Elusive Sleuth

I’ve had this on my cork board (just above my desk) for a little while now. I add to it/update it occasionally :)

It helps me keep the wider picture in mind while I plan my day-to-day things :)

It feels like far too long since I have written on here! I’d like to make a return to more frequent entry-writing but I need to make sure that my own life is sorted on a day-to-day basis before I look too closely at my longer term goals. I like 43things because I have this list that I can refer back to and I think it keeps me grounded, while at the same time I have this list of smaller goals pinned to my corkboard that confront me daily and help keep me focused :)

So why have I been gone?
All manner of reasons! Last semester at uni was a bit of a learning experience for me in terms of what I can and cannot cope with. For the first time in my life I felt so incredibly overwhelmed, and so exhausted from everything going on around me. I have never really reached my limit before, and always said yes to taking on commitments and up unti last semester I had loved it. Having lots to do was a real driver for me, and I loved to challenge myself. But I had to take it to far in order to understand what ‘too far’ was. I hit my limit and was grateful to have some supportive friends who were there to help out. I guess you can say I did it to myself, but it’s all part of the learning experience (and in a sense, part of getting to know myself).

This semester I have taken on less commitments and have generally had a bit more free time than before. It has been quite nice – I have more time to spend with friends, more time to visit family and more time to do things that I enjoy without the pressure of a million and one things to do. I am in my last semester at university and am also trying to keep my grades high, so it is nice that I don’t feel incredibly short of time and pressured with study.

That said, a lot has happened since i’ve been away. I am still processing it and may write about it here as and when I am ready. I have come a long way and made a lot of progress with my goals. Despite being away my goals are a part of who I am, and just because i’m not writing regular updates does not mean that I am in any way disconnected from what I want to achieve. Looking back over the last few months I have increased my self awareness, challenged myself, invested time into relationships, stuck to my values and principles (steadfastly!) and most of all – I have lived actively.

I hope to write more frequently from now on, as I see the need. I have been on this site for almost 6 years now (hard to believe sometimes!) and even though many people I started with are not active anymore, I still feel like I am talking to the 43things community.

^{Also, I haven’t posted any photos for awhile, so here is some photographic proof of me ‘living actively’ :)}

Week 11. Almost there. Just this week and then one more and then i’m done. Classes are almost over. I can do this. I seem to have reached a point of serenity in my study. I need to monitor the situation as it could go two ways: either I keep studying in a relaxed, confident manner, and I achieve a lot, or it all falls apart while I quietly make peace with the consequences.

I choose option one! :)
Here we go:

• Spanish assignment: finish, proof-read, hand-in.
• listening practice for Spanish test
• sit Spanish listening test
• read and summarise a Spanish article write a speech about it for the oral test next week (Tuesday 12pm) _turns out that this was at 11am…oops. Managed to sit the test at 11:30 :)
• Spanish grammar test: break down into parts, focus on grammar structures we have studied in class, revise grammar, answer questions, check progress
• Test on bilingualism next friday (revise lecture notes, review course readings) study with Alex on Thursday

• hold it together
• eat
• sleep 9.5 hours on Thursday and 10 hours last night!

• family visit this weekend Extended family and I survived!
• celebratory drink with A on hold as i’m having a month without alcohol.
• complete and hand in form to VC office
• reduce my sugar intake (kind of hard considering the pressure i’m under! I am currently snacking on a packet of bite sized chocolate bits. Mm yum :)) update: went to the supermarket for ice-cream, came home with ice-cream and chocolate…
• exam (not for almost 3 weeks, and I have a week free to study for it later).

Phew!

3 weeks until we break for exams….eeek.

• Spanish assignment (due Monday) still going…
• Alin (due friday – almost done!)
• locate jandals They are lost :/
• get in touch with P
• sort my washing out
• clean dress
• attend meeting thursday 2pm.
• e-p task.
• visit the faculty office! done! Dropped one paper and picked up another in it’s place :)

Looks so easy. So deceptively easy….

