Rainy weekend with Netflix and my bullet journal

Guys, I did absolutely nothing all weekend and it was glorious.

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned oodles of times, I work every other weekend. This weekend, I didn’t have to work. It’s been insanely hot up here (but not as bad as down south, so I hear) and we were expecting thunderstorms at the end of the week. Luckily, we had awesome rain since Friday and the temperature went down to 52F last night. (I still don’t do Celsius temperatures.)

So while it poured down rain and the fresh, cool breeze made the flat much more bearable to live in, I had zero motivation to go anywhere. I was happy watching Netflix, writing in my bullet journal, and playing The Sims. No, I did not write. No, I did not read. These activities seem to be more weekday things when I’m out and need calming distractions from the daily grind. (Then I can complain when I don’t have time to spend lots of time on them.)

Hanging out with Steve, Daisy, and Jake all weekend has been wonderful. I just felt like I needed to be shut away from the world to recuperate from the constant running around that I usually do in the week. I go to six libraries in 5 days. My job requires me to be around people all of the time. I’m chatty all of the time. I’m efficient, helpful, prompt, courteous, and everything in between all week. I think I deserve some max chill out days, especially when the weather isn’t very welcoming.

What’s been keeping me nice and relaxed lately has been my bullet journal. Now, I’ve said before on Twitter that I refuse to post any photos of my pages because I’m just not an artist and the pages look like a janky mess. Steve, who is an artist, has suggested that it’s because I rush my designs. I rush everything because I always feel that urgency – things must be done now! Quick! Go! But, doing design and art means practice and patience, so the #bujo (yeah, I did it) is really helpful for me to focus on something tactile that, I wouldn’t say, de-stresses me because it isn’t a stress I feel, it’s just a nice, calming activity.

I remember working at the school and giving hyperactive kids coloring books and puzzles. They would be fixated on the task for a good while and I can see now that it was probably something they really needed instead of being fidgety and trying to find an outlet for their overactive brains. Personally, it’s just really entertaining and I love watching the videos on how other people use their bullet journals. That in itself is really addictive.

So … I have a new hobby? Cool.

For Netflix, I watched the first episode of Season Six of OITNB, but I didn't watch more because I'm still on The Staircase, which is really addictive.

Seriously, guys. I think I should have been a detective, or a lawyer, or at least a police officer. There’s still time to get a new career, isn’t there?

Anyway, so that’s how the weekend has gone. I have the rest of the evening to talk a walk with Daisy, take a bath, write something that resembles fiction, talk to my parents on the phone, and hang out with Steve until bedtime. I’d love to have a holiday where I just stayed home for about a week, but right now I think that won’t be until after Christmas. Oh well, I’ll just have to keep my self in check and make sure that I give myself plenty of recovery time.

Actually, I should block that out in my daily bullet journal entries.

Seahman and the Great Exhibition of the North 2018

Getting back to things we’ve done lately and failing to keep up -- we travelled to Seaham, Durham about a month ago. Actually, Daisy had been here before we ever were because she attends doggy day care and they sometimes take her on little adventures when it’s warm out.

That dog has an awesome life.

At Seaham, there is a nice little town to walk around, plus big named shops like Asda and a Costa. We went to the marina (picture above) and went on a rocky section of beach before finding a nice, soft sand beach. Daisy was overjoyed because there were lots of little kids for her to try and play with, so we had to try and entertain her otherwise. Plenty of places to get an ice cream and plenty of places to relax on a warm, sunny day.

Aside from the beach trip, we went to the Hancock museum a couple of times for the Great Exhibition of the North event that they have on all through summer. We didn’t see the fireworks at the Quayside or anything on the first opening day, but what we did see was quite cool.

First the museum has all sorts of new exhibits, one of which was the first edition of a book that I read as a student at University of Central Florida way before I ever imagined being a British citizen. The Blazing World is one of the first sci-fi books and it was written by a woman so, take that old, dead white guys!

The other night, we went to a talk that Steve’s old company did about their work on the Marvel movies. I was a proud gal that night when I saw so many kids and students asking the guys their advice on how to get into concept art.

Then in town we came across an art project where people could rename streets on the map of Gateshead and Newcastle. Of course, I named on street after my parents, and Steve named one of the streets after the allotment that we finally got.

Now, as of today, I have not been as active in the allotment as I was when we first got it. It’s an absolute mess, which I’ve been told by a few people, is totally normal. We’ve spent a good month or so, pulling up weeds. Some of it is mare’s tail which our allotment manager told us is a right pain to get rid of. Still, we have some vegetable plants from the library (they do all sorts at my work!) so we’ll have some summer vegetation around the weeds. Yuck.

