Enjoying a Better Work/Life Balance and a Bit of Re-organisation - W/E 24/2/24

This week, it finally started to feel like I'm managing to get a better work/life balance. I've been feeling it for the last couple of weeks actually, as I haven't been given as many shifts at work, and this suits me down to the ground.

I worked the first couple of days of this week (i.e. Sunday/Monday) and then I was due to be off until the Sunday of the following week, which was exciting. I was looking forward to having some free days to do as I pleased.

I had a bit of a lie in on Sunday. I was supposed to be walking the dog, as OH had planned to go cycling, but because of heavy rain overnight and into the morning, he decided not to go and took the dog out, so I had a lovely leisurely morning before going into work for 2pm. I quite like Sunday shifts, as I finish at 6pm and am able to eat at a reasonable time with OH when I get home.

Before going into work, I did a few household chores and pottered around. Our neighbour knocked on the door. He's replacing the fence between our gardens and was taking lots of garden waste from clearing the fence, to the tip in a van he'd hired, so OH was able to put the fence panels we'd removed from our side of the fence into the van. This was very useful to clear them out of the garden. There's still more to take down and the fence itself to remove, so another van trip will be needed when work begins proper.

We're hoping to replace the rest of the fencing around our garden, as it's all getting very shabby and starting to fall apart. I'm looking forward to it all being done and dusted if I'm honest, but it will be a while. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, I went around the house and watered all of the plants. I then decided to clean the leaves of some of the bigger plants as they were looking very dusty. I don't think I'd done this since Lockdown, so it was long overdue. The plants look much better for it too.

Work was good today. It was a shorter than usual shift and I managed to just about get everything done in time. OH made us a lovely Shepherd's pie for supper and we spent the evening relaxing in front of the TV.

On Monday, I was up early and out with the dog. We had a nice walk, but it was raining on and off and we got a bit wet.

When I got home, I headed out to do the weekly shop. I shopped locally this week, due to the fact I was working in the evening. I wasn't able to get everything locally this week, so I topped up at ASDA on the way to work.

I got a few bargains at both Tesco and ASDA. Here's a picture:

The large jar of sliced beetroot was reduced to 30p in Tesco, so I bought 3 jars, as I eat this daily. It costs well over £1 everywhere but Lidl, where it's 99p. This will keep me going for a while. In ASDA, I picked up 2 of these cajun quinoa packets for 36p each. These will be perfect for power bowls when I next feel the urge to make one. All of the items still had over a year's shelf life left.

Anyway, work was okay on Monday. I was doing a different job, one that I'd done before, but which was a bit calmer. It took a bit of getting used to doing it again, but it was nice to go back to it, especially on the last night of a 4 night stretch, as I was feeling quite tired.

OH had arranged to go on a cycle ride to Brighton on Tuesday, so I was charged with getting up early and walking the dog. Just as I was setting out, two traffic wardens were patrolling the street and I could see them taking an interest in our car. I decided to go back and they told me that our parking permit ran out two days ago. I knew this and was pretty sure OH had renewed it, but they said it wasn't showing on their system. 

To avoid a ticket, I took the dog out in the car to a favourite local spot and we had a nice walk. I then left it for the rest of the day, as I don't have time to watch over it. We didn't get a ticket and OH confirmed he'd paid for the renewal and had a receipt. We never see the wardens, until the permits expire and then they come out in force trying to catch people out. Seems a bit cynical to me.

I headed out later, to go to my usual class which was good and then after lunch I decided to head up to the sewing room and reorganise my fabric stash. I had been inspired by Karen of Just Get it Done Quilts on YouTube, who posted a great video about fabric storage.

Most of my fabrics are kept in drawers, but they were a bit dishevelled after I'd recently taken some out to use on projects and then put them back haphazardly and I wanted to re-fold everything, so that it all fitted better into the space. It took me the whole afternoon, but it looked a lot better when I'd finished. 

I had a long lie in on Wednesday morning, after having to take the dog for a midnight walk due to her having an upset stomach. When I did eventually surface, I put away some laundry and headed down for breakfast. I didn't have any plans for the day, as my usual class had changed venue, and as a consequence, I wasn't feeling it, as I would need to cycle and it was raining.

Instead, I decided that this was the day that I was going to do a task that I've been putting off for over 6 months, i.e. applying to renew my passport. It's a very simple task, but I'm terrible at getting around to tasks like this and OH had been bugging me to do it for months, so that we can maybe take a holiday abroad. I'd hung onto my old passport, so that I could use it for ID when I started my new employment in November, but since then I haven't had any excuse for not renewing it, I've just continually procrastinated.

I went online to do the application and I was surprised at how simple the process actually was. Within 15 minutes it was done and paid for and my expired passport was packaged up ready to send off. My self taken photo even seemed to be adequate for the process, but we'll see if they ask for another.

It was a huge relief to get this task done, as it's been in the back of my mind for so long. I was put off, thinking I would have to crop or alter the size of the photograph to upload it and in the end I didn't need to, so I could do it all myself without any help. I also thought that there'd be some other type of issue that would make the application difficult, but there actually wasn't. I would recommend the service to anyone. It felt like I'd really made progress today, just because of this one small thing, that I'd needlessly made into a big thing. Why did I do that?

On Wednesday afternoon, I decided to do a bit of sewing. I needed to alter a couple of garments to make them more wearable, so out came the sewing machine and I spent a nice couple of hours working on it. It was nice to get these things done and it removed a couple of items off the to do list. 

Thursday, it rained all day. I managed to get out with the dog early in a break in the rain, but it started raining as we were out so I cut down the walk a bit. I then booked myself into the gym and headed off for a good workout. I hadn't been in the main gym for at least a month and felt the difference using the machines in there.

When I got home, I decided to spend the afternoon making a new scrappy project. (More in another post) So I had a lovely afternoon, doing one of my absolute favourite things.

Friday, I decided it was time to go and get my hair cut. It was long overdue. I hadn't had it cut since before I started my job in November. I took myself off to the local mall, where I always go. It felt good to do something nice to try to make myself more presentable and it was good to actually get out of the house and go somewhere different. I found a £5 off voucher in my handbag, from my last visit, so I used that, which made it a little less expensive.

I had a little look around a few shops whilst at the mall and bought a few things we needed, but I didn't linger too long or spend too much money. Another thing crossed off my to do list.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon working on the star patchwork quilt. I'm close to finishing the last star block, which is exciting. In the evening, OH was out with his cycling friends, so I decided to do a bit of re-organisation of the cupboard in the vestibule. (More in another post)

Saturday morning, I was off to my usual gym session at 9.30am. I won't be able to get there for a couple of weeks, so I was glad to go this week and enjoyed the session.

I spent the rest of the day finishing cleaning and reorganising the vestibule cupboard and doing a bit of cleaning. LB rang and we had a nice chat and catch up.

In the evening I went back to the mall with OH. He wanted to buy a new phone and we stayed out for something to eat, which was a nice treat. I don't go to the mall often, but typically, I then end up there twice in two days.

Anyway, it's been a good week. I've enjoyed not being at work for the majority of it and having time to work on projects and do some re-organising. I also feel like I've ticked a quite a few important boxes on the to do list, which makes me feel like I've made good progress this week. I hope you have too.