'tis li'l update

Alright, today! 

It's not enough to say that it was busy but I have been more industrious than an ant following sugar trails.

Since the moment of waking up, it's been one thing after another, and seizing the rare opportunity of good weather I spent the last hour clicking pics which has unfortunately eaten up my drawing time. 

yes, I have started a new drawing and it goes slowly. 

Every Monday I feel like putting off my workout and always end up doing a rather brutal lower body strength routine which kills my legs and it doesn't help that this house has far too many floors I want to climb on certain days. 

Nevertheless, things are done, I have a moment to myself to finally sit down and wonder what the fuck even!

audiobook sads

I am sleepy

also quite angry 

because the audiobookbay site is nowhere to be found not even its mirror site 

I have since checked out may others and none seems to be as good as the audiobookbay one and I am angry, not least because I need several audiobooks to be in queue but also because I feel at a loss.

I am going to be editing a whole lot of pictures today and :(

today escalation

 Today is such a fucking bother because people are in the house !!

Apparently, there's a delta variant case in the Pudong area and if anyone has to go as much as towards the outskirts of the city they have to produce an RTPCR negative and that means one has to first go to the hospital to get it done and get the report a day later, and so I ended up cooking a full-fledged lunch today!

This after a workout, balcony clean up and wanting to do nothing more than heat up some leftovers!

It escalated rather quickly, much to my chagrin and now I think I'm gonna drown my annoyance in some delicious coffee.

Regarding balcony clean up, I have never felt so repulsed by moss as I did today while I scrounged up tumbler fulls with a gardening tool.

The corners of the balcony not only developed thick layers of moss but over the course of so many months of neglect those bits turned to some robust black thickets of moss and when I scrubbed the floors with detergents all those bits broke off in little clods of yuck and I found myself turning green as I lifted that slimy green grime.

I then threw lots of bleach and finished their existence while cleaning the tiled floors to a shine they'd never experienced before.

Now the balcony looks like I'd want to set up a tent and spend my nights there. 

All that remains is a nice table and some greenery and my balcony will be done.

I look forward to getting drunk there soon.

little windows are closing

If only everything in life was fucking plug and play!

I yearn for everything easy and doable within minutes. The instant gratification that could last a lifetime or at least until I need it to last without putting in much effort or even any at all.

What an escapist mindset! I'd like an easy escape too. None of that filing away at the bars with a letter opener. More like unlock the door with a motion of the little finger and done!

I say this after having spent hours assembling furniture, reading instructions and matching screws and nails.

I say this after sweating each morning after vacuuming and mopping the entire house and still being only half done with daily chores.

I say this after washing mountains of dishes after every meal and arranging them later in their respective slots time after time like a fucking Sisyphean rock that refuses to smoothen with time and stays jagged and annoyingly coarse around the edges.

I say this after staring at my would-be garden during this typhoon, watching the mud turn into thick sludge splattering dirty muddy water against my just cleaned glass doors.

I say this after pulling out clumps of leaves and branches from the drainpipes of my balcony while having steady rain and more leaves fall from the sky into my hair and make my endeavours useless.

I say this after the full knowledge that I will have to repeat all these motions, go through all these exact emotions tomorrow and then the day after and time after time until I fucking die. 

I say this out of spite. 

head issues

 Somewhere between clicking pictures and feeding my cats, I found myself realizing that a headache was thumping its existence in my temples. Being a bit of a headache veteran I can tell which ache is happening due to my carelessness regarding my neck and which is a migraine and this headache had a massive potential to become a full-blown migraine, the kind that makes me want to regret existing.

I let it stay where it was to assess it a bit more and finally after finishing with the pics, cleaning the kitchen post-photography aftermath I made a small cup of tea and popped in a mild pill that I had been prescribed regarding my sports/exercise-related headaches. I hope it gets better with this or else Ima have to pull out a heavy hitter by night if this medicine isn't enough to take care of it.

The reason for today's ailment is pretty evident. It's hot. HOT! and I did a pretty strenuous workout in this heat. A fan alone wasn't enough and I have a history of exertion headaches. I remember my sports teacher always keeping a couple mild non-steroid anti-inflammatory medicines on him on those exceedingly hot days when I used to practice for high jumps and relays for hours before a sports meet. It doesn't happen as often now because I have learned to keep myself plenty hydrated and understood its mechanisms, but there are some rare days when I do get it. Today has been that day. Doesn't feel great. 

what the what the

 Who me?

