tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49425226812643320442024-03-07T16:46:37.144+00:00Living the simple life I wantThe quality of your life is brought about by the quality of your thinkingMoonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.comBlogger894125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-14528512256265760702022-10-13T11:41:00.000+01:002022-10-13T11:41:45.641+01:00No new hip but at least the rug is down and the shark is coming<p>I was supposed to get a new hip last week. Got a phone call while I was on the way there that too many staff had come down with COVID and all non-emergency operations had to be cancelled. Le big sigh. I got off the train and sat on the platform* for a while, txting people to share my frustration and, I must admit, letting a few tears fall. But at least I was now able to have breakfast so, silver linings and all that. </p><p>It was particularly frustrating because I had worked late the previous two days, trying to get enough stuff finished to make it possible for my bosses to be able to cover my minimum four-week absence,** stayed up late to try and get my apartment in some kind of order and then gotten up really early on the day of the operation to do the washing-up, pack and get on the road in plenty of time. So I was tired. But I turned that into silver lining number two: when I got home, I ate, unpacked one more box of stuff lying around, went to sing with my local choir at a funeral and then spent the afternoon sleeping. </p><p>I had so much stuff to organise in my apartment because I was planning on giving up the studio I rented a while back as an office/extra space*** but unexpectedly, through a friend-of-a-friend type situation, I was able to
sublet it to a student who was just moving to start studying here. So,
the desired result but at kind of short notice which mean a very busy weekend drawing up a contract for the sublet, trying to find the main contract to attach to it and then finishing the painting that I started......who knows......at
least a year ago as well as move all the crap that I had moved over there back
to my own place. A lot of it was just stuff needing to be sorted that had been thrown into big shopping bags and moved over there out of the way. I did actually give myself the space to move one or two at a time over the course of a week**** and sorted them a little bit immediately. I had some nice spare canvas organiser-type boxes and was trying to at least get all the smaller bits and pieces into them. I do still have quite a lot of stuff to go through more carefully and deal with but at least some of it has gone and the rest is sorted into relatively tidy-looking boxes and baskets. It <i>was </i>nice to find some items and realised that in the meantime, I have actually come up with a proper storage solution/place for that category of stuff. So often it feels like I'm making no progress at all but small little decisions or realisiations do end up gathering pace and resulting in actual improvements. I need to not lose track of that in the future. And I did get rid of three big bags of recycling and rubbish.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQYmZc0o9DehXWfCzxUszWhbaq1vGZIM_DuGht9s7vGIIPa1gm8id7mLfAIdpJ612YbuxCEb4joYlIs7-UguzfPW0RhkRilEw1o_iq2rquqFo1jZrjXEkSHzttUgzBTdJ62N4R_Xsz0sBCiD_KY4gaJQ4ekHCo_uDc2gGxIpOrK5sQoLghl0rfObyO1A/s3840/IMG-20221009-WA0001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3840" data-original-width="2160" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQYmZc0o9DehXWfCzxUszWhbaq1vGZIM_DuGht9s7vGIIPa1gm8id7mLfAIdpJ612YbuxCEb4joYlIs7-UguzfPW0RhkRilEw1o_iq2rquqFo1jZrjXEkSHzttUgzBTdJ62N4R_Xsz0sBCiD_KY4gaJQ4ekHCo_uDc2gGxIpOrK5sQoLghl0rfObyO1A/w225-h400/IMG-20221009-WA0001.jpeg" width="225" /></a></p><p>Best of all, for me, is the fact that the situation with the studio spurred me on to make some changes to the layout of furniture in my apartment that I have been thinking about for a good while. I bought a rug****** for under my dining table and had unrolled it in the studio to flatten out and air. And then it got rolled up and stashed in the bathroom there because I started painting last year. I do still have moths but, regardless, I brought it over and put it down in the place where I had moved the table to. I lived with that for a week but something wasn't quite right and so I used some of my newly-free time at the weekend to try something else. And what do you know, sometimes just turning a rug so that it's sideways instead of lengthways is just what you need to do. Bonus, now the chairs also actually fit on the rug. In fact, I think this is how I originally intended it to be and had just forgotten.*******</p><p>Just a quick photo that I took to send to my sister and a friend to show what it looked like in the new set-up. I skillfully didn't include the row of boxes on either side of that open floor space that still need to be dealt with but even with that, loads of floor space. </p><p>I also finally bit the bullet and ordered myself a Shark cordless upright hoover (ok, a vacuum cleaner, but where I'm from, we always call all vacuum cleaners hoovers). The cheap Aldi version I got a couple of years ago gave up the ghost last week but even though it wasn't great, it was definitely easier to use, which meant more frequent hoovering. I expect great things from myself with an even better tool in my hands. Which increases the chances of me doing yoga and stretching exercises more frequently. It's kind of disheartening to get down on the mat, turn your head to the side, and be distracted by dust bunnies gathering closer and closer. </p><p>I am choosing to think of this past week as one step back but two steps forward.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>* Which is to say, I sat on a bench on the platform. Maybe when I do eventually get a new hip, sitting on the platform might not seem quite so impossible. </p><p>** I still feel a bit like I haven't caught up since I had COVID in March and was off for two weeks. Three weeks holidays June/July, some random sick days, then a week off sick in August with a bad cold, followed by two weeks of doing the bare minimum because I was still not quite rid of the cold, followed by a week's holiday in September (went to visit my sister in France for her 50th birthday and it was lovely) and a couple more sick days and time off for doctor and hospital pre-op appointments. So, yeah, not my most productive summer ever.</p><p>*** Except for one regular monthly job, my sidegig of translation work has all but dried up and I haven't had the energy to go looking for more. So I have been paying the extra rent but not actually cutting back on any other expenses to make up for it. Debt is building up again. </p><p>**** Still didn't want to finish the painting and this was as good a way of procrastinating as any.*****<br /></p><p>***** Asterisking and foot-noting are fun. :-)</p><p>****** I just looked it up. NOVEMBER 2020. How ridiculous is it that I bought something I wanted to use, loved when I got it, and then left it unused and unloved for almost two years!!!!!!!</p><p>******* TWO. YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!<br /></p>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-83831250622261902062022-05-13T12:24:00.000+01:002022-05-13T12:24:03.697+01:00Thinking of starting to explore youtubing<p>The idea of starting to record videos for youtube has come to mind every now and again over the years. Partially as a potential side gig (earn money just for going on about my life? Why not!?!), partially from a sense of pushing myself out of my comfort zone. On the one hand, you look at some youtube channels and wonder how on earth something that boring became so common and beloved. Unboxings were the first time I remember thinking that. I mean, apart from hating that word, it's one thing if someone I follow happens to get something and opens it. That can be kind of fun and interesting. But there are channels out there dedicated to nothing else. I have to admit to finding cash envelope stuffing videos kind of mesmerising and I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who are as mystified by them as I am by unboxings. </p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAC0bWHWVPdk_j6iFc58CUxcpC20KosvWm-we10vT-nyQKuQRSXCqycw7TjFLQ7Kv5aoaIg_RnURLDnj1BorhjudiNIb7T4ohPyQyWcAE6dJXvQspY0vGd426Y25VqwVX-M1kYxZWq4bm_OQYx1c7HXXyHcCeq0Je6iJOrXKXSPqSkZbwHrHIbMDLmHQ/s3088/2022-04-21_sunset%20on%20the%20way%20home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAC0bWHWVPdk_j6iFc58CUxcpC20KosvWm-we10vT-nyQKuQRSXCqycw7TjFLQ7Kv5aoaIg_RnURLDnj1BorhjudiNIb7T4ohPyQyWcAE6dJXvQspY0vGd426Y25VqwVX-M1kYxZWq4bm_OQYx1c7HXXyHcCeq0Je6iJOrXKXSPqSkZbwHrHIbMDLmHQ/s320/2022-04-21_sunset%20on%20the%20way%20home.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A recent stunning sunset<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>On the other hand, I do realise how much work goes on behind the scenes and honestly, I don't think I'm technically experienced or talented or interested enough to bother with all of that. So it would be the youtube equivalent of, well, this blog and its photos. Alright but not of the highest quality. That would irritate me while not actually inspiring me to invest the time and money into getting good equipment and learning how to do it all properly myself or paying someone else to do it for me. Although I have no interest in learning to do it all properly, and although I'm not even someone with particularly (or even any) high standards when it comes to photography or sound, I'm very likely give up immediately if everything isn't perfect.</p><p> <br /></p><p> </p><p>Actually, this is another area where I'd be stepping way outside my comfort zone, which means it could in fact be good for me. Maybe. </p><p>So between technical issues, potentially boring content, and the potential privay issues around putting your real self out there without the safety blanket of anonymity, I've never done anything about it. And of course there is also the fact that at some stage I learned that monetisation on youtube doesn't even start before something like one thousand subscribers and four thousand views. Even when I was posting regularly, this blog has rarely had more than about 50 views in any one day. </p><p>The idea has reared its head again, though, to some extent because I'm working through some very tough issues in therapy at the moment, revolving in part around who/how I was as a child and teenager. The two threads have kind of come together in my head. On the one hand, if I could manage to get the word out and try to get my family to all subscribe to a youtube channel, I'd be well on the way to a good amount subscribers (just my siblings, their spouses and kids is already more than 25 people, if aunts and uncles and cousins started to get on board, the numbers really grow to the hundreds very quickly). More importantly, it might be a way to actually get in touch with some of that extended family that I haven't had contact with for years, and maybe be able to get some of them to share with them what I was like as a kid, thus answering at least some of my questions about my past.* <br /></p><p>Anyway, it's all just ruminating for now. If anyone reads this and has any advice to offer one way or another, feel free to comment. And if I do decide to go ahead with it, let me know if you'd be interested in following. It would have to be completely separate from this blog, as it would be my online persona that is essentially my real life one (still not my real name but a real nickname that people who know me would recognise easily). I try to keep the two separate but since I'd be desperate for <strike>followers</strike> subscribers anyway 😁, I'd be willing to share with those of you I've had contact with over the years. <br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>* I do realise most people, at least most people my age, would reach for fb for this but I can't stand that particular platform and only made it about two days becoming totally overwhelmed. Youtube seems like it could be a bit more like a blog in that it's slightly more in my control, with less input from others. <br /></p><p><br /></p>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-74240441186860308612022-05-06T10:50:00.006+01:002022-05-06T11:05:12.643+01:00Subscriptions break the budget<p>Santis over at <a href="https://thecaribbeandub.com/" target="_blank">The Caribbean Dub</a> posted a question yesterday on instagram asking people what kind of subscriptions they have. I confidently replied:</p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>€7.99 per month for either Amazon Prime or Netflix most months. I'm going to aim to cut this down to at most six months a year but I'm not sure yet how/when exactly to do that.