first things first

The first of April.

The first day of the financial year (which means long days for The Husband this week).

The first time I have walked Millie after work without wearing a coat this year. Possibly ever. It was wonderful to go striding out across the fields and feel warm. Even better to not have the soil squelching underfoot and instead to see bursts of colour in the undergrowth.

The first barbecue of the year. Not ours, but there was that unmistakeable aroma as Millie and I headed for home, the divine scent of slightly singed sausages, with top notes of tomato sauce.

The first time this year I left the office at lunchtime just to go on a walk. I am far too sedentary during the day, and as part of a general attempt to get fitter and healthier, I saw the sun shining and decided to go for a quick walk around the block. Again, no coat, no bag, just fifteen minutes to walk and get some fresh air.

The first time, unfortunately, that I have used the Nike Running app on my phone. I wasn't running, but I wanted to get an idea of how far my lunchtime walk was, as an incentive for the future. I was, indeed, impressed by the fact that I notched up a mile without even noticing it. However, I was less impressed by the fact that, as I tried to set up the app whilst walking down the stairs to leave the building, the app chose to announce, at top volume, in an encouraging American accent that I was beginning my workout. Even worse, as I frantically tried to turn it off, close the screen, turn down the volume, it kept cycling between declaring my workout paused, and in quick succession my workout resumed, much to my mortification and the bemusement of the gentleman following me down the stairs. I went and stood in the toilets when I finished my walk just to turn it off, but goodness knows what people would have thought I was doing if it had carried on from the confines of the cubicle. I tried again when walking Millie this afternoon, but it still gave its enthusiastic encouragement despite me having turned every voice option off in the settings. If anyone has any suggestions for similar apps without the inbuilt cheerleader I would be very grateful.

The first Hello Fresh delivery, which I have been very impressed with. The postcard, and pre-delivery courtesy call were lovely, but more importantly, the food has been really good so far. I plan to do a post once we have had all of the meals, but it has been a nice way to start the month, and made sticking to my health kick a little easier.

This is also the first day I am going to start doing the 100daysofhappiness project. I've been wanting to do it and today seems as good a day as any, so follow me on twitter to see those pictures if you like. Here's to the first of many of these posts (the original was over on my old blog here).