The Puppini Sisters
Java jive
I love the java and it loves me
In the Mood
In the mood, that’s what he told me
In the mood, and when he told me
In the mood, my heart was skippin’
It didn’t take me long to say “I’m in the mood now”
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B
Sway
Afternoon at the National Theatre to see Collaborators. Thankful because I live in London, near all this talent and creativity.
Ryan came for breakfast/lunch today. It’s always good to see him and at the moment we talk about deep stuff and total rubbish. Ryan is still having a difficult time and coping with it all like a trooper. I can’t tell you how proud I am of him, his mother did a great job.
Co-incidentally, before he came over this morning, I was looking at old journals. I needed to find something Stef had written in one of them, for his kids (godchildren two and three). In the course of that I read some of them. Wow, have I changed, but it showed me something else, I have really good instincts about people and it’s when I ignore them that things go wrong. The basis of a lot of bad decisions in my life have been listening to people I didn’t entirely trust and with good reason, they weren’t kind to me.
There’s a lot to be said for cherishing and fighting for relationships but for me the decision to stop fighting was hard but it was necessary. I needed to stop fighting and trust myself, and trust that everything would work out the way it was supposed to. There are still challenges and rubbish stuff still happens although all of that stuff is easier to cope with if the people that you love, love you. Broken hearts (whether is was a boy, a friend or any of the variations in between that do the breaking) do mend. Mine did and the only regret I have is that I tried for so long, when I should have trusted myself.
Ryan is in London for a long weekend. We talked, ate a huge breakfast and he put my pictures on the wall over the stairs (I couldn’t reach!).
He’s grown into an amazing person and is a credit to his parents, I’m so lucky I got to be in their and his life.
It starts to rain as I leave Kathy’s and by the time I’m home, I’m wet to my knees. But I get home, to a warm flat, a change of clothes, Radio 4 and a cup of mint tea. It’s cold and dark and wet outside and I have a home to go to and I feel very lucky.
I have great friends. Today tea, cake and a walk with Tina. We passed a community garden and I got a free strawberry plant! Good stuff…
It’s the 1st November and today I went out in my flip flops. Sunshine and relatively warm weather. That’s a good thing!
Krissie at Questions for Dessert has several November projects going on. One of them is to be thankful. I’m rubbish at setting and keeping goals, but maybe given that I don’t have the focus on work not, I need to set some to keep me on track in November. I hate, loathe, despise and resent November (it’s a gloomy, cold, dark month, if the SAD is going to be bad, this will be when it hits and Stef’s anniversary is at the end of it). So Krissie’s plan to be thankful is one I’m going to adopt. There are some other things I need to look at as well so I might as well try and reset my thinking now, rather than wait for the sun to come back next year.
Attitude
With thanks to Krissie for the idea and inspiration, this month I’m going to post once a day about something that I’m thankful for, to remind myself how well off I am.
Fitness.
I have to be honest, I’ve failed to maintain the shape I was in before unemployment. I haven’t exercised and I’m looking and feeling fat and out of shape. That has to change (I can’t afford new clothes and I’ve thrown away the ‘fat’ clothes. This month is also the start of the 6 week bootcamp with Jem. I’m enrolled in it (thanks Ma for the early Christmas present!). In addition to the twice weekly bootcamp sessions, I will run three times a week (I’m going to start with the C210K again). There will need to be some changes to my diet. I need to start eating right and not slipping. So that will happen. I know Jem well enough to know his basic requirements for diet. Lots of lean protein, eat 6 times a day (little and often) and not coffee or booze. I’ve been cutting back on both and only drinking them Friday, Sat and Sunday (baring last night’s LCS event), however, I can hear Jem telling me that’s almost half the week. I can’t live with no coffee in my world, so one cup of coffee, once a week. I have a couple of birthday parties in November so I’m going to give myself 3 days in the month when a glass of wine is acceptable go dry for the rest.
Money, money, money
This weekend, I did a massive shop. The freezer is full and I want to use what’s in it, therefore I will only be buy fruit and vegetables. So in November I won’t spend more than £20 a week. So £20 for food, going out etc. And as the month goes on, I’ll have to get creative about birthday/Christmas presents etc. Which leads to Murphy’s Christmas present, I need to put in some serious sewing to finish it by Christmas, so am going to commit to 10 hours a week sewing (it’s great for keeping my hands out of the fridge too!)
Let’s recap this. In November, I will:
That should keep me busy and hopefully get me back to happy.
I saw this in the week and decided that it was genius…and it is…
A real sign I’m getting old, spending Friday night at my mother’s. To escape the massive party the new neighbours are having. The walls between our houses aren’t very thick or soundproof and rather than be grumpy and sleepless, I just decided that discretion is the better part of valour.
The sun has been shining today and the sky has been blue.
That’s all I’ve got.
Nic Dempsey 