<br /></li><li>€30 per month for patreon (supporting The Blindboy Podcast, Laura Kennedy, David McWilliams, Maintenance Phase, Fundie Fridays and Rock the Housework in case anyone is interested)<br /></li></ol><p>There was a <a href="https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/how-many-subscriptions-do-you-have/?topicseen" target="_blank">similar thread on the MMM forums</a> recently and so I decided to read that. I also read some of the other answers Santis posted and so I've been thinking about the less regular subscriptions I have. It really shows once again that it is a very useful exercise to review this kind of thing a couple of times a year, because when it comes to apps on my phone, it's so easy to just click to see what the added functionality is like (and then never bother to actually decide if it's worth an annual fee or not), or even just to get rid of ads. </p><p>So, as well as the two mentioned above, I actually have more than a few other subscriptions:</p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Irish Times online - I did try to cancel this a while back but was offered half-price for a year so kept it at €6/month.</li><li>GoodBudget app - I used this a lot for the first 14 months or so, then got overwhelmed and have since returned to physical cash envelopes. €64.99/year - I need to pull all the information I have out of the app and onto my PC and then I'll revert back to the free version. </li><li>Yazio app - €29.99/year. Only used this for a couple of months. Again, got overwhelmed and have gone back to paper-based tracking, if at all.</li><li>Merriam app - €2.19/year</li><li>SleepCycle app - €13.99/year for premium. The free version would be ok, but I do use it almost every day and I like to support them. There's one premium feature that I could live without but prefer to have. Can't at this moment recall exactly what it is though.<br /></li><li>Wetter app - €5.49/year for ad-free. </li><li>Medium.com - already cancelled a few months ago. Thought I would use it loads and just didn't.</li><li>Flickr - just recently added this due to the changes they're introducing. I have several yahoo email accounts, which means that at some point I acquired several flickr accounts. I've just upgraded one of them and paid the €82.54 for a two-year subscription. That gives me some time to actually think about whether I need the service or not. </li></ol><p>I also have a VPN service but, like domains and hosting, consider that a business expense for my side-gig. I used the two months free youtube premium that was offered to me a while back but cancelled it before it ticked over into a paid service. The other app I use a lot is Insight Timer. There is an option to support them financially and when funds allow, I will probably start doing that. I do get a lot of use from it. <br /></p><p> Annual costs (rounded):</p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Netflix/Amazon Prime (target of six months a year!): 50</li><li>Patreon: 360</li><li>Irish Times: 75</li><li>GoodBudget: 65</li><li>Yazio: 30</li><li>Merriam: 5</li><li>SleepCycle: 15</li><li>Wetter: 5</li><li>Flickr: 45</li></ol><p>A grand total of: €650/year or almost €55/month! Cancelling GoodBudget and Yazio will bring that down by almost €100/year. Patreon is by far the biggest chunk of that and yet supporting all of those is something I'd like to continue doing. Definitely worth making an appointment with myself for once a year or so to consciously decide whether or not to continue with all of them.<br /></p>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-38349201885639780052022-04-28T11:56:00.011+01:002022-04-28T11:59:03.016+01:00Summer eating plan<p>In just a few days it will be May and although we had a few cold days again a week or so ago, the sun is finally starting to look like it may be here to stay for a while. I'm not quite in sandals yet, but it feels like it won't be long. Outdoors aquajogging starts up again next week and I can't wait. I was hoping to attend a zen meditation session two weeks ago but couldn't make it and then forgot to even try last week. I've just sent an email to see if I can attend this evening and if not, I'll head to the general open session next Monday. The calendar is definitely starting to fill up again.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWPdp8WVpV8kd8rWdYhCMuOT2ZAMn9SN3nXzR8yE4AI_c_2ryKKMxqEW50VPUaEPK5DaLYAwxIh_vZYS5CwdmtJZOCMnVcXiDTsmH04WpEYY6p852rUwI4L-JoOCLAEOBgjeRZidLfkU-WSq0ot26pIrkn82hFHVTFINQ0xQ81TBPKTNnlqMWd0E5hFA/s3088/2022-04-28_view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWPdp8WVpV8kd8rWdYhCMuOT2ZAMn9SN3nXzR8yE4AI_c_2ryKKMxqEW50VPUaEPK5DaLYAwxIh_vZYS5CwdmtJZOCMnVcXiDTsmH04WpEYY6p852rUwI4L-JoOCLAEOBgjeRZidLfkU-WSq0ot26pIrkn82hFHVTFINQ0xQ81TBPKTNnlqMWd0E5hFA/s320/2022-04-28_view.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A blurry photo of the current view from my office window. The light is too bright to show the amazing colour of the wisteria and since we've no smell-o-vision either, you'll have to use your imagination.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> </p><p>Along with the change in weather comes a change in eating habits. The soups and stews I've eaten so much of over the past few months will be out, salads and sandwiches in. My cooking and keeping an eye on eating properly has been all over the place since I had COVID. My energy, too. And so I decided to take it easy on myself in April and spend what energy I had coming up with a decent meal plan/concept for warm weather eating. I'm just about there but need to still figure out calories and protein for a few of the dishes I've selected. And I've bought most of what I need, except for stocking up on fresh salad leaves or other vegetables every week. </p><p>Keeping it as simple as possible, and because I still do have some Optifast pouches to use up, for May I'll be having quark and fruit for most breakfasts, with an occaisional Optifast chocolate or vanilla drink. Lunches for about three weeks of May will be soup as I do have some in the freezer to use up as well as some Optifast. I'll scatter some spur of the moment canteen/bakery/meeting friends lunches in there to get me through the month.</p><p>And dinners will essentially be salads of various kinds. What I plan to do is prepare a lot of Korean-style side-dishes and then each week or two prepare some kind of protein. The salads will then be made up every day depending on what I feel like from each of the following categories:</p><p>Salad: mostly salad leaves (oakleaf, lambs lettuce, chard, spinach etc.), sometimes lentils or chickpeas, very rarely maybe potatoes or pasta<br /></p><p>Side-dishes: a small amount from two or three different ones</p><p>Protein: chicken, tofu, meatballs, eggs</p><p>Sprinkly toppings: seeds and/or nuts</p><p>Dressing: vinaigrette or yoghurt</p><p><br /></p><p>To start me off, I've planned on the following:</p><p><i><b>Side-dishes</b></i><br /></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Kimchi (still need to buy this)</li><li>Spicy braised green beans with feta <br /></li><li><a href="https://thecaribbeandub.com/pickled-red-onions/" target="_blank">Pickled red onions</a> </li><li><a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/korean-coleslaw-recipe-2118866" target="_blank">Spicy Korean coleslaw</a></li><li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BMCfF8WDpc2/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=" target="_blank">Creme fraiche coleslaw</a> (Found on instagram. I've always claimed to not like coleslaw but really, it's mayonnaise I don't like. Anyway, I figured if I'm going to chop cabbage up small,
I might as well try more than one recipe. Will probably use cream
cheese and/or yoghurt and/or quark rather than creme fraiche.) <br /></li><li><a href="https://www.jamieoliver.com/features/how-to-make-pineapple-salsa/" target="_blank">Pineapple salsa</a> (although I'll be using a tin)<br /></li><li>Tomatoes (unplanned but they had local tomatoes in the supermarket yesterday and I couldn't resist - they must be from a heated greenhouse but I'll bet they're still very good for a salad - might mix with some onion or scallions)</li></ol><p><i><b>Proteins</b></i></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/korean-pancake-with-scallions-2118966" target="_blank">Korean pancake with scallions</a></li><li><a href="https://mykoreankitchen.com/pan-fried-tofu-in-garlic-soy-sesame-sauce/" target="_blank">Panfried tofu in garlic soy sesame sauce</a></li><li>Super crispy tofu (recipe from Little Lou Cooks on instagram - I can't manage to log in at the moment from this pc but I highly recommend checking her out. Also on tiktok and FB, I think)<br /></li><li>Broccoli fritters (also from Little Lou Cooks)<br /></li><li>Chopped omelette <br /></li><li>Spicy chilli and honey pork (Pinch of Nom recipe but made with the veal I bought months ago)</li><li>Chicken and apple (another Little Lou Cooks recipe that I'm going to try in the slow cooker)<br /></li><li><a href="https://smittenkitchen.com/2013/04/lentil-and-chickpea-salad-with-feta-and-tahini/" target="_blank">Lentil and chickpea salad with feta and tahini</a><br /></li></ol><p><i><b>Sprinkly toppings (I plan to just mix everything into a small jar to use for the week)<br /></b></i></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Pumpkin seeds</li><li>Sunflower seeds</li><li>Hazelnuts</li><li>Walnuts</li><li>Sesame seeds<br /></li></ol><p><i><b>Dressings <br /></b></i></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Standard olive oil and balsamic vinegar</li><li>Olive oil and lemon and garlic</li><li>Going to try a few different yoghurt dressing recipes - to start off easy, I've bought a packet of pre-mixed herbs that you just mix with yoghurt and vinegar</li><li>I also bought pomegrante molasses to make the dressing from a <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8086216-plenty" target="_blank">Plenty </a>recipe I love<br /></li></ol><p>I think that's more than enough to keep me going. The aim is to prep everything on a weekend and then just be able to help myself during the week. <br /></p>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-82733008807997819192022-03-21T13:05:00.001+00:002022-03-21T13:05:08.703+00:00Almost a new quarter<p>It seems like every time I decide I'm going to start blogging regularly again, all that happens is a series of post, ever further apart, starting with something along the lines of "how can it already be [x amount of time] since the last time I posted. I was going to start journalling, thinking maybe putting an actual pen to actual paper might help me to sort out some of the swirl happening in my head. And then I remembered that that was part of what I first loved about blogging: that typing allowed me to get more of the swirl out of my head since I can type so much faster (and more accurately, not to mention legibly) than handwriting anything. There is definitely a lot of swirl happening in my head though, so time to do something about it. Perhaps I'll start wearing a beret and strolling around with a notebook and pencil to jot notes and ideas in. I'm not quite sure why a beret is essential to this activity but it feels like it is. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh86PYfl4patwrJetoMz75ZESddZv9lO6M9xhiXWV7YpzLYDYH74IgHsJF2qLCJIcbBM-zrKOJSX5Epfp7DTYgbVlQL0DqxHgVNLm-rbhT2dSTVzdzXsuHj6Klvg5Jg7Dnq5Itl12jdeXtwBrcLbq_-qQ3NG0ybtfg0F-khzcqaN74JAkSd8075Wq1dGw/s3088/20220310_100909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh86PYfl4patwrJetoMz75ZESddZv9lO6M9xhiXWV7YpzLYDYH74IgHsJF2qLCJIcbBM-zrKOJSX5Epfp7DTYgbVlQL0DqxHgVNLm-rbhT2dSTVzdzXsuHj6Klvg5Jg7Dnq5Itl12jdeXtwBrcLbq_-qQ3NG0ybtfg0F-khzcqaN74JAkSd8075Wq1dGw/s320/20220310_100909.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I got through January well enough. Didn't do as well with the 30-day
Yoga with Adrienne challenge as I would have liked to but on the other
hand, I did a whole lot more yoga in January than I have otherwise ever
done. Food is starting to get a bit out of control although on the whole
is also better in general than it has been for a long time. And I was
really glad to have a freezer with quite a lot of batch-cooked food in
it when this happened at the end of Feburary.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, January ended up kind of going off the rails because there was a shooting close to where I work. I wasn't immediately under threat in the sense that I had no gun pointing directly at me at any stage but I was close enough to see the shooter and be one of the people calling the police. Not an experience I care to repeat any time soon although I'm pleased enough with how calmly I reacted in the moment. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYWVHG33yxxgH-xsngVxDUDTeYuPYA2eRfsXIYHwv1-YU7R6I5mJxKV0O1bbNOKgibP-RmhwpTfIUGFDu6GOec-E5D3A3FAOAj4DLYO8pVKnsNxaNceflIKMw3Lw8GHCIuOX3rXGtiD_MIhwRCOPTZfzS0BJ3dYBCG-Jq1G0LFg00poHec_h2y8Q8Uxg/s3088/20220203_200353.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYWVHG33yxxgH-xsngVxDUDTeYuPYA2eRfsXIYHwv1-YU7R6I5mJxKV0O1bbNOKgibP-RmhwpTfIUGFDu6GOec-E5D3A3FAOAj4DLYO8pVKnsNxaNceflIKMw3Lw8GHCIuOX3rXGtiD_MIhwRCOPTZfzS0BJ3dYBCG-Jq1G0LFg00poHec_h2y8Q8Uxg/s320/20220203_200353.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <p></p><p>At the start of February then, I was moving pretty slowly in general. I had texted a friend on the day of the shooting that I was definitely going to do TOMM that evening and the entire 30 minutes was going to be dedicated to clearing off the table. So, yeah, that didn't happen that day. <br /></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>It took me a couple of weeks to get back to doing anything much at all other than work and sleep but finally I did manage to make it look like this (after three evenings worth of work!)
