Lunchtime Ramblings: Risk it for a biscuit.

Today’s musings came to me while I was eating my lunch. Alongside my lunch I had five Jaffa Cakes (other biscuits are available).  When a colleague asked my how I eat them (full moon, half moon, total eclipse)  it occurred to me I don’t know! 

I decided to make it my lunch time mission to eat each on in a different way. 

It set me off thinking about a thing that I hear people say quite often about how you can’t do the same thing and expect different results.  In a lot of aspects of my life I do tend to favour the same approach and hope that something happens and get sad when it doesn’t.

That’s partly my own fault, I’m indecisive and I like to err on the side of caution and remain in my comfort zone. Sometimes that’s a good thing, it keeps me safe and it keeps me happy, but other times it holds me back because I’ve not taken a risk.

As you’ll have gathered, I don’t thrive on risks, not big ones anyway. 

I’m trying to get better at that, identify ways to step outside of my comfort zone - not on a skydive or bungee jump level but there are definitely ways I can push myself to be braver, be bolder, be more daring.

If I think it’s within reach and within reason I’ll risk it for a biscuit - preferably one with no dairy in it. :-) 

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Blogmas Musings: Hello December.

It’s officially the first of December, at time of writing in Scotland anyway. It’s already the second in some parts of the world and by the time you read this December could have been and gone. 

I’m side tracking, December is here. I’m turning into one of those people who comments on how quickly the year has gone in - like elderly ladies at bus stops, I’m not sure if that’s a universal thing or a Scottish thing where we pass the time of day with fellow soon to be bus passengers by commenting on the speed at which time accelerate and how the weather of this particular season is vastly inferior to the years prior - back to my point, this year really has gone quickly.

I really do feel like not that long ago 2017 was a fresh new year and I was ready to tackle it with gusto and determination.

There is now a matter of days left of the year before the next begins and I’m wondering where it has gone.  

Usually around this time of year I start to panic when people talk about being organised for Christmas and all the fun things they have planned.  I usually turn into a big ball of stress because time runs away from me and I have to rush about to get everything I feel like I need to have done achieved.

This year I’ve decided I’m not doing that. Or rather I’m going to try not to do that. I know my Decembers are busy, I play in a brass band and I know that a significant portion of my time will be dedicated to playing music, I have a full time job and know that an even more significant portion of my time will be taken up with my working day. 

I spend most of my day on the internet and can take what advantage I can of the ability or order online or click and collect at my leisure. 

The people I love will be grateful for any presents I buy them whether I purchased them on the 7th of July or the 23rd of December.  

This year, I’m going to enjoy the month of December, regardless of how busy I end up being, how grumpy the humans I encounter are, how grumpy I get or how I fed up I am of hearing the same sounds.

There aren’t many days left of 2017 and I attend to embrace the adventure I find in each one. 

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Battery Recharge

My head hasn’t really been in the game for the last month, it’s become a bit foggy, I’ve been extra tired and lacking in energy.

I started comparing myself to my phone this week, which sounds daft..but stick with me.

My phone is by my side all day, I check and use it a lot, I go home and use it there while simultaneously using other devices and then I leave it sitting on all night while I sleep, not using it, just sitting idle by my bedside. 

In a way I kind of treat myself like that too.  I get up, sometimes I forget to have breakfast, go to work, run on empty until lunch, feel sluggish afterwards because I’ve eaten something unhealthy and then meander my way through the rest of the day.  

I’ll go to my other weekly activities after work, then I’ll come home, snack on rubbish and over stimulate my brain with devices galore and go to bed late because I’ve binged watched my way through some box sets on Netflix or watched about 4 soaps one after the other and then I’ll go to sleep with a few hours until I get up and do it all over again.

Much like my phone, which sits on charge for most of the day, I need to recharge my batteries and let myself get to full working power before I take on my tasks for the day.

For me that means more than going to bed earlier, I need a better diet and I need to put my phone and other devices down sometimes to give my brain a rest from over stimulation.

I’ve been trying over the last week or so to make sure I always have a breakfast to start the day off and to have at least an hour away from using my phone.  

