United Kingdom

I am informed, via the Internet, that Science has Concluded that lotion with 6% catnip essential oil compares favourably with 15% DEET as a mosquito repellent. (I have also been able to find a summary at the Graun.)

I no longer have any idea where on earth I encountered these Facts (apologies if you are the person I am forgetting!) but once I hit post here I am... probably going to go buy some catnip essential oil. (Free shipping from the place I am looking at gets me 100ml, so I am probably also willing to defray my costs by supplying decants...)

I have been having A Bit Of A Struggle since Friday with discovering all in one go that I Am Doing Everything!!! Wrong With Lifting, courtesy of Footage.

What is actually going on, of course, is that my proprioception remains shit but/and my interoception remains really very good, and the only actual difference between lifting and Pilates is that for the latter I have accepted that The Process involves me gamely trying to do a thing, and doing it wrong for quite a while in ways that aren't an injury risk but also aren't optimal, until finally the right muscles fire and I can go OH. OH THAT'S WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE. and merrily reproduce that sensation via interoception forever after.

With lifting I am set up to film myself and weirdly much less twitchy about looking at myself in video than I'd expected to be, and specifically I have abruptly become Set Up To Film Myself, and what this means is that I'm sidestepping the do-it-wrong-until-it-feels-right trial-and-error mapping of interoception to What My Body Is Actual Doing and instead... getting near-immediate feedback, by dint of watching video between sets and using that to identify Limbs Not In The Right Places (&c). I'm setting myself up to consider the trial-and-error a failure because I can immediately See It's Wrong even though I can't yet feel that it's wrong, with a sense that simply being able to see it's Wrong should mean I can now do it Right, and that's... not actually how this goes.

I am... working on hauling my brain around to considering this a tool to help me speed-run doing it right, rather than A Stick With Which To Beat Myself, and I'm sure it is good psychological practice but also, right now, oof.

... except that it really is kinda cool, when it does work, to have that immediate mapping of "oh so I need it to feel like THAT--" and just Fix Things; and I am also trying to remember that the interoception is a massive asset here, given that I could perfectly well have neither.

1. Temperature increase in the flat as a whole (... ignoring the study...) today was under 2°C! We have established that ratchet straps will indeed hold the cover on the study windows to at least reduce solar gain while leaving them open for air flow purposes!
2. Achieved BLACKBERRIES for A. :)
3. Relocated my garlic chives, which are still alive!
4. I am continuing to get useful information out of the videos I took during yesterday's gym session. (Special interest continues interesting, at least to me.)
5. A got me a wee handheld battery-operated milk frother (the tiny whisk-onna-stick kind) with a Travel Case. Presents for Alex! ... that I have promptly used to make a protein shake for, specifically, A, who has discovered over the past half week or so that They Are A Friend and now wishes to join me in consuming Protein Slurry. Hence Gift. I am very amused.