I even managed to keep it that way for several weeks. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1sVMqjAUjkqs4EpPvR6kWlsyoeUmtDeD7ZUEulIGwI_dCgzs00gvZ6wV6BxzFeMqTqUdq4cymUFeS8xCMjvopcCEky5yCysIuLZaVZX91fDDYWw1_RgaxkSuPRD4wAliwji8EBBO8WPw9maDHH5tKVvQzht-yDFhZUpRuA8QpINM5hhLSXxncEOdjLw/s3088/20220206_212355.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1sVMqjAUjkqs4EpPvR6kWlsyoeUmtDeD7ZUEulIGwI_dCgzs00gvZ6wV6BxzFeMqTqUdq4cymUFeS8xCMjvopcCEky5yCysIuLZaVZX91fDDYWw1_RgaxkSuPRD4wAliwji8EBBO8WPw9maDHH5tKVvQzht-yDFhZUpRuA8QpINM5hhLSXxncEOdjLw/s320/20220206_212355.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I was really happy to head off to Halle at the end of the month to once more participate in the Happy Birthday Handel performance of Messiah. A far smaller choir and smaller crowd this year, given the Corona restrictions still i place. Not that those restrictions (everyone testing everyday, masks on when not in seat, everybody vaccinated) helped much in the end because on the day I left I had a bit of a scratchy throat so while waiting for a train change, I decided to do another test just in case and that's the first positive one I got. The picture above is from day 10 after first testing positive and it was another three days before I managed to get a negative test. I had what they call a mild case but it still fairly knocked me out for two weeks. Fever the first four or five days, coughing and sneezing and blowing my nose a million times the entire time, and a week since I've been testing negative I'm still coughing. It's just not fun. And that's a mild case in someone who's vaccinated and boosted. Le big sigh. Ok, that's enough for now - I'm supposed to be working so I suppose I'll go and do a bit of that.
</p>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-56228751651118905592022-01-04T11:27:00.000+00:002022-01-04T11:27:07.651+00:00Debt, word of the year, and a motto<p>Time to take stock and admit to myself that I am in debt again. I haven't been denying it, just pushing it to the back of my head really. There are a couple of reasons but mostly just being careless and spending whatever I felt like over the past month or two, along with one or two bigger ticket items. €320 for an injection into my hip? Yay. Anyway, time to get back of track. I bought a budget calendar from <a href="https://www.etsy.com/de/shop/PositiveReduceMyDebt?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=1140473465" target="_blank">PositiveReduceMyDebt </a>(who I've been following on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/positive_reducemydebt_ie/" target="_blank">instagram </a>for a couple of months now) and have filled out some goals for January. </p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>15 no-spend days</li><li>Stick to €25/week for food (given I ended up spending just over €90 already, this will be very tight)</li><li>No-spend year - exceptions for January: step ladder and watercolours <br /></li></ol><p>I have taking some money out of savings to cover some of the bills and will work on getting the overdraft back down to zero over the year while building my savings back up. I do technically have enough in my investment account to cover all of it but I want to leave that where it is if possible. Head down and onwards. And the same applies to food and eating and meal planning. I let things go completely to pot in December and while I enjoyed it, I also badly need to get that under control again. <br /></p><p>So, over the Christmas break, I made a meal plan for January, wrote a shopping list and on Sunday I cooked. My aim is to mostly only have to cook every second week or perhaps twice a month. I think time will tell on that one. On Sunday I made a big pot of vegetable soup, lemon chicken with veg and potatoes, and a chicken and spinach curry. </p><p>My meal plan is not one planning exactly what to have each day but rather a rough outline and then I can choose what I want to have on each day. </p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhCJarXpuZK3JdzS6fnJQf-9j_uSUyuZ0agmcUJ1fpNcnBRKihku6TCmK5Bo_iPVadbhEL90xk5O5LpIokpC_lIpJHZEwmUpRf4aem3LiKd8r1tq9xYS_JXVHfXLn1456fxzAAKlfUPZKnRQgqxahjmQAH3LuUvdPDsBR9tqgnx-rUKzPZVJCkl3mBAoQ=s3088" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="3088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhCJarXpuZK3JdzS6fnJQf-9j_uSUyuZ0agmcUJ1fpNcnBRKihku6TCmK5Bo_iPVadbhEL90xk5O5LpIokpC_lIpJHZEwmUpRf4aem3LiKd8r1tq9xYS_JXVHfXLn1456fxzAAKlfUPZKnRQgqxahjmQAH3LuUvdPDsBR9tqgnx-rUKzPZVJCkl3mBAoQ=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yikes!</td></tr></tbody></table></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Butternut squash and ricotta frittata (6 servings)</li><li>Chicken and spinach curry (4 servings)</li><li>Oriental lentil stew (4 big servings - new recipe, depending on what it's actually like, this may make more servings than 4, I think)</li><li>Cauliflower and broccoli gratin (4 servings)<br /></li><li>Lemon chicken with potatoes and veg (6 servings)</li><li>Honey chilli pork (4 servings) - except they had no pork in the butchers so I took the suggested veal instead. Without checking the price first. Veal is <i>expensive</i>. How carelessness leads to yet another drop on the debt puddle!<br /> <br /></li></ul><p> </p><p>So that's 28 dinners. For lunches, I planned for potato and leek soup, spicy lentil and carrot soup, pumpkin soup, and vegetable soup. Since I didn't even use half of the cabbage I got in the vegetable soup I made at the weekend and still ended up with 10 servings, I don't think I'll need to make all of the rest of those this month. I am also having a week or two of eating some of the meal replacement pouches that I should have, but didn't, use in December. Essentially starting over with a couple of weeks of the transition phase that was supposed to end just before Christmas. That will actually take care of some lunches, too.</p><p>The only word I could come up with for a word for the coming year was support. It made me kind of uncomfortable though, so I tried to think of something else. Before realising that I was feeling mostly uncomfortable with the idea of needing or asking for support. Probably a good indication that it really is the right word for me this year. <span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Support </span></span></b></span>it is. </p><p>And then on Saturday I read something in a tweet that I am also adopting as a kind of a motto for a while. If the right words come along at the
right time for me, I'll grab on to them: <span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Discipline always trumps motivation</span></b></span></span>. </p><p><samp class="EmbedCode-container"><code class="EmbedCode-code"><br /></code></samp></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Don't wait until you're motivated to do something. Don't wait until you feel ready to start. It may never come. Discipline always trumps motivation. <br>Decide the kind of life you want to lead and say no to everything that isn't that. <br>#2022</p>— Cécile Chemin-Gordon (@MuayCe) <a href="https://twitter.com/MuayCe/status/1476233487732645900?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 29, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-36419077918385290812021-12-16T07:56:00.001+00:002021-12-16T07:56:14.632+00:00The day has started wellI went for a PCR test* this morning, which meant a badly-needed 20 minutes extra sleep. Then I got there 10 minutes early but they were already set up so they swabbed me immediately. They swabbed my throat instead of my nose and my very difficult to swab nose is very grateful.<div><br></div><div>Because I was finished there so quickly, I had time to stop at the clinic in town on the way to work and pick up the prescription I thought I might not be able to get until the new year. The shop that actually makes the orthotics wasn't open but when I asked the porter if there was a letterbox, not only did he show me where it was, when I said I'd need to go and buy an envelope first, he gave me an envelope. Such a nice, really lovely man.</div><div><br></div><div>Then I just missed the bus to work so crossed over to the other side of the square to get the other bus and while I was standing there, a friend came over to say hello. She was on the way to a work meeting and running late so there was no time for more than hello and a very quick hug but I still got to get the warm and fuzzy feeling of knowing that even though she was late, she still took a minute to walk the less direct way so she could say hello. And a hug. There have not been enough hugs these past couple of years. So glad I got my booster already. </div><div><br></div><div>All that and I'm just about to get to work, just a few minutes ahead of the time I said I'd be there. What a lovely first hour or two of this Thursday.<br><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>* One I'll pay for myself but I have a ticket to fly to Ireland on Saturday so better safe than sorry.</div></div>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-91466586130944928162021-10-28T15:33:00.002+01:002021-10-28T15:33:20.289+01:00Feeling full<p>Just a quick note for posterity. Today was my first official day eating food again after 12 weeks (we won't mention the holiday). I had to get bloodwork done in the morning so I didn't get to have my breakfast (a meal replacement drink) until almost eleven o'clock. I did sneak in a Milky Way on the way back to the office from the clinic, though. Not at all in the plan but I felt like I needed to have something to make my mind believe not immediately flip out and start eating all the things. <br /></p><p>For lunch, at around half past one, I had a serving of the pumpkin soup I made at the weekend (50.5 kcal, 3g protein) and 50g of feta cheese (136kcal, 8g protein). Total 186kcal and 11g protein. Target is 200kcal and 15-20g protein so not quite there. The 50g of feta was way too much - on paper I had wanted to do 25g but that seemed like such a small amount I decided to go for 50g. 200g is the standard pack size here so that was a quarter of the feta I had bought.