#resound11: 12 in 12

Posted on December 14, 2011 by nicdempsey

Take today to talk about 12 things you would like to accomplish in 2012. These 12 things can be 12 resolutions, 12 changes in your life, 12 wines you’d like to drink, 12 cities you’d like to visit, or 12 monthly goals. The decision is yours. Good luck and have fun!

How will you resound?

This is hard, which is why it’s taken me an extra day, because if I say them, I have to do them. That means I can’t be half-hearted about them but at the same time they have to be realistic. So deep breath..

1) I will make exercise part of my life again, whether that’s running, bootcamp, classes or very long walks. I will to spent 2012 making it a priority. 2-3 times a week, nothing scary..

2) I will eat properly. I know about the drastic impact good food choices make to my life. This doesn’t mean that I won’t eat cake and have the odd cocktail but I will be more mindful about what I choose to eat.

3) I will set monthly goals. This is working for me at the moment and I’m not saying that I will always meet those goals but having something to aim at really helps.

4) By the end of 2012, I will work towards being 12st (that’s 168lb or 76kg to everyone else). That’s about 34lbs. I’m aiming for a pound a week and if that all went to plan would hit that goal just in time for Christelle’s wedding! However, I’m not going to aim for that, I’m going to say by the end of the year because stuff happens!

5) I will take more photos and learn how to use my camera! I have a lovely DLSR camera but I often end up using the ‘little’ one to take photos because it’s easier and I don’t really know how to use the DLSR to it’s fullest extent. This year Sarah has asked me to take photos for her wedding and I’d like to do it to the best of my ability which means getting to grips with the camera.

6) I will go on holiday this year. I don’t really do holidays but I would like that to change, starting this year.

7) Buy a new wardrobe. The one I have was a cheap canvas and wood thing I bought when I moved into the flat, it was less than £30 and never designed to last this long.  Currently the only thing keeping it upright is some strategically placed boxes. Time to treat my clothes better and tidy up that messy corner of my bedroom.

8) I will go to the cinema once a month. When I was in Fulham, Ma and I went to the cinema practically every Sunday. It’s harder to do in Ealing, but I’m going to budget for once a month movies.

9) I will learn to crochet. Because I can’t and it looks like fun.

10) I will have a clear out. I have too much stuff, in 2012, I will look at the things I have,  clear out the things I don’t need and use and organise the things I have better. (Like all things that might have to start in the kitchen!!)

11) On that note I will start to clear down the ‘To Be Read’ list. I’ve read 69 books this year and very few of them are from the pile!!

12) I will do another bootcamp with Jem. I’ve really enjoyed this one, despite the dodgy knees and miserable weather.

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No Time

Posted on December 13, 2011 by nicdempsey

So there was stuff that I wanted to write about. Books and Christmas Trees and mince pies and so much other stuff.

However, I’ve decided to prioritise mental health and sleep. The mental health stuff comes in the form of being prepared for the week and having a tidy flat. So I spent Monday night doing the household stuff I couldn’t do at the weekend because I was feeding 20 people and trying to buy a pair of jeans! I’ve done the ironing, changed the bed, put a wash on, dealt with the rubbish and recycling, hoovered the carpets and swept the floors, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, made Tuesday’s lunch, washed up and tidied the front room and bedroom. I did sit down for 30 minutes when I had dinner but that’s about it.

As I write this, it’s 9.50pm and I’m going to bed.

Tomorrow I hope to be more interesting.

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#resound11: Best Meal

Posted on December 12, 2011 by nicdempsey

What is the best meal or best food that you have eaten all year? Did you make it? Did you get it at a restaurant? Do your best to describe the food and the experience with us.

The problem is I’ve had so many good food experiences and picking one is hard. At home, Easter was pretty good. I cooked lamb with anchovies, garlic and lemon with new potatoes, peas and spinach. This was followed by pavlova. It wasn’t just the food though. On Easter morning, some of us from Grace had gone to Hampstead Heath for an Easter Sunrise service and then back to Gill’s for breakfast (another great meal!) then home for a sleep. Later on Kathy, Adam, Dean, Gill and my mum came for lunch.