Also, we saw Elvis Costello at Newcastle City Hall on the 25th of June. That was very cool and since Steve loves his music so much, I was glad to give him the tickets as a late birthday present. Elvis had to cut his tour short due to health reasons and we wish him the very best of health. The librarians I work with are eager to go along next time to see him again in Newcastle.

Right now, Steve and Daisy are on a stroll while I have the flat to myself for a bit. Our house purchase is going at a slow pace, but as far as we know now, things are just carrying on as normal. I figure they’ll give us a date to move, and we’ll panic because we’ve been laying low for a while and just waiting for the official green light on everything.

Other than that, I’m trying to use my bullet journal for keeping up with my blog posts and my writing progress, so both of those things are scheduled for today. I have one post down, now I need some work on my book to keep me up to date.

Until next time!

Warkworth Castle and Hermitage

I was going to write an update for June because the last post I made was when we visited the Picks in Liverpool in March. However, life being as it is, and my trying to spend more time with my brain turned to de-stress, so I haven’t spent loads of time updating here. I started plenty of posts, but never got around to finishing them. But, alas, it’s Sunday, and Steve is getting lunch ready, and Daisy is hanging out with me in the computer room, listening to 6 Music, so it’s as good of a time as any.

We’ve travelled plenty since March, and I always post something on my Instagram which posts to my Twitter and my Tumblr. (I just realized that my book posts go to my Missus P Tumblr and the personal photos go to my bookblogarama Tumblr. Why did I do that?!)

Anyway, so for this post, I figured I’d work backwards a bit about what’s been going on. Yesterday we went to Warkworth Castle (seen above) and Hermitage. It was a glorious day and we took Daisy along who has now been on her first boat ride. (She was more interested in the ducks in the river than the actual boat.) The castle was really well-preserved and it was very cool to be able to take the stairs to the wine cellar and walk upstairs to see the awesome view of the coast at Amble. Unfortunately with the heat, we didn’t travel to the beach on the way home, but we did have a picnic on the castle grounds, and after the boat trip and a relaxing sit down by the River Coquet, we went for some ice cream at Morwick Dairy. There Daisy met some cows of all age ranges, which she wasn’t so sure about. Of course I fell in love with all of the calves and decided that I do want a farm when I retire.

A nice renovated farm house in Northumberland. Turn it into a B&B but still keep my chickens and occasional farm animals. Ahh. Bliss.

Anyway, if you’re heading to the dairy after the castle visit, make sure to check your Google Map because we entered in the post code that was given and ended up down the street at someone else’s farm. Oh well, we made it eventually.

Last week I started my bullet journal which I’ve been going on about via Twitter. I am so not artistic in any way, so trying to make graph paper with notes pretty is just not something that naturally comes to me. I started watching videos on how to set up a bullet journal, and this channel from Seventeen has been great. I have highlighters, stickers, fine line pens, and a ruler now with all the Rulers of England that I bought at the castle gift shop.

I may be a British citizen, but as an American, I feel it is my duty to appreciate my love of the English Heritage by purchasing souvenirs. Whenever I go somewhere I buy a magnet for our fridge at home, and the magnetic shelf in the office where we keep all of our ones from holidays. Since my “holidays” are weekend getaways and little adventures, I like spreading the British pride to my co-workers.

Aside from the bullet journal, I wrote one day for Camp NaNoWriMo, which is shameful because I always have the best intentions. Maybe the journal will keep me more on target.

I’m also going to use the journal for my blogging and today I can mark down that I actually wrote a post. Hooray for me!

As of today we have 63 days, 23 hours, and 39 minutes left until my Florida trip. This year we’re going on a cruise again but this time we’re going to Nassau instead of Freeport, so I’m glad we’re seeing something different. Also, my parents are coming with me, which I’m also super happy about. They aren’t convinced that they’ll like it, but since it’s a three day excursion, I think they can dip their toe into cruising with us and see how much fun it can really be.

We’ve been watching videos on YouTube about Toy Story Land, and ogling new merchandise to buy in the parks. Apparently there’s a new Disney Play app that I’ll be getting once I’m home. Plus, they have new MagicBands and I think I want the Mickey ice cream one, but I can’t find it online again, so I may have to go with All About the Bow Minnie.

Our flat sale is going well as far as we can tell. We finally got our sold sign out front, and the mortgage offer from the bank has gone to the solicitor, so hopefully we’ll be in our new place before we go on holiday.

I know I have way more travelling updates to post here because we’ve hit some great National Trust and English Heritage sites, including our trip to Whitby at the beginning of June for Steve’s birthday. However, it is now lunchtime and my fish and chips await me!