Last week was a tough week which you will know if you saw the Vlog but i’m not going to dwell on that in this post as a Blog post has been a long time coming, its something i have been wanting to do for ages, but always shy away from as am not a competent writer, it makes me feel quite anxious, very much like many of my Vlog viewers feel about video i think. But lying in bed this morning this just flowed – or in my head it did. So stop waffling on Tina…here goes… Excuse the awful Grammar, its a WORK IN PROGRESS!!
Happy Smiley Me ~ Yesterday we had the most lovely day ~ after initially struggling with the concept of being furloughed I made an effort to consciously try my best to embrace the slower pace of life this week and to do some of the things that I used to enjoy, yet often feel I don’t have the time to do now.
1) Cycling ~ when I helped at a yard as a teenager I would cycle there and back every morning and every evening, so was on a bike twice a day every single day. I haven’t cycled since then, well only Spinning and if you’ve followed me for a while on the Gram you will know how addictive that got!!
2) Reading… I’d love to pretend here that i “used to enjoy it” but that may be an exaggeration as I have never in my life made time for reading apart from on holidays & generally it would always be an autobiography or something “real life” – never fiction as my imagination doesn’t seem to relate to or enjoy that… same with films sadly. For example i have never watched any of the Harry Potter Films or Lord of the Rings, i’m much more of a chick flick – this could be real life kinda gal!!
But on holiday last year (A spontaneous 3 day trip to Spain) I grabbed whatever looked “ok” a light hearted/easy enough to read book from the shop at the airport & to my amazement was engrossed from the first few pages!! I didn’t want the short, 2 hour I think it was, fight to end as was desperate to continue reading it to find out what happened next. Anyways… blabbing (when I said I wanted to start blogging alongside vlogging a lot of people said just type how you would talk… Well you all know I like to talk ALOT!! And I’m on a roll with my typing at the mo so high five to you if you’ve gotten this far!!)
Long story short (ish) it wasn’t until I had finished the book “I Heart Hawaii” by Lindsey Kelk that I realised , actually was informed by a fellow Instagrammer that it was in fact the finale of a 8 part series, typical Tina reading the final book first.
I do a lot of of things backwards… that sounds weird doesn’t it, I think thats a story to save for another day!!
Anyways so what I’m leading to IS that when I saw on my Amazon Prime Account that I was eligible to download 2 books for free on the audible app, I was like “ooooooo I wonder if they have the I Heart Series and I can start at the beginning and enjoy the holiday style escapism I had in Spain last year”.
And they did, they did, they did (that’s Tina getting excited!!) I was buzzing ~ although a little apprehensive about listening to a book as opposed to reading it. But was open to the idea of it as I figured listening, with wireless earphones as opposed to reading would mean I could multi task and muck out or groom Banksy whilst listening, things that would obviously be a little challenging with a book in hand.
It took me a while, ok I won’t lie, about 45 minutes ~ to figure out how to download it and enable it to play on my phone (it involved downloading from the laptop) but once I did I was hooked.
Within a couple of days I realised it wasn’t just horsey chores I could do whilst listening, I could get my endorphin game strong too, I could get out on my favourite bridleways even if I wasn’t sat behind the boys ears I could, walk, run and cycle along my usual routes all whilst listening to my book. I will add (safety first when running or cycling) I only ever pop one ear bud in so that my “empty ear” can still listen out for traffic.
This is where I found myself getting the most enjoyment one minute I’d be grinning (actually even laughing out loud) the next minute goosebumpy ~ who knew a book could do that, having the narrator bring the emotion of the book to me without my imagination having to do much work was the very best form of escapism and exactly what I needed this week. So much so that Chapter 23 has finished already and i’m super eager for more so will shortly be downloading “I Heart Hollywood”.
Back to yesterday ~ which is what led me to writing this spontaneous Blog post… which i’ll admit was just going to be going on Instagram this morning but I blabbed away that much to my voice notes that insta wouldn’t let me add all of the extra lines – i talked too much and it was too long for Insatgram.
We went to our local bicycle sales store “Clive Mitchell Cycles” and collected 2 super snazzy new cycles, British made Mountain Bikes by Whyte. I’ll admit we didn’t really know what we wanted but we just wanted to be able to get out exercising together over the coming weeks.
The salesman was super helpful, respecting social distancing at all times, I’ll admit it felt a little strange to me to even be seeing/talking to another human other than Rob and his Dad as I have literally only been out of the house to go to our local Co-Op store or to collect hay for Sir Banksy since the 18th of March.
Which may be why I enjoyed it so much, I literally felt like a kid at Christmas SO excited at the prospect of a new bicycle ~ something that if you told me 8 weeks ago I’d be excited about getting I’d definitely questioned you!!
Whyte 529 V2 Hardtail Mountain Bike
I won’t go too into detail about the bikes as that’s not what this is about.. I just felt the desire to write and THAT is not me at all.
So I’m embracing it, treating it like a diary during this strange and surreal time and if you guys have got this far and have enjoyed my rambles all well and good, if not then still good as it’s made me confront a fear of mine and also means I have still got this to look back on in years to come, which is pretty much what Em and I always say about the Vlogs too, they are our digital version of a photo album. They allow us to reminisce and relive the fun times, the highs and the lows again and again, year after year.
To summarise… do people summarise Blogs??
I don’t know but we generally debrief and say goodbye on vlogs so I’m going with the same kind of format for now.
Audio Books ~ Give them a try ~ never in a million years did I think I’d be recommending them but hand in heart have massively enjoyed the escapism they have given me this week and as soon as this is uploaded then I am off to download book 2, as i want to know what happens next!!
You can do a 30 day free trial of Amazon Audible by clicking here
Cycling ~ or more importantly exercise, as Nike say “Just do it” whether you walk, jog, run or cycle just get out and do that exercise it’s amazing how much it lifts your mood. Especially the endorphin release after you get a super sweat on.
That’s it for me… it’s 10.30am Sunday morning and it’s probably going to take me at least an hour to figure out how to get this uploaded, maybe longer if I try to add images and links but I may save that for attempt number 2!!
This isn’t / wasn’t how I planned my first attempt at a proper a blog post but it’s here and done and now that i have got the first one out of the way maybe i can go back and finish off the other 5/6 that are half written.
Happy Sunday Guys ~ Stay safe and take time to adapt and adjust to how surreal life is at the moment. Don’t be hard on yourself for not doing enough but do try to find some form of escapism, I can guarantee you will feel better for it.
Much Love 🤍 T xx