I had a good weather window for my run this morning – no ice, no rain – so the only annoyance en route were the endless roadworks at the nearby roundabout, which have circled back round to the point where they get in the way of my mile route again! It got stormy again this afternoon, so I’m glad I got some fresh air while it was still dry.
Have spent the rest of the day editing for clients and catching up with admin. Another quiet evening in tonight before my midweek run and ukulele class tomorrow.
Not an OOTD: also nice to receive a belated birthday present in the post today. No note to say whom it’s from but I have my suspicions!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Lady Gaga – ‘Always Remember Us This Way’ Cast of Mary Poppins – ‘Chim Chim Cheree’ B*Witched – ‘Blame It On The Weatherman’
I said last week after a slightly frustrating treadmill run that I would only use the treadmill on days when it’s too icy to go out, because running on the treadmill feels much faster and harder than doing the same pace on the roads, and that sort of goes against the ethos of the gentle ambling mile that I’m trying to do four days a week so that I don’t overexert myself. I expected I wouldn’t need to drag it out of the cupboard too often, as we seemed to be having a mild spell… but lo and behold, January weather has returned with a vengeance, and so out came the treadmill again this morning. Hopefully I’ll be back out on the roads tomorrow.
In addition to being icy, it’s been stormy and wet today, so I’m very glad that I’ve just been doing day job work in the house most of the day. Geth is out boardgaming, so I’ll be on my 3DS (and possibly my gaming PC later) this evening.
Not an OOTD: just been staying in with this cheerful sight instead of going out in the cold 🙂
Today’s earworm playlist:
Spice Girls – ‘Too Much’ Tomohito Nishiura – ‘Carnival Night’ Lightwood Games – ‘Link-A-Pix Theme’ Judy Garland and Lucille Bremer – ‘Meet Me In St Louis’ Tom Clelland – ‘The Present’ David Bowie – ‘Space Odyssey’
A good productive Friday to top off a good productive week. Hope this is a promising sign for the rest of 2020!
After getting some urgent work done for a client, I did my run on the treadmill this morning as it was icy outside. I then headed into town to get all the banking errands done that I hadn’t been able to do earlier in the week. Everything was open and went to plan today! I also nipped into GAME in central Newcastle to see if I could get any hits on my 3DS. No such luck – it’s getting harder and harder as people move across to the Switch. I’ll see if I can get into town on a Saturday sometime when it’s busier.
I spent the rest of the afternoon getting work email and admin done. A bit of videogaming this evening before an early night ready for parkrun – I’ve shifted my training plan around and will be incorporating parkrun into my weekend long run tomorrow due to the Metro not running. Shorter tempo run now scheduled for Sunday – which means I have more hours in the day for my Sunday videogaming session!
Not an OOTD: I also have this little card of goodness (a birthday pressie from Malcolm and Steff) that I’ll be adding to my Steam wallet and buying some PC games soon!
I’m having a bit of a career crisis at the moment.
My life plan for the last decade or so has been: work as a freelance editor while patiently waiting for the magical moment when someone will agree to publish a book I’ve written, and after that moment arrives, gradually build up a writing career to the point where I don’t need to do the editing work anymore.
It’s not exactly a detailed plan, and it has never really taken into account (a) what happens if that magical moment takes a lot longer to arrive than anticipated (or never arrives at all), (b) what I’m going to do if editing technology gets good enough that human editors are no longer required, or (c) the fact that it is depressing, frustrating and mental-health-toll-taking that I simply don’t make enough money from editing to cover my living costs and am dependent on Geth for a lot of them.
I’ve been feeling for a few years now as though I’ve backed myself into a corner in terms of my career. I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that I need to retrain.
I’m looking at a few options, but it’s still very early days and I need to do a lot of research. By the end of the year, however, I’m hoping to be on a new trajectory.
Anyway, to today. I went for a run, then found I’d lost 3lbs at Slimming World, which is the first chunk of Christmas weight off. A few more solid weeks on plan and I should have got rid of it.
I intended to run some banking errands in town, but I’ve had a bit of bad luck over the last couple of days with banks being shut and services not being available, so I’ll have to find some time to do it tomorrow instead. As such, I came straight home from group and got some admin done in the afternoon. Squeezing in a quick bit of videogaming tonight to try and de-stress.