I’ve had mixed success but after making myself go to bed much earlier last night, making sure I had breakfast and didn’t binge watch or eat too much nonense; I woke up feeling much more recharged and today I’ve hit a creative spark in terms of ideas for work, for one of my volunteering roles, for Christmas shopping and for my blog.

I’m going to try and charge my batteries more often, ensuring that I rest when I need to, eat the right things and try not to over stimulate my brain with an endless stream information.  

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Stepping Out Of My Comfort Zone

About two and a half years years ago I wrote a blog post about doing one thing every day that scares me. 

I've done this in fits and starts since then with varying results.
At the time of writing the original post, I'd just decided to resume driving lessons, the outcome being that I've now been driving for a year and that's a direct result of doing something that scared me.

I haven't stuck to that commitment of doing something scary every day, I've been less terrified to fry an egg (heck I poach them now) or get stuck at traffic lights on a steep hill but I haven't set out to purposefully remove myself from the comfort and security of my own bubble. 

I thought I'd done the occasionally daring thing, my hair was post box red when I started my blog, it's now black and blue but looking back that wasn't really a daring choice. That was done in an effort to put myself back in my box a little bit. 

I've kinda been putting myself in a box for the last while, not necessarily switching off aspects of who I am, but more allowing them to become dormant.

I've decided I need to start pushing myself out of my comfort again and switch some of those parts of Rachie back on.
The parts of me that relished adventure, discovery, fun and magic. 

I'm not necessarily going to try and put myself in a scary situation every day for the sake of it, but I'm going to seize more opportunities to metaphorically sink or swim by doing something that doesn't naturally sit in my zone of comfort.

If I'm rubbish at something, I gave it a try and experienced something new, if I'm great then that's a new discovery I can take with me onto whatever I tackle next.

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Laughing at me, not with me.

I’m far from being the perfect human being, I’m deeply flawed, make silly choices sometimes and I’m often annoying but I like to think that for the most part I’m an okay person.

  

I have some traits that I like and hate about myself in equal measure.

One is my ability to let things go and another is my reluctance to make a fuss.

I like that I can let very little bother me but it also means that I let others away with things that I shouldn’t. My reluctance to make a fuss kind of goes hand in hand with this. 

This week I let both of those take over. I visited a restaurant - I won’t mention which one - where the person serving me clearly found something amusing about my appearance. I am all kinds of quirky but for me I was dressed very tame, this wasn’t a 'what is she wearing’ or ‘she looks odd’, this was just straight up finding amusement 
at the way I look. 

I felt very uncomfortable as whilst I couldn’t hear what was being said it was blatantly obvious I was being mocked.
Making fun of your customers is bad enough, but to make it obvious is worse. 

In hindsight I should have cancelled my order and left but I decided to let it go and not make a fuss, but spent the entirety of my visit feeling insecure and sad.  I later felt guilty for complaining, as I always do when I complain about something as I don’t want to cause a fuss.

As someone who embraces all things quirky and individual, I’ve learned to care less about what others think and let a lot of my insecurities go, but I guess no one likes to be mocked when it’s obvious it’s happening. 

Although I will choose to let this experience go and not dwell on it, I will make a vow from here on in not to put up with unkindness or bullying towards myself or others. I’ve always had that general approach but I never seize too many opportunities it into practice unless I have a duty of care to others.   

That changes from today. 

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Lunchtime Ramblings: So Long Summer

Hello! It's me! I've been wondering if after all these days you'd like to read. 

Sorry, Adele is playing on the radio and I got a bit carried away! 

I've been thinking this week about how summer is starting to wind down, I say summer, the rain trickling down the window in front of me as if to mock my notions of a Scottish summer isn't much fun! 

I know summer as I know it is coming to an end because all of my extra curricular activities are beginning to reappear in my week, my music rehearsals are already back in the diary, the children's club I volunteer with is back on next week, my park group are meeting again soon and soon all those free and lazy nights and weekends will disappear.  

I don't actually mind that though, I like having those things to keep me busy and help my brain to focus on other things other wise I'd come home from work, I'd eat and I'd sleep. It's healthy for me to have other things to stimulate my mind. 

The season of summer doesn't end until late September but the period of time that I've conditioned myself to recognise as proper summer is about to reach its natural conclusion. 

