New Year Resolutions week #28: A not-so-restful first week of the holidays

This week, for the first week of the holidays, I was planning on lots of lazy days, catching up on the blog/having a dejunk/baking/family history/reading/geocaching ... all those things that I have trouble fitting into a normal working week. That wasn't the way it panned out though. As this was the run up to the release of the Dunkirk film, everything went into overdrive this week and Sophie has been first in the queue for pretty much everything. On Wednesday, we had to go and queue up for a couple of hours at the local newspaper's office for free tickets to the avant-première on Monday night. On Thursday we had get to the town hall early where they were giving out film posters (first come first served, one per person). Yesterday, from 3-6pm, they were giving out bracelets for access to the fanzone next to the red carpet. Sophie started queuing at 8am. Her patience was rewarded though and she got a gold bracelet. So today, at 8.30am, she was out of the house to go and queue up to be one of the first into the "gold zone" and nab a good spot near the front. Hopefully, tonight, she'll get to see Christopher Nolan and some of the actors, including her favourite Harry Styles. And hopefully next week, when it's all over, I'll get the calm, lazy week I was hoping for this week !

1. Get Fit(bitting) !

It was a very uneven week. Two good days (15k and 13k steps), one bank holiday with Madhouse Daddy driving everywhere (a measly 3371 steps) and for the other days, around 8-9000 steps. Not bad but it should be more in the holidays.

2. Get cooking bookmarked recipes ! 
I worked through lots of bookmarked recipes this week - Blackberry Bibble, Tlayudas (Mexican pizzas), Bokkeumbap (Korean fried rice), Sardinian sausage & lentil stew, and a few others that I haven't had time to blog about yet. (I must start organising some scheduled posts for when we're away on holiday too - I'll add it to this week's to-do list!)

3. Get geocaching !

One find and one did not find this week. I couldn't find my cable for uploading the caches to my gps though, so that needs to be rectified this week !

4. Get comping !
No wins yet this month and I haven't entered many competitions either. Oh actually, that's a lie - we did win two tickets to go and see Dunkirk with the local paper. That counts !

2017 wins :
January : 4 wins - £20 shopping voucher, Mr Lee's noodles, Ambrosia trifle glasses, set of 5 books
 February : 1 win - tea & personalised mug (prize for Galina)
March - 1 win - a Bear Grylls adventure book
 April - 4 wins - a colouring bundle, And Then We Ran book, Aram book, 6 months supply of Hairburst vitamins
May - 1 win - £100 John Lewis voucher
June- 1 win -£10 Lovetoshop voucher
July - cinema tickets to see Dunkirk at the avant première

5. Get reading !

I finished The Darkest Room by Johan Theorin (click through for my review) and I've started The Teacher's Secret by Suzanne Leal.

6. Get FLYing !

The planned dejunk didn't happen but I have cleared pretty much everything off my to-do list : sorting out the visa for Turkey, booking the ferry, signing up Pierre for before/after school club and canteen, ...

8. Get bloggy housekeeping !
I've kept my emails cleared and draft posts are down from 408 to 404. Next week, I'll aim to get it down to below 400. What I hate about bloggy housekeeping though is that no sooner you sort out one thing, something else comes along to take its place. This week, I learnt that Photobucket image hosting has stopped you linking photos for free so I have to go back and sort out all the photos in my really old blogposts (which have been replaced with an ad for photobucket telling you there's a problem - classy !).

9. Get French !

Nothing to do but sit and wait now - it's out of my hands and going through the red-tape machine.

What about you? Did you set yourself any targets, challenges or new year's resolutions this year? How are they going? 

New Year Resolutions week #27: Last week at work - woohoo !

This week's roundup will be a short one because last week was so manic, I didn't get a chance to write the roundup until Tuesday night ! I'm now over-the-moon to be on holiday though. This morning is the first morning that I didn't need to get up and I woke up at ... 10am !! That's unheard of !

1. Get Fit(bitting) !

Now that I'm back into the holidays, I'll start synchronising again. From keeping check on my wrist, I've been pretty close to 10k steps every day though.

