A Few Days Off (Again)

This week my work schedule has been the same as last week. I took Thursday off again, so that I could get back some of the extra hours I worked in the New Year. I quite like having 3 days off together. I haven't had that for a couple of years now, as I tend to work alternate days and then have 2 days off on Sunday/Monday. The extra day makes all the difference in terms of feeling rested, but I'd better not get too used to it. 

Next week, I'm taking a week's leave, as I need to use up my annual leave before the year end at the end of March. I haven't got anything planned as such, but I may do some cleaning and sewing and decluttering. The usual really. We may go away for a few days at some point to get a break from London and blow away the cobwebs.

This last three days, haven't been particularly exciting. Wednesday, I took the dog, or rather she took me, for a long walk. I then needed to pick up a prescription from the chemist. I tried to go to our local library, but it was shut for staff training. I haven't been for at least two years and just felt like picking up a few new to me books to flick through.

I had to wait in in the afternoon for a parcel arriving. A present for my sister's 60th birthday next week. I hope she likes it. I'll have to send it on to her. I ordered her some orchids today too, which she had asked for. 

I was contacted by a friend that I used to go dancing with pre-Lockdown. She suggested a new venue to go swing dancing and we may arrange something in the coming weeks, which would be good. I've wanted to get back to it, but seem to have lost my nerve somewhat.

I spent most of the afternoon binge watching Netflix and iPlayer. A lost afternoon really, but sometimes you just need to do it and enjoy it. As I've now finished a lot of the series that I was watching, I'll have to find other things to do with my time. The ironing basket calls as always, but I just keep batting it away until I run out of clothes.

On Thursday, I had a lie in. The dog wanted to go out for a walk super early (well 8 am, which is too early for me) so OH took her. I stayed in bed and read my current book, which is a really good read. It's called Untamed, by Glennon Doyle and talks about how from the age of 10 girls are taught to be 'good' and compliant and to tame their personalities to please and placate those around them. I can relate to that.

As I wasn't under any time constraints this morning, I decided to get my new yoga mat out of it's wrapping  (I've only had it 7 months!) and do some weights and floor exercises for 20 minutes. I stuck to the routine I devised during Lockdown. I really enjoyed it. My arms are definitely much weaker and were struggling to manage the weight exercises, which emphasised the need to do them. It helped to create a positive start to the day. 

Lately, I'm a super fan of trainwithjoan on Instagram. She is so inspiring, looks fabulous in her 70's and has totally transformed her body in the last 7 years. I'm starting to think that adding some strength training into my routine might be the way forward for me too.

After breakfast, I watched a few YouTube videos and then what do you know, it was time for an early lunch.

After lunch, I checked the opening times online and headed out to the library again. I walked up there this time, as I needed to get out of the house and get some fresh air. I stopped off to buy some bird seed, peanuts and suet balls from a local discount store. A bit of a luxury on my very low spend month, but I just felt like feeding the birds today, after seeing a tit bathing in the bird bath this moring.

Thankfully, the library was open today, so I had a good mooch around the non-fiction section. (I rarely borrow anything else) I checked out these books, which should keep me going for a while:

I wasn't sure if my library card would still work, as it had been so long since I last visited, but it did.

I set off back home. En route, I was thinking about why I just can't seem to settle down to do anything productive at the moment.  The house is screaming at me to clean it, there's lots of decluttering and ironing to do, but I just can't face it. I think I'm still a bit burnt out from work and very selfishly need more me time. Books do it for me when I get like this. They've always been an escape for me.

When I got home, I filled all of the bird feeders and then started reading the Dawn O'Porter book. It's a kind of diary of her Lockdown life in LA. I'm not sure how I feel about this one, but I'll give it a go. I'm also part way through one of her fiction books called So Lucky and have kind of got stuck with that one. I'm not sure if I'll continue to read it or not.

Later, I took a break from reading and did a bit of blogging to break up the day.  It's actually nice to have more time to do it. It's something I enjoy and I've neglected my blog this past year, just keeping it ticking over instead of making more effort.

An afternoon dog walk, and another day had slipped by.

On Friday, I woke up early to see LB off, as she was travelling up to Manchester for the weekend, to visit a friend who is at university there. OH dropped her off at our local station, from which she had to make her way to Euston to catch a train. I went straight back to bed after she left and surfaced a couple of hours later, when I read in bed for a while and then got up, got ready and took the dog out.

Today, was a day when I decided to get serious about looking into the costs of LB going to University later this year. I watched a few Money Saving Expert YouTube videos about how the Student Loans system works, which were very enlightening and then took a look at the halls of residence that LB will be applying to. I even watched some videos about her course, on the YouTube channel of the University department where she will be studying. It was all very informative and interesting stuff, and I'm very excited for her. I think it will be very challenging too though. In a few months, LB will have to start making applications for Student Loans and for places in Halls, so I thought it was about time that I got myself informed about the whole process.

It's going to be a very exciting time for her, but it is going to be expensive too, as she is staying in London, but wants to live in halls to be nearer to her University campus and to enjoy the full student experience. She will be living and studying in a part of London that is very unfamiliar to us, so it should be an interesting experience for her to live and study there.

I got an email from my sister today. She'd received her orchids for her birthday and she was very happy with them. She sent me some photos and they looked very nice. I still need to post another gift to her next week

I popped out to ASDA later in the day, to get a few bits, and picked up a bottle of Vegan rose wine, which was just £3. It sounded interesting and was very inexpensive. I was curious to know what non-vegan ingredients are usually used in producing wine, so I googled it and found that certain animal products, such as albumin and milk proteins are used in the fining process where the wine is made clear and often then filtered out. They do not need to be mentioned on labels as they are removed, but traces may still be present in the wine, making wines non-vegan. 

I'm not vegan, but I thought it would be interesting to try a vegan wine and see if there was a lot of difference in the taste. From an ethical point of view, I think it must be better to drink a wine that doesn't have animal products in it if you can, but then I'm no wine expert either.  I'm sure that there are many people out there that might disagree with me here. Anyway, I tried the wine and it wasn't the best. I probably wouldn't buy it again, but saying this I managed to drink two glasses.

In the evening OH and I finished watching a series on Netflix called Stay Close and then started watching series one of Ricky Gervais's After Life. We enjoyed it and will continue to work our way through the three series that are available.