I just woke up after a nap, if you call two hours of uninterrupted afternoon sleep a nap and I am positively confused.

This is most unlike me but one moment I was sitting in front of the machine typing stuff and the other I was in bed shutting my eyes and dying. Am I so exhausted? What the fuck even? Anyway, I woke up wanting tea and toast. Most odd and perhaps I will have the toast and hold up on the tea. 

My cats have been generally MIA as they are loathed to come home and do anything. They've been out and about, lounging under trees and mostly giving in to their cat instincts because this is the kind of warmth they love I think. It won't be long until they start hating it.

It's getting hotter which means I should probably start keeping extra water for the cats downstairs.

It won't be long before I have to start on lunch but before that there's a mountain of clothes to be folded.

LIfe is full of far too many ughs!!

argh

 Going through photographs of the recipes and I realize how many pictures I need to click again.

I mean what the hell was I thinking?

It's not the picture per se but I do not like the arrangement and or the cutlery used or the story. Ugh. My work ever-increasing. Who said it was easy? 

I was much better off writing a haiku book.

Damn it.

Also, the weather might not be rainy tomorrow and I am in the mood to click pictures. Here's hoping. 

flashes

 How does an entire afternoon flash by past after just a phone call? One phone call that too?

I mean I had things to do, places to go, envy to stir. not quite but things to do for sure. 

I am craving hot hot hot tea/coffee and this is what happens when you eat a lot of cold food and drink frozen smoothies in winter, especially during a time when it's raining.. your body demands to be warmed and I need a whole lot of warming up to do darling because ever since your warmth has been away, my being feels rather cadaverous.

developments

 A little update on how things have fared till now.

I didn't get my workout in. It was an afterthought after having finished my warmup.

I thought why on earth should I not get a couple days off and relax seeing how I have dealt with injuries before and this might not be anything big, I do not wish to aggravate it. Perhaps Wednesday onwards I'll begin my routine.

Also, there's a breakdown of the drier at home and my morning was spent in hysteria. The technician comes in tomorrow at the same time as my workout. 

I look at it as some sort of intervention, because even now as I type I can feel the sensation in my left heel. I think I will give it a massage and maybe some icing.

Today, I have decided to launch full throttle into the miseries of domesticity.

First I will make bread dough so as to bake bread at night and also I will bake a large orange cake because 1) I have a surplus of oranges and 2) there are some plates I have which belong to my friend and I wish to give them back, but not without something sweet.

The weather as I type this goes mellower by the word and the birds are having a field day, tittering and probably gossiping about the lazy cats who live in the house right across their nests.

Today I wish to be outside.

In a mood to sit on the balcony with my coffee before getting on with anything.

--

ancillary justice!!

well, well well. 

I wait for updates about how much or how little you're enjoying it.

 

zorp

 Right then!

I have edited over 40 photographs today and my eyes feel a bit more like jelly than usual but it's work done.

Tomorrow I post and now ladies and gentleman for my next trick, I will fold a hundred or so clothes or maybe about 40 odd clothes and pile them up and then go forth into the kitchen for dinner.

Say one thing about my days say they are tight. (that's what he said)

The cat hasn't come back yet and maybe I will have to go out and fetch the little fucker that literal fucker.

Ass I say.

tea bits

 Why do I crave tea all day long?

I have a busy week ahead and there are a lot of activities I need to finish before leaving for the holidays and all this has to be done without compromising on my workouts whatsoever.

I think I might have to head out tomorrow and also there will be some more activity regarding me baking my Christmas bread for my friends.. 'stollen' as it's called and easy as it is, there are many steps involved.

I have finished making candied oranges as they didn't need an entire week after all. (also an important component of the Christmas bread in question) 

There's a lot of citrusy syrup leftover from that candying of oranges, which is sticky and redolent with delicious orange confetti and I'm of a mind to make some black tea and sweeten it with the said syrup. Wouldn't that be awesome?

I stare at the fabric Everest of all the clothes that need to be folded and my heart sinks a bit.

Maybe I do need a pick me up!

What do you say?