2. Get cooking bookmarked recipes ! 
I've been cooking (we have to eat, however busy I am !) but I've had no time for blogging the recipes so I need to catch up. I did manage to get one recipe post up - Oblande, a sweet treat from my Serbian-themed Kitchen Trotter box. Most of the meals on the week's menu plan are bookmarked recipes though, so look out for a bumper selection next week !

3. Get geocaching !

No geocaching but we did take part in an orienteering treasure hunt around town, which was very similar. I also retrieved a geocache that I'd hidden a few months ago but that was refused because it's too close to another one (on the opposite side of the canal though!).

4. Get comping !
No wins yet this month but there's still time.

2017 wins :
January : 4 wins - £20 shopping voucher, Mr Lee's noodles, Ambrosia trifle glasses, set of 5 books
 February : 1 win - tea & personalised mug (prize for Galina)
March - 1 win - a Bear Grylls adventure book
 April - 4 wins - a colouring bundle, And Then We Ran book, Aram book, 6 months supply of Hairburst vitamins
May - 1 win - £100 John Lewis voucher
June- 1 win -£10 Lovetoshop voucher
July -

5. Get reading !

My reviews are now live for Skylarking by Kate Mildenhall and Me, Myself and Them by Dan Mooney. I'm still reading The Darkest Room by Johan Theorin, but I'm getting close to the end now - can't wait to see how it all draws together.

6. Get FLYing !

The dining room area and desk space in the hall had a good tidy-up, ahead of the French nationality investigation (see below). Next stop is the kitchen - I can barely see the table for all the things that are there waiting to be reviewed, used or find a permanent home. Definitely time for a clearout !

8. Get bloggy housekeeping !
My first task was clearing my blacklog of emails and that's done - I finally replied to everything and got my emails down from 150-odd to 10 ! :) Next job - blog draft posts. They're back up to 408 but I'll be working through them in the next few weeks.

9. Get French !

We had the "investigation" at our home - not as bad as I expected. It turns out, the woman is from the police ! She wanted my entire history of addresses, school (starting at infant school !), work, as well as that of my parents, siblings, husband, parents-in-law, sister-in-law, her kids and husband, his first wife and kids from his first marriage, places we'd travelled to abroad, any organisations or trade unions I belong to, ... As long as none of the people in my entourage have a dodgy past (or present), then it should all go through ok and fairly swiftly, so I can expect a phone call to go and sign the paperwork in .. oh ... about six months ! (I kid you not, those were her exact words !)

What about you? Did you set yourself any targets, challenges or new year's resolutions this year? How are they going? 

New Year Resolutions week #25/26: Halfway through the year

I normally take a few minutes over the weekend to look back over the week and do a quick roundup of the challenges that I set myself at the beginning of the year. The fact that I am writing this on a Tuesday night and also doing a double week just goes to show just how hectic my life has been once again. Only 3 days and the long summer holidays kick off though - I can't wait !

1. Get Fit(bitting) !

I haven't been synchronising but I've hit 10k steps on quite a few days lately, from checking on my wrist. I also unlocked a new badge for walking the equivalent of the entire way around Italy since the start of the year !

2. Get cooking bookmarked recipes ! 
I feel like I haven't done much proper cooking lately, but let's have a look - I made Seadas, which are little fried cheese pastries from Sardinia, Solomillos de cerdo con Pedro Ximénez, pork filet mignon with vegetable rice, and a fishy gazpacho (eaten warm) from my Spanish-themed Kitchen Trotter box

3. Get geocaching !

I haven't had a chance to get out finding any new geocaches, but I did go and replace one of mine that had gone missing. I also checked up on my travel bugs - they've already travelled through several countries so I think I might have to put together a blogpost to chart their travels (in the holidays, when I have more time).

4. Get comping !
I thought this was going to be the first month when I failed to win anything, but on the last day of the month, I won a £10 Lovetoshop voucher - in by the skin of my teeth !