^{There must be something i’m forgetting :/}

The more my list grows, the more my morale-meter drops :(

Lack of balance between sleep and work is the biggest problem. And a very small amount of time mis-management (just the smallest amount).

Generally the biggest problem is just that I have so much on at the moment. For the first time ever have I bitten off more than I can chew? I’ve never come up against this before. I think i’m coping, but i’m not too sure. You never really know what your limits are until you hit them. Is this me hitting them?

Hm…
Something to think about (and probably to write about under my ‘know myself’ goal!).

• find the darn combination code for the mailbox! (I have this club mailbox at uni, I was entrusted with the code and I lost it…. it’s on a piece of paper (A4 too, nothing small!) and it’s floating around my room somewhere.
• wash woolens seperately. Dry. Fold. Put away in drawers
• Catch up with 223 readings (wed. afternoon?)
• Call glazier (long overdue! Book for friday morning.)
• Visit faculty office, swap papers for second semester.
• write up questionare sheet for 223 and take to interview next Wednesday
• return notes to Tams tomorrow
• Work! Even though work never rang back, it is confirmed for tomorrow.
• Leadership workshop “home-work” task
• not to mention… get N and D.E. to sign off on the workshop sheets so that I can hand them in (been meaning to do this for almost 6 weeks now!)
• write to my grandfather and say thank you (a card arrived for me this morning, with an early birthday gift inside. It meant so much to me).
• stop by living & giving and pick up some vanilla scented stuff for my room (I dislike the first stuff I picked up – it made my room smell like grass :/)
• while i’m in town … (there is something else I need to do and now i’ve forgotten what it is…) buy myself a birthday present!
• meet up with B and help her find references
• mentoring session with my mentee S
• pay phone bill! (have a feeling that this is late..)
• meet up with M
• write to J & J
• out to dinner! with E and S :)

so that takes me through the next 24 hours :) work, coffee, study, mentor, errands, dinner, sleep. Good plan :)

Edit: Oops, it’s been 24 hours and i’m barely halfway through. Good thing I have tomorrow :)

So i’ve been away for far too long and when should I choose to return? When I am at my total busiest of course! (I’m on a ‘study-break’).

I have just sorted out my online test (have finished it, just need to read over it in the morning and then submit it), as well as eating dinner. This is progress!

• email work
• attend important meeting thing tomorrow 5pm 20 minutes late oops, due to assignment not printing on time (due at 5pm) due to running out of printing credit!
• Careers seminar 2pm
• FIND USB! (I finished my assignment 2 weeks early only to save it on a usb and then leave it at uni! I do have a printed out back up version, but i’m hoping to track the usb down tomorrow morning as uni was shut today for a public holiday). Rescued!
• Start (and finish) Spanish assignment (due tomorrow -eek! never have a left an assignment this late!)
• Finish task for Alin, email to E by friday.
• print assignment for Friday

• replace F’s chocolate which I ate
• stock up on coffee
• do the washing
• book flights

Back to the books, I have 4 assessments due over the next 48 hours. It’s that crazy time of semester ;)

I will be back! Hopefully when I have had more sleep and am in a less strung-out state (i.e. this weekend! Ooh I am looking forward to it, celebrating my birthday early this friday night, then a sleep in on Saturday, then Salsa dancing on Saturday, then MORE sleep :D)

Edit: Did I mention that I am a little behind on my coursework because instead of staying home and studying today I decided to run a mountain climbing trip and ended up having 13 people come along with me. It was great fun! :) My can-do attitude is being pushed to the limit – but look, here I am getting everything done! (Except adequate sleep!

Starting with…. a return to 43things!