Even though I'm 28 and have been out of education for a few years now, my brain still recognises time in a similar routine to when I was learning and studying.  

I'm slowly training my brain to be a bit more adult in a lot of ways, but primarily in the way I view my year, instead of in pre determined chunks but as a whole.

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Creating my own path

It's exam result day in Scotland, where school and higher education students alike are either anxiously awaiting their result, celebrating or wondering what to do if they didn't get the result they needed, wanted or expected. 

I've been there, longer ago than I'd like (this whole ageing thing is a bit rubbish), I was never as good as my  school friends at exams or school really, I didn't struggle but I didn't excel either so my results came along and they weren't terrible but I'd compare them to my friends results and feel like crap.   For the majority of my time at school, I just assumed I was stupid and I'd never really find my path, not like my friends who had it all mapped out and were on their way to skipping down their respective yellow brick roads to their respective wizards in search of careers. 

That wasn't for me. Or so I thought. 

I found a college course nearby, applied, got in and suddenly a light bulb went on in my head, this is what I was meant to be doing. College became uni, uni became a first class honours degree and I'm now working in a marketing role, using my strongest skills and my favourite pastime - writing - to create my own path.

I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be, except for my temporary ambitions to be either an actress or a giraffe.  

Even when I'd started on my current path, I went through periods of unemployment and uncertainty on the way but rather than let it put me off, I just channelled it into creating my own content, writing stories, poetry, blogs, letters to myself and learning to be my own critic and eventually I found my way onto the next stage of my path. 

I am still learning and growing as I follow my path and enjoying the journey.  The best thing about it is, it wasn't pre determined.  A planned path works for some, and I do thrive on some planning and organisation but I get a kick from navigating my own way down my path and seeing where it takes me.

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Time is flying by

It's been about a week since I did any blogging, I've been trying to shift this pesky summer cold, I'm not quite 100% but I have just a lovely barking seal cough remaining. 

I decided today was the day to get back in the swing of things. 

This morning past quite quickly, which seems a silly thing to say because time is a measured thing that doesn't usually change.  I quite often find self thinking that time has gone slowly or quickly when what's really happening is I'm paying too much attention to the time and not enough attention to what I'm doing.

When that happens I usually need to have a bit of a word with myself to assess why I'm paying too much attention to the minutes ticking away and not on getting things done. 

The second the first of August came by this year, I did my usual how on earth is is August this year is disappearing thing.  Coupled with the fact I started my new passion planner this week, I had a bit of an internal panic about how quickly the years are rolling by and when I can start achieving all these ideas and goals I have in my head. 

I've since taken a deep breath, calmed down and remembered I don't need to have everything in life figured out right this very minute.  I'm 28, not 78, I have time, no matter how quickly or slowly it passes by.  

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Lunchtime Ramblings: An apology to a former teacher

This is an apology to one of my science teachers at high school, I've changed his name, not for any real reason other than to be mysterious 

Dear Mr Tuna, (for context I've just eaten tuna and that's what my brain decided cling to) 

I owe you an apology.  

I just thought you were a Grumpasaurus who felt you were teaching a class of idiots and giving them a lecture because you hated us.  All of the above may well be true but I think I get it now. 

We'd often get a bit of a telling off for collectively getting things wrong or failing to understand why we were wrong. Sounds standard for school, but occasionally we'd get a bit of a rant going beyond the here and now, you'd start talking about our potential futures and how we'd have to change our approach to succeed or how we may get conned by electricians or plumbers in the future if we didn't think more for ourselves.  I used to think you were making a mountain out a molehill but I think I get it now. 

You weren't telling us we were stupid, you weren't telling us that we'd never handle household repair situations, you were trying to instil in us the need to develop problem solving skills, the need to understand the problem, the need to have an approach to understanding how we would go about identifying a solution. 

I missed the point. Question 7 on a homework sheet about rocks wasn't the important thing.  It was that we didn't look into it, we didn't look at the ways we could find out the answer, we just decided we didn't know and that was that.

I've been putting it into practise for a while  it didn't quite hit me until now.  It's not that we can't ask for help or that not knowing the answer isn't okay, but I need to know how to find the answer. I need to know what information is available to me, I need to know what is within my skill set and what will require assistance. 

