Exams next week

OMG where has the term gone? I've been meaning to open the books & study but now time for exams has arrived & I still have not read them!!!! Looks like a busy weekend cramming for the tests?

The Story of Fidgety Philip - by Heinrich Hoffmann

This is a very funny poem that I came across that describes the symptoms of adhd in 'Fidgety Philip' very accurately. The poem dates from the 1840's and part of a series of verses for children. The excerpt that follows could easily be a vignette from my own childhood:

"See the naughty, restless child,
Growing still more rude and wild ,
Till his chair falls over quite.
Philip screams with all his might,
Catches at the cloth, but then
That makes matters worse again.
Down upon the ground they fall,
Glasses, bread, knives forks and all.
How Mamma did fret and frown,
When she saw them tumbling down!
And Papa made such a face!
Philip is in sad disgrace."

Herr Hoffman seems to describe a child with adhd is like indeed!

Inspiration

Now that I have some thinking time again I want do some new stuff. So I have been seeking inspiration from various sources. There are 3 areas related to physical activity that I'm going to concentrate on:

1) Learn a new physical skill - now Jacq over at ADHD & Me has been talking about kayaking and has a very nice picture on her blog. This has inspired me to book lessons in kayaking for next month, thanks Jacq :-)

2) Re-commence something I used to like and do - so it is back to weight training again. I even own all the equipment already.

3) Have an adventure - this is inspired by the film "8 Below", so in February next year I am off on another dogsledding vacation (this time in the Arctic).

Now, how to make all this happen?????

Lost (not in cyberspace) & Busy

A few people have wondered where I have gone as it has been a while since my last post. It has been a really busy time for me the past few months. My boss asked my team to deliver a national website & TV campaign in 6 weeks (this usually takes a few months longer) for a client. It was very hard! The project had several creative directors (who all hated each other). Anyway we got it done, launched and survived. The team and me are now catching up on some sleep.

Simultaneously with all of this I had booked in some work on the house, electricians, painters etc. Nothing like doing renovation when you are busy at work ;-)

BUT (because I didn't really have enough stuff to do), just before the project was dumped on us, I had enrolled in a law degree. Which, for adhd'r is a really big call. Of course, several assignments were due throughout the project. That nearly did my head in. There is so much stuff to read (and, as far as I can tell, judges do not know any plain English at all and they have a predilection for snippets of Latin and Old French). I rarely move without my legal dictionary these days. Anyhow had the results back for my first assignment and did OK. We'll see how it goes for the next ones.

Whew! Just writing all of that made me tired. It is not surprising that I have not read anything unrelated to work or school for months now, let alone posting on a blog. But the important thing is that I survived and managed to meet all the obligations. A few years ago I would have failed to deliver on most of this stuff and been having a quiet little breakdown somewhere. The meds have really helped me - went and got my prescription refilled regularly.

Joined a gym - gotta get fit

Just joined a local gym - after 2 years off it is time to get fit again. It has been 12 months since my surgery, so I no longer have any physical excuse. It is just a matter of getting into a routine and living through the first few weeks (I know that the first few weeks feel really bad). I know it is good for adhd to get regular physical activity - I just need to focus (hahahaha).

Oops - forgot to go to family lunch!

Had an adhd moment the other day and forgot to go to a family lunch on ANZAC day. In very bad books with family at moment. But I forgot to write it down when they phoned and consequently it went right out of my head. I did apologise, but unfortunately the host was one of my non-adhd in-laws :-( If only it had been one of my side of the family hosting all would have been well, as they are all forgetful like me.

Back from the Frozen North

I recently spent a month visiting eastern Canada - Ontario and Quebec. It was my first time in the snow and it was fabulous. I hired a 4WD and went skiing, dog sledding and snowmobiling - it was great fun. Canadians are really nice - it makes you want to go back there again (& they are really polite too). They've also got some spectacular scenery. Quebec is definitely a great place for snow mobiling - thousands of kilometres of trails. Canadians seem to me to be more similar to Australians than Americans. Dog sledding is a hoot too. The dogs were adorable, just like in that moveie "8 Below". The temperatures ranged from 0 degrees celsius to about -24 degrees celsius. Thanks to my trusty warm weather gear I was toasty.

Getting Things Done - How?

Have been reading a lot of stuff on Getting Things Done (a.k.a. GTD) - not sure how I can move myself beyond just reading about it though. Tomorrow I will go to the office furniture shop to buy some shelves. My Easter weekend task is to tidy up and organise my study. I want to be able to find things when I need them. Hoping the GTD way will help.

What to do now?

Dropped out of my linguistics course - it was too dull. Now I'm pondering what to do next? Perhaps hypnotherapy? Need to do something so I don't just watch TV all the time. Stopped taking my meds too. Not really causing a problem (yet). Time will tell I suppose.