Lots more day job work to do tomorrow. Looking forward to the weekend already!
Not an OOTD: I’ve finally got to the last 3DS Layton game in my backlog. Will probably end up getting the new one on the Switch – I love these games!
Today’s earworm playlist:
FM-84 and Ollie Wride – ‘Never Stop’ The Beatles – ‘Drive My Car’ Bill Withers – ‘Lean On Me’ Kate Bush – ‘Them Heavy People’
Geth has been working from home today, so we’ve got back into our home workplace groove, with lots of synthwave in the background but no other distractions. I did my first midweek run of the marathon training plan this morning, and then spent the afternoon editing for a client. I’m off to ukulele class this evening!
When I get back I’ll be finishing off my nails (had to take off my New Year polish and cut them short this afternoon so that they don’t get in the way of ukulele-playing), chilling out with some videogames, and hoping that four days back on plan has been enough for an okay-ish result at Slimming World weigh-in tomorrow morning.
Not quite an OOTD: nail colours ready to be put on later tonight.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Harry Styles – ‘Lights Up’ Monty Python – ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life’ Spice Girls – ‘Spice Up Your Life’
It’s nice to have ‘normal’ days again now Christmas is over. After my run this morning, I got a chunk of housework done, then a bit of day job work, then a couple of hours videogaming.
It’ll be another fairly busy day tomorrow, not least because ukulele class is starting again! I’m excited to see what songs we’ll be learning this term.
Not an OOTD: Geth has bought these energy gels for us to try out in our long race training. I had one this morning and they’re sickly sickly sweet haha! Going to have another go on my long run on Sunday now that I know I don’t hate the taste.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Unflinchable Courage’ Teletubbies – ‘Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh’ Japan – ‘I Second That Emotion’ Sidney Samson and Wizard Sleeve – ‘Riverside (Let’s Go)’ Robbie Williams – ‘Rudolph’ The Carpenters – ‘Close To You’
A busy day today. I went for my short run first thing this morning, then spent a few hours doing some day job work for a client. After that, the rest of the afternoon was taken up with putting away all the Christmas decorations. The house always looks a bit bare when they’re down, but it is giving me some impetus to get a few more pictures up on the walls soon.
Geth and I have sorted out our diaries for 2020 this evening (they’re ridiculously full already, which always seems to happen at the start of the year), and I’m about to have a go on RingFit Adventure, which is an exercise game for the Nintendo Switch.
A slightly quieter day tomorrow I hope!
Not an OOTD: it’s not out the box yet, but my new turntable (a Christmas present from Geth) fits its allotted space very well! Some of the albums are newly bought in the last year, while others are from Mum and Dad’s collection, which I divvied up with Malcolm on Christmas morning. It’s also a cassette player, but I won’t be getting rid of my 1993 Saisho machine (top of picture) – I’m too attached to it.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Unflinchable Courage’ Starship – ‘We Built This City’ Bill Conti – ‘Gonna Fly Now’
Uh… not a good start to the list. I don’t think I got anything done in this area. It’s now a resolution for 2020, and apparently one that I need to prioritise.
2. Write 500,000 words in 2019…
I absolutely smashed this one, writing approximately 875,000 words in 2019.
3. …and edit and pitch all the words I’ve already written.
I pitched my 2011 middle grade/young adult novel to twenty more agents, and none of them bit, though a couple did say they liked it. I also submitted poetry and short stories to a lot of magazines and competitions – again there was no success there. I just have to keep trying in 2020. I’ve already identified the novel project I’m going to be pitching this next year, and it should be in a submittable state by the spring.
4. Take weekends off.
Hahaha! Well, I’ve been slightly more successful than usual in not doing day job work at weekends, but only slightly. Writing and admin is another story – the to-do list just slips and slips and slips throughout the week and it’s never all done by Friday. I’m not really sure if this is something that can ever be changed.
5. Buy fewer clothes.
I was pretty successful in this area! I only bought stuff I actually needed (well, maybe the Duran Duran t-shirts weren’t exactly necessary, but they’re very nice). I don’t even feel the need to go out to every single vintage fair anymore.
6. Run a marathon.
Done and dusted! Of course, circumstances conspired to ensure that I’ll be doing it a second time in 2020…
7. Perform some of my poetry in public.
I was convinced that this one wouldn’t happen, but it did – eight times! I don’t even feel nervous about doing it anymore, which would have seemed totally impossible to me this time last year.