</p><p>It was really delicious, even if my soup was a bit watery (I wanted to make sure I got 6 portions out of it). Definitely proof that protein is very important when it comes to feeling full, though. I don't think just the soup would have satisfied me. Now, however, it's half past four and I really need to have another meal replacement but I am still full. And normally I would have had a double portion of meal replacement soup for lunch. Mad altogether. </p><p>Anyway, I can wait another three-quarters of an hour or so but I have aquajogging at quarter past six and will definitely need the energy for that. Tai chi then almost directly after that. I normally try to drink a meal replacement drink after tai chi. And then it looks like I'll have to have another one when I get home. I'll have to see if I have enough here to bring two with me. </p><p>Overall, not a bad day. Especially considering some of my experiences during my holiday, I'm kind of surprised I am feeling so full. Need to hold on to this and make sure to keep portion sizes well under control from now on. The bowls that I never used to use at home because they were too small are now the perfect size and will be staying in regular rotation. <br /></p><p><br /></p><p> <br /></p>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-75321228115165884562021-10-27T12:50:00.000+01:002021-10-27T12:50:02.424+01:00Buying food<p>Today is the final day of the 'fasting' portion of the optifast programme. From tomorrow, we will eat four pouches/meal replacements per day and replace the fifth pouch with a meal that has 200 calories and 15-20g of protein. </p><p>I kept to the fasting regime really well, far better than I expected. And then three weeks ago I went on holidays for two weeks and, well, I did not keep to the fasting regime. I mean, I didn't discard it entirely but I did decide to eat some things while I was in Ireland. Not large amounts of things, and I definitely felt it in having an uncomfortable tummy for the day if I did eat, but I probably ate something on more days than not. And in the last two days, I ate quite a bit of chocolate. Still, from the first day back, I was back to the pouches and have kept to it. I presumably lost less weight than I might otherwise have lost but I assume that the bloods I'll be having done tomorrow won't be as good as they might other have been. Most of all, it was good to feel out my boundaries a little bit and recognise a few of the situations and foods that are likely to be problematic. I'm trying to take a more pro-active approach and actually deal with that kind of thing. My therapist is going to work on it with me over the next while. </p><p>And with eating the food comes the buying of the food. Far more than eating, my spending has gotten a bit out of control over the last month or two and I need to rein that in properly now. I've just bought what I needed to get started this week but from next week/the start of November I plan to switch to a cash envelope only for food. My plan is to allocate €150 per month. That gives me €30 per week in 'five-week' months, or, in a 'four-week' month, €30 per week plus another €30 to stock up on things or buy more expensive items, like olive oil or the good balsamic vinegar or meat.</p><p> Meal planning will be the order of the day for sure. <br /></p>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-30221818304058439472021-09-26T11:01:00.001+01:002021-09-26T11:01:09.399+01:00Too lazy to switch on my laptopSo I'm going to do something I don't much like doing and post from my phone. Perhaps it will help me to be more concise. <div><br></div><div>This week has been a bit up and down. I had my first online yoga class on Monday and once again was filled with horror (and shame) at how restricted my body is when it comes to movement. Mind you, when we did the first downward facing dog I thought I'd never manage (and that was my favourite the one other time I did yoga years ago), but it sort of worked. Getting out of it again was tough. But by the end of the hour, when we had done it four or five times, it actually was getting a bit better. So, not entirely hopeless. </div><div><br></div><div>Similar to my experience with tai chi, I wasn't able to even pretend to flow from one movement to the next but I did my best with just stopping one thing and repositioning for the next. I've arranged with the yoga teacher to have a private one-on-one session so that she can actually see what I'm able to do and give me some advice on alternative movements and so on. I am feeling a bit proud of myself for that.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO3g9JkVhkdEa0e-u2t7eS5XcLR69M_TzRig7bucQWVWI5tCFMTajjxxdISOWNHVKzW8nOvbMEXKPGAbqhE274yj0wWcNyRu5C4n8mhzyZ2hQ2xoB67xFFG5l3dwjLev17uHTo2iXIXRTm/s1600/1632650415011664-0.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO3g9JkVhkdEa0e-u2t7eS5XcLR69M_TzRig7bucQWVWI5tCFMTajjxxdISOWNHVKzW8nOvbMEXKPGAbqhE274yj0wWcNyRu5C4n8mhzyZ2hQ2xoB67xFFG5l3dwjLev17uHTo2iXIXRTm/s1600/1632650415011664-0.png" width="400">
</a>
</div><br></div><div><br></div><div>On Wednesday, for our optifast sport unit we walked to the river and then had to walk 20 minutes in one direction and then 20 minutes back, trying to maintain the same pace. I was surprised that I was actually able to walk for 40 minutes in one go. Well, ok, I did have a two-minute break but I didn't sit down for it. I was feeling pretty stiff by the end, though. Between that 40 minutes and walking to and from the river, we walked for almost a full hour. </div><div><br></div><div>I mean, on the one hand, I wouldn't have been able to do that three months ago. On the other, it did me no favours since my back (the lower right-hand side/hip that's been so much trouble the past couple of years) seized up a bit overnight and I ended up calling in sick to work. I stayed home on Friday as well - and am feeling very guilty about that because I feel like I probably could have pushed through it. But I just couldn't find the mental wherewithal. I know it was probably the right thing to do but still. The guilt. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIa8Ej8OLcw8Hvqok9TMCBnNUhsgTnzHkmFPvg_s1jWgsjsQaFxLqVdAwbVgUEyTa3_DX-XjrZaEAU-JTruBAv2e0T8GD-xjNN7AyPkfXK0br39ZcFeQbzWA6hH4IKgZSeVG8eT_w7qWnn/s1600/1632650411112576-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIa8Ej8OLcw8Hvqok9TMCBnNUhsgTnzHkmFPvg_s1jWgsjsQaFxLqVdAwbVgUEyTa3_DX-XjrZaEAU-JTruBAv2e0T8GD-xjNN7AyPkfXK0br39ZcFeQbzWA6hH4IKgZSeVG8eT_w7qWnn/s1600/1632650411112576-1.png" width="400">
</a>
</div><br></div><div><br></div><div>On the positive side, over the weekend, I've been productively pottering and it feels great to finally be far enough out of the hole of depression I was living in for over a year that I am just randomly doing things that have been lying around for ages. I even did my washing yesterday and was astonished at the fact that when I thought about doing it, less than an hour later the first wash was down in the machine. And it even included the bed clothes. I can't even count the number of weekends where I spent a substantial amount of time trying to convince myself to bring washing down and didn't manage to do it until two weeks later I was about to run out of clean knickers. So I'm not as lazy as I always hate myself for being. Depression really is a hell of an illness.</div><div><br></div><div>So, here are some little things for me to add to the list the next time I log in on a computer:</div><div>- Got the washing done and hung to dry on Saturday. Including bedclothes.</div><div>- Cut back the marjoram and the long dead sunflowers, dill and coriander AND brought the bucket straight down to the organic waste bin.</div><div>- Also brought down the glass from the photoframe I broke two weeks ago and put it in the glass bin.</div><div>- Aired duvet on clothes horse in front of wide open windows with the sun shining in</div><div>- Watered all the plants and even added seeweed extract fertiliser to the water.</div><div>- Signs of life from someone special.</div><div>- Set up sunrise alarm clock</div><div>- Thought about doing a face mask. And then did it.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>* The photos are of my Dracaema Singularis. Couldn't figure out how to add captions to pictures in the app. </div><div><br></div>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-39188268334259063932021-09-17T15:16:00.002+01:002021-09-17T15:16:38.808+01:00Plans for the weekend<p>The week has flown by, another week full of activity. I discussed this a bit with my counsellor this morning and she's going to work on it with me over the next few months. I'm handling everything pretty well at the moment but the overwhelm never feels very far away and I'd really like to try and work on learning to catch it and pull back on doing so many things before it goes too far and I'm back to not being able to do much of anything at all. Having said that, I'm pretty sure I'm going to try going back to choir when the winter semester kicks off in a few weeks. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw6yZSDrt9sh7q4ri_OJLlRo_dnOfx8yFuK-cuxVNnyUph9xHwGDGuiVo5r-resvWAuaoJbRF-zTYdONgyS7lykelBwS-N7YdDAysi6AxFNm67M3cAgzumFjyJhFw1K7PsTAwnyp7pkYvN/s2048/2021-08-29_lithops-gesinae.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw6yZSDrt9sh7q4ri_OJLlRo_dnOfx8yFuK-cuxVNnyUph9xHwGDGuiVo5r-resvWAuaoJbRF-zTYdONgyS7lykelBwS-N7YdDAysi6AxFNm67M3cAgzumFjyJhFw1K7PsTAwnyp7pkYvN/s320/2021-08-29_lithops-gesinae.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Random photo of an interesting plant, Lithops gesinae or stone plant. That's not just a little orange flower growing in a stone, the whole thing is the plant.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p>This weekend I have some translating to do - about eight hours worth and I'd like to get most, if not all, of it done so that I don't need to worry about it on Monday after my first yoga session. I also want to finish painting the office, which I started a few weeks ago and have gone back to ignoring since. I've done the bulk of the hard work so I really need to get back and finish it. The corners and edges are finished up as high as I can reach myself so I just need to get on the ladder, fill in the foot or two above that and then get the roller out. </p><p>And from a <a href="https://www.theorganisedmum.blog/tomm/" target="_blank">TOMM </a>point of view, Saturday will have to be my Thursday. I realised yesterday that I am not going to have time on Thursday evenings to do anything at home since tai chi doesn't finish until after nine and I don't get home until about ten past ten. That's already a good hour and a bit past my preferred bedtime and there is realistically very little chance I am ever going to feel like doing housework at that stage of the evening. Clearly, finding a half-an-hour every weekday evening for TOMM if I am also out every weekday evening is going to be challenging. I may need to sit down with a pen and paper and figure out exactly how I want to tackle it. It's mostly feeling like moving it, or at least most of it, to mornings before work will be the better option. That worked befores. Except on days I overslept. Some more ruminating is needed, methinks.