Two Weeks Later

I've been so focused on being organised and productive that I haven't written a blog for two weeks. I have, however, been keeping some rough notes of what to write here today. I will allow myself to feel okay about not posting - as I said in my previous post, I'm trying to be nicer to myself. I'm doing pretty well with it, and I find I'm feeling a lot calmer for it. This may seem totally obvious to most people, but being a pessimist with zero self-esteem hinders one's ability to be compassionate toward oneself. The way I'm re-calibrating my knee-jerk thoughts of you're rubbish at everything and also useless, is to think about what I would say to a friend who was feeling this way. I would never speak to a friend how I speak to myself, and really... If you can't be your own friend, you tend to get into a vicious cycle of self-blame and punishment. Not productive at all. Anyway, here are the highlights of the past two weeks!

Again in my previous post, I mentioned that I'd finally started to learn hieroglyphics from this book:

I've been trying to look at the book a few times a week, and make notes on what I'm reading. I do a couple of sections at a time to absorb the information effectively. I'm absolutely crap at drawing the symbols, so no ancient Pharaoh would be able to read my hieroglyphs, but it's super interesting and exciting to learn. Obviously the book is for total beginners, so it teaches you enough to unscramble the meanings of famous stelas and monuments. It would be cool to take it further when I'm done, or even learn it 'officially' if I can find a course.

Last Saturday was a busy, but lovely, day. In the afternoon, I went with Mum and Martin to meet Liam, Ashleigh, and Ethan at the Marlborough Mop. The Mop is a fair in the High Street of Marlborough that started out as a job-seeking fair in 1204. Obviously it's changed a lot from 812 years ago - now it's just a standard semi-rural fair with carnival rides and stalls, but it still attracts lots of visitors. We had a nice time strolling around and watching the rides. I was brave enough to carry Ethan on my shoulders for a while, and it was so cute to listen to him chuckling away as I danced him down the street. Liam took him on a little hot air balloon-themed ride, and Ashleigh showed him the Hall of Mirrors. He seemed to have a good time, and was tottering around everywhere taking in all the sights. Martin won him a ball from the Hook A Duck game, which Ethan was pleased with.

Later on Saturday evening, I went to the reception of Leanne's wedding. I debuted a new lipstick that I got aaaaages ago ('Smother' by Sleek - it's a lovely dark pinky-purple colour, and I fell in love with it instantly), and I actually looked super cute for the first time in forever.

The wedding was adorable. They'd decorated it all in autumn colours - Leanne's bouquet was orange and purple, as were the flowers on the centrepieces. Even the confetti on the tables were red/orange/brown and in the shape of leaves. All of the signs were chalkboards in shabby-chic white frames, and there was a table with pick'n'mix sweets spilling out of teacups and apothecary jars.

Aishah and Natalie also came to the wedding, which was exciting! I hadn't seen either of them for ages (Aishah never has a shift at the same time as me, and Natalie has left to go to university), and it was nice to hang out with them and have a chatter. Here we are with the lovely bride, right before the first dance:

The first dance was lovely. Leanne and Lee smiled and laughed all the way through and looked so happy - Natalie was immediately tearing up, as I predicted. I was laughing because Leanne had discarded her wedding heels and was wearing a little pair of Vans sneakers. Only she could pull that off at her wedding. I took this cute photo of their feet as they danced, because of said sneakers.

They had such great food in the buffet, and a brilliant live band. There was also a photobooth where you could put on props and take silly photos. Aishah, Natalie and I tried this out and took some pretty terrible photos (we kept forgetting to wait for the flash and moving at the last second).

It was a nice evening, and I'm glad I decided to go out. I love weddings anyway, they're always so much fun and a lovely atmosphere. Last Sunday I was useless all day, though, because of how busy the previous day had been.

On Wednesday (skipping far ahead here, because there's not been lots going on besides working and organising) I helped Mum with Ethan as she had tonnes of stuff to get sorted out before her, Martin and Ryan left for Australia. I took him to the park and we took some cute selfies....

He was in a really good mood all day, really giggly and playful. At lunch time, he kept trying to offer his food to Sirius who had come out of his house at the smell of food. Then he was holding the lid of his lunchbox over his face and peeking out around it, playing Peepo with me. Every time I said "Peepo!" or "Boo!" he would laugh so hard. He also laughed every time I even looked at him. It really cheered me up to spend time with him and Mum, it was another busy day but it was nice and put me in a good mood.

I mentioned Australia before. Mum, Martin, Nan and Ryan left on Thursday so I have the house to myself for a month. It's weird and quiet, but I'm quite enjoying feeling like a Real Adult. Continuing my mad organisation skills, I'm drawing up meal plans for the weeks to come. This is also to make sure I eat properly too, can't be going back to the terrible uni diet. Because I'm being organised and being more mindful of everything I do (including eating, hydration and exercise), I have lost 4 pounds in the last couple of weeks. Not much, but it's a start. I'm hoping I can continue steadily losing weight as I get used to my new routine and adding more activity to my schedule. I'm feeling weirdly positive about all of this, I think because I'm a very visual person and having my charts and lists in front of me in order to actually see progress is so helpful.

Today, I tidied and cleaned the house despite being incredibly tired and achy. I'm counting that as a little win too.