It was a great afternoon of eating, drinking and talking but it was more than that. I realise looking back on it that it was about the joy of being at the table with people who knew that Easter was something more than a bank holiday and a chance to eat chocolate eggs. It was being with a community of people that knew like I did that Easter is a celebration of when everything changed because He was dead and now He lives. Apart from that morning on the Heath (Mum and Dean weren’t there) we didn’t talk about it, we didn’t pray together or say grace or do anything overtly Christian but we knew.

The food was great too..

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#resound11: High/Low

Posted on December 12, 2011 by nicdempsey

Today is a bit of a choose your own adventure: write (paint, draw, photograph, record, etc.) about your best experience this year. If that’s not your cup of joe, write about your worst experience. Feeling chatty? Share both your best and worst moments.

I’ve worked really hard over the past couple of years not to have too many high/low moments. I have a tendency to do rapid mood swings and major drama and I don’t like it. So I’ve been working on keeping myself on an even keel. The best and worst moments in any life tend to be mixed though so some small good things have been bordered by horrible stuff, so lots of the best moments happened when I was looking for work and was trying not to be miserable.

However, best moments have been the holiday in Northumberland (4 castles, 1 ruined priory, top holiday!), spending time with Max and Murphy and finally getting a job (the relief of knowing that I was going to be paying my bills was overwhelmingly good!).

The worst, watching Ben and Lu go through something terrible and not being able to do a thing about it except pray, losing the job at Peabody, having to sign on at the job centre.

 

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#resound11: Best Photo

Posted on December 10, 2011 by nicdempsey

For the past 8 days, we’ve talked about our year. For the next 7 days (with a break in between for a special prompt), we’re going to talk about the best things of 2011, then we’ll round out the month planning for 2012.

Today, please post your best photo of the year. It doesn’t have to be the best technically, it doesn’t have to be the best visually, but it should be a photo that you consider the best. Does it have special meaning? Is it of a significant event or moment? Share it with us!

This one.

September is when I really started to turn things around and feel that I would get through this year and it would be ok. Amazing what a holiday can do.

Northumberland is beautiful, the weather was unseasonably warm and sunny. We’d walked to Dunstanburgh that day and went for a walk on the harbour before the pre-dinner G&T. The waves were crashing against the harbour wall, we got a bit splashed and it was just a perfect day.

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#resound11: Catchphrase

Posted on December 9, 2011 by nicdempsey

What’s your trademark phrase? Not sure? How about a quote or saying that you repeat often? Bonus points if it’s new for 2011, but we won’t be upset if it’s been around longer than that. Try to put it in context for us if it’s a little abstract.

Catchphrases are big in my family. I blame my parents. For years when I couldn’t or didn’t want to do something I was reminded that “little legs can’t cope” – something I said on long walk up a steep hill as an explanation for why it was taking me so long. There was my brother’s comment that like my father and unlike him (apparently) I had “a full head of hair and a filthy temper”

We take something we like the sound of and use it a lot. For years and years I’ve been saying “….and the horse you rode in on” which shouldn’t need too much explanation. Often people are called “love of my life treasure of my existence, joy of my today and hope of my tomorrows” normally people I know well, often when I want something. The first two started with Sarah and Stef took it and ran with it and we get the joy and hope bits.

This year though has been the year of the “teeny, tiny monks”. Let me explain. On holiday this year, we went to Holy Island. Holy Island is a beautiful place and used to have monks living on it, hence the name. There is a castle and a ruined priory, so as we were nearby we had to go and see it. Now in the church part of the ruins were the night stairs, these were the stairs that the monks used to take them from the chapel at the end of the last service and to the night dormitory. They were very little stairs and I walked up them and if they had got all the way up to a first floor, I would have got stuck. My feet were longer than each stair.

