Just a quickie today as I’ve had the laziest day so far!!
I say that and I’ve actually done a load of washing, hung it up and tidied the kitchen.
We also went down to the Pharmacy to see if I could get stronger painkillers. I talked to the Pharmacist … so grateful that they are open today.
I got stronger paracetamol and Voltarol to rub on my knee. Sadly it hasn’t made any difference and I’m still Limpy McLimperson. It’s really sore.
I managed to get a good sleep last night though which was great. The progesterone induced sleep seemed to beat the sore knee pain.
We’re on our way to Craig’s mums today. We’re having leftovers but she always cooks loads so that sounds lovely. I’ve been fasting since 5.15pm on Christmas Day and it’s 3.15pm now so I’m ready for some food!
Look how lovely the moon is.
Craig’s driving up and I’m driving home. I don’t feel as anxious about it today. I’m a bit more used to his car after yesterday. I never used to be this person…. But that’s ok….
Another very busy day in the little gift shop and my last day working in 2023!
I’ve had the best day.
The weather has been dismal….. so dreich and miserable but we’ve had so many lovely customers in… at times it seemed like we had no time to even breathe. As soon as we could, the kettle was on!
It’s just such a lovely time of year. (I’m not sure I have ever said that before 😂😂😂)
And wait till I tell you about last night. 😆
I was so tired when I got in….. it would have been so easy to sit down and fall asleep.
I had a shower,got my makeup on and headed into the pub for 7pm as we had a village Christmas get together.
It turns out it was a quiz…. I hate quizzes…. Am rubbish at general knowledge…. 🙄
Here I am with Rachel two doors down and Claire!
The quiz had four rounds… in one of them we had to make a Christmas decoration. Here’s our wee guy!
We did really well in the quiz and I knew loads of the answers.
Here I am trying to count how many of Rudolph’s reindeers names ended in -ER…. Not sure what seems to be wrong with my 4th finger…. I got a fit of the giggles after that.
Yup in true Julie fashion I had the best night and our team WON THE QUIZ !!
Here is the winning team with our winning Toffifee prizes!
I think this is the new thing for me. I am discovering so many things that I don’t think I want to do but I actually really enjoy.
It really is good for thought for me. I’ve lived such a quiet life recently. It’s nice to enjoy things when I step outside that comfort zone.
When I came home from work today we popped into the pub and I had 0% pink gin and slimline tonic. We had a good gloat about being last nights’ winners of the quiz!
I’m back home and as I am writing this… without a word of a lie.. Santa just stepped out a car and into the pub!!
He is with one of his Elves… I wish I’d got a better picture. He looked very real.
We’ve had a lovely Chinese takeaway tonight and are watching the new Rebel Moon on Netflix.
My feet are up… comfies on and more importantly the Christmas tree is twinkling away beside me.
What a lovely night last night. The Boarding House in Howwood was lovely.
We started off for a few drinks in the Gateside Inn and then Lesley drove us to the Boarding House. It looks super festive.
Tee hee Evelyn is holding the door open while I take my photos!
I don’t have any photos of us at dinner as it was a big round table and impossible to get us all in… here I am before I go out.
Although you can’t see it, I must tell you a funny story about the dress I wore.
First of all… me in a dress. Doesn’t happen often.
More importantly…. Where on earth did that dress come from?
I was looking for a black dress for the funeral today and came across a black dress that I have no recollection of buying. I have wrecked my brains. I don’t recall EVER having seen it before and it fits like a glove.
The dress I was looking for is nowhere to be seen and yet this one seems to be in its place. It has lovely lacy see through sleeves.
Not a clue where it came from.
A couple of pics of the lovely Evelyn and Anne!
Wait till you see the food!
I had sesame chicken strips with mustard mayo and Evelyn had bang bang cauliflower to start.
I had monkfish with chilli and garlic oil with flagrant rice and flatbread. Evelyn had Turkey with all the trimmings. (other meals were available but I wasn’t stretching over everyone for photos! 😂😂
Dessert was Cranachan Pavlova. It was beautiful! also tasted as good as it looked.