2017 wins :
January : 4 wins - £20 shopping voucher, Mr Lee's noodles, Ambrosia trifle glasses, set of 5 books
 February : 1 win - tea & personalised mug (prize for Galina)
March - 1 win - a Bear Grylls adventure book
 April - 4 wins - a colouring bundle, And Then We Ran book, Aram book, 6 months supply of Hairburst vitamins
May - 1 win - £100 John Lewis voucher
June- 1 win -£10 Lovetoshop voucher
July -

5. Get reading !

I finished The Brazilian. which I've reviewed, and also Skylarking by Kate Mildenhall and Me, Myself and Them by Dan Mooney, which I haven't had time to review yet. I'm now reading The Darkest Room by Johan Theorin, which looks like it's going to be a real spine-tingler. It's funny that's it's the second book in a row to be set in lighthouse cottages too !

6. Get FLYing !

Totally cleared out and reorganised my cupboard at work which looks so much better. Also started on the dejunk at home - had a good tidy up, bought a new table cloth, went round with a glue stick sticking down all the bits of sticky up wallpaper that have been picked at over the years, convinced the kids to have a good sort out in their rooms ... So far so good !

8. Get bloggy housekeeping !
No time - Klout has gone through the floor but stats are going back up for some reason. I need to grab time to go through emails, which are backing up again, and clear my draft posts, which are filling up again too. More jobs for the holidays !

9. Get French !

I finally got a phone call. I thought it was going to be inviting us to Lille to go and fill in the paperwork but, no, there's an in-between step that nobody mentioned. Tomorrow, some.woman is coming to our house to do her "investigation" on me. I have to provide her, again, with photocopies of all the documents that I've already sent in. She gaily informed me that it wouldn't be complicated as I have them already - I wanted to reply yes, so do you ! I think it's really invasive that she is coming to our home but there's not really a lot of choice !

What about you? Did you set yourself any targets, challenges or new year's resolutions this year? How are they going? 

New Year Resolutions Review week #24: Treading water

Anybody who isn't a teacher probably assumes that right now, we're all dreaming about switching off the alarm and enjoying a long summer holiday. Well, ask me again in a week and I may well agree, but the last few weeks have been manic - a constant round of after-school meetings, filling in end-of-term reports and end-of-year evaluations, plus school trips to London, Dover and Canterbury on three consecutive Fridays. Phew ! But thankfully, that is all behind me now. I just need to keep the visiting Norwegian teachers amused until midweek and I can finally breathe (and start dreaming about the summer holiday !). As I come to write this, I don't think I achieved anything at all this week, besides tackling a mountain of paperwork, but let's see if I surprise myself !

1. Get Fit(bitting) !

I synchronised (ie uploaded data from) my FitBit yesterday and it told me the last time was 5th June ! I've been checking daily on my wrist though. I only hit my 10k daily steps target on one day, but for 5 other days I was above 9,000 so that's not too bad.

2. Get cooking bookmarked recipes ! 
With lots of after-school meetings this week, it's been a case of whatever can be put on the table quickly, but I did make Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast, which was simple but tasty.

3. Get geocaching !

Last week, I looked online to see if there were any caches around Covent Garden that I could have quickly hunted out during the free time on our school trip to London, but there weren't any close enough. This week, I did the same for Canterbury with the same result. Somebody dropped a travelbug off in one of my caches so I went and picked it up on the way to work (it's surrounded by trenches and diggers so I wouldn't be surprised if the cache is destroyed and wanted to rescue the TB before then).

4. Get comping !
I found a bit of time for entering giveaways but haven't won anything this month so far.

2017 wins :
January : 4 wins - £20 shopping voucher, Mr Lee's noodles, Ambrosia trifle glasses, set of 5 books
 February : 1 win - tea & personalised mug (prize for Galina)
March - 1 win - a Bear Grylls adventure book
 April - 4 wins - a colouring bundle, And Then We Ran book, Aram book, 6 months supply of Hairburst vitamins
May - £100 shopping voucher
June-

5. Get reading !

I finished Being Simon Haines just in time for the blog tour and am now reading The Brazilian.

6. Get FLYing !

Still dejunking my desk and locker at work - I'll make a determined effort to start at home next !

