Day 42 - Attempted kettlebell purchase

Kettlebells, weights and other home fitness equipment is like gold dust these days. Single 10kg kettlebells are selling for €100 to €300 euro online! As a result, I’ve been stuck using a 9kg rock from our back garden for Pete’s classes twice a week and I’ve been desperate to get my hands on a proper weight. Fiona and Lisa Banahan have been, helpfully, keeping an eye out for weights online, and Fiona spotted that Lidl we’re going to be selling them from 8am today!

So, I’d an early start this morning. I headed 5 minutes up the road to Lidl, arrived there at about 7.55am, but was very disappointed to find about eighty people in the queue ahead of me! I decided to stick with it, and had a nice chat with the people on either side of me in the queue (both of whom were over 70 and therefore not meant to be out)! After half an hour of queuing, I got into the shop but, of course, all of their weights were gone. I’m suspicious that the staff took them before they even put them out on the shelf.

Anyway, I consoled myself with a garden hose and some compost and headed home. I spent most of the day on Zoom then, teaching chemistry and doing individual meetings with students. One student “stayed back” after class for over half an hour, basically looking for therapy from me because of how stressful the situation in Kuwait is. It sounds very strict there, but that’s probably a good thing. She has to wear a bracelet that the police scan every day, and it tells them where she’s been for the day. She has to self-isolate for two weeks because she’s recently returned to Kuwait from Ireland, so if she comes within 2m of someone else’s bracelet an alert is triggered! I told her to focus on what she can control, which is how much study she does for her upcoming exams.

In the breaks between classes, I pottered around the garden and sat out in the sun. I’m going to admit now that I bought a massive box of squashies on Amazon last week. I somewhat regret it, but it was great! I was inspired by having seen Anna get the same box off Julian for her birthday a few weeks ago. It had ten big bags of sweets in it!

There’s a new thing doing the rounds on Facebook where you have to post one of your favourite running photos, to remind us of positive things during this time. I posted a photo from the National Road Relays last year. I loved that team event and I can’t wait to get back to training with the gang again in the not too distant future!

In the evening, we had a Sheehan family quiz on Zoom. Conor was the quizmaster this time, with a little help from Barry. It’s funny that John never remembers to mute his phone when he’s discussing his answers with Vincent! I came second in the quiz, again, with Anna being the winner for the second week in a row! Quizzes are a lovely way to catch up with family and friends at this time.Okumaya devam et