I’ve had some time away from this site over the last few months. I didn’t plan it, it just sort of happened. But I really feel like I need to be back here now. I miss the site, I writing about my progress and I miss the interaction on here. I won’t have a heap of time to be on here until I move back to uni, but I do intend to be on here a lot more :)

• My computer needs some massive tidying up done. Old software needs to go, backups need to be done, and it needs a decent file cleanup. I’m thinking of backing up, cleaning it up and possibly reformatting that hard drive. Has anyone tried this before? A friend of mine did it recently and it worked well for her.
  Progess, but not there yet

• Find a place to live in 2012. I’m moving at the start of March. I have 2 people to live with at this stage, one who is living in the city currently looking for a flat for us. We found a great one but heard today that we missed out on it :( I was disappointed, but everything happens for a reason. There is another flat out there for us :)
  DONE Have a nice wee house to move into in about 4 weeks time :) Living with 2 close friends of mine. I’m looking forward to it :)

• Sort out my house. The house I am living in at the moment has all of my stuff stored from ‘over the years’, including a whole lot of stuff that I brought home with me in November which is yet to be sorted, filed, stored etc. A good job for a rainy day.
  Errrrm….
  Update: More progress on this! It rained today ;) Got some tidying/packing done :)

• Find a new coffee machine, since I sold my last one and am planning on upgrading.
  Going looking at a shop this weekend :)

• Mid-February, email work and confirm date of my return.
  They have been emailing me! Great to have that already arranged :)
  That’s a good start. It’s good to be back. :)

It’s been months since i’ve written on here but guesss what?

I hope to make a return soon. I feel like a few things have fallen apart since I stopped using 43t to keep track of my goals, so I hope to be back soon :)

Gosh it’s almost a month since i’ve written a real entry here!

Last time I wrote i’d just gotten back from my mid-year break. I’ve just had a rather intense 6 weeks of class and tomorrow my mid-semester break starts :)

I’m heading off skiing for 4 days tomorrow, then to see my beloved niece :)

• dry my washing
• pack togs
• return library books
• empty room of cups
• lecture
• work
• baking
• pack my bag!
• pack books

That should do for now :)

Long time no see ;)

I tried to write a long entry the other day but it didn’t save and I got disheartened. So here I go again :)

It’s the start of the second week of term here. And i’ve already got a test tomorrow morning and some assignments due soon :/

• washing! it’s all done! All washed, and mostly all dried, but not nearly all folded. I’ll get there :)
• make leek and potato soup (I have some leeks to use)
• study for spanish test (mostly done)
• schedule a date with myself for this coming week (things have been hectic, and I need to catch up with myself) Thursday afternoon is sounding good
• write to mum
• stay healthy. I feel a sickness coming on :( I’m hoping I can ward it off if I rest. came down with a mild cold but was still able to keep up with everything
• run. Sometime this week
• lunch with C. Booked for Wednesday :) Really enjoyed it :)
• renew gym membership (must do!)
• get books for next assignment

That’s enough to get started with :)
Goodnight!

I arrived back in my flat this morning for classes today. I was supposed to arrive last night, but there was a drama when my flight was cancelled, emergency accomodation, etc resulting in only 2 hours sleep and missing a class because of landing late.

BUT
I’m back now. And gosh it is good to be back :) So as soon as i’ve had some more sleep we can get ready to sort it all out!

Can’t wait! :D

Have been doing this here and there for awhile now. I enjoy it. There is no committment, and it can be quite friendly and fun. :)

In fact, I think I might just take it further… I might date.

I’ve spent a lot of time these last few months meeting people, getting to know them, finding out more about them, flirting here and there. Now I have a date with one of them for this weekend. (If it all works out).

I have this funny feeling in my stomach….like butterflies. I haven’t had that feeling for awhile. It’s nice. :)

Yes, that’s right 43thingers, this here Elusive Sleuth is planning to run her third half marathon :)

I’ve had this at the back of my mind for awhile now. I was sitting on my bedroom floor today after a relaxed weekend watching movies, listening to music and tidying the house and I began to think about this more seriously. It’s been annoying me that I haven’t been running like I want to. So i’ve made this a goal and it will help keep me on track :)

I think it will be more of a challenge this time around because i’m more out of shape than when I ran the last two. Each time I run a half marathon I learn something new, and do things differently the next time. The first time I got really low in blood sugar levels and felt like passing out. The second time my shoes weren’t worn in properly and I got really bad blisters. My lucky number is 3 so i’m hoping that this time around will be my best! :)

The half marathon is not until November, but i’m aware that i’ve got a lot of work to do and would like to make an early start.

