If you know me or have read my blog before, you probably know that a lot of my hobbies and activites are done in the evenings and weekends due to having a full-time nine to half five kind of job. My last few blog posts have been blogging-related and a bit vague on personal stuff, so here’s an old school round up of how the past nine days have been,¹ minus the work stuff!

Monday

After work I go to the gym for the first time in ages. Because it’s miserable and dark outside, and because I hadn’t been for a while, I don’t push myself too hard: I do 2.5k on the cross-trainer, 5k on the bike, and 3k on the rowing machine. The gyms here have half their machines in km and half in miles, which is super confusing/annoying.

I get back home about 8pm, eat dinner and just flake on the sofa for a bit with Halo before going to bed and read my book, Gorky Park. It’s a murder mystery and requires concentration, but it’s fairly good.

Tuesday

At lunch I go shopping. Most lunchtimes I try and find a reason to get out of the office and walk. I aim for 10,000 steps a day and that can be hard when you have a full time job. It works out well because I randomly end up getting a free goody bag from Tiger (yay!). I consider going to the gym again, but decide that given the rest of the week is looking pretty busy, I’ll have a night in.

I make high protein, low carb lemon cheesecakes from a recipe I just make up on the spot. The base is ground almonds and peanut butter, the filling is light cream cheese, Truvia and fresh lemon, and the top is candied lemon peel. It still needs a bit of work but it’s pretty good for something I just throw together without even measuring anything (!)

After that I watch TV and do some geeky game sorting. We played the Firefly board game for the first time the other week and I loved it, but I didn’t love how much space it takes up on the table (13 decks of cards all with individual discard piles? Are you kidding me?). So I found a desk organiser and a pen organiser at Tiger that held everything perfectly – I just need to make some dividers and label them, which seems like a good Tuesday night project. It’s a workable solution for now I think, but we’ll see how it goes.

Wednesday

My boss takes me out for lunch at a local meat BBQ place. After work I go out for an early dinner at Zizzi’s with Joe; I just have a soup starter and bread because I’m still full from lunch. (Apparently I forgot to take any pictures of food, so I guess I must have been distracted!)

The early dinner is because we’re heading off to the theatre to see The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie. It’s the longest running production ever; it’s been going 60 years (!) The set is great and the actors funny, so all in all it’s a really good night.

We’re considering getting theatre memberships because there are quite a few more things we want to see there this year, and we discuss the various options.

Thursday

I’m working from home today, which means that the day passes relatively peacefully with the exception of breakfast. Ginge insists in finishing off the milk in my cereal bowl and since he’s the world’s messiest drinker, it gets everywhere.

The third Thursday of the month is a geeky meetup that we often go to, but tonight I’m not feeling great so instead we stay in with a takeaway and watch TV and play Hyrule Warriors. Although I want to make more of the evening, my brain is telling me it needs a rest so I go along with that and watch a episode of Mad Men to round off the night.

Friday

I have a terrible night’s sleep on Thursday. Three of the cats insist on sleeping in a triangle around me so the duvet is weighed down (I’m a sprawly sleeper so it’s my worst nightmare; I feel entombed by this), and then Halo, who is sleeping next to my face, starts being sick around 2:30am. He’s not sick on me, but he is sick on the sheets, bedside table, bed, and floor. Mostly asleep, I change the sheets, kick them all out of the bedroom, and then toss and turn for the next two hours. I’m not a happy camper when the alarm goes off and it’s time to get up.

My boss has kindly bought us tickets to tonight’s Nottingham Symphony Orchestra’s Classical Bites performance. It includes drinks and food, and a lot of good music.

Saturday

Saturday was going to be a big catch up day, but I’m feeling under the weather still so I sleep in and then spend most of the day playing computer games. I do get chores done too though – washing up, hoovering, cleaning up fur, cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, tidying, laundry…all that fun stuff.

Sunday

On Sunday I’m determined to get out of the house, so Joe and I head to the local windmill to buy flour. We walk there, walk back into town, eat a big lunch, and then walk home. By that point I’ve cleared around 14,000 steps, so I’m happy with that. And also happy with my chicken burger ;)

In the evening we have friends over and play a new (to me) game: Fortune and Glory.

It’s a co-op game, so everybody wins! Also I make chocolate chip Tetris shortbread, so everyone double wins!

I review my diary and we do a meal plan for the upcoming week.

Monday

It’s (finally) pay day! We take advantage of that to buy a theatre membership and book tickets for Cats and Chicago. We instantly get our membership cost back, plus £5, so it’s a good deal.

Speaking of cats, the real the cats have a vet appointment, but luckily I’m spared going because I have work. When I get home the house is super quiet; injections don’t seem to affect the cats other than Ginge. As he’s a stray and didn’t start having injections until well into adulthood, they knock him out for a couple of days.

He’s fast asleep on my bed, and stays there until about 5am, when he cuddles my face and asks to be let out.

Tuesday

I’ve been lucky enough to see some really interesting speakers in my time, including the woman responsible for Obama’s email marketing and the guy who invented Calibri, and tonight we’re going to see a talk by Masayuki Uemura, designer of the original Nintendo console(s).

It’s fascinating as he goes through a whole lot of Nintendo history and offers lots of jokes along the way (‘kids are the cheapest way to beta test’ is my favourite tip). It’s long – a full three hour talk – but definitely worth it. Unfortunately I can’t take any photos in line with their wishes, but it’s something I’ll remember for a long time regardless.

How was your week?