A blur, but feeling focused

November was a bit of a blur, but I feel like I’m in a good place to do a reset and refocus

Read on for my monthly recap, where I take a look at the areas of my life that are important to me, that I’m working on or trying to improve.

Reading

Back to, a still very respectable, four books this month.

Finished

• The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers. Finally finished this one. I really enjoyed the stories in the first half. They were creepy and interesting. I lost interest in the second half though.
• A bit too YA-ish for me. Also, maybe it’s just my Asexuality coming through here, but there was no need to make it romantic between the two boys. It feels like it was just thrown in there so it could be labelled as an LGBT title. I would have found the relationship just as powerful if they had been friends. It felt forced, to me.
• Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. I was very surprised by this one because I loved it. It’s not a genre I normally read, plus it’s Australian which I usually steer clear of. But it pulled me right in and I powered through it in a few days.
• Theroux the Keyhole by Louie Theroux. I love Louie’s documentaries and found this book pretty enjoyable too. I like that he was quite honest about his shortcomings, but honestly, he does seem like a bit of a dick.

In progress

• Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan. Still no progress .
• Do Hard Things by Steve Magness. Hold has come up so I’m reading some of this now, trying to get through a few more chapters before it has to go back again.
• This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J Levitin. No progress, waiting for hold to come up.
• Wizard and Glass by Stephen King. No progress, will allow myself another chapter when I finish Katabasis.
• Katabasis by RF Kuang. About 2 thirds of the way through and I’m enjoying it, but not as much as Kuang’s other novels. I’m finding the way the characters are developed is making it hard for me to get a handle on them.
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain. Not much progress here, still not liking it much.
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. A bit intimidated to start this one, but I’m really enjoying it so far. I’m about half way through and it’s been consistent and no lulls. Not sure that I’ll get it finished before it has to go back to the library, but have been nicely surprised by how much I’m enjoying it.
• ‘48 by James Herbert. Picked this up on a whim. I’ve read it before when I was probably late teens, I think, and I really enjoyed it. It had a very formative effect on the places I go in my imagination to escape. Re-reading it I’m surprised and the narrative voice. I didn’t remember it being first person and quite sassy. But it kind of makes sense that it is, because I think that has subconsciously come through in some of my writing. I’m not in a hurry to finish this one and will put it aside for others as needed.

Health

Mostly maintained my health tracker until it came to moving week. Then I fell off the bandwagon, but I’ve already picked it up again.

I was worried that I would gain a bit of weight over the move because we ate pretty poorly. But it seems pretty stable, and now I’m focused on seeing it drop again. I started tracking in My Fitness Pal again for a bit. I don’t think I’ll do it hardcore, every single morsel, but I find it’s handy to do it every now and then as a reminder of how much you are actually eating because I always underestimate my calories. Focusing on protein and fibre, and being more aware of my less healthier choices.

Only went to one parkrun, this last weekend. That’s ok, I’m going to make up for it with extra parkruns on Xmas and New Years. Went to a few Muay Thai classes, but not every week. Looking to get that solid routine happening again in December.

Mental Health is ok. I have some projects that are exciting for me at the moment. Unfortunately none of them are work related, so dragging myself to work everyday is rough, right now. Looking forward to 2 weeks off over xmas though.

Writing

Haven’t submitted any stories for a while. Got a couple more rejections, which is ok. I was kind of upset that I didn’t place in the writer’s group comp though. I really thought that was a good story, and had a pretty low opinion of the other entrants. But I heard two of their stories and they were actually ok, and the feedback I got from the judge on mine was valid.

My newsletter article was accepted, and also turned into another embroidery contact. Should be getting paid for that this month.

The writing prompt for last month was written last minute, but got some ok feedback. I now had to write the final prompt for the year, which is only 300 words. I find that harder than a longer prompt.

Book of Stitches

I’ve started a new project and I’m excited to work on it, which is a good sign. Using a few new techniques and tools this time around which will hopefully result in a more polished finished project.

I’m still on the fence about study options. I don’t want it to end up being something that becomes a chore - to meet deadlines and last minute crunches, and also to stop me doing the projects I actually want to do.

Haven’t even looked at Etsy this month, it’s pretty far down my list of things to do, if I’m honest.

This month’s (last months’s) stats are:

Views: 123 (137)

Visits: 69 (78)

Sales: 4 (6)

I will try and get another article written for the stitching blog. This just reminded me that I should be taking lots of progress photos of my new WIP so that I can write about how I did it.

Finances

The move cleaned out a lot of our savings, but now we are in a position to reset and start fresh. I’m just waiting for the bond on the old place to be paid and then we can see where we are at.

Still have not moved on sorting Japan pension refund. Now that we’re at the new address I really don’t have an excuse to put it off anymore.

Goals

No specifics again here, but I’m looking forward to using Dec to reset and focus on these areas that are important to me, and then start the new year strong.