Another freezing cold day but only minus 1°C this morning….. 3 degrees warmer than yesterday.
It’s St Andrews day today in Scotland which pretty much means nothing much to most of us. He’s the patron saint of Scotland. I was reminded by my cousin, Linda, I’m Australia!!! 🇦🇺 She wished us happy St Andrews Day today as they’d been to a Scottish night.
My poor mother in law has struggled to get haggis over the last few days, being told it’s out of season?!? How is that even a thing?! When is the haggis season?! If it’s not around St Andrews Day and Burns night in January then really there’s no point 🤦🏻♀️😂
More importantly it’s 36 years since Scott and Charlene got married on Neighbours…. How can that be possible?!? I also may have got this wrong as it may be 38 as I can’t find Craig McLachlan’s original post. 😂😂 you have to laugh!
Nothing much else happening today… except our heating is not working! Our boiler is on lockout apparently and my nose is freezing!
We’ve have the two fires so we will survive.
😂😂
I have my prize winning Body Shop advent calendar to start tomorrow, I’m super excited to see what I get!!
Sometimes the day numbers really make me stop and think about how many blogs I have actually written! I’ve started going onto my website www.theramblingsloth.com and reading some of my old posts. It’s like they’ve been written by someone else. She makes me laugh sometimes 😂😂
Anyhoo….. there is precious little to say today other than I am very appreciative of life at the moment.
It’s been another freezing cold, beautiful sunny day. The drive to work was even more special today. I was earlier than I had been the last few days and yet the sky was more pretty.
Work was good and I had to be home for Kinesiology and I’ve “graduated” again…. I’ve decided that I don’t need to book a further session just now as I finally feel like my ducks are almost in a row.
This ♥️
I have always been a person who lived in the future…. While feeing sad and regretting my past.
My life isn’t perfect at the moment. Things still go wrong. I still overreact. I still plan for the worst case scenario sometimes.
I laugh as I leave work in the morning with the biggest bag. I have shoes to change into in case it rains and a big coat, hat and gloves in case it gets even colder. I mean there’s no such things as being caught out is there?!?! 🤦🏻♀️😂
In the last week or so I have felt an overwhelming calm.
I am content.
I am happy.
I’m sure Percy the Devil will fart in my face once again for that comment…. 😂😂 Blackadder reference 😂😂 but hey, it’s true.
When I remebered I had kinesiology tonight, I couldn’t think of one thing to talk about. If I scraped the bottom of the barrel, it would be feeling anxious about walking 3 dogs at once, sometimes.
So I’m exhausted after my session tonight, it’s amazing what comes up when you think you have nothing.
I wouldn’t be where I am today without my Health Kinesiology sessions. It’s been my lifeline over the last 5 years. Thanks to the lovely Shelagh and Angela for their direction and guidance. ♥️
So yeah…. Excited to see what the future holds. It’s always there for me if I need it.
I have to admit that I am wrapping Khaleessi up like a baby when she goes to bed at night…. I never thought I would be that person. I’m worried she gets cold 😳😬😂 here’s Bhru trying to get some of the action last night 😂
She was gonna sleep over but decided to go to her own bed at the last minute!
I had a VERY hot night. I went to bed with straight hair and woke up like I’d been dragged through a hedge backwards!
The sheets were soaking wet! It’s obviously a hormonal thing. The house wasn’t warm at all.
While I’ve been having a lovely time of it these last few weeks, my hormones have been really playing up. Is it socially acceptable to have hold the weight of your chest every time you get up from your desk?!? Asking for a friend obviously….. 🤦🏻♀️😂 😂😂 honestly it’s been agony. I tried ibuprofen today and it didn’t touch it. It’s waking me up every time I move in bed… not for long just long enough to get comfy again. Hey ho… the trials of being peri-menopausal.
So for those of you who are squirming now… it’s just photos from here on in 😂
Scraping the heavy frost by the light of the moon this morning.
So thankful I’m not having to scrape the van anymore!
Team scraping Claire’s car!
It was another stunning drive to work.
Then all of a sudden I spotted this red sky.
Later on the sun came up and it was a beautiful day.
I had another lovely Tupperware tub salad for lunch today…. Rocket, Bavarian ham, Mexicana cheese, cracked black pepper cheese, tomato, celery, spring onions, pumpkin seeds and olive oil!