<br /></p>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-90559812111874305282021-09-14T20:32:00.003+01:002021-09-14T20:32:53.415+01:00Dust as far as the eye can see<p>Housekeeping has been a very sore spot for a long time now. I was delighted to find <a href="https://www.theorganisedmum.blog/tomm" target="_blank">The Organised Mum Method</a> and app and I have used it more consistently that just about any other plan I ever came up with. However, after a good burst of starting to get back to it earlier this year, my back was so sore that I did nothing for a couple of months. Looking back through my app history I can see that I actually started on 14 November 2020 and kept going up to 31 March 2021. Then I picked it up again from 24 April to 25 May. That is more than I thought I had done. And on some days I even finished everything on the list. So, the background clutter wasn't really getting touched, but the day-to-day was getting done and no new clutter being added. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1DRGXSTfUXVvk2w3scK29u-kR3Urjj816oiJKtfMWUEbvLHlUOOJiLU_3Eb54dlaHPgx2XaZGUynmZ0MDnOeaFbijVMiwiasX_hvr3tn925038WltXqPQ1QiiBrfazpgpF9Ni01zGz6ii/s2048/2021-09-13_bedroom-leftovers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1DRGXSTfUXVvk2w3scK29u-kR3Urjj816oiJKtfMWUEbvLHlUOOJiLU_3Eb54dlaHPgx2XaZGUynmZ0MDnOeaFbijVMiwiasX_hvr3tn925038WltXqPQ1QiiBrfazpgpF9Ni01zGz6ii/s320/2021-09-13_bedroom-leftovers.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bits and bobs from shelves/window sill etc. in the bedroom<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> At any rate, in mid-June I contacted the concierge service offered by work and asked them to find me a cleaning lady to come and do a deep clean. Unfortunately, I kept expecting it to be "any day now" and it ended up taking them a couple of months. Since my back was still pretty bad and I was generally feeling overwhelmed and not able to anything, I've just been letting the dust gather and doing just enough to maintain some basic hygiene in the bathroom and kitchen at least. </p><p>Finally, on Sunday, after having the date moved twice, someone came and spent about four and a half hours cleaning. She was supposed to be there for five but after three hours I was already feeling very uncomfortable having someone I didn't know in MY SPACE, so I chopped a few things off the planned list and she left after four and a half hours. She seemed to think by the time she left that we were great friends, whereas I had landed more on the side of hope-to-never-see-you-again. A kind of strange person, not the best cleaner, but she did manage to deal with an awful lot of dust and I am managing to calm down a bit two days later and just appreciate the fact that she dusted things that I haven't even looked at for months or years. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWhEEdNadlrc0ZRUdnnijmpKmdY0iGRp_0mnHTJKvo1m45_osCjG1lAJSyFM3KLyjQDbbk9X4FsX98OsNG7-0SCw3snE_qtpYBzw5md3IKoLnMzKBN2n7O1MUXzSKS2lKBjwzczXBp3tH-/s2048/2021-09-12_mess-and-dust.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWhEEdNadlrc0ZRUdnnijmpKmdY0iGRp_0mnHTJKvo1m45_osCjG1lAJSyFM3KLyjQDbbk9X4FsX98OsNG7-0SCw3snE_qtpYBzw5md3IKoLnMzKBN2n7O1MUXzSKS2lKBjwzczXBp3tH-/s320/2021-09-12_mess-and-dust.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The space in front of the dresser was full with boxes and bags of stuff - literally up to the drawers and about as far out as that black stool. You can see the marks in the dust!<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />It also forced me to deal with some of that background clutter. Now, I
didn't manage to actually declutter and sort everything, but I did move
most of it over to my other apartment/office. I will try to finish
painting that this weekend and then start tackling the piles of bags and
boxes one at a time. After already renting it for more than a year,
it's time I had more than just one lonely table and chair in there!
While the cleaner was here on Sunday, I mostly tried tackling my writing
desk, which has become yet another incarnation of the <a href="https://livingthesimplelifeiwant.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-table-of-doom-is-dead.html" target="_blank">Table of Doom</a>. </p><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Hvch99-22rGos3m4Cju1j_1H0pzeFTtUBlL7sDDsukQ4JDg8GjTkmNmMMUYBwmIZrGjIm7ohlrCifeNcAerB5zQdJss19Fwmxjw1LQqWtkWUYRCVYwk8s7RSYdJyMTpr7t_T615hJomH/s2048/2021-09-13_sitting-room-leftovers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Hvch99-22rGos3m4Cju1j_1H0pzeFTtUBlL7sDDsukQ4JDg8GjTkmNmMMUYBwmIZrGjIm7ohlrCifeNcAerB5zQdJss19Fwmxjw1LQqWtkWUYRCVYwk8s7RSYdJyMTpr7t_T615hJomH/s320/2021-09-13_sitting-room-leftovers.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bits and bobs from sitting room<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>I did loads of sorting, gathered a big bag of paper to recyle, almost filled six plastic boxes, and it still looks very much like a Table of Doom. So the plan is to first finish painting the office, but also to spend any spare TOMM time working on clearing my writing desk. I'll be most likely reverting to my old scheme of <a href="https://livingthesimplelifeiwant.blogspot.com/search/label/3%20Little%20Things" target="_blank">3 Little Things</a> to get it done. I started with the boxes of stuff that were lying around on shelves or window sills or the tops of cupboards and am making some good progress so far. <br /></p><p>When it is all done, I can move the writing desk, and a small set of shelves and drawers over to the office, which will give me loads of space in my sitting room. I'd like to move the table down towards the window but can't quite decide where to move the couch to in order to get that done. We'll see. </p>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-48250911230369819682021-08-30T14:50:00.003+01:002021-08-30T14:50:33.175+01:00I painted! But this getting fit thing takes up a lot of time<p>Well, I'm halfway through week 5 of the optifast program. Weightloss is going well and I'm not particularly suffering from pangs of hunger at all. Just every now and again when I haven't planned properly or something strange happens, usually with public transport. Like yesterday when I switched to wait for my tram - I had just missed one but the next was due in 12 minutes. And then none actually turned up for more than 40 minutes. Very unusual for here but it meant that I was more than an hour later getting home than planned. But it is definitely good to have a small amount of delayed gratification when it comes to hunger. Reminds me that I don't have to stop at the closest takeaway or restaurant or shop to get something to eat just because I'm starting to feel hunger. My well-nourished first world self could probably survive just fine with nothing to eat for a few days and can certainly manage an hour or two if things don't go to plan. That doesn't mean I won't try to avoid those situations, but it's a good reminder to try and keep in my head.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_xcsVUk6H8pXhzQsQSjxRQyMKpfzXrhgQPqpYHCLfduthpJWmch98SDHCnU2iV2vaCERpRzfrRtaqsrU_pOSVcWhoIiAjrTIVY16a1nRXMnjXIq0P4peW8Ij7FT7TkqIX4EafKFd5s6qp/s2048/2021-08-27_watercolour-leaves.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_xcsVUk6H8pXhzQsQSjxRQyMKpfzXrhgQPqpYHCLfduthpJWmch98SDHCnU2iV2vaCERpRzfrRtaqsrU_pOSVcWhoIiAjrTIVY16a1nRXMnjXIq0P4peW8Ij7FT7TkqIX4EafKFd5s6qp/s320/2021-08-27_watercolour-leaves.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leaves are hard to paint<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>I still don't much care for the sports therapist we're working with. At the moment he is solely focused on us measuring our heart rate and learning to recognise when we're entering the exercise zone* - whereas I am delighted and proud every time I actually do any kind of movement. Because compared to six months ago, when I was just starting to go swimming/aquajogging again and after one not-very-successful attempt was instructed to not try to do more than five minutes at a time to start with, the fact that I have built up to nearly an hour makes me feel pretty good about myself. Also, I bought the cheapest fitness watch I could find (€20) and it's ridiculously bad at measuring my pulse and I am really resenting having to buy another one (€40) for something I am not the least bit interested in having to use.<br /></p><p>At the moment, I am doing one session of rehab sport per week (45 mins) on Wednesday mornings before work. Then on Wednesday evenings there's the hour of sport that is part of the optifast program - so far that has been walking. On Thursday evenings after work I've been doing aquajogging, which I really do love so much. Because of COVID restrictions the classes are only half-an-hour long but I try to get there as early as possible so that I can swim up and down for five or ten minutes before we start and try and sneak in another five minutes when we're finished, too. Being the last out of the pool after aquajogging means that the changing rooms are less crowded by the time I get there. </p><p>I've signed up to start an online yoga course offered by work starting at the end of September. The in person class was on Wednesdays, so no use to me. And when talking about different sports with the optifast group, I was reminded of tai chi, which I did years ago and really liked. I vaguely remember looking for a class when I moved here and finding nothing. When I googled again recently, there are in fact three different tai chi schools here. How did I miss that? Anyway, I was thinking perhaps it would be too much but then a couple of days later they listed a beginners course starting this week and taking place on Thursday but later, so that it would be easy to get to after aquajogging. And today I signed up. Hopefully the next three weeks, with that double commitment on Thursdays won't take too much out of me. After that aquajogging is over and when it starts up again in October, it will be indoor and I have signed up for the Friday sessions.</p><p>Anyone keeping count? I think that should give me a better spread because at the moment, by the time Friday comes around I am tired and have no interest in doing any sport, or honestly, moving at all. </p><p>Current timetable</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Monday: nothing<br /></li><li>Tuesday: nothing<br /></li><li>Wednesday: rehab sport (morning), optifast (evening)<br /></li><li>Thursday: aquajogging (evening, after work), tai chi (evening, after aquajogging)<br /></li><li>Friday: local choir for one hour every two weeks<br /></li><li>Saturday: nothing (but I try to tell myself I'll do some time on the exercise bike - so far this has happened once)<br /></li><li>Sunday: nothing<br /></li></ul><p>Future timetable (from end September/mid-October)<br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Monday: yoga (online, evenings)<br /></li><li>Tuesday: nothing (kind of wanting to start going back to uni choir, which would be 2.5 hours on Tuesday evenings)<br /></li><li>Wednesday: rehab sport (morning), optifast (evening)<br /></li><li>Thursday: tai chi (evening)<br /></li><li>Friday: aquajogging (evening, after work), local choir for one hour every two weeks (later evening)<br /></li><li>Saturday: nothing (but I try to tell myself I'll do some time on the exercise bike - so far this has happened once)<br /></li><li>Sunday: nothing</li></ul><p><br /></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieZ3ur5kN0oRbgcbWlDpxxUmtbqr3LS-GdRi7m-0nXB49TwG0_tqqE4MnTAKXxp4fO1D94VIBERtxAg932ObDb_KIWMdNRqUxKJ9Mhb5HHCPiTjZZuI9Q-DBjKo23XQZ3zfD3jJHK1oUuP/s2048/2021-08-27_beginnings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieZ3ur5kN0oRbgcbWlDpxxUmtbqr3LS-GdRi7m-0nXB49TwG0_tqqE4MnTAKXxp4fO1D94VIBERtxAg932ObDb_KIWMdNRqUxKJ9Mhb5HHCPiTjZZuI9Q-DBjKo23XQZ3zfD3jJHK1oUuP/s320/2021-08-27_beginnings.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was supposed to be a sunset reflected in water</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p></p><p></p><p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyRsAxcffNRGcbv0urSmOz_xE3L4Tx_V8gi8tQSZYhCusH6Vxc3v0tnzFRy3tZVwOewhKVBuc-OKnJPl1qcbda5GzIC-KNYSQEhEPM7rTF-SOZcYq9jj3gC7Q46DaCl8LYUZ7XCM9MYF7s/s2048/2021-08-27_better.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyRsAxcffNRGcbv0urSmOz_xE3L4Tx_V8gi8tQSZYhCusH6Vxc3v0tnzFRy3tZVwOewhKVBuc-OKnJPl1qcbda5GzIC-KNYSQEhEPM7rTF-SOZcYq9jj3gC7Q46DaCl8LYUZ7XCM9MYF7s/s320/2021-08-27_better.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>So, yeah, that feels like a lot. Especially considering the fact that I
