Friends and Ting

 Me and Spud

 Amy and James

 Em, Kirsty, Helen and Me

 Amy, Kirsty, Em and Me - the Original Gang! :)

 Me and Leanna

 Leanna's Baby Boy Harrison

 Me and Amy

 Kirsty's Little Girl Megan

Me and Robbie

The Ten Pros and the Ten Cons of Cycling to Work

Pros

1. I do one hour of aerobic exercise A DAY :)

    - Keep me fit

    - Keeps me healthy

    - It's good for my mind, body and spirit

2. I get to see sights I would miss on the bus or the underground.

3. It's free!

4. It wakes me up in the morning (however, refer to Con No. 2)

5. It makes you appreciate the elements - good and bad

6. I don't have to wait for and rely on public transport to go anywhere - I can get on my bike and go anytime I like!

7. I get to meet fellow cyclists

8. I get to wear leggings - my favourite type of trouser

9. I can sort through my thoughts as I cycle

10. It's a good way to learn patience and tolerance (towards other road users)

Cons

1. When it rains, you get wet right through to your knickers

2. I'm tired again when I get to work (but is a physical not mental tiredness!)

3. In no particular order, pedestrians, taxi drivers and bus drivers are STOOPID and sometimes aggressive... Need to work on that patience a bit more :D

4.  Some people see fit to steal your bike

5. Bike gadgets cost a lot

6. I'm actually struggling to find more cons...

7. I have to take two showers a day - not good for the environment but it would be worse for the world if I walked around stinking of sweat!!

8. Struggling for another point...

9. I go through more clothing per week as I have to continually wash my cycle gear

10. Oil is really hard to wash out of your clothes!

Lessons Learned

Hi

This is going to be quite a self-reflective post today but I think it's important to reflect on our lives and wellbeing and mental health from time to time, especially when major life events take place.

Robbie and I split up fairly recently - I'd say about 6 weeks or so ago. Of course when these things happen,  you go through different emotions and look back on the relationship, on your part in it and consider whether things could have been different. It's a well known fact that women are particularly prone to this in comparison to men. I have had the odd reflective period where I consider who Robbie and I were as a couple and who I was in the relationship and I have come to the conclusion that when I'm with someone, I forget who I am, I forget the things that I like and don't like and I don't always stand up for myself -- I don't mean that to sound as if Robbie was bullying me, he would never do that, I mean in the silly moments like when you want to go to the cinema and he doesn't, or when you don't want to buy orange juice from concentrate (because let's face it, it tastes awful!) but he does. I give my all to the other person, I'm incredibly loyal and I would do anything for them. 

It's like that line in Eat Pray Love, and I'm paraphrasing here because I can't find it in the book to quote it fully but "if I'm with you, you can have all of me". Am I allowed to quote or paraphrase in my blog? I'm not quite sure on the laws of these things. Oh hang on!! I found it!!

"If I love you, I will carry for you all your pain, I will assume for you all your debts (in every definition of the word), I will protect you from your own insecurity, I will protect upon you all sorts of good qualities that you have never actually cultivated in yourself and I will buy Christmas presents for your entire family. I will give you the sun and the rain, and if they are not available, I will give you a sun check and a rain check. I will give you all this and more, until I get so exhausted and depleted that the only way I can recover my energy is by becoming infatuated with someone else." 

That is me. Apart from the becoming infatuated with someone else because I've never been one for moving straight from one man to another.  Anyhow, a thought occurred to me earlier: to stop forgetting who you are in a relationship, should you be in one to learn that lesson or should you discover your strength first before you let someone in? I think the latter but it would be interesting to be with someone and grow like that, to learn to remember yourself.   