Unfortunately I then ate 4 of boss man’s chocolate digestives, in quick succession!
When I left tonight the sky was lovely again.
And the moon was just out of this world. NONE of these photos actually do it justice. I hope you’ve all been able to see it for yourself. It was a massive orange ball in the sky tonight. I stopped by the river in Drybridge on the way home from work.
This is the view of the sunset opposite where I stood.
I stopped again closer to home. 🌕
I could live life without wind and rain… very easily. This is lovely weather. Sunny cold and crisp during the day. Just perfect.
There was nothing dramatic to report today… except that I slept for 8 hours and 51 minutes last night…. We were in bed for 8.30pm!
Out for the count apart from some random dream just before I woke….. I looked at my watch at 6.14am… the alarm went off at 6.15am!
The moon was amazing this morning. this is not a great photo.
It’s massive and so low in the sky. It was a stunning drive to work and once again, I wished I could have stopped to take photos all the way.
Today went so quickly. It flew by. I didn’t open my diary to consult the to do list until 1.15pm…. I was able to cross a fair bit off my list. It’s rare that I remember anything from a Thursday to a Monday but today was a good day. A very good day actually.
I felt calm and in control. I enjoyed work and that doesn’t happen every day. There was no frustration at all. Check. Me.
I had the last of my soup for lunch and could stand my spoon up in it!
Check the label on this parcel delivered to work last week 😂😂😂
It was from a lovely supplier who lost her Dad last week and just needed to talk. I called to order parts on Thursday and listened to everything she had to say. It’s nice to be kind to people. It’s gets you a lovely label on a parcel 😂😂😘
I took 4 big bags to charity again after work. I smile that I used to be so anxious doing that before. I walk in, have a bit of banter with the staff, make them smile and walk back out… after spending £3 on a navy blue White Stuff cardigan and £3 on a Christmas T-shirt.
The moon was just as dramatic on the way home.
Another rotten photo but the cloud kept covering it and making it look all spooky and Halloween-like…..
I love driving to and from work enjoying the scenery…. Loving driving the car and genuinely enjoying the drive.
Right now I’m bringing a really good attitude to life.
I feel like my work here is done. I got the Aurora…. I am so proud of myself for puting on the big girl pants and heading out in the dark.
I really must do some work in kinesiology to try to get to the root of where this fear of the dark comes from?! It’s completely irrational…. Well, I say that…. It’s not irrational, the pitch black on your own is really scary, but I want to overcome that.
Anyway, I had the best day yesterday so trying to top that would be hard…. Thankfully I was going kayaking on Castle Semple Loch, in Lochwinnoch, first thing, with Lindsay. She picked me up at 8.30am!
It was 4°C today. It was -4°C yesterday so that’s a shift of 8°…. It wasn’t freezing but it was still cold. Sadly it was really clouded over and misty all day so none of yesterday’s crisp frost and clear blue skies.
I did not take many photos today as I’ve never kayaked properly before, so wanted to concentrate on what Lindsay was teaching me rather than stopping to take photos every 2 seconds.
I borrowed all of Lindsay’s kit and wore her dry suit while she wore Euan’s.
She had to help me get into all the kit!! I wore my fleecy leggings and a cosy top underneath it all. I was warm the whole time except for my toes towards the end.
She took me through all the basic training and helped me get into the kayak which is almost as hard as getting into the drysuit! 😂😂 slowly off we went. That’s me in the blue kayak!
We paddled all the way from the car park which is under the word “Regional” all the way up the loch and onto the Black Cart Water up to that red dropped pin!!📍
I only started taking photos on the Black Carr Water.
I’m trying to strangle myself with the phone lanyard round my neck!!
Lindsay had brought a flask of peppermint tea and a mince pie so I could practice getting out and back in… to be fair she helps me stay level so I didn’t fall in!
We had our tea on the bridge!
We were out on the water for a good couple of hours I think, maybe more, you lose track. Actually if we were in the water by 9.30 latest then it was about 2.5 hours.
It’s so calm and relaxing and I LOVED it. I find the whole planning for it and getting ready is a lot of work but Lindsay says that gets faster with time as I’m sure it does. Also the fun that you have when you’re out on the water means that you put up with the prep part. I should say here that Lindsay did all of the prep and will do all of the clean up afterwards. Who am I to complain?! I just know with sea swimming it’s the getting there and getting dry afterwards is the less fun bit.
