07 Feb 2025

Home

Home life is a little chaotic right now; Jú has moved to Barcelona for a few months, so we’re navigating the switch to a long-distance marriage right now. It’s not the ideal scenario for both of us, but we’re both looking for the positives in it. For me, that is trying to regain a bit of a routine and rhythm in daily life, which I feel I’ve lacked a little recently.

Language

Portuguese is something I’m also trying to change in my daily routine; I had previously been practicing only at night before bed, but I’m now trying to spread that throughout the day. It’s more difficult to maintain as a routine, but I think it’s helping so far? I still don’t have any opportunities to really speak outside of my weekly class though.

Running

I’ve started training for the Edinburgh Marathon in May; still starting a “build miles” phase, but I think that a new routine will help me with this. I also have two or three half marathons tentatively planned between now and then, but indecisiveness means I haven’t actually signed up to any yet…

Writing

I’ve been keeping my daily diary up-to-date since the new year, and I’ve found it quite a relaxing end to the day, if for no other reason than it means I’m not on my phone. Longer form writing hasn’t been too forthcoming with the changes so far this year, but I’m hoping to carve out more time for it soon.

What Am I Reading

Calum’s Road by Roger Hutchinson.

Jú and I visited the Isle of Raasay when we were in Skye last month, and we drove along Calum’s Road to Arnish while we were there. The story is very interesting, I love little local-history things like this, although the book is very dry; lots of historical context of the islands and the Highland Clearances. Halfway through the book and he hasn’t even started building the road yet.