Daily Prompt – Sparkling or Still

What’s your idea of a perfect day off: one during which you can quietly relax, doing nothing, or one with one fun activity lined up after the other? Tell us how you’d spend your time.

That’s hard because I love doing both.

Daily Prompt – Pick Me Up

What is the one word or phrase that immediately cheers you up when you hear it?

Hmmm, that’s a tough one. Majority of what goes around in my head is gibberish and pop-culture references, and most of the time I’m the only one who gets it all, so if anything, I just make myself laugh. However, to anybody else, all they see is me randomly start giggling to myself for no reason whatsoever. It must look quite odd.

Words such as cake, sleep, sleep in, no work, day off, holiday, travel, flight, pack, new or a combination of all of those words are sure-fire ways to get me excited 😀

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/pick-me-up/

Daily Prompt: Linger

Tell us about times in which you linger — when you don’t want an event, or a day to end. What is it you love about these times? Why do you wish you could linger forever?
 

Generally speaking, it’s usually whenever I have a day off or when I’m on holidays. And if it’s my holidays, it’s usually the absolute last day of my holidays – it’s that day when I realise that I haven’t utilised all my time off the way I really wanted to… instead, I’ve wasted it spending my time sleeping, or on the couch watching stuff I’ve recorded / downloaded instead of actually being out and about and making the most of the free time.

Summer holidays are the absolute worst!! Here in Australia, our latest summer saw temperatures reach up to 47 degrees celsius (116 F) which was ridiculous, but for me, when it gets that hot, my body just wants to sleep. So whilst the rest of the country is feeling disgusting because they can’t stop sweating, I can quite easily go and lay down and just sleep for hours and hours at a time. The only exception to this rule, is when it’s hot over night. There were a couple of nights this past summer where the overnight low of 34 C (93F). Let me just clarify that it’s not like that every day / night, but we’ve had a few scorchers just to test the human limit whilst making their power bills soar from having the air conditioner on constantly.

Instead of getting up early and seizing the day, I’m more often sleeping until about 11, lounging around until about 3 or 4, then finally dragging myself into the shower, and then my day will start around 4-5pm, and by that stage, shops are getting ready to shut, and then I’m awake until about 2am. Going out to catch up with friends? Too much effort. Calling whichever company about a bill dispute? That can wait until tomorrow. Going outside and spending time at the beach? That requires too much travel… and it’s too hot. Spending the whole day on the couch in my pj’s? Well I’m already here, so of course I can quite easily do that!!

I always tell myself that next time I’ll be better, and I’ll be more productive. I’ll get up early and go to the gym. I’ll set aside three hours just so I can write. I’ll sort through all my clothes. I’ll tidy up the spare room etc etc. BUT NONE OF IT HAPPENS!! And then on that last day I’m just full of regret.

On the other hand, the thing that pisses me off the most, is when I have a day off, and a certain somebody (not pointing any fingers here, Hulk), decides on what they want me to do that day… with absolutely no regard whatsoever as to what I might want to do with my free time… for me… Nope. Four of five loads of washing, stack and unstack the dishwasher, fold all the washing and put it away, vacuum the apartment, clean the bath, mop the floors, put the cover on the barbecue, go to the supermarket, set up the DVR to records a few shows, etc… I on the other hand might have plans to go to the movies by myself, then go have a massage, come home and have a bath, cook dinner and have an early night… but somebody thinks that’s just a complete waste of a day. Perhaps because this same somebody doesn’t actually know how to relax, and believes that if you have free time, then you have time to work / do chores.

I’m not saying that I don’t want to do them at all… let’s face it, I secretly love doing the laundry and vacuuming the apartment (because I’m weird like that), but the last (and worst) thing for you to do is to tell me what I have to do on my day off… great way to go about pissing me off, and making sure that I retailiate and do almost none of it.

**Insert reference to previous posts about being stubborn!!** hehehe.

I think next time I’ve got some leave up my sleeve, I’ll put in more of an effort to force myself to do something productive with it – get out of the apartment more. Be social.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/daily-prompt-linger/

Daily Prompt: Nothin’ But A Good Time

Imagine that tomorrow, all of your duties and obligations evaporate for the day. You get the day all to yourself, to do anything you please. What types of fun activities would make your day?