haven't been able to persuade myself to do much of anything outside work
for the past couple of years. So far, I'm holding up ok though. </p><p>I even
went to a watercolours workshop last Friday. It was so much fun and
although I'm not very good, it was enough fun and interesting enough
that I'll keep trying things out at home, I think.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p>It got waaay better once we layered trees and stuff on it. Let's ignore
the tree whose shadow is twice as wide as the actual tree. LOL</p><p>I can see myself getting as obsessed with making tiny thin brushstrokes as a good friend of mine who paints is. The one you see on this picture was done by the teacher using the exact same paintbrush as me. </p><p>Anyway, not quite prizewinning, but definitely good enough to hang on the fridge. </p><p><br /></p><p></p><p><br /></p><p>I have booked a cleaning lady to come and do a deep clean on my apartment, which hasn't been getting more than a lick and a promise for several months now. My back was just too sore and I couldn't find my way out of the hole I was in. By now, I've caught up on all the washing up, caught up on the washing, and have gotten a bit more decluttering done. The plan is for her to clean the entire place and that should leave me feeling more capable of getting back to trying to TOMM every week day. </p><p>I don't think this level of activity is genuinely sustainable in the long-run, but I have promised myself that I will really put a lot of effort into losing weight and, more importantly, gaining health and fittness this year. We'll see how things pan out over the next few months. <br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>*There are technical terms for the different zones and formulas for working out your own range for each of them but I'm too lazy now to go and look at my notebook. <br /></p>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-39091135114897088432021-08-18T07:17:00.000+01:002021-08-18T07:17:00.912+01:00Find the positives<p>I really should start filling out my <a href="https://livingthesimplelifeiwant.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_7.html" target="_blank">little things list</a> again. I don't do it half as often in my head as I'd like to think I do. And today has started as a dull and dreary one, so a bit of positivity is sorely needed.<br /></p><p>To start off with, I think it needs its own post. So, it is currently 8:10, I am at work and I already have two things to list. </p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>My belt is now reliably closing on the second hole every time. Extreme bloating over the last couple of months meant I had been using the very first one. Now, I can even close it on the third, although it's not quite very comfortable yet.</li><li>I have a busy day ahead of me, with several appointments and things to do (apart from work) so I ended up carrying three different bags this morning. When I switched to the bus that is normally very crowded, one of the weird too-big-for-one-person, too-small-for-two-people seats was free, so I got to sit with my bags comfortably beside me instead of trying to balance it all on my knee.</li><li>let's see how the day progressess ...<br /></li></ol>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-42112718411162437672021-08-06T11:07:00.006+01:002021-08-06T11:18:24.321+01:00The fasting begins<p>Day one of our 12-week fasting phase started with a bang with me completely forgetting to bring one of the shaker things with me to work. I'll just had to do it the old-fashioned way yesterday and use a fork. Not optimal but it worked well enough. I think I'll buy a couple of small whisks for the office kitchen. And today I brought one of the shakers with me and it was much easier. </p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIZhAH9eBfLnytiXNHjitaksQ-MxuBCijdsryvYdLJX2e75IIOZSbjFd1whGlWcCeEZ4AXTa3izplO0JOK1at6NsqACB5ttj2H78qbaZiMMwFb9nifVrtyIOnzGa0IOcsFvYvn6tMYXjh6/s2048/2021-08-05_day1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIZhAH9eBfLnytiXNHjitaksQ-MxuBCijdsryvYdLJX2e75IIOZSbjFd1whGlWcCeEZ4AXTa3izplO0JOK1at6NsqACB5ttj2H78qbaZiMMwFb9nifVrtyIOnzGa0IOcsFvYvn6tMYXjh6/w400-h400/2021-08-05_day1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Food for the week<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Yesterday went pretty well. I was only a little bit hungry a few times throughout the day but that is what is supposed to happen. When you sit down to eat lunch or dinner, it is normal for you to feel hungry. I've worked on that one and off over the last few years. Learning to hold back and not immediately reach for something the very second I feel hungry. There is, of course, the old Weight Watchers trick "if you feel hungry, drink a glass of water, do something to occupy yourself and wait twenty minutes". The idea being that many people don't recognise thirst anymore and think they're hungry when really they are started to need some hydration. </p><p>The amount of liquid we are supposed to consume in addition to our five meal replacements is definitely a challenge. At least 3 litres every day. I have a 750ml bottle in work and normal fill that with water once in the morning and once after lunch. To drink three litres in a day, I'll need to fill it at least three times. That's 2.25l and then if I have a cup of tea or two at home in the evening, I'm just about there. I managed to get to 2.85l yesterday but I did end up having to get up a couple of times to go to the toilet during the night so my sleep was a bit disturbed. This morning I drank a mug of water before leaving the house. But I had therapy before work and since I started later, I'm still drinking my first bottle of water. I'm not going to kill myself with trying to do it every single day and if I don't manage it, I'm sure I'll still survive. I'm glad that water is what I normally drink anyway. I'll miss being able to drink milk but very glad that fizzy drinks are more of a once or twice a year thing for me. And of course having to quit drinking caffeine years ago because of migraines is undoubtedly a big advantage now. </p><p>In really positive news, I managed to kill two mosquitos in my apartment last night, and don't appear to have any new bites today. The ones I collected over the past three or four days are mostly all looking red and swollen. That happens every few years and I've never managed to actually look up if it more related to the mosquitos being particularly horrible that year, or my skin/body is just reacting more that year. </p><p>In terms of appetite, the other thing I noticed yesterday was that once or twice during the day I really, really wanted to eat something. Not that I was hungry. But that I really wanted to be engaging in the physical act of eating. Interesting. We are allowed to chew a small amount of chewing gum (some gums, not all) but were also advised to try and keep it to a minimum, since chewing activates all sorts of signals relating to hunger and that's what we don't need at the moment. I'm going to try and make it to the recommended six-week mark before starting to do fancy things like adding (certain) herbs or spices to the soups, or lemon juice or ginger to my water, and I think I'll do the same with chewing gum. That one remains to be seen. </p><p>In the plans for this weekend is tackling all of the washing up that has somehow built up again over the past week or so. Then I want to give the kitchen a bit of a scrub and enjoy the feeling of a clear and clean space for the next while. I'm excited to restart my store cupboard slowly and make sure in future to really only get the stuff I know I will use.</p><p>Happy Friday everyone! <br /></p><p><br /></p>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-27005052840547533402021-08-04T10:29:00.000+01:002021-08-04T10:29:05.808+01:00Last day of eating food for a while<p>Today is the last day I will be eating actual food for a while. More than a year after I actually signed up, and after Corona-related postponement after postponement, last Wednesday the 52-week Optifast weightloss programme at my local hospital finally started. This evening is the second meeting, which means this evening I get to collect my first order of meal replacements and starting tomorrow, for a period of 12 weeks, I will be be eating five of those every day. We did a taste-test last week and I have to admit I was underwhelmed by the soups on offer. I had had such high hopes for the leek and potato. And I had a cup-a-soup just a few weeks ago, so it's not like I have an incredibly high bar for comparison. Still, I will be glad to have something warm on occasion, I'm sure. </p><p>Today, I told everyone in work about it to ask for their support, warn them/apologise in advance in case the next few weeks bring a very moody or easily distracted Moonwaves, and to let them know that there will be no more sweets/cakes/treats to be found in my office. It's somewhat traditional for the secretary to have a bowl of treat out, for example in the run-up to Christmas. And I asked them specifically to just not let me know if someone bakes a cake and brings it in to share. While ultimately my success will be up to me, I am fully embracing the attitude of make everybody else help, too.
