Lovely Things || January
This weekend has been a lovely combination of sorting some boring tasks that we’ve been putting off, re-listening to some old CDs from my teens, trying out new recipes and sleeping – a lot of sleeping actually!
January is a funny month, full of new promises for the year ahead, and yet also usually quite cold and miserable after the come down of Christmas and the New Year. Because what a new year we had! A chilled afternoon feeling tiddly by 4pm, a delicious meal out and then welcoming in 2016 standing on Clifton Suspension Bridge with my favourite people watching about 50 firework displays across the whole of Bristol’s skyline. That’ll be one to beat!
Since then, I have also managed to get out and about and do some lovely things over the month to compensate for rather wet and gloomy days, so overall January has been a really great start to the year!
- Family time with the Canadians – Adam’s sister, brother in law and their baby came over for Christmas, so we went up to the Hoe on a windy day and had some nice photos taken.
- The irony of finding this scrap of paper I’d written in January of my 3rd year at uni – good job I ticked emailing Aardvark off the list as two years later I found it, whilst sat at my desk at that precise place of work.
- All the babies! I feel as though my ovaries are on overdrive this month – as much as I definitely don’t want one of my own yet, having plenty of tiny newborns at hand for a cuddle is a real joy!
- One chillllllllly day where I skidded 4 times on my way to work on black ice (I was driving at about 20 mph FYI – I just drive to work on tiny back lanes that I’d be surprised if they were gritted) and then it’s been back to spring again! My bulbs are well and truly blossoming!
- Baking and cakes and burgers and deliciousness. I baked this St Clements Bundt, chocolate meringues, Nutella frozen yogurt, Cate and Loriley‘s falafels and made my first ever mayonnaise by hand (amongst many many other foods which potentially weren’t worth a mention). No wonder I haven’t lost any weight this month, but I have stayed the same since the week before Christmas, and that is 11.5lbs down from what I weighed for pretty much most of the rest of 2015, so that’s an achievement!
- For Christmas, we received a nights stay in a castle on the edge of St Ives, so last weekend we made a road trip of it and slept in a room with the most wonderful view overlooking the harbour. After dinner at my absolute favourite restaurant in Falmouth, The Wheel House (seriously if you’re in the area – GO! It’s increds! But be warned you usually have to book about 3 months in advance and they only open for dinner Wed-Sat but BOY that shellfish is utterly worth it!) and then stayed in Annabel and Paul’s gorgeous flat. Although we’ve only met a handful of times, I took a gamble and asked if we could sleep at theirs and we had such a lovely time with them – what better way to build a friendship?!
- Breakfast at Good Vibes in Falmouth with Harry and Ned. So good to catch up with them, avocado, smoked salmon and poached egg is the BEST and I bloody love that place = win win all round.
- We nearly did the whole of January completely sober. Dry January was a personal challenge for both of us. I say nearly – we gave ourselves the weekend in Falmouth off as it was a special occasion. (to see our attempt to con ourselves into not missing wine, click here)
- So nearly finishing the bathroom revamp. The underfloor heating works = hooray, the tiles haven’t fallen off and the oak worktop finally fits. Only issue was that we left the masking tape on the walls too long when we were painting the woodwork so we’ve now got some bits to patch up where it pulled the paint off – bugger! Keep your eyes peeled for a full post soon!
- Seeing tonnes of people I love. January has been really busy – in the first week I ate out 6 times!! There have been wonderful meals out, girly nights in, a big birthday celebration and lots and lots of catching up. It’s my favourite thing, and I’m so grateful for the amazing people doing fantastic and interesting things around me.
