Happy Monday!
Best
A bit of culture. Young Marx at the new Bridge Theatre and Death of Stalin at the cinema. Fun
Worst
Bye bye greenhouse. It blew down twice last week and we decided to consign it to history!!
Honourable mentions to an afternoon with Christelle, lunch with my Aunt, helping at the food bank and a trip to the dump, some planning for this week, allotment time, cooking, tidying the cupboard of doom and cleaning the oven!
Happy Monday!
Best
Family and cat time. Babysitting on Tuesday, lunch for B’s birthday on Sunday
Worst
Aimlessness.
I’m struggling with not having a lot to do. I need to pull my finger out!
Honourable mentions to another application form, babysitting, and experiencing my sister in law’s commute (I’m in awe of L, because it would drive me bananas), a day on the plot, the joy of coffee, Friday martinis, family time, lunch I didn’t have to cook, the nephews.
Happy Friday! There is lots of news out there this week but honestly, I can’t engage with a lot of it right now. Which is a roundabout way of explaining why there aren’t that many week!
T.G.I Fridays and the death of the middle class. This is about the US but sounds familiar
Things more regulated in the US than buying a gun. There is a lot of swearing in this but nevertheless…
American identity and family members that support Trump. This is worth reading, I could write something similar about Brexit…
Ealing council votes for buffer zone. I’m so happy about this, I signed that petition and allowed Sister Supporter to use my story about how the protesters made me feel when I had an abortion. The protesters outside that clinic are a disgrace, especially the ones that call themselves Christian.
We missed a week on allotment last week, I was busy over the weekend and the plot had to fend for itself. However, in the week I popped down to get some chard and picked the last crookneck squashes as the plant had decided to shed all it’s leaves and shut up shop.
So this week, Ma and I wanted to do some weeding, shut up some beds, harvest some produce and spend an hour on Dionne’s plot. Ma started in on the weeding and I got to clearing the greenhouse of the last of the tomato plants. As we’d did with the other buckets, the used compost was added to the beds and the beds covered. I removed the cardboard that the fox had destroyed and replaced with a cover that was pinned down and we’ll see if that works!
I did the same to the two boxes next to the herb patch and the square bed that had the crookneck. Ma and I also had a discussion about enclosing that bed and at least the courgette bed before Christmas as those beds are hard to weed and not to tread on, the raised beds are much easier to deal with and to keep the soil in good heath.
That done, Ma and I had a cup of coffee and a banana and took a walk down to Dionne’s plot and got to work. I don’t have before photos but we did good work and harvested her amazing butternut squash.
That done, we went back to the plot, picked flowers, kale, chard, pak choi, salad leaves and leeks to take home with the potatoes and beetroot from my plot neighbour, Joe. We also tidied up a bit and I slug baited the greenhouse.
Unexpected time off is strange. There are advantages, today I’m going to babysit the nephews, last week I got to spend some time with Sarah and baby Noah and had a lovely lunch with Ma.
But I have to admit because I wasn’t expecting to have time to fill, I’m struggling a bit. It should be easy but I think I’m in shock. However, I’m enjoying the slightly later mornings, the yoga every day and not being tied to the commute.
This week, I need to start to find things to do and to properly start looking for a job. It’s been a while but I done it before and I can do it again.
Last week was a bit strange with my new status as an unemployed person.
Best
A day on the plot. Weekend plans got shifted, we were supposed to be with the boys while Laura went on a work jolly to Barcelona. That got cancelled due to the ongoing situation in Spain and so instead we got a good five hours on the plot. And in that time did some weeding for a friend!
Worst
I was a bit aimless but my week was ok, I don’t think I have a worst but the rest of world was terrible. The Las Vegas shooting, there car accident in South Kensington, Theresa May’s speech, Donald Trump. The world seems to be going to hell in a handcart.
Honourable mentions to babysitting Noah, dinner with Sarah and Justin, lunch with Ma, yoga every morning, an empty train, lying in until 8am, cooking for fun, job application forms and CV’s, the end of our favourite squash plant.
Happy Friday! It’s been a quite week here.
Woman aren’t nags, they’re just fed up. My reply to people who accuse me of nagging is ‘if you don’t want me to treat you like an irresponsible child, don’t act like one’. And yes it’s another reason I’m single.
How Trump’s Tax Plan Could Hose Working-Class Parents This is just basic stuff that makes it clear that no-one has sat down and thought about it.
London house prices fall for the first time in eight years. But the average house price is still 13 times the salary I last had and that salary was above average, housing still isn’t affortable.
Different friends perform different functions – that’s why you need a bunch. I was all for this, even though most of my friends don’t perform the functions listed right up until the last one. Thanks Sali, we get it, you’re married now….
