A Big Week, a Full Heart, and a Very Tired Monday

It’s Monday morning, and right now I should be finishing up a workout, or walking the dog.

Instead, I’m still in my workout clothes, eyes blurry, motivation nowhere to be found. I feel like I could sleep for days.

I’m recovering from a massive week.

Work trip

The reason for all this exhaustion? A big work trip away.

Last week I flew to Adelaide for a work trip. With a large portion of the company working from home, it means that it’s pretty rare that we get together in person. I’m lucky that some of my workmates live within a couple of hours, and this year we’ve vowed to try and catch up in person more. But for the rest of us, it’s a once-a-year opportunity.

Last year I put so much pressure on myself. On the very first day I even had a panic attack, triggered by the need to “look good”, wearing clothes well outside my comfort zone, and body image issues rearing their ugly head.

This year, there was no such thing. And honestly? It felt like a quiet little victory.

I’ve spent a lot of time working on my mental health and my self-confidence. And while I’d love to pretend it wasn’t part of it, losing some weight and feeling better in my own skin definitely helped too. I was still wearing new clothes, but I felt good, and I reminded myself that my worth doesn’t come from other people’s perception of me.

So, I walked in with my head held high, made conversation, and had plenty of laughs. The whole trip was very successful, and I had a great time hanging out with my workmates.

Fun fact: 40 degrees Celsius in Adelaide is more comfortable than 35 degrees back home. The humidity is a killer where we live.

Adelaide felt like being in an oven, a dry one, but I could handle it. I laughed when someone said it felt humid and explained that unless you start sweating just from breathing, it doesn’t count.

On Friday night a few of us went out for dinner at iTL, an Italian restaurant located in the Adelaide casino. I’m not kidding when I say they have the world’s best tiramisu (pistachio, it was heavenly) and their passionfruit sour cocktail is phenomenal. We had a lot of laughs, and it was the perfect way to wind up the trip.

Weekend in Brisbane

I flew back Saturday morning, but since we had plans in Brisbane on Sunday, we opted to stay in Brisbane at my in-laws Saturday night.

I spent most of Saturday sneezing like mad (my sinus passages were cleared from the flight), and doing everything I could to not fall asleep.

With perimenopause setting in, I’ve been waking up from around 2am most mornings. My doctor has given me some light sedatives, but on Friday night I was convinced I was tired enough to sleep straight through.

I was wrong.

I was awake from about 2am – 3.30am that morning, and then awake for good from 5am. So I was exhausted. I felt bad for my family that I was a giant slothball around the house, but after a big week of being “on”, I was struggling.

That’s the thing about being an extroverted introvert. When you hit your social capacity, you really need time to recharge, and unfortunately for my family, that recharge time landed squarely on Saturday.

On Sunday we had plans in the city, so I suggested to my husband that we head in early and make a day for it with our son.

And what fun we had!

We visited some markets, rode electric scooters, and caught the city cat up and back on the Brisbane river.

At 11am we made our way to the Brisbane German Club, which I’ve been hanging out to visit for years. We had lunch with my family, and had so much fun!

Andrew was performing, a one-man band playing Bavarian-style music, dressed in lederhosen. He’s fantastic! It was my first time seeing him, and I was so excited. I ended up buying his shirt “Andrew ist mein homeboy”, mainly because my husband’s name is Andrew, and the double joke there was too good to pass up.

We had schnitzels, an incredible torte for dessert, danced the Macarena on the dance floor, and my son got his face painted. And, of course, I had a German beer.

As we were there to celebrate the February birthdays in our family, we asked Andrew to sing a happy birthday. We raised our drinks, sang loudly, and shouted “hip hip hooray!” at the end.

Getting home

Finally at about 3.30pm we packed up our gear, bid farewell to the in-laws, and drove the 1.5hr trip north back home.

It took me about an hour to unpack my suitcase, mainly because I kept dragging my feet so much. It was so hot and humid, and instead I just spent the time getting distracted by emails, or…basically anything I could find so I could put off unpacking as long as possible. I did eventually put it all away, but on the plus side, I got some life admin done too!

Now, this morning, it feels like the last week passed in a haze. Tonight will probably be a bath and an early night.

I’m giving myself permission to take a “rest day” this morning. I’ll still walk on the under-desk treadmill while I work, and I’ll still walk the dog when I take my son to school, so it’s not exactly a lazy day.

I’m just choosing not to do my scheduled workout. And right now, that feels like the kindest option.

Weeks like this remind me that even the good stuff takes energy. Especially the good stuff.

I had an amazing time, made memories, laughed a lot, and now I’m tired. Both things can be true.

And today, rest gets to be part of the story too.