Recovery Mode
Let's see if I can remember what's happened over the last six weeks.
I took a week of study leave, last full week of June. I can't remember much of the details of the preceding three weeks since I was fairly sleepless at the time. I recovered my sleep patterns only to lose them again. I finally got them back again just in time to recover for the study leave week. More on that later. What that week did prove was that any fears I had that not getting on with my dissertation/essays was laziness and lack of self-discipline was abated. I did a few hours of dedicated work on the Monday and was exhausted. Even considering I walked into the University and back, just that amount of focus drained me so much that by Wednesday I only had energy for sleeping.
Luckily, my good sleep patterns remained as we went into our Festival week. In the end, I did stuff Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Monday night I actually stayed behind after the school concert to help get things ready for an Only Choirs Aloud rehearsal. It was probably a silly way to begin the week, but it was helpful (I knew more about the staging than anyone else there) and it gave me a chance to hear the choir (since I was missing the concert; more about THAT lager). Friday night, I also wandered down to the end of the quiz night since I'd got an email from the local newspaper which needed to passed on promptly and I knew the relevant people would be there. All this may not sound a lot for those used to activity every night, but I'm used to at most two nights of (gentle) activity per week which is pretty much all I can take regularly.
Saturday I went off to my friends' wedding on the Saturday. It wasn't very far - an hour's steady drive - but wisely I was driven there by my dad. He took the afternoon to enjoy the local pub and read most of a book on spirituality. The wedding was fantastic, lovely food, a chance to speak to old friends and I took great photos. Then in the evening I caught the end of Only Choirs Aloud. Sunday saw me, almost unbelievably, up for the Festival service (I'd been asleep for last year's), go around almost a dozen local gardens (in varying degrees of rain) and then somehow get through evensong.
For some reason I was tired on the Monday, although not as exhausted as I thought I was. I had a vaguely useful study leave day on Tuesday but by Thursday I needed a day off to sleep. I'd had a couple of nights when I just couldn't get to sleep until late into the morning. The next day of study leave, Friday, was largely a disaster where I could barely keep my concentration for more than three minutes.
So I rested most of the weekend. I'm finally getting back to being able to sleep before 1am, but I'm still tired. Clearly, despite my apparent energy on the Monday, I had pushed myself considerably over the previous two weeks. There is a possibility that this effort has put me at risk of an exacerbation (of a lung infection) but at the moment I think I didn't fall that far - I have acupuncture on Thursday and I'll hopefully find out then. Meanwhile, I have been taking no.14 to cool off my lungs, and that has helped them at least. My diabetes, after requiring stupid amounts of insulin for a few weeks, is dropping back to 'normal' levels. And my energy IS growing slowly again, but I don't anticipate being able to do much writing this week. While I'm planning on doing a few things here and there, I think it would be a better use of my energy to do quick and dirty updates on the festival and church websites.
Then I get a proper holiday.
Fuel prices - despite not noting these for 6 weeks, they haven't done much. Shortly after my last post they drifted up to 103.9p/litre over a few days, then stayed that way until last week when they dropped down to 102.9p/litre.
I took a week of study leave, last full week of June. I can't remember much of the details of the preceding three weeks since I was fairly sleepless at the time. I recovered my sleep patterns only to lose them again. I finally got them back again just in time to recover for the study leave week. More on that later. What that week did prove was that any fears I had that not getting on with my dissertation/essays was laziness and lack of self-discipline was abated. I did a few hours of dedicated work on the Monday and was exhausted. Even considering I walked into the University and back, just that amount of focus drained me so much that by Wednesday I only had energy for sleeping.
Luckily, my good sleep patterns remained as we went into our Festival week. In the end, I did stuff Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Monday night I actually stayed behind after the school concert to help get things ready for an Only Choirs Aloud rehearsal. It was probably a silly way to begin the week, but it was helpful (I knew more about the staging than anyone else there) and it gave me a chance to hear the choir (since I was missing the concert; more about THAT lager). Friday night, I also wandered down to the end of the quiz night since I'd got an email from the local newspaper which needed to passed on promptly and I knew the relevant people would be there. All this may not sound a lot for those used to activity every night, but I'm used to at most two nights of (gentle) activity per week which is pretty much all I can take regularly.
Saturday I went off to my friends' wedding on the Saturday. It wasn't very far - an hour's steady drive - but wisely I was driven there by my dad. He took the afternoon to enjoy the local pub and read most of a book on spirituality. The wedding was fantastic, lovely food, a chance to speak to old friends and I took great photos. Then in the evening I caught the end of Only Choirs Aloud. Sunday saw me, almost unbelievably, up for the Festival service (I'd been asleep for last year's), go around almost a dozen local gardens (in varying degrees of rain) and then somehow get through evensong.
For some reason I was tired on the Monday, although not as exhausted as I thought I was. I had a vaguely useful study leave day on Tuesday but by Thursday I needed a day off to sleep. I'd had a couple of nights when I just couldn't get to sleep until late into the morning. The next day of study leave, Friday, was largely a disaster where I could barely keep my concentration for more than three minutes.
So I rested most of the weekend. I'm finally getting back to being able to sleep before 1am, but I'm still tired. Clearly, despite my apparent energy on the Monday, I had pushed myself considerably over the previous two weeks. There is a possibility that this effort has put me at risk of an exacerbation (of a lung infection) but at the moment I think I didn't fall that far - I have acupuncture on Thursday and I'll hopefully find out then. Meanwhile, I have been taking no.14 to cool off my lungs, and that has helped them at least. My diabetes, after requiring stupid amounts of insulin for a few weeks, is dropping back to 'normal' levels. And my energy IS growing slowly again, but I don't anticipate being able to do much writing this week. While I'm planning on doing a few things here and there, I think it would be a better use of my energy to do quick and dirty updates on the festival and church websites.
Then I get a proper holiday.
Fuel prices - despite not noting these for 6 weeks, they haven't done much. Shortly after my last post they drifted up to 103.9p/litre over a few days, then stayed that way until last week when they dropped down to 102.9p/litre.