When you think you’ve used all the coat-hangers in the house and make plans to acquire more, it’s probably worth a brief scan of the wardrobes first.

a small selection of hangers

Fortunately (and unusually) I didn’t action those hanger purchasing plans before I looked.

Yesterday as planned I skipped the SML Xmas party to spend some quality time with myself.

Started out with a well-needed yoga class and then a trek to the big design market via train and a somewhat lengthy walk in the pretty glorious summer sunshine.

Bessie and I attended the market last year**, but this time I was solo. In addition to doing recon for merchanising ideas for Bessie (who has a market stall next weekend), I was planning to simply take in the pretty things and not really to buy anything.

Yeah, we’ll draw a veil over those non-spending intentions, but in my defense, I probably could have spent more.

just a couple of things

really neat show bag for a mere $20 – but will I actually use these items?^^

fab resin necklaces from polka luka – and freebie bracelet

awesome ruby zing iced-tea from rabbit hole tea bar

And un-photographed small secret gifts for Joan and Bessie (shhhh!)

When I was on my digital magazine library binge earlier in the week, I devoured all the available issues of peppermint magazine. I was really taken by the clothing from seaside tones – particularly this fab black maxi dress and this awesome grey skirt. I bookmarked both and sat them in a couple of browser tabs – and would flick back periodically through the week to test if the appeal lasted.

When I was doing the final circuit around the market before heading home, I turned down an aisle and wait, what? wasn’t that the black dress I’d had in the browser tab for most of the week? Clearly the universe was trying to tell me something. So of course I bought it. Fortunately for my wallet, they didn’t have the grey skirt on the rack.

It was such a nice morning! The stallholders/makers were so enthusiastic and positive and there was such a good energy around the place. How delightful to be spending time on creative endeavours you’re passionate about!

After arriving home I headed out again and grabbed some pots and bamboo plants from the hardware store for the upper balcony, smashed out the grocery shopping and pottered about.

So much nicer than spending the day with my curmudgeonly SML colleagues!

xxx

** Unsurprisingly, almost 12 months later, I have burned precisely none of those candles.
^^ This buying things and not using them needs some exploration – not to castigate myself, but to either rein myself in or use things!

One of the perks of our resort in Hua Hin was access to roughly a billion magazines via the press reader app.

It was utterly wonderful reading – so many international versions of Vogue! Crazy-luxe Asian home and decor mags! The hilariously wanky Wallpaper!

Well, utterly wonderful until my tablet very quickly ran out storage space, ground to a halt and wouldn’t play nicely until I deleted everything including the app.

But I was hooked on the digital magazine experience and rather disappointed to leave it.

Once home, while renewing my library books online, I noticed a little menu item on the top of my screen. What, now? Free digital editions of magazines!? Truly, libraries are amazing!

There’s definitely not the breadth of delights available to me in Thailand, and the rb digital app is super-buggy, but I’ve been having a fabulous time browsing through all sorts of things.

Tomorrow is the SML Christmas party, so being the curmudgeon I am, I’m taking an annual leave day instead.

Honestly, these days I really have limited appetite to stand about for hours and watch my colleagues get utterly plastered. So why put me (or them!) through it?

Instead, I’ll start the morning with early yoga and then visit the big design market, followed by grocery shopping and some pottering.

Infinitely superior!

Over the past couple of months I’ve had quite a few very early starting meetings, so have missed a fair bit of yoga – not ideal when you’ve bought a not inexpensive, time-boxed, unlimited pass!**

Add to that, the associated meeting catering (wee cakes!) and I find myself in rather dire need of exercise!

In the spirit of carpe-ing the whatevs and taking whatever I can get, I threw on my running gear this evening and went for a very “quick” run-around-the-block. Exhausting, but I feel a good deal better for it! Especially after being trapped in a windowless room for 9 hours for two days straight.

Also in the spirit of doing something … anything … to encourage us to get moving, we bought an exercise bike over the weekend. It has already seen some use and hopefully will prove over the long-term to be more than an interestingly-shaped storage receptacle for various things.

**The pass itself is really good value – well it is when you actually use it.

It’s the time of year when I start thinking of what I might like to challenge myself with in 2019.

Some of the things I’m idly considering include:
+ only reading books from the library
+ giving up coffee (extremely unlikely)
+ monthly massage / facial
+ no dessert (birthday exceptions only) or post-dinner snacking
+ getting back onto that 60before60 list! I didn’t do much of it at all in 2018 and I really missed the fun of the challenges!

Will of course report back.

It’s indeed fortunate that I’m trying to restrict myself from buying more *stuff*, else these beauties would now be resident in ThePalace(OfLove).

Don was mildly terrified watching me test them out while we were visiting decathlon to suss out exercise bikes. It’s been maybe 18 years (yikes – seems about 5) since I was last on skates – given my wobbling he was probably somewhat justified in his concerns.

unprecedented – babykitty sitting on my desk – first day back from hols

It’s somewhat difficult to know how and where to start after disappearing from here for a little bit, but I’ll dive in.

Our short-ish break was absolutely wonderful. There’s a good deal to be said for lazing around a pool reading books for a week. The lazing was interspersed with the occasional massage, taking in the sunrises, walking on the beach, and yoga classes. Don golfed most mornings while I occupied myself with the aforementioned lazing. I really never thought I’d enjoy a resort-style holiday, and I’m sure it is largely dependent on the actual resort, but I returned more refreshed and relaxed than I have been for a very long while.

As is the way with holidays, I had a bunch of revelations – of the usual sort:
1. We have so much *stuff*. Way too much stuff.
2. We need to take more time and just sit about.
3. We need to spend more time in nature.
4. We really do have way too much stuff.
5. I need more massages in my life.
     I’d had one massage – ever – up to this point. I’m now a convert.
6. I need to stop shopping as hobby.
7. We need more resort-type holidays.
8. Maybe more frequent, shorter holidays are better than one longer trip.

Also refreshing and relaxing was the morning of my birthday, earlier this week. I’d only been back for 3 days, but took an annual leave day from SML and finally redeemed the spa voucher gifted to me by the kiddies for my 50th before it expired. The massage was not quite as good as those in Thailand, but the facial was much superior. While being pummeled, I toyed with the idea of getting a massage each month. After seeing my face, I also toyed with the idea of regular facials too.

I’m sure pretty much every person on earth has said this, but December already! This year has really flown by and I’m going to make best efforts to go a bit slower in the next.

It remains to be seen how this is achieved.