Posts Tagged ‘holiday’

Freeing Myself

Friday, June 25th, 2010

It’s been ages, hasn’t it? Work really got in the way of many aspects of my life since the office shifted to Sydney city. I barely got any time for anything, and that time was spent being tired and listless.

That is one of the many reasons I decided to leave that job. My last day is Wednesday, and BOY am I excited. This company really is crumbling, and even though I quit 7 weeks ago, after only a few other people quit, now I’m one of the only ones left after everyone else quit in the meantime. I wish I hadn’t agreed to stick around this long (the boss realised how badly she needed me and asked me to stay). Every day it gets harder and harder to get out of bed and face this place. Back on the day I quit, Boss Lady decided I was to blame for all her problems. I’d had a really terrible and stressful two weeks before that, having a lot of pressure put on me while the other web designer was away, so I just snapped when she began to tear into me. Normally at times like that I would retreat, but by then I was just fed up. I stuck up for myself, and showed a side of myself I haven’t let out in a long time. I don’t regret it, but I wouldn’t be hasty in doing it again.

So I have a holiday coming up in July. Much needed. But also needed is a source of income, so it’s straight to Centrelink for me. That’s okay.

So anyway, many things have happened these past months, the most obvious of which for those that see me would be my tragically rapid weight gain. Good god, I need to get this sorted. Office work is really taking its toll. Not to mention the weekly pizza they feed us here, and the many places to buy junk food on the way to the train station. This job is poison in my life. I thought it would be great. There aren’t any food places really close to here except for a liquor shop, I was going to walk to and from Central every day, which is a 25-30 minute walk each way. I was going to be active on the weekend. I was going to keep my life in order with a set routine that included Wii Fit and the Biggest Loser Wii game.

What happened to all that?

Let’s analyse.

  • The liquor shop nearby has soft drinks, and it has chocolate bars. When I’m really hungry, they seem like a great idea.
  • The weather got colder, it started to rain more, so I started catching trams and buses from Central. Especially since the MyMulti travel passes came in, I’ve been getting buses.
  • I’ve been so tired constantly of late that the thought of playing a physically active video game is one of the least appealing things when I’m at home.
  • I’m a comfort eater, and work in general (the volume of work combined with having to travel 5 hours a day) has been stressful. Stressful to the point where I have had a recurring apthous ulcer in my mouth since April. I have never had an apthous ulcer (aka canker sore) before.
  • Since I get home so late, I either buy my dinner or just eat the most convenient thing at home, which is often something bad for me.

So, as you can see, I don’t have a lot going my way in terms of weight loss. So I hope to turn things around when my holiday starts, at least in terms of activity and physical exertion.

So, hopefully I will get the chance to update you on the goals I’ve achieved since my last post, but I can’t right now, so see you later.

101 Things in 1001 Days

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Yeah, I’m a sucker for these things.

Also on Skippy’s blog was a reference to 101 things in 1001 days, a long-term goals project focusing on doing a set list of things in the ensuing 1001 days precisely. For me, the end date is going to be Friday, 5 October 2012 (calculated using this tool). That’s shortly before the Mayan apocalypse, right?

Anyway, I have finished my list and here it is! I’ll be ticking them off as I go.

  1. Get a full-time job that I don’t hate
  2. Read the Hitchhiker’s Guide series
  3. Make one new local offline friend
  4. Quit Woolworths (in conjunction with #1)
  5. If I can’t buy a house yet, at least save up $10,000+
  6. Get down to 85kg or lighter, and keep it that way
  7. Get the matching tattoos my sister and I have been planning since we were in England
  8. Actually edit a NaNoWriMo novel
  9. Try to get novel published
  10. Hold the “plank” exercise for 60 seconds or more
  11. Go to the gym twice in one day
  12. Go to the gym every day from Monday-Saturday (it’s closed Sundays) for at least one week
  13. See a psychiatrist about my anxiety
  14. Have my gonadectomy
  15. Release the first issue of Ather & Earth
  16. Visit New Zealand
  17. Go on a road trip
  18. Go to the beach and go in the water (you’d think this would be an easy one, considering I live right by a beach… but I just never go)
  19. Get up early enough to watch the sun rise over the lake
  20. Pay off my Barter Card balance and close my account
  21. Learn to use a Javascript library
  22. Own a smart phone, preferably a Google one
  23. Visit the Blue Mountains
  24. Find out if I’m allergic to any food
  25. Have a shift at Woolworths where I do not want to scream in frustration
  26. Go one day without coffee
  27. Go two days without using a computer or video game of any kind
  28. Go one month where I work on Ather & Earth every single day.
  29. Go a month without buying anything made of chocolate or chocolate flavoured or containing chocolate
  30. Settle into a smooth weekly routine
  31. Drink 2 litres of water in one day
  32. Earn over $40k in one year
  33. Radically change my hair
  34. Spend a night out without having a panic attack
  35. Cook a gourmet meal on my own
  36. Connect my computer to my TV to become a Media Centre
  37. Buy better wheels for my rollerskates
  38. Quit playing Bejeweled
  39. Visit 24 hour K-Mart between 1am and 4am, just ’cause
  40. Visit Jamberoo Action Park
  41. Buy a DSLR camera
  42. Move to a bigger house
  43. Be complimented on my home by a visitor
  44. Drink a large Boost Juice
  45. Catch and eat a fish
  46. Get a perfect score on Rhythm Kung Fu (Advanced) in Wii Fit Plus
  47. Refrain from eating anything sugary on Christmas Day
  48. Buy that Beatles collection on the USB flash drive in the green apple
  49. Make delicious cocktails at home
  50. Roast green coffee beans in a popcorn maker
  51. Watch all Tom Baker Doctor Who episodes
  52. Buy a block of chocolate and eat it over the space of a week rather than all at once
  53. Win something. Anything.
  54. Finish at least the first draft of at least two novels
  55. Get my car’s headlights fixed
  56. Build a new shoe rack
  57. Learn how to use the washer-dryer properly
  58. Go one month without seeing an insect or arachnid in the house
  59. Go on a waterslide
  60. Get a kitten
  61. Meet three people in person that I met online
  62. Clean up my Gmail and keep up with all the emails instead of just looking at them all, sighing, and closing the tab
  63. Visit Uluru
  64. Get revenge on someone
  65. Bake fresh bread
  66. Go to bed at 9:30pm
  67. Spend a full day exclusively in bed except for using the bathroom
  68. Make a really horribly designed website for fun
  69. Live in the Greater Wollongong area
  70. Eat a taco
  71. Brew stout beer
  72. Make tiramisu
  73. Find a cake wreck and submit it to Cake Wrecks
  74. Make steak and stout pot pies
  75. Consider myself a responsible adult
  76. See Melbourne when it’s sunny
  77. Finish Final Fantasy V
  78. Feel financially secure
  79. Skate backwards for three laps at the skating rink
  80. Make scouse
  81. Make Irish soda bread
  82. Make soda bread ice cream
  83. Go to Bowral
  84. Borrow a book from the local library
  85. Make real buttermilk pancakes topped with sliced strawberries and pure maple syrup
  86. See the New Years fireworks in Sydney Harbour
  87. Have a picnic on the grass
  88. Wander the Haywards Bay home display village
  89. Take my parents out to dinner
  90. Learn how to take care of my car properly
  91. Make a sand sculpture
  92. Visit Caringbah Shopping Village for the first time since 2007
  93. Eat at Outback Steakhouse
  94. Buy a deck of Uno cards
  95. Visit the Southern Gateway Centre
  96. Walk on the Sea Cliff Bridge
  97. Stay awake for 35 hours straight, and see if I start hallucinating
  98. Get some new bedroom décor
  99. Make an animated short
  100. Eat at the Nan Tien Temple
  101. Go hang-gliding

