This Week - W/E 8th July 2023

This week has been a positive, progressive week on the whole. Sunday was a quiet day that started with a dog walk, followed by a day at home chilling. I had every good intention of doing the weekly shop at the local Lidl, but in the end I had an afternoon nap instead.

Monday thus became the day for the weekly shop. I didn't go to Yoga, as I just wasn't feeling it. I'll maybe start anew with that in September. Instead, I took myself off the Lidl near to where I used to work and did the weekly shop there.  

Shockingly, I spent over £100 there, followed by another £50 between B&M, Home Bargains and Tesco. An expensive day, with all the money being spent on food, toiletries and household/dog items. We had run out of a lot of stuff and I did buy two weeks or more worth of some things.

Once I'd got home and unpacked it all, I cooked supper, took the dog out and then I could finally relax for the evening.

Tuesday, was quite an eventful day. I started out early with a dog walk, so that I could get back to go to a Aerobics class at the gym. LB who was due at an interview for a summer job, had overslept and was running late, so OH had to drive her to a station where she could catch a train into Central London.

I, meanwhile, headed to my class, which was good. I had to take some exercises a little easy, just to be careful not to niggle my back. It is virtually better, but shifting positions on the floor takes more time than usual. What with the dog walk and walking to and from the class, I managed to get 10,000 steps in.

When I got home from my class, I messaged LB to find out how the interview had gone. She thought it had gone well, but is now waiting to hear if she's got the job.  She really needs it to pay off her student overdraft. I think she'll have learned an important lesson this year, that overdrafts need to be paid back, and maxing them out isn't always a good idea, but I know from experience that it's easier said than done, when the facility is there to use.

I got invited to a job interview on Tuesday too. It's for a temping job starting in August, which will only last a few weeks, but it would be good to earn some money again and it's reasonably local, so I could probably easily cycle there. The interview isn't until the beginning of August. Positive news though, which I haven't had much of on the job front lately. Case in point, I received another rejection email on Tuesday, but hey, you can't win them all.

On Tuesday afternoon, it was raining all afternoon, so I finally tackled the ironing basket and got most of it done, which felt productive.  We were glad of the rain, as the garden and allotment needed a good soak. Later in the afternoon, I retired to bed for a couple of hours, as I'd slept for just 2 hours the night before. I don't know why, but I just couldn't get to sleep.

Wednesday, was Soca Aerobics day. I'd forgotten we'd agreed that OH was walking the dog in the morning, so after getting up early, I had a bit of time to kill before I headed off to the gym. I decided to use the time to start sandwiching the navy quilt. I'm using another vintage wool blanket as wadding, so I laid the three layers out on the bed and started to pin and tack the three layers together.  It was a bit tricky, as the backing fabric isn't quite as wide as I'd like, but I managed to make good, just about.  

The Soca class was good and I had a lovely power bowl for lunch when I got home, this time with Mexican flavoured beans, a boiled egg, salad, beetroot, etc. Very tasty.

I spent the afternoon continuing to sandwich the quilt and also working on another quilt project. I took the dog out for a long walk in the evening to get more steps in and managed over 12,000 in total, which I was happy about.

Thursday, marked 4 weeks of trying to reduce my weight, so I got up and showered and decided to take more pictures to visually document my progress and I took new measurements, to see if I'd made any actual progress. The results weren't staggering, just an inch lost here and there and 7lbs in weight over the 4 weeks, but better than nothing.

I also took my blood pressure and the both the systolic and diastolic measurements had improved from the reading a month ago.  I was happy enough with my progress, but I think it's going to be a long slow haul.

Some good news was that I got notified today that I'd won a prize on the Premium bonds again this month, £100 this time, which was great. 

I didn't go to Pilates today, as my back is still a little sore. Instead, I decided to head out to a local Poundland to see if I could buy some 3/4 leggings. I wear these a lot under dresses and skirts, etc. and I only have a couple of pairs which invariably end up in the wash and I'm limited to what I can wear.

To be honest, I felt like a bit of retail therapy. I've been so careful the last few months, that every now and then it's nice to go out to the shops and actually see what is out there. I don't always want to buy anything, but not allowing myself to go at all makes me feel deprived at times. Sometimes, it's good to know what you are not missing and this little trip to Poundland and ASDA certainly brought that home to me. I bought some trainer socks, leggings and a T-shirt dress that I'd eyed in ASDA weeks ago and then came home. Yes, if I'd had some spare cash, I'm sure I could have spent it, but bar what I bought, there isn't really anything that I really need to spend money on. I've got plenty of things to wear, craft with, etc. I can get by.

On Friday, I booked myself into the gym, as I wasn't going to be able to attend the free gym session on Saturday this week.  I took myself off there on my bike and made my way around the gym, using lots of different machines. I find that I enjoy the experience the most, if I don't spend more than 10 minutes on any one machine, which is exactly what I did on this occasion and I really enjoyed it.

OH had gone off today on an overnight cycle trip, so I pottered around at home, watched a few things on Netflix, did some sewing. It was steaming hot, so I didn't really want to venture outside for too long. Even the dog didn't want an evening walk in the heat.

LB's friend was coming to stay tonight, so I did some basic cleaning of toilets and bathrooms, changed bedding and generally tidied up her bedroom.

On Saturday morning, I got up and had a shower and headed out with the dog.  We had a nice walk and got back just in time before it started to rain. I then headed out to Lidl to get a few bits, such as bread, etc. as we had very little in. I managed to save nearly £5 by getting a couple of things we eat regularly for free using some vouchers.

The rest of the day was quiet. OH came home around 3pm. He was shattered, so we spent the evening chilling and watching TV. I made some salt and vinegar potatoes in the air fryer. I'd never made them before and they turned out really tasty.  A little like Canarian potatoes that you often get in the Canary Islands. I will definitely be making them again. I just part boiled new potatoes that OH had grown and then added them to the air fryer along with malt vinegar and salt and cooked them in there for 10 minutes. So simple. OH went out and bought a rotisserie chicken locally and that was supper. Super easy, but very tasty.

A much better week this week, now we're back into our routine and I'm feeling a lot better. I hope you had a good week.