We had lots of good chat and put the world to rights as we usually do.
We had Secret Santa and all got lovely gifts. It was such a nice night. I hit a wall after dessert and could have slept at the table!!
Thanks to Lesley for driving and to all the girls for a great night!
It was a crazy wild day today and I had so much anxiety about driving up to Perth. I was so nervous setting off…. Overthinking how bad the weather was. It was only a yellow warning and I’ve driven in red warnings before… I knew it would be nothing but I think I have an “appetite for drama”…. I pinched that from a podcast today! I heard it and thought that was SO true!!
I do and I have…. An appetite for drama and suffering. I want to feel hard done to at times, I want people to feel sorry for me. Recognising it is half the battle. I will slap myself in the face with “appetite for drama” quite regularly….. upon reflection… Craig… in case you’re listening… slap me with this and I’m likely to slap you back 😂😂😂 that’s just my ego talking. I’m allowed to recognise it. I’m not ready for anyone else to.
Apart from narrowly missing a pile up at the Braehead exit of the M8 (wow the adrenaline flooded through me!) and being blown off course on the M80…. The drive was actually quite lovely. The sky cleared blue, although the wind was still blawin’ a hoolie. It was nice to see so much of Scotland just before Christmas… and in the daylight.
Once I found where I was going, I completely relaxed.
Driving home was a breeze…. (That’s a bad metaphor as it was still wild!!) I drove like a pro. It’s like I’m two different people at times. 😂 (actually I’m way more than two different people but that’s a different story. 😂😂). Not a worry mmmon the road at all, weaving in and out of traffic. Second nature kicked back in.
So back home now. Christmas jammies on for a relaxing evening after more socialising than I’ve done in years. 😘
Today is the shortest day with sunrise at 8.46am and setting at 3.37pm.
The light is being born again. I love that idea. This is it folks…. Summer is a-coming. Get those flip flops at the ready!!
Also today is my fast-aversary!! Ok I made that word up. It’s a year since I started fasting and I have managed it for 365 days. Who’d a thunk it?!
I feel I have a long way to go but I am down a couple of dress sizes and I’m way more comfortable in my own skin. I always struggled with feeling bloated and I can honestly say I’ve not felt bloated once in a year.
Would you believe it’s 35 years since the Lockerbie disaster.
I was sat with my dad in the car… we were delivering Webb Ivory Christmas catalogue orders to Dad’s Scout troop…. We were outside Kevin O’Reilly’s house in Penicuik….when we heard that a plane had come ONE HOUR AND EIGHTEEN MINUTES drive away from our house. It’s also sad that Kevin O’Reilly is no longer with us either. He was in my year at school.
Only 4 more sleeps until Santa comes. I’m not dreading Christmas this year. I’m embracing it quietly from the couch beside the beautiful Christmas tree.
So many bad things are happening all around me. To people that I love. These are not my stories to tell but they do have an effect on me. Not everyone is happy this Christmas and I’m more aware than ever that life is today, here and now and it is what you make it.
I mean where did that title even come from?!? I say it… I cringe but it’s actually very true.
It has not stopped raining all day. Not just a little bit… proper torrential thundering down rain. The sky is grey and pretty much, still seems dark. It never really got light today. It’s fully dark by 4pm if it wasn’t already.
Sooo… where to start…. I slept on the couch last night. Don’t worry there is nothing wrong other than Craig’s cold.
I was desperately trying to get to sleep before him last night.
I think I tried too hard.
I was almost panicking that I got to sleep before him. Nope too late, he’s off. I lay until 11.30 then came downstairs, read some of a book, and settled down by the light of the tree.
I slept from 12 until just before 7. Quite the thing. 🎄
We went to Lidl this morning TOGETHER…. to do a food shop. I could not tell you the last time we did that together. I wanted to go to Aldi but Craig said Lidl was closer. I like the fact both of those shops do more unusual food.
£125 later we head home and of course I have to clean out the fridges (we have two!) before I can put anything away. Another job done….and it feels good.
