What is making me happy: The Power of Exercise and homemade ice blocks

Christmas party at works, 18/12/1937 by Sam Hood. From the Collection of the State Library of New South Wales.

While most of January has passed in a whirlwind of balmy days, salty swims and delicious summer food, I was afflicted by a pretty severe case of post-holiday blues after I returned to work - and it took three weeks to resolve it! I was grumpy, I was short-tempered, I suffered near-daily life-crises.

Things didn’t start to improve until last week, due to the amazing weather we were having, and my decision to start running again.

So. Running. I don’t enjoy the act of running terribly much, but I do love the effects of running. That is: increased smugness, and the ability to cope a little better with the world around me. While I haven’t found an exercise that I love since my rollerskating days, running is free(!) and encourages me to take advantage of the beach and parks near my house.

It is a total cliché to state that exercise is good for mental health, but the difference between the grumpiness of sedentary Sarah and the coping skills of exercising Sarah is marked. For me, its a good decision.

ALSO: as of this Wednesday, I started my four day work weeks - with the fifth day devoted to my own projects and hopefully drumming up a bit of copy- or web writing work. Hit me up if you like my kool style and are in need of such skills - you can contact me through my website (sarahjanemiller.co.nz).

More things

COOKING: Lately I’ve been trying really hard to perfect the Beef Rendang recipe in Slowcooked. My first attempt was delicious but too saucy, my second an improvement but still on the saucy side I think.

I am confused by the instruction to reduce the curry in the slow cooker. In my experience, that’s just not possible as in, the whole point of a slow cooker is to lock in the heat and moisture. Perhaps if I fiddled with the lid less, I’d reach the desired outcome?

Because of the heat, I’ve also been making homemade ice block. I made some lemon manuka honey yoghurt ice blocks based on a recipe for Creamy Lime Honey popsicles which were crazy delicious, and freestyled some soy iced coffee ice blocks using cold brew coffee as the base. If I can get a good photo I’ll share a recipe which will include some tips on how to avoid getting coffee grinds in the finished product (which I can attest is pretty disgusting).

READING: I spent most of Sunday with my face glued to my eReader, demolishing Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. It’s silly, but I’m loving it - it has a great pace, and it’s pretty fun. The evil characters are very mustache-twirly, the good characters have just enough flaws to make them likeable but not so many flaws that they are challenging to think about.

FAVOURITE PODCAST EPISODE: As always, I am enamoured with podcasts with lots of primary sources and little narration. The Radio Diaries podcast The View from the 79th Floor, about a 1945 bomber crash into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, had some great interviews with eyewitnesses, primary audio material from a dictation machine, and media reports from the time.

KNITTING: Always I am knitting this Featherweight, but I have almost finished the body, and I’m much happier with this size than the abortively tiny one that resulted from my previous attempt.

I have only used one skein of the five ridiculously expensive skeins that I bought. I might use another half skein, but still, it’s looking as though I could knit something else out of the yarn.

SEWING: I am actually struggling a little with the excessive number of clothes I have. I think that it would be a good idea to have a bit of a purge before I start making anything else.

LISTENING: I splashed out and bought a bunch of albums when I arrived back at work, and I currently have Sylvan Esso’s album on high rotation. I particularly love the opening track which seems to be the Mary Poppins of pop music - Practically Perfect in Every Way. When it opens it reminds me of Polka Dot Dot Dot to the extent I had to Google and make sure that it didn’t actually feature anybody from the group.

Also: very excited for a new Marina and the Diamonds album.