Self-Care for a Fifty Hour Work Week

My tips for giving yourself a little bit of TLC when time is not on your side.

I recently started a new job as a key worker. While I’m grateful to be working and finding it very rewarding, it isn’t the job I’ve always dreamed of. Its a complete gear shift for me. So why am I doing it? Well, I’m a literature graduate that wants to enter the creative industry during a pandemic, which just so happens to be governed by a group of people who do not prioritise the arts – but let’s not get into that.

I lost the job that I loved at my local theatre just at the start of lockdown. I’d worked there since I was sixteen and it hadn’t crossed my mind that I’d ever be forced to leave before I was absolutely ready to. Preferably with an exciting and secure job offer being my reason for doing so. Losing my job was a wake-up call. Despite always working from a young age, I had worked in roles that suited my personality that I truly enjoyed. Internships at literary festivals, assistant work at a library and ushering at a theatre were all roles that slotted into my life as an arts lover with ease. They actually supplemented it. I realise now that I was very privileged to have been in the position I was in, and that having job security should never be taken for granted.

My new role as a key worker is not the first job that I applied for, or even amongst the first ten that I applied for. My job search has made me so grateful to have the luxury of working and earning money to fund my book buying habit – I mean lifestyle. Oh, and other important stuff like food and petrol. It gives me a sense of purpose again. I wake up knowing that I matter, and that what I do helps others. That knowledge drives me, and even though it’s not my ‘dream career’, I am proud of myself for keeping going.

The logistics of my new working life require me to wake up at 6.30am and then only walk back through my front door at past 9pm. This is a long, with a capital L, day for someone who spent weeks during lockdown averaging 500 steps, and the majority of those were to fetch snacks.

*never feel guilty for looking after yourself*

Here are some little acts of TLC that I’ve been implementing into my schedule to look after myself:

1. Preparing for battle.

Having my clothes and bag laid out ready for work the next day saves me precious minutes searching for a pair of socks, my essential thermos mug or a bottle of hand sanitiser, when I could be relishing those extra moments snuggled up in my duvet. I have also started to lay out a fresh pair of pyjamas, my slippers and some newly acquired fancy bath items so that I can get into my comfies with speed when I get home.

2. Baths > Showers

If you told me last month that the highlight of my day would be a bubble bath, I’d have laughed in your face. I was stubbornly pro-shower and I never understood the appeal of sitting in hot water and actually enjoying it for more than five minutes at a time. Now, after becoming burdened with the joints of a seventy year old caused by hours of standing in icy conditions, I crave the feeling of submerging myself into near-boiling lavender scented water each night. That, coupled with the fact that I prefer to spend my time outside of work horizontal. I invested in some products from Lush that I would usually refrain from splurging on and now I walk around each day in a cloud of essential oil scented bliss.

3. HOT DRINKS!

I don’t know about you, but thanks to the Welsh weather each day I say a little prayer of thanks that I haven’t yet developed hypothermia. I’ve discovered the answer to preventing my organs shutting down is merino wool thermals under my uniform, fluffy socks, and a new cuppa every hour. Feel free to use whatever floats your boat. My fragile heart can only handle tea and hot chocolate, but I recommend coffee if you’re a normal functioning adult.

*Gilmore girls makes me feel inferior for not handling caffeine*

4. Reading, but for your ears

Listening to audiobooks on my hour round commute each day has been a game changer for me. By the time I get home each night my fingers are too frozen to turn a page and my eyes are too blurry to read a sentence. So I use my car journeys and any dead time at work to get some ear-reading in. I recently listened to Neil Gaiman’s ‘Stardust’ and felt like I was escaping into a daydream every time I hit play. If you’re not an audiobook fan, then swap it out for an episode of your favourite podcast or a guided meditation.

*but what more could you want than Stephen Fry’s voice narrating your day?*

5. Include your mits in your skin care routine.

I’m hoping that everyone on earth is washing their hands and sanitising as much as possible. If you’re like me and anti-bac is both your friend and foe, then treat your battered hands to a nice hand cream. I picked a couple up at Lush and another coconut scented one from The Body Shop to have a tiny sense of indulgence each day. Pop it onto the end of your skin care routine or fit it in when you have a spare minute. Your hands (and nose) will thank you for it!

6. Be easy on yourself.

That’s it, lovelies! I hope that I have inspired you to be a little kinder to yourself. It’s a scary world out there, and you should be proud of yourself for persevering. If you’re not where you want to be right now, remember that you have so much time to achieve your goals. Your life is so much more than this moment, and even this year. It’s natural to feel down sometimes, but remember it’s in our power to look after our bodies and our minds so that we can feel even the littlest bit better.

