~ Week in the Life - Sunday ~

Finally at the last day of 'Week in the Life'. I can't believe I have managed to stick with it and I am so pleased I have done. So much so that I'm hoping to be able to do December daily as December is one of my favourite times of year.

Back to Sunday, today is a little light on photos in view of the 12 hour shift I have worked. It's not a place I can really take many photos due to patient confidentiality but I have given it a go.

I forgot to take photos of my lunch but here is my favourite snack at the moment. These fried lentil salted snacks are lovely and reasonably low in calories when compared with things like nuts. I first had these whilst on holiday in India. You can buy small packets of these from many street side stalls for 5 rupees (100 to the £1).

When at work I spend a lot of time washing my hands. This is the first defence against infection spread in hospital and a fundamental nursing skill. 

Home from a busy day at work and I enjoyed a little tipple of my favourite spirit on the rocks.

Excitingly we are starting to plan our next trip. We are thinking of travelling to Uzbekistan in September and the tour we were looking at has 15% off which is good.

Cups of Tea = 5, Total = 31

Thanks for reading, I'm off now to order my photo prints ready to put together my album of this week.

Terri

x

~ Week in the Life - Saturday ~

Hello Weekend! Although I am working a 12 hour shift tomorrow so only really get one day and this week it isn't really any different to others in my week except we have no builders on site. The plaster should have been here but is behind on jobs. To be honest its a nice break from all the banging and mess.

This morning started off the way most mornings do. It's a rubbish photo but I was half asleep and wanted to show where the cats were on the bed. Right between the boy and I.

It was an early weekend get up for me as I had to go to my Girlguiding First Response refresher course in town. This is a first aid course that should be kept up to date every 3 years. It was a mix of practical and theory. There were only 5 of us and it was nice to see some other leaders that I haven't seen in a while.

Breakfast was a no go for me this morning as my injury from last night (head back to Friday to see what I did!) had swollen up and was too painful to eat. I grabbed a cup of tea in my travel mug and off I went.

By 12 I was starving and I had some errands to run. I decided to have a little treat as my lip was less painful and McDonalds is in the supermarket carpark and has Wi-Fi. It means I can eat and sort emails. If this meal is not my main meal of the day I usually opt for a kids meal so I get smaller portions. 

A quick trip round the supermarket to get essentials (plus pretty flowers). There were some discounted overripe bananas so I grabbed them and some chocolate buttons to make a cake for work tomorrow. I'm desperately searching for Peking Duck flavoured Kettle crisps. Amanda (@thenicethingsfairy) over on my Instagram feed showed them last week but I am yet to find them.

The boy is off playing cricket today as he will be doing most Saturdays from now until the autumn. Sometimes its nice to have time to myself but on weeks like this one where we have hardly spent time together it would have been nice to have the afternoon to go out for a walk in the spontaneous sunshine (it wasn't forecast).

 Back home it's time to crack on with the cake. This is such a simple recipe that one of my student nurses gave me. It's light and moist and keeps well for a few days (not that it will last that long at work!).

Time to relax whilst the cake is in the oven. It takes about 1 hour to cook so its not quick to bake. I've just started watching 'Lucifer' on Amazon Prime Video. I like to watch my iPad whilst I'm crafting but this time I'm enjoying it with a cup of tea.

A few chores and getting dinner ready for tonight.

Tonight we had a night in watching the Eurovision Song Contest so I've made chilli topped nachos for tea. I made the chilli ahead of time and double the quantity. I often make double the amount so we can eat it later in the week. It is ideal for when I'm working so I can heat up a 'proper' meal at lunch time and snack in the evening when I get home late.

We love watching the Eurovision! Some of the acts are bizarre and the commentary we have here which used to be by Sir Terry Wogan and now by Graham Norton is just hilarious. They don't take it too seriously, are very sceptical of certain countries scoring and make it all very light hearted (although secretly we do REALLY want to win!)

Cups of Tea = 4 , Total = 26

Thanks for reading!

Terri

x

~ Week in the Life - Friday ~

Whilst most people get that 'Friday Feeling' at this time of the week I never really manage to due to working shifts. I am unfortunately working on Sunday but can't complain because I work my full time hours over 3 days.

Today started they way most of my early mornings do, with a trip to the toilet. This is a routine that I wouldn't normally document or discuss really. Since being diagnosed at 16 with Crohn's Disease I usually get up to use the toilet at least once in the night. Sometimes I hardly wake up and other times it means I'm awake from then on for the rest of the day. I am often accompanied to the toilet by Oscar, who has taken it upon himself to jump on my lap whilst I'm there.

I did manage to go back to sleep and when the alarm went off at 7.30am I really didn't want to get up. But unfortunately at 8.30am the doorbell rang and the plumber had called to sort my dishwasher. He had kinked the hose when moving the outside tap so easily fixed. Happy me!