We got chatting to a lady in the car park as we had some soup that I took in a flask. She said she had a dry suit that she quote… “couldn’t give away!!!”. 😳
Needless to say, I’ve been up to Knightswood in Glasgow this afternoon and am now the proud owner of a free drysuit that even in the sale today would have cost me £350!!!!
How lovely is that?!? She wanted it out the house and it was nearly new.
Not gonna lie…. It is MASSIVE!!!
As modelled by my handsome husband.
So it will do the job for me but it’s enormous, Craig will be able to use it too so that’s a bonus. She was the same size as me too!
I still can’t get over how lovely she was just to give us such an expensive piece of kit that she was no longer using.
I’ve also done housework this afternoon and am waiting on chicken in a mustard sauce to finish in time for dinner!
It’s been an amazing weekend.
I’m so grateful to Lindsay for being so patient with me today. For teaching me so much and taking me out and loaning me all of her kit.. I’m so grateful to that lovely lady, Catherine, for giving away her drysuit and the Aurora…. Well, what can I say…. I cannot believe I was lucky enough to see such a beautiful natural phenomenon. Wow.
Truly blessed.
I have a big smile on my face.
I hope you all had a great weekend and have the best week ahead.
For so many years, I sat in Gran’s chair, in the sunroom and could barely manage to walk the dogs. I’ve thought a lot about that these last few days and it’s lovely to appreciate how far I’ve come.
I have finally captured photos of the Northern Lights. Bucket list item ✅
I was annoyed with myself as I didn’t want to go out in the cold…. I had messaged the Crochet Hookers group chat and said that I just needed it to come to the back garden.
And it did.
Now it’s not the brightest and it wasn’t that visible to the naked eye… but it was amazing and I’ve seen it!!
I put on my big girl pants on and went down to Kilbirnie Loch, by myself, in the dark!! I was a wee bit scared but the moon is so bright that I could see quite well once my eyes adjusted.
It still wasn’t that visible without the phone. I could just about make it out without it… but you wouldn’t know without having seen it through a phone first, if that makes sense.
The moon was so bright that it was just as pretty! (I have to say it was way darker than these photos make out…)
Looking over toward Beith.
This next one has the train moving in the distance… that straight line of lights… love the reflection of it in the water too.
Then someone turns up and shines their headlights right on me….. I was scared they arrived but they must have been terrified when they saw me lurking in the shadows!
There’s my shadow in the middle!
Oh I am buzzing. Honestly so chuffed with myself. Got the village running about daft too!
Think that’s the best of them. There are loads more but they’re very faint.
Always look to nature to give you that natural buzz.
It was such a heavy frost this morning…. -4°C when I left for the little gift shop. It was so cold but a beautiful, clear sky day.
I actually had a lie in until 8am. Can’t remember the last time I managed that. Turns out Craig was up with Calaidh at 2.30am….
I heard nothing!
She was barking and he shouted at her a couple of times to go back to bed , WHILE LYING RIGHT BESIDE ME….. nothing. That amazes me.
This was the view out the window when I woke up. Ignore the scabby sky dish!
Khaleesi enjoyed her first hard frost…. Think she’s jumping up thinking jeezo this is baltic!!
The little gift shop was really busy and I came back up the road for a bowl of soup in front of the wood burning stove… all sounds super cosy as lovely doesn’t it! 😂 there’s 4 excited dogs bounding around in the midst of all that!
When Craig came home from work, we headed back to Largs for fish and chips The Fish Works in Largs. Yes I had just eaten but I wasn’t missing this for anything.
When Craig asks me what I want to do… I ALWAYS suggest this… but he drives every day with work so doesn’t want to go back out. I’m so chuffed he wanted to go today and we had a lovely fish and chips!!
Largs is so different from yesterday…. So still and calm.
There are no photos of the restaurant, or their food…. We ate outside and you have to be very careful with the seagulls!!
The fish and chips really are exceptional. I had lemon sole and Craig had battered king prawns 🍤 (who knew there was a prawn emoji?!?)
It’s not like a standard chippy and nothing is greasy. I can’t recommend it enough!
We went for a wee walk after the food. So I could take some photos… obviously!
