I'm very much liking the results of a weekly facemask (my skin's never been better) and the hairmask I used last night (and the small scrunching of gel) has made my hair look really good and un-frizzy today, too. I think this may end up being a regular treat.

I've got curly hair and it can be a bit of a nightmare - when it's sitting well it looks brilliant, but it doesn't always sit well and I can't blow dry it to fix it (because then it expands to take over the universe) - but it has been a great deal better since I changed to the the curly girl method (if you're interested I suggest you get the book, it's not expensive and it goes into more detail - there's also a version with a DVD
although it's more expensive and new since I got my copy) and I also spend a lot less on hair products (I suspect that everyone with curly hair has a bathroom cabinet full of fairly expensive things that didn't really work). Conditioner and gel are more or less all I use now, and I'm adding in a hair mask as well when my hair's really suffering with the weather. The £1 microfibre turbie towels (thank you £land) are deeply brilliant at absorbing most of the water out of my hair without "roughing it up" and all whilst keeping it neatly tied up off of my face. I have 5 turbie towels of varying age that I use all the time (if it's cold I'll use several over the course of drying my hair so that my head doesn't get cold) and I've now discovered them in black, which is super useful for when I get my behind in gear and cover up the greys for a bit (else it looks like I've slaughtered someone and cleaned up using my hair towels).

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Well, I'm at work so it's patently not actually perfect but it's gorgeous and sunny and bright but with a little cold bite to the wind that says summer's going and autumn's on its way. I love this time of year, I suspect because I was in formal education for so long (about twenty two years from starting nursery school to leaving university) - I associate autumn with new starts and the exciting prospect of things being different and I love this kind of weather the best (it's easy to dress for in light layers and scarves and not having to worry about the rain).

I make resolutions and plans at new year (I'm a Scot, Hogmanay is a big deal) - and in fact the weight loss journey I'm on at the moment started in January - but somehow this time of year seems even more like an opportunity to renew that I shouldn't miss. It's something about the smell of slightly damp, slightly warm, privet hedge harking back to first days at school, I think. Anyway, I'm currently feeling very motivated and very up and I intend to make the most of it which means projects (I am, infact, rubbing my hands together in the style of a Blue Peter presenter, except with less sticky backed plastic).

Bigger projects (things that will take at least an hour to make an appreciable dint in):

Unframing all my signed convention pictures.

I have a billion of these from a different point in my life (a very happy point, but one I'm no longer at) and the pictures are languishing in their clip frames in a box. If I unframe them and put them in individual poly pockets in a folder they'll take up substantially less space and they'll be much easier for me to look at and enjoy when I'm in the mood to do so. The frames can go to charity or friends who want them.

Going through the stuff in the bottom of the spare room closet

I have NO CLUE what some of that is. I know my graduation picture (which I loathe) is there and I suspect my degree certificate is, too, but other than that? clueless.

Going through my present drawer

I have a billion and six wee things in there, most of which I'm never going to give to anyone. I need to sort out what I wouldn't be embarrassed to give and donate the rest. And I need to move the gifts to a smaller drawer so I don't end up with a lot of junk again.

Removing Aged paperwork

I don't need mobile bills from 5 years ago or bank statements from 10 years ago. My paperwork's mostly consolidated by type into individual folders so I just need to go through them one at a time and cull (and then stick the papers in another box until I can borrow the good shredder from my parents!). If the folders are not over full then it'll be a lot easier to keep on top of filing the new stuff as it comes in.

Re-clearing my wardrobe

I did this about 3 months ago and it's come time to do it again (what a terrible shame!). I've already removed the Kriss Kross jeans but I know there are other things there that should also go and I may now be into some of the things that were too small the last time. This takes ages and is exhausting, but it's also a lot of fun so I think this may be sunday's job.

Cataloguing the contents of my freezer

I know vaguely what's in there, but I could really do with a list so I can meal-plan better.

I also have a bunch of computer-related projects I need to do (improving the design here not being the least of these, but mostly continuing on with the decluttering I started in my email and bookmarks and moving on to do the same with my files and photographs) but I'm feeling kind of energetic at the moment and that's a very sitty-downy kind of thing, so they'll hold for the moment (I have a working back up, it'll do).

My general every-day goals are doing pretty well at the moment:


1.Drink more water.
I'm calling this one so good I'm taking it off the list - it's habit now so I don't need to keep monitoring it.


2.Drink less diet coke.
Success, eventually, after a bit of fiddling around to see what works best for me. Swapping cokes for coffees (which, because I drink lattes, have some nutrional value) and barring it after 1 except in company (I usually don't have lunch until 1, so with the latte in the morning I'm just not having it at all) means that it's I'm definitely losing the habit for it and because I allow myself to have it in company I don't have any associated guilt (which would tend to make me rebel and drink more). I may revisit in future to see if I can cut it down even further but it's no longer a physiological habit and it's not a daily psychological habit either. It's coming off the list for now as a success.


