It’s been a while since my last post. More than 2 months to be exact! I haven’t really felt like I had much to talk about as far as fitness and running goes. We all have handled the Covid situation differently and I’m no exception.
So what’s been going on?
The big thing: We sold our apartment, for one. As of Friday, September 11th, the apartment is no longer owned by us (well, Ron). We are renting back the house until we move.
That’s right. We are moving! We also bought a house. Well, I think Americans would call it an apartment. It’s a big house that was split in two like most houses in the area where we’ve bought. It’s in our 1st choice neighbourhood as well. We sign the papers and receive the key on October 16th and will go in immediately to paint and remove a few things (like carpet, the bathroom ceiling and a weird shelf unit that was added at some point). After that we will wait a bit because we are having the bathroom completely redone before we move in. Should be the last week of November that we can officially say goodbye to our old apartment.
But I mean… who buys a house in the middle of a pandemic???
A Pandemic helped us stop and think about what was important.
Maybe it’s exactly what we needed to finally make the decision and take the plunge. We have often talked about it, but never felt it was the right time. A pandemic, all races being cancelled, the gym being closed… it made us think about what we really want our future to look like.
What does the future look like?
While running and being active is still important to us (though you wouldn’t think so lately), Traveling to races all over Europe is a thing of the past now.. Traveling in general will really change for me. A few things specifically:
- No more low cost airlines
- One big vacation and one shorter vacation if flying
- Races in places we can drive
Buying a house makes things a bit more complex financially, and we’ve always been fans of low cost flying, but those days are over. The absolute nightmare in getting our money back for our cancelled trip to Spain in March (due to the country shutting down…), makes me trust Ryanair about as far as I can throw them. Eventually we got the money back, no thanks to them, and actual thanks to American Express.
Since travelling started up again a bit, I feel like I need to pay more for the company I actually trust more. Paying more, means flying less. I’m ok with that. I’m going for quality now and not quantity.
As we still save for our vacations, plus we get vacation money (8% of our yearly salary ) each year, this should still be possible. We just have to be smarter and choosier about where we go from now on.
And to be honest? Covid is a pandemic because we travel around everywhere. This was bound to happen and we have been “warned” in past years about it (plus we have seen SARS and MERS and other viruses show up). And maybe we were too cocky, thinking it wouldn’t happen to us. Or maybe we weren’t really paying attention. I think it’s a good opportunity to change. And pay attention. China already had a mass amount of deaths and then it hit Europe and ravaged Italy and Spain. We could have seen this coming to North America. Obviously the person in charge could have really taken more responsibility and told the American people the truth, but hey, we all know how that is turning out.
Even when we have a vaccine, I just want to keep myself and others safe by toning down my travel behaviour. I can still do all the things I like to do, and maybe reduce my carbon footprint while I’m at it.
The gym reopened
We aren’t going back though. And this has really thrown me off. I was able to maintain quite a lot of my fitness and workouts for months, until we were in the thick of house-buying and getting the financing (I don’t even want to talk about it, it was REALLY stressful). So, honestly I haven’t been able to get back into a routine yet. And I can feel that. I’m actually considering a short term gym membership, until my own home gym is up and ready to go (yep, we have a space for that in the new house!)
I may be back in the office full time again
In July, I already went back 2 days a week and worked 2 days at home. My company wants us all to go back full time though and honestly I’m not excited about it. Our numbers have been spiking for about a month, mostly the cases are in the West (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague), but it’s just not a good situation. We also don’t have a government that is clear about what we should do. So there is a lot of confusion here. And just like in the US and other countries, there are people who don’t follow protocols and I honestly don’t want to be the Covid Police at work. And yet, I’ve had to be just that at times.
I actually loved working at home
As many of you know, I don’t sleep well. So being able to get out of my bed at 7:30, have a coffee, turn on the computer and start up without actually getting work clothes on and fixing my face and hair has been amazing. I feel much less stressed in my work life. Even my manager complimented me on how calm I’ve been the last few months. Too bad that may be over soon.
I’m in a spiral downward with food and lack of exercise
This is the thing that is really getting me down. The last two weeks don’t really count because I was in Palermo (you don’t diet in Sicily). I was doing well, at least maintaining weight that I would have liked to lose, but now it’s gone up again. Three weeks ago was my last run because I pulled a muscle in my glute that set off a lovely chain of events in my leg.
I’m just tired and ready to focus again. So that’s what I’m going to do. And that’s why I’ve come back to the blog. I’ll be updating again soon about my plan and hopefully join the Weekly Run Down again!
I started HRT last week
Menopause has been a real bummer for the last few years. I finally was able to get an appointment with my GP and she prescribed a hormone replacement for me. I’m curious if it’s going to help at all. The first month is a sort of experiment anyway. Never a dull moment here!
There must be more, but that’s probably enough.
If you follow my Instagram, then you know I’ve also been on holiday and had my 52nd birthday while I was away. I was nervous about traveling but in the end, glad we took the chance to go. I’m sure there are other things, too, that I could mention here, but I think this is enough for now.
If you made it through all of this, thanks for reading and thanks for sticking it out with me.
Always enjoy your updates, chica! Inspires me (exercise-wise) and reduces the miles btw… ;) So, fwiw, I think your new place we’d call a townhouse or row house, which here can be rented or purchased. A single (well, split for you) unit in a row of units. Suzy/Kevin have a similar set up in DC. My unit would be an apartment, if rented, but is a condo, since purchased. ;P Sorry, just blathering on cuz it’s Sunday and I’m squirreling from chores waiting to be done. ;P I don’t have to go back to the office for some time, thankfully, but I did purchase a couple of face guards that I’ll def use for indoor settings to help reduce aerosol exposure. Really like the simple/effective construction/coverage on these two: https://www.etsy.com/listing/787322426/full-clear-face-shield-with-glasses?ref=yr_purchases https://www.etsy.com/listing/800774954/travel-essential-full-cover?ref=shop_home_feat_3&pro=1 Both ship overseas, tho you can prob find similar nearby. Second one has better coverage, but is also more ‘echo-y’ when talking. I’m SO aerosol-focused these days. :P xoxo
Hey Renee, always nice to see a new post from you! My two cents is that all real estate transactions are very stressful and um, recent world events have been very stressful, so no worries on the food and exercise thing. It will fall into place when things calm down. WFH has been such a game changer on the stress front so between you and me I’d be happy if we never went back.
Yay! I’m glad for the recap here. Since you bought your new place, we wouldn’t call it an apartment. Maybe a condo, especially if you have to pay fees for outside maintenance. ;-) I hope you don’t have to go back in the office FT yet, and that your coworkers cooperate when you do.
Huge congrats on your new house! Very exciting times for you all. It is really nice to have you back in the link up. i know you will get right back on track when you are ready. Your Italy vacay looked amazing!
Good to see you here again though I’m glad I have you on FB anyway. Hm, low point is now really, Birmingham back in a harder lockdown and while 6/10 of the country’s worst hotspots for infection are in the Midlands, three of them are very close to us. Hooray. Still able to run with a couple of other people, thank goodness.