Grace Dent on Boris Johnson’s salary issues
When being sent to rehab is actually something else. This is slavery, I have no doubt they’d do it here if they could, it’s terrible.
Involuntary Childlessness. As one of those women it’s good that this is being discussed but I also think that all sides of this need to be sensitive to what others are going through. I worry that society has set itself up into little groups all against each other and concentrating on their pain.
It’s been a patchy reading month, I’ve been trying to reduce the kindle list but I’ve been extra critical of some of my reading…
The Astronaut Wives Club – Lily Koppel (Library book)
I picked this up at the library and because I know very little about NASA and it’s race to the moon, this was interesting but because Koppel didn’t talk to all the wives, it seemed to me that she was filling in thoughts and emotions of some of them. It did show the rampant sexism they experienced both from NASA and their husbands but it had me thinking about Hidden Figures and I want to read that story. Soon.
Tattered Loyalties – Carrie Ann Ryan (Kindle free)
This was free and was engaging enough, it follows on from another series, so there’s lots of mentioning what happened, who’s with who and it didn’t hugely annoy me, I was interested enough to look at the next book in the series and would have bought it. And this is where I’m possibly being unreasonable. I read this in a day, a day in which I worked so it probably took me 4-ish hours to read and there are currently 6 books in the series and I can’t, I really can’t, afford to spend £5 per book on a series that I’ll probably be all caught up with by the weekend. I appreciate the effort that the author puts in and that she doesn’t do it for free and all of that is fine with me. This is not a ‘you owe me cheaper books’, if she sells them at that price I’m pretty sure it reflects the costs of them to produce, but sometimes as a reader you have to know your limits and make your choices….
Disorderly Conduct – Tessa Bailey (Kindle bought)
Oh I really wanted to enjoy this. I did. I was all primed for really liking this. But the angst, good God, there was far too much angst. “I want you but not a relationship, I’m no good for that. I have to devote myself to my calling, a proper relationship would get in the way.” And that was just the hero, the heroine was worse. “Mistress rules, I’m fine on my own, my totally emotionally unavailable mother who taught me these rules has changed her mind, so now I’m going to try to have a relationship.” I understand how when you’re 23, you’re ridiculous but it was too much. At no point did these supposedly bright, young things consider that they were taking advice from parents who were idiots. I was so relived to get to the end of it because it was the end!
Turned Up – Erin Nicholas (Kindle bought)
You know what this is going to say don’t you. I find these books a complete delight because they are totally ridiculous in a way I don’t entirely understand but love. Yeah the small town in Nebraska is absolutely have all of these pretty, clever, successful people on it with easy to solve issues and everyone is lovely and isn’t small town America grand? Yes, it’s fantasy and I throughly enjoyed it, as I always enjoy Nicholas’ books.
The Book of Blood and Shadow – Robin Wasserman (Kindle TBR List)
Amazon tells me that I bought this in September 2013, so it’s high time I got around to reading it.
The Thief – Megan Whalen Turner
The Queen of Attolia – Megan Whalen Turner
The King of Attolia – Megan Whalen Turner
A Conspiracy of Kings – Megan Whalen Turner
I re-read all of these before I started on the new one. Honestly, it was a pleasure to get lost in this world again but also because I love them so much to find things I’d missed before and to see the layers build with each book. They are beautifully written and clever and if you haven’t, you should read them.
Thick as Thieves – Megan Whalen Turner
Which brings me to this book, which is about Kamet, who we met in The Queen of Attolia and we pick up his story again and it’s first person, so this is Kamet telling his story. This had a couple of major plot twists which I won’t talk about but again, Whalen Turner has built layers into this story, she lets us see what a life as a slave might do to someone’s sense of self, how it could be difficult to think differently, how you might be proud of it but at the same time abject in a way which you wouldn’t even really be aware. I really enjoyed Kamet’s journey, I really liked the things we learnt about Gen and Irene. I’ve read it twice already and the only thing I can say is that provokes the good book noise.
Temporary – Sarah Mayberry and Sarina Bowen
I enjoyed this enough but something about the extremes of the families of the hero and heroine rubbed me up the wrong way and the ending seems set for them to write another but felt odd. Overall, I enjoyed reading it, I like both these authors but the book seemed unreal. It could just be book hangover from Thick As Thieves and I was going to be nitpicky about it but although it was ok when I was reading it, I was non-plussed when I finished.
The Devil is a Marquess – Elisa Braden
From series called ‘Rescued from Ruin’. This could have been really bad but the twist was that she was rescuing him and really didn’t want to be married. It does not paint a pretty picture of what it’s like to be an alcoholic going through withdrawal, it’s a bit preachy (we should all be like Americans and work hard!) and a lot of the conflict later in the book could have been done away with if people used their words. Look, I understand the emotion involved and why you wouldn’t but if you think the love of your life is going to leave you, have a chat about it. I promise you’ll feel better, even if they leave.