3.Excercise more.
3.1.Unless it is pouring I will walk my 30minute lunchbreak around the river. It is pretty.
Repeated epic fail. I got out of the habit when I went on vacation and I just cannot get my head back in the game. My headphones are a bit broken, so that gives me a constant excuse (a rotten excuse, but still an excuse) not to do it, and I'm trying to avoid the shops right now, but still, it's all excuses and I need to work out a better way to self-motivate to do something at lunchtime.


3.2.Unless it there is a specific reason why not, I will get the train home to the further away station and walk up the hill.
This is a success, definitely. I get home faster and often on a nicer train (and I pass a half-decent supermarket on the way so I can pick up last-minute things at a reasonable price if I need to). Taking it off the list as I've got this one in the bag

3.3.Get the train into work from the further away station. Not a hope (unless I'm late and miss my regular train) - I know how long it takes me and I have an up to date timetable, I'm just in a lazy headspace about it because I know how hot and knackered it used to make me. I need to get better about it. Perhaps designating one day a week and working up might help.

3.4.Investigate "bingo wing busters" on the internet.
I'm so unmotivated to do these. I'm not sure if I need to completely reevaluate this goal.

4.Continue with SW
4.1.As I am - keep mixing it up, keep sticking to it.
Done. Successfully - meal planning is helping me keep it in balance and more economical (no more last minute bagged salads!) and, really, the eating is just a way of life now. I'm going to take this one off as a success but I'll change it up for a new eating goal - maintaining menu planning or upping veggie intake, something positive.



More ephemeral goals
More groomed.
I'm good with the jewelry (thank you decluttered dressing table) and scarf (because I have an addiction to them anyway) and my skin has never looked better but I'm still rotten at putting on makeup and I still tend to whack my hair up in a bun about half the week. I need to call this goal a good 'un but develop some new ones regarding hair and makeup in particular.

Better body skin
I have almost got rid of my allergy, and actually my upper arms have been benefitting from me regularly moisturising them with the aloe I've been using to counter the allergy in my armpits. I'm going to continue on what I'm doing there and revisit properly when the allergy's completely clear (probably September).

House keeping routine.
Having so many visitors in such a small amount of time's totalyl thrown this for a loop. The house is okay - not spotless, but I could have my Mum turn up at the door and not be ashamed of it - but I feel like it's only a step away from chaos. The only thing I feel that I've got under control is my laundry.

stop wasting all weekend sleeping and slothing.
I'm calling this good and taking it off the list. Having people to stay's not helped me with this but my mind-set is different; the time I feel it's reasonable to get up (rather than look at the clock and roll back over) is earlier and I have a lot more energy than I used to so I'm just automatically less likely to sloth (I can't just sit the same way that I used to. I'm going to change this up for a goal about better sleeping habits altogether.


Wow. That's a bit of a long post... I'll be revisiting it in sections, but I thought I'd better take advantage of the weather-induced headspace whilst I could.

Juice. Pronunciation:/dʒuːs/
noun Scottish informal: Any non-alcoholic beverage, most often carbonated beverages.

I've been continuously trying to give up Diet Coke since the turn of the year, because it's full of things that are bad for me (acid, excessive caffiene, aspartimine) and doesn't have any nutritional plusses to balance them out. It is hard; I've tried cutting it out for Lent (failed, but I did manage my secondary promise of cutting it down), I've tried adding in replacements (I've successfully added a litre of plain water to my daily intake. In addition to the diet coke...) and I've wished really hard that I didn't like it (which was about as successful as the wishing for the lottery win sans ticket).

I've not been addicted since birth - far from it in fact, I didn't like any kind of drink with bubbles in it until I was ten (when we got a Sodastream and I could control the bubble level) and spent my childhood drinking slightly warm milk in various tearooms with my grandmama - but I built up a fairly solid habit in secondary (high) school (thanks to it being the only diet juice available with any regularity) and then on into university and now I just reach for it automatically. I'm incredibly jealous of those amongst my friends who automatically order water when we're out for an evening or for dinner - that's a great habit to have.

Anyway, I've learnt a fair bit about myself and how I'm motivated in the past few months and I'm working a plan that - at the moment - seems to be working. I've barred diet coke after 1pm unless I'm in company (and my work colleagues at work don't count) and I'm regularly treating myself to a nice skinny latte from the in-house concession at work.

