I’d normally get a bit grumpy about working on a Sunday, but it’s been really nice to have a day with absolutely nothing else going on so that I can just get on with things and get loads of it done. Some really interesting stuff from my various clients at the moment as well!
It’s also been nicely soundtracked by Geth continuing to work on the wedding disco playlist for Lisa and Kieran’s wedding. I’ve only been distracted from work by needing to get up and dance…three or four times. I’m doing well.
Looking forward to an early night tonight so that I can get up and start work early again tomorrow. I’m so exciting these days.
OOTD: still in the house, still comfy. Jacket unknown brand (bought at vintage shop 2003, estimated 1990s – also mentioned here), dress Oodji (2018), shoes BHS (2016).
Today’s parkrun didn’t feel anywhere near as fast as last week – there were many stretches where I felt I was taking it easy. I still somehow managed a 30:38, a fourteen-second improvement on last week. Very happy!
I really feel like sub-30 might be on this year now. If I’ve not managed it by the second week of November, I will be making use of the Newcastle parkrun pacer week and attempting to keep up with the 30-minute pacer. The pacers at Newcastle tend to be a bit too fast so I’m not sure how I’d get on, but we’ll see! Sadly I’m doing races and/or otherwise engaged on all the intervening pacer weeks (Newcastle does one the second week of every month), so I will have to be patient.
Another quiet afternoon and evening working (and listening to Geth working out DJ stuff for a wedding disco playlist!).
OOTD: super comfy hanging-around-the-house outfit that could have been easily dressed up if we’d decided to go out tonight (we didn’t). Bonus mirror selfie as Geth was busy DJing. Glasses Emporio Armani (2017), t-shirt modified Deviant/Fruit of the Loom (thrifted from Geth 2014, originally from the early 2000s), leggings Primark (2018), shoes La Redoute (2018).
One of the interesting things about getting back into routine is that routine things feel out of the ordinary!
Today was a very routine Friday – Geth and I went into town in the morning to do a bit of clothes shopping and drop our smart clothes off at the tailor to be altered, then I went home and spent the afternoon working, then we went to the pub to celebrate Geth going on annual leave. I’m now having a nice quiet evening catching up with admin while Geth sorts out the music for pre-DJing Lisa and Kieran’s wedding.
Tomorrow we get to run our home parkrun at Newcastle for the first time since May!
OOTD: daft post-pub photography that resulted in Geth singing Kraftwerk’s The Model at me in a slightly drunken manner. Sunglasses Jasper Conran (2018), t-shirt Punk Masters (2018), handbag Just Cavalli (2018), trousers Bat Attack (2009), shoes Vivienne Westwood Anglomania for Melissa (2018).
…that I have escaped the ignominy of having to pay my Slimming World fee again! I lost the four pounds required to take me back into target range. Will try to lose a bit more this next week so that I’m more towards the middle of it again.
I went to WH Smith afterwards to pick up my Doctor Who Magazine (I’m several months behind with reading DWM, but I’ve been diligently buying all the issues so I can catch up at some point). I’ve been sternly telling myself that I need to cut down on magazines, because I never have time to read the ones I buy and it’s a bit of an expensive habit, but when I walked into the shop, all of these were on display:
Classic Pop Magazine – my new favourite magazine and also my new downfall, given that they keep releasing all these special editions about my favourite bands. Still not got round to reading the Pet Shop Boys one from two months ago!
Yeah. I’ll be starting that ‘cutting down’ thing next week.
Another quiet afternoon plugging away at work – Pilates class is on summer break till September so I’ve got plenty of time on a Thursday afternoon to get on with things at the moment.
Geth has been playing a lot of Final Fantasy XIII-2 this week, which has meant a lot of early nights reading for me. I expect I will be doing the same tonight, although I’ll possibly be forsaking my Kindle for making a start on that giant pile of magazines that I just added to.
OOTD: it’s still pretty warm around here. Vest top Primark (2018), skirt unknown brand (estimated 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2018).
I’ve been back from Canada for a week now, and I’m still struggling a little with my sleeping pattern, although at least this morning I was only an hour late forcing myself awake. It really is worse going eastwards.
Another day mostly spent getting on with work and cleaning the house, although I did also try on my bridesmaid dress for Lisa and Kieran’s wedding. Good thing I did, as it’s a bit too long and I’m going to have to take it in to be hemmed – luckily Geth has already booked an alterations appointment as he needs his suit taken in, so we’ll get that done together.
Second SP day went well – I made an awesome salad, which Geth says he wants to eat more often. Recipe coming soon!
OOTD: another sundress day. Dress Matalan (2001), shoes Zara (2018).
Geth and I just got back to Newcastle…again. We’re back for a good while now though!
We’ve been in Scotland for the weekend, for the respective hen and stag parties of our friends Lisa and Kieran. We headed off on Friday afternoon, just a couple of hours after Geth’s Canada luggage finally showed up, and managed to beat the ridiculous UK train chaos caused by the thunderstorms by getting on an alternative train and sitting on the floor of the doorway section. Not hugely comfortable, but at least we got to Edinburgh around the time we were supposed to.
After a quiet evening at Mum and Dad’s, we had an uncomfortable night’s sleep (it was REALLY hot and muggy) and then got up for parkrun, which I will post about later in the week. On returning to the house, I grabbed the world’s quickest shower and got ready to be picked up by my friend Fi to travel to the QHotels Westerwood Spa near Cumbernauld.