It was colder here today than it has been which meant I needed my dressing gown on whilst I ate my breakfast and caught up some TV.

I haven't been to the gym in ages! I really enjoy some of the classes but often lack the motivation to go and I have had a good excuse this week with all the work men around. But today I bit the bullet and off I went to Zumba.

Today was about time that I put my face on. I don't wear make up that often, I simply can't be bothered most of the time. I would rather have 15 minutes extra in bed on work days. I generally wear it if I'm going out to meet friends or with the boy. I do like getting dressed up nicely, it always makes me feel better about myself.

I met my friend Helen and her daughter at a local garden centre for a quick coffee and catch up. She doesn't like having her photo taken so I quickly snapped this with my phone whilst she was taking a sip of coffee.

The garden centre has a pet shop which has some super cute rodents like these Dumbo Rats. I couldn't help but take a pic of this sleeping beauty.

On return from the garden centre I was faced with an almost finished conservatory. There is just the inside to be finished off next week. Plastering, plumbing and electrics next.

It is lovely and bright inside.

The cats and I enjoyed a nap on the sofa whilst catching up with Castle. They have loved to get curled up with me on the sofa ever since they were kittens and I had an extended period of time off work post-surgery.

I had initially wanted to go out for tea tonight but as we are away next weekend and at the theatre the week after we decided to stay in and have a Chinese takeaway. I suspect going out might have been safer!

As I collected the food I managed to smack myself in the face with the car door cutting both the inside and outside of my lip/chin. It bled quite a bit and was extremely painful. It made eating dinner rather difficult and uncomfortable.

We spent the night cuddled up on the sofa, me feeling sorry for myself and catching up with Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders and Madam Secretary before having an early night.

Cups of Tea = 4 , Total = 22

Thanks for reading!

Terri

x

~ Week in the Life - Thursday ~

Hello Thursday!

The next few days are likely to be a bit hit and miss around here as I have the builders in doing the conservatory still. They arrive promptly at 8.30am so no lie ins for me.

We woke up to find that the dishwasher had not worked over night and the code meant it hadn't filled with water. I'm blaming the plumber from yesterday who had to pull it out to move our outside tap. This unfortunately meant that before breakfast I had a whole days worth of washing up to do. One of my least favourite chores.

Although last night I missed my Ranger Unit meeting due to falling asleep on the sofa post night shift, Guiding is a large part of my life and I have roles within County which mean I often have emails to read/send and meetings to go to. So this morning's aim was to catch up whilst watching some trash TV that doesn't require concentration. I'm this case it was the new series of Teen Mom 2. I can't help but love it!

My parents called round for a coffee and to see how the conservatory is progressing. Mum needed to go out and get some new shoes so we had an hours retail therapy which resulted in me buying 3 new tops in Next (oops!). But she did manage to pick up some flip flops. Only one of these I bought but I forgot to snap a pic of me trying them on.

My dad loves to take photos and always has his camera attached to his belt and today I go this lovely photo of him as he tried to take a photo of me when we were talking about 'week in the life' and I was taking photos of him with Oscar on his lap. I wonder if this is where I get my love of documenting life from and then the crafty side from my mum.

I'm a bit of a nightmare when it comes to eating at lunchtime as I'm not really a cold sandwich person. I often just have snacky bits at lunch but today I made myself a bacon sandwich with tomato ketchup. Yum! I don't know what it is about cold sandwiches that I'm not keen on, maybe its because I don't really like cold meats except cured ones and that I can't stand mayonnaise. I'm really not a fussy eater, there's just something about sandwiches for me. But saying that if someone made me one for lunch I would eat it.

Today the flooring and the roof went on the conservatory which means we are on the home stretch and is really just the finishing touches left to do (electrics, plumbing, plastering etc...). I'm so excited. The cats keep staring through the kitchen windows wondering what is going on. I'm sure they are going to love being in there.

The afternoon went pretty quickly by. I scrapbooked and had an unexpected nap whilst I waited for my Canon Selphy to print some photos. I desperately want to get started on my 'Week in the Life' album but am holding out to print them all online at the end of the week along with my holiday photos. I love spending time in my craft room, it is my little haven at the top of the house.

When it came to tea time I wasn't hungry so had a healthy humus and veg plate whilst catching up on The Scrapbook Process class by Shimelle. I'm really enjoying this class and the mix of PDFs and Video. It's really making me think about how I put my albums together.

So this is pretty much how my evening continues. Lots of Oscar snuggles, catching up with my social media and other people's WITL posts. I finished the night off by booking tickets for Disney on Ice - Frozen with an early bird offer for December. I am a bit of a planner and love to have things lined up to look forward to. Milk and cookies as a treat for supper as I had a light dinner.

