Changes in Life, 12th August 2017

There is a certain irony in the below post, because I wrote it yesterday(Friday) and it is currently 5am on Saturday in France and I’ve been up for the better part of 2 hours with what I can only assume is a stomach bug!  ça la vie…

It has been a long two weeks, I’ve started back at work and wanting to get my life back. I’m still unable to do certain things, but I am slowly returning to normality. However, as illness tends to do, it has raised the spectre of being older and unwell. It has made me realise that I want to be fitter and healthier, I will never be what I was in my late teens and early 20’s – but I can be fitter and healthier than I am currently. So as I heal I am trying to decide what changes I can make to my life to move me towards being fit and healthy. Though unlike one of our friends, I will not start doing triathlons (as he did when he retired)! Running is also out of the question (not my thing and my knees would object).

Along with that, one thing I am planning on doing is making sure I have actual times set out for my jobs around the house – that is the big jobs around the house – like painting the living room walls, kitchen cupboards (again), and beams. So this weekend as the plastering has been finished my plan is to paint the beams in the living room – and perhaps the ceiling. Pat will most likely be involved 🙂 as I don’t think I will be able to do it all by myself.

As well as my return to work, I have been doing some summer art classes. Two on painting ceramics and one on painting a trompe l’oeil; I’m hoping to get some time over the weekend to paint some more of my trompe o’oeil, but I do know that I won’t be able to see my ceramics until next week as they won’t be fired until the beginning of the week. While we have not created the pottery, we have created and painted the designs with the glaze. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the kiln. I have painted 2 coffee mugs and a milk jug. Hopefully I will have pictures for you in a couple of weeks.

On a not so great note, we have had a lot of wet weather of late, and unfortunately my tomatoes plants have blight. I’ve done some serious removal of leaves and hopefully we will have enough sun so that the tomatoes I have will ripen. I’ve already had some tomatoes off the plants and they are doing well. We just have to see what happens.

Now I wish you all à bientôt and remember Pat’s blog next week – http://patblog.patbell.co.uk

PS my scar is healing nicely now – doesn’t look too offensive at all 🙂