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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Lunchtime Ramblings: I'm a Wednesday

It is Wednesday lunchtime, I'm wearing a black dress and for a small portion of the morning I had my still dripping wet from the shower hair in pigtails, I had some Wednesday vibes going on and decided to channel that into today's impromptu lunchtime post! 

I'm also going to see The Addams Family in October and decided it was about time I started getting excited about that! 

I was born on a Wednesday, so perhaps that's why I relate to Wednesday's character.

I wouldn't say I'm full of woe, as the poem goes, if anything I probably try too hard to be chipper, but there are elements of Wednesday that I can relate to.  

I wouldn't say I'm as sadistic as Wednesday but I share her penchant for sarcasm and have a similar reluctance to trust those I'm unsure of.

I can be similarly withdrawn and quiet at times, but I think in both our cases we're deep thinkers and solitude is our favoured way to process and analyse the matters dancing around in our heads. 

Wednesday, I think was just wise beyond her years which brought with it a cynicism for people and the world around her more common in those much older than herself.  Without sounding cocky, younger Rachie was pretty similar. I had a much bigger cynicism for things than people my own age which made me appear somewhat odd and kooky.

At the time I didn't enjoy feeling like the odd one, but now with a bit more life experience under my belt I embrace that side of my personality with humour and celebrate my overall kookyness.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Carrie Hope Fletcher as Wednesday in October, as well as the rest of the cast taking on the other members of the clan but Wednesday holds a special place in my heart. Hurry up October! 

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Wonder of Rain

Day two of my impromptu blogging challenge. I've given myself a little longer than 10 minutes today to see what I can do with an extra 20! 

It's raining, because of course it is! I live in Scotland, I don't know why every year when the summer rolls around I'm astounded to see rain! 

I actually quite like rain. Do I enjoy getting soaked? Nope! Although there is some beauty in rain.

I often find watching heavy rain through a window very therapeutic, I'm not really sure why, it just makes me feel sort of secure.  I also do some of my best thinking in the rain, just me, a dome shaped umberella and my noggin! 

I also like parks in the rain, in theory that's a bit dumb because you can't sit on any benches, no cant use any equipment but there's something beautiful about freshly soaked trees, grass and shrubbery they seem to make a gorgeous glittery green view that stretches for miles. 

I used to hate driving in the rain but I'm even getting starting to find that aesthetically pleasing!

The only down side to rain for me is that I can sometimes get a bit stiff and sore, it sounds like an old fishwives tail but I can sort of sense when rain is on the way because of a broken ankle in my childhood, it's not always accurate mind you! 

Right, it's almost time for me to return to my desk and do some writing of a different kind! 

I'll hopefully have some inspritation for tomorrow's topic beyond looking out of the window!! :-) 

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Lunchtime Ramblings: Monday

I have 10 minutes left on my lunch break and thought I'd have a wee go at writing an impromptu blog post. 

I think I'm going to try this every day this week as a creativity challenge, hopefully it goes better than my blogmas attempt which was fairly abysmal! I'll pick a topic every day and do a quick mind dump post! 

Today's topic is Mondays!!

Every week, we dread a Monday rolling around! I don't know why. I guess it's because it's the beginning of the working week and we have to get back into routine after a few days off - if we are lucky enough to have the weekend off, I know not everyone has that luxury.
I actually prefer a Monday to a Tuesday for some reason. I know what to expect from a Monday, Tuesday can be a real curveball day but Monday I can generally rely on to be consistent.

Sometimes I wonder with a Monday though, is it the getting back to routine that we dread, or the routine itself? 

I've managed to fill five minutes with my drivel so I'll keep going! 

What I like about a Monday is the chance to start over from the week before, that sounds silly because I will still be me, you will still be you and our circumstances will probably be as they were, but I can look back at the path I took, analyse and channel my findings into tacking the next week.
It can be a bit like a blank sheet of paper, it's not always the fresh new clean page I'm looking for but it might have just enough room left to scribble down something vital! 

30 seconds on the clock! What are your feelings on Mondays? 
Do you dread them? Do you love them? 

This has been fun! I'll see what sharp burst of nonsense tomorrow brings! 

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Hector and Roland's London Adventure

Roland here, we've already been formally introduced....but for those of you who don't know who I am, I'm Rachie's right foot - Roland. 