8. Get bloggy housekeeping !
No idea - haven't had a chance to reply to emails much this week so they're all there waiting for me !

9. Get French !

Still no news - hopefully they'll contact us for our appointment before they break up for the summer !

What about you? Did you set yourself any targets, challenges or new year's resolutions this year? How are they going? 

New Year Resolutions Review week #22/23: Running round like a headless chicken again !

It's all go at the moment - with end-of-school-year reports and marking (finished - wahoo !) and after school class meetings several times a week (more next week - boo !), plus day trips to London, Dover Castle and Canterbury on three consecutive Fridays, and a welcome committee for the Norwegian teachers to sort out, my brain is fizzing. In fact, while I was lying in bed last night, I worked out my whole lesson plan for when the Norwegians are over (the week after next), so I jumped out of bed at 1.30am to write it all down before I forgot ! I know the summer holidays are only a few weeks away but it seems far in the future at the moment.

1. Get Fit(bitting) !

I've been looking at my FitBit on my wrist but haven't logged into the app for the last couple of weeks so I don't know really. It's all or nothing at the moment - 20-25k steps on the day trips followed by 1-2k the next day when I recover and sleep for a couple of hours in the afternoon !

2. Get cooking bookmarked recipes ! 
I feel like I haven't been doing much real cooking lately but let's go and look through my latest posts. I made some little Serbian tarts with red pepper paste from a Kitchen Trotter box, I finally made some cakes with my pandan paste, a Sudanese beef, sweet potato and peanut stew and some cheat's Jamaican patties. More than I thought actually !

3. Get geocaching !

I looked online to see if there were any caches around Covent Garden that I could have quickly hunted out during the free time on our school trip, but there weren't any close enough. That was as close as I got !

4. Get comping !
I haven't even entered a single competition for the last couple of weeks, so obviously, I haven't won anything ! I'll try to find half an hour later to enter some (which will only be do-able if I stop researching my family tree - it's addictive !)

2017 wins :
January : 4 wins - £20 shopping voucher, Mr Lee's noodles, Ambrosia trifle glasses, set of 5 books
 February : 1 win - tea & personalised mug (prize for Galina)
March - 1 win - a Bear Grylls adventure book
 April - 4 wins - a colouring bundle, And Then We Ran book, Aram book, 6 months supply of Hairburst vitamins
May - £100 shopping voucher
June-

5. Get reading !

I finished Under A Sardinian Sky by Sara Alexander and posted my review. I also read The Original Ginny Moon which I loved (Click through for the reviews.) I'm now reading Being Simon Haines.

6. Get FLYing !

Uhh no! It's nothing to do with Flylady but I'm loving dejunking my desk at work, getting rid of the piles of paperwork for school trips, marking and meetings that have been taking up space for weeks and can now be thrown away. I need to do the same thing at home - good job for the start of the holidays.

8. Get bloggy housekeeping !
I mentioned on my last roundup that my stats had dropped. They're going mental at the moment, going back up to 1000 unique visits (that I aim for) on one day then dropping to 350 the next - where's the logic ?! I'm wondering if it's a problem with my stat counter actually, but no time to look into it at the moment. I put all my photos into draft posts ready to type up when I get a chance over the next couple of weeks so that's increased my number of draft posts, but they won't be there for long. Same for emails - I need to find a minute to sit down and reply to all the offers coming in. Tomorrow I have a few hours to kill before my after school meeting so I should be able to do it then.

9. Get French !

Still no news - hopefully they'll contact us for our appointment before they break up for the summer !

What about you? Did you set yourself any targets, challenges or new year's resolutions this year? How are they going? I actually surprised myself because I feel like I've done nothing this past couple of weeks except work stuff, but looking back through my photos, we've still done a few activities and cooking projects so it's not as bad as I thought !

New Year Resolutions Review week #21: Found the pause button!

Last week, I lamented that I was running around like a headless chicken and needed to find the pause button for life. This week, I found it, thanks to the fab French tradition of "making the bridge" and taking off the Friday or Monday when a bank holiday falls on a Thursday or Tuesday. Therefore, I had a two day week at work, as I don't work Wednesdays - just what the doctor ordered. It's given me a chance to race through all my marking - just the reports to fill in this week and I can breathe again.