I'm sorry, you were right.  

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Out of Mind Experience

It's been a whole week since I did any rambling of the written kind. I've had a really horrible cold over the last week that still hasn't quite faded yet and my head just felt like a huge foggy abyss - not the best mindset for a blog post! 

It's been a strange sort of week where I've been functional but felt like I wasn't quite present.  I've never had an out of body experience but I think this week I may have experienced a few out of mind experiences, if that makes any sort of sense!! 

There's been times this week when I've completed tasks or activities and while I know I've done them, experienced it and remember it clearly, it feels like my body was doing things on auto pilot, keeping me going while I mentally checked out. 

There are plenty of times when I'm not ill and I mentally check out and do things on autopilot, which probably isn't very healthy.  Sometimes I can go along with a normal pattern of routine without really thinking about it, most of the time that's fine, but sometimes it can be a bit of a hinderance.   

I remember hearing someone say in relation to social media that if your are connected everywhere you run the risk of being present nowhere. It's a slightly different topic but I sometimes find that I can be the opposite and be present everywhere and connected nowhere.  

Maybe that's something I need to work on more when I'm germ free and switched on. 

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Bedtime Ramblings: Binge Watching

Missed the lunchtime blog today! I was busy feeling sorry for myself while I tried to fend off my summer cold.  It also feels like an oxymoron, summer cold. 

The only thing I was rambling about at lunch time was probably my runny nose or the elephant having a disco inside my forehead, now that I've had a bit of rest and recouperation and have a bit more of a control on my symptoms, I decided to do a bedtime blog post! 

For the past few days while I've been feeling poorly, along with many other days when I've been feeling perfectly fine, I've been doing a lot of box set binging. 

Its not always a bad thing, sometimes the best way to chill is with one of your favourite TV programmes, for me it's like spending time with company that I can vary my concentration levels with. 

Sometimes I wonder if I'm being a tad unhealthy, quite often episodes of shows I like to watch are released weekly so I don't go overboard, but if I start on something new that's been out for a while or happens to release all of the episodes at once then I can have a habit of watching hours worth of one show in one sitting.  

For example yesterday I watched an entire series of something between coming home from work and going to sleep, on this occasion the episodes were 30 minutes long but when there are 10 episodes, that is still quite a long time to be concentrating on one thing. 

Concerns aside, a good binge watch can be just the remedy I need to relax or aid rest and recuperation. 

Here are a few of my favourite series to binge watch. 

 The Mighty Boosh 

Eccentric, hilarious, amusing. I love the boosh, I always have. Vince Noir and Howard Moon were a discovery in my late teens that helped me to embrace my inner Rachie.  

Their book signing is the only thing I've ever gone out in the middle of the night to queue for and I missed getting wrist band the next morning by 20 people! Did get the book though, just not signed.

Pretty Little Liars  

It got to a point where I couldn't be 100% confident that I wasn't A, but this one was good for capturing my attention, keeping me in suspense and giving me a bit of escapism from studying. 

Gilmore Girls 

I couldn't not include Gilmore Girls in this list! I've watched every season so many times I'm practically word perfect.  I identify with Rory in a lot of ways, Lorelai in others and just adore Luke. Jess also has a special place in my heart.  I'd include the revival series A Year In The Life as well, while it doesn't entirely match up to what I had pictured in the future for them, it's still exquisite. 

Friends 

It's hard not to include this one, it's been present in my life for so long, it's aired every single day and I really am word perfect in this one.   I enjoy some series more than others and didn't always agree with the story lines but even 23 years after it first aired, and 13 years after it ceased production, it still feels relevant and for the most part, timeless. 

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Feeling less than 100%

Tiny violins at the ready, I'm feeling a bit poorly today! 

I'm not sure if it's my hay fever, if I'm getting a cold or I'm just a bit run down but I'm not 100% today.

The downside of not feeling quite 100% is while you feel rubbish, you can't always just stay in bed.

My rule for taking sick days is if my brain can still think and process without thinking 'ahhhh I'm so ill' and I'm still capable of cognitive thought, I'll power through it and go to work.

That's what I've done today, powered through it although I do feel a little like I'm running on empty which isn't a great way to feel when trying to get my creative mindset on.

