Happy New Year 2015

So here we are, 2015, can you believe it?

This is the third Happy New Year post I’ve done – time flies – so I’ll try and make this one a little different (check out 2013 and 2014).

It’s natural at this time to assess the previous year and to look forward to what we want to achieve in the future. Last year I moved in with my boyfriend so that has been the biggest change. We are absolutely loving having our own space just to relax and spend time together. He probably does 90% of all the cooking, which leads to me eating far too much of his delicious food (carbonara is my favourite – I may steal the recipe for a future blog post, leave a comment below if you’d be interested in this).

Work-wise, things still seem to be ticking along nicely. I’m making enough to stay afloat, woohoo! I’ve started saving 20% of everything I earn, which comes in really handy at this time of year when my tax bill is due.

I haven’t been running quite so much as I used to and have joined a gym instead. I wanted to work more on strength but also I wanted the variety of being able to do things like Yoga, Body Pump and Spinning, then be able to swim and have a jacuzzi/sauna afterwards. I also like doing classes as once they are in your diary you treat them like appointments, so emails, phone calls etc. just have to wait until you get back. End of story. I can’t help it. I just love prioritising ‘me time’. Having already done two classes this week I can’t believe how much busier the gym is! So many people on their New Year’s Resolutions. I miss the old days before Christmas with Yoga classes of six and spinning classes of two!

So now for some resolutions, I don’t want to commit to too much and then fall off the wagon later, but here goes:

1. Dry January

No booze in January. I’m tweaking this ever so slightly and doing January 5th to February 5th to allow for a large family party last weekend. I’m doing it to stretch my self-control, and possibly save a bit of money. In addition to that, I’m trying to lose a bit of weight and I’m interested to see if quitting the drink for 31 days will help give me a headstart.

2. Have a ‘weekend’ during the week

Ok this is an odd one but bear with me, I nearly always have gigs at the weekends, so I’m trialling a system of making Tuesday and Wednesday my weekend – and treating Saturday and Sunday like normal working days. Normal working day means getting up at a reasonable time, and either practising, doing admin, going to gigs or something useful during the working day. Weekends mean sleep in, practise if I want to, go to the gym, go for walks, maybe cook a nice meal and generally potter about. I’ll be reporting back on this after a few weeks. Obviously it won’t be completely clear cut – I have pupils who can really only do Tuesday for example. But we’ll see how it goes. I may just end up binge-watching Sex and the City on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Let’s hope not.

I’m also aiming to publish a blog post once a week (on a Thursday, just in case you’re interested). So watch this space for more musings during 2015. It’s good to be back!

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Autumn Term

The summer is drawing to a close and there’s a definite sense of ‘back to work’ here in Manchester.

It’s been a very chilled break for me, I spent some time in the Netherlands, where I had a few cycling lessons, learnt a bit of Dutch, ate a lot of food and drank lots of coffee. I also went on a few National Trust adventures and had many, many dinner parties with friends.

I had a few gigs here and there, mainly providing background music for weddings and other social occasions. It was enough to get me through August (just) but things feel like they’re stepping up a gear now.

It’s September, the start of a new term, I’ve joined a gym (and have been going three times a week) – already I feel like I have way more energy. Gigs are starting to come in thick and fast so I’m spending more time practising. The choir that I sing with has started up again after an August break, and with that the weekly trips to the pub also restart. The new term has also started at Chetham’s, where I work one day a week, how is it that some schoolkids now were born in 2006?!

So the upshot of all this is, all of a sudden I’m ridiculously busy! I’m seeing this as a very good thing as it means I may have money soon yay! I also need to start getting up early again (boo!) but for this I have freshly ground coffee that starts making itself at 7am – I don’t have the mental clarity to grind beans at that time.

I intend to be posting more or less weekly from now on. Just to keep checking in and keep this blog up to date. I hope all of your summers were lovely and that the start of term isn’t too traumatic!

x

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