Why September Is My Favourite Month

Each year as August rolls in, promising sunning skies and delivering torrential rain, I quietly anticipate the arrival of September. September is by far my favourite month of the year and here's why*:

The weather is usually amazing. It's still sunny but with a chill in the air which is gorgeous.

I love layering up for this time of year, wearing hats, scarfs, coats and tights, and generally just not over-heating all the time.

You can still enjoy yourself outside all day because of this perfect weather and the days aren't too short.

Even when it's not sunny!

There's also something really nice about how summer winds down as school calls and the tourists all go home. Purbeck quietens down, the September tourists are less annoying, you more time to talk to them, and you can enjoy your own town in peace.

School starting in September is the main reason sunny, chilly breeze stirs a glorious, exciting nostalgia in me. Every new year on education was a chance to make new friends - whether changing schools, welcoming new students, or changing classes. The new school years brought more learning and new experiences and places. I had a great time at school and college, so I welcome the sense of anticipation the air. The two pictured above with me were befriended in college and remain two of my upmost favourite people today.

One huge September for me was the one in which I started university. It was a month of big changes in my life! But for once not scary changes - exciting changes! Such as;

Leaving my first job (after 6 years - to go back for the summer... but I made a big deal of it and gave my regular customers chocolates),

moving into a new house for the first time ever (decorating was so fun!),

...and learning how to adult (I'm all lost in the supermarket...).

Even my little Harvey had a September full of new adventures friends one year! Friends have been such a huge part of my life and I met so many of them in Septembers that the atmosphere fills me with joy. independence

This September is bringing with it the wedding of one of my honourary brothers, a whole world of new adventures in Exeter while my boyfriend goes to uni and hopefully driving. I cannot wait.

Do you love September? Do you have anything exciting planned for the upcoming month? Do you have another favourite month? I'd love to hear in the comments below.

*Excuse the terrible picture quality - these are from a number of September over the past 10 years.

Mission: Drive | It Came!

It finally happened! My provisional licence is here!

I look about 4 stone heavier and kind-of Eastern European!

When I have the spoons I shall be looking into local driving instructors to see who's the most me and set this driving ball rolling! For now though, I shall be on my money saving mission so I can actually afford driving lessons.

Does anyone have any experience driving with chronic fatigue? Is it scary? Please let me know in the comments below!

Mission: Drive | My Money Saving Rewards

Hey, guys!

As you may or may not know, one of my goals of the year is the learn to drive (or at least start to as I haven't even got my provisional licence - bloody medical checks!)

This involves a lot of money. I am really rather terrible at saving money, and the time it's taken for the DVLA to even get a letter to my doctor let alone get my provisional to me has really evaporated all drive I had to drive and save the money to do so. Somehow, over the last week, that drive has returned and I have set myself my first real money saving goal and believe the only real way of achieving it, and following goals, is to reward myself by buying something I don't need, but really really want. Like I'm not allowed to spend the money until I've saved some.

To spur me on I have decided to list these items of utter want here in a kind-of wishlist to come back to. I can even update you when I get them and throw a little party! So, here we go;

This Cara Delevingne T-Shirt.

This The Tuts album.

These nail polishes.

Poo pencil sharpeners.

This playsuit.

These white sandals.

This Eden perfume (and the rest of them).

This vulpix print (and others from this artist). ****Acquired****

...and I'm sure there's more. But these are things I've wanted for a while. While this list is totally for me, I hope it gives you some inspiration for... something or other. Of course, if you're laden with money and want to buy be a present, above are hints and I won't say no.... ;) :P

Hope you're having a wonderful day.

Lisa Gets Leaner | An Update On That Mint Dress

Hello, starshine! Hope you are all well.

In my first post about my weight loss mission for the year I mentioned that my first goal was to fit into the dress below as "properly" as I can with my oddly proportioned body.

I appear to have stolen Ansel Elgort's face.