We also currently have a heatwave in Glasgow today which isn't really helping me although the view from the window is glorious. 

I don't always have to be feeling poorly to feel less than 100%, there are some days when I just feel a little less than being able to give the world the full Rachie experience.  

I've just realised this is coming across as a very woe is me post, so now I'm going to dispense a few of my best perk up tactics when I'm feeling rubbish or running on empty.

Drink All The Water 

It's a no brainer but staying hydrated is probably the best way to perk myself up and keep the body and brain ticking along.

Do Something Silly 

Whether it is at home or at work, I like to do something harmless but a bit daft to keep my creative and silly side active and give myself a nice little dose of endorphins whether it's having a thumb war with a colleague, playing knots and crosses, or wrapping myself up in a duvet pretending to be a sausage roll.   Sometimes the best way to perk myself up is to make a little bit of magic in an otherwise ordinary day.

Treat Myself

I'm not talking about buying myself any fancy cars or taking out a loan to buy a mountain of shoes, but sometimes I find a little bit of joy in the therapy of retail. Sometimes something inexpensive like a can of juice can be the very thing that makes me feel a bit better. 

Rest 

Another no brainer but sometimes my body is sending me a very clear message that I need to calm my jets and just take a bit of quiet time to rest and recouperate.  

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Feeling Crafty

For someone who really likes crafty things I'm really lacking in any craft like ability.

A few Christmas' ago my boyfriend got me a crossstich book because I mentioned I'd like to try it. I thought back to my home economics teacher treating me like an idiot for my inability to thread a needle and I gave up. 

I put learning to crochet on my 28 things before I'm 28 list and struggled to make the first loop, I've made a tiny bit of progress since then, although I haven't yet given up, my plan is to master at least a line before I'm 29. 

Even as a kid, anything artisic or craft like was my least favourite thing to do, it was my idea of hell. Now I'm older it's something I wish I was better at as I think it would be a great creative outlet.

I'm really envious of my friends who do have hobbies like that, which they are amazing at but I try and remind myself that some of them had to learn too. Maybe that's my problem. I don't like it when I can't just pick something up and do it. I want to have all the skills with none of the learning!  

I can do origami, nothing massively complex but I make a good crane, an epic bat, a pretty cool swan and a passable dragon.

I'd like to try and do more crafty things. If you've got any suggestions or tips for picking up crafty hobbies, feel free to suggest. 

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Creativity and Routine.

Yesterday I was thinking about being organised and today I'm thinking about routine. 

Routines are great, I thrive on them. I like having a sense of what usually happens and when, it keeps me in check and keeps me in a semi state of organisation.  

My nephew Ben is autistic and he also relies on a sense of routine and watching his sense of routine amazes me because while he relies on similar patterns of circumstance, he fills each one with something new and different and creative. It's made me look at the way I view routine and creativity and the ways they can work together. 

I like the reliability of routine. You know where to go, what to do and have a rough idea of what will happen so that you can then equip yourself with your plan of how to go about your routine.

Where I can come into a bit of bother with routine is when it doesn't stimulate me. Sometimes I get myself into routines of behaviour and activity for the sake of them and if I lack passion for it, I begin to stagnate.  

I think it's why I chose a creative path, to allow me to take new strands of thought and channel them into new ideas, creations and adventures.   Sometimes though, I succumb to the creature of habit mindset and find myself doing the same things repeatedly and expecting new results.

I've recently started doing these lunch time blogs and putting myself into a bit of a routine with that, but the second it stops being enjoyable or I'm just doing the same thing every day I'll stop.  I want to use these little impromptu blogging moments in my day to reach into my mind at the quietest point of my day and see what inspiration and creativity lies in there.  

Sometimes I feel like I need to break the routine in order to be creative but I think my problem is conditioning myself into patterns of behaviour within my routine which then limits my creativity. 

I'm gonna try every day to be more of a free spirit, to try new things and identify new ways of being creative within my routine environment.

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Organised Mind

I like to think that being organised is one of the strongest skills I have. I can plan things in detail and I think well on paper which helps in a work sense.  In a personal and work sense I often have a to do list for my to do list. 

