My morning routine pretty much always involves the following:

1) I make a cup of tea (in a little teapot).

2) I open up Memrise and practice learned words for Russian, Polish, and German.

• If I have ~15+ words to review I first do a standard Review of 10 words, and then I do a Speed review (multiple choice).
• If I complete the Speed review (it's up to 100 words), then I add another set of words/phrases to my mental repertoire. I'm a slow learner and I'm probably not helping myself by doing three languages but I fear that if I stop I'll forget what I have learned and then it will all have been for nothing, not that I know what the reason is, I just like the habit I think.
• I do this for each of the languages in turn. Up until a month or so ago I'd managed a 100 day streak.
• (There are some other tools on Memrise, such as "Conversations" and "AI Buddies", but I've not managed to incorporate these with any regularity.)

3) I go for a jog (typically a couple of miles, but very occasionally I will do more), or do some yoga. So far this year I've managed ~100 and 68 times respectively. I wish it was more often but I struggle with getting myself to do these things. Maybe I will focus more effort into these in 2026.

Here's Santa doing yoga:

c/o freepik.com

I tried to get ChatGPT to animate him wobbling but it said this:

Last year I noted (on Day 3) that I had taken to following along with Nicolle's yoga routines, and this morning I did this 15-minute one:

In one video she had a flock of geese wandering past, and in another there was a spider on her mat. I have actually downloaded all of the yoga videos I like to follow along with so I don't have to come online and rely on Youtube.

4) My breakfast proper then consists of a small handful of vitamins (Vitamin D is important for the winter months), a bowl of nuts (typically cashews, almonds, walnut halves, and brazil nuts, but lately I've had to substitute the brazil nuts for pecans as they've become impossible to find at a reasonable price for some reason), and a mug of coffee.

Another thing I challenge myself to do most days is ride my bike. This year I've done over 2600 miles, helped along by my car being off the road, but this isn't half the miles I used to do.

Also, once a week, I lift weights with my neighbour.

I like being active and I get anxious if I don't get outside for a day or more.