Happy Monday! I skipped an update of last week because honestly because my head was full of redundancy stuff and waking up at 3am for 7 days in a row and not being able to sleep does not make for being happy and positive about your life!
Best
I made it through a difficult week intact. Actually, I’ve made it through two difficult weeks intact. I have got into the office, which was hard, its difficult go to work and acomplish anything, when you are gearing up to leave and you can’t tell anyone. My brain is shot and concentrating on work was been difficult. It’s done now and I think I’ve managed the last two weeks with, dare I say it, grace and dignity at a time I didn’t feel like being either!
Worst
Last week at work. It’s tough when you can’t really tell anyone that you’re going, I try to be upfront and honourable and this week I felt like a liar and that’s a tricky thing to deal with. Added to that I also had to deal with a solictor, I was worried about money and all the other things that knowing you’re about to be unemployed brings…
Honourable mentions to friends that rally round you in times of crisis, wine, healthy choices, children having birthdays, the restorative power of cake, a tidy house, sleeping pills, reading, netflix, gin (not at the same time as the sleeping pills), dinner with friends who are wise, planning, cheese, yoga, helping out at a birthday party full of excited 6 year olds, a conversation with my brother, ricotta tart, a Sunday in my pyjamas and a tax rebate! I’m 
October already. The year is flying by…It’s time for a review of September and to think about goals for September…….
Obviously before I talk about whether I did the things I wanted to this month, I have to talk about the big thing that happened this month. On 18 September I was told that due to the re-arranging of my department, my job was at risk of redundancy. Which was pretty shocking and completely unexpected. By Tuesday, I was resigned to losing my job and by Thursday I had a settlement offer and a leaving date. (The decision to get it done quickly was entirely mine, I wanted it over and the settlement was more than generous). Which means that as of yesterday, I don’t have a job. Which is weird. I really didn’t want to be in this place again but life happens. I’m in a much more stable emotional and financial place and I can deal with it. However, if you or anyone you know needs a competent PA/Administrator, please get in touch!
September goals are in italics, how I did in bold.
Turn over, turn out. It’s been harder but I’ve done it, I’ve made a concerted effort to get out of the house a bit earlier as well, which I’ve done better on some days than others. Sunblock and moisturise. Less need to sunblock this month but I’m doing really well on the moisturising… Feet. All good, I set myself up to attend to my feet as part of my showering routine and that’s really helped. Update the spreadsheet every week. Yep. £15 a week on food. All good with this, will need to think about it a bit more as the allotment produce slows down but that’s ok. Keep money for food and everything else separate. Not much separation going on this month but I wasn’t doing a ton of spending. Keep to overall goals. I’m doing well, I know where I am and in control so all good.
Overall, I want to prepare myself for the darker days, I need to get more rigid about bedtimes, the golden hour and no screens, I also need to start walking a bit more to compensate for the lack of allotment work that’s coming up and doing bedtime yoga. I feel that I’m in a good place for the winter and SAD, I have a plan for keeping the house clean and tidy, I’ve incorporated more exercise into the month, although as ever I could do more, I’ve been better at keeping to the rules of golden hour and bedtime and I’ve started a habit tracker to see when it all goes wrong. September has been a personally positive month for me.
House – I want to put some monthly things here because daily and weekly tasks I’m pretty good at but the bigger ones are more tricky to get to and there’s a bit of autumn preparation here too. This has been a huge surprise for me because when I looked, I did much better than I thought I had!
Plot – We did not do that much on the plot, we had a tidy, we’ve closed some beds for winter but we have not done most of this
October Aims
October is going to be a tricky month, I want to carry on with the good things I have been doing with emphasis on sleep and maintaining the golden hour, but I’m also aware that being unemployed comes with lots of other tasks and issues. I learned something from last time from Tina and that was to get up and go for a walk so while I’m not working, I want to get up by 8am and go for an hour’s walk each morning, to clear my head and set me up for a day of job hunting, signing on, temp agencies or whatever. I also Monday to Friday commit to three solid hours of properly looking for work, so application forms, CV’s, calling people, the stuff I need to do to get work. In the last 10 years, I’ve never been for an interview where I wasn’t offered the job but getting that interview is the tricky thing, I need to improve my hit rate! Other things that I really need to be aware of are all around gratitude and help. I have some time and I need to make sure that I’m using it well and remind myself that it’s still ok.
The house tasks this month are covered by my various room cleaning lists and I’ll be boring on about that through the month and making a proper list for those of you interested! Off the top of my head these are the things that will need to be done in October.
Nic Dempsey 