Another lovely day...

The weather has been beautiful again today, and that always lifts my mood.  Add to that the fact that yesterday not only did I help my mum choose an outfit for my niece B's wedding, but I got one for myself!  I love it - it's 50s style with a very bright print and makes me feel like a girl!  We had the assistance of a very lovely Personal Shopper, and I'd recommend the use of one of these if you have an occasion to shop for or a difficult customer to please (in this case, my mum - I'm fairly easily sorted!).  Actually, mum loved most of the suggestions and very quickly chose an outfit that she is clearly happy with.  Halos polished all round.

This morning I helped the daughter with some revision for her A levels.  It was much lower stress  than usual due to a new approach I concocted - using the mark scheme instead of the exam papers. She works out the question that would result in the answer then jots down the key words and phrases for each topic which the examiner is looking for.  It's worth a try! We then has bacon (and egg for me) sandwiches and I made my treat coffee - Monsoon Malabar.  It's beautifully strong and aromatic, and I've decided I'm always going to have some in. Why should it be a treat only?

THis afternoon, I polished my halo again by taking dad to do his food shop, and also completed mine.  We (daughter and I) have decided we need a healthy living regime, so I bought lots of lovely fruit and veg plus healthy stuff for snacks.  I fear this could be undermined by the amount of Easter eggs she brought back from her dad's, but there you go...

I have spent the rest of the afternoon messing about on the internet as the daughter has gone out for a friend's 18th.  I plan to watch some telly (perhaps Game of Thrones on catch up) and have an early night.  I know how to party, I do...

Coffee with a friend

Lovely day today so far!  Waiting for the daughter to get back from a long drive, so a teeny bit stressed at the moment.  This morning I went into town to pick up a parcel and find a present for my dad's birthday.  The weather wasn't quite up to yesterday's, but it was still warm enough to be coatless, and picking up the parcel meant I got a good incidental walk from where I parked the car.  I was then able to meet a friend, J, for a seriously good mocha at a local coffee shop and a catch up.  We are both still tired from the term, although J is pregnant so has a better excuse than me!  We chatted, moaned a bit and looked at the lovely Welsh blankets on sale in the shop part of the cafe.  Lovely.  I enjoyed the jazz music playing in the background, too, and the way the cafe makes everyone sit at long refectory tables so people have to be sociable!  I managed to get a book dad might like in town afterwards - it;s one you can just dip into, with separate stories of Welsh history.  Then I bought myself a salad bowl and very posh sausage roll affair from a baguette takeaway place.

I plan to have a sparkly drink in a bit - not fizzy, actually sparkly with bits of gold leaf!  It's a cinnamon vodka and the gold bits just float about in it.  It's so pretty!  I mix it with apple juice and lemonade to make a long drink and it is truly delicious.  I'm running a bit low now, so need to buy more.

Pretty drink - not showing the gold leaf as well as I'd like, but hey ho...

Here I am again!

I have been guilty of abandonment of this blog.  I don;t know why, it just wandered off my radar.  I'm here again now though and plan to do better!
Recently I have been doing the 100 happy days challenge, and it got me thinking about this again.  Lots has happened since I last wrote, but the most happiness (and scariness) making thing is a new job which will start in September.  I am very excited about it, but it's a bit of a change for me and It is also making me a bit nervous.

Yesterday, I went for a walk (not long, about a mile and a half) along the cliff path in the sunshine.  My exercise routine is another thing which has slipped rather in the last few months, so I walked yesterday in a conscious attempt to restart daily walks - I enjoyed it and plan to go out again later as the weather is great again!  I am on holiday at the moment and really enjoying doing nothing: I have plenty to do, but I'm giving myself the first week to recover from the term!

The daughter has turned 18 and has her own car, which makes both of us more independent!  It adds a whole load of new worries, though...She is currently visiting her dad but will be driving herself the full 4 hours home tomorrow.  I may be a bit of a nervous wreck!

                                                                Yesterday's walk.

Exercise...

