A Photo An Hour – 23rd June 2016

Yesterday I set myself a bit of a challenge to take a photo an hour.

And I failed it really, but more on that later.

I’m not feeling particularly positive today, but we pick ourselves up, and we move on. If you’re feeling a little blue today, then I refer you to the post I wrote last May on 10 ways to cheer yourself up. That was the last time I had to squirrel myself away into a little blanket fort and not think about the world. Today I am focusing on other things, like the exciting Roller Derby game I am playing in tomorrow.

Anyway, yesterday I set myself a task to take a photo an hour all day while I was awake. I’d seen people do it on other blogs, and I thought it was a nice little insight into peoples lives.

So if you want to know what a day in the life of a full time blogger looked like on this particular day in history. Here we go!

8am

Every morning I have coffee and breakfast in bed. When Mr Chick is home he brings me coffee. If he’s away, like he was yesterday, I have to get up and make it myself.

Yesterdays breakfast was chocolate overnight oats, and very tasty it was too.

I drink my coffee in bed and check emails, social media and blog stats on my phone.

9am

Around 9:15am I headed out to vote and to go to the gym.

I stopped at the polling station and read the card about 50 million times to make sure I wasn’t putting my cross in the wrong box by accident. I have very little faith in my reading abilities, obviously. I also used the pencil provided, rather than a pen. Which is probably where it all went wrong I imagine.

10am

Yesterday was a little different than normal. I usually go to the Gym on a Friday, but knowing I had a game on Saturday I switched days. I also normally go in the afternoon, but actually it seemed quieter in the morning, so maybe I’ll make this switch permanent.

I was in the gym before 10, so I’d done all the stuff with the big weights already. This is me hoping no one spots me taking selfies in the gym mirror while doing some core work at the end. These are kettlebell side bends, except my gym doesn’t have kettlebells, so technically that’s a dumbell side bend, but who’s being that picky?

11am

There is money on my Starbucks card, so I decide to treat myself to a vanilla latte when I get out of the gym. Yesterday I heard that apparently there is enough money on Starbucks cards to qualify them as a small bank. This is good news as actually there have been times when I have had more money on my Starbucks card than I have in the actual bank.

I might not be able to pay my water bill, but I’m good for over priced coffee in a paper cup.

The sun also came out while I was in the gym, making me pleased I’d bought my sunglasses. 11am was a happy hour. I had coffee and sunglasses on a sunny day.

By 11:30 I am home and at my desk.

12pm

About 12:30 I took a few minutes to eat my lunch. I try not to eat at my desk unless I really have to. Although I had a lot to fit in as I had to stop work at 5pm today, I still took 5 minutes to eat lunch downstairs.

I make my lunch in batches at the beginning of each week. I bulk cook chicken and chop it up and store it in individual portions. Some weeks I have it in a wrap, other weeks I also bulk cook some quinoa and mix it up. As you can see, this is a quinoa week! It’s quinoa and chicken with olives and guacamole, and a really tasty mustard dressing we found in Tesco.

I feel terribly organised preparing my lunches in advance. It’s one of the only things I do that makes me feel like a grown up. That and always having toilet roll.

1pm

By 1pm I am back at my desk. I am engaging in important work, like scheduling blog posts for All the Dresses, sending newsletters and updating social media accounts, as well as preparing lists for tomorrows Roller Derby game. I am secretly also obsessively checking Facebook and trying not to get involved in political arguments. I normally try not to go on my personal Facebook too much during the working day, but today I can’t help it.

2pm

I go downstairs to get myself a glass of lemonade and decide that the kitchen and bathroom floors that I have been putting off cleaning for ages are just too gross, so I decide to mop them. It only takes 10 minutes, I don’t know why I never did it earlier. (Yes I do, I am lazy).

Mr Chick arrives home from working away while I am just finishing it off, so I have to ban him from access to the kitchen or bathroom until it is dry. Welcome home Mr Chick. This does cheer me up though.

Then I discover we don’t have enough lemonade left for a full glass and feel grumpy.

3pm

Mr Chick makes me a cup of peppermint tea. Which is a relief as I was just thinking how incredibly boring the next couple of hours photos would be if they were all photos of my laptop while I sat and worked.

4pm

It’s another photo of my desk, but from a slightly different angle!

I do some old fashioned, pen and paper, brainstorming. I’m coming up with potential blog post ideas, as well as ideas for fun tasks to set myself in #glamorousjuly.

5pm

Normally on days I go to the gym during the day I work later, till about 8pm, to make up for the time.

Today I have to be at Roller Derby practice for 6:30pm, so I have dinner about 5:30.

I make myself a stir fry, and discover that my kitchen is the absolute worst place in the world to take photos. For some reason we decided shiny red was a good colour for a small kitchen, so it is not only quite dark, but also very reflective, so any light there is bounces in odd ways. The cabinets also cast odd shadows over everything.

Still, dinner was tasty and that’s what counts. Next time I get a new kitchen I will carefully consider the impact it may have on my ability to take instagram photos in it.

6pm

I’m being picked up about 6:15pm to go to practice so I pack up my Derby kit.

At 6:15 I get a phone call from my lift, who is also supposed to be picking up someone else but cannot find her. She has also forgotten her phone so we can’t call her and find out where she is.

Some confusion ensues. I am concerned I will be late. I am allergic to being late. Even 1 minute after the mandated arrival time sees me a sweaty worried mess that will arrive panting and apologising profusely. I have always wished that I could be one of those people who arrive relaxed and calm, 5 minutes late, and no one really cares.

7pm and 8pm

I failed, sorry.

I was at Roller Derby, but thought I would snap a few quick phone pics while I was there. I didn’t. I just forgot.

We had a team meeting, then scrim.

While I was there the heavens also opened up bringing us thunder, lightening, and the torrential rains that had flooded London early on. The weather was stupidly humid and doing sports in a hot sports hall was very sweaty. I had sweat in my eyes, my hands were damp. It was basically very gross, so you’re probably not sorry I didn’t take any photos, right?

9pm

Suddenly remember I haven’t taken any photos and get my phone out. Have 3 to make up for the last 2 hours I missed.

10pm

Mr Chick and I have a little tradition. When I get home from Roller Derby we go to the pub around the corner and have their “Wine of the Week”, which is the same wine every week. Which I find hilarious as I have a sense of humour shared by no one else ever. It’s a mini date night and a chance to catch up.

Yesterday we also had crisps.

11pm

We wander home from the pub, and actually end up walking down the middle of the road because there are HUNDREDS of snails everywhere. I don’t want to stand on them, Mr Chick is a like one man snail saving machine.

We actually have copper tape around our path to try and stop the snails getting onto it so I don’t stand on them at night when I take the bins out. Why they love our garden path so much I have no idea.

And that, was the story of my day, with a photo an hour (ish)

We drank hot chocolate and watched a couple of episodes of Archer on the laptop in bed, and by just after midnight I was tucked up in an eyemask for a good nights sleep.

Apologies for the huge and terrifying photo of my face!

Have a lovely weekend xx