I should say it’s only 3.30pm!
It was just beautiful!
Speaking of beautiful…. The Aurora is just kicking off in the UK tonight…. How much do I actually want to see it though, I can’t bring myself to get wrapped back up and get out there. I want it to come to my back garden to save me the bother! Still way too much light pollution for that….
On the way back from Largs I got my trusty Co-pilot to take photos of the moon as it was massive and so low in the sky.
I commented that it looked like we were on Tattooine. (Star Wars!)
He was awfy proud of me!! Star Wars wife!
You can just about see it above the trees on this photo. I’d have obviously got a better shot than this but I take that I can get 😂😂😂😘
We went into the pub for a couple when we got home. I had 0% Whitley Neil raspberry “gin”. Very nice.
This was the moon when I walked the 10 steps back to the house. You can see the frost on the roof too.
Have a lovely Saturday evening!
I’m kayaking with Lindsay in the morning and I am beyond excited. I have ALWAYS wanted to learn to kayak. 🛶 I’m hoping this will open up a whole new world on the water.
Up at 6.30 to head over to Largs for my eye test at 8.30am. I booked the early morning one so that I could make the most of my day.
It was much more windy and choppy than I expected. It was also freezing!! The sunrise was lovely though.
Marvelled at how close these churches are.
My eye test at Specsavers went well. My prescription has only changed by one point so I don’t need to change my glasses just yet. I did go for a cheap pair of reading glasses, in the new prescription, for more intense reading, but my varifocals will do me just fine just now.
They did find a new freckle at the back of my right eye.
Who knew that was a thing?
They sent me back for a second “back of the eye” photo, so they could catch it specifically. The guy got a great capture of it.
I need to go back in 3 months for the same again so they can monitor the size of it. Any growth is bad.
I got out at 9.20am and found that hardly any of the shops were open.
I went into Costa Coffee and had a peppermint tea (who actually does that?!?) to heat up and use the loo…. Not necessarily in that order!!
I then had a wander around the charity shops. I found River Island jeans and a Fat Face top for £11 in total in the British Heart Foundation Charity shop.
I commented that they have some really lovely things in the Largs BHF shop… the lady told me they only put out the best of everything and try to display the brands as much as possible, in that particular store. I was really impressed with everything they had today.
I took more photos as I headed back to the car.
Next stop, Tesco, for a food shopping and came home and put it all away. Played with the dogs out the back, loaded the dishwasher, put away dry washing and put on a new load.
Then I took the two Cal’s…. Calaidh and Khaleesi out for a walk. It was beautiful but cold!
Khaleesi has lots of fun off the lead. I don’t keep her off for long.
You need to be standing steady when you shout come….. when she comes, she comes…. Wallop!!!!!
Craig was home by the time I got back. He still had work to do, so I set off out with a Freya and Bhru.
It’s already getting dark.
The same road on two separate dog walks.
The same tree at 3 separate times today.
The moon is massive.
It’s been a lovely day. I also fasted for just over 22 hours today which was a lot but I needed a wee fat burn after all the junk I’ve been eating since the weather turned colder.
Oh I also made more soup today which is really good again, great to break a fast with.
So yeah, a productive day off work!
Lovely to see sunrise and sunset. It’s the best part of this time of the year.
I have nothing much to say today…. So here I ago, about to wax lyrical for hours like the last time I said I had nothing to say!!
I want to discuss this today as it was posted by Ayrshire Counselling and Cognitive Behavious Therapy. I attended 18 sessions of CBT with them back in the end of 2019. It was game changer for me.
People pleasing….
This is the crux of everything that went wrong in my life.
I had mastered the art of trying to keep everyone happy. (Those who know me now, might raise an eyebrow at this, thinking eh naw, but it’s how I negotiated my way through life).
If I keep them happy, they won’t turn on me.
A people pleaser wants everyone to be happy, wants everyone to like them and wants to keep everyone sweet for precisely that reason. If we are kind to everyone and put them before ourselves, then life will be easy.
I lived by this for 46 years.
