Catch up Post on The Blog…
Sooooo, you may have wondered why I have not kept up this
blog, where I have been and what I have been up to??
Currently (and for some time) my time has been hugely
occupied with two activities (Well, maybe three). I am sorting out the last of
the jobs around my home, mainly gardening (not mega-excitement) to try and get
an exchange so that we can move to be nearer my University which I return
to in October, my eldest son is also at University so to us this makes sense.
Largely this has involved a fair amount of staying at home to
take part in what is, frankly, more like garden clearance than gardening, and weather permitting
I have been ‘doing a Jason’ in the Garden. That’s right, getting out my hedge
trimmer and taking down everything in sight with the glee of a garden-serial
killer!! I have also done this completely redneck-style with no visor just
sunglasses, a vest and jeans that are not long enough and no gardening gloves
(I kept forgetting to buy the gardening gloves when out). Cutting down HUGGGEEE
brambles (think Snow White I shit you not) and a giant hedge is not an easy feat, but I am, nearly there!!
(yes that's Eminem with a chainsaw!!)
So, you may wonder the reason it got in this state in the first place? Well, two Summers where I worked from June to September to do ‘sits’ for a large body of my coursework and exams for my Degree (we are talking between 65-70percent of the total work each year) left me no time to tackle the garden, hence, the garden was neglected.
What I have discovered is that being stuck at home has been
an incredibly insular time, with its pros and its cons. I was never particularly
good at being an indoors person - love it at night but in the day I mostly want
to be out and about (call it reverse agoraphobia). Also, as I get older I find
I hate closing myself in a small bathroom or toilet, turns out I’m a bit
claustrophobic (I can thank my mother for that).
Now, of course, spending time
alone to ‘get things done’ has its benefits. You witness how hard you can work
and sometimes that alone time gets your head straight. However, nothing I think can prepare you for the inherent boredom of being stuck doing manual
tasks continually and you find yourself thinking sometimes, has Twitter become
a big part of life to break this up?? Well no it is not life I'm glad to report - but a means to an
end!! Lol.
(face it you've done this too!!)
(face it you've done this too!!)
My other big task has also been obviously, to look for work.
I have suffered since my early twenties with chronic daily headache and was
signed off for a while to deal with this. Following this came a period where I
could not lose weight (very bizarre) and I became constantly more and more
exhausted. So, I visited the doctors to try and find out what the heck was
going on -
I am honestly so glad I did this.
What I found out, with very little help from the NHS is that I am indeed hypothyroid. To put this frankly my thyroid is BROKEN at 38 and that I have all the main symptoms of Autoimmune Thyroiditis (or
Hashimoto’s). Cue Mass Debate (no pun intended) with doctors and Hospital to try
and sort this situation out for me. As a person who has always been quite slim and
athletic looking I was wondering why the heck my weight had rocketed was very alien to me and extremely disconcerting.
Anyway,
to cut a long story short (which really is a different article altogether) I
got this sorted (somewhat) and after much back and forth I have finally been
put on a low dose of thyroxine which I find incredibly helpful. I am dieting
now (except when I have my mega period) and that does seem to be helping
somewhat and weight is coming off slowly bit by little bit. I have also largely
removed gluten from my diet and am looking to make some further changes
over the coming weeks.
Sooooo, the above left me in a difficult position when it
came to looking for work but finally bit by bit I improved. Embarking upon
looking for work itself has been ummmm, interesting. As a person who is looking
to find a move very soon I have been rather limited in what I can and cannot
take. Sales work has turned out to be a disaster, as employers are no longer
prepared to take on women who need hours that will fit around school and after
school club. The attitude frankly is ‘fuck you and your kids’ which is a shame
as I am such a good salesperson and great at Customer Service. So, I looked to
admin work. I have made a few applications here and there without success
including to a local University who seemed far to snotty to take me on for a job
I was clearly qualified for (if not overqualified). I have applied to the
temping agency at my University and just missed out on one job (terrible
shame). So, right now I will be looking for temping in my locality until
October. Job search is obviously harder work then some assume especially going
for any sort of half decent job and getting applications right takes up a lot
of my time.
Finally, add in that I have been looking after the
children, (which involves largely them, school, their homework a round of school
trips and activities and also the social life I have around them, plus that of my own) and I’ve really had no time for anything. So, much
as I really wanted to come on here and update it has not been an option.
Today, I am sitting on the laptop with period pain, it’s not
too bad at the moment, but I know that soon I will face the pain that will rip
through me with the force of ‘a thousand swords’ so, thought I may as well do
something useful. Which is to catch up on this blog. So basically, this is my
catch up, along with the post that will follow which will explain my current
interests on Twitter and why things have been the way they have been.
So, I hope you enjoy this catch up post and that you are all
well. Which just leaves me to say, Haare Krishna to all of you, hope you’re all
doing well and that my next post is a political one explaining my current
involvement in the Labour Party and why I am focusing currently on left wing
issues.
Hope you’re all good!!!
Watch this space 😉