Feature Friday
Hi gang.
I hope I find you all well as we steamroll into ANOTHER month. How? How is it August already? How has everyone liked the hot, sunny weather? We shouldn’t complain about it, but all I’ve done is complain about it. I can’t wait for September/October. Early autumn is my favourite 🍁🍂🍁🍂 and I can’t wait to watch those “transitional films”. You’ve Got Mail, One Fine Day, Stepmom, Practice Magic and Halloween themed films (Hocus Pocus for the win).
Its been a while since my last post here, and I really don’t have a good excuse as to why. But here’s just a roundup of my July.
So this month started out really fun. Me and my mum had wanted to see this play back when it debuted in Sheffield Theatres a little while back. Now it’s a West End smash, and with a movie on the way, we managed to catch a live stream, at the local cinema, of Everyone’s Talking About Jamie. Now, if you’ve never heard of it, shame on you. It’s basically a funny, brilliant and fabulous musical about Jamie, who at aged 16, wants to become a drag artist. The story follows Jamie from getting his first pair of heels, performing in his first show, dealing with his relationship with his parents and the reaction from his school when he plans to attend his school prom as his alter ego. It’s sassy but full of heart and catchy songs. Plus the references to my hometown made it that extra bit enjoyable. The show is inspired by Jamie Campbell (aka Fifi la True), star the 2011 BBC Three documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16. The show is still so relevant today, seven years after the documentary aired, about how society in general treat the LGBTQ community. Just last week I read a newspaper article about a 14 year old boy who was banned from performing in his school’s talent competition because his drag act was deemed “inappropriate” 🤦🏼♀️. FFS what are we meant to be teaching kids these days? That being comfortable in your own skin, pushing boundaries and challenging people’s misconceptions or prejudices is inappropriate?? I find it hard to accept that some people don’t consider inclusive equality. I find it hard to consider a drag artist, or somebody in a “non-traditional” relationship, as a separate group of society. Aren’t we all the same at our cores? As long as you aren’t a complete dick and don’t hurt other people then go off and live you best life, it’s got nowt to do with me. Can we please give a round of applause to a school in South Carolina, USA, wear 49% of the student body votes crowned a guy named Adam Prom King 👑 , despite protests from parents that Adams Prom Dress made him an inappropriate candidate. FU🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻😂
🙌🏻🙏🏻 Life Motto 🙏🏻🙌🏻
Sorry. I didn’t intent for this to be a human rights lecture 😂!! Let’s move on ...
I’ve actually been to the cinema a lot this month. I guess when you have an unlimited card or annual pass you want to get your moneys worth. Plus it’s not a terribly difficult activity to do with family or friends when you aren’t feeling full of energy.
I saw the new Mission Impossible film this week, but having never seen one before, my sister lent me her box set so I could get caught up beforehand. I actually really enjoyed them. And my shockingly, I liked Tom Cruise in them. Yes they are unrealistic, slightly predictable and a little cheesy, but so what. Also, turns out I had already seen one of the films - the 3rd one to be exact, but I have no recollection of when, why or with who 🤷🏼♀️😂
I had a girls night out to see the new Mamma Mia film. I really enjoyed parts of it. Other parts I felt weren’t needed. Other parts were totally OTT, but I can’t be mad about it (Cher 😂). All in all I think I prefer the original, but we did all leave the cinema with girl crushes on Lily James, a deep and true love for Young Bill and a desire to quit life and move to Greece to sing ABBA songs by the sea. We all went back to mine for pizza party, even though I had to make my own pizza because of my recent move to be dairy free and wheat light. The gluten free pizza based are actually pretty good, but the dairy free cheese was questionable 😂.
This all started after my Kinesiology appointment at the beginning of July. A relative recommended I see a kinesiologist, as I’m still in this loooooonnggg episode of debilitating ME symptoms. She had been in a similar position several years ago and credits kinesiology with her improvement. I guess a basic and crude explanation of the Kinesiology session is that they used acupuncture pressure points to read the body’s stressors or reactions to certain foods. I was recommended to cut out dairy, hazelnuts and lamb completely from my diet, I don’t eat lamb anyway so that wasn’t too hard. It was also recommended that I reduce or cut out wheat from my diet. Sometimes the easiest way of doing this is to have gluten-free products, of which there are MANY.
I’ll write up a kinesiology dedicated post in a few weeks once I’ve had my follow up session.
So yeah, dairy and gluten-free has been a little challenging this past month. I went to my friends house for tea one night, but had to take my own food, as I had forgot to mention my new dietary requirements and she had cooked Lasagna 🤦🏼♀️. Oh well. I enjoyed my chicken salad and, despite additional helpings, they all said the Lasagna wasn’t as nice as it looked, or smelt 😂. I’m sure they were totally honest, right?
I guess my diet is going well because I actually went to the gym last week. First time since February, when I went off sick. Okay, in fairness it was an Aquarobics class, and me and my sister were the youngest there by about 20 years. And we spent longer in the spa afterwards than we did in the class. And showering and drying my hair within the same hour as each other was more of a workout than the class was. But I was dead chuffed that I was able to tolerate any level of activity. I need to build some kind of stamina and tolerance of activity for when I go back to work. Which is soon.
I had an informal chat with my manager about my health, absences from work and plan going forward and I decided that it’s time for me to go back. I think there will always be a reason for me not to go back and no, I’m not feeling back to the level of fitness I was at the start of the year.
But unfortunately I think this might be as well as I’ll get, at least for now. I think going forward I need to feel useful and actual take an active part in my life again. So the plan is for a six week phased return, starting small - just three hours on my first day, instead on my usual 10, and build up. I’m nervous but excited. I didn’t realise how much I missed work until I decided to go back.
It’s difficult living your life by trial and error. Especially if when it all goes wrong you end up bedbound, debilitated or in a worse position that when you started. And my absences from work don’t just affect me. But I don’t think I can do anything else. I landed my “lifer” job, the job I always wanted to end up in, at age 23. Now I’m 28 and I don’t want to give it up. I can’t afford to give it up. So unfortunately I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
August will be difficult, and different, that’s for sure. Hope all you guys had a great July and I’m sending love and positive vibes your way for a good month ahead.
xoxo
Comments
Post a Comment