Disaster!

Prologue.

Right, so, before I get into this, I have a confession to make. A chunk of the first half (everything but the intro) of this week's post, which I wrote on Thursday evening, has somehow been deleted by my laptop. Which is not fantastic, because I've just arrived home from work and it is very nearly 7pm and I have to format and add pictures to what I thought was a finished and written post. So, as such, I'm going to quickly write out what I remember of the first section of the post, but it might be a bit slap dash and not as relaxed as usual, as I am quite stressed! Also, apologies for the post being late! I am very cross with myself that it's late this week, especially since it's the first week of the later posting time! 3 extra hours and still I manage to overrun. Very sorry. Really very sorry. What a disaster. I'm going to find a soothing beach picture I took this week to look at for a minute before I write any more, and breathe...

Hello everyone and welcome back to a brand new blog post! This past week has certainly been a trying one, both for myself personally and in the world of British politics! However, we'll have to wait and see the results of the election, won't we? (It's Thursday night as I write this, and I am refreshing and refreshing and refreshing again the news pages, it's going to be a long night I fear!)

This past week I have been on my get-fit scheme, which I may have mentioned in a previous post, but I don't really know if I delved into why. I enjoy spending as much of my time at the beach as I can if the weather permits, and being fortunate as I am to live on a beautiful island surrounded by lovely beaches, I'm lucky enough to be able to fulfill this wish fairly regularly. If it's ever warm enough, I enjoy a dip in the sea, and with that comes getting into a swimming costume and not scaring the tourists! So with the (hopefully) warmer months approaching, this is one of the reasons for wanting to get fitter, since exercise is something I have rather avoided in the past year. The other reason is that I have my graduation next month, and the pictures from graduations seem to last forever, and as such I'd like to make sure I look at least okay in said pictures! So...I've started running. Now, now, no need to look so shocked! I'll have you know that once upon a time I was a fairly regular little runner, I even represented my school in several cross country inter-school competitions. I know, whoever would have thought? I used to really enjoy running, actually, back in my teen years, both physically and I also found that it really helped clear my mind if I was stressed. I was getting quicker the more I practiced and even placed fairly decently in the competitions I took part in. Nothing ground-shattering, but exciting all the same!

This was when I was 14 or 15 or so, but sadly my running career came to a crashing halt when (just after a school trip to France, and I'm so pleased it wasn't a week earlier or it would have been a problème indeed) I developed appendicitis! Well, I say developed, I'd been having symptoms for over a year but until this point in time I'd put it down to numerous stomach bugs and the stress of GCSEs. Little did I know. Now those who know me well will probably be getting quite cross at this point in time because they will know that I am veeeeery stubborn when it comes to going to the doctors. Or rather, more to the point, not going to the doctors. I have a strange aversion to medical practices, and it's not just your average scared-of-needles phenomenon. I don't really know why or where it came from because I've always had a reasonably pleasant time at the doctors (well, as pleasant as you could have since you usually do the doctor with some sort of ailment but you know what I mean) but I just have this big Fear (with a capital F) about going to the doctors. I get panicky and stressed and hyperventilate-y even just sitting in the waiting room, and even if I'm only going in about something not even scary. No idea where this came from or why but it meant that when I had appendicitis, I lay in bed for 5 days convincing myself and everyone else that it was just a stomach bug and that I was fine. It was when my mum realised I literally couldn't stand up straight or walk with the crippling pain that she made me see a professional. Good thing she did, because by that time, I was in risky territory and was mere hours away from a potential rupture. Anyway, I've gotten side-tracked here but what I was originally trying to say is that after appendicitis, there was a long recovery process and essentially after that I stopped running for a while, lost my fitness level and was honestly a bit scared to get back into it, I was worried about starting too soon or damaging myself by overexerting myself. Then it was GCSE time and then a summer job and then A Levels, and so with all that I basically just stopped. I'd go for very casual short jogs occasionally but nothing like I once did. Anyway, to eventually get to the point of all that, I've started running again! I've been doing 5Ks and 6Ks (not proper official ones, just myself and my iPhone running app!) but I'm building up to doing proper event-ish runs too. I'm really loving it mostly because of the scenery here, I've been getting to run on local beaches and countryside fields and quiet roads, and I rarely see anyone at all, which I really like because I don't particularly want to be seen tomato red and out of breath! Unfortunately, however, this past week I haven't been able to run as I have somehow managed to injure my knee, I think it's likely that I did too much too soon, as I am often wont to do when I get excited about something, I dive in headfirst. As such, instead of running this week I have been taking long walks on various beautiful Anglesey beaches, and once again falling in love with the place I now call home. For those interested, the house hunt continues on, nothing yet so far! Still looking, though, so I'm keeping my fingers and toes and eyes and anything else I can crossed!

One particular walk I went on was on Sunday afternoon, a very blustery but nonetheless beautiful afternoon, I went to Rhosneigr beach with my Mum, Nana, Pops, and of course, Holly! The high winds meant high waves, crashing up and down the shoreline, and even more excitingly, a number of daring individuals kite surfing and doing tricks on the ferocious waves. It was a feat to watch, incredible!

Apart from shop work and puffin 'work,' that's all I've got for you this week! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it, I'll catch you next week,

Rachel x

P.S. Who forgot that the blog post time had changed? If so, I did too! I have a reminder set to go off at 4pm about the blog post, and it went off today and I absolutley panicked that I hadn't uploaded the post yet!