Tag: #relax

If only every day could be this way

I had a most enjoyable day on Saturday.

The day started with a lazy wake up. No alarm set, we got up when we woke up. As has become the norm during lockdown and lack of reason to be out early on a Saturday morning C made the customary bacon rolls for breakfast.

Whilst C was in the shower I made the Leftover Buttercream Cookies I talked about a few days ago. I added a bit of sparkle to a few. They were delicious.

I then received a lovely message from my brother saying they read my blog regularly and sometimes find it helpful. That was nice to hear. If you do enjoy reading my blog tap a ‘Like’ or leave a comment so I know you’re out there.

I picked some freshia and calla lillies from the garden. There’s an abundance of greenery after a few days of rain and its lovely to have fresh flowers about, even more so when they come from your own garden.

We popped into town to the fruit and veg stall to stock up for the week. I’ve decided not to make my usual Biscoff Pancakes for breakfasts, opting for a 0% fat free Greek yoghurt and berries combo instead. We stocked up on grapefruit (not for C though), strawberries, raspberries and blackberries and some red grapes for snacking. I can no longer say I don’t like fruit.

I bought yet another baking book, still using up vouchers from Christmas and birthday (side note: no more book vouchers please and thank you). Having looked through the recipes I look forward to making my way through them all.

In the afternoon I spent a few hours dealing with some #bellringing work, took a call from one of the workgroup leads, finalised the latest photo competition round, messaged the winners, sent their prizes, wrote up the articles for publication next week. I then had a good clear out of my many inboxes. I have Central Council, local association and personal inboxes to get through. Its nice to get back to just having the essential messages to be dealt with left.

We had a lovely facetime chat with R. Her Internet has been down for a couple of days and still didn’t look like it was going to be fixed before the weekend was through. She’d been to a small venue gig which she said was oddly not odd to be in a room with that many people. We’re going down to visit next weekend for the Hampton Court Palace Food & Drink Festival. Really looking forward to seeing her in the flesh but does mean I won’t be at a CC meeting. Opportunities to see R trump all else so, passing the baton on to someone else from my workgroup to attend the meeting in my place. R had been double jabbed on Saturday morning, so that’s good news. Thanks Dolly.

I had previously asked C if he would make his “full fat” lasagne for dinner. We’ve had slimming world friendly ones of late, which are very nice and all, but he makes THE best lasagne. So much so that I won’t order lasagne in a restaurant because I know it won’t be as good. He obliged and it was accompanied by a bottle of red wine. Y U M!

We then passed a convivial evening watching TV and reading, taking some time to chill.

I had a thoroughly pleasant day. I hope you had a good one too. How was yours?

Do you schedule days off work to do other work?

Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

I am incredibly fortunate with the amount of annual leave I can take from my employer. Having been an employee for over 20 years I have racked up the maximum number of days off, plus as an office worker, I get Bank Holidays off too.  Sometimes this feels like too many days to try and fit in throughout the year.  This is particularly increased given that I do a four day condensed week.  I get the same level of annual leave and Bank Holiday leave, but I also don’t work on a Friday, so that’s like an extra day.  Worse problems to have, right?

I do find that I usually book days off when I have other things to do, like #bellringing meetings and events, baking for commissions, or as a way to catch up with other chores or must dos.  The majority of my 33 days leave is taken up for these reasons. 

Then there’s the guilty feeling of taking time off to do… nothing!  How is that even possible?  I look around the house thinking about all the things that I should do or could do now I have some time, but usually feel unmotivated to actually do any of it. 

Conversely it’s quite difficult to completely switch off  and disconnect from everything as emails and messages still ping though on the phone.  It’s a discipline that I’m not always successful at.

We have not had a holiday since summer 2019, like so many others, and my 50th birthday plans earlier this year were put on hold.  Again, we’re missing out on our usually summer holiday this year.  I have booked a week off in September though and we feel a bit more comfortable in booking something to go away for the week.

C has actually booked a hotel for the week and already I’m looking forward to getting away.  I don’t usually bother to look into the area we go to and leave it until we get there, but I’ve had a quick look at what there is in the area to visit and see, and thinking about what else we can do. 

We usually book a cottage and do self-catering, but C has booked a hotel for a change.  This means that we’ll have to eat out every evening. Oh dear, how sad!  It also means that we won’t be restricted so much by timescales and can stay out longer than we might have done if we had to get back to cook our own dinner. 

Of course there are many benefits to taking some time off including reducing stress levels, although sometimes the getting there and back can be stressful, improved mental health and motivations, greater wellbeing therefore decreased burnout, and happiness boosted by spending time with loved ones. 

I am ready for a holiday, to go somewhere else for a few days and explore, to turn the phones and emails off (except for emergencies).  We will probably still be taking precautions and using masks in public places etc, but look forward to a bit more freedom.