To a cup of tea then!

hello ello, llo

Well, whaddya know. I'm at my desk and so happy.
The days roll on but I want to be able to decipher the weekdays from the weekends and go on with my daily life just as nothing has changed around a routine that has been greatly amiss amidst the virus situation when the house feels overpopulated following the precautionary isolation inside the house.
I want to think of this as just another day when I'd be at my desk doing my work while the world rolls on normally.
One can hope.

Today has been for editing and I have been able to go through some 80 photographs and now my eyes are tired but the ears are extremely happy because of the audiobook 'a little hatred' goes on full throttle and now it's time to listen to some music and by the dead, I need something groovy, something delicious, something loud and something heavy.
Perhaps I will start with a bit of Limp Bizkit, then go on to the new Korn album and take it from there.

Sounds like a nice plan.

a few nothings

Well well well if it isn't me back in the business of sitting in my study space, on my old comfy chair in front of my very mediocre machine with a decent keypad and a lovely sound system.
My cats flank me on both sides and sleep on this unbelievable sunny day and I have finished with a long day of cooking and taking pictures.
To say it's a tiring business, this whole blogging and whatnot would be an understatement and tomorrow will be another day where I will do the same to get on with the program and did I mention I didn't work out today?
Of course not, It is after all my birth week and I've been going by the golden rule of I don't give a rat's ass the entire week of my birthday for a few years now, so starting today till Sunday I am going to do as I please and if that includes eating a packet of chips after a strenuous HIIT, then that's exactly what it will be.
Youtube for some reason recommended a video that was a woman's, nay, a girl's, a so-called fashion influencers video of her entire shoe collection and well, I was the idiot who thought it would be a good idea to maybe watch it for a bit and it took me no more than a minute to turn into a critique.
It was pretty tacky, the collection I mean. Lots of glitters and tassels and metallic accents that looked kinda cheesy, to me at least.

Right then, this was just a bit of this and that and now perhaps I will give in to some coffee.

I have blended a couple different beans to give me flavour and body and hopefully, today will be a good coffee day.

some more of nothing

The weather has suddenly dropped over 10º in one night and where I was roaming around in a tee last night I've had to don a sweater and fish out a couple of my winter friendly gears which though odd to look at are extremely cosy, and seeing how the weather is only going to get worse from now it's best to stay in control of the situation.

There is a foot warmer I have in my possession and it looks like a small furry cushion with a large pocket and what it really is, is exactly that. I can put my feet inside it while I work because in these winters it's always my feet and the tip of my nose that feel the maximum torture and I've been waiting to bust it out this season and perhaps in a couple days I will have to.

There are a couple shoes which I need to get dry cleaned and I keep procrastinating this small task.

A small mountain of clothes that have just gotten ironed and stacked in wardrobes and now I grope my way back to my workplace and get down to business, but before all of that, I need some music. Something depressing, something sexy, something that competes with today's bleak weather. 

bills and bore

So my friend came over this morning and spoke to me at length about the water bill issue and it was perhaps the most boring one-sided conversation I've had in the past couple months and anytime I'm caught in the middle of talks which my brain processes as interminably uninteresting it launches a wave of indiscreet yawns and I immediately begin to feel sleepy.
It's always been this way and I have no control over this involuntary reaction.

There she was talking about how the management isn't taking the blame and god knows what else because the words had begun blurring, my eyelids were going shut.
It was embarrassing because she looked behind my shoulder to see a bunch of weights and exercise mat which meant I was not only awake but active too and I was only yawning and nodding in front of her.
She finished her conversation by adding that I should wait to pay the water bill so that the management can rectify their mistake and other boring stuff and I nodded because I've already paid the bill and had my meter checked and it fits so why should I get into this mess which isn't mine and is, in fact, the most uninteresting issue to boot.

some people

There's a gentleman in my contacts whom I avoid like the plague because there are times when he pings me on WhatsApp and I feel my soul shrivel a bit because of the sheer cringe.

His WhatsApp status message reads 'Gratitude is an attitude' and he has this condition where he fails to draw the line. He misreads politeness as friendship and tends to begin smothering someone who's merely an acquaintance and perhaps being nice out of sheer politeness with constant messages and phone calls to discuss his personal life and issues.

It becomes a problem. 

banks and what not

The bank never called!
I ended up eating something made at home and maybe tomorrow I'll just plonk myself inside the bank and wait until matters get resolved.
This isn't a high priority need but it'll make my life a lot better.
I'll be able to do banking from my phone over an app, transferring money and receiving will be that much easier but currently, my savings account is still attached to my old passport and I need for it to latch itself onto the new one and that's all there is to it.