I always had a difficult relationship with the boss figure in my life. From the girl in 1995 who would turn to me in a factory wide meeting and ask why I hadn’t ordered a specific part to the man in 2018 who bellowed at me, in a meeting “don’t think you lot are getting away with it as you’re just as bad as all these rest”…. I made it my life work to befriend these people. To ask about their families, their weekend, enthuse over their holiday, their new car, their children…. Blah blah blah…. To let them see how nice I could be so they wouldn’t shout at me for anything. they still shouted, they still got angry, they still looked disappointed. That broke little parts of me off piece by piece.
I hate to disappoint anyone.
Detest people being upset with me.
Really struggle with it.
I can’t cope when they “turn on me” especially when I have made a ridiculous effort to try to make them happy.
I did everything to everyone else.
I tried to be in work earlier than everyone else.
I tried to stay later than everyone else.
I needed to be seen to be dependable…. Irreplaceable…. The golden girl.
I can’t keep it up.
I start to cry every time something goes wrong. There’s nothing much left inside of me to break. I’ve broken myself completely.
The day I walked out of the office, blinded by tears, changed my life.
In my head I let EVERYONE down.
I was an embarrassment. I couldn’t cope. People who had relied on me for years, disappeared off the face of the earth.
I guess no one had a clue what to say.
We all knew that no one ever came back from this. My career was over.
The people I spent most of my waking life with, moved on, without me.
It’s taken me years to come to terms with all this and to learn to be truly grateful for what I went through.
I get to choose now. I allow myself to be happy above all else. I struggle to do anything that doesn’t sit right with me now. I have very clear boundaries in place.
It’s taken years of counselling and CBT, Health Kinesiology, staying off the booze and journaling in this blog to help me get to this stage.
I don’t think it enough but I’m so proud of who I am now. despite the little crazy, anxious interludes.
Maybe I need to start doing the dance of life 😂😘♥️ told you if wax lyrical…. 🤦🏻♀️😂
Wow I had a a AMAZING sleep. I was really out for the count until 1.22am when there was a snore incident and someone tapped me on the forehead….. oh my god what a fright. As I write this I realise I forgot to ask what happened.
I got up and went to the loo and by the time I came back, said someone was snoring so I lay there wondering if it was more likely his snore that woke me?!?
Hmmmm it would appear not… I just asked. I do think it was all a bit over dramatic if I’m honest, work me up from the best ever sleep. 😂 just wait till the next time I’m woken up 😂😘
I couldn’t wake up with the alarm at all… i was soooo tired.
That said, what a beautiful morning 🌅 I wish I could have taken a few hours off work and stopped all along the way to take photos. The sky was stripey red and orange all the way to work. Every bend I drove around brought a new wow moment.
By the time I got to work it had mostly passed….. although the photos turned out better than I thought.
It’s been a good day. I’ve been super busy, so a bit harrassed, it felt like everyone asked me for things I hadn’t done yet. I ended up staying an extra half hour today. It could so easily have been longer but that’s a trap I can so easily fall into.
So not much else to report today. I’ve been calm and not irritable at all which is nice.
Oh Craig made a lovely venison spaghetti bolgnese for dinner.
It was so lovely to come home to a cosy house, with fires lit and dinner ready….. I never made it out to Kinisi-flo…. I was too full!
Was up at 1.22 for the loo and had to take painkillers for my knee. Amazing how quickly a dog walk hurts it again.
Slept until just after 6am which was great. I felt refreshed and my knee’s not been sore all day.
So after all the festivities and excitement, today’s been a fairly regular kind of day…. But this is ok.
I was actually really focussed at work and got lots done… I even cleared out the catalogue cupboard which has been a mess for ages. I bloody love that 😂😘
Not a great photo as the foreground at work is nothing special, but there was a lovely sunset before 4pm.
The photo didn’t do it justice.
I went straight to Tesco tonight and did a food shop…. Came home and put all of it away and made a lovely salad in my Tupperware tub. I don’t feel I’ve had many salads since I was in Turkey.
I love that I have to eat it out the tub!!
I’ve got one made up for lunch tomorrow too. It was really tasty. Salami, olives, feta, sundried tomatoes on baby leaf salad with rocket. I love rocket!!
I then tidied the kitchen, again…. Seems a never ending thankless task, put a washing on and loaded the dishwasher.
Then I went through my drawers and wardrobe and tidied everything up…. Dark clothes on yellow hangers, light clothes on black hangers…. There’s an OCD coming out in me there. A black T-shirt on a black hanger is just wrong. 😂
So I’ve finally sat down and it feels very nice to relax.