When I was at college and university I had a list with all my tasks organised my tutor and due date taped to my bedroom door so that whenever I left or entered my room I'd be reminded of what I needed to do and could highlight as I completed things.

This year, I've let my organised side slide and allowed my brain to become frazzled and overloaded while I fly by the seat of my pants. Starting today - that stops! I need my head to be in a place of tranquility and clear vision not scrambled among different things. 

Here are a few tools and methods I find useful - mainly to serve as a reminded to myself to use them but if they are useful to anyone else - then awesome!

Mind-mapping

I love a good mind map, getting all my thoughts out on paper as I'm planning things and organising them into branches of thought.  Paper and online are both good for me. Some good online ones to try are Barvas and XMind.

Passion Planner

I ordered a passion planner at the beginning of the year to help me stay organised in my planning of personal goals at work and in my personal life like blogging and volunteering.  I did great for a month or so and then I let it slide.  I'd like to use this properly. I might by another one and start again.

Calendar on the wall

I have a big monthly calendar on my wall that I use to write important things on in bright colours to remind me of things I can't forget! Again, I've let this slide. Although for the sheer benefit of having Sherlock characters on my wall, I've just kept it up.

Good old fashioned pocket diary 

I like to have a pocket sized diary for writing down important things I can't Miss that lives in my bag and I can refer to at any point. Not used one at all this year, bit late in the year to start one. Next year for sure! 

Phone reminders

I've probably utilised this one the most this year, I could be more militant with it though. That's the plan going forward anyway. 

How do you stay organised? Any tips? Let me know! :-) 

Back to my desk time, with a more organised brain than the one I left the house with this morning.  

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Open Doors

I forgot to bring my house keys with me today, a genius move if ever there was one. Thankfully my parents are likely to be home when I am heading home from work or if they are out enjoying the sunshine this afternoon, I can head to my boyfriend's house so it won't be a massive catastrophe.

It set me off thinking about that phrase when one door closes another door opens. I didn't always believe in that saying and thought it was just something people say to make you feel better when something doesn't quite work out for you but there have been a few instances in my life where it has been true. 

When I was finishing up my internship a few years ago and had absolutely nowhere to go to next and was completely clueless as to what to do, a short term opportunity at my brothers work opened up. While it wasn't in my preferred field, it was an opportunity I enjoyed and allowed me to spend time with my brother that I otherwise wouldn't have. 

Before I began my current role, I had previously had an interview with another company and hadn't got the job and a few weeks later they recommended me to another company and after a successful interview I found myself with a job! 

There are plenty of times when an opportunity hasn't worked out for me or I feel like I'm some aspects of my life I'm stagnating and can't see a way forward but I've now started looking at those occasions as opportunities to keep an eye out for what might come along.

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Sleepy

I'm sleepy today, properly could lie down for a kip sleepy, I'm at work so there won't be any afternoon naps for me today but never mind.

I have something of a reputation for being sleepy, in my later years of school and my college years. I was notorious for my desk snoozing, there are even some historical photos of me on some friends facebooks where I'm snoozing when I ought to have been learning.

Sometimes I'm sleepy because I've stayed up too late and needed to be up early, sometimes I've gone to bed early and had too much sleep and sometimes I've had too much caffeine and thrown my energy levels out of whack. 

I don't think it's really any of the above this week, I'm just feeling really lethargic and unresponsive. I think I need to start addressing my diet, not in an oh my goodness I need to lose weight kind of way (although it wouldn't hurt) but I think because I've had to cut a lot of things out of my diet with my dairy intolerance, I've over compensated with other sweet things that I know I can have. They are probably adding to the whole sluggish and drained thing. 

It probably doesn't help that I'm not massively keen on exercise either, I could also be looking at ways increase my energy levels in that way too. 

That can be this weeks task, to identify small health changes and try to increase my energy levels and actually be awake during my waking hours.

Recommendations are totally welcome, if anyone has any! 

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Shopping

Anyone who knows me or has read my blog has probably gathered I enjoy ambit of retail therapy.

I enjoy visiting stores and soaking in the colourful array of shoes, clothes, accessories and items around me, sometimes I'll even buy some! 

At times, my insessant shopping chat can come across a bit 'airhead shopaholic' but I swear I'm not trying to be the Scottish answer to Cher Horowitz, although I'd freaking love to have her computer operated outfit selector and access to her wardrobe space.