I decided to pop it on today to lounge around the house in as I completely overheated and found it fits way better than it did in April! It barely gets caught on my belly now and hardly any bra is visible around my armpits. I'd be comfortable wearing this out as it fits now, and I think I've 90% achieved my first goal. When I can fit all of my boobs into it I shall be setting myself a new one. This is super exciting as being so busy at work has meant not having the time and energy to focus on losing weight as much so using the scales to mark my progress was getting depressing. Once the summer madness of Purbeck tourism is over I shall be putting more effort into this journey again. This is great motivation!

Here's to the next pretty dress!

Life | I'm Taking a Little Break

Hey guys!

Thank you so much for reading my blog so far – I've really enjoyed writing it and sharing awesome things with you. I find it so humbling that people are actually read anything I write, I am so so grateful, and hope I've been able to help people.

However much I am enjoying it though, I must take a break. As I'm sure you have gathered by now, I am a spoonie (Spoon Theory is explained here) with chronic fatigue. As I work 25-30 hours a week, I really am meant to rest for the remaining however many hours. Rather than resting, for the past few months I have been working on my blog. While this is not a crime, I haven't been doing it …. well / healthily. I should be resting and blogging, not just blogging. Pacing has gone out the window, I'm spending more spoons than I can afford and I have been getting more and more fatigued. So in the future I shall be blogging less frequently and resting more.

I am choosing the take a break now because 1) I have finally accepted that it is blogging so much that has caused an increased in symptoms, 2) I have realised that blogging is taking my focus away from general recovery and 3) it's summer.

As mentioned earlier, I have had an increase in what one would call typival ME/CFS symptoms – exhaustion, fatigue, achy painful muscles, joint pain, brain fog, disturbed sleep et cetera, et cetera. As I mainly blog in my bed, I thought it was pretty much resting. This is super dumb, but I'm good at justifying things I enjoy to myself. I don't get to create much these days, and when I do I feel alive and find flow. My spoons are spent on work and basic life things in between shifts. Writing requires a lot of spoons. More than I thought. It's bloody exhausting and the last thing I need is to exhaust myself out of work, too. Once I get back to resting and pacing properly, I shall blog when I genuinely have the energy to spend, and pace my writing.

While becoming so engrossed in blogging I have been neglecting some important, basic things without even realising it. It turns out making an actual effort to lose weight requires energy. Most of the energy I was meant to be spending on it has been spent of writing. I feel really good about focusing on weight loss again and have set myself the goal of losing 7 pounds, as a milestone type thing. I can save money better with the spoons to concentrate on it and have a better chance of actually learning to drive if I'm not full of brain fog and falling asleep. I also need to focus on improving my sleep patterns and all the little things involved in fatigue management and recovery as well as being a decent girlfriend, daughter, sister, friend, and employee, I guess. I can also try to keep my room relatively tidy again, draw, read my books and maybe even play some video games!

Purbeck in general is a massive tourist trap. It survives on 6 weeks of summer business and that's about it. My place of work is directly underneath Corfe Castle – a hugely popular tourist attraction and as of this year – one of only two pubs in the village. As one reviewer on TripAdvisor so eloquently put it; “This place gets busier than Waterloo in the rush hour”. With such a busy pub, bar work involves at lot of brain energy, and waiting involves a lot of leg work and brain energy. This means it's a lot more tiring than normal for me rest in-between shifts is so much more important. Blogging isn't rest whether I am in bed or not. So I need to seriously do less for the next few weeks.

For the past week and a half I have already been resting more and am feeling the benefits already. It's making me more creative and blog post ideas flow out of my brain every night before I sleep, so hopefully, although I shall me posting less often, the posts will be of better quality.

I hope you understand and have an amazing August. I shall lose 7 lbs and save £500 towards driving. I also plan on spending a lot of time like this;

Lisa [actually] Gets Leaner | Weekly Weigh-In | 01.08.15

Here's one for ya,

I spent every day since my last weigh-in eating enough to work but little enough to lose weight. Through this I gained and maintained weight. Yesterday I ate cereal, chocolate, garlic bread, onion rings and has browns and lost a pound.

I'm going to put it down to stress? I've long believed that stress has been a cause of weight gain for me. We'll see how the rest of summer goes, I guess!

Sorry I've been quiet this week - all will be explained in a post that will be up in the next couple of days. It's nothing exciting or worrying. Hope your weekend is awesome :)