Friday 30 April 2010

Enjoying the Aftermath

Yesterday morning I actually did shift from the sublime to the ridiculous. My eyes clicked open at 6:20am, and as if it were sitting in my head waiting for me to wake, a thought crossed my mind as clear as day...

'you should include a full transcription* in the appendices'.

So I set to work. Three hours and five pages later I had a full transcription, complete with pauses, important phonetic points, stress markers - the whole caboodle. I had 10 minutes until hand in. Until yesterday, I'd never been a last-minute person (in fact, I've been known to hand in a day before a deadline on a couple of occasions - what a geek!); I tied up my running shoes and headed to the hand-in box as quickly as my feet would allow!


Anyway, back to the theme of this post! The aftermath!

Everyone goes through periods of off-colour, where life's priorities lie in convenience rather than pleasure, for whatever reason. Days can go by where you wear the same pair of jogging bottoms and the same baggy t-shirt, you forget the taste of good wine and the smell of your favourite park, you no longer know what's on at the cinema and you don't even think about what jewellry or nail varnish best matches your mood. These times may or may not seem difficult, they might not even be that noticeable, but they are best defined when you start to leave them behind. And that was my aftermath; I'd been so deeply involved in my work that there were no other joys, and starting to re-discover the little joys surrounding me again - like tasting asparagus for the first time, or my first trip to Paris - was the most amazing of treats!

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, every day. No matter where I might go out for lunch, or whatever celebratory meal is prepared for teatime, breakfast is the meal that I give the most time to, that I take the most care over, and that I enjoy purely for its slow, solitary nature. I'd already had my bowl of porridge during the transcription trauma, but it had somehow passed me by unnoticed. So upon returning from the hand-in, jittery from exhaustion, adrenaline and running, I prepared one of my favourite breakfasts, involving the toast-topping from Heaven!!


I then got properly dressed for the first time in a while - wearing my new summery dress to celebrate!


(and with matching toenails, too!)

Coming back to life didn't take long. I felt like skipping my way into town! The blossoms smelt heavenly and the breeze felt so fresh on my skin; I hadn't realized how inside I'd been for the past weeks; even when I went out, I didn't pull my head out of my thoughts to just be outside. I spent the afternoon reading, sipping amazing wine (forget the house wine Mr. Riverside Café, I'll have the South African chenin blanc, please!!) and chatting all things romance, literature and South America with a good friend.

This morning, I baked. Of course I did. What else is there to do, when you're relaxing in your dressing gown, than bake an amazing batch of cookies?! I found this recipe for vegan chocolate cookies not long ago at Suburban Yogini's blog, and had been intending to give them a go....well....all I can say is just bake them! I didn't have much jam spare, so used peanut butter on half of them (sometimes you just have to compromise!), but they were mega-quick, mega-easy and mega-tasty - from (very tasty) cookie batter to delight in 20 minutes. YUM!


Someone's been licking the bowl out...


Tonight I'm finally going home for a break. The half marathon is on Sunday, so I'll be going along to support my Dad (and get some much-needed mountain air!). I will return on Monday, more relaxed and probably a little chubbier, to begin work on the most exciting project I'll probably ever do; the dissertation commences next week!

Have a great weekend! :-)


*I've been working on some recordings of child-directed speech; a transcription of the full recordings would put the data in my assignment into the right context and back up any points I've made.

5 comments:

  1. I love this post!
    Love how you described the busyness, and then love how you got to take a break from that and go back to some pleasure.
    Yay!

    And p.s. those cookies look...oh man. so good. Got to check out that link.

    Have a great Saturday!

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  2. You too have a good weekend! I enjoyed your description of those off-colour days. Yep, I can sympathise.:-) As for those cookies. Why? It's still early, lunchtime is not even here yet! :-)

    Greetings from London.

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  3. Hope today is going well for your dad.
    Off to check out the cookie recipe.
    Lisa x

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  4. you are making me want to appreciate breakfast more!!! i skip it way to often!!

    AND YUM!!!! those cookies look delish!! i love that you added peanut butter to some of them! i'm all about peanut butter chocolate combo!!

    HOORAY FOR LICKING THE BOWL! the dough is the best!

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  5. good call with the transcripts and avoiding that sinking feeling of something left undone or not quite as good as it could be. Celebrations in baking and favourite dresses is a good way to spend the day. Enjoy the weekend at home and strapping on your running shoes x

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