Improvement

Fiat500
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Hey! How was your weekend?

This weekend just gone my SO and I went to look at a cute pre-loved Fiat 500 that I spotted online after I had been wondering about whether or not to get a slightly better and more reliable make of car in order to bring down my annual repair bills (currently driving the second Ford KA I have owned).

My SO did the test drive because I was too nervous about driving a circuit around town with the car dealer in the car. It was such a smooth drive and the interiors were lovely, and I could have got a good finance deal, but…I decided I don’t really need a new car, I don’t do much mileage at all, the finance deal meant a large deposit upfront, and I remembered my original goal to eventually get rid of my car and use public transport, especially as I pay for an Annual Season Ticket for work which also covers my local buses since moving house. At the moment however, the bus doesn’t quite intercept the train I need to catch in the mornings…

Instead of getting the lovely Fiat, I cleared the trash out of my car, gave it a vacuum, replaced the filthy floor mats with some stylish new ones and put up a new scented garland on the rearview mirror – there you go, new car! LOL).

On a tap dance note, now that the extreme heat has subsided (for now) I got out into the garage and did a bit of practice. I ran through some of the steps we did at the Tap Dance Intensive at City Lit 2 weeks ago, including trying to work on my pullbacks. Still very much a work in progress, but I feel a bit more confident in knowing what I should be doing.

Looking forward to getting back to it in September!

 

R&R

This week I am taking a break. Unintentionally, I ended up missing tap Wednesday night, emailing my teacher to ask if I can go to the Thursday lunchtime class instead…and ended up missing that too (although I got an out of office message from my teacher, so I’m guessing they had a cover teacher and didn’t work on the routine). Apart from working and commuting (and batch cooking) this week, I haven’t done too much else, and I am aiming to keep this weekend free of stuff, after several busy weekends. We’ll see how that goes!

What I probably will do is some tap practice down in the garage on Saturday. I also want to go for a coffee at our local independent coffee shop (We Love Coffee), and finish a Bill Bryson book I’ve been reading for months, as I’ve got some exciting new Tap history and Jazz Age books to move onto!

 

I’m Saying NO

I have been having an almost existential crisis lately about what I am doing with my life, my English Literature degree and am I reaching my potential(?). For a while, everything was about moving house and getting enough sleep to be able to drag myself to a job interview and finally get out of the job I’ve been in for 7 years. I felt I should be doing more, getting a better job title or climbing the career ladder or something. I even applied for a couple of jobs in London recently that I was kind of glad I didn’t get.

We are constantly fed a stream of stuff about how we should be better, do better, achieve, achieve, achieve. “Be your best self!” and all that. There are so many blogs out there about success and I’ve received some emails lately about how bloggers and creatives were able to turn over six figures in six months. There are career advice websites telling you not to stay somewhere too long, and not to get stuck somewhere in your thirties and I’ve found it all quite discouraging. It gets to the point where you are almost in a panic about being left behind. Well, I’m saying NO today.

I’m saying NO today.

Since settling into my new home and feeling more rested, I realise I am enjoying life again, and work is actually much more positive these days. I care about the organisation and what they do (as opposed to just working somewhere for money or status or whatever), and I get to do a 4 day week, while spending Fridays on developing my creative side gig, which I had to pretty much postpone last year. I also have time to get on with my HR certificate for my (day job) professional development, which I am currently halfway through (procrastinating a lot at the moment though!). Oh, and I have time to write a blog and pursue my tap dance goals of course!

If something comes up that’s suitable, I may go for it, but I’m not going to allow myself to chased out by the careerist success-mongers!

 

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