lionheartedgirl promises to let it shine :)

lionheartedgirl

thanks I am still feeling chirpy today although my eyes are struggling with the computer screen at work. ah well

I am only on my second day back at work but am looking forward to the weekend.

My granny has just moved house and isn't really very happy about it so I am going to spend some time with her and catch up with a couple of friends. MrP has offered a freebie ticket to the racing on Sunday.... I have said I will go but will be very careful about it. I have asked him to drop the ticket at my friends in advance as I am not getting there on Sunday to find he has changed his mind again :mad: :rotfl:

I am still planning and plotting, it feels nice.

I went to the cinema last night, had forgotten it was that day in the month but am really glad I went as it was an excellent film - Volver starring Penelope Cruz. All about Spanish mums with a subtext of the joy and importance of having a well proportioned behind it wasn't referred to much in the film but the director had made comment about it so you knew to look out for it.

I also popped to the music pub for a quick drink, had a brief natter with a few folks in there but was tired so not really on form. It gave me some ideas at least, so I am currently thinking about where I can get time to build on these.

The most pressing things from my holiday are:

I simply do not have time to pursue the things that I love most in my life. This is rubbish, therefore something must change.

The reason for the lack of time is working in a full time job which I mostly enjoy but leaves me no time for anything else.

The reason for the full time busy stressful job is maintaining a healthy salary.

The reason for the healthy salary is maintaining a large house.

The large house also takes time.

And here we are back at the beginning.

I wrote down all the things I would need to do to the house to get it to a really good standard where I wouldn't need to do anything else to it for a number of years. This would take all of my granny's money and I would still need to work hard to keep the mortgage and would have not much spare for racing as I had planned.

I can't carry on like this, and I really want to use granny's money to make massive changes to my life for the better, and so the big LBM was that the house simply must go. Hypno's question of wants and needs is spot on, and I read an excellent book while I was away, about really following your heart and what it tells you.

Once the house goes, I can live more flexibly - a patchwork life to quote Cheery.

I plan to buy somewhere smaller as I would still feel more comfortable owning my own home - I know it's not the be all and end all, but for me having lived my childhood as I did, I want to settle somewhere and even if I travel as much as I hope to, I still want to come home.

So. The target is, house up for sale asap and hopefully have moved by the end of the year, ready for some colossal changes next year.

Small steps but giant leaps :cool:

First step will be Saturday's purchasing of a proper coffee machine partly with some vouchers from my JL card. The rest will be an early birthday present to myself. I discovered in Italy I can have a good relaxing start to the day in just 20 minutes, and coffee will be my reminder of everything I experienced there and am aiming for now.

Breakfast in Italy consisted of a latte and a warm chocolate croissant. I daren't continue with the croissant habit! :mad: :eek: :rotfl:

I am in the process of booking my anniversary at the spa - their PR department have contacted me as they were interested in my story so I am hoping it might lead to a freebie of some sort, no matter how small

Long post but lots to talk about!

I hope everyone is well, I am lurking on diaries and trying to catch up

hypno06

Hurrah for assessing things in the way you have - and including coffee in that too :rotfl:

If your changes are anything as successful as those that I have made, on both a practical and emotional level then you had better watch out.....life is about to get a whole lot more fun for you :D:D

lionheartedgirl

any recommendations for a decent but not hideously priced coffee machine?!!

the life i am hoping for will be lots of fun, but I think it's fair to say it will be rather short on cash, at least in the short term!

hypno06

Mine is a de longhi one - bought from JL for about £90 I think. It is excellent, and uses either ground coffee, or shop bought pods. I've not used the pods so can't comment on how they are but I certainly love my machine - quite compact so doesn't take up masses of space on the worktop, but yummy coffee, every time!!

Wordsmith

Welcome back, lionhearted girl! I am so very pleased you had a wonderful time and are comfortable with the decisions you have made. I know you don't want to rent (I am totally with you on that one), but why don't you try to sell your house, then rent for a time while looking for somewhere to buy - it might be less pressure on you and will give you a chance to find exactly what you are looking for. Have you looked into and dismissed the idea of a lodger (if so, I am totally with you on that, too ... but it does work for some people).

