couple of months I've been struggling to get to karate practice.  Thursdays are out as I've had no option but to change my guitar lesson to a Thursday night, as the teacher had a change in circumstances, Saturday mornings are out, as there's an issue that I would rather avoid, as there's a junior who is..... disruptive, won't listen and thinks they know it all, despite having only been going a few months.
There's a Tuesday club starting up next week, so that's all to the good.  In the meantime, there's the Wednesday club, that due to work I've been only attending sporadically.  The overall result is that I've been near to throwing in the towel, but I thought that I'd give it another go today in preparation for the new Tuesday club, and do you know, it's been a real tonic.

Before lunch I was a bit strung out.  I'd been really busy, and one of the systems we use to place orders was playing up, so stress levels were high by lunchtime.  Cue the karate class.  Great session today.  I'm now in a very calm serene place mentally, and nothing is going to be allowed to change that for the rest of the day.

First munro bagged

So, on Friday, we headed up Ben Lomond.  We were good to go, the weather wasn't.  Once out of the treeline, there was low lying cloud creeping up the hill, and we couldn't see the summit.

Regardless, we trudged onwards, only to reach the top and be rewarded with what would have been a stunning view if it wasn't for the cloud.  What we got instead was this.....

The weather may have been crap, but the upside of this was that the hill wasn't mobbed with people.  There were a fair few on the hill and at the top, but nowhere near as busy as it would have been had the weather been better.