Now, there are still some holes in that plan:

• If I'm out for an evening, or if I have friends over, I'm still liable to have a gallon or six (way too late in the day) and then my sleep quality is badly affected.
  
• I have friends over a lot.
  
• Lattes have caffiene in them.
  
• I'm spending a small fortune on lattes.
  

But it's still a lot better than where I was - I've found that the latte means I'm significantly less likely to even think about getting up and buying a diet coke, and I'll bypass the shop in the morning on the way into work knowing that I'll have that coffee later. The latte does have some nutrional value, no fake sweetness (which, quite apart from the dubious chemicals in the sweetner, tends to make me utterly ravenous later on so it's nice not to have that fake appetite) and I also usually have it early enough in the course of the day that it doesn't have such an obvious impact on my sleep cycles (it somehow feels like a morning thing to do and the concession closes at three anyway).

Obviously I still need to do some tweaking, but it's Thursday and I've not had any diet coke since monday (when I had visitors) so I'm counting a little victory right there.

I live in a pretty part of the world - near enough to Glasgow that people can visit the city and a great base for visiting down the west coast of Scotland and into Burns' country. I also live in a fairly damp part of the world (it's why it's so green!) so while people love to come and stay with me, they generally love to do it all at the same time (I wouldn't neccessarily visit me in Febuary, either, but with the right clothes it's pretty even in the rain) so for the last two weekends, next weekend and the weekend two after that I have people coming to stay. Which means out of 5 possible weekends (when I usually do the bulk of my housework, shopping, bulk cooking, laundry and decluttering) I'm entertaining for 4 of them.

Visitors stay in the room where I usually dry my laundry.
Visitors require fed.
Visitors need cleanliness at least on the day of their arrival.
Visitors require the bedlinen on the spare bed to be clean.

Visitors are also delightful and splendid and they're my friends (else they wouldn't be staying in my house), but it is a wee bit frazzling.

In order to enjoy my friends (and not spend the entire time they're here looking like a stressed out dishrag) I had a deep-clean the weekend before the madness started and I'm very on top of "keeping things going" (even when they're there - they're my friends, they can see me straighten the sitting room and wipe it down before bed), and I need to make very, very careful use of the small amount of time I have in the evenings during the week.

So, they generally leave me on a tuesday, which is also the night I come home early before my Slimming World class and have maybe an hour to play with when it's still early enough to run the vacuum cleaner above my downstairs neighbour's head so I get home:

• strip the spare bed and empty the bin in the spare room
  
• stick the bedlinen and any towels they've used into the washing machine and add the detergent (I don't start it as I've been warned several times by the fire service not to run a washing machine in an empty house or overnight and I'm deeply paranoid about house fires anyway - that is a story for another time though)
  
• run the "feather" duster over the high points (basically I just waft it at the shelves, light fittings, skirting boards and doors, I don't move anything. It's slightly static so it's pretty good at picking things up)
  
• vacuum all the carpet and rugs.

Then it's time for my class and I'm exhausted. As soon as I get home I run the washing machine (because it's ready so I just have to press the button) and it's finished and ready for me to hang things up (I don't have a drier, I line dry - mostly inside due to the weather) by the time I've had dinner.

On wednesdays I have a regular game night with friends, so I can't start anything until after 9pm (by which point I really don't feel like doing anything!) so I try and get the maximum value out of where I'll be anyway:

• lay spare bed linen on spare bed. Hang up visitor bathtowel and put away any extra clean ones. Start my bath running.
  
• wipe down the bathroom whilst my bath is filling and gather any laundry I can find (bar my towel and bathmat!) and stick in the machine.
  
• Once the bath is full, run the machine.
  
• Hang up clean laundry to dry, put my towel and bathmat in the machine to run tommorrow (leave the door of the machine open).

I have the longest amount of time on thursday nights, but I'm usually also wiped out and need a little head space so I can be bright and breezy when my visitors arrive so I:

• Do a last sweep for laundry. Remember there are towels in the kitchen.
  
• Wipe down the kitchen
  
• sweep the hard floors
  
• spot wipe any of the hard floors that need it
  
• Make up the spare bed
  

Friday night is sometimes arrival night - in which case I run the clean and dry laudnry out of the spare room and put away the airers and feed my guests a take away - but if it's not then it's final polish night.

• Put away clean, dry laundry
  
• start batch cooking for anything needed over the weekend or early the next week
  
• Clean the bath (I run a scrubbie and soap around it whilst it's draining every time I have a bath, but it does need a proper clean now and again!)
  
• Catch up anything I've missed
  
• Move the airers into my bedroom
  

Before they arrive on the Saturday I'll strip my bed, wash the linens and hang up on the airers that are now in my room.

I love my friends, but I'm very much looking forward to my weekend off!