Piara Strainge
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All Things Writing Travel Photography

All The Beautiful Lies by Peter Swanson

5/25/2021

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I've had my first covid jab - Pfizer - which is the one I wanted. One step closer to travelling again!
It put me through the mill though, I've spent most of the week on even more painkillers than usual - and having a 5-day stint at work was probably not the greatest timing!

I'm enjoying having my hair washed and blow dryed at home and having a weekly massage at home too. It was lovely to be pampered in the evenings whilst feeling so unwell, and using up all my reserve energy dragging my arse through the work day.

And despite this wet and windy May, I turned my heating off because I heard the weather is supposed to be breaking next week - please please please!

Despite being a Sunday Times bestseller, I was a little disappointed with this novel by Peter Swanson. This is the first book of his I have read, so I will try some of his others. I can't put my finger on it exactly but I wanted more. More drama, more sex, more scandal. It just needed more umph in my humble opinion. A lot of the story was suggestive rather than punchy. I wanted more from the characters. Maybe this is the way Swanson writes and I respect, each to their own. For me, I like characters to be more expressive. I want to feel what they feel and I want to be able to empathise with them, or at least sympathise.
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Dumped, Actually by Nick Spalding

5/18/2021

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Nothing much to report this week other than I finished all 3 seasons of Ozark and the final 30 seconds of the final episode of season 3 took my breath away!

I also re-watched all of the Motherland series 1 and 2 and then binged the new series. This show makes me laugh out loud - and that's needed right now as the covid travel ban plods on (what was that green list?!) and the weather continues to rain.

It's good we're in stage 3 of coming out of lockdown now and I did get to meet up with two of my best friends for lunch on Saturday and then we walked around Fleet pond firstly in the sunshine and then, we ended up getting soaked when the heavens opened. Still, it was fun.

I read another of Nick Spalding's novels on my Kindle over the last few days. They are such an easy read. Ollie wants to marry Samantha but Samantha isn't ready to settle down just yet.

It's an insight seeing this scenario from the male perspective, but I can still relate to the way Ollie reacts and the things that he has / chooses to go through in order to get through the ordeal of being dumped quite spectacularly. He then blogs about it, which is a great part of the story. I love it when a writer gets their character to write to the wider audience. It's clever.
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Fatigue funk

5/11/2021

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I had a lovely couple of days at my mum's last week before going back to work on Friday and over the weekend. This week in yoga, my teacher wrote me a lesson around the mantra "I have time". We also did the dead bug pose, which is one of my favourites. I would've liked to have played dead to life this week. As predicted, going back to work was tough with the early starts, commute and long days. If I'd been on holiday, I would've been bouncing talking to clients, but instead I felt even more fatigued with covid (and of course fibro) than before my break. I know I have to just get back into my rhythm again. I bought a Gratitude journal so even if I don't write in it regularly, I can read the prompts to give me something positive to focus on each day. I am trying to not look beyond the present day, so I don't become overwhelmed. I had another frustrating therapy session, then I booked a trip for myself and Mum in October (moving India and Nepal to next March) to Lisbon and Madeira. Lisbon looks such an amazing city and Madeira is supposed to be the Hawaii of Europe. It looks absolutely stunning! I also treated myself to a bolster for yoga and a weighted blanket - these items have seriously cheered me up. Yesterday, my second yoga session included the bolster and it was so nice to hug something and hang on and rest my head in this particular pose, that I started to cry. Yoga does that to me sometimes. Afterwards I met my fibro group from last year's pain management program and we sat and chatted and could have stayed there all day. The validation we give each other in this group that life is bloody tough with chronic pain and fatigue is worth so much to each of us. It did give me a boost. I finished the day with therapy and am pleased to say I'm out of my funk. I made a plan to get some help at home with the things that I find difficult - someone to wash and blow dry my hair weekly, someone to treat my fibro weekly and someone to clean my home weekly. This is all so I can continue to work full time - for the moment - and just see how things go.
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Final week of hols

5/4/2021

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And just like that, my 3 week holiday is almost over. The weather turned this past week, literally the day I got back from Devon, and that made things speed up as well.

In between watching the finales to Homeland season 8 and Line of Duty season 6 and binging The Fall all 3 seasons - which quite possibly is one of the best psychological criminal thriller series' I think I've ever watched - and starting Ozark, I've been dismantling some old beds and other bits in the two spare bedrooms, getting ready for another big clear out.

And why I don't know, but I feel incredibly stuck in therapy at the moment.

I'm also nervous about going back to work because no more lie ins and no more resting when I'm tired.
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    Author

    Blogging is an amazing concept so here I am giving it a whirl. You'll get words. You'll get pics. Sometimes a vid or two. You'll get tongue in cheek, the odd humble opinion and an honest insight into my travels and writing life. Maybe even a few gems along the way. I'll be musing on home turf as I see more and more of the UK and sharing my experiences further afield on holidays and adventurous trips across the globe. 

    Things you need to know about me: I love music. I love books. I love laughter. I love comedy, theatre and the opera. And mixed with all of that, I LOVE to travel, write and take photos.

    And, as of the 3rd April 2017, I'm on another journey, very different to my travel adventures. This is a journey of recovery. From grief, from depression and from Fibromyalgia. I will also be sharing the impacts these things have on my life now;  how I don't want them to change me, but they will, and already have, and yes, it's a rollercoaster.

    I hope you enjoy All Things WTP.

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  • Home
  • All About P
    • Recovery
    • The Writer
    • The Photographer
    • The Traveller
  • Books
    • Getting Ready to Freelance and Write
    • The Workings Of My Mind
    • An Introduction to the Publishing Industry today
  • Published Portfolio
    • Articles & Features
    • Guest Blog Posts
    • Web Copywriting
    • Poetry
    • Photos & Snippets
  • All Things WTP Blog
  • Contribute
    • DROP YOUR VERSE
  • Media Pack
  • DESTINATIONS