</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYz6POzsV3kS8kzVbnYQ8aqk17QNcpC2qmea_7bEuqnGNFIC3hVTCSra8sp7fE7LQKqy8IaLGPeiKOC3gtKBMk-R2t1a1eCSqxyvlosmIrBL71ZuGG-aiAxzMHqHzdCvrjw3xLvUn7aLmO/s2048/2021-08-04_food.jpg" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYz6POzsV3kS8kzVbnYQ8aqk17QNcpC2qmea_7bEuqnGNFIC3hVTCSra8sp7fE7LQKqy8IaLGPeiKOC3gtKBMk-R2t1a1eCSqxyvlosmIrBL71ZuGG-aiAxzMHqHzdCvrjw3xLvUn7aLmO/w320-h320/2021-08-04_food.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Forgot to take a photo this morning, <br />this is <i>after</i> the pile has been raided. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> In return, anyone who wants has the opportunity today to take any of the remaining storecupboard stuff I had. Despite my efforts to eat the cupboards down, I still managed to fill two large shopping bags. And I have to admit I also threw out more than one packet of sooooo far past its best before date, I'd better not risk giving it to someone else, items. My boss is going to take a small basket of things into care (olive oil, the good balsamic vinegar and that kind of thing), hide it somewhere and give it back to me when I start to incorporate proper food again.
That will start happening at the end of October. </p><p>After the 12 weeks of just meal replacements are over, we begin a transition phase, in which we slowly start to replace the meal replacements with actual food again. And that will bring us up to Christmas. Possibly not the best timing for the first two weeks of the stabilisation phase to be over Christmas and New Year but I'm sure it'll be fine. </p><p>Obviously food is not the only component to play a role when it comes to dealing with serious obesity and eating disorders and this programme also involves a 3-hour appointment every week. There's a talk on some aspect of nutrition and group therapy. I think at the beginning these two sort of blend into one another and the psychologist and the nutrition advisor are both there at the same time. We get weighed and have a check-up with the doctor. And at the end, there is an hour to an hour and a half of sport. Gentle stuff like walking at the start, moving on to pilates, yoga, nordic walking and so on in the later months. The idea being to try out a good few different things and hopefully find things you like to do. About five times throughout the year there are longer appointments where a full blood workup and body fat analysis and so on are done. </p><p>From a financial point of view, at €3,400 for the year, it's not exactly cheap. You are supposed to pay in instalments but I asked to be allowed to pay the whole thing up front and have done that. I just don't want to have to remake the decision every month to keep going. That feels more like pressure to me than an opportunity to choose the commitment again and I am fully leaning into doing whatever it is that will make this work. I have now been very overweight for most of the past thirty years. I think for a few months in 1996/1997 I managed to maintain around 85kg (about 188lbs for any foreigners here, or a bit less than 13.5 stone) for a while and that is the lightest I have been since I was a child. Honestly, I would be thrilled if I were able to reach that again, but at this stage, I'll take any sustainable weightloss I can manage. </p><p>So, it has been a strange couple of weeks as I haven't much felt up to cooking but kept buying things to make x one last time, and y just once more. I've ended up having some strange combinations and because I normally try to be aware of portion size, it has been really weird to be erring more on the side of "well, I'll have more since I need to use it up". I'm glad it has felt so weird though, as it kind of proves to me that I have learnt a lot over the years, especially during the time I spent seeing a nutritionist on a weekly basis a few years ago. For posterity's sake, here's what's on the menu for today: </p><p>Breakfast was: <br />Scrambled eggs and tomato with toast (3 eggs, 1 tomato, 2 slices of toast, some butter)
<br />Oh, I also finished the crisps (about one very large handful), had three chocolate digestive biscuits, and a large mug of milk </p><p>Snacks on my desk for throughout the day:
<br />The last of the mixed nuts and sultanas
<br />1.5 bars of ritter sport with cornflakes
<br />1 banana
<br />1 apple </p><p>Lunch will be:
<br />The last of the fresh veg, which I chopped and sautéed in olive oil this morning, then mixed with the last of the cream cheese.
<br />2 small courgettes, 4 scallions, 2 small leeks, 1 tiny carrot, cherry tomatoes.
I'll have that with some leftover chicken.
<br />Oh, and I have the last few pieces of kimchi from a tin I opened at the weekend. </p><p>With all of that, and considering our meeting will go from five to eight o'clock, I don't think I'll have or need dinner. Although I am going to try and make an appearance at a colleague's retirement dinner after the meeting, so I may be tempted to have some falafel there. We'll see.
</p>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-7319106985929783882021-04-16T10:53:00.001+01:002021-04-16T10:53:06.519+01:00This weekend for sure...I am definitely going to actually write a proper blog post this weekend. Have planned to do so for at least the last five weekends and enough is enough. This week's Team TOMM Friday focus is Garden/Outside Space but I changed that a while ago to "Table of Doom". Yes, <a href="https://livingthesimplelifeiwant.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-table-of-doom-is-dead.html" target="_blank">the table of doom</a> is back, although now spread among my writing desk (haven't actually been able to use it for at least two years) and multiple boxes. But apart from the fact that there is a serious amount of filing to be done, the other reason I chose to name this Friday Focus Table of Doom was to remind me of this blog and encourage me to actually get back to it. So here we are. I am currently in work but wanted to look something up and found some horrendous typos in a post from long ago (here instead of hear, and it's instead of its. I mean really!!! At least I can pretend my instead of me was a typo!) and couldn't leave them and since I'm logged in anyway...
I will come back tomorrow and do a longer post and also add a photo to this one. I took some quick photos as before photos the last time I was sure I was going to start blogging soon. Looking at the date of the pictures on my phone, that was 6th March. Ah, sure, that's only barely a month ago. Feels like progress. Or something. Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-85079908811027023212021-02-16T09:58:00.003+00:002021-02-16T09:58:39.594+00:00Hmmmm......does thinking about posting, and half-writing posts in your head count as blogging? Asking for a friend.Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-33225109579425686112021-01-08T10:15:00.002+00:002021-01-08T10:15:39.028+00:003 Posts in 2020Ooops. That wasn't a lot. I do plan to get back to regular blogging but eight days into the new year it hasn't happened yet. So here's a first very short post and I'll plan to do at least one every week from now on.
One thing I have managed to do is actually keep up with the housework. There's still a lot of basic decluttering and tidying that needs to be done. I did the Organised Mum Method on and off over most of last year and after getting more and more done through December (helped by the two four-day weekends, it has to be said), I got up early this morning and caught up on a few things so that I am now on a 6-day streak of completing both level 1 and level 2 jobs. Woohoo. Just need to finish my level 2s this evening after work and I'll have a full week.
For tomorrow, I have arranged to have a video call* with a friend where we are going to keep each other company while peeling and chopping veg. I have a big butternut squash I want to use for a couple of different things, two leeks, there will of course be onions, I want to grate a carrot for kidney bean and carrot burgers and, I am possibly going to pick up a small hokkaido pumpkin after work, too. Have a bit of a longing for pumpkin soup.
That's it for now. I'm in work and shouldn't be posting from here at all but I had to log in to this account for some reason or other and since I was logged in, I thought I'd take my chance.
