Deadlines, Canal-Side Nostalgia, and the Ice Cream That Was Absolutely Worth It

Work this week?
Just a teeny-tiny bit intense.

I am, officially, drowning in deadlines.
🖥️ Late nights.
🗂️ Weekend working.
📉 Step count that would make even the laziest cat smirk.
📅 Social life? Cancelled.
🎢 Nervous system? Fully in fight-or-flight.

💼 The Joy of Working… and Working… and Working

I love my job. I really do.
But there’s “busy”… and then there’s “can’t remember the last time I ate lunch away from a screen” busy.

There has been zero time for the gym. Or even pretending I’ll go to the gym.
But I knew if I didn’t carve out just one little pocket of joy, I was going to combust.
So…

🚗 Escape to Nostalgia-ville

On Saturday, we drove out to a little village about an hour away — a place we used to go when we were first dating, back in the dreamy, giggly, "couldn’t-keep-our-hands-off-each-other" days. (We’ve now been together nearly 30 years. The hands? Firmly in pockets. 😂)

We sat outside a canal-side pub, sipping sparkling water (I know – who even am I?!) and watching the narrowboats glide by like we were in a slow-motion romcom.

Then came a walk through the woods, purely for the step count, not for any woodland-based trysting.
Please. We’ve been married far too long for that nonsense.
If my husband so much as looks at me seductively while I'm wearing hiking boots, I break into a sweat — and not the good kind. 😂

🍦 The Ice Cream of Dreams

After the walk came the treat:
A scoop of clotted cream ice cream that honestly tasted like joy in a waffle cone.
Was it technically "on plan"?
No.
Did I care?
Also no.

We detoured via the spa on the way home — a little swim, a little bubble soak, a very grateful body.

📓 Mindset & Journaling Prompt:

✍️ Where in your life are you operating at 100mph? And what’s one small act of self-care you can choose this week to pause, breathe, and come back to you?

Sometimes we wait for things to “calm down” before we take care of ourselves.
But real talk? Life rarely slows down on its own.
It’s on us to create those small oases — even if it’s a pub lunch and a walk in the woods.

⚖️ Weekly Recap

• 🧠 Mental bandwidth: hanging on by a thread

• 🏃 Step count: Let’s not talk about it

• 🍦 Indulgence of the week: Absolutely divine clotted cream ice cream

• 🧘 Spa trip: Thank goodness

• ⚖️ Weight loss: 0.9lb – possibly the most satisfying 0.9lb ever lost!

🦋 Final Thought

If this week reminded me of anything, it’s this:

We are allowed to pause.
We are allowed to laugh.
We are allowed to eat the ice cream.

Even in the middle of life’s chaos, we can come back to ourselves — one mindful moment (or clotted cream scoop) at a time.

Helen x