My buddy Hector (her left foot) and I are Rachie's feet, we're the guys who take her places and we usually let her do the talking, but we recently came back from London and thought about letting Rachie blog about it, but to be honest...this was our trip...we did all the walking! 

Here is just a snippet of our London Adventure with Rachie. 

Day One

                     
                         

Hector and I got up early to make sure Rachie got the 7.30am train from Glasgow to London , we broke our no peeing on a train rule because Rachie just had to have an Irn Bru and a water and finally around lunch time, we arrived in London, had lunch and made our way to the hotel.  Later on we took Rachie to Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square before making our way over to Victoria to see Wicked.  We really enjoyed Wicked because it was such a comfortable theatre and we got a nice long rest from walking, Rachie loved the performance, so a worthwhile activity for all of us!

Day Two

                         

                             
                     

On day two, we were excited to start walking around London and see some local tourist spots, we weren't quite as giddy as Rachie about it but we were still pretty excitable.

We began our day at Big Ben, Rachie was fascinated, she stepped out of the tube station and there it was....right in front of her. We walked over to the bridge to look at London Eye (we didn't go on it, Rachie's Mum doesn't love heights, and if we're truly honest, we don't love them either.)
From there, we walked to the Parliament Buildings, then Westminster Abbey then on to Buckingham Palace where Rachie got to watch the changing of the guard! We then walked to Covent Garden and then went to visit Hamley's.  After a long day with lots of walking, Rachie was knackered and we were knackered, but what a day. 

Day Three

On day three, we took Rachie to St Paul's Cathedral so she could feed the birds, tuppence a bag. We went a wander over the millennium bridge, walked past Shakespeare's Globe, walked by London Bridge,  Walked over Tower Bridge, its gorgeous! We took a rest while Rachie went on a boat tour, finishing at Greenwich and we went to Piccadilly Circus to see A Comedy About A Bank Robbery, which was pretty funny. Rachie loved it, she was absolutely knackered though, so she'd love to see it again sometime. 

Day Four

Day four was our last day, Rachie started the day grumpy because there wasn't really anything in the hotel breakfast this morning that harmonised well with her dietary requirements so we went a bonus trip back to the room where Rachie ate mint oreos.

When we did eventually venture outdoors we visited Hyde Park Corner, forgetting it was the Queen's birthday, we were surprised when the artillery came walking by for the 21 gun salute. We the walked along Regent Street and Oxford Street where Rachel bought us more shoes to keep us stylish, we took a quick walk along to the Marble Arch for Rachie's Dad and then we jumped on the Tube to visit Harrods before it was time for Rachie to head home.  Our last stop of the adventure was to Kings Cross Station to see Platform 9 and 3/4. The queue was massive and Hector and I didn't have it in us to wait in it so Rachie just took a picture and we set off on our journey home.

Hector and I might let Rachie tell you about our next adventure or we might just do it ourselves.  We haven't decided yet. 

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Creative Constipation.

I get inside my head sometimes, which is a silly saying because I'm always going to be inside my head, but I can overthink things, talk myself out of things, fixate on things that make me anxious and exhaust myself. 

I've managed to get inside my own head creatively.
  

I've mentioned before that being creative in itself is a thing that people can get inside their own heads about (See my review of Change Your Mind - 57 Ways to Unlock Your Creative Self)and that I feel the concept of creativity is all about how you condition yourself to think. 

That being said, I feel like I've allowed myself to become somewhat creatively constipated lately, is that a phrase? I'm not sure. I'm going to use it anyway. 

I'll come up with what I think is a good idea, I'll begin to start the motor and take the idea from being a nugget inside my brain to being a reality and its like my brain gets stage fright and doesn't want to perform. 

I think it's a creative constipation of my own doing, as someone who works in a creative role for an organisation, I've sort of become aware that there are certain boxes that need to be ticked, certain guidelines that need to be adhered to and for work, that's absolutely fine.  The issue is, when I switch off from work, I haven't switched on the personal side of my brain that also likes to be creative. 

It's almost like I had put myself inside a box that I was struggling to think outside of......but really there is no box. 

Starting this week, where possible, I'm going to try and do one creative thing everyday outside of work, whether its writing 1000 words of nonsense, doodling, taking photos, etc.

I've been overcoming it slowly with my 28 things by 28 list which is nearly finished with two days to go!

Does anyone else ever feel that way?

Got tips for overcoming a creative block? Share them! 

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