Just recently I watched a vlog by Samwitch, where she felt she needed a bit of a change in life because she wasn't happy with how it was going at that moment in time. So to remedy this, she decided to try a new thing every day. I thought it was a nice video, but also I really related to it and have been quite inspired by it. So here's my little go at it :)

Monday

To be honest, the first day was always going to be the hardest so I've kind bent the "rules" for this and just done something a little bit different. So I took it as a little bit of inspiration to visit somewhere I hadn't been before. Near me, there's a crop circle which I have seen on the map many times but never visited even though it's probably only 20 minutes away. So I decided why not use this as an excuse to go and I did! It's always nice to go on a walk and it was cool to see the crop circle (even if I believe it's human made).

Tuesday

Also inspired by the video was my trip to go taste matcha. It was something Sam also hadn't had before and she went to try it. She didn't like it, but I did. Win! It definitely does taste of grass, but somehow that's actually great. I will be adding this to my drinks list, even if I feel like the textbook image of a woke student when I order it LOL.

Wednesday

I was originally planning on swimming today, but the pool's timetable was a bit weird and so I ended up doing something else. I'm really sure why it suddenly sprung to mind, but I decided I wanted to give a bit of landscape drawing a go and there's a lovely spot near me I thought would be interesting to look at and draw. So I walked on over (hearing some chiffchaffs on the way) and found a lovely view of it--which very conveniently a rock that I could sit on. I did this in pen because I thought the idea of not being able to rub it out and being super intentional with the lines you do was really interesting (at least when it was pointed out to me by a friend a while ago). Given I did literally no research or practice before I tried this, I'm quite happy that it's even somewhat recognisable. I definitely stretched it out a bit in places so it looks a bit odd, so if I did this again I would have to think more about proportions. But honestly I quite enjoyed this just for the reason of sitting out in the sunny weather and just appreciating nature by looking extra close. Would try again!

Drawing

Thursday

One really big thing that's been playing on my mind for months now is swimming. As a trans-woman there's some aspect of fear going into it because you're so exposed in just a swimming costume and it's hard to get around that. So I decided that, fuck it, I was just going to have to go and try it to see whether I wanted to go more or whether it was a one and done thing. And... it was great :)

There's something about the way I feel in water that is so calming to me. Don't get me wrong, it was proper exercise and I was not at all that good at it (I could only swim about 50m before having to stop) but the time really flew by as I was doing it. I think the sensory aspect also really helped in my appreciation for it. I did slightly over-do it and felt very exhausted straight afterwards (I had to sit down for a minute at the side because of the whole gravity thing). But this one I will definitely be doing again !! (As I write this planning to go again in the next couple days)

Friday

As a craft-adjacent person I have collected numerous kits and such over the years. I like the look of them but never get started and so they just sit for a while. One thing I've wanted to do for a while is embroidery--in part because it's interesting to be able to add more things to your clothes and adjusting physical repairs so that you incorporate some sort of embroidery really appeals to me. This led me to pick up the embroidery kit I have, which is a really lovely flower pattern! It's pretty relaxing to do and nice to have something to do with your hands, especially when watching something on the side. Below is the progress I made during the day :)

Saturday

As I was sat around this morning, my dad came in with a crate of apples from one of the two trees in our garden. This inspired me to make some apple butter, which I've never tried or made before. It's really quite simple to make (really just involving lots of cooking apples and then boiling a LOT of liquid off to concentrate the flavour). I sat next to the hob and stirred this whilst doing some more embroidery from yesterday. It took about 2 hours but honestly didn't feel that bad and the result was super tasty, especially because of the cinnamon and ginger spicing.

Sunday

Since I was already quite busy today on a family trip out, I didn't have a lot of time to go walking or travel about. This, combined with the fact I feel like my music taste has been stagnating a bit recently, led me to do a little research about the history of Punk music and listen to some of the early music that defined the genre. Think bands like The Ramones, The Clash, The Sex Pistols and Siouxsie and the Banshees. I'm still listening to stuff today so maybe I'll do a write-up for a song of the week, but in the meantime I really enjoyed it! It's interesting to see and read about how it came about and the attitudes that caused its origin and the way it is today. I've always really identified with the music in terms of taste but also with some of the attitudes that come with it.

Hopefully you liked reading about my week in all new things! Maybe you too can take some inspiration from it, even if you're doing little things like ordering a different drink from your usual place or trying a new meal. It game me something fun to try out each day and several new things I want to try and keep on.