Does that day also happen to be about 48hrs long, so I can actually fit in everything that I would like to be able to do on a ‘day off’? A day off really should be longer than all the other days, especially given my list below… or I’ll need to have two consecutive days off for pure indulgence.

1. SLEEP

Yes.  I put this as #1, and all in caps because it’s the most important and my absolute FAVOURITE thing to do on a day off.

The day would start off with a wonderfully luscious sleep-in. One of those mornings where it’s a bit chilly, but the sun is warm, and beaming in through a bedroom window, and you wish it was possible for these already fluffy pillows and doona just to get that little bit fluffier and softer, so you could just disappear into them for a couple more hours of slumber-heaven.

2. Breakfast

The one thing that I absolutely love about travelling, is a free buffet breakfast. Oh, it’s HEAVEN!! Moreso when there’s no agenda. I think the best time I had with a buffet was, surprisingly, at an airport in the Virgin lounge. The airline had completely messed up my flight home, and told me to be at the airport at 8am for a re-scheduled flight at 9am, only to turn up and have them say that there’s been another change and I’m not on a plane until 2pm. I then demanded lounge access, which they gave me, and it was fantastic.

I got myself set up at a table, watched a Harry Potter movie with Hulk, and basically ate myself silly.

So. Much. Food!!

3. The Beach

What better way to enjoy a relaxing day, than heading off down to the beach for a bit of a swim, and a nap in the sun… then more swimming, and more napping, followed by more swimming and some more napping.

4. A Massage

Now, I’m not talking about a quick 30min neck and shoulder massage, I’m talking at least a 90min – 120min full body, deep-tissue oil massage. I’m the sort of person who puts their body through quite a lot, but then neglects it, and then I complain like a whiny little kid when I’m in pain from sore muscles. (SIDENOTE: Must get back onto my foam roller and look for my spiky-ball.)

What I love, is being able to have a long full-body massage just to really work out all the knots throughout my body, and put things back in some kind of alignment again. Granted, most of the time I find myself falling asleep – it’s quite embarrassing because I snore, but I find that I’m just in such a deep state of relaxation… I love it.

4a. Spa / Sauna / Steam

The other side to a treatment like this, is being able to have a spa / sauna / steam session either before, to help relax and loosen up the muscles, or after a long massage. It can be pretty awkward if it’s done afterwards, because I end up like a rag doll, and struggle to a) keep myself upright and b) conscious – too much time in a steam / sauna room, tends to make me really hot and sleepy… which then brings me to the brink of fainting / passing out. And let’s face it, that’s not necessarily a good thing.

5. A Nap.

This is probably THE BEST part of the whole day… being able to do everything listed above, and then come back to either lay on a sun-saturated bed (or couch) and curl up for a lovely arvo nap. But, one that’s at least 3 – 4hrs long. Anything less than that is a waste of time, and it just makes me feel even more tired than I was before.

6. Gaming

Now that I feel quite refreshed and relaxed, it’s time for a gigantic cup of tea and about fifteen biscuits (or a block of chocolate) and then the PS3 goes on, and I fire up one of my games. At the moment I’m right into Lego Marvel Super Heroes, but at the same time, in the back of my head, I’m completely aware that I’m not giving any time to my other favourite game, Tomb Raider. This game is so good, and so addictive, I usually find myself sitting there, tears streaming down my cheeks because I can’t even bring myself to blink because I find it so engrossing.

Alternate 6. A Bath

By this stage, I’ve woken from my nap and had something to eat for dinner. Then I think one of my favourite things to do is run a bath and use something like a fancy bath bomb, or some relaxing bath salts, and then I’ll either get in (and feel myself slowly broiling from the inside out because the temperature is so hot) and I’ll already have my laptop set up to watch something. Sometimes it’s a couple of episodes of a TV series I’m watching, or it might even be a movie.

And then, when the water has gone cold, or the show / movie has finished, there’s only one thing left to do…

7. Go To Bed.

It’s been a long day of pampering, and self-indulgence, and you know what, it’s exhausting. So all I need to do now, is go to bed and sleep for about 10 – 12hours, so I can wake up all nice and relaxed and refreshed tomorrow – ready to take on the world!

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/daily-prompt-good-time/