I did a half an hour run today with a good steady pace and found it quite easy. My legs were a little sore while I was running, but i’m guessing this is just because I haven’t run for awhile, and is a hint from my body to take it easy.

I’m keen to make an easy start and build up slowly over the coming months. I’d like to feel ready well before the actual date. I’ll also be renewing my gym membership (which i’ve talked about for awhile!) so that I can cross train, and do more weights work outs which I miss :)

I had a great time overseas visiting my sister and going travelling :) I was pretty exhausted when I left, and sad to be leaving my sister and not knowing when i’d see her again so I ended up crying a bit on the flight back home, but I did really really enjoy my time there :) I really love my family.

I’ve been back for two days now, and i’m finally getting back into my lifestyle here. I had some weird flights and coupled with the time zone change I only got 2 hours of sleep the night I came back. I got back early morning, came home and napped, then had work in the afternoon for a few hours. I fell alseep at my desk at 7pm that night. :P I slept in today until 1pm, I don’t like sleeping that late but I felt like I really needed it.

• firstly, tidy my room – it’s such a mess since i’ve gotten back!
• after tidying, I want to clean it. A good thorough cleaning
• then sort out my stacks of books and papers from uni

• email A! should’ve done this 2 weeks ago! But oh well, it’s done now :)
• message E and A
• write to A and send the card

The A’s are all different people :)

That’ll do to start with, more to be added later :)

• get a new alarm clock battery
• email C and F
• call N
• make leek and potato soup! yum :)
• buy book for next term have done my bit and ordered them. Just need to pick them up and pay when they are in.
• return shoes that are falling apart and demand a refund/swap got a voucher for the shoes values as there is no guarantee that they are fixable.
• stop by the library? (pay off $7 fine?) done :)
• go on a date with myself lovely to catch up with me, haven’t had time to sit down with her for awhile :)

Progress! :)

I’m on holiday woo-hoo! So my ‘to-sort’ list has really dwindled. But, I do have a few things still to do…

• return library book, avoid further fines!
• email C and F
• begin/map out the mid year clean of my room
• write to N and K
• take E to yoga – yay! it’s been too long since i’ve been :)she was busy and I had work :(
• call M
• take my journal to a cafe and write
• run :) yay :)

• ermmm think about packing a bag for upcoming overseas holiday??
• pack said back
• take said holiday :)

• music, food, battery, camera, clothing, etc
• money (ahhhhhh)
• shoes
• catch up in SD
• find my notebook. I buy a new one every week but can never find them!
• print and send photos and info to M

This has been on the top of my goal list for awhile now, but I don’t feel like i’ve made any progress at all. I seem to have stopped gaining weight now. My big problem is that I want this to happen overnight. And I get fustrated and disappointed when it doesn’t.

So what do I need to do know?
I need to work at making this ‘SMART’.
Specific: what exactly is my ‘goal weight’? (I know, but don’t want to write it on here, so I should make a note of it in my journal perhaps).
Measureable: absolutely, it’s a number we’re talking about here. I need to perhaps measure this once a week, or once a fortnight. A couple of times a week isn’t working, there’s not enough time to measure change in a few days for this.
Attainable: yes, i’ve been there before, I can get back to it.
Realistic: Yes, my goal is not to look like a stick, or to live off carrots in order to acheive that. My goal is to slim down to a healthier weight.
Timely: This is the biggest issue. I need to set a time-frame for this. I wanted to have slimmed down by when I go to on my overseas holiday, but that’s a week away now so it won’t happen before then! I’ll need to think about this, but ideally within the next few months.

• take up running again, I think my body could really benefit from it. And I miss it so much.
• Eat differently. There are a few bad habits I need to change.
• renew my gym membership! I miss the gym :(

It’s sunday night. That can mean only one thing. Time to sort this out.

Edit

This entry was supposed to be a lot longer than one line! But I got tired last night. So where was I?

• skip salsa (no time), also I have a suspicion it’s not on tonight anyway
• write speech
• class 12-4 (gah)
• pizza tonight – I have all of the toppings and it will be easy and quick my flatmate made me dinner :)
• more study! didn’t get as much done as i’d hoped….