Autumnal Hope

*if only they sold this button on Amazon…*

I’m typing this in a melancholic stupor after my second warming bowl of homemade leek and potato soup. It’s by far my favourite cold weather dish to cook and it has filled me with a bittersweet happiness. I truly adore the autumn. I love pulling out my embarrassingly large collection of chunky knitted jumpers. I relish browsing the seasonal hot chocolate menu at my local cafe, and the cosy feeling of wearing my brightly coloured fluffy socks hidden inside my smart black boots.

Maybe even more so than January, a month known for its broken resolutions, September always comes with the promise of a fresh start. An exciting lieu between a sun kissed summer and long, cosy winter nights. Perhaps it’s a nostalgic nod to the beginning of a new school year. We have been told ever since primary school that September is the time for something new. The excitement of just-bought stationary, the thrill of a blank school planner and the nerves about meeting new teachers still lingers in our minds.

We pick back up the life that was put on hold and begin to settle into a routine. The long meandering weeks taper off, days become shorter and the nights stretch out with space for ideas and plans to bloom. The countdown to beloved holidays begin for those of us who crave an excuse to be merry. Or, for those who cringe at the beginning notes of a Michael Bublé song and the sight of premature Halloween costumes at Tesco, it promises that secretly pleasurable opportunity to roll their eyes at those who rejoice.

Of course, this is a year like no other with seasons like no other. Rather than camera rolls filled with photographs from family holidays overseas, hazy recollections of dancing on tables wine-drunk with friends, and days revelling in that precious time away from the office, we have instead lived in a point in time that could rival the most disturbing of dystopias.

This summer was both one that I imagine many of us will remember for the rest of our lives, for varied but connected reasons, while also being a time that seems to have slipped like water through our fingers without tangible memories. A permanent waiting game tinged with dread and frustration, interspersed with fleeting glimmers of relief or hope or calm.

I hope that the coming colder months won’t be what many of us fear, and that this could be the beginning of a new chapter. How fitting for the leaves to change to golden hues just as we metaphorically turn over a new leaf. If not, then the future awaits us with the hope for a summer of travelling, care-free family gatherings and contentment. But for now, we have books to remind us of different times.

my perfect chocolatey banana bread recipe

If there’s one thing that life during lockdown has taught me, it’s how to make a banging banana bread. Remember that phase when everyone was distracting themselves from the C-word by binge watching Tiger King, learning TikTok dances and baking banana bread? I’m still living in that world, sans Joe Exotic. I’ve now replaced him with the crew on Below Deck. Seriously, I don’t recommend falling down that porthole of a series. You won’t be able to climb back out.

This recipe is perfect when baked mid-morning on a rainy day, still in your pyjamas with rubbish daytime TV playing in the background. I imagine it would be even better if you manage to make it without an unsettling anxious feeling in your stomach about your country’s perilous future. But I doubt that’s possible right now unless you’re a psychopath.

if you don’t have chocolate, top the loaf with half a banana and some sugar icing.

ingredients:

100 grams of unsalted butter (I usually use stork for a fluffier consistency)

180 grams of caster sugar

230 grams of self raising flour

2 medium free range eggs

2 bananas, preferably over-ripe

1 tsp of baking powder

1 heaped tablespoon Greek yogurt (optional)

a handful of roughly chopped dark chocolate

the recipe:

1. beware: this makes a hefty banana loaf. there’s nothing worse than a measly bake in my books, but if you’re dieting or whatever then you may want to make less mixture. the mixture should form an even layer to a third of the height of your tin. If you have excess you can make an extra mini loaf! What a win!

2. line your tin/ tins with non-stick baking paper and preheat the oven to 180C on the fan setting.

3. in a big bowl, measure the dry ingredients (sans chocolate) first, then add the wet ingredients and mix until creamy with an electric whisk or, for the old fashioned, a wooden spoon.

4. spoon the mixture into your tin and make sure it is as level as possible. I like to hold the tin and shake it gently side to side for this part.

5. sprinkle your chocolate on top.

6. bake for around 50 minutes. To avoid an ugly cracked top, cover your loaf with tin foil about half way through the baking time. Think of this as a high-end skincare regime for your loaf.

7. the loaf will be done when you can pop a knife in to the middle and it comes out clean.

8. bring the loaf out of the oven and let to cool for as long as you can resist that glorious banana-y temptation before using the baking paper to remove from tin.

9. slice thickly and serve warm, best paired with Greek yogurt, frozen berries, a drizzle of honey and a big cup of tea.