I consider myself to be a work in progress, I know I have a lot of work to do when it comes to self esteem and other things but I think I need to learn to love myself before I love someone else. I may well be single for a loooong time but I'm prepared to wait!! In the meantime, I'm a lucky girl; I have great friends, I meditate, I practice yoga and I live in a great part of London. Always count your blessings :)

Well, that's my 10 cents for the day. I'm off to visit Vicky in Ipswich tomorrow for the long weekend so no doubt we'll be watching to Royal Wedding tomorrow and then we'll have some other stories to report back with. Hope you have a great weekend!!

xx

p.s. I've been listening to Don McLean a lot lately -- Vincent is one of my favourite songs of all time. I suggest you get onto youtube instantly and look for the live recording!!

Monday Fatigue

Hey hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

I have total Monday fatigue today. I also call it Silent Monday (as of just now) because I mostly can't be bothered to speak to anyone and Charlie isn't here to entertain me so I'm pretty sure the guys at work think that I'm a mute unless I'm in her presence. Which is prolly true but anyways.

I think though, I've just heard the funniest saying of the week which is a big statement in itself because it's only day one. One of the guys just told me that leaving filing to pile up "becomes like a really bad case of constipation" which considering I would put "filing" under my "shit jobs" list then he's closer to the mark than he thinks!!

This weekend was awesome, I had my hair cut fairly short so it's feeling fresh and lovely and then R and I went to Canterbury for the day yesterday and had a really lovely time walking around the city and we checked out the cathedral which is awesome. Truly awesome. Such a spectacular sight and if you just think of the craftmanship that went into it all those years ago, it's not like modern times where you put up some scaffolding and create something in a few months out of pre-fabricated bricks and mortar (ok I am exaggerating slightly there but you get what I mean), this was handcrafted from limestone over a long long time. Could you imagine anyone building something over a period of years nowadays which would still be standing in thousands of years to come?

I don't know why I still refer to R as R considering I call Charlie Charlie so from now I will name R by his... name... which is Robbie. We love Robbie we do. :)

Anyyyywayyyyysss... It's only 37 minutes til hometime and NO I am not counting.

Buh bye!

xx

Bloglovin!

Follow my blog with bloglovin

Hey!

I've just signed up to Bloglovin through one of the blogs I love love love... I just found it recently, it's Ring My Bell by Ashley Madekwe, she's an actress/model/Dedicated Follower of Fashion (name the band!!), I kinda just like reading about her escapades and seeing how perdy she looks in her outfits... Anyway if you click the link above it does magical things. I'm not quite sure what they are yet but try it and see!! :)

Byeeee! xx

Photys

The Latest

Hi!

Ok I will may regret admitting to this but I think it's something that a lot of ladies out there can relate to... When I'm on my own just chilling out, surfing the net or whatever... Sometimes, sometimes, I'll just take my bra off and let it all hang out. With a top on of course! It's not like I sit there topless going about my business. But sometimes wearing a bra is just the biggest pain in the ass and it's nice to be free and let the ladies have some time out of prison. They'll have to do time again when I go outside later but in the privacy and comfort of my own home, yup, that's what I do.

Annnyyyywaaaaaayyyy, I just re-read my Happy New Year! post and I'm feeling a little bit pleased with myself (feels a bit wrong to be smug...but what the hell!! :)) I have signed up to a Vedic Meditation course with Charlie from work (she's ace), I'm on a one-woman mission to make my brain better so have taken up running as well as still practicing yoga and am trying to eat healthful food, though I will admit I am only human and have a sweet tooth, so do still eat a bit of chocolate but I am going to phase it out because sugar is just so SO bad for you. I still have some work to do on studying yoga properly but I think my main struggle is that I'm not enjoying the course as much as I thought I would so it's hard to motivate yourself when you feel that way. But I will still persevere!!

Finally, I'm still working on Want and Need. You really have to be constantly alert and think hard about it when you're out and about. When it's become a natural habit for you NOT to think about whether you want or need something, it takes a lot of willpower to train your brain to consider everything carefully. It's all just about changing your mindset and slowly it becomes second nature.

Anyway, that's all for now. My best friend is visiting this weekend (YAY!) so I may post some pics of our adventures another time.

Bye! :)