I’ll let you into a wee secret… we had a carton of Coconut Milk in the fridge that went off on 12th August!!! 😱😱😱
I am still loving the fact that the house is clean. I feel proud of living here rather than being stressed about the mess.
We watched Violent Night and had coffee with scones with cream and jam… or jam and cream?!? How do you do you do yours?!?
I tried it both ways… jam on first and cream on first. They tasted very different. I’m not sure I had a preference… they were all very good and it was far too much!
Violent Night is a great movie. VERY gory but still really Christmassy.
It’s the Scottish League Cup Final today and Rangers are playing Aberdeen and Rangers have just won the game. Craig is cheering, the dogs are barking… it’s all happening.
While he watched, I wrapped more presents and kept popping in and out to see what was going on.
My friend Anne was Mrs Claus across in the village hall this afternoon! She had already stared in the window and scared Craig as he had no idea who it was!! She popped in to say hello on the way home.
My friend Evelyn said she’d have called the polis 😂😂😂 (police!) I laughed out loud at that.
Calaidh’s been on good form today… lots of smiles 🫶🏼
Craig has his Christmas village all lit up.
Here are all my Christmas cuddly toys… Rudolph and Little Ted are my favourites!
Please ignore the mess on the dining table. This used to be our living room until we moved everything around… we still have the lights up on the ceiling. It looks super festive.
Once the football excitement is over I think we’ll have another Christmas movie.
Oh and the Aurora is likely to be visible all around the UK tonight but we’ve not seen the sky all day.
You need to be able to see the stars. Look North. Be in the dark and try to look through your camera on your phone as that’s how I saw it the last time.
Get Aurora spotting.
I only have 2.5 days of work left before the Christmas break. Woo hoo. Holidays are coming!
I may sleep on the couch again tonight. The Christmas tree lights shed a lovely light…. And you can hear a pin drop.
My mood definitely lifted after writing this last night.
It just shows the power of journaling.
We had a fantastic day in the shop today. It was HEAVING. There was a real buzz. Everyone was lovely. It’s such a lovely atmosphere. 🎄🎅🏼
The car was ready at 12.15 so Craig went down to pick up the key. It was only £342… only.
I’ve since read the warranty documents and you have to organise it all through them. I might get the labour back which is something but that’s all.
How typical that something goes wrong that IS actually covered under the policy and I go about it in such way that renders my claim invalid.
What is the point of warranty eh?! Insurance has a way of catching you out at every eventuality.
Hmmm… I’m almost over it.
I came downstairs at 4.50am. I couldn’t get back to sleep so decided to come down to the light of the Christmas tree.
It was so quiet downstairs. The howling wind outside was almost non existent from the living room.
I spent the afternoon doing housework as I’ve not had time to do much these last few weekends. It feels SO good to have cleaned. It really clears my mind.
The old fireplace is still quite a scar on the wall but the tea lights look lovely in it.
I’ve also written all my Christmas cards (finally!) and gone on the Royal Mail app to get them collected at no extra cost. saves me going to a Post Office.
I picked up the last of my presents too. It’s all happening!
I always go from not organised, not in control, hate Christmas to BOOM 💥 DONE!!!
I still have to wrap more but in my clean and tidy house that is ok.
And I still have one more day off work. I don’t feel exhausted, I don’t feel washed out. I feel focussed and calm.
I felt so low yesterday it’s good to feel brighter again.
Wow I really had to stretch for that title… what else can I say on a regular working day.
I had THE best sleep again… woke up 4 minutes before the alarm…. We’d been in bed from 9.30 too.
Rachel two doors down, has decorated the village hall tree and it looks lovely!
Actually it’s a tinny blip on the horizon in this photo of the village hall looking festive. it’s a lot bigger than it looks here!
There was a lovely sunrise once I got to work.
It’s really strange driving to and from work in total darkness just now.
It’s 6°C today which should be positively tropical compared to the cold spell we’ve had… yet it was cold. I didn’t have all my thermal gear on. I had to take a tin of soup for lunch today and boy, was it rough after all my homemade soup!
