June has been an interesting month! It feels a bit unreal to be at the end of June and flipping over to the second half of the year. It's been a month of stress and refreshment, change and growth.
I've been trying out a veggie co-op, ordering a mixed box for me and for parents. I think I'll order again but pick more specifically. I kind of like the random mix because it forces me to eat veggies I wouldn't have otherwise, like cauliflower omelette for breakfast, but I don't like being left with dirty potatoes I don't want to eat. It's nice to avoid Coles a bit.
What I have been doing at Coles is buying all the bargains!
Another blast from the past, church had to move back to our old hall for 3 weeks, which was so small and full. I have a fresh appreciation for the new facilities.
I did cry after church that night. The trouble was I had pushed myself to get through April and May, the Field Days and Women of Truth, but then work piled back on because of the website launch and my tank was empty. I managed to wobble along, because I know that you just have to domino the jobs, one job at a time and the pile will slowly shrink, but it wasn't working so by the 3rd week I had a meltdown situation where I couldn't stop crying. My body was so full of stress it was coming out. So after 2 hours of not being able to stop crying I went home and messaged T who brought me some soup, I slept the afternoon, and then went back to work and discussed workload with my manager.
Some good news, we have a girl gang! An assorted batch to hang out and go on long weekends away together. Julie organised this house at Shoal Bay on the June long weekend. I decided to ask if I could not be on music at church so I could go the whole weekend. JK and I drove and had car maccas.
This is our cute house surrounded by blocks of flats, so close to the beach and Mount Tomaree. The only downside, and it is a big one, is the shower has zero water pressure. I managed to not need to wash my hair and only have 1 shower.
We watched Austenland on DVD, and a netflix romcom. Went to the Country Club around the corner for dinners. Had a pile of maybe 15 blocks of chocolate and other assorted snacks, enough for a youth group weekend at KYCK.
I was still carrying that stress, so I made sure to sit in the sun and read, go to the water, things like that.
Lovely Denise came up from Sydney and we walked up Mount Tomaree together. It is a stunning walk. I was very exhausted afterwards, maybe an arthritis thing or maybe because of the stress. But it was a nice walk and would do it again.
It was so beautiful at sunset on the bay too.
Colleagues raved about baths, so I am trying a weekly bath. S also gave me some bath salts, I do work with such thoughtful people.
My long-awaited rose order arrived! I am full of anxiety about whether I planted and pruned them right. I even dug one of them up twice to check on my planting technique. I'm excitedly waiting for some leaves.
The huge box of veggies has led to a lot of slow cooking, and I've shared some tasty soups with JK.
Taire asked me to paint a watercolour portrait of our friends for a farewell. I decided I needed this creative job and it has been good, it's forced me to get out the paints I bought 6 months ago and finally start using them, playing with them, exploring water colour artists on instagram, things like that.
I think this leaves study is my favourite thing so far.
Yesterday I even went to Tocal to return the work car and took my watercolours and painted the landscape in real life. Yay! I've wanted to do this for ages. Car swapping was a good motivation to go there. I so easily get caught up at home with housework and TV that I miss out on doing things like this. I did however break my pallet, but I think I'll just use ice cream lids now. I just need to abrade them a bit so they don't repel the water.
I cracked all the Tasmanian hazelnuts over 2 sessions. It was painful work, because I can't tolerate sitting on the floor so much anymore. I have just baked my first batch of choc chip hazelnut cookies with them!
I continue my obsession with moving the furniture around. I quite liked this simple one-person spot in the morning sun, but I started to really crave a soft loungey sofa to rest my back, so I swapped in the couch from the garage. It's not very cute, but it is a marshmallow. I am sitting on it right now.
I've decided to try and take some flex days off a bit more regularly, to help with the stress, although I do keep using them for life admin, which I guess helps with the stress probably. And really it's probably better to be walking around doing things than watching TV. On another note I am trying to watch less TV. So anyway, I took a monday off and got my car serviced and my dentist checkup. I treated myself to brunch as well, and looked at shop windows while waiting for the car.
I still have a pile of life admin to do such as change strata company, get quotes from electrician and gutter guard, get a haircut, organise a baby shower, but at least I've done my teeth and my car.
One of my stressful work events was this photoshoot day. I asked for help organising it which was a life saver. I don't know how I would ever have coped if I had to herd the cats of 3 different farms. It's stressful enough briefing the photographers and hoping we get what I need. However a good professional does so much of the heavy lifting. They were amazing at wheedling people to pose and remembering what I had asked for. I kind of enjoyed spending the day outside instead of at my desk, watching them work so hard. But I was so happy when it was over and I could go back to my desk job.
The girl gang went to the fireworks at the Levee. It was so wintery and rainy that day, but it cleared up for the fireworks. It had an odd vibe, I think things at night don't have the magic I want them to, the day events have such a better vibe, but it was basically a good fireworks event.
We marked the 1 year aniversary of Nathans death with soup lunch, some words (including me reading a poem WITHOUT CRYING!) and planting a tree in the garden outside our office.
On Friday, Kate and I went down to Adobe Symposium. This conference was a lot more customer-experience focused than the previous Adobe conferences I've been to. There were still some sessions on the software—Rush probably the most useful to check out—but a lot more on UX, content management and so on. Kind of went over my head. Mixed feelings of inadequacy and inspiration from days like this!
The food hall had a DJ, puppies, VR, a lot of cool technology. Best conference I've been to. I could easily go to this conference alone in future because you don't have to stand around feeling lonely and awkward at any point. Just pat dogs!
Kate is about to leave Tocal and Maitland though, so no more design buddy in my office :( It has been lovely bonding with her for the last year or 2.
And yesterday I did the car return and watercolour painting thing, and then wandered through Lorn and Maitland, joining an older couple from church at a cafe spontaneously. Note to self, just getting out of the house is a great way of connecting with the world. I saw 4 people just going to the shops and cafes.
Then my housemate moved out, and now I live alone again. I have been rather looking forward to it. She is lovely but I am happy to have my own calm house to myself again.
Plus I now have a whole room for music!
No comments:
Post a Comment