Miscellaneous November

Three things:

1. Mental health concerns. I had them, and when I was spending some of the half term holidays completing online training for my job, I all but confirmed that I had signs of burnout. The question is, then what? As an adult, especially once who has been at the rodeo of depression before, I am somewhat comforted by the knowledge that I can do things about my situation and hopefully it will improve. However. The last time I faced this, while I was learning about depression and anxiety, I was also in a situation where I had a very loose timetable and could do appointments almost whenever and had extra brainspace for eg CBT. I could work around the timetable of the professionals. Receiving treatment was new, but very possible.

Right now I’m alternately confused about my duties for work (but trying my best and using feedback to power on), and Just So TIRED. The obstacle is now finding a solution that can work around me. This is a work in progress.

2. As a young person, I remember November being the dreary month of Very Little between October and December. The slump between the warmer end on autumn and the Christmas month. Now it has somehow become that essential month where we are now embedded in the rhythm of the academic year, and I almost wish it were longer (because there’s so much content I need to squeeze in for the kids, ahh!). November, I embrace you.

3. Literacy for old and young. Right now there is a big literacy drive in schools. One thing I am trying to encourage my charges to do, is to look up words they don’t know. But! As a person who likes words, I somehow fell off the bandwagon with doing this myself. So I am trying to clamber back on, and am looking up words that I encounter, whose meaning I am uncertain about. This can be totally new words, or words whose meaning I inherently know, but can’t explain to somebody else. (I had this issue with “inflammation” the other day.)

Anyhow. It’s cold and we have black ice on the roads here. Take care out there, and see you in December!

May Thoughts

1. Travel is expensive. Am I fortunate to know both my departure and arrival countries so well that I am okay with travelling from a choice of five and arriving into a choice of three airports? Or is this just complicating things, really?

2. It’s time to finally deal with the garden. It will be expensive, but I suspect getting professionals in will be worth the cost.

3. My change in profession has wrought some havoc on my dental hygiene routines and I hereby pledge to get back on the straight and narrow. 2 x 2 minutes a day, and I’ve been prescribed some high fluoride toothpaste. Floss. Then mouthwash in between, during the day. I will report back next time on how it is going.

4. My birthday is around the corner. I have landed in that birthdays are for taking a step back to look at the big picture. As it is, I feel that I am doing okay, big-picture wise. I may not be thinking the same if I was not doing so well, by my own standards… But I have also found that the older I get, the easier I find it to dig in and make changes if I do not like what I see [in the big picture].

5. Will it get as hot as it was last year as we inch into summer? My concern is the temperature of my classroom. I plan to ask for/bring in an electric fan to help circulate air. I may also purchase liquid satin fabric to block out the sun in the afternoons. The windows along my room come in three tiers, so I will open the top and bottom for maximum convection, and I will try to get in early in the mornings to make use of the (relatively) cool air then. What else can I do?

6. The Chinese supermarkets are getting very expensive and this is upsetting. Whinge over.

Hope you are keeping well! Take care not to get ill in the ever-changing late-spring weather.

May Update

Tomatoey Thai Red chicken curry. Probably a little bit bastardised.

The end is within sight? On the course that is. I feel somewhat proud that I did keep up with my teaching duties alongside three university assignments, job-seeking (and job-getting!) and trying to have something of a life outside of the course.

Observations from the past month, non-work version:

I evidently needed fun this month. Eurovision was a very welcome break amidst all of it.

I need to get on top of batch-cooking. Eating makeshift lunches doesn’t agree with me if it’s every day.

First dentist appointment in two and a half (ish) years. Let’s hope everything is fine.

Birthday coincides with platinum jubilee celebrations. Shall I just pretend it’s all for me?

I am still rationing the number of new pieces of clothing I am purchasing this year. One piece a month. Max. But they do roll over. I own an overlocker now, so I feel like I have more scope upcycling second-hand pieces. But I have to actually browse for them first?

We went from still-winter-adjacent to lovely spring to rainy season. Fingers crossed murphy’s law means that we’ll be back to lovely weather when the next half term starts.

And those are this month’s meandery thoughts. I’m obviously suffering academentia again.

Be well, everyone!

January is Good and Cold

The days are getting brighter. It does not get dark until around 1700 hours.

It is also very cold outside these days. Compared to a few of the previous years, however, this means that I am outside for sufficient amounts of time regularly to register both the cold, and that it becomes warmer to go indoors.

The cold has also given me reason to explore and (re)discover skincare items that help me not feel unpleasantly dry. Happily, they work against both the cold outdoors and the heating indoors.

I have not escaped the morning-tiredness that people seem to get extra doses of at this time of year. But this does mean that I get a bonus raise of heart rate on weekdays because I have to run all the way to the bus stop…

These reflections come courtesy of the comeback of my inner reckless optimist. And I am wholeheartedly happy to see her.

20 C

Observations on a university campus when temperatures rise to hover around 20 degrees (Celsius) at the end of May:

• Joggers.
• Joggers wearing tank tops and shorts.
• Joggers wearing leggings and wind-breakers.
• “Joggers” eating ice cream.
• Students studying on the lawn.
• Students “studying” on the lawn.
• Students studying on the “lawn”.
• People wearing t-shirts, shorts, and sandals.
• People wearing flannel shirts.
• On top of a tee.
• With a duffel jacket over the whole ensemble.
• (And jeans. They’re proper.)
• People-watchers eating chicken curry.