* Just before Christmas I decided to join the modern world and bought myself a tripod thingy for holding my phone so that I can spare my poor hand/arm getting sore. Looks like video calls are going to remain a big part of our reality for the forseeably future.Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-6510015300637350322020-08-08T12:58:00.002+01:002021-08-04T11:28:39.669+01:00It's hot out there!We're having a heatwave which means we're on day three of about 35° weather, with at least another week of it on the horizon. Not my ideal operating temp by any means. <div><br /><div>I prepared by going to the supermarket on Thursday afterwork and buying a mountain of crisps, crackers, cheese, quark and yoghurt. And actually cooking the lentils I had put to soak on Tuesday and then forgotten about. That's enough for at least three lots of lentil salad. Yesterday after work, I stopped at the farmer's shop and bought a huge oakleaf lettuce and some eggs, and couldn't resist adding a courgette and a couple of carrots, too. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>Apart from boiling some eggs, there should be no need to switch on the cooker at all. If I get up very early tomorrow, I <i>might </i>put on the oven to make some soda bread and a quick cake. We'll see. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7lCWZgjnWjpXTOMTLO8h1jn9_iMzv5TUJYR5ZvDSS4l6nwzlK3IsQVowmhDSF5PJjdP4JVHTo1omCVWOB_QFhnE4lXNIbTzxw4t61pV8xPaMVbzoVaJ7chITz_IYXViJq6eWEmrXkvn-u/s1600/1596887917689732-0.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7lCWZgjnWjpXTOMTLO8h1jn9_iMzv5TUJYR5ZvDSS4l6nwzlK3IsQVowmhDSF5PJjdP4JVHTo1omCVWOB_QFhnE4lXNIbTzxw4t61pV8xPaMVbzoVaJ7chITz_IYXViJq6eWEmrXkvn-u/s1600/1596887917689732-0.png" width="400" />
</a>
</div>Was trying to insert a screenshot of the weather forecast but apparently chose this picture of my aloe vera from the other day instead. Apps, new phones, fat thumbs, what can I say. Anyway, enjoy this picture of loads of new pups on the aloe that I thought I had really actually killed (it didn't seem to enjoy it's last repotting <i>at all</i>).</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div>For now, well, about an hour ago it reached that time of day that still feels surreal for me, having grown up in Ireland. The sun had moved round to the side of the building so it was time to open up the shutters and blinds in the bedroom. But the temperature had passed 30° so it was also time to close all the windows. Even 12 years of living here has not made this any less weird to me. In another hour or two, it'll be time to close down the shutters in the living room and they'll stay that way until almost sunset. At least I did actually go out and water the flowers and the tomatoes on the balcony properly this morning. Don't think any new fruit are coming but have already harvested loads and there is still quite a lot ripening. </div><div><br /></div><div>Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.</div>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-60562538877757814042020-06-30T13:48:00.001+01:002020-06-30T13:48:43.688+01:00Getting back to the simple lifeI am having lots of thoughts and feelings at the moment around depression, accepting how severe my depression has actually been over the years and trying to come to terms with how much of my life it has absorbed and the feeling that I have wasted years and years while trying to be kind to myself and accept that it wasn't all my fault, dealing with depression absorbed most of my energy, etc., etc. I have been taking anti-depressants for about a year and a half now and am slowly getting to a point where it feels like I have some energy to spare for just life in general. Very much an ongoing journey and it's going to be a long one. As always, accepting something logically is easier than accepting it emotionally.<br />
<br />
In terms of energy, I wouldn't describe myself as full of beans but I am making an effort and managing to get something done every day. Mind you, being on holidays from work helps.<br />
<br />
All of this led to me yesterday doing something that I have thought about doing every summer for the last few years but never quite getting around to. I bought two large punnets of strawberries. From a local shop that grows a lot of their own stuff on a small farm on the outskirts of town. And this morning, I washed, hulled and sliced them, and put them into the dehydrator.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8GUjL3sxVwttH3g4glzJBjuLMu_mn2Yo3kD3xps567hA_WJzaEFWc62JK4YAwkLaoewKHDrQCtH7zwV9ZNvGAgS70gGFaOaL0aKbUMcFM5wAgOMs_F5rItk55w3myun4M8Kdmn5LGtQM5/s1600/20200630_122901.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8GUjL3sxVwttH3g4glzJBjuLMu_mn2Yo3kD3xps567hA_WJzaEFWc62JK4YAwkLaoewKHDrQCtH7zwV9ZNvGAgS70gGFaOaL0aKbUMcFM5wAgOMs_F5rItk55w3myun4M8Kdmn5LGtQM5/s320/20200630_122901.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dehydrator trays on scales, 1 punnet worth of strawberries, preserving notebook</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I dragged out my preserving notebook to add it in and see, somewhat to my amazement, that the last entry was 2014. Wow. Looking at it logically though, I knew I hadn't done anything since I moved here, and that was 2016. And in the summer and autumn of 2015, I was working my notice at my corporate job, then starting my translating on the side business and trying to recover from years and years of overwork and stress. I'm pretty sure when I moved here I told myself it was ok to not do anything the first summer - I was only working part-time and money was tight, I was trying to settle in and all that. The next summer, I feel like I was determined to do at least some dehydrating but it never happened. I'll have to read back and see if I posted anything in 2018, because I am really not sure why I didn't do anything then, although thinking about it, I was pretty miserable in work and depressed. And then at the start of last summer, I had just switched to my new job, was loving it and starting to really enjoy life when my boss killed himself. It seems hard to believe that that was almost a year ago. I still miss him and think about him, well, not quite every day but on many of them. Strawberries were his favourite fruit, and remembering the conversation we had when he told me that is probably something that will always come to mind when strawberry season arrives. <br />
<br />
When I look back and view it logically, there were almost always reasons why I wasn't getting around to doing some of the things that are important to me in terms of the simple life that I was searching for when I started this blog. It is very hard to accept that it wasn't all just me being lazy or worthless. I'm working on it. Today, at least, it felt good to switch on the dehydrator, and now the smell of strawberries is filling the room. Getting started is always the hardest part and that's done now. So here's to living the simple life I want.Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-7981612945020875552020-06-01T21:26:00.001+01:002020-06-01T21:26:45.936+01:00The Organised Mum Method<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>This will be short, since my phone ate my last return-to-blogging post a couple of weeks ago.<br/>
<br/>
In December a friend mentioned the Organised Mum Method to me. She was very enthusiastic about it and the app you can also get. Note: you don't have to buy the app or the book, everything you need to follow the method is available for free on her website. I was not specially impressed by what my friend told me but a week or so later I checked out the website (mostly so that I could tell her I hadn't just dismissed it out of hand) and actually found it interesting. <br/>
<br/>
I got the app (and the book. And I've pre-ordered the second book.) and am a total convert. But after a bout of depression through most of March and April, it mostly fell by the wayside again. I've been picking it back up over the last few weeks and although I'm not at the stage where I'm doing everything every day, I'm doing something every day. But even if I don't even do all the level 1 jobs every day, every time I do something else it feels good. I may take a while to get to a place where most of it gets done most of the time, but it is true that the cumulative effect has an impact. Would love to get lots of 'you're done for the day' messages but for now I'm just happy every time I tick something off.</div>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-11773498413537799482019-08-31T22:21:00.000+01:002019-08-31T22:21:11.330+01:00SavingsAlthough I do keep a budget spreadsheet, it essentially serves to make sure I'm not overspending and compared to many finance spreadsheets out there, it is pretty basic. One thing I've never incorporated is a good way to look back at totals at any given time. I can look back and see what my current account balance was at the end of a month but that's it. I just updated the page with the overview of accounts manually on a continuing basis. Perhaps something to work on in the future sometime. I really should do some Excel courses anyway, and it would give me something practical to practice on.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, I've decided to just take a snapshot of my sidebars whenever I update them. It's the same story there - I just update them manually on a continuing basis.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKZRDgAIiwqo2lWntv8Ob-9EEK4pyLSmFtEYaqxbSJydz3KvlD6Vits8d988A-NHTOb6wcQ4Qk41eSge3YQ0-KptHG3C49JvvlFkSQjsopwcd0zsJqzJDESnfgULSQNUhHzoWsnMfVsSBG/s1600/2019-08-31_savings.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="451" data-original-width="246" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKZRDgAIiwqo2lWntv8Ob-9EEK4pyLSmFtEYaqxbSJydz3KvlD6Vits8d988A-NHTOb6wcQ4Qk41eSge3YQ0-KptHG3C49JvvlFkSQjsopwcd0zsJqzJDESnfgULSQNUhHzoWsnMfVsSBG/s320/2019-08-31_savings.JPG" width="174" /></a></div>
<br />
I can tentatively say that things are kind of going alright with money
at the moment. I do have a small balance on my credit card but will
clear that as soon as an outstanding invoice is paid. I could use
savings but it's a psychological thing and since it's not a lot of
money, I'm going with it. I have been making a better effort to live
within my normal salary though - need to stop getting used to having
side-income to stop up the gaps. I will use some of my side income to
fund a trip or two later this year and to finally do some of that house
stuff I've been promising to get done for over a year. Otherwise, I will
be using it to pad my various savings accounts and give myself a bit of
a head start. And next year, the target will be as far as possible to
save all of my side income.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
This month, I got to the end of the month with just over €40 in my purse and €45.22 in my current account. So I am calling that the start of the float I have been wanting to have in my current account - well, I have adjusted the totals in my spreadsheet to show less €50 (the 45.22 plus rounding up from this month's salary lodgement). €50 seems to be a good number for me to work with so I'll be trying to add €50 to the float every month by not spending to zero, but rather to €50 and then adjusting my totals to subtract that fifty every month. We'll see how it goes. Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-72480275206249043942019-08-29T19:41:00.001+01:002019-08-29T19:49:29.477+01:00Three days in a row<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
It is almost half-eight and I'm sitting on the balcony (sweltering!), waiting for my dinner to cook. There's chicken and a variety of vegetables in the oven with some lemon jiuce, ginger and cumin. And this after me telling an internet aquaintance today about how I don't really cook in the summer, especially in the oven. In the moment of deciding what to do, however, it seemed like bunging the whole lot in the oven would make me less warm than having to chop the chicken up into bits to fry it. It is still 28° out, after all.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJw02mMc9kue1ZwHO4kXahqTaJep5yXSs4NDypafOfoUfWCthY886UJ9aOSydf9hWaEANJIP2gkb6M-owqpBv52rsAsw6ZOOX7-a0utWi_AV_mYHUL7q2gl0RgUhev0i6fR8IITvsG0kPO/s1600/20190829_204251.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJw02mMc9kue1ZwHO4kXahqTaJep5yXSs4NDypafOfoUfWCthY886UJ9aOSydf9hWaEANJIP2gkb6M-owqpBv52rsAsw6ZOOX7-a0utWi_AV_mYHUL7q2gl0RgUhev0i6fR8IITvsG0kPO/s320/20190829_204251.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clouds doing their sunset thing</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The important thing is that the dinner is in the oven. Bit of a weird combination of veg since I would have been happy with meat and potatoes but am trying to get back to properly balanced meals. So, I used what I had on hand, grateful to past me for having invested in a few jars of veg. Three fresh tomatoes, the two last mostly fresh onions and four cloves of farlic went in. And then were joined by the remains of a jar of pickled celeriac and remains of a jar of pickled carrots (both well-rinsed) as well as a small jar of asparagus. No theme, no matching flavours, just an attempt to get veg into me. I think it was just over 650g in the end. Along with 200g of leftover potatoes from yesterday. I reckon it's at least two meals and actually three big portions of chicken. Not entirely balanced but it is proper food, cooked by me at home after work.<br />
<br />
For the third day in a row. It's a good start!</div>
Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4942522681264332044.post-84848708514075552682019-08-25T21:20:00.001+01:002019-08-25T21:20:21.768+01:00Less dust<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>It has been a good day. I didn't make it to the pool, something that's happening far too often. But unlike yesterday, I didn't need a three-hour nap in the afternoon. So that's something.<br/>
<br/>
What I did manage to do is clean the bathroom good and proper. It has been several months, if not longer, since it has had more than the basics done. And I dusted and cleared off several surfaces that have just been gathering stuff and dust for a long time. I gathered all the recycling into one bag, rubbish from every bin in the place into another, and bottles that need to be returned into another. I collected all the dirty dishes into another bag and am going to bring that into work tomorrow and use the dishwasher there. You have to pick your battles. And then I hoovered. <br/>
<br/>
It was about 32° today so all of that took me the best part of twelve hours to do. I'd manage thirty or forty minutes and then have to stop until I stopped sweating and cooled down a bit. So I probably only got half an hour of work done in any two hour period. There is still a lot to do but at least my place now has a substantially lower quantity of dust than it had yesterday. I'd feel ok with inviting someone over and only having to apologise for the mess, and not dirt, too. <br/>
<br/>
I managed to hit the shower by nine o'clock and now I'm sitting outside a restaurant at the town square and waiting for my dinner. It has cooled down to 23°. When I get back home, I'll collect the stuff I put in the washing machine before I left and hanf it tio dry. And then I'll head to bed only a bit later than I should. It has been a good day</div>Moonwaveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16018956740090192993noreply@blogger.com1