The teeny, tiny stairs for tiny, tiny monks

So I said this to Ma who was in another part of the ruins and she pointed out that I had quite big feet, which is true but I pointed out that even she would have had trouble and she’s tiny so the monks must have been smaller, in fact teeny, tiny.

I know it doesn’t sound funny when I write it down but it made perfect sense to us and our frankly strange sense of humour.  Now if I or Ma says something is small, the first question will be is it “teeny, tiny“?  or suitable for the “teeny, tiny monks”.

Not big, not clever but that’s it…….teeny, tiny monks

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Pictures

Posted on December 8, 2011 by nicdempsey

I am so tired this week and the weekend is not going to be any better…so some pretty pictures..

Places I’d like to be right now

Middleham

Broadstairs

Amble

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#resound11: Achievement Unlocked

Posted on December 8, 2011 by nicdempsey

What goal did you set for yourself and achieve this year? Did you achieve something you didn’t think you could? Did you win an award? Did you set a record? Did you finally get your VCR from 1985 to stop blinking 12:00? C’mon, share it! Today is your chance to brag and get a resounding round of interweb applause.

I’ve only really got into the idea of goal setting recently, last month in fact, It’s not that I’m lazy…actually is it partly because I’m lazy. I find it very easy to be where I am and be sort of ok with it, the transition that I find difficult.

This is a long winded way of saying that started 2011 with no stated goals. I wanted to do the usual stuff, lose weight, eat better, exercise more, pay off some debt and so on but I had no stated goals. Then in March I lost my job (are you tired of hearing about that yet?) so the goal became to keep busy, not get too depressed and find a job.

Those things I did, four weeks ago I went for an interview, was offered a job and started work two weeks ago…

I’m pretty happy about it!!

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#resound11: Thelma and Louise

Posted on December 6, 2011 by nicdempsey

Who is the Thelma to your Louise? Who is your partner in crime? Did you reacquaint yourself with an old friend? Did you make a new friend? Or, perhaps, you are a lone ranger?

Anybody who knows me at all, could take a guess about this and if they guessed my mum, they’d be right. This year especially. This year, Ma has financially supported me and had absolute faith in my ability to get a job. She’s my partner in crime for ‘jolly japes’, I had the best holiday in September mostly because I went with her and she gets the need to wonder around ruins, she is also the only person who would understand my comment about the teeny tiny monks of Holy Island (there were these tiny ruined stairs and really the monks had to have been migets!!). She’s the first person I think of in good and bad news. The person who calms me down, boosts me up, she’s also my inspiration, generally if I’m not sure I can do something, I call Ma and she tells me not to be silly, of course I can do it, I just have to knuckle down and get on with it and I do and it works out fine. I have (in a moment of madness!) agreed to sort out food for the Resource weekend that Jonny is running, because of work this means I have to do the shopping and cooking for 2 meals catering for 20 people on Friday night. Ma, who isn’t really a cook, didn’t blink and is coming over to help me. She’s ace.

Even though Ma is Thelma to my Louise, she’s not the only person I turn to when I need help. Tonight, I got stranded in Ham, with no bus pass and no bank card. I called Tina and Charles and Charles came and picked me up. This year, when things have been rubbish, I’ve called on them and they’ve taken me for walks, fed me and set me to work. All things I needed. Their love and generousity is immense, especially as they’ve had a lot to cope with at the moment, Tina has cancer and is currently in the throes of chemo, but is and I quote, “perfectly fine, no need for fuss”.  I’m lucky to have them.

I also got to make a new friend this year and my months of unemployment would have sucked without her. Step forward Max. We’ve had coffee, eaten cake, gone for walks, played with her baby and made Christmas presents together. As happy as I am to be working, I really miss Maxanne!!

 

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Lego Christmas Tree

Posted on December 6, 2011 by nicdempsey

The shopping centre at St Pancras Station has a Christmas Tree made of Lego…

I’m probably more impressed than any grown woman should be!!

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