Where have I been?

I’ll start by apologising as I have been away for so long, but I will explain where I’ve been in this blog post hence the title. My last blog post was all about my favourite things at the start of this year, does anyone else feel like this year has been the fastest so far since 2020!? I guess the start of the pandemic taught us all how to slow down, now two years on the world has become more fast pace again!? Doesn’t my title remind you of the scene in Harry Potter where it’s Molly Weasley exclaiming “Where have you been? Beds empty, no note, car gone you could have died! ” I know a certain person that will know this reference. Anyways lets get into the blogpost.. it will be full of random rambling a bit like a catch up with a friend you haven’t seen for so long and I’ll throw in a few favourite things of mine too as they’ve changed a bit since my last post! Hope you enjoy!

The main reason I have been away for so long is a really boring reason. So I’ve been on an extra course for work at the moment and it has been ALOT! Don’t get me wrong I have learnt a lot and parts of it I have enjoyed, but it has taken a lot of my spare time up and comes with its stresses of doing work on top of full-time working as a nurse! I don’t normally talk about my job on here, but I can finally say that I am 8 years a nurse and the last 2 years in Cancer Care I’ve finally found where I am supposed to be! This course has given me so much insight into the area that I work in now, that I am excited to try and progress in this area of nursing! Who knew that I’d stop having cold feet and be comfortable in where I work. I have the patients and colleagues that I work with to thank for that. People close to me know this was not the path I would have imagined myself down as I sadly lost my loving stepdad to pancreatic cancer in 2014 just before I qualified as a nurse. In 2018 my mum also was dealt with breast cancer, but through this experience I’ve grown into the cancer care nurse that I aspire to be! I’ve almost finish this course now extremely proud of the work ethic I’ve managed to have, just an essay to go now that will give me some credits towards a uni course going towards my goal as a CNS. Throwing it out into the universe, as I hope to then progress to becoming a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS for short) within cancer care! I’ve said it now so watch this space… Thank you to all my friends that have encouraged me and supported me and are my cheerleaders you know who you are!

Whilst doing this work, I’ve also been working on myself. This leads me to my first favourite I want to talk about and that is drum roll….. THE GYM! Can’t believe I am saying this, but I have been really enjoying the gym and specifically going to gym classes! I have really changed my mindset, I joined the gym in May after we moved to our house back in April (which our house is my fave thing that’s come out of 2022). If I book a class, then that’s it it’s on my calendar and I must go! Some days I may not be feeling it, but I have gone and then felt amazing after. I’ve done a mix of classes so far which have been pump, legs bums and tums (LBT), body tone and bootcamp which is a mix of whole body workouts. I’ve really felt the benefit of going and I have been incorporating going to park run on Saturdays too! I have also changed my mindset with food too and have been tracking my calories with my fitness pal app! All these things combined have helped me to lose weight and I’m getting more and more confident in myself! I’m loving the way I am feeling at the moment, although I have come to a bit of a stand still as I’ve injured my back whether it was the gym or work I’m unsure. This has set me back a bit, but I’m determined to get back to it and I have still been exercising to what my back will allow me to do. I have an appointment booked with physio so hopefully my back will be better again. This has made me slightly nervous as I do have a 10 mile run called the Great South Run in October, which I am still determined to do as I am raising money for cancer research! Still love running, but no where near where I want to be with it at present, but I will get there and I will make sure I cross that finish line. If you would like to support and sponsor me I will leave my just giving page linked below:

http:www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Charlotte-Heathergsr2022

I will eventually write a blog post on my fitness journey! Not quite there with where I want to be yet, but I’m happy with my progress so far! Still been enjoying riding my Pendleton bike as well and Liam my boyfriend has been helping me feel more confident riding on roads.

Other things I have been up to when I can is enjoying time with friends and quality time with Liam. I went to The Cotswolds recently with my girl friends from uni and it was such a laugh like old uni times! Getting happily drunk and just having the best time together. We booked a little hut for 4 of us in pretty much the middle of nowhere and was just a nice little getaway best part was the hot tub! I’ve also met up with a couple of work colleagues who I rarely see outside work which has been lovely to have catch ups with people! And when I have more time I will continue to meet up with my lovely friends that I miss so much! I’ve also loved trying new things! My best friend Ujal suggested a double date punting (me and Ujal were not the greatest at this, the boys were definitely better!) but it was so nice to do something a little bit different.

Another thing my friend Ujal wanted me to mention is an app called Vinted. If you’ve not heard of it, it’s basically a great app for selling things you don’t want and you can buy things others don’t want. I have managed to sell a few things that I no longer wear anymore and have sold a book that I have read which was ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ by Delia Owens which has been made into a film, the best adaptation of a book I’ve seen. I cried throughout highly recommend the book and film. It’s so easy to sell on the app, just have to take a few photos, decide on price and upload. I’ve never been into Ebay and this just seems so much easier and also great for the environment.

The last thing I have been up to is getting back into playing piano! I found a piano teacher just down the road from me and it has been so nice just to be in walking distance. I have been fitting in piano lessons every alternate Sunday. So I haven’t had many, but each time I see progress and getting better with it. Trying to get into the routine of practicing 20 mins each day/evening before bed. I have also been enjoying listening to a piano playlist on Spotify they update it with different songs and the piano playing is so lovely it inspires me to how I want to be! My aim is to keep on practicing and having lessons and for Christmas I may treat myself to an upstanding white weighted keyboard that I have got my eye on!

I leave you with this picture of my number one fan…

So I don’t really know what this blog is but just wanted a bit of a catch up! I hope you enjoyed reading this ramblely blog post! I will try my best to upload more content more regularly, but thank you for sticking with me and being patient! Thank you again for joining me in my scrapbook!

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