The end of Time Out

My 'Time Out' is running out. I am incredibly lucky to work in a country that has good workplace relations regulations, and I work for an employer that has very good provisions for sick leave. So I have had the privilege (and I know that it is a privilege) to have had 6 weeks off work to concentrate on my physical recovery from a large surgery. What have I done with that time?

To mark the end, we visited the Blue Mountains and stayed in this gorgeous cottage 

Focusing on the physical, I have been doing my physio program (at home) 2 x day, walking every day aiming to increase my distance, time and pace each week, on the exercise bike 3-4  x week, and I've been going to the pool 4-5 x week for strengthening work and doing some laps. Returning to work will mean I will need to work hard to fit in the required training around my working and travelling hours.

When I haven't been doing my physical training, I have had to rest and recover.

Meditation and Colouring in

I've posted some of my colouring in here already. This has been a new discovery for me. Johanna Basford's colouring in book has been one of the first things I look at each morning. In the quiet hours of the morning, when others are sleeping, I've picked up my pencils and used this as a focused meditation.

Watching & Listening

So when reading wasn't working for me, I was able to watch & listen.... Podcasts, TV, Movies and Videos. Some of my highlights in this category included

• Chat10Looks3 (podcast)- with Leigh and Annabel, two Australian political journalists who take time out of their working world to chat about the books they read, things they cook and the podcasts they listen to. 
  
• Conversations with Richard Fidler (podcast) - Richard draws you deeper into the life story of someone you may, or may not, have heard about - someone who has seen and done amazing things. The episodes are daily, but if you go online you can listen to any of interest to you.. some I liked

• Decca Aitkenhead and the unexpected love she found, and lost
•  Mark Cross: Normalising mental health care
• Sarah Brooker: The luck car accident which changed her life
• A storytelling night from the world's greatest scientific minds
• exploring the science of gut feelings.
• American Political Analyst, Thomas Frank:A lively conversation about how the Democrats have got it so wrong

• Missing Richard Simmons (podcast 6 episodes) - This was recommended by Leigh and Annabel (above), and I really enjoyed it.. 

 On February 15, 2014, fitness guru Richard Simmons disappeared. He stopped teaching his regular exercise class at Slimmons, cut off his closest friends, and removed himself from the public eye after decades as one of the most accessible celebrities in the world. Nobody has heard from him - and no one knows why he left. Filmmaker Dan Taberski was a Slimmons regular and a friend of Richard’s. Missing Richard Simmons is Dan’s search for Richard - and the deeper he digs, the stranger it gets.

•  The Good Wife - (TV Series) - This is probably old news to most, but I finally got around to starting this series. 
  
• House of Cards - (TV Series) - Also old news, but my partner and I started to watch this together. 
  

• The Girl King (DVD Movie) -  THE GIRL KING paints a portrait of the brilliant, extravagant Kristina of Sweden, queen from age six, who fights the conservative forces that are against her ideas to modernize Sweden and who have no tolerance for her awakening sexuality.
• Bridget Jones's Baby (DVD Movie) - probably no need to mention what this is about... But it was fun.
•  Hysteria (DVD Movie) - My sister sent this to me to watch and recommended Ii watched it with my visiting mother..... it was very funny..... Set at the end of 1880, the film depicts the invention of the vibrator.
• Brokeback Mountain (DVD Movie) 
•  Hidden Figures (Cinema)

Also, I have done some reading, (and I'll post my reviews in the next few days)... I've done some gardening (more on that soon too), and I've been truly spoilt with some wonderful friends taking me out, driving me to appointments, and just being with me. Thank you my lovelies.