HAPPY Sunday all!

We have survived our second week of rule relaxation, I don’t know about you but I’m absolutely shattered.

Don’t get me wrong, I have LOVED seeing family and friends in a pub garden rather than on the same old walk or hollowed up in the corner of the garden that is the most sheltered from the wind with a flask of tea, it is just a bit knackering!

I guess the doing not much, to spending multiple evenings out having a few drinks (when I’ve barely drank anything the last year) and holding IRL* convos is such a sudden contrast that it really takes it out of you.

*IRL= in real life (I’m including this for you Mum cause I know you’ll be reading this and you’ll be confused. Hehe love you x)

In fairness I have to admit I’ve been a lot busier during the week with work as I’ve picked up an internship so that is naturally going to add to the tiredness levels, but that doesn’t draw away from the fact we aren’t used to this ‘normality’.

We are relearning how to put effort into our outfits and splash on makeup again for drinkies with the gals.

Side note: Isn’t it so nice to catch up with your friends without seeing your own reflection the whole time in the top right hand corner of your screen!

But I think we also need to relearn that it’s okay to say no to stuff. It feels really odd saying no to something we’ve been longing for- for literally a year- and choosing a cosy night in on the sofa with a bag of choccie BUT we need to normalise this.

Even in the ‘Good old days’, we like a night in. We enjoyed movie nights, we enjoyed early nights, we enjoyed pamper nights in the bath — just because we did them in lockdown doesn’t mean we don’t still enjoy them.

We need to remember that rules easing doesn’t mean we have to go to the pub at every opportunity, it means you have the choice of a quiet one or a boozy one or something in between.

That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed getting out the last 2 weeks, it just means I’m ready for some quiet nights in again and a more chilled week next week.

I guess also, we need to cut ourselves a bit more slack for feeling so exhausted from a night out. It’s not that we aren’t as young as we once were, or not even necessarily that we aren’t used to it anymore, it could just be down to the fact that it’s actually a lot more stressful than before:

We need to pick a group of 6 without feeling like we are missing someone out, we need to book a table ahead, we worry about if we are gonna be able to be social distanced round a table, we are deciding whether or not to take a lateral flow test before we go out, we need to not forget a mask, and make sure our phone batteries have enough life so that we can sign in at our location on track and trace.

Then there’s the normal social worries that we might have had before like when you meet someone you haven’t seen in a while and you’re worried it’ll be awkward or conversation won’t flow as naturally… this can be every time because we haven’t seen anyone properly in so long!

Moral of the story: don’t beat yourself up for being tired, and remember you can still choose a night in.

If lockdown taught us anything, it’s that we really do need to look after our mental health (it shouldn’t have taken a global pandemic to do that but here we are), so lets not forget that as ‘normal’ life returns.

I’m sticking to my advice and having a night in tonight (I’m writing this as of Saturday afternoon), and keeping this blog post short because I’m going to enjoy the last of my rested day off.

Hope you’re all having a lovely weekend whether that’s in or out, or shaking it all about with a bit of both x