it's a rollover, this could be the one!

so did i do it that one thing just one thing?

oh i did, with the help of him indoors or at least with the chrissy pressie he got me.

a fresher, shinier, brighter and better version of myself is on its way, i am booked into a new gym it's taken 10 months for me to get off the sofa and i was a little reluctant to make the move. i'd been building myself up for it all week in my head and i got up this morning feeling it might not be the day.  anyway just to ease me in i checked in with my membership to start next weekend, it gives me some more time to get my head round it. it may seem a little dramatic but i have been out of fitness levels for over 2 years, last year i thought i would drip feed myself into it with some yoga and it was working until it all came a little non-zen for me and became a discussion of money. i stopped as mentally the whole thing just upset my mind set.

so the lovely hubby bought me 10 personal training sessions at the local gym for christmas, with all good intentions, we are going skiing in march and with the issues i have had with my knee and back in the past it would be crazy not to be fit before we go. 

so with voucher in hand, (i even dressed for the part this morning to make me feel like i had to get down there)

Me today, ready for the shinier self (Jan 2016)

i descended on said gym to start my membership and book my first pt session. lovely folks at the reception advised that i get myself comfortable with gym team before i choose my pt as its an expensive gift that may go wrong if i choose the wrong pt.. i agreed it seemed very sensible advice, i want this to work, anyway it would seem you get 3 free personal sessions with the membership, i booked myself in with the lovely lady at the reception nadine, so lets see how that goes!

feeling lucky i dropped in on the petrol station for two lucky dips for today's lottery , so hey that may be one more thing that puts 2016 into a better place... now that would just be too funny, so fingers crossed it's a roll over and we have as much chance as anyone, you have to be in it to win it!  the independent gives you a couple of tips to boost ones chances but being in it is the biggest one tip one should listen to ;)

one more year on

last year i thought it would be good to not let the year slip away and do one thing each week for me.

i failed miserably on that front and indeed 2015 slipped away into a year which was full of ups and downs.  i felt i was constantly drowning in everything else but something for me.  i spent most of it internalised and i stopped doing most of the things i enjoyed. i do wonder looking back on it at the start of a new year, that it may have been me counteracting the emotional year i had in 2014 with my mum and dad.  instead of getting out there and making something i locked myself away from everything, i seriously can't do that this year i live now in a beautiful part of the world, i have a fab hubby and anipals and i need to split my cocoon and do that one thing for me each week. i need to stop feeling that i am nowhere.

my hubby bought me 10 personal training sessions for christmas (the expectations are they are to help me to get ski fit for march) and considering the total lack of exercise and get up and go i exhibited last year (i spent most of my free time on my couch) it may be the kick start i need to do one thing for me each week at least for 10 weeks and then i may have enough endorphins pumping through my system i will be motivated enough to do it myself the exercise thing.  i will simply feel better and hopefully look better and more importantly be doing something for me.   

it's important for me in 2016 to feel good, i know for sure my dad would be telling me to get on with things and stop making excuses. 

so if for anyone i will do it for him as well as for me.

Photo courtesy of Emma Case Photography

just one thing a week for me... 2016 your on!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS

wet and windy in't north but we are still here

it has been a weather wicked end to our year here in the lake district.  but it has not made us regret our decision to move here lock stock and barrel.  i currently have the benefit of taking myself off to the smoke for one night a week to be in the office for two days out of four and i am still wondering how long i will do this, but for now it suits and it's a financial bonus until i decide what to do with the next chapter in my working life.

anyway it has been none stop grey skies here for the past two months, we had been hoping for a little snow but it has been too mild and instead we have had none stop rain and wind.

the county has indeed been hit hard, so far so lucky for us being up on a hill and out of reach of any overspilling brook or beck, but i won't count all my chicken's just yet, we may not be out of the woods yet as we are yet to feel the brunt of storm frank which is due to hit our doorsteps this week, so we will see.  but to be honest we haven't been completely out of the force of all the the other 5 of this years aptly named storms, our walls in the cottage here up in hoo lane will need a good treatment once we get a chance to dry up, it looks like someone spat at it with a blow tube and 18inthecorner our newly made holiday cottage looks as though someone poured a bucket of goodness knows what down the adjoining walls in our attic rooms, apologies to all our recent visitors have been made, as we won't be able to get anyone out to it, until it really gives up raining here.

so with christmas out of the way (it was a nice easy one with mum and dad) and before the new year madness gets hold, we decided yesterday, to get ourselves out and have a walk around grasmere.  it was a still calm day so we decided to walk on the lower flanks of loughrigg and down to the stretch of water. later on we hopped in the car and had coffee down at the garden centre and had a mooch around the village.  it's amazing what a small amount of the outdoors does for one's spirit.  considering all the flooding grasmere got, it truly was open for business, we even got to bring home a little bit of ginger heaven from sarah nelson's gingerbread shop that will indeed do nicely!

we sort out william wordsworths family grave spot  and found that it was well protected by a fine tree and looked out over onto yonder fell. 

grasmere and its local environs is a beautiful corner of our lovely county cumbria and well worth a visit and even if it's a bit rainy too!

so i wish this lovely county that we now have the pleasure to live in, all the luck and good wishes in the world for 2016 and here's a little help towards that...

see you all again in 2016

xx

so its sunny and its saturday so it must be time for a sonnnnng!

so i am really going to be on the look out next weekend at #kendalcalling for this little lady.  such a haunting voice don't you think?

in the meantime as i live in this lovely part of the world the #lakedistrict and its sunny i am off outside to sit and just relax in wonder

sunny saturday song

so really the past week looks to be the start of the summer, we are in the throws of the festival season, so i think this is a good tune to get down with on a sunny saturday evening!

