BEDM Day 3 - Not Really Resolutions 2014: Update 1

I was supposed to do this post at the end of March when we were a quarter of the way through the year but somehow something magical happened and we reached the end of April and we're a third of the way through the year instead.

Oh well.

1. Read 12 Classics

We're off to a good ol' start on this front. Not surprising as this is the Not Really Resolution that I don't normally struggle with.

Lady Chatterley's Lover was a bit of a surprise, it wasn't what I was thinking at all. I think with all the fuss that's made about it I thought it was some kind of Fifty Shades of Grey but it's actually a really sad book in a way about the loss of female identity. At least that's what I read into it. But yeah there's a bit of rudey in it too.

Flowers for Algernon is a beautiful book and a slight cheat because I have read it before but it's lovely and it makes me cry at the end and it's only teeny tiny so you definitely have to pick it up.

2. Eat 1 vegetarian meal a week

I'm currently a little behind on this one, it's not quite working out at one a week, some weeks it has been none and others it has been three but as long as I eat 52 I'm calling it a win. I have a whole post for talking about my adventures in meatless cooking though. You lucky devils.

3. Do 1 interesting thing each month

This is coming along very nicely indeed. I got off to a great start in January by seeing the lovely Chloe and continued the meeting up with internet people theme in February by meeting up with Janet and exploring Leicester. March doesn't have a specific post but I went road tripping in America so I think we can call that month taken care of interestingness-wise. April passed by in a bit of blur, I didn't even really do anything for my birthday but I did go to Wembley to see Hull City beat Sheffield United in the FA Cup Semi Final so I reckon that is up there on the interesting scale.

4. Save up to buy a car

Yeah I definitely need to put a plan into action for this one or else it's not going to end well...

5. Finish my Tetris blanket

Not a Tetris blanket

Ugh. I wish. Unfortunately I haven't been able to work on this, much as I would like. As I mentioned in this post back in February I have been making a lot of amigurumi stuff. And if you follow me on Twitter you will see a lot of photos of animals flying off my hook. The trouble is that word got round at work that I could make these animals and orders came flying in. And they just won't stop. This is for two reasons - one being that it's earning me a little bit of money on the side (although I'm not charging anywhere near what I should be for the time it takes) and the other being that I find it hard to say no. In my messed up little head saying to someone "Actually I'm sorry but I'm not taking any more orders" is the same thing as punching someone in the face. What can I say? I'm a people pleaser.

I have decided to be firm and am absolutely shutting up shop so I can make something for myself.

Probably.

6. Learn something new

Still waiting on this one. Maybe inspiration will strike? Anybody want to teach me something?

7. Sell something at a craft fair

Hmmmm. Not sure about this one. Although technically if I'm selling all this amigurumi stuff doesn't that mean that I'm kind of selling stuff a craft fair.....No?

8. Beat my 10k time

Oh dear.

At the moment this has never seemed further away. I started off the year laid up thanks to a completely random knee injury that occurred in the flat. Apparently I am a person capable of tearing the tendons in my kneecap just by standing still. I don't know what happened. My knee overlocked, there was searing pain, it swelled to twice its size, I was in agony all over Christmas and New Year. I eventually went to a physiotherapist and after paying an ungodly amount of money and being poked and prodded and given homework my knee was fixed again.

I'm signed up to the Run for All Hull 10km which is taking place at the beginning of June. I put a training plan in place and off I went. Running life was good until this weekend when I went trotting out on a Saturday run. The wind was in my hair, a lovely podcast was in my ears, a searing pain was in my left calf....oh hello. I have no idea what I did, I guess I wasn't warmed up enough (although I never warm up before my runs, I don't run fast enough to make it worth warming up) and I definitely didn't trip or stumble over anything. There wasn't a 'pop' or anything dramatic, it just hurt. A lot. And when I thought I might be able to "run it off" I most certainly could not. I hopped about for a little bit and then resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to limp the mile home looking terribly terribly sorry for myself.

I guess I should be grateful that I don't run faster, I could have been even further from home when it happened.

So yes. I'm not running again. Hopefully only for a week, after not being able to walk at all on Saturday I was much improved the day after and every day it feels a little bit better. Let's keep our fingers crossed, yeah?

This does mean that beating my 10km time seems terribly unlikely. At the moment running 10km without stopping seems terribly unlikely. *sulks*

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[Don't understand why I'm doing these things? Take a look at this post to see my reasonings behind them.]