Today's ordinary

Riding along our local "river".

Today, the last day before school starts up again, we designated "odd job" day. We pulled the Christmas decorations down this morning. David did a few maintenance jobs, I took myself and one son to the doctor for some routine matters. Both David and I also ran some local errands.

It was deliciously warm for a January day, it was 15 degrees at 1pm (average maximum here this time of year is 5.2˚C). It was a gorgeous day to be out on a bike, so I'm thankful that I was able to ride, not drive, to get some time out of the house-of-boys-on-holidays as well as some exercise. 

One of the super things about our little corner of Tokyo is that there are two "rivers" close by that both have pedestrian/bike tracks along them. They're great if you're going in the right direction.

I was able to organise my errands so that I did a circuit taking in both rivers, riding a bit over 11km. I got rid of some rubbish (milk cartons and polystyrene trays), posted a birthday present, bought some wool to make a scarf while watching wrestling these next six weeks, and did some grocery shopping.

My route today, 11.35km.

My son and I walked to the doctor later (another 2km of exercise). It no longer seems strange to me that doctors and other medical clinics are generally closed for walk-ins from 12 to 3 each day. Just having "walk-ins" instead of appointments even seems normal to me these days!

I sat down for a while this afternoon to read/play games on my phone. And made dinner (this amazing recipe) which we're about to eat. Oh, I also got my last sleep-in for many weeks as well. Not expecting any sympathy on that front, though, I have too many friends who have young children or who just can't sleep-in anymore.

To finish off a productive holiday-day, I've got some ironing planned for this evening.

The boys mostly hung around here, though our eldest had wrestling training for a couple of hours this morning and went for an hour's ride with a friend this afternoon (he's trying to lose weight again, deadline is Saturday morning).

Tomorrow it is back to school and work. I'm a bit sad because it is lovely to not be tired and dragging myself out of bed at the behest of an alarm. But it will be good to see the boys get back into a more healthy routine (there's been a lot of screen time in the last two weeks).

Today's not the only amazing weather we've had, most days have been warm
and some just remind us of home (it's the blue sky that does it in this photo).
Last week I took some time out to ride to the big park 6km south of us.