The Brighton Jotter

"Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." – Mary Oliver

,

List #19: What I Did on A Mid-Week Day For Myself

Studio Room at The Outsiders Melbourne
Cotoleta Panini

Last year, I started booking my next hair appointment after I got my haircut. There were too many times when I was overdue because I forgot/ put off / procrastinated over ringing for an appointment. When I was planning for this week and saw my haircut appointment for yesterday, I decided to shuffle my week around so I could take the whole day for myself and take advantage of being a public transport for the day. This is what I did:

  1. Did my scheduled run: 1:05 at easy pace
  2. Got my hair cut and coloured
  3. Ate a Cotoleta Panini from Piccolo Panini. I’d seen them written up in an article about sandwich shops, and they are just around the corner from my hairdresser. This was unplanned—I saw them and recognised the name as I walked past. It was very, very good.
  4. Dropped a library book off at the theological library
  5. Went to The Outsiders Melbourne. This is an exhibition from the Sandrew private collection of works by street artists. It was an excellent exhibition and was also free.
  6. Read and commented on blogs.
  7. G prepared dinner, spaghetti with the sauce I’d prepared in the slow cooker the night before.
  8. Watched the last few episodes of season 2 of The Recruit.
  9. Bath with a few chapters of The Blue Castle
  10. Bed
Have a Nice Day – Banksy
Ukraine Bath Tub – Banksy
Artwork by Adnate
Cut paper installation by Baby Guerilla

Gourmet sandwiches—yay or nay? What would you do with a mid-week day to yourself?

Comments

16 responses to “List #19: What I Did on A Mid-Week Day For Myself”

  1. Nicole MacPherson Avatar
    Nicole MacPherson

    I used to do that as well, book my appointments with my hair stylist so I’d have them on the calendar. That was before the pandemic. Now I just kind of let it go until I can’t stand it anymore and then I beg my neighbour – who is my hair stylist here – to squeeze me in sometime, and she does. It’s not ideal, I should be more organized, but meh. I have an appointment this weekend and hoo boy, is that good because my ends are a mess.
    Your day for yourself sounds absolutely delightful!

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      I am going to keep booking my appointments in advance for this year at least so that I have nice hair for my son’s wedding. Sometimes when I’ve left the colouring too long it takes a few appointments to get it back looking it’s best again. although my colourist is a whizz and the colour grows out really well.

      Reply
  2. NGS Avatar
    NGS

    Today I had an oil change, so I took off the whole morning. After the oil change, I did errands around town – went to the post office for a roll of stamps, got the dog license at City Hall, and picked up library books. And then I sat on the couch staring in space for an hour (this happened) before I came to work. I live life dangerously.

    Reply
    1. J Avatar
      J

      I love a day to myself. I am fortunate that I work a 4 day workweek, so I have Fridays mostly to myself. Mostly because my daughter works from home on Mondays and Fridays, and my husband and I go to dinner on Fridays, so it’s not exactly an empty day with the house to myself all day. But still, it’s lovely. Like your day, on a recent Friday, I had a wonderful day to myself…yoga, walk, a massage, my hair appointment, dinner with my husband. It was a wonderful day. Those don’t come very often.

      Reply
      1. Melissa Avatar
        Melissa

        I find that even though I odn’t have paid work all the time, I always have other work to do so it is nice to have the day just to do some non-work things for myself.

        Reply
    2. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      You are a “How to do Nothing” ninja. Gold stars for sitting on the couch for an hour.

      Reply
  3. Lisa’s Yarns Avatar
    Lisa’s Yarns

    I need to be better about booking my next haircut when I leave my hair appointment as well. I kind of lost track of time so I’ve gone too long between appointments now, but I have one for early March!

    Your day kind of reminds me of my shouldless days! I rarely eat sandwich sandwiches since it’s hard to find a place with good gluten-free bread. But I love a fancy salad!

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      A fancy salad is great too! I love it when I have one that surpises me with the combinations.

      Reply
  4. Ernie Avatar
    Ernie

    I sometimes try to book a hair appt right away but my hair dresser is solo and sometimes it takes several requests before I hear back.

    I had yesterday to myself. Often I write on my Fridays off, or I meet a friend for lunch (never a sandwich bc celiac- but like Lisa a love a fancy salad). Yesterday I had to go into the city for a semiannual rheumatologist appt. I stopped at my son’s apt and dropped off pumpkin bread. Then I drove an hour north and visited my fav English teacher from high school, who I have not seen in decades. Then Coach and I had a zoom with our adoption therapist. It was a great day.

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      Sometimes we just need another errrand/appointment to give us the excuse to do some of the things we’ve been meaning to do. I’d like to hear more about your meet up with your English teacher. I can’t believe yuo still keep in touch.

      Reply
  5. Elisabeth Avatar
    Elisabeth

    I think one of the greatest delights in life is a PERFECT sandwich. It takes the right mix of flavours and sauces and bread and it is not easy to achieve, but a delicious sandwich is one of the best culinary experiences in my opinion.

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      I especially like it when they build it well so yuo get a taste of everything in every bite.

      Reply
  6. San Avatar
    San

    What a great day to take a whole day for yourself (including that hair appointment which always feels a little bit of pampering, doesn’t it?) I love that you ran, took yourself to lunch and visited an art exhibition. That sounds like a “me-day” I could get on board with. We have a lot of murals here in Sacramento and I keep thinking I want to take a day and visit all (or many) of them.

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      Checkingo ut the murals osunds like fun. We have a lot of streetart in various areas of the city, even in our suburb which is not gritty at all.

      Reply
  7. Diane Avatar
    Diane

    I think a good day for me would be very similar to yours – it would involve some errands/home projects (so I wouldn’t feel like I was going to be behind in things), reading (I like going to the library when I have a mid week day free – I used to like to go and leaf through magazines, but our library doesn’t have paper magazines anymore), lunch with a friend or two, and art.
    When we were in Amsterdam there was a street art museum that was stunning. Your museum exhibit reminded me of that.
    Definitely Yay! for a gourmet sandwich. One of my favorite sandwiches is the tempeh panini at the place near work – it’s tempeh, pickled onions, arugula, roasted red peppers, and a pesto mayo. So good!

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      It seems like there’s a few of us that have similar ideas of what an ideal day to ourselves is like. I’ve never had tempeh, but I like the sound of that panini

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *