Brand New Me, Brand New Routine

So, I'm all unsettled.

I get up later. I get up at an almost sensible time. My alarm goes off at 7am; as opposed to 5:30am like it used to. But this doesn't - yet - mean that I have adapted my sleeping pattern to take this into account. I still, regularly, wake at around 5 or 5:30am for no apparent reason (sometimes for a pee).

So, I should be getting more sleep and therefore making more of my weekends? Well, as yet, not yet. But like I say, my daytime sleep is still disturbed. And I've always loved my bed. Hence why this weekend, even despite the weekly sleep issues, I managed to stay in bed until 2pm on each day. Two days almost lost.

But, the new job has had more effects that just what my sleep should be (which I hope will sort itself).

Why did my alarm go off at 5:30am? Because I had to leave the house at 6:30am to get to the train station. I had to walk for around 20mins at my end; and around 30mins from the station to work. And the same back in the evening. So about 1 1/2 hours of brisk walking per day.

That's gone.

I now sit in a car for 1 1/2 hours a day.

So I have to find that exercise from somewhere. At the minute I am making sure I get a good 40min walk on most lunch hours. Then, I went jogging on Tuesday. But this clearly has to increase. Otherwise I'll end up fat.

So yes, the exercise regime has to change. And it may do by adjusting my alarm a couple of days a week to get me up earlier, though still at a decent time (6:30am) to pop out for a jog. I'm still getting the extra half-hour sleep than what I would have in my old job; but a bit of a run on top.

Winter should be fine when I'm not rushing home of an evening to do the gardening. When it's dark I'll either be exercising or doing DIY.

But that's the exercise, which needs developing.

Whilst the lack of exercise can be compensated against the increase in sleep (hopefully); the lack of both tv and 'fitty' watching has been noticeable.

So, on the trains I spent a lot of time watching tv. Well, pretty much an hour every morning and evening. 2 hours a day. That's a lot of time. Now, I spend those hours driving. I can't do anything with those hours. They are dead to me. They are 10 hours a week I have lost. Of tv. So I have to cover that time at home - watch that tv at home.

And then there is the holiday.

At old work I could earn an extra half-day holiday per month by working half an hour of my lunch hour twice a week. So I did that on a Tuesday and Thursday and earned an extra 12 half days a year. 6 full days a year, on top of a generous 28 day holiday meant that I could get 34 days.

Now, I get 23 days. No time-off-in-lieu. Nothing.That said, I often struggled to use my holiday up during the year.

And finally there is the shopping.

At old work, the big supermarket was a five-minute walk away. Perfect for those Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays that I had the time to shop. Now, the closest supermarket is a good ten-minute drive away. And back. Meaning on my lunch hour I would have 40 mins to shop and eat. So I drop in at a supermarket on the home. Which is nice and good and convenient. But it means that on a Monday I get home no earlier than I would do if I were on the train at my old-job.

But then I get paid more. Am I happy with making these sacrifices to my life for more pay? Or would I rather less?

Quite.