I am feeling good today because I have exceeded my step target on my new Fitbit Flex every day this week.  It is making me go out and walk more than I would and the little graphs really appeal to my geeky side (which is much bigger than that makes it sound).  I am sure that my dodgy knee is feeling stronger and more stable, too.

On top of that, I seem to be having a storming time at work.  I am (temporarily) on top of everything and have driven my boss to be complimentary.  This is almost impossible, as she is a perfectionist (to say the least) and not my biggest fan anyway.  It's great!

I watched the daughter play hockey earlier.  Her team won, and she looked all proficient!  She has been warned to watch her teeth as she has a brace following an operation on a rogue canine which hid itself in her face.  The brace is due to come off (finally) next month and I really don't want her teeth knocked out right now - not that there is a good time to lose teeth... So all in all a good match - a win and a full set of teeth!

Especially for E...

So, the niece, E, has been nagging me about my frankly poor performance in terms of writing here.  She's right, of course, which makes it all the more annoying...
A quick round up and explanation then.  I went back to work at the beginning of September and it has been really, really busy - however, it's when under that sort of stress that I ought to post MORE religiously if the aim is to help me focus on the positive.  I will make an effort to do better!

E and her partner, A, finished their epic walk around Wales last Sunday, and I had a lovely day walking about 7 miles of the last leg with them and a group of friends and family.  The sun shone, the views were beautiful and some friends who hadn't walked brought a stove to an access point along the way and made us real coffee.  It was great!  I left E and A then to finish their walk, but met them at the end point with some fizz to celebrate.

Last night, we had a lovely meal to celebrate again (we love a good celebrate, we do) and the atmosphere was great there, too.  IT was in a tiny little beach café affair, lit by candles and with a large fire bowl outside the open doors to keep the evening chill out.  The food was pretty awesome too, and I had a bit of a moment watching the daughter share the wine and chat like a real adult person.  I built her from scratch, I did!

I had taken delivery yesterday of a Fitbit -  a sort of sexed-up pedometer you wear on your wrist which syncs with your computer by magic and gives you lots of geeky stats, so I've had a nice time playing with that today.  I set myself a step target of 8000 to begin with as my knee is playing up.  The walk to pick up the car from last night's meal venue got me off to a good start, and I have completed todays steps.  I am going to build it up to the recommended 10000 then see how that feels.  Walking has been great for my physical and mental health in the past, so this feels a very positive step, if you'll pardon the (slightly rubbish and unintended) pun.  It will also track the quality of your sleep, so that could be revealing...

Right, that'll do for now.  I'll try to be a better blogger in future!

Tired!

Sunday was quite relaxing, and the drive to pick up the daughter was stress free, which is always good.  We met after the close of the supermarkets, so in McDonald's - I'm not a big fan of the food, but the ice cream...well, let's say I don't mind that.  I had a Malteser McFLurry.  Lovely.

Today has been quite busy, with school, a meeting and then helping the daughter and her friend prepare for a mock EU conference.  I now know more about Malta's views on the expansion of the EU than seems strictly necessary for someone outside the Maltese Foreign Office!  It's quite satisfying though. 

I relit my Aga yesterday, so the house is cosy and I can dry my washing.  the house just feels...alive when the Aga is on.  It makes a massive (if undefinable) difference.  I love it.  I'd never have had one except there was one already fitted in my house when I bought it (don't imagine a large farm house - my house could be voted least likely to have an Aga!) but I couldn't be without one now.

I am currently watching rubbish telly (Buffy repeats!) and drinking tea, so thinks are just about perfect for the time being - until I have to go back into the salt mines tomorrow, anyway...

Hair!

I have had a hair cut today.  Never fails to make me feel great.  I have very short hair, so when it is cut it makes a big difference.  I then had coffee with a friend and bitched about work etc.  Great.
On the downside, I have a stonking headache - migraine I think as I've now had it for 2 days already.  Consequently I'm not going to type anymore as looking at the screen is a bit of a killer.