January - in summary....

So, I've lapsed badly as a regular blogger.... but mainly because my life really isn't that interesting.  Instead, I thought I'd try a monthly summary, more than anything to give me something to look back on.

Firstly, it is January, obviously, so I guess I started the year with good intentions for lots of things.  My main goals for the year were to try eat more healthily, to knit a hat each month and to not by more than 1 e-book a month for the year.  More on those shortly...

Work takes up a great deal of my life.... after all 35 hours a week in the office, plus additional time when required, is half your life. when you factor in that you don't get much done when sleeping.  January for me marks the start of the descent into hell..... or the approach of financial year end on 30th April.  This year is my first experience of year end as a team leader.  My team are great, but apart from myself and my deputy, they are all trainees, 5 of them.... yep, I am the newest team leader, have the largest team and the most trainees.... managing them and my stress over the next three month is going to be a challenge.  I have lost around 60% of my own work time in supervision and answering random queries, as well as the various management and reporting things I need to do.  It's a challenge I'll admit, but I actually kind of enjoy it.  We are that busy at work at present that the previously thought to be mythical creature "paid overtime" was not only spotted lurking but allowed for three Saturdays in January. I took up two days, and would have done today, but alas that was not to be.

In fact, I've not been in work at all since Monday.  I have a virus.... a pesky horrible virus of the "rest, keep warm and drink plenty of fluids" variety as medicine will do bugger all for it.  So that has been my week, in between some amazing swings of temperature and feeling extremely dizzy and sick, I have been resigned to lying on the sofa.  Well kind of... I got bored.  By Wednesday, I'd convinced myself I was going to be better enough to work the following day, and logged on to work to clear some e-mails.  Thursday, I got half way through getting ready to go in before I realised I was being slightly optimistic as I did a great impression of a delicate fainting flower halfway through trying to get dressed.  And well, if I couldn't manage that there was no way I was going to manage to dig my car out and drive to work - it was snowing quite heavily still at the time and dread things had been forecast. So yes, I stayed home, and on Friday, though i did put in about 4 hours of work in checking my team's stuff and dealing with e-mails.

Today, I ventured out for the first time .... it was either that or I was going to go ever so slightly round the twist with cabin fever... seriously, I'd not seen a living person in about a week, and the dogs are not the best conversationalists in the world.  So I popped out for a few hours, and had a lovely time first with my mum, then with my sister and her partner, before hitting the shops on the way home.  I was out for about 5 hours... and I am now rather knackered! I shall be back on my sofa shortly........

I feel the dogs are going to give a huge sigh of relief on Monday when I do go to work... it's annoyed them no end to have me hanging about disrupting their routine for the week.  The cats however seem to think having me at their beck and call is a wonderful invention and that I should in fact cater to their every whim.... or they will scream.... loudly... really, really loudly.

Between work and being ill, I've not managed to write more than a very silly short that was posted a few entries back on the blog, and two 100 word drabbles for the YA GLBT group on Goodreads.  I need to try harder at that.

Mind you, my kitchen, where the lap top is, is not the warmest room in the house, and with some very cold (okay, non Brits stop laughing at what my version of very cold is) weather combined with not having heating has made it impossible to work of an evening as it's just to cold.  I am hopeful however that there will be a new heating system in my immediate future, I just need to get a couple of quotes and arrange a date for a new boiler and 6 radiators to be put in.... .then once that's done... I can start thinking about re-doing the bathroom (I have plans to work through the whole house in the next 18 months - 2 years..... whether it happens that fast who knows)

So, onto the three goals....

Yep, this month I have indeed managed to buy just one e-book.  Everything else (21 books) have been ones already on my Kindle.  I will post a list tomorrow with some thoughts... I am hoping to try finish another before bed time.

The knitting of the hat has been stalled at the starting line.... the reason for this is Gretchen.... I knit my hats in Aran weight usually, on 5mm dpns, I have some lovely smooth wooden ones.... or I did ... until the little swine of a hell hound managed to grab them out the project bag, at which time I'd done about 2 inches of ribbing for the first hat, and promptly drag it all behind the sofa and chew the needles to match sticks. (She is not a popular dog this month.... she also found her way into the cupboard where I kept the emergency dry dog food - they usually eat raw, but I always have 2kg sack of good quality grain free dry food in just in case I run out, get snowed in, the bag of fresh meat isn't as fresh as it should be etc - anyway... it was a new bag, when I got home it was an empty ripped to pieces bag all over the floor, with the contents disappeared into four very over stuffed hell hounds.... I know it was her, the others wouldn't have thought to try the cupboards)  Anyway, I have new DPN's on order..... they are metal... try chewing them hell hound!

And finally, the healthy eating.  This is not a diet, as soon as I even think of it as a diet I will stop doing it and just think "fuck it" and going back to my usual bad habits.  The aim, is to eat three proper meals, not eat after 8 pm, drink enough fluids to keep me hydrated and try to cut down on carbs.  Breakfast and lunch I've always been pretty good at, but living on my own my evening meal can be a bit hit and miss, and more miss usually.  If I don't know what I want then I have a bad habit of grazing round the kitchen on junk until I fix on something and usually that isn't something healthy.  I don't go a bundle on processed food - though I will eat Quorn products - but cooking takes time and when you are cold and tired that isn't something you really want when you get home from work.  I've been doing a lot more meal planning, using the slow cooker to batch cook stuff and have changed my shopping delivery to Sunday so I've a full fridge to start the week.  I've not only tried to cut carbs right back (I had my first pasta of the year last night and I've not had a jacket potato yet) but I've also cut back other obviously not good for me things, like cake, cheese, chocolate etc.  I've not cut them out altogether, which would just make them a craving food, though I've not had any desire to eat cake at all.  Instead I've bought some high quality stuff I wouldn't usually have and had them as a treat..... oh I've also developed a really bad addiction to fresh lychees............ anyway, the healthy eating has worked, and somewhere along the month I've lost just about a stone in weight without actually really trying....... who knows, maybe I can keep this up.......

So yeah that was January 2015.... quite a good month on the whole except for the virus and the snow.... oh and patches of Gretchen!