The Gallery : 8am

The Gallery is one of those blogging comfort zones.  It's a place that led me to enjoying taking (and sharing) photographs and helped me to make great blogging friends.  I was there at the start - you can see my very first post for The Gallery here - and now we're on week/prompt number 200. I haven't joined in with every single prompt but I've loved joining in when I can and seeing entries from other people on all the other weeks. I've discovered new blogs, rediscovered forgotten blogs and revisited regular reads.  Of course I had to join in with this milestone week which has a prompt of...

8am

At 8am, during the week, I have usually managed to push a teenager out of the door on time for school.  Until recently, I would have been heading out of the door myself but now I work from home, so I make a quick cup of tea in my "Super Nan" mug and head off up the stairs to my office.  I open my laptop, check my emails and diary and start the first stretch of the day I have planned.  One great aspect of my new working life is that no two days are the same. One day I could be managing social media updates for a client and the next I could be covering an arts and culture event.  It's also not a traditional 9-5 job any more so the flexibility allows me to feel I am accomplishing so much more. 

There is another 8am in my life and that is one on a Saturday morning. This is a new 8am for me and one that I'm surprisingly enjoying. I recently completed a "Couch to 5K" programme and Saturday mornings are now all about getting out and going for a run before everyone else wakes up.  It's a lovely experience (yes, really), jogging along the canal, nodding to early morning dog walkers and other runners, especially when you see a bloke doing a "Phoebe run"* - that really perks you up! Later this month I will be volunteering to help the next group of C25K-ers through their programme as a way of starting to pay back what is now a new part of my life.

*A "Phoebe run" is a Friends reference.  If you have no idea what I'm on about then take a look at this video.