 

sunday's song...

so its still the weekend and i think this deserves an up beat tune which mark and bruno hit the spot with!

the things you are passionate about are not random, but your calling

monday magic

oh what tuneful words are heard here... i am loving this tonight

the things you are passionate about are not random, but your calling

sing along song for a saturday...

  the things you are passionate about are not random, but your calling

song for a saturday...

the things you are passionate about are not random, but your calling

forever home...

yesterday we received exciting news that a small part of the english lake district will possibly become our resting place.
our offer on a house was accepted and we now just have to make sure its solid and the finances are all in place.
a sneak peak of what we fell in love with is below.
it will, with a lot of love, a lot of imagination and a lot of passion become a place where we can rest our heads and breathe.
so with fingers and anything else crossed, we move ever closer to our dream!

the things you are passionate about are not random, but your calling

dancing to the end

i will be will you?

tune on a tues

feist... love the happy toe tapping tunes she lays down

make it happen

simple things help to achieve it:

1. added trains to the morning commuting schedule

2. a good husband and puppy who fills you with smiles each day

3. the sun is out

4. an empty carriage with room for your bike and coffee

5. cross city commute on a bike where the timing is all up to you

6. anticipation of chats over coffee with work colleagues after day out of the office

7. laughter

8. and time to breathe

have a great one 

we're happy

it isn't going to be long now (5 days in fact),  so yes we are

and why because of this little man

suitably named, but not after 

oh yeah...

if this song is anything to go by, cannot wait to hear the whole album

Jeremy Messersmith- Ghost from Oh Yeah Wow on Vimeo.

into this world

well we are one but two... but in 9 weeks time we will be one but three.

this is what 9 days into this world looks like for one of the one but three... which one? 

we don't know yet. but they are all damn cute.

a smile

                       my dad and me

headspace

i vowed that in my current job i wouldn't get too close to colleagues, i have good friends from my life so far.  so i keep at arms distance.  pleasant and friendly i am to all that i meet, but thats it.  i do not have them in my contacts list on my phone, nor do i have their personal email addresses or know where they live. i fear that a lot of you will think this anti-social, and question why i blog ?  but for me I feel that my work and social side should not be mixed, close on never the twain shall meet.  friends are to be made outside of work thereby adding variety and stimulation to ones life.  my headspace is cloudy enough. 

anyway, let me destroy all that i have just said, by telling you that i have one colleague who i couldn't help to become friends with and not just her, but her lovely husband and great children.  my excuse is that she is french, intelligent, warm, honest, bold and funny... thereby i found myself drawn to her.  which means that we don't just talk work, most days when we are both in the office we find time to talk about us...

that's what brings me to this post, i was having a usual chat over coffee with her, this time work was sporadically mixed into the melee, because i am currently finding it hard to fit in quality time at home with family, my new hubby and work a five day week... my headspace is being jammed with commitments at home and i am feeling less warmed to be in the office.  it's all pilling on top of me and i can't find any fresh air space.

i guess what it is, is that i want some me time back.  the weekend isn't enough and work doesn't seem a priority... my little dad's decline has catalysed the feeling even more.  having some me time i hope to claw back some time to reorganise my head.

"exercise and meditate" she says during the chat... the exercise bit is the easy part,  all i need to do is find my exercise mojo again, but meditate, i have never done that, a few weekly yoga sessions has been the closest i could get to experiencing meditation, but i have to say i have never attained nirvana in any one session.

so i put my research head on and look for scientific proven reason to do it. i google: "meditation, scientific proof" and look no further I find a huffington post health article by robert piper "10 reasons why meditation is america's new push-up for the brain" - he writes that there is scientific evidence pointing to "mindfulness meditation" being a tool to help your brain get in shape... 3 pieces of  that evidence point to: 

• a strengthened brain and you will all know why this is something that would be good reason enough for me to consider, 

the other two are:

• help for weight loss; and of course 

• the stress relief factor. 

i am there at this point... 

but i read an easy and smiley blog  "mrs makes" by laura parker (i came across it in the lead-up to our wedding last year) and i happened to be reading it while thinking about finding some headspace, she is juggling the finalising of her PhD, having a new married life, moving house and writing her blog, juggling that's what i do best at the moment, but hate it with a passion... and what did i come across while reading one of her older posts, but a gathering of things she was loving at that moment...one of them being ten minutes of meditation daily and she provided a link to a site 
where she sought enlightenment, yeah, excellent, just what i need for my own headspace and so i clicked on the link and buy the app. i am going to try it out for 10 days (free).  i will let you know how it goes but i am being positive, may be this little thing may make all the difference.. om!