Minimal May

I don't have much mojo for blogging this year, but it seems I'm committed. Thankfully this month I have hardly any photos. Probably good, after the hugeness that was April. 

I made sure I took it very easy after being sick, and avoided pilates for a while. I worked in the book area of the Field Days tent, and I wasn't running the whole show this year, so it was much more of a cruise and I enjoyed it. 

We spent a nice morning at Taste and watched the cooking demos. I have notes on how to make almond croissants, and I cooked a sri lankan cauliflower curry the next day which was AMAZING. Should actually add it to the regular rotation now I think of it. I put fish in it because I had some very discounted fish in the freezer.

I've been getting focused on tidying up and using up. Combing through parts of the house and dusting, organising, culling, and finding things that are very old and should be used. I'm working on skin care type stuff, foods like jars of jam and lemon butter and spices, things that end up just hanging around for 10 years for no reason.

I also had a bit of a sort through clothes and culled the oldest stuff into rags. I am aiming to use those rags up in regular cleaning, haha! 

I have been upping my effort in getting dressed. Trying to look put together. I'm obsessed with the Articles of Interest podcast ep https://www.articlesofinterest.co/podcast/episode/3791f4fb/how-to-dress . I am aiming to elevate my look with my existing clothes, wearing my nicer things I don't wear much, wearing more white, and also straightening my hair and wearing a bit of makeup. To use up the makeup as well.

I fixed the broken leg on this storage shelves by replacing with wheels. I had the wheels to fix it for a year but it was annoying to unpack, but eventually it was messy and dusty and needed to be organised anyway. I had to go out and buy longer screws halfway but it was worth it to get it all fixed and repacked in one afternoon.

I've also rotated my bed back to the other wall, so under the bed is all vacuumed.

A hospitality goal achieved, we had Matt and Ginny over for dinner. I decided to make Recipe Tin Eats 12 hour lamb shoulder, which I woke up early to do. Well I woke up early because anxious, so it was a win. A great recipe, more convenient to make for lunch than dinner though.

THE BIG anxiety is my job application. (Role upgrade has to be publicly advertised and I compete for it). I have known this was coming up for months and months, yet I did nothing. Then suddenly it was advertised and I had 2 weekends to do a cover letter, resume and portfolio which I hadn't updated in 9 years. And also those weekends were not empty. But thankfully I got enough chunks of time to focus on it and got it in. I need to start preparing for the interview next.

I have recently discovered I might actually be becoming less irritable and more charitable towards others. I had a little mantra "people are stupid" which was reinforced whenever someone was unreliable or didn't perform to my standard. I have been trying instead to offer good customer service, good manners, good examples, good teaching, stuff like that. Forcing myself to write "Hope you are having a great day!" in emails. And I haven't said or thought "people are stupid" in ages, which I'm not sure if that is some spiritual transformation, or I'm surrounded by fewer unreliable or stupid people. Fingers crossed it's me that changed.

My sister brought the kids to my work to see the cows. I showed them my office and then we did a long walk over to see cows. So nice!