8. Get sober.
I got sober on the 5th of January 2019, and so I am very nearly at my one-year anniversary. While I’m very proud of myself for getting this far, I recognise that sobriety is a lifelong process, and so I can’t get complacent about it or think that the work is done. I’ll continue to utilise the great online and offline support communities that I’ve found, and to take more care of my own mental health.
9. Get back into the habit of music practice.
Rather optimistically, I thought I’d be able to make a multi-instrumentalist of myself in 2019. I’ve only really had time for my ukulele, but I’m really pleased with how it’s gone. I’ve done three terms of classes at the Sage Gateshead, moving from the absolute beginner to the beginner to the intermediate class, and with the intermediate class I really feel that I’ve found my level. Looking forward to class starting again next week! I also love that I can just find tabs online and teach myself new songs.
10. Actually play some videogames.
This didn’t really happen until about September, but I have been able to get some decent videogaming time in during the last few months of the year. It’s something I love, and I have lots of new ones to play, so hopefully there’ll be even more of this in 2020!
Plus some unexpected bonus achievements…
The first unexpected thing I did this year was buying my car in May and properly getting back into driving again! I’d been meaning to buy a car for years, but I’d been hugely procrastinating about it because it seemed so complicated and I’d always been such a nervous driver before. Having a calmer temperament now that I’m sober has really helped with my driving, and I feel much more confident about it now that I’m getting so much practice in.
The second was starting to learn to code in the autumn. It had always been something I was interested in, due to my twin loves of retro stuff and videogames, but it was only this year that I finally got into it thanks to some of the ’80s Twitter accounts I follow discussing the Adventuron system (for creating illustrated ’80s-style text adventure games) in August. I was able to take part in a couple of game jams in the autumn and improve my game development skills, and I even wrote an Adventuron game for NaNoWriMo (or half of one, anyway – I’ll be finishing it in the first part of 2020, along with a few other games I have ideas for). I also started learning to program in BASIC in preparation for getting the BBC Micro up and running again. I have a lot more coding goals for the next year, but I’ll discuss those in detail in my New Year Resolutions 2020 post tomorrow!
Everything is ready for Christmas, finally! I am with my family and we have all just eaten a mountain of my sister-in-law Steff’s Christmas Eve lasagne. Driving is done, presents are under the tree, out of office email is on (after finishing one last bit of work for a client this afternoon).
Geth and I also visited Kieran and Lisa and their (very energetic) little girls this evening to exchange Christmas presents. We are now the owners of some extremely comfy cushions that will be going on our upstairs sofa once I’ve got it all tidied up. Sorting out the upstairs of the house is a very important job for 2020 (more on that later this week).
I hope everyone has a peaceful day tomorrow and that it will make all the Christmas rush worthwhile 🙂
Not an OOTD: nobody’s quite sure if this tealight holder features moose or reindeer. It’s nice either way!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Amy Soonyoung – ‘Christmas Time Is Here’ Ariana Grande – ‘Santa Tell Me’ Robbie Williams – ‘Happy Birthday Jesus Christ’ Traditional – ‘Still The Night’
Geth and I have had a fairly hectic day getting lots of final things sorted before Christmas. We got the car prepped for the Christmas drive, posted a couple of last-minute cards, and braved the supermarket for some supplies. I then spent the afternoon doing a short bit of day job work (hopefully that’s the last thing that will come in!) and baking a pie to share with the family on Christmas Day.
Christmas TV and films watched tonight have included Trev and Simon’s Swing Your Xmas Pants, A Child’s Christmases In Wales, Father Christmas (my childhood favourite) and Santa Claus The Movie (Geth’s childhood favourite). I was meant to be going out to a gig tonight, but I’ve decided to skip it as I’m really tired and I need to drive tomorrow. Anyway, I am enjoying the Christmas films.
Just the Christmas Eve jobs to do and then the celebrations can begin! I’m so looking forward to seeing my family 🙂
Not an OOTD: Geth with his favourite Christmas film plus the Toblerone his mum gave him for Christmas.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Blackbear – ‘Hot Girl Bummer’ Ed Sheeran and Stormzy – ‘Take Me Back To London’ Chris Rea – ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ Slade – ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ Travis Scott – ‘Highest In The Room’
