2025 Week 11

I'm not doing such a good job of keeping up with this in 2025, but 2025 is also going to be the year of "letting myself off because, as usual, I have taken too much on". We haven't had one of those in a while. 

I have been managing to keep abreast of all the various things I have to do, which include the usual school work things (lots of marking following the second round of mocks, a big review next week and it's the ski trip in 3 weeks), planning a presentation for a conference in May, attending exam board meetings and writing the module 2 assignment for uni. It is a lot to juggle. To say I am enjoying myself would be strong. But. The nice thing is that, after many years of taking on too much, I now know enough about myself to have some strategies in place. Firstly, I've gone to ground, socially. There is work and there is home and that is pretty much it. Gym and sleeping are a priority because they both help. 

Secondly, I'm having a nightly non-negotiable hour of work between 9 and 10. I mentioned this to my upper sixth, who've got coursework due soon, and offered to hold an open Teams meeting where all just work in silence and solidarity - no cameras, no microphones, but they can ask questions in the chat. This has proved so popular I have extended it from Mon-Thu to Sun-Fri. Not Saturday because just no. I was looking forward to it coming to an end next week, when coursework is in, but it turns out - they want to carry on. Sometimes I have had to do schoolwork in the hour instead of Masters work and tonight I worked on my presentation, because I've done about 5 hours on the Masters today already; sometimes I have to pick a really low-bar work activity, like searching for article to read. But it has kept me honest. Mr Z came and confiscated my phone last week because I was watching a TikTok - this helped. 

So, life is not very interesting but it is very productive. I need to stop thinking about when my next day off will be because it is so, so far off. 

I have been picking away at the sleeve of the yoked cardigan I started knitting in January, in the lovely, squishy Lorna's Laces in Peppermint Mocha that has been in my stash for decades. Now I am a bit thinner, I can wear thicker woolies again, so exciting. I think I might have enough yarn for full sleeves but I won't know until I've done them, which is annoying. Trying to convince myself that it's better to knit the full sleeve on one side and then rip it back if needed, rather than casting off at the pattern-recommended six inches and having to come back to it, but I really hate ripping back. Still, it is the sensible thing to do. I will then icord-edge the fronts and get started on sleeve two; I think I'm going to put a zip in, instead of the two buttons, as I am not a big fan of two-button open cardigans. It's a nice pattern though.

I finished reading KJ Maitland's Rivers of Treason in record time: actually before it was due back at the library, which is astonishing. It was a very easy read and I did whip through it in Oxford, finishing it on the train home, as it provided some light relief from the academic reading. I've now got my hands on the final book of the series, A Plague of Serpents, which I'm excited to start tonight. I've been trying to get though Claire North's House of Odysseus for months but it's proving tricky to get into, so I keep picking up a gardening book I bought (because I have so much time for a new hobby), The Book of Trespass (a favourite audiobook) and Underland (a top 5 book of all time). I usually manage 1-2 pages a night before falling asleep, so everything's going to take a while. Last night I went to bed at 9pm and managed precisely no pages of any book. But it did mean I was up by 7am this morning and I got loads done. 

I have been rewatching The Good Wife, a series I adored, over the past week and a half, as well as episodes of The Apprentice (still reeling from that woman who said she didn't know how to lay a table) and Sort Your Life Out. Now I am older, I am more jealous of Diane Lockhart's fabulous wardrobe - how does she manage to have so many stunning red jackets when I can't even find one that I am satisfied with? Also a bit sad to discover that Julianna Margulies wore a wig for her character but also amazed I never spotted it the first time. Interesting that she is almost exclusively pictured in skirts but gets pulled up for wearing trousers in an episode I watched today. I think that is the first pair of trousers I have seen the character wear so far. 

Not much time has been left in all of this for the business of weight loss and getting healthy. I have been stuck for some weeks now at the weight I made it to just before Christmas. I just want to eat all the things and it is hard to spare enough energy to fuel my willpower. The gym attendance has also dropped off, though I think I have realised that's because I've been trying to transition to treadmill running from the elliptical. I hate treadmill running, it is dull and without variation. So yesterday I went and bashed out 20 minutes on the elliptical instead, and did 10 minutes + sled pushes on the treadmill today. Much easier. I keep in mind the old maxim, 'You can't out-train a bad diet' and therefore seem to have sub-consciously decided that the gym was not contributing to my weight loss; but that is just silly. I don't have a bad diet. I'm not trying to out-train it. I'm trying to complement it. Plus it's also lighter in the evenings, which is a big psychological help. So, this week I will try to hit the gym for cardio on Monday and Friday. 

2025 Week 9

I've spent the past week in my garret in Oxford, trying to do all the studying and unscramble my brain after days of lectures. It was a good and interesting week. Nice to see everyone on the course again. A bit more practical than the first week, so a bit less intense and I left with the general feeling that I could do it, rather than the feeling that I was so out-of-my-depth I was making a fool of myself, which is how I went into it. I had the result for the first module back during half term and it was OK. It was a high low pass, by which I mean it was a high score in the low pass bracket. Naturally I wanted it to be a high distinction but I really just need to set that aside. I'm working two jobs at the same time, after all, and still seem to be attempting to have some sort of life, so a pass is all that is required.

Naturally hoping I will smash the next one though, which is a much more structured piece. 

We went for a Guest Night dinner at college during the week, which included a lecture and a lot of wine included in the price. It was very grand and dripping with Oxford tradition, so it was good to get a taste of that. Here is the exact moment when I was unable to continue holding the squat in front of my coursemates.

I managed to read a whole novel during the week. It's amazing how much one can get done when there's no interesting TV to watch, no knitting and no pressing schoolwork (or rather, you are refusing to do pressing schoolwork because it's an unpaid week). It was Rivers of Treason by KJ Maitland, which is the third in the Daniel Pursglove series. I was quite surprised to find the fourth (and seemingly final) book is already out, so that's on order from the library too. I found it a bit beach read-y, hence being able to whip through it so quickly, and I was unreasonably annoyed that she kept using the word slither when she clearly meant sliver. A quick google suggested this might be falling into accepted usage now but, unlike using 'staycation' to describe any UK-based holiday, this is not an accepted usage I am agreeable to. 

Obvs I will still be reading book 4 though. The set up has been long and I can't wait to find out what happens. 

Other things of note from the past couple of weeks -

I got plenty of sleep. Early nights and no alarms in half term, early nights and consistently waking before my alarm in Oxford. I feel very rested. 

Pilates. I have been a few times now. I still think it's over-priced, but the last one I did (in half term) was with the studio owner and I thought she was better than the other instructor. Unsurprising. Perhaps I will go back, as my glutes hurt for three days. But I can probably do all that stuff at the gym, if I think about it a bit. 

Baths. I love a morning bath and my Oxford garret has a bathtub, so with a 9.30am start, I made it a habit. 

Walks. University Parks continues to be my favourite place in Oxford. the whole place is full of snowdrops at the moment, with a decent smattering of crocuses and celandine. Can't wait to go back in April and see what else has come out. There is also a small swan family back on the pond. They look so pretty that people keep stopping to take pictures, convincing the swans that they are going into their pockets for food and causing a lot of hopeful neck stretching. Hours of entertainment. 

I also managed a good muddy walk around Port Meadow, scoping out places I hope I can go swimming in May. Fingers crossed for good weather.