I slept like a log again last night but woke at 6.30am. I was thinking about work this week which is rubbish at that time on a Sunday….. so I got up with the dogs and brought them downstairs.
I tidied the kitchen and emptied all the recycling down in the bins at the bottom of the garden.
When Craig got up we had our fancy coffee bean coffee and watched a YouTube video of a guy travelling around Tiree. It was lovely to see all the places we had been last year.
We finally got started on the last coat in the sunroom at 9.30am….. I’m a morning person, I’d have been painting from 7am given half the chance, to get it over with 😂
It’s finished… obviously still a bit empty at the moment until we can get everything back in. The floor is wet after mopping.
Craig had bought some UPVC cleaner and oh my god, it was the best thing ever. I think I’m marvelling at the window plastic, more than I am at the newly painted room. It looks like we have new windows.
We’re both ashamed that we don’t look after the house better, at times. To be fair, we have 4 dogs so we don’t stand much of a chance… but it was lovely to see how white the window frames are, I just looked at them again there…. Wow. It’s a game changer!!
I took the dogs out, two separate walks…
I’ve been sitting here for a while….
It’s getting darker and now the window frames are so reflective, they look orange !!
Honestly, if you want to improve your mood, put a bit of effort in to some housework. I can honestly say it makes me feel so happy!!! I can’t stop looking at it.
I get really overwhelmed by mess and dirt…. Who knew it was so easy to eradicate… just by cleaning! 😂😂😂
I had to get up and get showered to remove all traces of paint and we’ve been in the pub for wee Rachel’s 14th birthday party.
Had more cake and loads of nibbles. Lovely to catch up with everyone. Heading home now!
Just milking that birthday thing. When I was a kid I used to be so sad on the 18th November as that meant my birthday was over.
Not so now, obviously….. as “she who tries to line in the present moment” is fully aware that life is about the here and now and not focussed on the past or the future. Today is just as important as what happened yesterday.
So that all said, I’ve had another lovely day.
I slept like a log. I felt like I was asleep all night. I love a good sleep like that.
Calaidh didn’t want me to leave!
I was in the little gift shop this morning and then drove straight up the road and picked Claire up to go out for lunch to Mocha Jak’s.
I had a lovely halloumi and pesto salad. It’s been ages since I had salad.
And oopsie there may have been a chocolate milkshake…..
I never have a milkshake! I always have coffee but I’d had 3 coffees in the morning. it was really lovely.
Claire bought us cakes to take home and I seem to be strangling myself with my bag.
I have barely taken my hat off since I got it for my birthday!
On the way home we passed Craig in the pouring rain walking the dogs!! He got soaked.
I got this photo when they came home…. AFTER I cleaned the walls and the floor….
Posing in their dog robes!
I’ve had a lovely few days, we might be back to the decorating tomorrow as the weather is still meant for be bad. It’s POURED all day today.
Donna Ashworth hits the nail on the head again…. This is me….
This is also me….
So just because Donna Ashworth says it’s ok… I’ll leave you with some more photos from yesterday. 😬😘 and I wonder why I have stiff shoulders today 🤦🏻♀️😂
Hope you all have a great Saturday night. I’ve not been irritated ALL day…. It’s great. Sure Craig thinks so too!
I’ve had a lot of anxiety about my birthday… wanting it to be different and yet not knowing what I wanted to do. After weeks of discussion Craig finally came up with perfect day…. As he does often, to snap me out of my anxious thoughts.
Awake at 5.50…. Not the plan.
Presents by 8am.
I’ve been overwhelmed with the lovely gifts I’ve received.
Also the lovely cards and words that I have from people.
We headed down to The Little Coffee Caravan….. I have not been there in so long. They remembered me, we had such a good chat and Donna asked me if I’d lost weight!! Amazing customer service. We bought filled rolls and cake to take canoeing 🛶 this morning.
We went to Castle Semple Loch in Lochwinnoch this time. What an amazing morning.
I could write war and peace about my day but actually I want to go and get ready for dinner as we’re heading back out to Gro Coffee for dinner… I’ll have been there twice in one week but I do love it.
So I’ll just dump a whole lot of shots.
Thanks to everyone for everything. When you fee your life hangs by a thread of emotions at times, precious sentiment and moments mean the world.