Tomorrow it all goes down.
This week is a busy one because I have some paperwork of my own that needs handling.

Uhh..sigh!

sublimating

The thing about handling a home is is that it needs constant attention towards its every aspect. A bit like keeping an inventory of all the little things in a shop or running a plot sized country because one moment everything is fine, the functioning running smoothly on all six cylinders and the other moment there's suddenly a miniature crisis like finding all the mint plants getting sick because of a colony of microscopic white bugs that have invaded the plants and slowly begun sucking at its life force or finding the fridge full of vegetable but virtually non existent of tomatoes which are somewhat of a staple or something as annoying as finding the Roomba belly up because the feline army has attacked the little robot.
A piece of well-oiled machinery that fluently functions with a well set or at least well-meaning life needs the person at its helm and the one riding shotgun to always be on their toes both metaphorically and physically in order to keep an account of any developing predicaments, ongoing impasses and to avoid any contingencies which might hamper the faultless working of a home to avoid a bumpy ride.

There are almost daily wears and tears that demand sometimes a quick fix and sometimes a cautious long drawn repair and the smallest cogs fit into the bigger picture to form an element that though not visible at the first immediate glance adds to the entire portrait of things and as unimportant as it might be the full picture would lack substance without that unnoticeable speck on the right hand corner of the image.

It could be repairing a fused bulb, cleaning out fans or begrudgingly waking up too early in the morning to begin putting everything in order so as to keep some moments of needed laziness easy.

injuries etc.

Do not overstrain, overtrain, overstress is something I have always preached except there are times when I forget to practise it.
Case in point my latest injury that manifested itself in clunky pain in the front of my left thigh last Friday when I was going about my Bulgarian split squat.
I felt my quadricep suddenly tighten and shoot a sharp pain in the front and side thigh area, a pain I'd never experienced before and I ignored it because it didn't linger on much, and soon when I had changed my focal point to other parts of my body in that workout circuit I forgot about it and the weekend went by smooth with some soreness that is hardly alarming and in fact that particular area didn't even ache.

Fast forward today, when I decided to finish my workout with a short burst of high-intensity cardio and was unable to lift myself up from a lunge because my left quad just seized up and near cramped, and I was down on the floor, unable to get up.
It hurt miserably and it was the same ache near ten times stronger in the same area feeling like someone had hit me with a brick or substituted those muscles with masonry.

I've been applying ice packs since and reevaluating all the wrong decisions in my head.
The regret is strong.

My decision to take it slow after a month-long relaxed routine didn't last long because a couple days after I began exercising with diligence I felt that it wasn't enough and that I could take and needed more, which is why each day I upped the ante and what should have been a gradual easing in was something of a rushed run in and instead of slowly incrementing the intensity of workouts and exercises I pushed to a point which at this stage was beyond my capacity.

Just goes on to show that I'm made of follies and I can't berate myself enough for being such a numbskull.
The message was given last week and I didn't take it.
Haven't I been through this once before with my shoulder?
I repeated the same ignorant foolish acts and hurt myself, putting myself out of any strenuous exercises for at least a month now.

This is just silly, gods help me, I'm limping now.

crash boom sneeze bang!

Right, so I'm feeling five kinds of under the weather with no will to work, even though I have over 100 pictures sitting on my machine waiting to get edited, and I'm being a girl about it. Sighing, breathing deep, convincing my system not to fall sick on me even though there's a slight weariness, a stain of heaviness shading my eyes and hovering like a wraith all over my body. There's a scant discomfort and I'm almost at the point where my eyes might soon begin to water because my nose has stopped putting on airs about being fine, and resolutely come out of the itch closet.
The haunting gets real and by the gods, if I fall sick I'm going to be pretty upset about it.
Sucking on lemon and doing absolutely nothing because staring at the screen is another added strain on my eyes which I'd like to avoid and that brings us to what I'm doing today, which is standing in the balcony, soaking up some sun and just mindlessly looking about, though, this small activity did make me fall into an uncomfortable pit of unstoppable sneezes, but the insides of my house look like a bit of a dungeon and I don't feel particularly goth to be able to apprecaite that kind of catastrophic comeliness, at least not today.
I need light, I need bright, I need heat to bedazzle my sight.