I perhaps just like to shop but sometimes I think back to when I was a kid. 

I was sometimes made fun of for wearing what someone identified as a hand me down or as not very fashionable or socially acceptable to wear.  At the time, this was the worst thing in the world, to not be wearing the right thing and I'd be a bit of a brat about it. I of course understand now that while we weren't poverty stricken, having the latest version of trainers every three months couldn't always be a priority.

While I couldn't give two hoots what anyone thinks of what I wear now or whether I have the latest thing. I do have a sort of feel a need to have my own stuff. I now have far too many clothes which I fleetingly clear out and rehome and end up building back up again so at some point I probably hace to be a bit more selective. 

I am by no means a shopaholic and don't go shopping every week or anything like that and while my outgoings don't really extend beyond my car, insurance, phone and Netflix, I'm doing no harm....but may I could donate a few things to charity for every new thing I buy. 

Right, nearly time to get back to work.....and look at a few shoe sites :-) 

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Friday

It's Friday! I wouldn't exactly say I have the Friday feeling but I'm feeling somewhat chipper about the weekend.  Weekends never last long enough, you wait a whole week for them to roll around and then they have passed before they've even begun! 

I've always quite liked Friday's at Primary School it was the day we had 'Golden Time' where for the last 45 minutes of the day you could chill. As I got older it was the day I had off of college and uni.

Until I started working it was a day my parents and I spent with close family besties (hi H&D) in some shape of form. In fact, as I type my parents are enjoying a lovely day with them, about to embark on lovely home made baking and treats. 

My current Friday routine post work is to visit my boyfriends house and consume food of some description, either his or his mothers cooking or one of the lovely takeaways where he lives. Tonight I'm deviating from routine and going out with a friend and while I'm looking forward to it my brain is crying out 'but this isn't what happens on a Friday!' 

I used to work with a man who came into work every day with a big smile on his face, wishing everyone a happy day and asking if they had the Friday feeling, because for him every day felt like a Friday!  I'd love to have that attitude every single day and I try to have the same kind of spirit but some days I do succumb to the less than chipper moods the working week or poor sleep patterns can bring.   I think I'd like to try and make this an active challenge every day to try and spread the Friday feeling whatever the day - wherever I am.

The Happy Days theme tune usually plays on the radio on a Friday morning on my drive into work, I left far too late to hear it today, so I'll sing it internally as I type it instead! 

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days,
Thursday, Friday, Happy Days,
The weekend comes, my cycle hums
Ready to race to you

These happy days are yours and mine, these happy days are yours and my happy days. 

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Volunteering

Its day four of my my impromptu blogging challenge. I've just finished my lunch and I'm chatting with my colleague Chelsea about the Wheelchair Rugby team she plays for and how they are looking for volunteers.  Unfortunately it clashes with my other volunteering commitments but I decided that volunteering can be today's topic! 

Volunteering is something I enjoy, I currently volunteer with a local children's club and a group that looks after my local park.  The children's club is a few times a week and the park one is a monthly meeting with some events throughout the year, I also look after the Facebook account for the park group which keeps me active in my volunteering when we have no events planned.

I guess I originally used to pick volunteering opportunities that would help me. I was either a student or unemployed and wanted to get as many helpful thinks on my CV/Resume as I could to help me get closer to securing a job. Nowadays, I'm more into picking opportunities that let me do something for someone else. 

At the children's club I volunteer at, it's a place where they come for an hour and a half after school to have a bit of fun and let of some steam, allowing parents to take a small bit of time to themselves to either chill out or get something vital out of the way. I don't know what the time spent at the club means to every single child individually but I do know that they seem to be having fun playing with their friends and to be a part of facilitating that is a good feeling.

In the group that looks after my local park, we help raise awareness of the park, seek to maintain its presence in the community and look at ways to make improvements. I sort of help for selfish reasons, I lovely the park, I do some good thinking there, I like to read there, I like to write there and it's really love to look and walk around. I hope that by helping out with the group I can encourage other people young and old to appreciate the magic and beauty that it holds.

Right, time to head off back to work and do some different writing!

See you tomorrow! 

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