Bat fit: Kick off for 2015

Ouch! I'm heavier than ever... haven't I written this before? Yes, I have. Reasons for this are: I eat too much sugar, too large portions of food and sit most of my time. So, it would be reasonable if I lost weight if I changed those things, right?

Last years motto for Frannys Bat fit 2014 was Cleansing and a cleansing year it was. I cleansed my life from a toxic job, a job that bored the hell out of me. The problem with too many workplaces are that the hierarcic structure is not for the companys best but for the bosses in charge. As an employee you are not supposed to say your opinion or try to change things for the better. If you have ideas, keep them for yourself. And for god sake, it's better do do nothing at all than to do something wrong. It may sound harsh and I may sound bitter but I have learned to never trust people again.

One of the best desicions I've made was to start my University studies again. I've got following questions so many times now: But how do you cope with work and studies at the same time? You can get sick again. Well the best cure from my now gone depression is the studies. I once again got cleared that I'm NOT stupid and I'm capable of doing hard work when it's motivated.

My goals for Bat Fit 2015 are following
1. Skip sugar, eat smaller portions and eat more healthy home made food. I will also stop eating sandwiches for breakfast and have a green smoothie instead.

2. Start almost every morning with yoga. I have already started and it feels great eventhough I look more like an elephant on the circus. I will also have a goal that I will take a walk from work (12 km). I will go to the local pool and swim 1 km as I did before, almost once a week.

3. I will do a good proffessional job as a teacher and be the kind and cheerful one as I started. I'm actually very impressed by myself and my great patience :-)

4. I will keep on with my studies with second University degree.

Breaking silence

Well hello there!!

It took over a month to revisit my blog and I do hope I haven't lost any readers along the absence. 

I changed proffession and got a shitload of work. 45 hours per week is not what it is as a beginning teacher. I have been working every single minute I got left. I just barely finished my university assessements and have one to go this semester. 

I have in only a couple of months experiencing all the problems you can get as a teacher but thanks to great colleagues and the best boss I EVER had, I got the support I needed to handle those issues. I can frankly say that I have never in my 22 years as an employee had a boss that supported me completely in an issue were a third person is complaining about my work. Can you imagine how great it feels?

Due to all the busy days and nights this was the only humble decoration I accieved for Christmas this year. A tiny tree and a few branches on the mantelpiece. The other members of the family thinks it's ok. The younger ones are more interested in the gifts anyway.

We also visited the local Christmas fair and at a booth was a lady who made these rustic crowns out of cans. So beautiful I had to buy one. It reminds a bit of the traditional wedding crowns some brides are using here. She also cut out similar patterns with a cutting torch on used oil barrels. I will definitely buy one of those later.

I do hope that next semester will be not as busy as this one. I will definitely try to discipline myself to schedule my time better to get time to exercise. Maybe that will be my goal for next year. 

Crawling out from the crypt

Thank you Ms.Misantropia for the giveaway. I'm looking forward to read it and I hope it's not that corny as the movies ;-). I also got a card letter in my first letter and a book mark fit for a dark novel.

So were the hell have I been?

I have been working a huge part and trying to keep pace with my studies at the same time, more on that later for you who are interested. 

We didn't throw our annual Halloween party because of my tight scedule. But pumpkin cupcakes it was and Alfons carved out the huge one . The inside gave a huge batch of pumpkin puree to bake and make tasty stuff.

A tip when you carve out the meat of the pumpkin. Bake it in a pan tightly covered with an ovensheet on low heat to get a nice puree with all the flavours left.

The rest of the time has evolved around technology and science only, even at my sparetime. Oskar and his class mates joined the First Lego League challenge. It was an exciting game. They had a good chance to win but as a sensor failed to work an the other didn't have the equal calibration, they lost the semi.

We also visited the science museum for kids. Where they have a simple and harmless laboratory. My bunch are making lava lamps on this photo.

 I had to buy the Monster High Halloween pack. The magazine is ridicilous, I hate the effeminated texts in it. The craft stuff was nice and I finally have a real ink pen that works for my lefthanded writing. Yay!!

So why do I work so much? Well I teach two different math classes, I also have a class in chemistry, then I'm an examinator for some of the third grades exam assignments and I'm a mentor for a couple of students in my first grade class. This could fill my time completely but I also teach second technology and scientific specialisation. In these two last classes there are no books, no material to use, and no material to find. I teach my scientific class steel plant technology, hot forming of steel and material technology, because that's something I have knowledge of. The technology class is worse, they ought to learn mechanics like transmission, hydraulics, and pneumatics and so forth but I can't find any books of good standars. I have no idea what other technology teachers are doing in this case, this course is very new as well. I have this weekend to work on this and to do my own schoolwork, an essay about environmental sustainability work in school.

I say bye for now. See you maybe in another month...

Winter is coming

I wonder what the Swedish army is looking for in the Stockholm archipelago. Well Sweden is one of the few countries in Europe that has not joined NATO, so we're pretty sure who has visited our waters uninvited....The world got just colder. 

