Hello and happy new year! It seems strange to be saying that at the end of January but I honestly don’t know where this month has gone.
I started 2023 off in style by testing positive for Covid on New Years Day, having successfully avoided it for almost three years. I felt pretty rough, which honestly surprised me – it’s a long time since I’ve been that ill. I took the first week off work and rescheduled all of my clients which helped a little, but it was two full weeks before I got a negative test and could make it through the day without a nap or a coughing fit.
It wasn’t quite the way I’d wanted to begin the new year! Thankfully I’m fully recovered now and have found my rhythm and routine with school & work again, although I feel like I’ve started the year two weeks late.
Here are all the little things I’ve been loving lately throughout January…
Neil surprised me with these gorgeous flowers from Bloom and Wild to cheer me up whilst I was feeling poorly with Covid
READ
Chain of Gold: by Cassandra Clare. I didn’t read any Shadowhunter books at all in 2022, despite attending an “In Conversation With…” author event in Chester with Ella in July. I decided to return to the series for the start of 2023, wanting to take my mind off of feeling so ill by re-immersing myself in the easy world of YA fantasy.
‘Chain of Gold’ is the first book in a trilogy – ‘The Last Hours’ – which nestles comfortably in between two other Shadowhunter mini-series that I’ve already read, set in Victorian London and following a brand new group of characters. I must admit, I found it hard to concentrate on reading anything much whilst I was poorly, but I made up for it in the second half of the month – dipping in and out whenever I could – and managed to finish it. I’m looking forward to reading the next installment in February.
‘Chain Of Gold’ by Cassandra Clare
WATCHED
Outer Banks: Ella has been OBSESSED with ‘Outer Banks’ for months and has been begging us to watch it so that she has someone other than Mimi to talk to about it! Again, with both Neil and I feeling so ill, we wanted something easy to watch that wouldn’t require too much deep-thinking or concentration. It turns out that Outer Banks was exactly what we needed.
It’s a teen drama based around a group of five characters who are, essentially, on a treasure hunt. There’s some romance, lots of adventure and plenty of impossibly good-looking actors, plus it’s relatively fast-paced so it kept us awake and guessing at what might happen next. We watched two or three episodes each night and finished the first two seasons over the course of a couple of weeks. Season three comes out at the end of February and I’m secretly quite looking forward to it.
The Masked Singer: We love watching The Masked Singer as much as we enjoy The Masked Dancer. It’s a bit of silly fun that I find immensely entertaining.
Matilda The Musical: Covid meant we had to postpone Lola’s birthday celebrations for a few weeks. She’d been begging to go and see ‘Matilda The Musical’ at the cinema as a family together and oh my goodness it was worth the wait. It’s such a fantastic adaptation and interpretation of both Roald Dahl’s book and the original film. The acting was superb; the cinematography and visuals were incredible; and the singing & dancing scenes were fantastic. I know musicals aren’t everyone’s cup-of-tea but this one really is just utterly wonderful. If you get the chance to go and see it at the cinema, say yes. You’ll be glad you did.
HEARD
Baby news: I’m going to be an aunty again! My best friend came to stay for the night as she’d had to come up to Birmingham for work, and whilst she was here she surprised me with the news that she’s pregnant. Yes, I cried. I honestly couldn’t be happier for her. It’s strange to think that I’ve got three teenagers whilst she has two toddlers and a baby on the way – we’re in such different seasons of our lives but it really works.
We’ve been friends since we were seven years old and our friendship has withstood the test of time as well as all sorts of challenges and geographical distances. I think of her as a sister and consider her family to be part of mine so now I’m counting down the days to summer when I’ll hopefully get some tiny newborn snuggles.
Oochya: I have loved the Stereophonics since my high school days but it’s been a while since I listened to any of their new music. I was given the ‘Oochya’ album for Christmas and it’s pretty much been on repeat in my car ever since (occasionally interspersed with a bit of Taylor Swift of course). I don’t skip any of the songs (always the sign of a good album), although my two absolute favourites are ‘Right Place Right Time’ and ‘Leave The Light On’.
MADE
2023 Intentions: Every January I choose an intention for myself for the coming year. It’s typically a word or a short phrase that describes something I want to align myself with, a ‘who I want to be and how I want to live my life’ for the next twelve months. There will be a blog post all about my 2023 intention coming soon (once I’ve created time to actually sit down and write it).
I’ve also joined a group of photographers who are making an intention for each individual month and then creating a concept around that theme and documenting it. The intention I made for January was ‘rest’, because I knew that’s what I needed in order to recover properly from Covid. I’m not, generally speaking, particularly good at resting, but I really did try to listen to my body and give it the rest it wanted and needed.
Lola also tested positive for Covid and spent a lot of time resting
Plans: While she was here, my friend and I *may* have started planning a trip to Paris together in the springtime to jointly celebrate our milestone birthdays – she turned 40 at the end of last year and my turn is in a few months time. We spent a few days in Paris together when we were both 21 years old and thought it would be fun to recreate our adventure, especially as neither of us have been back to the city since then. As a result, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time this week researching potential AirBnBs for us to stay in and looking up cool stuff for us to see and do – I love the planning stage of a trip just as much as I love the actual travelling!
WORE
New hair: When she turned 16 last month, Ella asked to have her hair coloured as her main birthday present. There was a mix-up with the appointments at the salon and it ended up being postponed until January. I’ve never coloured my hair before, ever, so I was really interested in the whole (three hour long!) process. She had some darker colours and highlights put in as balayage (which I still can’t pronounce!) and she’s absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. Meanwhile I’m over here quietly wondering how my girl got so grown up and marvelling at how beautiful she is, inside and out.
Ella’s new hair!
AND FINALLY…
Lola’s 13th birthday: The last of my babies became a teenager at the start of January and it really does feel like the end of an era (and the start of a whole brand new one). As previously mentioned, we postponed the celebrations due to being ill with Covid and ended up having a belated cinema trip followed by bowling and the arcade a few weeks after the big day. She was incredibly understanding and didn’t mind too much, bless her, and we did our best to make the day itself special with her gifts, balloons and birthday cake.
My littlest baby is now a teenager. Thirteen!
Winter weather: It snowed! I am not a fan of snow, or winter, or cold weather in general. But seeing the joy on my girls faces as they rushed excitedly to the windows to see the blanket of snow covering our town in the early hours of the morning brings me an immense amount of happiness.
Out-and-about: Despite Covid putting a spanner in the works and delaying the start of the year by two weeks, it’s actually been quite a sociable month overall. As well as my best friend coming up to stay with us, I headed down to London mid-January to meet up with my other best friend, who I’ve known since we were 4 years old. I was supposed to see her in December for her 40th birthday but as I was on crutches at the time it meant I couldn’t really manage it. We rescheduled for this month instead, I took her out for lunch & cake and we sat in a cafe for three hours straight, just talking. It was wonderful.
We also met up with Sophie and her boyfriend for a postponed mini-Christmas (Covid really has a lot to answer for!). We opted for Bicester Shopping Village as it’s pretty much halfway between where we each live. It was really good to see them both, even if we did end up forgetting to take their presents with us – I thought Neil had put them in the car and he thought that I had. Oops!
And now here we are… Chapter one of a brand new year is already closed and there’s just one last stretch of winter to go before Spring arrives.
I hope that you found plenty of little things to love throughout January; that it’s been a positive start to the new year; and that February promises to be fun.
With love,
Chloe x
