Angelicscalliwags Rag #09

I’m late again in posting this. Apologies but between going away, Ads’ 21st birthday and studying for a masters, I just don’t seem to have much time on my hands. I need to improve my efficiency! Hopefully, the murder mystery photos will make up for it!

Books Read

I finished Oliver Sacks’ autobiography, On the Move: A Life, probably a couple of weeks ago now. I reread The Circadian Code by Dr Satchin Panda and Atomic Habits by James Clear. These were books I particularly enjoyed last year and were books on my reread list this year because the message in both had such an incredible effect on my life. I also read The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I can’t say this was a brilliant book. It was good, well-written and a good story line, however, I think, for me, the character development was lacking so I didn’t feel attached to any of the characters. Again, I prefer reading non-fiction so take what I say with a pinch of salt, but even with that, this wasn’t one of my favourite books.

I also attempted to read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I bought this on the recommendation of a YouTuber who usually recommends excellent book choices. When she said this was fast becoming her favourite book of all time, I jumped at the chance. I went with an Audible copy rather than a paper copy and it might be that this was my first mistake because I did not enjoy the narration at all. It reminded me of Frankenstein’s narration which as pretty woeful. However, even taking that into consideration, I just found I couldn’t get into the storyline at all. It all felt a bit like a ‘woe to me’ type tale. I apologise to anyone who is a fan, but I couldn’t even finish this one. It is the first book, since I first began recording the books I’ve read, that I’ve not finished.

Currently, I’m half way through Breath by James Nestor, which I listen to just before bed. And for my day time reading, I shall be starting a book recommended to me by my daughter, Charlotte, called Brother. Do. You. Love. Me by Manni Coe and Reuben Coe.

Celebrating Ads on his 21st Birthday

Ads turned 21 this month and to celebrate we threw a typical Stewart Murder Mystery party. It was hilarious! SO MUCH FUN!

Gary played an alcoholic ex FBI guy and he was hilarious, only to be better, perhaps, by his eldest daughter who had perfected her American accent and kept calling everyone ‘honey-pie’.

Ads was pretty much born a 45 year old, and as the party was set at a vineyard, I decided a cheese and wine party was in order. No-one was actually drinking apart from Gary and Ads, so we bought lots of no alcohol drinks or drinks in bottles that looked like wine but were actually grape juice and the like. I found some pretend labels online from the vineyard in which the murder was set:

Abigail was a German man in lederhosen and she acted the part so well. Her accent was incredible!

Ads and Charlotte played husband and wife. It was tempting to put Lillie as his wife because even acting he finds it excruciatingly embarrassing to flirt with his real wife’s twin, much to everyone else’s amusement! But I resisted. Next time, I won’t be so kind!

We’ve played so many murder mystery games, so we know what makes a good one and what doesn’t. This one, from University Games, was first class!

A seriously good night!

Starting All Over Again

Here we go again…Sooo, at the end of last year I had lost 24Ibs and was super happy and super proud of myself. If you read my post at the end of last year in which I talked about this, you’ll know I also said that I still find it really easy to slip back into old habits.

Hmmm

I completely realise what I’m about to say sounds like an excuse but the awful spotty rash I had was so bad in certain areas, I was simply unable to go for long walks and, although I tried swimming, the chlorine made it 100 times worse. So, during the months of January and February I did very little exercise-wise…and I began taking up a few more unhealthy habits and was pretty devastated to learn that in just over two months I’d put back on over a stone. Oh my days! Why is losing weight such a slog and so slow, yet putting it on is so easy and quick.

Anyway, this was one of the reasons I decided to reread Atomic Habits because it was this book which helped me to build all my good habits in the first place. At the start of this month, the spots had cleared up enough to begin walking again, and even swimming was possible and the chlorine, whilst it definitely made me a bit itchy again, seemed to be copable with so long as I moisturised my skin afterwards.

Getting back into old (good) habits is thankfully as easy as it was getting back into the bad habits. The lovely thing about this is the good habits make me feel amazing. I’m not going mad. Long walks and thirty minutes of swimming on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday allow me to have rest days in between. I’m already seeing the weight drop off. Not as quickly as it dropped on, but maybe a little quicker and easier than it had been the first time round.

My YouTube Journey

YouTube’s a double edged sword for me. I love learning new skills and I love to have another means of expressing myself in a more creative way than just blogging. But YouTube was not meant for introverts and definitely wasn’t design for people who don’t actually like showing their face. So imagine my surprise when just three months after starting my art YouTube channel I reached 100 subscribers! Yes, I realise compared to others that is absolutely nothing, but compared to me it’s super duper! I’ve had my homeschool channel for over a year and I’ve not made 100 yet.

I’ll leave my next video below, where you’ll see me completely embarrass myself trying to figure out chalk pastels whilst discussing the future of my business:

According to the YouTube course I am doing, the next goal is 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time. This seems completely impossible to me, especially as I don’t show my face at all. The course says that the first 100 subscribers are the hardest to get, and once achieved the rest is much easier. We shall see…