After we decided not to throw a Halloween kids party, I was not sure if I would even have the time/strenght to decorate. But as the stores picked up things with lovely autumn feel I decorated a little bit. It actually didn't take long time. 

The game table is decorated in the mood of the Seventh Seal

The booklet under the glass dome is a biblical one with the title " The sin against the spirit".

 The bookshelf in the background is actually a curtain that I just had to get when I passed the shop window of Åhléns. It's perfect in my dark cosy livingroom.

I have spent most of my week in the sofa, watching the two Seasons of Hemlock Grove. Perfect to indulge some gore along with the recovery of a horrible flu that caught me in fever for five days. D-vitamins, bee-pollen, painkillers and warm tea id my arsenal of weapons.

The worst thing with this flu is that it has attacked my ability to think properly, it feels like when I was sick with depression and ptds. 

Another mini glassdome I recently bought. I know I'm a sucker for glass domes. The striped cloth is hiding a batch of applecider vinegar to be finished soon.

A few decorations at the kitchen shelf. The cone is a papercraft that was made the first autumn in this house.

We still harvest red paprikas from the three buckets I brought indoors before the frost.

Next week will be my last few days at the old job. What a relief and what an excitement (and huge performance anxiety) to start the new job. This will give me the opportunity to see if teaching really is something for me. 

How to find calm and silence, or at least trying to.

It has been an insane period and it's not over yet. I was asked to come and have some lectures earlier than supposed because they didn't have any teacher for my coming classes. I asked for permission to get leave of abscense at work to go teaching and got it. So I work at my old work a little more than half time, work as a teacher in math and technology half time and study half time. That means the woken hours evolve around work and studies only. There will be no time for social stuff for a while.

To calm down I light candles even at daytime. There's a lavender scented tea light in the glass and drying flower seeds on the counter and a few drying small onions. A candle and seed place.

To avoid noises (kids, tv, buzzing, tinnitus) I listen to background sounds like this playlist.

Or if I'm in for another mood

I can't listen to voices while reading therefore these kind of sounds are perfect and calming. 

We have a lovely autumn and I try to look up and enjoy the colours and falling leaves. I hope everything will be settled when next year arrives.

The last dragonfly of the year, saved from a cobweb. It look a bit ragged.

More pumpkins and another work outfit

So this is my second work outfit. I'm not happy as you can see because I've gained weight. It's not easy to loose it either when I have to sit all the time and study. The black jeans have a waxed surface and the shoulders on the shirt sits on my upper arm. 

We almost got frost degrees so I picked the last pumpkins to let them ripen indoors. I also picked the maize. 

I have a new blog post with a recipe of delicious tomato and chili marmalade. Hop over if you're curious.

I have taken time off from work two day to stay at home and study. My boss is completely fine with that, he even suggested it for me.

CorpGoth- Mid month status report: Fitting in at my new workplace

I visited the parental meeting at the school I'll be working at last week. I didn’t have to say anything important, except showing myself and do a short presentation, it went well. I had roamed around the stores for some professional clothes the day before and went home soaked in sweat, oh how I hate to shop clothes. I call the fitting booths, faschism booths because all the disadvantages of the body appear in full drama in the merciless light. Along with this post Corp Goth monthly status report is very fitting for showing what I shoped for the parental meeting.

My Restyle rib cage bag was changed to something so plain it almost is invisible. It’s also another vanishing bag that transforms to a black hole once you put something in it, if it had the colour blue, I could say bigger on the inside. I have ordered a LED-light to be inserted in it from Johan but I don't know when he will have the time. It is made of real black leather,  I’m a carnivore and prefer real leather that lasts longer.

 It’s only a glimpse as I didn’t have a tripod or a photographer, but I hope that you get the idea of the jacket I finally found after running around the whole city, so many cardigans and chanel jackets but no suit jackets (not in my size anyway). I found this one at H&M it is tailored at the back and straight at the front. The fab thing with this one is that the shoulders didn’t went sloppy on my narrow and sloppy ones, it’s usually the big problem with fitting. I also found a long sleeved midnight blue top, it looks slim but hides my belly, it has fake leather pads on the shoulders. I will definitely buy the other colours of this one. The necklace was a gift from Johan bought at ebay.

 The shoes of the brand Ara are also a bit plain but oh how my feet loves them. The heel is 2 inches and very comfortable, perfect to walk and stand in. The toes shape reminds a bit of Fluevogs ergonomically shape and the leather is thin and smooth, clings to your foot like a glove.

 I bought other clothes but that will be another post. 

The autumn leaves are shifting colour now and I tried to fold a rose from maple leaves, it was very easy.

I harvested 3 of my pumpkins the other week, they are heavy and a hollow sound is heard when knocking on the bottom. Let there be pumpkin muffins, soups, pies etc and lovely Jack’O lanterns!! Still no frost even if we have reached the other half of September.