This was actually supposed to be a Happy Monday email but my yesterday didn't go quite to plan. I am writing a thesis at the moment as well as doing my day job, which is why there's such a lot of AAHHH!!! on the blog at the moment. On Friday I had to sit for the compulsory one-year research review where a panel of academics looks at where you are and tells you if they think you're up to scratch. If you're not, you might get kicked out. This involves submitting a written report and making a presentation and is, without reservation, one of the most stressful assessments I have ever done in my life. I was so nervous walking in to give my talk that I almost vomited. Of course I needn't have worried - I did fine, passed without a problem and am now free to research and write as I like. However, because I had spent my whole week working on my stuff I then had to spend the whole weekend working on my day job to catch up, which was not what I wanted to do! (which was drink wine and hang out with my cat, clearly).
So, Monday was to be my first day off in about a month and I had all of these ambitious plans as to what I wanted to do with my glorious free time which mainly involved tackling all of the tasks I had avoided during my busy period. Take back my late books to the library! Make stock and meals to freeze for the week ahead! Do my banking and insurance paperwork! Instead, I ended up cleaning my bathroom, making a slow-cooked pasta sauce and watching the entire first season of Girls (note: I now get the Lena Durham hate - her character on the show has to be one of the most self-centred characters I've ever encountered on TV. I admit that the white wealthy privilege on the show was a bit testing for me and some of the sex scenes - awkward! But still - a show written by a female about females that doesn't involve slut-shaming and body-shaming and is funny and real (I'm thinking in particular about the relationships between Hannah and Marnie, Hannah and Adam and Marnie and Charlie) - this is a good thing that we should be supporting not hating on). All in all the day was wonderful and today I feel refreshed and revitalised. Perspective has be regained!
Because my pasta sauce was awesome*, I did this:
Now I have to deal with the fact that I am the type of person who Instagrams my food but doesn't care enough about it to clean the plate before doing so. Problematic...
Soon, a Finish-It-February round-up, a WIP Wednesday post and more knitting news. But for now, the refreshed, non-sleep-deprived me is going to enjoy the lack of intense punishing deadlines and the opportunity for more quality time with my cat :)
* The pasta sauce is the "quickie" pasta sauce from Teresa Guidice's Skinny Italian cookbook, which I borrowed from the library for a laugh but actually contains some really great Italian recipes, including the best pizza dough I have ever made. I simmered the tomato sauce for about four hours then I sauteed some zucchini and capsicum in a separate pan, mixed them with the sauce and topped with fresh parmesan. Delicious!
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