one second every day – december 2018

Aaaand, finally, here is December!

December started off… cold. I felt tired the whole month, so running was kept to a minimum. I managed to keep up at least once a week, which was just about enough to balance out all the cheese eating that took place in the first two weeks.

Z and I won the most unexpected prize: a prize at the running club! At the club’s annual fondue, they elect 6 women and 6 men that stood out for the most varied reasons during the year and we both got a trophy! It was a really wonderful evening, and we had a lot of love from our running friends. I first signed up for the club to motivate myself to run while meeting new people in my new city, and getting this prize really felt like this was beyond achieved.

I went to the marché de Noël for a mulled wine with my colleague and we both got ourselves a bullet journal for 2019.

Then, it was my birthday. One of the most hectic birthdays I have ever had. I worked 150% all day, and in the end I went running. However, I did have 5 mins to share the delicious chocolate heart that my boss got for me with my office mates.

In the same week, there were two work Christmas dinners two days in a row and, on the third day, I ran the tough, hilly Christmas run in Lausanne. Let’s just say: party hard, work hard.

I went to the movies by myself, took the cat to the vet to get his shots and spent the last two working days on my own, while Z headed to Portugal. I went running one morning before work because I was tired of running at night.

Then, I flew to Portugal for Christmas: meeting friends, family, running with Jo in my home town, catching up with my old scouts, getting a hair cut while my forever-hairdresser’s grandson brought her a birthday cake in the salon… Christmas time is basically family and community.

Finally, coming back to Switzerland to eat oysters for my delayed birthday tradition and hitting the slopes on the last day of the year, as it is now becoming tradition too.

That’s a wrap for 2018!

 

one second every day – november 2018

Poor month of November. I forgot to log half of the month and it wasn’t really the best month of the year, truth be told.

However, there were some nice moments. There would’ve probably been more had I remembered to log them.

There were a lot of cat moments: cat crying because he heard and old cat-friend meowing in a video. Cat and knitting on the sofa (I cast on and unravelled a sweatshirt 3 or 4 times in November). There was a bit of running, even though motivation was a little low.

I was sick for a few days and medication left me feeling blah. Towards the end of the month, things started picking up a little and there were birthday parties, a concert with a very enthusiastic headbanging mother of a band member, little C’s first violin audition and a trip to France.

 

 

 

one second every day – october 2018

In October, Autumn settled in with rainy and colder days. Soup came up on the menu, and I started a lunch tradition with a friend that I met here.

I had to go back to Portugal because my grandmother passed away. Even though the reason was sad, I got to know my family history better, I spent a lot of time with my grandfather and even got to see my friends. My aunt’s dog was especially happy to see me, and that is her whining behind the closed door when she realised I was coming.

Little R had his 4th birthday and I realised that I know him for more than half is life.

Mid-October, we flew to S. Miguel, Azores for the first time, and fell in love with the island. In the next years, we are eager to get to know all the other islands.

In October, I forgot to log many days because I was just lagging behind so much. Not having done it, I realised how I missed having that log and promised myself that I would try to bring the habit back, even if I wavered a little.

 

 

 

one second every day – september 2018

In September, we carried on running in the mountains as much as we could. I went a little slower, because I was having some health issues. Now that I’m looking back at these videos, it seems pretty evident that I pushed my body a little bit over what it was used to and quite obviously those health issues were due to lack of recovery.

Lesson learned, I still managed to “hike” the Trail des Dents du Midi while Z was running it, and it was just stunning. We spent a wonderful weekend running and hiking, sleeping in mountain huts and just enjoying the mountain.

I had some interesting episodes at work: dinner with my colleagues, a presentation in French for my whole service, watching a presentation that reminded me how important it is to know to be able to criticise.

I went to a workshop on travel logs and it was inspiring. Our bio veggie basket started coming regularly and we love it. We went to a wedding in France and it was a whole load of fun.

September ended the running season in the Alps for us, with a trail run up a mountain at the end of the day, just in time to catch the sun setting behind the mountains in front of us. It was magical!

 

 

one second every day – august 2018

Looking back at August, it seems that I spent most of the month outdoors.

Unfortunately, I lost track of my running logs. I didn’t get around to writing about our running adventure on the 1st of August (maybe I’ll get around to it eventually) and then things just slipped from there. Now, I realise that I actually spent most of the time living it all up, and how wonderful that month was.

After work, we went swimming in the lake as often as we coud. In the weekends, we went training in the mountains. On one particular weekend, I went volunteering in Kandersteg and took a little break to go and run Sierre-Zinal, a 31km race with a view over five 4000ers. I might write about it some time, but just to mention that it was the most spectacular thing I ran this year. I was so proud of myself that I lost all humility for the weeks that followed, and loved every second of watching Swiss (and non-Swiss) peoples faces when I told them I’d ran that race.

There were friends, birthdays, some special days with the kids (and I even babysat for them for old times’ sake), birthday parties, picnics, and overall a beautiful month spent mostly outside. If July was good because of all the exploring, August was probably one of my favourite months here in Lausanne.

Towards the end of the month, work started picking up at a faster rate and went into cruising mode until the end of the year.

 

 

one second every day – july 2018

July was… crazy!

It started off with the Montreux-Les Rochers de Naye race. You can read about it here.

Then, I packed my bags and flew off to Japan to meet my mates. We had fun times together, as a group of three, then just two of us, and then by myself for a few days. It was a special trip because of the friends’ gathering, but also because of travelling alone. It’s been something that I’ve enjoyed doing sporadically and randomly, and even though I have never been on a big trip by myself, I feel that it’s something that might come up in future lists.

Then, back from Japan for a few days and straight to Portugal, where I started off by running this with my brother and one of my very old friends. I took the time to see my friends, I even went to the beach with Jo (sadly, it was too cold to go in the sea, but those sardines are one of the happiest memories of 2019). On my last day, I went on a morning hike with P & N and their dog, Zeca.

Then, back to Switzerland I came, with a happy ending to a beautiful month exploring, eating and being with people I love!

 

 

one second every day – june 2018

Here is June! (I am so late on these videos, but I will catch up as soon as possible, so we can start 2019 on a good note)

It is also fun to go back a few months to remember these moments. June was the month of racing, rain, making the most of sunshine when it was there. I spent a lot of time by myself, because Z was travelling for a couple of weeks in the beginning of the month. I went on picnics, I went running, I tried to make the most of life as temporarily single and it felt pretty good.

Then, Z came back and we had friends visiting from home. We went to a British-Swiss wedding and… picnics and races and meals outdoors.