1. Get Fit(bitting) !

Lots of marking invariably means lots of sitting around on my bum so I only hit my 10k step target on two days.

2. Get cooking bookmarked recipes ! 
I finally got around to trying a recipe for cream of tomato soup and was stunned to see that it tasted just like the tinned stuff, minus the hidden nasties. That was it for making bookmarked recipes, but I did also cull a lot in my drafts folder, which is another way of clearing the backlog !

3. Get geocaching !

We went for a long walk at Cap Blanc Nez, on the white cliffs of Calais (and could clearly see the Dover counterparts across the water) so I added a whole series of caches to my GPS before we left. However, when we got there, they hadn't saved properly - grrrr ! I did manage to find three virtual caches though - landmarks where you just needed to answer a question rather than find an actual cache, so I managed to add three to my tally, taking us to 221.

4. Get comping !
No new wins but my £100 John Lewis shopping voucher arrived :)

2017 wins :
January : 4 wins - £20 shopping voucher, Mr Lee's noodles, Ambrosia trifle glasses, set of 5 books
 February : 1 win - tea & personalised mug (prize for Galina)
March - 1 win - a Bear Grylls adventure book
 April - 4 wins - a colouring bundle, And Then We Ran book, Aram book, 6 months supply of Hairburst vitamins
May - £100 shopping voucher

5. Get reading !

Still reading Under A Sardinian Sky by Sara Alexander.

6. Get FLYing !

No - just the minimum this week !

8. Get bloggy housekeeping !
Got sidetracked by family history research so made no more headway with clearing old broken and spammy links. Got my emails down to 57 and draft blogposts down to 394 though (aimed for under 400 so smashed it). That's much more manageable so I'll have to keep on top of them so they don't start rising again.

9. Get French !

STILL waiting to be summoned to the préfecture with Madhouse Daddy.

What about you? Did you set yourself any targets, challenges or new year's resolutions this year? How are they going?

New Year Resolutions Review week #20: Phew, where's the pause button?

Sometimes I wish life had a pause button ! I seem to be running around like a headless chicken, but my to-do list isn't getting any shorter. We're into the final weeks of the school term so I'm doing my last assessments and assignments so every time I clear my backlog of marking, I get another load. I know the end is in sight but at the moment, I can't see the wood for the trees. Luckily, we have a four day weekend next week so I'll have time to catch up but this last week has been a non-stop whirlwind. I don't feel like I achieved much, but let's have a look. (You can tell what the week's been like as this is going out on Monday rather than the usual Saturday or Sunday !)

1. Get Fit(bitting) !

It wasn't just an impression that I was running around all week. I hit my 10k step target every day at work, with daily figures anywhere from 10-15,000 steps. This weekend, I only got 5271 on Saturday and 2900 on Sunday which looks like a lazy weekend but it's actually the total opposite. I was stuck inside with piles of marking when I'd much rather have been out geocaching or exploring with the kids !

2. Get cooking bookmarked recipes ! 
I made Pineapple Bissap, a drink from my Cameroonian Kitchen Trotter box, and a Chechen soup for the #FoodForThought challenge. I also made a Turkish dish, Chicken Tava, so it's been a very cosmopolitan week foodwise!

3. Get geocaching !

Nope - not this week. I've been enjoying seeing comments from other people finding my caches though.

4. Get comping !
Last week, I put out a call for the comping fairy and she must have heard me because I got a lovely email telling me I'd won a £100 shopping voucher from Britmums for my Elastoplast blogpost - yay !

2017 wins :
January : 4 wins - £20 shopping voucher, Mr Lee's noodles, Ambrosia trifle glasses, set of 5 books
 February : 1 win - tea & personalised mug (prize for Galina)
March - 1 win - a Bear Grylls adventure book
 April - 4 wins - a colouring bundle, And Then We Ran book, Aram book, 6 months supply of Hairburst vitamins
May - £100 shopping voucher

5. Get reading !

 My reviews went live for The Lies Within by Jane Isaac and The Overlook by Michael Connelly which I finished the week before. I'm now reading Under A Sardinian Sky by Sara Alexander.

6. Get FLYing !

The kids have been keeping their rooms under control and I've invented a new game - they set off their fidget spinners and keep tidying until they stop. It seems to be working for the moment, until the novelty wears off !

8. Get bloggy housekeeping !
The worst thing about having a blog is that, in terms of housekeeping, you often take one step forwards followed by at least one if not two steps back. My average pageviews always used to be steady at around 1000 per day, then they dropped to about half that last summer and I discovered I'd been hit with a google penalty so I'd stopped showing up in search listings. I started blogging way back in 2009 when follow/no-follow links were unheard of, so all my original links were by default follow. I went through and cleared out all the follow links up to 2010 then put in a reconsideration request and was cleared. So my stats slowly but surely climbed back up to their original level. Last week, they suddenly dropped to half of that again and, digging around a bit, I discovered there was a google algorithm update called Fred which targeted spammy links. So I've picked back up where I left off and am going back through old posts from 2011 onwards, removing dead and broken links, spammy links that slipped through in comments in the early days when I was less vigilant/more gullible and swapping over follow links to no-follow. It's a boring and soul-destroying job but it'll be worth it in the end. I've done a couple of hundred pages over the weekend and my stats are slightly up already, but this could be a coincidence.

I also set myself two targets - getting my emails down to 200 from 226 - I'm now on 227 so at least I kept on top of new ones - and I wanted to get my draft posts down to 400 from 483 (by deleting now irrelevant posts or bookmarked recipes for ingredients that I no longer have). I got down to 408, which isn't bad, as I got sidetracked by clearing broken/spammy links.

9. Get French !

Still waiting to be summoned to the préfecture with Madhouse Daddy.

What about you? Did you set yourself any targets, challenges or new year's resolutions this year? How are they going?

New Year Resolutions Review week #19: Come what May !

That is the month of May, not Theresa May ! I can't believe we're half way through the month already - in two shake's of a cat's tail, it will be the summer holidays and I'm definitely ready ! Sophie breaks up first, on the 8th June. For the rest of us it's the 7th July, but Juliette has already brought home a calendar for the final weeks with all the days the school is closed as an exam or marking centre. It's all over bar the shouting - we just need the sun to become a permanent fixture now.

1. Get Fit(bitting) !

Oops- writing this post prompted me to go and synchronise my FitBit and it's the first time since the 8th May ! I have been keeping a check on my daily steps total on my wrist though and I know I was on target most days. I've just checked and I hit 10,000 steps every day except Wednesday (9607) and Saturday (4999) which is invariably lower because Madhouse Daddy is around so we take the car rather than walking. Last weekend was an exception - 13844 on Sunday and 15493 on Saturday because we went out with the dogs and geocaching.

2. Get cooking bookmarked recipes ! 
I got through a few this week, including some of the recipes from my Mexican Kitchen Trotter box - Peanut & Raisin Cookies, Sopa de Lima, Chalupas de Salsa Verde and Cazuela de Camarones, a spicy prawn dish.

3. Get geocaching !

I totally failed to get out geocaching this week - I wanted to but it started raining every time I starting asking the kids if they wanted to come out with me - not fair !

4. Get comping !
Still nothing for May yet. Come on comping fairy - I'm over here !

2017 wins :
January : 4 wins - £20 shopping voucher, Mr Lee's noodles, Ambrosia trifle glasses, set of 5 books
 February : 1 win - tea & personalised mug (prize for Galina)
March - 1 win - a Bear Grylls adventure book
 April - 4 wins - a colouring bundle, And Then We Ran book, Aram book, 6 months supply of Hairburst vitamins
May -

5. Get reading !

 I've finished reading The Lies Within by Jane Isaac but haven't had a chance to write my review yet. I fancied some more gritty crime fiction so I've now started The Overlook by Michael Connelly which has been on my shelf for ages.

6. Get FLYing !

I've managed to get Pierre into a nice little cleaning routine for his bedroom and the playroom and he even went hunting for dust bunnies under my bed with the hoover ! OK, I might have bribed encouraged him with some extra pocket money because he wanted to buy a finger spinner !

8. Get bloggy housekeeping !
Klout is bouncing up and down like a bungee jump so I'm giving up with trying to influence that one as it seems to have a mind of its own. Blog stats are back where I want them - about 1000 unique visits per day. I'm now turning my efforts to taming my emails and draft blogposts. My drafts folder was at 576 and I said I'd aim for 565 this week. I cleared some of my half-finished recipe posts and a couple of review posts that were set up with the photos, but above all went back through the oldest draft posts, deleting any (many !) that weren't relevant any more - things that never got written up or recipes that I bookmarked for ingredients that got used up in other ways. I'm now down to 483 so I'll aim for 400 for next week. I'm being ruthless ! My email inbox is at 226 and I generally like to keep it below 200 so that's my next job.

9. Get French !

I finally got a letter to say that my application is complete and has been passed on to the next person in the line. Now I have to wait to be summoned to Lille with Madhouse Daddy to sign a déclaration sur honneur to say that we're still married and still living together. I might possibly have to prove that I speak French to the required level and am "of good morals" (!!) at the same time but that shouldn't be too hard !

What about you? Did you set yourself any targets, challenges or new year's resolutions this year? How are they going?

New Year Resolutions Review week #18: Loving the bank holidays

One of the great things about May in France is that you get loads of bank holidays - the 1st May, the 8th May and Ascension Thursday, which often involves "le pont" (the bridge) on the Friday to make an extra long weekend ... especially as I don't work on Wednesdays ! This is giving me those extra hours that I've been saying I need in the day to catch up !

1. Get Fit(bitting) !

Pretty good this week - quiet days (under my 10k daily steps target) on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday, as well as my day off on Wednesday, because I was catching up on marking (and Madhouse Daddy was around with the car at the weekend), but I was on or over target for the rest of the week : 11k on Tuesday, 9.5k on Thursday, 12k on Friday and 15.5k on Saturday.

2. Get cooking bookmarked recipes ! 
I had a bookmarked recipe for Chicken Tetrazzini that I tweaked to make Chicken Potat-razzini, which was rather lovely, as was a retro-style school dinner pudding, Fudge Tart (as pictured above). Haggis Puffs were more an idea than a recipe that I had bookmarked, but they used up lots of odds and ends in the fridge. I also grabbed a moment to make Polo, a Syrian mint lemonade, for a Food For Thought challenge.

3. Get geocaching !

A new geocache was reactivated yesterday after being replaced not that far from our house, so we combined an early evening walk with the dogs with a geocaching expedition. This earned us a FTF (first to find) and took our total finds to 218.

4. Get comping !
No wins for May yet but there's still plenty of time.

2017 wins :
January : 4 wins - £20 shopping voucher, Mr Lee's noodles, Ambrosia trifle glasses, set of 5 books
 February : 1 win - tea & personalised mug (prize for Galina)
March - 1 win - a Bear Grylls adventure book
 April - 4 wins - a colouring bundle, And Then We Ran book, Aram book, 6 months supply of Hairburst vitamins
May -

5. Get reading !

 My review of Paige Toon's The Last Piece of My Heart went live this week, as did the one for Child Taken by Darren Young, which I finished a few weeks ago but had to schedule later for a book tour. I finished Little Gold by Allie Rogers  - click through for that review -  and I'm now back to crime fiction, reading The Lies Within by Jane Isaac. I've read 18/52 books so far this year, one ahead of schedule.

6. Get FLYing !

In a word - no ! But I've working through my to-do list for work stuff, so my desk is looking clearer at work. Does that count?!

8. Get bloggy housekeeping !
Blog stats are slightly lower this week but nothing alarming and I have a new giveaway going live tomorrow which will help drive traffic up. Klout has dropped to dizzying new depths - 52.05 ! - but it's all over the place at the moment. My drafts folder is slightly down, from 581 to 576 and I still have some recipe posts to write up so I'll aim for 565 for next week. That should be doable as long as I stop bookmarking recipes. Hmm that might be more of a problem !!

9. Get French !

Still no news. *sigh* It's the second round of the French election today so fingers crossed Marine Le Pen doesn't get in. At least I should be able to vote in the next elections, in theory !

What about you? Did you set yourself any targets, challenges or new year's resolutions this year? How are they going?

New Year Resolutions Review week #17: Back to the grind

Back to work and I was exhausted this week, flaking out at 9.30pm two nights on the trot. I spent a few hours marking yesterday afternoon and, when the dog woke me up at 6.30am for a drink this morning (on a Sunday *groan*), I decided to stay up and crack on so that I could enjoy the rest of the bank holiday weekend.

1. Get Fit(bitting) !

I haven't even synchronised my fitbit this week, but I've been keeping track of my steps on the display. Oops, I've just gone to do it and discovered there was a Firmware update to install. Well, after synchronising my Fitbit, I've just earned the Serengeti badge - "You may not have seen wildebeasts, giraffes or zebras on this trek, but you have walked 804 kilometers — the same distance as the Serengeti, one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World" ! I hit my 10k steps target on 3 days (11k on both) but got to 9k+ on three other days so it's not too shabby.

2. Get cooking bookmarked recipes ! 

As Sophie was poorly and not hungry, I spent most of the week cooking plain rice and pasta as it was all she could keep down. I did finally get round to blogging about bookmarked recipes that I tried in the holidays though : Sausages & Bacon with Apples, Pizza Style Meatloaf (one of the US comfort food recipes I'd bookmarked the week before) and Balmoral Chicken (chicken breast stuffed with haggis and wrapped in pancetta). I still have a few dishes that I've made but not had time to blog about yet too.

3. Get geocaching !

Two of my new caches went live but one was refused because it's too close to another one - it must only be a matter of a couple of metres because I checked on the map before hiding it. I didn't get out geocaching this week but I'm hoping to change that this afternoon ! One of my travelbugs has moved on to Lorraine, down by the German border. Will it make it into a new country ?

4. Get comping !
After winning two books last week, both from the Goodreads giveaways, I managed to rack up another win for April in the final days of the month : 6 month's supply of Hairburst vitamins, worth a whopping £119.99. My mum also kindly donated one of her prizes to me : 1kg of jelly beans - yum !

(January : 4 wins - £20 shopping voucher, Mr Lee's noodles, Ambrosia trifle glasses, set of 5 books; February : 1 win - tea & personalised mug (prize for Galina); March - 1 win - a Bear Grylls adventure book; April - 4 wins - a colouring bundle, And Then We Ran book, Aram book, 6 months supply of Hairburst vitamins)

5. Get reading !

 My review of Patricia Scanlan's Orange Blossom Days went live this week. I finished Paige Toon's The Last Piece of My Heart - the review is scheduled to go live this afternoon - and I'm now reading Little Gold by Allie Rogers, which is set in Brighton in the 1980's and reminds me of my childhood. I need to crack on and finish this one because I'm taking part in a blog tour on Friday and need to post my review !

6. Get FLYing !

Haven't had time to even look at the daily missions but I'm still basking in the glory of the major dejunk/tidy in the playroom.

 From this ...

To this. Aaaahhhhh !

8. Get bloggy housekeeping !

Blog stats are on an even keel, Klout doesn't like me any more and is descending to new depths and since saying I need to clear out my drafts folder, It's gone from 567 posts to 575 and now 581 - oops ! That should drop a bit once I've typed up my recipes and finished off the reviews that I've already uploaded photos for. I just need a few extra hours in the day - a bank holiday should help with that.

9. Get French !

Still no news. With next week's second and final round of elections, we're on tenterhooks to see if the National Front will be elected. My boss asked if I'd put in for French nationality to cover my back and was relieved when I said yes !

I like doing these round-ups because I thought I'd achieved nothing this week, apart from cracking on at work and running around collecting Sophie from the school nurse repeatedly, but I've actually done quite a lot !

What about you? Have you set yourself any targets, challenges or new year's resolutions this year?