Having also picked up our other friends Gemma and Sarah, we headed along the motorway to the spa, checked in and spent a pleasant few hours in the hotel bar, during which Steph, Lisa, Nikki and Becky also arrived. At five o’clock we went downstairs for the treatments we’d booked. I’d never been to a spa before, so I had no idea what to expect from my face and back treatment, but it turned out to be a lovely massage with lots of oil and exfoliation and so on. It was so relaxing, I nearly fell asleep! The only downside is that two showers later, I’ve still not been able to get the oils out of my hair.
After the treatments, we were taken to a relaxation room, where we were able to chill out on daybeds with glasses of water for a while, and then we all went for a swim float in the warmer, shallower part of the pool and a soak in the jacuzzi.
Dinner was at eight, but unfortunately, because the service was really slow and poor, we were in the restaurant for three hours, at which point they still hadn’t served our desserts and we ended up having them brought through to the room where we were booked to have a cocktail and DVD night. The poor service from the waiting staff didn’t spoil our evening, but it was very frustrating, especially as we kept having to go and chase up our orders (and when they billed us for exceeding our food allocation when we hadn’t!).
Still, we had a good time watching Moulin Rouge! and Monty Python & The Holy Grail, and I had two delicious cocktails – the second one was especially good, as it came with a drumstick lolly dipped in it, and I’ve not had one of those since I was a kid.
After a good sleep, we went for hotel breakfast – I resisted the bread table, as I’ve got to lose my Canada holiday weight this week, but the scrambled egg was amazing (much better than the egg in Toronto – sorry, Grand Hotel), the mushrooms and tomatoes were very welcome, and I got to have a tattie scone, which I never get to do as I’m rarely in hotels in Scotland.
We spent a good couple of hours chatting in the hotel bar again, but decided to skip the lunch we’d booked, as most people were too full for lunch/needed to get home. We headed back in Fi’s car again, this time with added Steph, and got back to Edinburgh in plenty time for me to go back to Mum and Dad’s and repack my stuff. I also caught up with Geth, who had enjoyed Kieran’s stag yesterday (they’d spent the afternoon and evening boardgaming – what else?).
We had a much more straightforward train journey back to Newcastle, and are now relaxing with the World Series Triathlon on BBC iPlayer.
Not a perfect weekend, but that massage was so good that I’m definitely interested in going to a spa again!
Saturday OOTD: comfy travelling outfit. T-shirt Lauren Ralph Lauren (bought at vintage fair in 2018, but still available on the website so probably not that old), leggings Primark (2018).
Sunday OOTD: my current favourite day dress, in a colour I’ve never worn before but quite like! Dress Primark (2018), terrible hair due to the aforementioned spa oils!
I spoke too soon about the jetlag. Last night, I got to bed about half past one, which is not too bad, but this morning I could not wake up for love nor money. I finally dragged myself out of bed at eleven, but I honestly could have slept all day.
Geth was also worried about his suitcase showing up in time today, because we were out this afternoon so wouldn’t have been around to receive it. Luckily it finally arrived a couple of hours before we were due to leave, so he was able to have a shower and get some laundry done. As this has also happened to Malcolm and Steff a couple of times when connecting through Heathrow, we’ve decided we’re not going that way to Canada anymore.
Hoping that parkrun tomorrow will sort the jetlag issue!
OOTD: it’s still too hot and muggy for the 95% of my wardrobe that was bought to suit the more usual British climate! Duran Duran t-shirt Amplified (2018), skirt H&M (thrifted from my sister-in-law Steff in 2016), trainers Reebok (2017).
I woke up to my alarm at 8am this morning as normal on a Thursday, and had managed to sleep quite well, so I seem (touch wood!) to have nixed my jetlag straight away. We’ll see how I do over the next couple of days.
This morning’s main task was attending my Slimming World group to face the post-holiday music. I’ve put on six pounds during my holiday (ouch) and am out of target range. I know I can lose it again quickly though – just have to be really good this week.
After I got home, I got all my post-holiday laundry done, and then later in the afternoon Geth arrived home sans luggage. His flight turnaround at Heathrow was too tight for the bag to make the connection, so he settled down to wait for news about it and I headed off to Pilates.
It was great to get back to Pilates again – all the stretching was very welcome after a week on holiday. Sadly it was the last class of the course and we’re now on summer break until September – I’m going to have to practise lots at home instead!
After class, I nipped down to Sainsbury’s to pick up my souvenir Now! #100 CD and do my bit for getting it into the album charts tomorrow. Excitingly, Sainsbury’s have a deal on, where you can get Now! #100 for £3 cheaper if you also buy another Now! compilation – so I took the opportunity to grab a copy of Now! #1 as well, which has just had a re-release on CD:
Rod Stewart (just read his autobiography), Tracey Ullman (checking out her new BBC show at the moment) and Duran Duran (my current favourites) all in a row on an album cover? I call that a favourable omen. It is a cracking compilation, to be fair. As for Now! #100, I pretty much only bought it for the updated cute version of the Now! pig on the cover. (That was a lie. I also bought it to commemorate doing my Now! marathon, and to try and get it into the charts.)
I went home to make healthy food for the first time in a couple of weeks, and Geth had news of his bag – they won’t be delivering it till tomorrow. Hopefully it will arrive sooner rather than later.
OOTD: typical comfy Thursday outfit for running about to Slimming World and Pilates class. T-shirt H&M (2018, just bought in Toronto last Saturday!), belt H&M (2017), leggings Under Armour (2017).
