A change is as good as a rest......umm no, a rest is much better!

I realise I have not been particularly prolific on here of late and I think this is for a number of reasons. Or rather, it could be for one of many reasons but I can't work out which. 

We are approaching the end of another school year. I have no children but all of my business endeavours revolve around the school timetable. This means I am constantly waiting for the school holidays so that I can do nothing for a week or two (or six in the summer). I don't really like this feeling, I would love to have a little more freedom.

My fatigue is a little out of hand right now and I have a very busy 3 weeks ahead which is quite daunting. I've talked about my loss of mojo before and I have, recently (or for the past 3 years or so) put this down to being perimenopausal but I'm not so sure anymore. One of you lovely readers got in touch to ask if I thought I may have ADHD. I shrugged this off, thinking it seems very fashionable for adults to suddenly be diagnosed with ADHD and so I didn't really take this suggestion seriously. I can't be bothered to do anything about this (which I have read is a classic ADHD symptom) and really want to try and locate my mojo without medical intervention. 

Of course this means that I am probably going to procrastinate like crazy and do nothing for 3 weeks until I am finally on my summer break but this is probably precisely what I shouldn't do. Therefore, in an effort to find a little more energy I have decided to make one small change that I am hoping will help.

During lockdown I had got myself into the habit of going for a daily walk, as we couldn't really do much else and then, once we were allowed to go everywhere again, I went nowhere! So I have reintroduced the daily walk. I have set myself a goal of, at least, 5000 steps per day and I have everything crossed that I will see a change in my energy levels because of it. I know I need to do more than this and perhaps I should be seeing a doctor to check all is well but I've never liked making a fuss about stuff so don't want to waste anyone's time.

Hopefully I will have something more interesting to tell you next time I write as I am getting completely bored with myself so can only imagine how you feel reading this. In the meantime take care of yourselves and I'll be in touch again soon!

Shall we just get on with it now?

Well, well, well it's the summer holidays so everything gets a little more manageable for a few weeks but, as always, I am plagued by procrastination. Well I say that, I watched a webinar (standard) that included some techniques to get over the procrastination thing. Funnily enough I had already decided that I was going to split my to-do list up into smaller chunks in order to be able to tick more things off which is one of the techniques. It always feels good to tick things off a to-do list.

Changing the subject very abruptly, Facebook has been throwing up more "memories" than it ever used to recently. Has anyone else noticed that? Anyway, last week I was reminded about the very first cabaret set I did at The Pheasantry in Chelsea back in 2014. It was, by a country mile, the best thing I had ever done on a stage (possibly off-stage too) and really made me re-evaluate what I'm doing with my worklife.

I know I have a little more time as I gave up one of my regular jobs. I originally gave this job up in order to give more time to my choir, Songsations, but my thoughts have changed where that is concerned as well. The choir is going to be a fun project. Great if it brings in a few pennies but I think it's time to try and start making a living doing what I actually trained to do and go back to performing.

I know I don't want to do big shows like Phantom again but I definitely want to sing again, on a stage, in front of people. It will take a bit of time to get things organised but I have started putting things together for a new cabaret set PLUS I have started to learn a new song. A song that I will sing AND play the piano for. I am still a dreadful pianist but I am far better than I was before I started teaching singing. I will record the new song for you, not when it's perfect (as I have learnt perfection is unattainable) but when I can get through it without making too many mistakes.

One thing I do find, now that I'm a bit older, is that I have a brain like a sieve. I can't remember lyrics nearly as well as I could BUT the good thing about doing cabaret rather than musicals is it really doesn't matter if I go wrong so the pressure is less when contemplating putting a cabaret together. 

For the first time in a very, very long time I am excited about MY singing again. I don't feel the need to live vicariously through my students anymore as I AM going to do something about it and put myself out there again!

In the meantime, here's a little reminder, for you and for me, of what I CAN do (Ooh there might be one sweary word in this!). If you can't see the video below, click here!