I'm walkin'

Crossing 'my' bridge this morning

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I have also revived my habit of walking home from work, which is only the habit requiring the most energy to achieve of all my new 2017 habits (albeit on only four days of the week).

At some stage - when I'm getting up early enough and I have more energy - I will start walking to work in the morning as well, like I used to in the old days before my work moved to the west end of the city (and thus a little further from home). A walk along the river into the city really is a much better way to start the day than crowding onto a tram like sheep.

But for now I'm quite enjoying not catching the tram home after work (even on hot days) and getting a 45 minute walk in without really feeling like I'm making an effort to exercise.

Sometimes I walk on the south side of the river and sometimes on the north side, which is nice on hot days because there's a no-bikes-allowed path which is very shady and less busy. One day I detoured for the final part of the walk through the north end of the Botanic Gardens, which was very pleasant (even though as I walked from the Tan track to the garden gate I found myself amid a group of people much older than I who were all jogging up and down the incline while I dragged my sore/weary body up it...and then had to have a small lie down when I got home.)

I'm still doing well on getting up earlier. The last couple of days I've been tempted to hit the snooze button and stay in bed a bit longer because I haven't been sleeping as well, but I didn't! Go, me! I've been talking myself into just getting up and getting on with it. I really want those ticks! I'm still surprised how such a simple thing is motivating me so effectively, especially as it's private - I'm not accountable to anyone; it's just me and the list. 

Grumpy, but not totally without glee

I might have spoken too soon about doing well off my meds. I've been in a rotten mood since yesterday, although it could be that I've only had one good night's sleep in the last week and I've been feeling very average for the best part of a month (current state: exhausted + vertiginous). Or it could be that everyone and everything is effing annoying. I just don't know. 

But! I have had some laughs. I finished watching Raised by Wolves last night and cackled and guffawed my way through it. The final episode made me cry laughing - when Yoko (the sensitive/ anxious/depressive daughter) punched a hole in the caravan wall after Germaine killed a rare bee! - and it also made cry  - when Aretha was falling for her economics teacher, but her poor heart was crushed when she saw her teacher kissing her (own) boyfriend on the street. Long-suffering Aretha, the second eldest, nerdy, cynical, sharp-tongued daughter, is my favourite. 

The show was axed after its second season, but there are moves afoot for it to be resurrected. I shall keep my fingers tightly crossed.  

I also had a good laugh at these photos of googly-eyed grass monsters taken by my friend Victoria. I love them. They are ridiculous, adorable and hysterical. I love the playfulness, humour and imagination. 

I'm tempted to head across to the Botanic Gardens with a stash of googly-eyes, since I have no garden of my own.  (Apparently The Reject Shop sells these ones.)

I went to the chemist for something to help me sleep tonight. I'm sure I'll feel better if I can get some quality sleep.  
  

Small binge, socially anti-social, happy

Corner Flinders and Exhibition Streets the other night

I was flicking through the TV channels on Wednesday night when I came to Raised by Wolves on SBS. I'd heard the show, written by writer/broadcaster/feminist Caitlin Moran and her sister, was very funny, so I stopped to watch it and I bloody loved it. It is HILARIOUS. Nearly every line is quotable. Funny and ridiculous and, more often than not, completely gloriously wrong, but quotable. 

I'm not much of a TV watcher and thus not given to binge watching anything (except the screen of my phone), but I decided on Thursday morning I was going to spend today watching all of Raised by Wolves. I realised after two episodes that binge watching is not my thing though, no matter how much I love a show. I was feeling restless and ready to get up and do something else, but I persevered (lying in bed watching TV is such hard work) and watched all of the first series, which is only six episodes long. Then I went back to sleep (I hardly got any sleep last night, but not for any fun reasons). 

End of month drinks at work happened last night because of today's public holiday. I wasn't planning to go because I'm anti-social and still feeling poorly, but it was a friend's last day with the firm so I went and it was fun and now I wish it always happened on the last Thursday of the month.

I've been completely off anti-depressants for about two weeks now and I'm still happy as a pig in poop. Yay. 

  

Hilarity, spending and saving

A Twitter friend retweeted this video of Steven Jacobs, a morning show weather presenter, being "attacked" by a big chook last night. I watched it at bedtime, which was foolish because I couldn't stop laughing, even when I was just thinking about it. All that laughing made me too overstimulated to sleep. 

I watched it again this morning at work and giggled to myself like a nutter. I can't even explain why I find it so hysterical, but I do. I think it might be the flailing.

I lost a lens from my glasses when I was in Brisbane and I have only just got around to getting it replaced (I have spares obviously). I was pleasantly surprised that it only cost me $60. My health insurance paid about half of the cost, which I wasn't expecting because I'd already claimed for lenses this year.  Pretty happy about that. 

