The Easter Long Weekend

I had great expectations for this year’s Easter long weekend. This is the first 4 days off work in a row for me in nearly a year. It’s also my first weekend off without my parents in the last 18 months. Just imagine the freedom! The space! And all those things I could do with the time I could freely control!!! Yes, I had high hopes for this 4 days long weekend.

It turned out I was overly ambitious about what I could squeeze in 4 days.

I was hoping to go through all the drawers, cabinets and every corner in the house to declutter, clean and make my place spotless;

I wanted to reorganize my wardrobe and put everything in order- e.g. all shirts together in color sequencing etc;

I wanted to do hour long yoga everyday and really feel good;

I wanted to go for a long drive and a long walk;

I want to finalize the itinerary of my trip and book all my flights and accommodation;

I wanted to work on this website and put a couple of new blog posts up;

I wanted sort my photos and take some more and put them on Instagram;

I wanted to shop around for a better private health insurance provider;

I wanted to set up a new budget and get my personal finance in order;

I wanted to do some grocery shopping so I’m not short of house hold suppliers

…

By the end of the 2nd day, I felt exhausted and defeated. There was no way I could finish all the things I planned for the weekend, no matter how simple those tasks sounded like.

I washed, cleaned, scrubbed all day long for the first one and half days but my place was still not perfectly clean and in order. Thinking of all the dusty corners and laundry folding stressed me out.

There was so much left over food in the fridge and fridge needs a good clean up and scrub.

It took more than half a day to install Search Console and SSL certificate and make my website “safe” in Google’s eyes. I had not time to sort my images and any drive to write up new blog posts. Having so many days without new content on my website stressed me out.

Only 2 days left for my little “holiday” and all I did was work! Unpaid house work and website maintenance! I ended up lying on the floor and did 15 minutes yoga stretch at 11pm. That calmed me down a little bit. But where’s the planned hour long yoga everyday? I still hadn’t been able to cross out many things off my To Do List for the Easter weekend. 🙁 Oh well, tomorrow’s got to be another day.

The 3rd day went a little better because Summer Day Light Saving finished for the year! Yay, there’s one more hour for everyone. After bags of bags of unwanted items being chucked out, the place looked neater. I spent the whole morning tidying up and had a big satisfying lunch afterwards.  After lunch, it was a long drive to the mountains for a walk and mushroom picking. Fresh air and walking around in the forest lifted my spirit up. Finally I got my heart pumping for a few minutes. I even managed to watch half a movie (the second half) at night and did more research on my trip until 12:30 in the morning.

Easter Monday. The last day at home. I was feeling increasingly anxious. There was still so much to do and I haven’t been able to settle on my itinerary or book anything for my trip! It felt like either there wasn’t enough time or I’m just plainly stupid, not able to do things more efficiently. That wasn’t a good feeling.

Oh no. I wasn’t going to be defeated by anxiety! I put music on. Made myself a couple of coffee. But my mind couldn’t slow down. I was sipping my coffee standing up in the kitchen, still feeling anxious.

In the end, I did what worked for me most of the time when I’m feeling down (God knows why I feel down and beaten so often!). I pulled out my old trusted journal and wrote down everything that stressed me out. Men, that was a long list. 🙂 But miraculously, I felt better. A long sigh of breath came out and I remembered how to breathe again. Several deep breath later, I circled 3 things that stressed me out the most and decided to only to tackle these areas for the day.

•  I haven’t been able to put any new content for my blog for so long;
• All the left over food in the fridge that’ll go bad soon;
• I still haven’t got an itinerary for my upcoming trip.

The day was mixed with work and fun. I went to bed just after midnight and set my alarm for 6am the next morning. A new blog post could be done early in the morning before I go to work.

The long anticipated Easter weekend’s now gone past and I felt ok in the end. I’ve done plenty in the 4 days and didn’t feel like much time was wasted.

• Lost of house work and decluttering;
• Website maintenance. With lots of steps and J’s final pushes, this website is finally secure according to Google;
• Meal prepped for the whole week using left over food in the fridge and laid out clothes for the next week. This’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like that and it feels good!
• Watched a movie or half, and some fishing shows that relaxed me;
• When to the forest in the mountains;
• Walked on the beach though shortened by thunderstorm;
• Lastly but importantly, I’ve drafted my trip itinerary!

The thing is, after so much stress and time spent on research, I don’t feel like going anywhere any more! Holiday is supposed to be fun, not stressful right? I just want to lie down and chill at home.

If I manage to leave work at decent hours today, I’m going to do yoga and watch the other half of the movie.