LittleBoots

Hello

Italy sounds fabulous, I am very jealous...
How exciting about the house sale, new home and everything, cant wait to read more

dirtyepic

Hi again LHG,

That's brilliant news - well all of it is!

Amazing that you have made the decision about your house, who's to know you won't love the new house tons more! It's a very exciting time for you although it'll probably produce its own issues and problems but I am sure you are well prepared for anything to be thrown at you these days.

Good to hear you are so positive and I noticed in one of your recent postings how many happy smiling rolling smilies you used! Yippee!!

Keep smiling lady! It's going to work out tremendously!

I'm feeling okay at the moment too, got no plans for massive changes but researching into dipping my toes into returning back to design/print industry. My counselling is ending next week and although I know the time is right I will miss getting stuff off my chest and learning so much about myself and the way the mind processes things but it is somebody elses turn to 'get better' I think!

Looking forward to hearing your plans!

Take care

dirtyepic

redsquirrel80

Glad to hear you had a great holiday and have come back full of ideas - know exactly where you're coming from re the full-time job/ not enough time issue!

What was the book by the way?

burntfingers_2

Did someone mention latte and chocolate croissants?? Is feeling rather hungry for no apparent reason now...lol

Hope your feeling positive still and life is treating you well

bfxx

lionheartedgirl

afternoon all,

well I am in a post holiday lull now, very low and distinctly under the weather I'm not expecting it to last too much longer but it is very frustrating.

I had expected to come down to earth with a bump, but was expecting it last week not this week!

I had a really busy week last week with work and things in the evenings, and then went up north to see friends and family over the weekend. I needed to go as I am having my mum's dogs this coming week while my parents are away on holiday, and then after that I will be working every weekend pretty much until mid October. So there was no other time to go - I did consider the wisdom of it so soon after getting back, but there was no other way.

I really needed to see my granny in particular as she has just moved to a different bungalow nearer my uncle. She didn't want to move and I know my uncle is mega fussing so I wanted to see she was alright and spend some time with her. We had a great time I saw other friends too, it was nice but unfortunately I got flashed by a speed camera on the way back to my granny's - my own fault but a bit of a wake up call as I was a bit too tired to be driving really and so I wasn't ready for it

I am on my second sofa day - made it into work yesterday morning but lasted 2 hours then came home and flaked on the sofa for the afternoon. Today I have been keeping on top of emails and doing a few other bits but I feel really lousy - bad headaches and off my food. I will aim to go back in tomorrow but will see how I feel in the morning. The weekend has caught up with me, I haven't been sleeping well and to describe myself as caught in the headlights is an understatement.

The bells are ringing/shrieking that I have to change things, but it's hard to know where to start. So for now, I am going to get through this low and wait til my energy levels are up a bit - this will come.

I did however get the coffee machine :j very MSE as although I am not massively keen on red, for the sake of saving £60 compared to a black one, I decided I could live with red. First coffee wasn't a huge success but the second one was much better and today's is even better yet. I have now proved to myself that I need to make breakfast a bit more of a ritual as just a cup of nice coffee on its own (well, with muesli or toast or whatever) is not going to get me where I need to be!

Redsquirrel, the book is called Just Get On With It by Ali Campbell. Very no nonsense but excellent at explaining and it really spoke to me. Even if I am distinctly not Just Getting On With It at the moment!! I am focussing on getting myself back where I need to be which right now is resting up a bit.

My house looks like a bomb has hit it, it's awful. Baby steps will get it done but leaving the sofa is tough enough as it is so they will have to wait.

I did go for a harp lesson last night which was knackering but some coffee helped and I really wanted to go so I could see my teacher - we spoke last week when I got back but it's never the same as face to face. She thinks I have improved massively so I am really pleased about this - even though I haven't really touched the harp since I got back Hopefully I can get some practice done a bit later after I've had a snooze.

Other news - I have another harp pupil - meeting her on Saturday morning

I am mind mapping things as I think of them at the moment and this is really helping. At least I feel like I am doing something for my future however minor.

Back soon when I have picked up a bit