August Playlist 🎧 Living the life of a workaholic
Free time is overrated. Just kidding. Free time is the most valuable thing you can have. I’m going to tell you a secret. I love my job, but not all that comes with it. Here’s August playlist:
The last couple of months I’ve been overworking, but I’ve still managed to get some me-time.
These past few years I’ve learnt to prioritise me-time above all. I may not have as much as I want or should have, but it’s still a priority in my mind, that counts, right?
At the begining of 2020 I said to myself: “Sílvia, this year, you’ll get one day a week as your free day. You know? Like any other living being gets their Sundays off, well…I’ll get one day a week”. Since January I’ve only taken two days off (not two a week, two in total 🤦🏼♀️)
Nonetheless, even though this year has turned to be a little bit chaotic with the new album coming up, the cancelling of gigs, new concerts coming up with different rules…I’ve managed to get my 7 hours of sleep almost every day and I’ve mantained my schedules with a bit of resting time after lunch and dinner. Not bad for an ex-workaholic.
I don’t like that word, though. Workaholic. I love my job, but I’m not addicted to it…it’s just that some things need to be done. Lately I am incredibly grateful because I work with a team of professionals that do some of the hard work for me. Thanks Music Bus 🤗 But a couple of years ago…it was me the one doing all the office stuff. Tell me about over-working….
The good thing about not having to do all the work yourself is that you can focus on what you should be doing. But we overachievers can’t stop doing stuff we’re not supposed to. Because, why let anyone else do something you can do yourself? I’ll never learn to delegate as much as I wish. And I love myself for that.
I really love variety in my life. Writing songs would be so boring if it was the only creative thing I had to do. I need to design my album, arrange the songs and be there though the entire process. Why? Because that’s what I love. And the worst thing is that the other half of my band, Carlos, does the same. So we can’t stop working.
This July we’ve been finishing the album, working on a new music video that we’ll be recording this next week. Appart from that, we’ve been designing the artwork and taking promotional photos for the upcoming tour. We’re pretty excited 😁
But on top of that, I found myself a new passion that I’ve been using as an “escape from music” once a week. I’ve started taking pottery classes. I think it’s important for me, even though I love music, to take some time off (two hours a week) to do some other type of creative work. Food is there too, of course, but I needed something to take my mind off of everything. Something new that I’d never tried. That way I could focus on doing that and I didn’t allow myself to think about work because I was busy thinking about pottery because it was new and needed my undivided attention.
I enjoy it so much and, according to my nice teacher, I’m pretty quick learning and not bad at all. I’m so proud (and amazed) of myself for doing a couple of bowls, a cup and an accidental jar. I love how detached I feel about my works and how the first one I did got broken accidentally and I couldn’t care less.
I’m trying to make stuff as beautiful as possible, so I don’t mind when they are “imperfect” I find imperfection beautiful, that’s why for me imperfection is perfect. I can’t feel the same way with music. I am not a perfectionist either, but I have my own standards and I’ve become used to follow them. I guess when you start a new type of art, everything is fun and careless, but after more than 15 years, it’s your job and you become a little bit more detail oriented.
The garden has been giving me more and more every day too. Cherry tomatoes are starting to appear.
As well as these cucumbers. My parents brought the seeds from Bhutan when they were there on holidays a couple of years ago. I’m so glad they didn’t die! 😅
My neighbour’s giant courgettes kept coming, so I started making cakes. I loved this loaf in particular. I made it as a dessert, but turned out to be an excellent bread for black tahini and other savoury spreads.
This cinnamon courgette cake was probably the best. I made some for the nighbours too, they’ve been giving me their opinions and now I can say I’m becoming an expert on courgette cakes. If there’s somewhere I can get my diploma, let me know 😂
I’ve also collected some wild fruits like physallis (tomatillos), blackberries and raspberries from my frontyard. There’s nothing better than going for a walk in the morning and coming back with a handful of freshly picked wild berries for the cereal bowl.
In mid-July I felt a bit more sluggish than usual, so I decided to fast for a full day drinking vegetable juices and I felt much better afterwards. Although I don’t really benefit from long fasts, one day of juicing usually benefits my digestion and energy levels.
With the end of the eclipse season, I planted some seeds and intentions with the new moon in Cancer.
July was a month of different experiences. On top of all that…I finally had a gig. How I’ve missed playing live. I love it so much. I’m so grateful for being able to play for a nice crowd in Santiago.
People had to go with thier face masks on, but they were singing as if they didn’t have one. I repeat…I am so grateful.
Here’s a sneak peak at my backstage. Of course…avocados 🥑
July was also my grandma’s birthday. Even though I’m working all day I could visit her and the family for a short break in a park
My sister took the bitch and she got into a river. She’s so freaking cute, but she’s even cuter when she’s wet 🥰
July was a month of abundance in the shape of vegetables and experiencies. If I am honest, my favourite kind of abundance.
As far as food is concerned, I haven’t cooked as much as I wished.
Most of the recipes I made were steamed vegetables or zucchini cakes, but when you got so much goodness directly from nature, you don’t want to mess it up.
This month was also a month of homemade fast food.
A lot of pasta dishes and raw salads. I also introduced more animal products because my digestion wasn’t the best with all those stressful chores. I won’t lie, it helps my digestion, but makes me feel mentally drained.
Eggs and yogurt are ok, but whenever I eat fish or chicken…I feel awful. My belly is happy, my mind is sad. I guess I still have a long way. I don’t overthink about it. That’s the key.
The tomatillos that I picked lasted for a couple of days so I made some beautiful recipes.
My breakfasts lately have been cornflakes with fruit and chocolate. I just changed the fruit to whatever I picked that day 🙂
And I leave you here, Don’t forget about the playlist for August. I hope you enjoy it. I’ve been craving some music moments that weren’t my own work, so I kept going to the playlist the whole month whenever we were doing something that didn’t require our ears to be 100% at it.
I hope you’re having a wonderful salad, I mean Summer, but yeah I wrote salad first…so here it stays. I hope you are cooking something else that is not pasta and I hope you get to go to the beach at least one day…because I won’t 😂
My Summers are always a “maybe this year I can go to the beach” but it never happens. I leave you with another pasta dish, in case you didn’t believe me 😂😂😂
Have fun and keep fooding!
You can make one of my latest recipes:
