I am behind on the list of things that I’ve cooked each week. The last one that I posted was a complete disaster, so I thought it would be smart to ditch the baking and go back to trying to cook simple recipes.
And shocker, it worked! I made a simplified version of a Pad Thai, and it was delicious.
In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook noodles until al dente. Drain.
In a small bowl, whisk together lime juice, brown sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, and cayenne pepper. Set aside.
In a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat, heat oil. Add bell pepper and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Add the prawns and season with salt and pepper. Cook until pink, about 2 minutes per side.
Push the prawns and vegetables to one side of the pan and pour in the egg. Scramble until just set then mix with the prawn mixture. Add the cooked noodles and toss until combined. Pour in the lime juice mixture and toss until the noodles are coated.
Garnish with spring onions and roasted peanuts before serving.
Pad Thai was not something that I tried until I was 18. There was an amazing place in Merced and the owners loved the uni students and always took care of us. When I moved back to Edinburgh, the flat I settled in was tucked in behind a Chinese food place that also made amazing Pad Thai. I used to order it a lot when I was working on my PhD. Unfortunately, they were a casualty of the pandemic, which is why I wanted to learn a simple version that I could make on my own. I am going to add this one to the list of things I will make again.
I still have yet to make a list of the 22 things I’d like to do in 2022, but I think cooking one new recipe a week is going to be there. I’ll then use it as a cooking corner here so that people can see my progress. I used to be a good cook and really enjoyed trying new recipes. Then the PhD and the slow cooker disaster of 2018 happened and I got lazy.
and fat.
The second week of the year I made fish tacos. They were amazing. They can be seen in the previous post. Last week I decided to make a soup. It was a kale, pasta and cannellini bean soup (the recipe can be found here: https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/kale-pasta-and-cannellini-bean-soup.html. The process of making the soup was fun, but it didn’t really taste as great as I was hoping. I didn’t use enough broth and had too much pasta, so it ended up more like a pasta salad type creation. I’m not sure that I would make it again. Just in case the link disappears one day, here is the full recipe:
10g fresh rosemary, leaves picked and roughly chopped
1 vegetable stock cube, made up to 750ml
150g margheritine soup pasta
10g fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges
Method
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onions, carrots and chopped garlic and cook for 15 mins until soft and caramelised.
Stir in the passata, kale, beans (mash a few first if you prefer a thicker soup), rosemary and stock. Simmer for 10 mins; season. Add the pasta and simmer for 10 mins more.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp oil in a small saucepan over a low heat. Add the sliced garlic and cook for 3-4 mins until lightly browned and crispy, then tip into a small bowl.
Divide the soup between bowls and top with the parsley and crispy garlic. Serve with lemon wedges to squeeze over.
Tip: Make it vegan by using a stock pot instead of a cube.
On Saturday I decided to make my own salsa. I miss Mexican food a lot, and one of the hardest things to get here is a good salsa. The upside is, I can find all of the ingredients of a good salsa and I own a blender, so in less than ten minutes, I was able to create enough salsa to last me five days.
Prepare Ingredients: Add the onion, jalapeno, and garlic to the food processor and pulse until chopped up.
Pulse: Add in the tomatoes and continue to pulse until the tomatoes break down and release juices.
Season: Add in honey, salt, 1/2 cup cilantro leaves, and juice of 1/2 lime (start slow with the lime as it can overpower, you can taste and add more if desired)
Blend: Pulse in the processor to desired consistency. Chunky or smooth. Taste and adjust salt, honey, or lime juice as needed.
VIDEO
NOTES
Tomatoes: recipe can be made with fresh or canned tomatoes, or use a mixture of the two. The 1 pound of fresh tomatoes will replace using both the cans of diced tomatoes.
Chile: this recipe is made using jalapeno, removing the seeds and membranes makes for a nice mild salsa. If you personally want more heat add in extra jalapeno or even a Serrano pepper.
Honey: adding this cuts through the acidity of the tomatoes and gives a smooth flavoring.
Salt: taste and adjust as needed in this recipe.
Storage: Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Salsa too thin? Simply strain out some of the liquid.
I used a blender rather than a food processer and added some hotter peppers because I like spicy salsa, and I was not disappointed. It is so good. I’ve made nachos, quesadillas, spicy breakfast burritos with scrambled eggs. I am a happy happy girl.
Now that I have been able to master some easy recipes from Tesco, I think it is time to try something else, something with a different protein, like chicken, or fish that aren’t in fish stick form and see what I can do. Eventually, I will try to cook something in the slow cooker, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. That chicken disaster still haunts me.
Call Me Ishmael Take the first sentence from your favourite book and make it the first sentence of your post.
I was going to use my all-time favourite book, but ‘When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow‘ doesn’t leave me with a lot to go on since I do not tend to post the fiction that I write here. I went to my second favourite book, but ‘Crouched in the closet, he waited for the sounds of her arrival’ wasn’t much better. Third time lucky though.
I feel sometimes, I’ve lived THREE lives. That’s not true….it is probably more like four. There was the first 26 years of my life. That was the Kim who thought she was going to be a lawyer, then a writer then spent over 10 years working in libraries. She had a lot of friends, two significant romantic relationships and was diagnosed with Lupus at the age of 22.
Then there was Scotland Part 1 Kim. She had a wonderful adventure, got accepted to one of the best universities in the world, and got to live out her dream of living overseas. She was happy, she was loved, and she never wanted to go home. This is the Kim who started this blog.
Then there was the transition back to the US Kim. She was depressed, suffering reverse culture shock, and trying to plan a new life that did not include the person she thought she was going to marry. She ended up in a horrible EdD programme and found herself not only being bullied but being kicked out of the university for something so outrageous that it is now hilarious.
Finally, there was Scotland Part 2 Kim. She earned a PhD, made some friends, lost some friends, and although the pandemic is making her hate life a bit, she is doing a job she is good at, has been all over the world, and has a much better understanding of how to use a hair straightener.
I don’t know if this will be my last life, or if I will be like a cat and have 9 of them. Maybe in my next life I will own a rescue farm where I take in all of the animals and let them live out their days in the Scottish countryside. I’m still two years away from being able to get permanent settlement in the UK, and I’m still crossing my fingers that maybe one day it will be Scottish citizenship rather than British citizenship. Maybe I’ll be able to live somewhere warm in the winter months, somewhere with a beach. Maybe I will actually pass the UK driving test….I mean, a girl can dream, right?
The first line is from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
The second line is from Savage Art by Danielle Girard.
The line I ultimately went with is the start of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Or, 2020 part 2. It feels like forever ago since I was explaining Post Malone and BTS to my dad as we waited for the ball to drop on 2019 and start 2020. That was the first New Years I’d spent in California since I was 27. Little did I know that would be the last bit of normal that I would have for 2+ years. The pandemic kicked my butt so hard that I stopped writing for fun. I literally shelved the blog for the most part because there was no travelling and no fun in my life.
and there are only so many ways you can say you are depressed and that you hate life. I made a list of the 20 things I wanted to do in 2020, which became the 21 things I wanted to do in 2021, which is now going to become the 22 things I want to in 2022. I’m also bringing back the daily writing prompts as I think being told what to write will help me on the days that I just can’t get my creative juices flowing. I’m still putting together a list of things that I can actually do and not ignore for the year, so while I think about that, I will go with the daily prompt for today.
Although, I am not sure it is really something I wanted to have on the internet, but here goes:
Where were you last night when 2020 turned into 2021? Is that where you’d wanted to be?
I spent last night at home, alone. I watched bad movies and generally just moped about being alone. Everyone I would want to spend the night with are either in another country, isolating, or had to work and didn’t celebrate. If I had my way, I’d be in another country on an adventure. I booked a trip in November to Austria, Czechia and Slovakia, but they went back into lockdown the day before I was due to leave. I’d have loved to be able to do that trip over Christmas/New Years, but alas, the furthest I’ve travelled in two months is the airport to get to the vaccination centre.
If I couldn’t be on an adventure with my travel bestie, then being able to be out in the city centre surrounded by people, judging the bad outfits, drinking all of the rum would be perfect. The last time I did that was 2018. It was fun, I was with people I love and we did a lot of fun. That is what I miss. Having fun. Being around people. The pandemic is lonely. My life before the pandemic was lonely. PhD life is not for the faint of heart.
Now that a new year has started and I am dedicated to trying to be less of a sad sack. The new list will be made, and I tried online dating during the pandemic, so there will forthcoming stories about the disastrous dates that I went on. Hopefully the year has started off as well as can be for everyone and maybe, just maybe, 2022 won’t be part of a horrible Covid trilogy.
Oops…it is the 3rd of January. I meant to finish the list on the first, but gin happened and then I decided that I needed to purge everything in my closets and hoover under my bed. It is raining/snowing and very icy inside my poorly heated flat, so I am already starting off the year a bit more lazy than I intended….but I’m not mad at it. Whilst thinking about the list, I decided that the first thing on my list for this year was to be nicer to myself. I have been struggling for the last few years with maintaining my motivation and follow-through. The PhD took a lot out of me and 2020 was not actually the year of my rebirth into a beautiful butterfly, but there is a lot of 2021 left.
So, my list for 2021 is as follows:
Try and do the 20 things on the list from 2020. I am not as concerned about being able to cross everything off, but they are things that I would like to do. I especially want to keep paying down my student loan and finally get my UK driving license (an automatic one, because lord knows I do not want to take the test a 4th time!). I want to be able to travel beyond my neighborhood, but if it can be out of the country, that will be a bonus. I already have my eye on a few tropical hideouts and I am hoping the summer will be safe enough to go back to adventures.
Find a form of exercising that I like, and can do easily from my living room if lockdown doesn’t end until after Easter (which is how long I am thinking I will be stuck inside). I am going to really try to stick with yoga because that is really something that I enjoy, but I also need something else to help me expend some energy on the days that I feel cagey and restless. I really want to take up cycling and I recently saw an exercise bike that has a desk which means I could ride miles in my flat and maybe get some work done at the same time….I just don’t want to fork over £400 for one.
I am not going to buy any new clothes or pairs of shoes unless absolutely necessary. I have plenty of clothes and dresses and way more than enough shoes. There is no reason for me to spend money right now on things that I don’t need. This will also help me have some extra money to put towards the driving lessons and the student loans.
In line with number 3, I am going to wear all of my clothes and shoes at least once this year. I’m not really going anywhere, and I don’t usually wear shoes when I am home, but I can put them on for a bit in the morning to get into work mode. The weather means that if I venter outside then I am going to be wearing boots or my running shoes until Spring, but the my white shoes will look nice inside.
Cultivate a new hobby. I am thinking that I need to learn to cook. I am not bad at tacos and making pasta, but I am so out of practice and have been so lazy that I don’t know if I could cook anything else. I didn’t lose any weight last year which depresses me to no end, but if I learned how to cook, then I could make better food choices.
Adopt a pet. Enough said.
Be a better friend. I have been so lonely and depressed about being lonely during the pandemic that I haven’t always checked in with my friends. I used to think that you needed a lot of friends around you to be a good friend, but if this pandemic has taught me anything, it is that all you really need are a few good friends to keep you sane. I’ve also been able to connect with old friends in new ways which makes me happy. I want to be better at checking in with those people when I am feeling down or when I am feeling stuck, because one of them might be feeling the same.
Organize my workday. I have a lot on my plate and have not been spending my time wisely as of late. It is hard to do whilst working from home, but I am about to take over running the GTA trainings for the university, so in order to do that and teach and manage a MEd student, I am going to have to be better about scheduling my time and sticking to that schedule….including adding in exercise into my day so I am not tempted to just brush it off for the couch cushion with my butt imprint and really bad reality TV. I am pretty sure I have watched all the bad reality TV on Netflix and Amazon. That is a lot of time that could have been spent working better and being productive.
This isn’t a list to be crossed off, but something to keep me going this year if I am stuck inside for the rest of the year. I might have to break my rule of no spending money on things I really don’t need to buy self tanner though because I am so pale I look like I have been living underground for a year. The bags under my eyes are way too noticeable. I just got smaller glasses, but I am going to have exchange them for a larger pair to cover them raccoon eyes!
I’m leaving the list from last year here just to remind me of some of things that I would like to do in the next year. It can’t hurt to have things to do when I am wallowing about being stuck inside.
Visit 3 new countries
Present at an academic conference
Solo author a paper
Lose the 20lbs I gained in the last year due to bad choices and stress
Do yoga at least twice a week
Write at least one new post a week that has nothing to do with work
Make a dent in my student loan
Finally get my UK driving license
Participate in No Screen Sunday and stay off my phone and all social media on Sundays (starting today because I have not done it at all this month)
Keep the toxic people from returning to my bubble
Ride in a hot air balloon
Go camping
Celebrate passing my viva
Improve my Spanish proficiency
Meal prep to help balance my diet (and to help with number 4)
Get on an academic committee
Officially change my name on all my documents without crying
Go a full 48 hours without being negative
Don’t cancel plans with friends once I’ve made them (especially not the day of)
Finally get my artwork from California to Scotland (although not through FedEx)
It’s that time of the year again where we all scramble to pretend that we are still going to meet our New Years Resolutions, and we pretend that we are going to follow the ones we plan to make for the next year. I made one of those lists. This time last year, sat in the downstairs area of my parents’ house and I made a list. I was stressed beyond belief. I was officially no longer a part of the living in the US. I had finally asked my dad to adopt me. I had three months left to finish a complete rewrite of my PhD. I made a lot of plans for what I was going to do in 2020.
This was supposed to be my year! I was going to graduate. I was going to start being social. I was going to travel and go on adventures without having to take work with me. I was going to be slutty. I was going to kiss strange boys in public and go on bad first dates. I wasn’t going to be lonely anymore. I was going to be happy and reduce my stress. So I made a list.
Then March happened. The day after I turned 33 I got adopted and changed my name. I told the world about it and only three people understood. I turned in my thesis edits and the next day the world went into lockdown, and with it, all the things I wanted to do got flushed down the toilet. I did manage to get some of the list crossed off, and to be honest, some of the ones that weren’t crossed off were not crossed off because I lost focus. That list looked like this:
Visit 3 new countries
Present at an academic conference
Solo author a paper
Lose the 20lbs I gained in the last year due to bad choices and stress
Do yoga at least twice a week
Write at least one new post a week that has nothing to do with work
Make a dent in my student loan
Finally get my UK driving license
Participate in No Screen Sunday and stay off my phone and all social media on Sundays (starting today because I have not done it at all this month)
Keep the toxic people from returning to my bubble
Ride in a hot air balloon
Go camping
Celebrate passing my viva
Improve my Spanish proficiency
Meal prep to help balance my diet (and to help with number 4)
Get on an academic committee
Officially change my name on all my documents without crying
Go a full 48 hours without being negative
Don’t cancel plans with friends once I’ve made them (especially not the day of)
Finally get my artwork from California to Scotland (although not through FedEx)
Being that I make these list so that I can feel accomplished when I cross things off them, I’d say I am less than satisficed with the way the 2020 list turned out. That’s the problem with making lists, when you can’t cross something off, you feel unfulfilled or like you failed. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel like a failure because I didn’t lose any of the weight and that I didn’t manage to stick to simple things like doing yoga twice a week, or making time to write about fun things, random things, anything that is not related to my work. These are things that require focus and discipline, and to be honest, that is not something I much of since I finished the PhD. It is hard for me to stay motivated when I am all alone and stuck in solitary confinement. 45-60 min of outdoor time a day is not enough for me, but it is the best I can do right now. At least with the vaccine out now there is hope for a light at the end of the tunnel. I really hope 2021 finds a new normal that allows me out of the house a bit more…oh and allows me to hug people. I am going to hug the shit out of people when this has all settled into a new normal.
And that brings me to the list for the new year. I’ve thought a lot about what that list should look like, what things should be on it…what I wanted to accomplish. The thing is though, I am starting wonder if making a list like this is just setting me up for failure. What if I don’t lose the weight? What if I fail the driver’s test again (and WHY is it so difficult here?) What if I only kick the toxic people out for a little while and then let them back in? I don’t want to make any promises that I can’t keep.
So there isn’t a list yet. but I still have one more day to think about what will go on it….
The last time I wrote something was August. This means by default, I cannot complete this list. Making lists when you know you can’t complete them is stupid. I knew making this list a year ago that I wasn’t going to be able to stick to it. I’m too tired and unmotivated to have any follow through. I’ve been a prisoner to my flat since March, and a prisoner to my burnout for years. None of that is likely to change.
I did get to cross one off the list though. A big one. I legally changed my name in the US without crying. Well, that is not completely true. I cried happy tears when I got my passport and it had my correct name. I got adopted right before the pandemic started, which was also supposed to be the time I was out and about and socializing, making new friends, dating guys who don’t lie to me about having a girlfriend in another country and using me as a secret dirty mistress. It also meant I would be able to introduce myself with my name. Alas, none of that came to pass. On the upside, I have a valid passport, social security number, and birth certificate with my name. My UK insurance number, my bank cards and accounts (and as soon as the university stops being a pain in my ass) my new shiny 2 year visa.
I am really glad that my visa and my HR file will have the correct name, but I massively underestimated how much I was going to hate hyphenating my name and the fact that everyone at work is still calling me by my old surname. That is not my name, and all these months and months of only working has just furthered emphasized that I am not going to ever get rid of a name I don’t want and an identity that isn’t who I am. Plus, it is not the name on my diploma, so it is not factually accurate to use it. But now, thanks to stupid academic publications, I am stuck with a name I don’t want. Thankfully I didn’t put crying when someone uses the old surname on the list.
The next thing on the list that I want to attempt is to spend a full 48 hours without being negative. I almost made it during the summer, but being stuck inside, overworked, massively underappreciated, and deprived of human contact only got me to 26 hours. Looks like I have a lot of work to do on keeping a positive mindset. I think my plan for tackling that to take a sleeping pill and trying to sleep for most of that 48 hours. At this point, that may be the only way that I can make it through two days whilst being positive.
I saved all my annual leave for 2020 thinking I would be able to use it when my family came for graduation and so that I could lay on a beach in Spain, and since all of that got cancelled, I am on annual leave starting December 11th at 4pm. December 12th, I am going to try for a full 48 hours. I just need to figure out some good things to do to keep me occupied.
All suggestions welcome. Except for nonstop Hallmark movie marathons. I cannot handle how dumb some of the women are at the start of the movie with boyfriend who is all wrong for them….I’d never make it through the 48 hours.
Visit 3 new countries
Present at an academic conference
Solo author a paper
Lose the 20lbs I gained in the last year due to bad choices and stress
Do yoga at least twice a week
Write at least one new post a week that has nothing to do with work
Make a dent in my student loan
Finally get my UK driving license
Participate in No Screen Sunday and stay off my phone and all social media on Sundays (starting today because I have not done it at all this month)
Keep the toxic people from returning to my bubble
Ride in a hot air balloon
Go camping
Celebrate passing my viva
Improve my Spanish proficiency
Meal prep to help balance my diet (and to help with number 4)
Get on an academic committee
Officially change my name on all my documents without crying
Go a full 48 hours without being negative
Don’t cancel plans with friends once I’ve made them (especially not the day of)
Finally get my artwork from California to Scotland (although not through FedEx)
When I first made the list in January, I had no idea that Covid19 would jump ship from China and create a worldwide lockdown. With all the changes to travelling and things that people can do, there are some things on my list that probably won’t be possible this year. I am going to try and do as many as I can though, and maybe push the list to things I can do next year when the world has a new normal that includes travel. I am making an adjustment to one of the things on the list. Instead of no screen Sunday, I am doing no social media Sunday as I have to spend most of my time solo and the weekend is the best time to talk to most of my friends and family.
The good news is, I have been accepted to an academic conference, and for the moment is still scheduled to take place, which means I will be able to present at an academic conference. Thank you, British Educational Research Association. This will be the first time that I present my updated thesis and I cannot wait. Hopefully, it doesn’t get cancelled like everything else in the world. The conference is in Liverpool, and I’ve never been there, so I am looking forward to that as well. I’d even settle for a virtual conference.
I’ve also put a plan in place thanks to the wombmate to lose the 20lbs. She has lost almost 35 lbs and has 20 left, so we have become virtual workout buddies and send each other progress reports every day to make sure that we are being active. It is a lot tougher for her because she has two babies, but she is killing it. I’ve started meal prepping as well and planning out better meals and getting more protein into my diet, so I am hoping that by our goal of October we can be 20lbs lighter.
The only good thing about the virus is that fitness people are posting at-home workouts that don’t require equipment, so I have an endless supply to work through and keep from going completely stir crazy. When I start naming all the plants in my flat, please send help.
Just a reminder of the list:
Visit 3 new countries
Present at an academic conference
Solo author a paper
Lose the 20lbs I gained in the last year due to bad choices and stress
Do yoga at least twice a week
Write at least one new post a week that has nothing to do with work
Make a dent in my student loan
Finally get my UK driving license
Participate in No Screen Sunday and stay off my phone and all social media on Sundays
Keep the toxic people from returning to my bubble
Ride in a hot air balloon
Go camping
Celebrate passing my viva
Improve my Spanish proficiency
Meal prep to help balance my diet (and to help with number 4)
Get on an academic committee
Officially change my name on all my documents without crying (this has to be done in person so won’t happen until maybe 2021)
Go a full 48 hours without being negative
Don’t cancel plans with friends once I’ve made them (especially not the day of)
Finally get my artwork from California to Scotland (although not through FedEx)
I’m still on the quest to write for fun at least two days a week. Fun is hard to come by right at the moment, so I am going to rely on an old set of journal prompts to get me thinking about something other than work…..except when I opened the document for the question that went with today’s date, that question was:
Tell me something weird about your day.
The thing is, there was nothing really weird about the day. Not a thing. If this question had come yesterday I could have discussed the fact that this crazy storm we are in the middle of has the weather all messed up. Yesterday was thunder, lightning and snow.
Yes, snow. I didn’t know it was possible to have a thunder/snowstorm. The thunder shook the whole building. It was just part of a day of weird weather. I was doing a teaching observation in the middle of the day. When I left my office there was a light flurry of snow, but nothing terrible. I sat facing the windows so I could see the lecturer and the students during the session….and that was a mistake. By the time the lecture started, there was a full-on blizzard. I’ve never seen it snow so hard in person. At one point between the wind and the snow, it sounds like the windows were being pelted by rocks. Not to mention that you could not see two feet in front of you. I was so distracted by the snow at one point that because of the lecturer’s accent, I thought he said murders and acquisitions rather than mergers and acquisitions.
I’m not going to lie, a class on murders and acquisitions might not be a bad idea.
I was able to sneak off a little early and make it home without any disruption to the trains, or anything more than just icy streets in Edinburgh, but compared to that, today was ordinary.
I need ordinary though. Ordinary is what is going to get me through the next month and hopefully allow me to finish the thesis and maybe, just maybe, pass and be done with a pretty shit experience.
Last year I only published four posts. Four. In 365 days I only managed to write for fun (well okay, not fun, mostly for therapy) four times. Almost a month into 2020 and I am not really feeling the fun writing either. I am 10 posts away from 500 and have had the Scamp adventures as my constant companion for almost ten years. Sometimes I wonder if I have run out of things to say.
Sometimes I wonder if the PhD killed my love of writing. Today I had a fight with FedEx. That fight and the frustration that comes from a week-long back and forth battle with them led me to lash out at the people around me and picking fights with people for absolutely no reason. One of those people has been a toxic existence in my life for the last four years. The thing is, I wanted to get rid of him a long time ago but I wasn’t strong enough. It is not easy to get rid of a manipulative sociopath when you are already beaten down emotionally by life.
The edits for my thesis are due in one month. I’m not done. I’m getting there, but not close enough to keep me from stressing. The final draft is due to the examiners by the 13th of March, and I have that marked on my calendar as the day my life begins. It is has been five years that I have been chained to the PhD, three of those in less than ideal circumstances, and two of those feeling utterly worthless and broken by the system. But on the 13th of March, I get to start living again.
I’m supposed to be on a flight to China that day, but with the given health warning, I am not sure that is going to happen. Regardless, I get to live again.
So, because I have not done things outside the PhD in way too long, I have decided to bring back one of my favourite things: making a list of things that I would like to do in during the year. I did this before my 30th birthday and it was a lot of fun. It also gave me great pleasure to do the things on the list and cross them off. I love do love crossing things off a list.
In no particular order:
Visit 3 new countries
Present at an academic conference
Solo author a paper
Lose the 20lbs I gained in the last year due to bad choices and stress
Do yoga at least twice a week
Write at least one new post a week that has nothing to do with work
Make a dent in my student loan
Finally get my UK driving license
Participate in No Screen Sunday and stay off my phone and all social media on Sundays (starting today because I have not done it at all this month)
Keep the toxic people from returning to my bubble
Ride in a hot air balloon
Go camping
Celebrate passing my viva
Improve my Spanish proficiency
Meal prep to help balance my diet (and to help with number 4)
Get on an academic committee
Officially change my name on all my documents without crying
Go a full 48 hours without being negative
Don’t cancel plans with friends once I’ve made them (especially not the day of)
Finally get my artwork from California to Scotland (although not through FedEx)
I’m hoping that by writing the list down I can stay accountable and actually complete these things. I also hope that it means that I will be a lot happier in 2020 than I was in 2019.
The Scamp Abroad 