I went also went to Priceline on my lunch break to buy some pressed powder because I had used up every last crumb of what I had, and it was 50 per cent off. Wooh! I also stocked up on one of my skincare essentials and it was 20 per cent off. I'm spaving left, right and centre today (spaving = spending + saving). 

Delightfully lazy, loud snore, good saves

I've had such a delightfully lazy weekend. My Saturday and Sunday continued in the fashion of Friday—sleep, books, tea—and it was lovely. I finished one book and I'm more than three-quarters of the way through another. I only left the house a few times—to vote, eat a burger and buy groceries. 

I went back to sleep this morning after an hour or so on my phone reading the internet, but I woke myself up around 10.00am with a loud snore, which made me laugh. 

I dropped a carton of eggs and an open container of tomato paste today when I was fussing about in the kitchen, but I caught them both they hit the floor. I'm both clumsy and highly coordinated.

I made my finest batch of spaghetti bolognaise for dinner. I threw in some bits and pieces that were lurking in the fridge—olives, artichokes, baby spinach—that would otherwise have just gone off. Delicious and waste-saving. 

Rainbow, no alarm, tea habit

Sunset rainbow through my office window

Today was another of those cold, gloomy winter days where we didn't see the sun until it was setting. It made a brief appearance, gave us a rainbow and was gone. 

I thought I had an appointment tomorrow morning, but I don't, which means I don't need to set my alarm. Love that. It's been hard to get out of bed this week so I'm especially pleased I can emerge from my bed at my leisure. 

I've never been much of a tea or coffee drinker (not a coffee drinker at all actually), but lately I seem to have developed a (green) tea habit. It started because I was cold at work and wanted something to warm me up, but now I actually want to drink it for its own sake. I look forward to having a nice, hot cuppa.  Maybe I'll go off it in when winter's over, but for now I'm enjoying it.  

No nap, productive, not giving a crap

Tiny fungus growing under an overhanging 

rock in the garden out the front 

I'm doing a great job of not shopping (go, me!), but I'm not doing as well at breaking my habit of sleeping too much on weekends. I napped Friday and Saturday afternoon...if sleeping for several hours can still be called napping. 

In my defence, I've been feeling poorly, but today I managed not to get back into bed at any stage, despite really, really wanting to. I want to be able to get a good night's sleep tonight so I forced myself to do stuff around the flat instead. I've had quite a productive day. I even did a little mending and some ironing.  

I love this response to the stupid idea that there are things women over 30 shouldn't wear.  I love seeing all these women dressing however the hell they want. 

It's Sausage Sunday! 


       

Sunshine, sausages and sleep

Grapes

It was a gloriously sunny day today. I went to pilates and then to South Melbourne market to buy sausages. There's a butcher there that sells about 100 varieties of sausages and they are almost all free of onion and garlic (which upset my belly). Sunday night dinner is sorted. 

I bought a single mandarin to snack on on my way along Chapel Street after pilates and it was perfect. Deliciously sweet. 

I have nowhere to be tomorrow morning (unlike the last two days) and I plan to have a big sleep in. 

Not grumpy, deep sea, worst language

I'm in quite a good mood today...or maybe that started after I got home from work? Whichever. I wasn't a grumpy bum all day. That's a pleasant change. 

I am fascinated by deep sea creatures and landscapes so I was interested to read about exploration of the Perth Canyon near Rottnest Island, off the coast of Western Australia. The canyon is about the same length as the Grand Canyon and twice as deep - up to four kilometres deep in places. Four kilometres of dark water teeming with strange creatures! Despite it proximity to the mainland, it has never been properly explored, but a team of scientists from the University of Western Australia is changing that. You can read about their discoveries here. 

This is an amusing and interesting list of reasons English is "the worst language ever". I'm glad I never had to learn it as a second language. 

The way Americans pronounce "duty" makes me chuckle. Dooty, and sometimes doody. Hahaha. Doody. 

No, I didn't post yesterday because I went to bed as soon as I got home and pretty much stayed there until 8.00 am.  

JayBloPoMo: day 2

I found half a gluten-free sandwich in the kitchen at work this afternoon.  I know! Who doesn't get excited about a left-over sandwich? It was surplus catering, not just someone's uneaten lunch. There's often food left over from partners' meetings and the like, but this is the first time there has been gluten-free sandwiches in the offing. I'd already had lunch, but I helped myself to it anyway.  It wasn't disappointingly bland, but that didn't completely cancel out the small thrill of finding it.

A guy from the finance department at work came to collect a big cheque from me (no, not one of those novelty giant cheques). He and I have swapped offices - he's in my old building and vice versa - and we spent some time discussing the pros and cons of both workplaces. Sheepishly he opined that the toilet paper is better quality in his old office - my new office.  I  can't say I've noticed.

I had a good night's sleep and a very productive day at work. That doesn't happen every night/day. 

I will post some photos here at some point. Baby steps.