It's been a busy morning already. I managed to drag myself out for a run just after sunrise, my first since participating in the Southampton Parkrun while we were in the city for Minamicon back in March. It was very pleasant to be out while it was still very quiet and there was little traffic on the roads. On venturing out again to collect my paper having eaten it also appears I managed to just miss a rain shower.

I seem to be talking about habits quite a lot in these posts to far, and running is one that is perhaps a good example of the problem I have with routines - I can be good when I've settled into them, doing something in the same way every day or almost every day becomes easy. When I break a routine, however, it can be difficult to get back into that. I found this when I stopped running after the clocks changed a few years ago and it became to dark in the evening to use my usual route. I avoided a break for a little bit longer last year by taking to treadmill running at the University sports center but again while I was away for a little while over Christmas I lapsed and found it very difficult to motivate myself to get back into it again.

I don't know if there is a solution to that, other than avoiding taking breaks in the first place.

It was nice to get out and about yesterday although Laura was not feeling well enough to come with me, even if it was just to run a couple of errands. It's always nice to spend time with my parents and I'm very thankful of the good relationship I have with them.

We are hoping to catch a couple of movies a the cinema over the next couple of days - 'The Handmaiden' which is a Korean film inspired by the Sarah Waters novel 'Fingersmith', which received very interesting reviews when it screened at film festivals a few months ago, and the live action remake of Ghost in the Shell which despite controversy regarding its casting has been received favourably by friends of mine whose opinions I trust.

It's a busy weekend on the motorsports calendar, with sports car and single seater racing at Silverstone as well as a Formula One race. I decided not to take in any race weekends this year as I wanted to concentrate on my studies but I will admit that I'm a little sad not to be enjoying the proceedings from trackside. Fortunately there is good coverage on TV and online, and while I was driving yesterday I was keeping up with the European Le Mans series race thanks to Radio Le Mans' commentary - the best pictures, in their own words, are on radio.

I should confess that I cheated a little bit on the rules this morning, reporting my run to Facebook before I started writing this, but I resisted the urge to read anything.

(514 words) Sunday 2017-04-16 0819