HELLO STRANGER! I’ve not seen you in a while, welcome back to the 5 Minute Coffee Corner. What a month!!!
Before we get going, I can’t remember whether I ever divulged it in a previous post, but my word of the year for 2022 is:
BALANCE.
I almost feel a bit hypocritical posting this as I have been feeling anything BUT balanced these last few weeks. January has brought the transition from juggling freelance work and bar, to swapping out the bar for more new clients, more freelance work, and actually having a life.
The timing has worked out really well because I pretty much transitioned from leaving the bar into full-time freelance work AND THEN SOME, so there hasn’t been too much of a dent in income! The month has been extremely busy and showed me that the next obstacle I need to tackle is learning to manage my time more effectively. With James being away during the week, I am finding myself working from early morning waaaaay into the evening because somehow being alone in the house means I can work all hours of the day (once doggy is taken care of OBVS). WRONG. I have noticed I’ve fallen into this habit and it’s not good, I’ll be using February to learn to manage my time better that’s for sure. Admittedly, I did temporarily take on A LOT of additional work which has now finished, so hopefully February will feel a little calmer.
What I do have to say though, is that mentally, even though I have had a lot more work and a lot going on, I have pretty much had something planned socially every single weekend, and the balance between work and play has been greater. For more than half of the weekends this month, there has been NO WORK AT ALL, and on the other weekends there has been a little that couldn’t be helped, but with it all being from home, it’s a lot easier to make plans and actually still see people and do things. I forgot how much we NEED to do fun things, not just on one weekend every so often that you book off especially, but weekly. We NEED a day off each week – and ideally more than one – because rest and play are CRUCIAL to wellbeing.
Anyway, TED talk over, I have experienced so much goodness over the last month that I’m going to have to try and share only the highlights.
Reading
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker (translated by Sam Taylor
I finished this book over the Christmas and New Year period. Rather than write it all again here, I’m going to share what I said about it below:
Watching
Candlelight Tribute to Ludovico Einaudi
For Christmas, I bought my Dad tickets to see a live pianist perform a tribute to Ludovico Einaudi at the beautiful Stoller Hall in Manchester. I took a gamble as I didn’t know if this “Fever” company were legit and I bought us the best seats possible, but I can now confirm that not only were they legit, but the event was one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever done.
The evening was beautiful. Me and my Dad go to a lot of gigs together, but this one was a delight. Beautiful setting, beautiful ambiance, and we got 50% off food at Ducie St Warehouse because JANUARY, followed by delish wine at my brother-in-law’s bar The Smithfield Social. WHAT MORE COULD YA WANT?!
If you want to see what’s on offer with Fever, you can visit their website and select your city. Here’s the lineup for Manchester. I would 100% recommend.
West Side Story
Last weekend, me, my sisters-in-law and my mum-in-law went to see West Side Story at our local cinema – The Savoy. It’s a beautiful venue so everything always feels great when we visit there, but OMG I absolutely ADORED this film.
I don’t know how it’s taken me so long to watch this because I love musicals, and whilst I knew some of the songs from it, I didn’t really know anything else about it.
This version is absolutely BRILLIANT – I want to see it again ASAP so think another visit will be in order.
Listening
ABCDEFU (angrier) by gayle
WARNING!!!! This is a very expletive-filled song!
I had heard it a few times but not really paid attention to the song lyrics until I was driving the other day inwardly fuming about something a client had done AGAIN and I was like – “is this song really just telling everybody to fuck off? This is my kind of song for the mood I’m in right now.” Fast forward three days and it was literally all I’d sung all week, belting it out at full whack when I was driving! It released a lot of the angst I was holding, that’s for sure.
I particularly resonate with this lyric:
Everybody but your dog, you can all fuck off
GAYLE
Seriously, if you need a bit of a vent because others are driving you nuts, this song is great.
Also sorry to anyone reading who gets offended by swearing.
Actually a) I’m not sorry and b) I’m sure you’re not offended because I swear a lot and you’re still here soooo……
Reverie by Ludovico Einaudi
STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING!!!! Seriously, stop everything you are doing right now, including listening to the angry rant song above.
This song, oh my god. It is stunning. Truly stunning. I’m not quite sure how given that I’ve listened to Ludovico Einaudi for YEARS but I first heard this song at the abovementioned tribute to him, and whilst I may have been emosh from all the wine, I’m sure I became emosh because this song is just so beautiful.
Please listen to it, I promise it’s one you’ll want to keep hold of.
Before You Go…
Do you know I have a new blog series? If not – WHAT?! Where the hell have you been?! It’s the ONLY thing I’ve been posting about for the last month.
Every Monday, I now publish a tale of Human Kindness, and the next instalment will be out TOMORROW! Click that link and you can see the 4 posts so far and you can also sign up to get the newsletter sent directly to your inbox every Monday morning. The newsletter that I designed and created friends!!!! I’m proud of it.
Seriously though, I started the Human Kindness series as something that I had thought about for a while, but I honestly never expected it to provide me with so much joy. I keep receiving email submissions from people with tales of kindness, and it brightens my day each and every time. I’m just happy I get to share them with you too.
That’s all from me – this week’s was a bigg’un but it’s been a while. I hope you are well, healthy, and happy, and I’ll be back next FRIDAY (because yep – we’ve changed days AGAIN to allow for the Human Kindness posts to start your week off right!) See you then!
Reflect and Introspect 