Day 5: Reader Q&A - A day in my life

My day starts at 6am, which I always do whether I’m going to work, staying at home or am on holiday.  I started doing it years ago and I love it so much I've kept it up.  I've already written about this practice here and here.

Maybe if I was retired I might have 7am as my getting up time, but 6am it is for now.  I feed the cats and make myself a hot tea with trim milk (Earl Grey or English Breakfast) and read email and blogs, and do some writing.  I really love this guilt-free computer time.

If I’m having a day at home, about 7.30am I’ll go for a walk around our neighbourhood for 45-60 minutes depending on which way I go, listening to a podcast or audiobook on my iPod Shuffle with noise-cancelling headphones.  I bought the headphones about one month into my iPod purchase as the ear buds were causing me ear pain, both from the hard shape of them but also from the loudness.  I didn’t want to send myself deaf so I bought some headphones.  They are luxurious to wear and loads of people use them so I don't feel too conspicuous, although one of my friends did call me a hipster when she saw them.

When I get back I have a big glass of water and a shower, then have my yummy breakfast of chopped fresh fruit, raw nuts and/or my favourite Ceres paleo breakfast mix and plain full-fat yoghurt, then I’ll have a home-made café latte made with Bialetti espresso coffee and full-cream milk heated in the microwave.  Yes, I have to have both types of milk since I like skinny milk in tea and creamy milk in coffee.

My luxury when I have a day at home is to watch television with breakfast and lunch.  I just finished the 1985 tv mini-series of Jackie Collins’ Hollywood Wives which I took a couple of months to watch in this manner.  It is so cheesey and 80s glamorous and romping fun, just glorious.  And everyone is in it.  Check out the cast list on IMDB.

After breakfast I’ll hang some washing on the line.  We have an outdoor line and a line under our carport, so I’ll choose whichever one based on the weather forecast.  We don’t have a clothes drier.  I donated it to the cat shelter because we hadn’t used it in years.  I often fold the washing and put it in the airing/hot water cupboard before I put it away.

I might do some website work for our store when I’m at home, it’s nice to work undisturbed and I’ll likely do some writing too.  Lunch is on the sofa with a bit more of my current tv programme.  My favourite lunch at the moment is cheese and crackers with a side salad.  Afterwards I have a coffee and a biscuit or piece of cakey slice.  I have a couple of purchased gluten-free ones in my ‘cake tin’ at the moment (it’s a Tupperware container but cake tin sounds better).

If I need another half hour of television I do a bit of knitting.  I’m knitting a cot rug for my cousin’s baby who is due to be born in London in the next week or two.  But the rug isn’t flying over there until my Mum and Aunty go there in July.  Just as an aside, my cousin and his partner priced the Lindo Wing for the birth, but at 30,000 English pounds a night they decided on their local (free) hospital.

In the afternoon I do different things depending on what needs to be done and what I feel like doing.  I might do a spot of garden weeding and tidying if it’s fine weather, or take a letter to the post.  I do my housework and some light pottering.  I might pick an area to declutter and tidy, adding the decluttered items to my outbox (literally an outbox, it’s a cardboard box) in the guest room.

Then I put dinner on and light the fire between five and six, for my husband to arrive home a bit after six.  I used to like to put my laptop away before dinner and then not get it out again, but I’ve been so into my writing lately that I itch to get typing, so that hasn’t been the case for a while.

I serve up dinner around seven.  We very rarely eat out because we both just love being at home so much, plus working with the public we like our own space.  We watch a tv programme together and then I read or write before retiring to the bedroom to wash my face and read some more before lights out at 10pm.  I like to play a relaxing cd really, really softly to nod off to.  Sometimes I don’t, if I’m bone-tired or if it’s raining.  Rain on the roof is better than any relaxing cd.

And that’s a day in my life!