This week has been an appointment free week (we will ignore today, I have two today!). It has been such a blast of fresh air but busier in most ways. We’ve been doing all of the jobs that have been stacking up. It feels like I work in an office and I’m working through the stack of work dumped on my desk while I’ve been away. This stack mainly consists of revision, which I have been working on, just apparently not quickly enough. It’s kind of rubbish having bad concentration levels, I’m not lacking in the motivation needed, but I have to revise in 20- 30 minute slots otherwise nothing really goes in. It’s annoying because I work really hard! It’s thought to be caused by everything I have going on and associated lack of sleep.
Mum and I managed to break away and go out for short bursts this week. It’s the first time in ages (I’m talking months and months) because my mum has her own issues with her health. We went shopping in Lancaster and it really felt like old times again. It wasn’t the fact we were actually partaking retail therapy, we barely spent anything, it was the fact that we were together and laughing again. We also went to see Lala land at the cinema, which I enjoyed more than I was expecting to. I loved the beginning and the end, but found the middle a bit slow, I did the nod and was nearly asleep. For anyone who has seen it, have you got that piano tune stuck in your head? I love it. Very beautiful.
In a spare hour I found tucked inside my diary I decided to finally get my VCR to DVD software out, and start the mammoth task of converting all of the footage of when my brother and I were tiny into a more modern format. We have a dual DVD and VCR player, considered very modern as DVDs started appearing – now, not so much. I found it quite an emotional experience. It was strange seeing myself running around carefree, and stuffing loads of toffee popcorn into my mouth with a desert spoon at my Great Granny’s eightieth birthday party. It has actually given me quite a bit of perspective. I was born with this neurological condition that I have, but can you imagine if it was as far advanced as it is right now when I was that young? I would have been a little girl who couldn’t run around Happy Mount park, go in the water park or eat ice creams. The reality is that there are so many parents out there that have to follow their toddling kids around with their feeding backpacks, who put feed pumps underneath prams, who watch other children and wish their child could do the same. Yes, my situation is pretty bad, but when I got really poorly I was sixteen, not six. It has shaken me up a bit to think about that.
This last week I listened to “Scarlet says” by Scarlett Moffat on audible. It was written before she won the I’m a celeb jungle. She’s hilarious, I love her on Gogglebox, and although I don’t always agree with her opinions she had me giggling quite a lot. She takes you through the process of a classic night out for her (spoiler: getting very, very drunk) and talks about her life and friends. It’s been a nice light listen while I’ve been so busy! I got it for £1.99, but I won’t buy it full price. She narrates it herself, I love it when authors read their own books because they know them inside and out. The only thing that I didn’t like were the lists dotted throughout the book. Perhaps the editor thought the book was a few pages short and needed some padding…
An alternative service to Audible, and available with both Cumbria and Lancashire libraries is Borrowbox. You enter your online details for your library card and there is a huge selection of audiobooks and eBooks to choose from. It’s saved me from spending my monthly Audiable credit on a really recent release (Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult) so I am really happy. There are loads of books on there and I’m quite excited to use this alongside my Audiable subscription.
Oh well, I’d better stop procrastinating and get my brain back in to gear. It’s been a nice distraction, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to get back to the revision som