• class, test, more study
• meeting! Which turned into a cocktail (minus the alcohol) making competition, in which case I had to leave because I had other things to do….

• work, class, test (gah)test was everything i’d studied for woot!

• Test (gah)

• Work, and then test (gah)

• yet to decide. I’ve been invited out but I don’t think i’ll have the energy. I have a ticket to the theatre which I need to use before the show finishes, so I may end up doing that. And then sleeping. And then enjoying the luxury of having time to clean my room and just generally be. Then I can get excited about my holiday overseas! :D

can do this, can do this, can do this

• pack bag
• baking didn’t happen which is a shame
• find something to wear (hat?)would you believe it? I mentioned to my flatmate that I had nothing to wear, and she whipped me up a dress with her sewing machine – gosh she’s amazing! :)
• clean shoes
• make dinner for F
• see E?

Phew, made it through Part 1, but it’s midnight and i’m up at 6:30 so not much sleep! Might have time for baking if i’m up early enough and motivated but we shall see… Off to sleep now, words can’t describe this tiredness!

• pack sandwiches
• contacts?
• ready to go by 8!

Stress about next week is coming in waves. Must cope. Must cope. Must cope.

There is no alternative, but to manage this.

:)

Monday morning and i’m in the library. Eyes are barely open.

• proof assignment
• print assignment
• hand in assignment
• make it to class (1pm, 2pm, 3pm)laughs to self, missed all of these, will hopefully make it to the 3pm class … oops didn’t make it to the 3pm class

• reschedule test for Wednesday
• reschedule work because of rescheduled test
• work W,T, F.
• email A (again, no reply)got a reply at 3am last night. Ha

• Monday Salsa
• Tuesday meeting
• Wednesday, Thursday, Friday quiet night at home

• do the dishes
• tidy my room
• clean my desk
• make dinner
• do the washing
• change my sheets

Today seems like such an uphill struggle that even having these simple things on my list will be good for me because i’ll be able to cross them off and feel like i’ve achieved something.

Edit: Sent important email. Huge weight off my chest. Phew

Further edit: Feeling like this….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9WZtxRWieM

• Thursday, study got home at 4pm, began to study, went to bed at 5pm, woke up at 6pm to keep studying. Didn’t realise how tired I was – I barely remember climbing into bed
• Friday, work, class, study in the afternoon

I’ve had a few unexpected things to sort through these last days. I’m just trying to keep on top of it and keep up with my planned-sorting as well as these unplanned things.

I met someone through a friend of mine the other day. She’s been struggling with uni recently, and i’ve done some of the same papers as her so I spent all day in the library with her today, sorting stuff out and basically helping her cope with things. It was fun! I packed a big bag, had everything I needed, and camped out there all day. I also made progress on my assignment. I was planning on finishing it today, but ended up helping her more than expected. That’s ok though, i’m getting through it now, now that i’m home.

Also, I had left Sunday aside to go over the assignment again with a friend. Except I got a text inviting me out on a day trip tomorrow, and i’ve accepted. I’ll have to reschedule T (possibly monday morning?? Is that cutting it too fine? Due at 1pm). I’m also supposed to be going on some sort of a date-thing at the beach with R. He suggested Saturday but i’ve been busy all day today. I would’ve suggested tomorrow except now i’m away all tomorrow. But I think he might be coming along tomorrow? I’m not sure.

• text T, reschedule
• text R, re: tomorrow?
• email T urgent!
• finish the darn assignment (yes, yes, almost there…)
• clean my shoes! Can’t go tomorrow if my shoes are wet and muddy – ick!
• Go out in a minute for drinks with a few friends
• day trip tomorrow
• Sunday night: quiet spanish listening revision
• and somewhere along the line I have to proof read for E
• and call M.R. re:mail.
• call my niece (sunday?)

and then the week begins all over again :)

Things totally didn’t go to plan. Went to bed at 4am. Am exhausted. Should never have stayed out so late, thank gosh I don’t go out often!