Tuesday Music? Willy Mason

It seems I have been behind on everything lately (except work - catching up at work has made me behind on blogging, blog reading, personal correspondence, housework, you name it).  This is one of the busiest times of year I have at work and to be honest I'm struggling a bit out of work as I am just so exhausted from this all.

As you might know I lost my phone, I also lost loads of other things around the same time, and missed social plans as I did not have my phone with all the details of the arrangements.  So the past few weeks I've felt a little bit lost.

The thing that helped me feel a little more found and grounded was suddenly deciding to listen to the entirety of Willy Mason's back catalogue.  I keep forgetting I like Willy Mason and then remembering.  His songs make me feel a lot better when I'm trying not to collapse on the train home!

So here are some of the songs I really love either by or featuring Willy Mason (who is over a year younger than me!):

Willy Mason - Save Myself

 

Willy Mason - Strong

Lianne le Havas feat Willy Mason - No Room for Doubt

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan feat Willy Mason - No Place to Fall 

 I did have a great weekend.  It almost certainly wont make it here but we celebrated my sister and she had a great time.  I'll hopefully be caught up with myself by next Monday with an on-time Monday Music post and some news (hopefully).

Monday Music: Back to the Future, I mean 80s...

On Saturday we are having my sister's 40th birthday party and in preparation we have been preparing a 1980s playlist.  When I think of the 1980s I tend to think of 1980s pop music.  I think this is because I was born in 1983!

To make the playlist though I had to think of lots of songs that were not just the obvious 80s pop tunes and here are some of them to start your working week!

NWA- Express Yourself

Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

Ain't Nobody - Rufus and Chaka Khan

The Specials - Ghost Town

The Smiths - The Boy With the Thorn in His Side

The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary

The Cult and the Cure scared me in the 1980s - as did my sister's poster of Michael Stipe - I thought he was going to climb off the wall and kill me in my sleep (really!).  She also had loads of Salvador Dali postcards, and a Winston Churchill poster.  We shared a room and as the oldest she got most say in how it looked and what we listened to! In addition to being a bit of a goth, and then a raver, she also had an impossible to shift crush on Feargal Sharkey and still has a crush on Peter Capaldi.  I think former punks must be her bag!

What is your favourite song from the 1980s?  Do you have any memories from the 1980s you want to share?

Share Health Update

When I last wrote about this I was finding exercise a breeze, loving vitamin D and SAD lights but massively sabotaging myself by eating lots of chocolate and drinking lots of fizzy drinks at work.

I was also failing miserably at getting my repeat presciptions filled and therefore letting my health slide back as a result of that.  I was also using shower stuff that disagreed with my skin, exacerbating stuff there and using shampoo that made my hair and head unhappy.  I was very much in a two steps forward, two steps back scenario.

Which brings us to now.  I have now completed my second full week of no snacks or fizzy drinks at work, and it is really making a difference.  Instead I go for a walk, drink water and rest.  The change is a small one but I can feel that it will have lots of good long term benefits (no more sugar crashes at my desk, weight loss, money saving) and it seems to have really helped my mood too, but some of that might be the change in weather.  We'll see if I keep it up, but I have gone about six months in the past where I managed it before I fell back into the trap of doing it once and then every day.

I think I wasn't really honest with myself about how bad it had got.  I was having chocolate every time I had a hard day, and Spring Term is pretty much all hard days! This meant that on particularly hard days I would eat a chocolate bar, some fizzy pop AND a sharing bag of chocolates, or a muffin, or a cake.  It all mounts up pretty quickly.

From this week I'm getting some greens in and making my own packed lunches.  More money saving and more control than ever before.  I'm really enjoying it.

I've changed all the products I was not using that should and am back on my regular prescription which has been amazingly valuable.  I've also started early on the anti-histamines to help prepare for summer hayfever season.  I've kept up the vitamin D but wonderfully no longer need the SAD light and wake up alarm.

The last two weeks have been very high stress so there has been very little sleeping done, but I feel like I'm getting my balance back on that.

And now I have recovered from my burns and blisters I am back on the exercise wagon.  It feels so good to me moving again and feeling strong.  In and amongst the busy/sleepy/stressed I've been feeling more in control again, feeling more content and feeling more like me and that was always the main goal of all of this.

How are you getting on with any health goals you set yourself for 2013?