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Today, I got home from work and wrestled myself into my 3/4 length gym pants and reluctantly talked myself into driving to Clonmel for a class. I hadn't a week day off since the previous Tuesday and in the week that passed I had not done anything more taxing than walking up stairs plus to top it off when it came to food I had been a very bad girl indeed.  To make matters much worse I also got my period this morning so I couldn't be sure how much of the wobble was bloating and how much was fat. All I can tell you for certain is that on the drive to the gym, it felt as though those pants were attempting to cut off my circulation at the waist and I may have paused in my car,once parked, to poke myself in my squishy belly as a reminder of why I had gone to the bother of dragging myself to a class when I could be lying on my couch at home. In my defence, I have none really. I know better. After all this time I have learned certain things and these are indisputable facts. 1. I a

It was last night as I was taking a break from getting ready (to read some of my book) that the worrying symptoms first appeared. I found myself thinking that if I wasn't going out that I could curl up with my book and then I would have saved a load of money so I could buy nice things to eat on Sunday. I felt a resentment at spending my money on alcohol when it could be on strawberries and even though I had time to finish my book before I headed out, I had others sitting on my bookshelf in a tantalising manner begging to be read. This is when I realized I was becoming very boring. And yet I did nothing to fight it. So we went out last night because one of Stephen's friends was turning 30, a guy I had met once or twice before and I had been invited along to the party in the upstairs of bar of a bar in town. I was already committed to my sugar free drink of choice -vodka and soda water which is just as boring as it sounds and tastes of absolutely nothing. Upon leaving my apar

I realized today that meditation might not be quite as effective as I'd hoped it would when I became incredibly stressed because my boyfriend suggested we go on another holiday when I next had a weekend off. Now for most people, I know this is not something to get stressed over but I guess it's just how I am wired. I know without having to think too hard about it that there isn't a hope in hell that on my current wages of me taking off any time soon. So a mention of a holiday made me think of all of the other things I am trying to pay for in the next few weeks and lets just say it did not fill me with happy feelings. I had kind of hoped that meditating for a few minutes a day might calm me down or quieten the constant chatter in my head reminding me of all the reasons to be worried but so far I am finding myself to be more or less the same. I am determined to keep going. I using a thing called headspace on my phone and it talks you through a 10 minute meditation but I f

I appreciate the blog title is a bit of a misnomer given that there's nothing even remotely professional about my writing, I am as amateur as they come. However upon reviewing my future career options I have decided that it would be most convenient if I could somehow make money from blogging. Not just because I am lazy and would like the idea of being paid for something I am already doing like being Laura or being sarcastic ( which practically the same thing) even though that does hold it's appeal. I'm just not sure there's really a market for sarcastic whiny blogs or at least not one where it could generate money. I was recently treated to another parental pep talk on my last visit home, these are becoming rather more frequent but I shouldn't be surprised given my propensity to arrive at my parents house in dismal humour lamenting the fact that my life has so little direction that I might as well be a wind vane. Naturally I don't use expressions like that w

I am generally aware of what the concept of mindfulness is and I will be the first to stand up and say that it makes sense. I can see how it can help de-stress and relax you among numerous other benefits yet I can't say that I've ever actually practised it. I know I'm stressed most of the time and I seem to accumulate reasons to be stressed on a daily basis so I am always rushing and worrying about time, money, my life, my weight, my diet. You name it, I have probably dedicated some time to getting stressed about it. There is little to no mindfulness in my life at present, I practically inhale my food, I don't give myself the space to sit and think because if I'm sitting I'm usually switching off using tv or a book to block out the many things that keep up late worrying. The beauty of meditation now is that it doesn't have to be done in a dark room chanting 'om' for an hour even though I think that's probably a pretty close approximation to h

Many people wait for the weekend with great anticipation, as someone who works most weekends I am not one of these people. This weekend my holidays ended with a bang or rather an outrageously early alarm call as I debated the merits of more sleep versus a pre work shower. The shower won and I hastily made myself look vaguely presentable and threw together a quick lunch before deciding to forgo breakfast in favour of more lying down in preparation for the day ahead. Despite the towel on the pillow, lying in bed with wet hair  was not my smartest plan and when I was finally forced to drag my sleepy ass out of bed, my hair was rather fluffy. It would be fair to say that my hair style resembled the gruffalo which was only fitting given that I was going to be having a Gruffalo party in the shop later that day. It was a disorganized sort of day with not many of us in books I didn't get to finish sorting out the children's section before I had to run out and get treats for the par

Tomorrow, my lovely stretch of holidays comes to an end and it is a very sad day indeed. I have successfully managed to not visit the shop or really think about it during my time away but as for 8.30 am tomorrow morning when I will be required to be leaving my apartment in uniform, it will be unavoidable. I don't wish to over excite myself by worrying about the sheer mountain of stuff that will probably await me when I walk in the doors tomorrow. Why spoil all of Saturday's fun. Not to mention that on top of trying to put some sort of order back in the place I have to prepare for a Gruffalo (you know the famous children's book. If not then shame on you) party later that afternoon and I will have to grudgingly admit that I have given little to no thought as to what sort work needs to be done in the hours before I have many (hopefully) children arriving for storytelling and more ( let's just hope I wake with my smart hat on and I won't just be winging it when the ti

I wanted to share all of my holidays photos with a description like a half assed blog post of some description. Anyway above is one of the few photos we have left of Edinburgh zoo, my photographer, travelling companion otherwise known as my boyfriend was using his Iphone for all of the photos and is a little bit of a perfectionist so although he must have taken over 20 photos in the zoo, only three of them made the cut. Sorry you don't get to see the monkeys or the meercats because they were adorable. Ah yes how exciting, these two are of me awkwardly posing in the zoo, I guess I need to work on my natural smile. Below are some pictures from the National Gallery on Princes st. I went in somewhat reluctantly trying to balance my boyfriends desire to look at old paintings and my own desire to not. Anyway we only got a handful pictures, see below. Trust me it looks a lot nicer from the outside unless old depressing art is your thing. Keep your eye out for more shots of me pos