Oh and thanks to Lindsay and Euan for lending us the canoe again!
It’s my Friday night, woo hoo, 3 day weekend coming.
I didn’t feel anywhere near as angry today. I’m still very pass remarkable but none of that irritability I had at the start of the week. Thankfully.
The day passed really quickly but I’m all set for the weekend. I’m helping Gayle in the little gift shop tonight as she has her first VIP Christmas shopping night. I’m really looking forward to it.
🎄🎅🏼🤶🏼🎄
Gemma from work brought me in a lovely early birthday cupcake and Sloth T-shirt!!
The icing was strawberries and cream, it was beautiful!!
Here’s my lovely t shirt! How lovely was that l?! I was very touched. I didn’t even know she would know it’s my birthday.
I got a cuddle from her wee boy for the first time since he was a baby. 💙 that was so sweet.
We have a tradition at Tartan Campers that we make birthday cards! I’d said to Ellison this week not to make one for me as I knew she was bisy… but she did…I got this lovely card which all the guys at work signed. She just knows me so well… this is perfect! She’s made some for the other guys this month and they are so good!
It’s a Hope Blamire painting in the middle!
So I have to go and get out the Tartan workwear and get into a Christmas jumper ready for tonight.
I slept like a log last night…. All that decaf coffee and good chat must have done me the power of good!
I felt much better when I woke up this morning. Like a weight had been lifted.
It was a lovely drive to work… dry for the first time in days… I barely had the wipers on.
The rain started pretty soon after I got into the office.
So I was a lot better today but still shoot into orbit when something (that is my job…) is added to my list.
On the plus side I did come up with a couple of processes to try to limit the ad hoc requests. My memory isn’t what it used to be, I am forgetting things so it needs to be written down and tracked somehow. maybe then I can put some control into the ad-hoc….
I took a photo of Gran’s Christmas cactus this morning…. It’s in full bloom a good few weeks early. 😂
It’s really pretty. Mum and dad say their cutting is pink but mine is very pale pink.
I also thought it would make you smile to see the dogs in their room last night. Not sure if I said but Khaleesi has been sleeping in with the three pup-sketeers now for well over a week now.
For some reason I feel the need to wrap her up….. I scoff at my mother in law for molly-coddling her Chihuahua…. And here I am….
She’s from Spain, she needs to be warm!!
Freya took a leaf to bed with her last night. Anyone who knows Freya will know that she always has to pick something up in her mouth before she does anything exciting 🤦🏻♀️😂
Calaidh seems to be under her blanket rather than on it…
And Bhru just lies on a big pillow as she prefers to stretch out.
She looks at me with a withering look…. More photos?!?!
So yeah… a bit better day today. Need to work on it again tomorrow. At least I had less people to apologise to today so something was better.
This. Is. Me. Full. Stop.
I couldn’t have written that better myself. I can’t focus with any noise in the background, whatsoever. I hate any clothes being too tight, jaggy or itchy, I detest strong perfume or any loud, noisy-for-noisy-sake “music”… I can’t even call it music. I don’t work well under pressure as my mind panics and that’s when I snap. I need to be prepared as anything dropped in my lap becomes like s ticking time bomb that detonates within seconds!
And relax….. off to crochet tonight where I may even crochet the odd granny square!
Oooh I’ve been a ratbag today. I’ve been so ratty… I don’t know why, but I’m snapping at everyone and everything that’s not going my way.
I know I’m better than this.
I don’t want to be that person…. I just feel a bit meh just now. This is the week of my birthday and I usual count down the days in November. Not so much this year. I cannot believe it’s a year since my 50th!! Where has the year gone?!
Listen to me sounding all Eyore…
I’m sorry. I want to be full of sweetness and light. I’m not living in wonder at the present moment, I’m just just a bit flat.
I went round to the beach while I waited to meet Andrena and Linda for dinner at Gro Coffee. It’s dark and mean and moody…. The sky is full of passing rain showers. The Isle of Arran invisible behind the clouds.
Gro looks lovely in the dark with all of its lovely lights. Very inviting.
I came in early and it’s such a lovely space and it was cold and dark in the car. This was a very good idea. I’ve ordered a decaf coconut milk latte.
There are good tunes playing and it’s immediately lifted my mood. I’m excited to catch up with the girls and hear all about the Fit z body Farm.