Christmas 2008 at Kelly's Place

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Christmas and Whatnot

Friday, December 26th, 2008

So Chrissy is over now, thank goodness. Yesterday I ate so much I hung around the bathroom late last night in case I had to vomit. Luckily, the nausea passed by midnight and I had a pretty nice 9 hours of sleep. My eldest sister, Kelly, was not so fortunate and was very sick last night and today. Not sure what it was. She ate and drank quite a bit so it could have been due to that, or food poisoning, though she didn’t eat anything that nobody else did.

So, we brought our nephews back home with us, and they’ve been fairly good. They both have Nintendo DSes now, so they’re unusually quiet. I’m liking it! Anyway, I’m under the weather today. I might do a little bit of writing, but I just need to sleep off the overindulgence, I think. I’m going to really get stuck into my projects starting tomorrow. The kids will be going to our caravan in Gerroa (near Gerringong) so I will have some good quiet time, I think. I’ll be going to the van sometimes over the next couple of weeks, but we only live half an hour away, so it’s easy to come home to sleep, instead of being packed in the sardine can that is the caravan.

I didn’t get many interesting presents this year, sadly, nobody really did. See, every year for the past 3 or 4 years now we’ve been doing a “$5 Christmas”. The family agreed to spend exactly $5 on each person, no more and no less. It is getting harder each year to do, due to inflation. And it has seemed to eliminate giving and getting… well, good presents. The only people to get decent presents are the kids, because they do not have the $5 limit.

So, I don’t know, it’s left Christmas feeling kind of anticlimactic for the adults. In my opinion, anyway.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

Well, the summer solstice has just been, and you know what that means… Christmas… i.e. the holiday based on the winter solstice.

So I’m going to be going up to Sydney today and staying Xmas Eve at my eldest sister Kelly’s place, with my two nephews Jake and Luke, and new niece Meah. Since my nephews demand a lot of time, and I will probably spend a lot of time playing their Wii. I probably won’t get time to do much, if any, writing. Not that I did any yesterday. Holy crap.

So like, don’t expect an update on here for the next couple of days. If I do get a post in, it’ll be a miracle.

I certainly hope to finish the first draft of my novel in the next few days, if I can work on it.

So, I’ll see you round. I don’t expect many people to actually be reading this, though. I only am aware of three people that even are aware of this blog’s existence. If you are not one of those people, leave me a comment (though it may not get approved until after I’m back). Heh. Anyway, bye.

Natalie out.

Working Over the Holidays

Monday, December 22nd, 2008
My Broken Bone Broken bones aren’t meant to feel this liberating.

Late November, I was blessed with a broken fifth metatarsal.

“Blessed?” you ask? Well, okay, so that’s a slight exaggeration. What I mean is that it gave me something of a “free pass” through the holiday period. For the first time in six years, I do not have to face the horrors of working in the service industry on Christmas Eve. Thank you, little bone, thank you so very much.

But wait! There’s more!

Being so inactive, though I’m sure it’s bad for my health, also allowed my creativity to flow, and it’s what caused so many project ideas to form. I was already working on my novel for NaNoWriMo, but most other things surfaced during my idle time.  It really pays to take a time out once in a while. I’ve finally figured out how my motivation works, or at least I think so.

Anyway, I think this has put things into perspective for me. I’ve had a great three weeks of crutch-wielding, arse-sitting and sounding like something out of a haunted house as I walk (clank, bonk, phwoosh, clank…), as Mum put it the other day.

It has also brought to the forefront other medical concerns that I have been putting off. Might talk about that in a future blog.