Week 96, Day 665.
My PhD provides me with an incredible opportunity to travel, especially around the UK, and has made me completely and utterly fall in love with the country (especially Scotland).💙 Travelling has allowed me to see places I never thought I’d see and has also advanced me from being an amateur driver to a very competent one. However, it’s not always sunshine and rainbows. 🌈 Many people think that travelling is glamorous, easy, and prestigious. It is in fact time consuming, exhausting, tedious, and sometimes very difficult. It involves endless packing and unpacking, suffering back, neck, and shoulder aches from being behind the wheel all the time, early starts, late finishes, eating on the go, and constant expenses. It also means being away from home, which for me is hard as home is my resting place. 💔 After a while, hotel rooms get old and seeing new places is no fun if you’re not sharing the experience with the ones you love. I acknowledge how lucky I am, but I also want to shed light on how debilitating travel (especially for work) can be. The fact that I’m agoraphobic also makes it that much harder.
The above has been one of the main reasons why I haven’t had the energy to write much on here over the last few weeks... Fortunately, I have a day in the office today before I head off to Market Deeping later on tonight, then onto Peterborough, Colchester, and Chester throughout the week... No rest for the wicked. 😬
Last week I spent most of my time in beautiful Scotland. The three day trip involved taking part in a service reservoir inspection with Panton McLeod, an awesome tour of the treatment works that feed my project site, and lots of field work. 🌿 Despite how tiring it was, being in Scotland always lifts my spirits; I hope to live there some day. 🥃
Photo: A stunning Scottish morning. Source: My phone out of a car window (I’m a safe driver, I promise).
It’s amazing how pleasant and relaxing mundane tasks like grocery shopping, tidying, and cooking dinner can be when you’ve been away from home. 🏡 This weekend finally gave my bf and I some quality time together doing just that; it really is about the simple things in life when you find your happy place. It was also our cats birthday last week! Someone got spoilt rotten with snacks and attention. 🐈
Photo: The birthday boy watching us go off to work as he goes off to bed. #catlife Source: My camera.
A little on minimalism and sustainability...
I have decided that Lush conditioner bars are not yet at the standard that I would like them to be as they don’t lather well and run out a lot quicker than the Lush shampoo bars. Therefore, I have decided to buy my conditioner from Body Shop in the meantime as they’re really big on recycling and will collect any used plastic produce from beauty products of any brand, making them a great alternative. Moreover, if you bring back 5 of their pots to be recycled at the store, you get a £5 voucher! It’s a win-win. 🚿
Two weeks ago, I mentioned that I made an inventory of all of my wardrobe and jewellery items and vowed that I wouldn’t buy any of those types of items until January. I failed. I bought a beautiful pair of new Converses. However, I basically live in Converses, so I know that I will wear them basically 24/7, but that doesn’t stop me being a little disappointed in myself. I will probably apply the ‘one in one out rule’ to mitigate this. 👟
This has been my longest post in a while and it has actually been really refreshing to have some time to write. However, back to manic I go! Have an awesome week y’all wherever you are!
Photo: LOOK HOW PRETTY THEY ARE. 😍 No regrets. Source: My camera.