I guess we can’t all be happy and full of the joys of spring (🤷🏻♀️) every day.
The key is how you manage the less happy days. Being aware is half the battle. I’ve been apologising to everyone all day. 🥺😬 One day I hope I will be able to keep calm and not get flustered. I have set myself high goals eh?!
Spending time in a lovely place with lovely friends is always going to help lift your mood.
We had a lovely wee catch up and the loveliest food.
We shared a Cajun chicken pizza, buttermilk chicken strips with BBQ and Siracha sauce, bread and oils and Caprese salad.
Gro Coffee is just so pretty.
This is really blurry but I had to get a cake for Craigie! I didn’t have one as I couldn’t have fitted anymore in. 😂
It was a lovely evening with lovely people who are good for my soul!!
I’m also hoping there’s some cake left over for tomorrow…. 😆
What a downpour of a day. It was such a scary drive into work again today. I seem to be a big girls blouse in that torrential rain these days but thank goodness I’m driving Bertie the Beetle now.
It was a mean and moody Monday.
We’ve been trying to get prescriptions for Khaleesi’s pain meds from our Vet and they called me at work today to say they had to get clear kidney function tests before they would give us a prescription. £164 they said.
They had to be done today or tomorrow so I came home from work, let the dogs out, fed them, made sure Khaleesi had pee’d and poo’d, ate some lasagne and back out to the vet without remembering to go to the toilet myself. 🤦🏻♀️😂
She was such a good girl at the vet.
They told me they would take her through the back for the tests and could be up to 25 minutes. They would need to shave her and maybe in a couple of places, in order to get the bloods…
5 minutes later she’s back out. A very good girl, all done and no shaved bits at all. We sat to wait on results.
She got a bit bored waiting on results….
By the way, the white paint on her tail is from the sunroom… 😂😂
45 minutes later and TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN POUNDS and FIFTY PENCE down.
How can that even be possible? I’d joked with Craig’s that 5 mins of blood tests vs the forecasted 25 must be cheaper…. Yeah right.
I actually sound really down in my wiring today and I’m not really, least I don’t mean to be.
I feel a bit flat today and it just felt a bit unfair having to pay so much money to be told your dog is fit enough to have the meds that she needs to reduce her pain. As I write that, I guess you wouldn’t want anyone to prescribe something that would hurt your dog.
The meds are SO much cheaper on line than they are from the vet….. so much cheaper…. but you need to pay £30 for a prescription to get them cheaper on line. That prescription will only last 6 months.
We had no idea when we got up today that we would decorate the sunroom…. Yet here we are.
These are the before pics.
Actually I look at the photos and it looks fine but any room with an open fire or stove… and 4 dogs living in it…. Is always going to need a refresh….
I should put it out here and say that if anyone loves me enough to decorate my house for free, then that will be gratefully received. 😌😆😂 it’s not my favourite pastime.
It was super frosty outside and I painted in bare feet. My feet were FUREEEEEZING!!!
Here we are after a couple of coats. It still needs one more we reckon but I lost the will to live 😆
It reminds me of how the room looked when we first moved in as it was all white then. It’s so much wider now that is not green!
We painted all morning and then had some homemade soup that I made late last night. It is a good pot this time around. It worked well. Still Ellison’s recipe. 😂
I then, of course, had to tidy up the house as my brain won’t allow me to live in a complete mess for any length of time.
I love that quote. It’s so true for me. I get all antsy when the place is a mess.
I bought another new duvet cover, which seems decadent but honestly I love the new sheets. This is the same as the last one, just a different colour.
I think this one looks really bright… and more importantly it doesn’t have any dog hair on it woo hoo!!
I then had a shower as I need to be clean for clean bed. 😆 so many rules in my head.
Then we took the 4 dogs out.
We headed into the pub next door when we got back. I had two 0% Gordon’s Pink Gin and slimline tonic. We had a catch up with Rachel two doors down. 😘
Craig’s also made lasagne for dinner tonight and I’m soooo looking forward to it!!
It’s been another lovely weekend, memories made, plenty of relaxing and getting things done around the house. ✅✅✅
This is your Sunday evening reminder that you can take everything life throws at you this week.
As my friend Ruth always says, you’ve survived 100% of days so far…. 😘
The Rambling Sloth 🦥 