I was meant to be off on holiday today for Christmas shopping but have a lovely lady’s funeral on Thursday 21st so had to hold my holiday for that. It’s fine as the day passed quickly with no drama from the Julesie for a change. 😂
The above is so true. It’s just about remembering to change your natural reactions when you respond to something. It’s not always easy but being aware of it is half the battle.
I went to the Aldi after work tonight and it was HEAVING….. I helped a wee lady find the Aldi alternative to Bisto gravy granules and she was so pleased with me. She said she knew she was right to ask me…. She made me smile all the way around the shop. I then looked for her when I found actual Bisto on one of the centre aisles, but I couldn’t see her. I love making those small connections with people I don’t know. Something simple, something nice and we both have a wee smile.
Christmas is a difficult time for so many people.
I’ll tell you I hate Christmas and New Year… but really I don’t have the evidence to back that up anymore. I just think I do.
Please know that any of these numbers are available to you in the UK.
Early December 2019, I was at my lowest ebb… I honestly couldn’t see how I could make it through Christmas and New Year. The pressure to be festive. The pressure to perform. Watching everyone else “appear” happy and festive. Eating, drinking and being merry. I just wanted to cry all the time. I wanted to hide. Not to be seen by anyone.
Thankfully I went to the Doctor as it was so bad and she really listened. She saw the state I had got into and she decided to change my anti-depressants. I could hear the concern in her voice. She booked me the first appointment on the 27th December at 9am so that I knew I was going to see her and give her an update.
Quite honestly I was never going to do anything bad but I felt so low that I just couldn’t see the point of life anymore.
I think it’s important for me to keep talking about that as to see me now you wouldn’t think it.
We have no idea what’s going on in other peoples heads. We have to be kind to everyone we meet.
Christmas doesn’t have to be the matching jammies, the perfect tree, the most nights out. Christmas can be a quiet time too. It is what you make it and not for comparison with others, that look like they have it more together than you do.
Just do what you want and when you want it. Be kind to yourself.
It’s was such a heavy frost today. Again I’m grateful to have the heating back on. There was a lovely warmth from the bathroom radiator. 😂
The car was frosted solid, if that’s even a thing?! It took me at least 10 minutes of scraping before I got it cleared. Made it to work with 4 minutes to spare.
First things first, the world lost another lovely lady yesterday, my uncle’s Mum. She was such a breath of fresh air. I know I say that a lot of people are lovely but she really inspired me. She moved out to live in an apartment in Spain in her later life. She always had a giggle, a cheeky wink and a smile. She never seemed to complain, certainly not when I spoke to her. I was so sad to hear about that yesterday too. Heaven has a few more angels (that I know of) this week.
So the Christmas wreath making last night was SO much fun. we walked across the road to the Gateside Plant Centre for 7pm.
It was our Memorial Hall Committee Christmas night out! 😂
Elly did so well explaining every step of the way. We had a giggle and we were all very creative. Everyone’s wreaths were so well done.
Almost finished, just needing a bow.
I took some lovely hot chocolate and had that with marshmallows and sprinkles. Here’s my finished wreath. I’m super pleased with it.
Michelle and I ♥️♥️ we had such a giggle looking for fluffy bits…. 😂😂
Anne and I ♥️♥️
Claire with her lovely purple wreath.
Rachel’s looks lovely on her blue door two doors down!
Here we all are, a lovely bunch and a special night.
What a super event. I can’t wait to make next years’ already, it’s quite addictive!
Our street looks lovely as we have 3 doors in a row all with original Christmas weaths!
I took another photo of it this morning… of course it did.
One last thing before I head off to meet the Crochet Hookers….
I’m listening to a really good podcast again which I’ll post a link to. I’ve listened to the first 45 minutes and it’s really worth listening to. Steven Bartlett interviews Mel Robbins. The show notes explain the subject matter:
I’m totally hooked and can’t wait to hear what comes next. Her words on our inner critic hit me between the eyes. My inner critic talks to me ALL the time, telling me how useless I am, how I could have handled a situation better, why did I say what I said, why did I do what I did, you name it. She tears strips off me. I’m sure many of us are the same.