I'm on my own this evening as the Boy is out with his family at a rugby league match. He doesn't go every week now that we have Sky sports as it is a good hours drive away. Some weeks are like this where we barely see each other but then others are very quiet and we spend more time together. I don't mind these weeks as long as we make time on a specific day to have some us time and we chat/text throughout the day. 

Cups of Tea = 4, Total = 18

Happy Crafting!

Terri

x

~ Week in the Life - Wednesday ~

Happy Wednesday!

So again my day started mid way through my night shift.

One of my work emails highlighted that this week is 'Dying Matters Awareness Week' and as I work on a palliative care unit where death and dying is kind of our bread and butter I wanted to use this opportunity to highlight a great cause.

Because of the job I do I am very open about health, bodily functions and death however I am very aware that it is not everyone's cup of tea and here in the UK are often taboo subjects. The most important thing I have learnt is that death and dying is a normal natural process that everyone will experience therefore we shouldn't hide it away. 

I love my drive home, even on days like today when it's cold and wet. This country road is beautiful in all seasons and weathers. I can recall driving home one New Years Day and the fields were covered in a pretty crisp frost.

So today we have had the builder and plumber here to continue work on or conservatory which meant that I couldn't go to bed after my night shift. Occasionally I will go straight to the hairdressers but don't usually stay up at home. Thankfully I had arranged for my work friend to come round for lunch which kept me awake.

I made a kind of Antipasti platter for us to have for lunch and she brought a lovely key lime pie for dessert. I really like the cured and cooked Italian meats that you can get from Aldi at the moment. They are really good value for money and very tasty too!

Today was my first experience of acupuncture. It was a very different experience from anything that I have had before. It was a strange feeling to have heavy, achy legs caused by small needles inserted in to specific parts of the body.

On return home I was delighted to find that our conservatory has come on leaps and bounds today. We now have a frame and windows in place, hopefully the roof will go on tomorrow. It's so exciting and I can't wait to get it furnished.

The tiredness all got a little too much for me and I fell asleep on the sofa. Unfortunately this meant that I missed going to my girl guide ranger unit meeting. I wasn't needed but I had planned to go and see the girls so I'm a little annoyed at myself.

The acupuncturist did warn me that it can cause tiredness so I suspect that on top of not sleeping after my night shift it was pretty inevitable really.

The boy and I had a little dispute about what we were going to have for dinner. When I'm tired I really struggle with making decisions about what I want to eat and I can be very grumpy. However, one thing I have learnt is that there is always a time for cereal. 

I left him to his Liverpool Football Match and went off to bed.

Although before settling down I had to have the nightly game of 'pounce on and bite feet' with Millie. She usually sleeps amongst our feet at the end of the bed but does occasionally sneak further up.

Cups of Tea = 5, Total = 14

Happy Crafting!

Terri

x

~ Week in the Life - Tuesday ~

Happy Tuesday!

My days are starting to get a little mixed up now as I've been working the night shift but am using midnight as the cut off in to a new day even though its kind of like the middle of my day. If you know what I mean!

At work I had a break to eat a quick breakfast and have a cup of tea. I've decided to count the numbers of cups of tea that I drink over the course of the week (I must admit to being a little scared of the answer!). So far, Monday = 4 and Tuesday = 5, Total = 9!

I don't have a specific breakfast at work when I'm on nights. It has to depend what I fancy, sometimes cereal and other times toast. I love to read a home or food magazine for some light easy reading.

We had a bit of an eventful shift but for obvious reasons I can't go in to that. I will document in my album but ensure I don't break confidentiality. Needless to say I had to use a manual Blood pressure monitor which I haven't done for years.

Shattered, I snapped a quick selfie in the car as I set off to come home and bed. Looking rough!!

Slept well and kept company with my 2 cutie pies. How cute is it that Oscar has got his paw round Millie! Sometimes they are super cute but in the next breath they will be tearing round the house play fighting. 

What a difference a day makes! Sunshine and warm weather to a much cooler and very wet day. I was certainly in the right place being in bed.

When I'm on nights I have to have time to come round once I've woken up. I certainly feel like a zombie until I've had a cuppa and watched some TV. I have a few programmes at the moment that I really enjoy watching on Sky +

Yey! Happy mail! I love it when I get crafting goodies in the post. I've just signed up to 6 months of Ali Edwards 'Story Stamp' subscription. I picked up the first month for $5 which was amazing. I've really enjoyed using stamps on my scrapbook pages recently so hoping that these will give me a few more sets to play with. Unfortunately no time to play with it today though.

When I'm on nights the boy and I are often like ships that pass in the night. We do try to eat tea together before I go if we can manage it. Tonight we had an all day breakfast kind of dinner which included bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, potato waffles and tinned tomatoes.

This week is Nurse's Week so I picked up this meme online as I wasn't able to take any photos on my shift. We had a very busy night and it just continued as it had started.

I'll be back tomorrow hopefully with more photos to share with you.

Happy Crafting!

Terri

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