Out of sorts

Hello loves,

Some might say that unless you write a political blog, writing about politics is a dumb move. I'm not going to go into too much detail except to say as a disabled person I'm not ecstatic that the UK has another 5 years of Tory rule to endure. I feel like a blender full of emotion right now, good and bad things all smashed into each other.

I had a REALLY great weekend with James, and my friends Rach and JP, but I still feel low. Not even booking a holiday yesterday changed that for long. All I want to do is bury my head in my Kindle and block out the world. My mental health is definitely on the slide right now.

I know things are going to get harder for the most vulnerable people in the UK - possibly even myself - as the Tories are planning another 12 billion pounds of cuts, but while I can do anything to help, I will. I've set up a small monthly donation to the Trussell Trust as it's the least I should do. They run food banks for the needy, and support is desperately needed with a million people in the UK now reliant on food banks to survive.

Enough of the gloom, here's what I got up to this weekend. 

On Saturday morning I had a delivery from Crown & Glory. I had a 20% discount code from my Easter Glitterati box, and the medium bows are 5 for the price of 4 on the website anyway so I got a lovely bargain. Glitter helps me feel better. I'm always on the lookout for flowers to photograph, as they also make me happy. I love the photo of me under the blossom tree.

Rach and JP stayed with us for the whole weekend and on Saturday we went to two lovely country pubs, then went to Rach's parents for a couple of hours to plot wedding stuff over a couple of glasses of wine. We came back and got up to date on Game of Thrones and had an Indian takeaway.

On Sunday we went to Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve with Rach and JP. It's always lovely there with the sea views and the coast which looks Jurassic at a glance. We're really lucky to have so much nature close by. We did a trail James and I had never done before, which was very steep both up and down, and I was really suffering on the uphill leg. Even with several short rests I nearly threw up from the exertion. It was made far more bearable by the lovely scenery - including the Exmoor ponies they have up there to graze the land - and the fresh air. I'm definitely an exercise-in-the-outdoors girl rather than a gym girl.

Above is my face before and after the walk. I was glowing for a good while afterwards. ;)

I'm feeling the after effects today - fatigue and aches & pains everywhere - but quitting on myself is not an option. I've been gently upping my exercise for a couple of weeks as I want to have more stamina. The longest winter in my memory appears to finally be at an end (the weather's been mostly shit for like 7 MONTHS) and I want to get fitter. The drawback is the more exercise I do, the less I do of something else! CFS/ME does not play along with the 'exercise for more energy' school of thought. It's the 'exercise will eff you up' school of thought. Ha! It's 2 steps forward 2 steps back all the time. The lack of consistency with any endeavour is probably the hardest thing of all about chronic illness. No matter how good your intentions are, life will throw you a chronic illness shaped curveball, and you'll be back to square one.

Well, this girl is trying to dodge that ball. ;) Here's to keepin' on keepin' on. Have a great rest of week and I hope life is being kind to you.

Leah xoxo