It’s actually unfair of me to say she talks to me all the time… she’s a lot kinder to me now as writing the blog has quietened her a bit. But when she starts…. She kicks off.
Mel explains how we handle our inner critic and what makes us unhappy. I’m captivated!
We have no heating so I downloaded a thermometer on my phone to see what temperature it was outside…. Yup… I did think it would give me the indoor temperature 🤦🏻♀️😂😂 bless.
The actual thermostat for the heating was 12°C when I checked it… that’s pretty cold in a pair of jammies!
Craig’s tried everything and it’s still not working.
How funny is this….
Freya must have been lying on the grass heating up the frost for a while 🤦🏻♀️😂😂 so cute!
Got another pic of all the girls before I headed out. It’s super cold this morning.
So thankfully I’m at the little gift shop from 9.30 until 8pm…. There is heating!!
It’s Beith’s Christmas lights switch on tonight so the shop is staying open for it.
We’ve had a great day but I’m so tired I could cry…. It’s absolutely flown in. We’ve had great chat, seen so many lovely customers and Gayle got 1st prize in the best Beith Christmas window!!!!
Hard to get a photo without the dentist in the background 😂
She had these giant gonks up for raffle just now. You can’t imagine how big they are until you are next to them.
Some lovely, lovely stuff!
We went to Curiosity coffee shop for a hot chocolate and cake at 5pm. Curiosity’s Christmas trees are lovely too. it’s such a lovely space and Lesley is full of the chat!!
We enjoyed it back at the shop!
I had sticky toffee cake!
So a great day but super tired now. Heating’s still not fixed but it feels less of a shock to the system tonight…. She says, yet to get undressed for bed 😂 it won’t be long though.
It was a lovely morning at 5.30am when we left for the Fit Body Farm. I love a Friday as I get a lift there and back and Craig has heated seats 💺 🤣 oh and I have a day off!
The workout was hard this morning. 4,500m of running through the session. The air got colder as the hour went on and by the second run the air was freezing. I can still feel the cold in my lungs and it’s 9.15am! One lovely lady kept me going on the last lap where I would have slowed to a walk. The support you get there is amazing.
So home for shower, put in a washing, tidy the kitchen, feed the dogs, make breakfast and coffee, quick dry of hair as I’m getting my nails done at 9am….. or so I thought. Would appear my rush to get here wasn’t necessary…. It’s 9.30 hence me starting the blog now. Least I’m early when I thought I was going to be late because of the ice on the van.
Check the ice on the windscreen. The photo doesn’t do it justice. It was beautiful… like the Jack Frost ice you see in the movies!
It was a sheet of ice!
🎄💅🏼🎄
So raced back home at 10.15 to pick up a Christmas present for my wee 81 year old friend. Not seen her in ages. When I got down there she was still in her nightie doing all the housework! Felt awful interrupting her but had a lovely cuppa (took my own decaf and oat milk… seriously, how sad is that?!?)
Managed to get away by 11.35am and back up to take the dogs out. Can you tell I’m on a time schedule this morning?!?
Still love this old gate.
Nearly at the field where they get a good run. A
Back in by 12.35pm and had 25 mins to get some slap on ready for the Hookers Christmas lunch, in the pub next door, at 1pm.
Our lunch was lovely and up to the usual Gateside Inn standards. ♥️
Melon to startTurkey and all the trimmings Profiteroles and chocolate sauce
All followed by coffee and a mini mince pie.
We had a lovely time. A lovely meal and great company!
We did a secret Santa and I got the loveliest gift. A mindfulness book to record mood, gratitude etc and a lovely gin glass full of Lindt chocolates!
My glass with my new alcohol free gin for £3.99 from Home Bargains of all places
So I’ve had the busiest day! Ended up back in the pub with Craig for a couple when he got home and now I’m in jammies, in front of the fire and might never be able to speak to anyone again for days. 😱🤣
The Rambling Sloth 🦥 