November felt like it lasted for an eternity, despite being relatively busy. I am a summer/early autumn girl at heart and absolutely not a fan of darkening mornings & evenings and incessant rain. I’m doing my very best to embrace each season for what it brings but I confess that I do tend to find this month particularly hard.
Still, in between the monotony of school and work and weather, there have been some really lovely things happening and memories have most definitely been made.
Here are all the little things I’ve been loving lately throughout November…
READ
The Road To Little Dribbling: by Bill Bryson. I haven’t read a proper travel book for absolutely ages. After reading a book about pilgrimages last month it rekindled my desire to go wandering and I suddenly had an urge to read something light-hearted and funny and travel related. I’ve had this book for years and have somehow never got round to reading it. It caught my eye as I was scanning my bookshelf trying to decide what to read next and I decided it was just the thing I needed.
I’d forgotten how much I enjoy Bill Bryson’s writing. He’s intelligent and funny, although I felt he’d perhaps stepped a tiny bit over the boundary into vulgarity on a couple of instances, which I don’t remember him doing in previous books. Keeping up with what the modern market wants I suppose. That being said, I laughed out loud many times as well as learning plenty about all sorts of places in the UK that I would never have thought to go to and which are now firmly on my list of ‘must-visit’ locations.
‘The Road To Little Dribbling’ by Bill Bryson
Vicious: by V.E Schwab. Yes, another one by this author – I really enjoy the way she writes and the fact that all of her books are slightly magical/fantasy based in some way whilst also being very much set in the real, modern world. This juxtaposition, along with flipping between character perspectives and hopping back and forth through time, keeps the stories fresh.
This is book one in a duology – previous books of hers’ that I’ve read have been a standalone novel (Addie LaRue) and a trilogy (the ‘Shades of Magic’ series). I’m already excited to find out how the story ends in the next book. It’s about ExtraOrdinaries – people who have near-death experiences, survive against all the odds and develop unique powers as a result. Superheroes and villains aren’t usually my thing but I’m thoroughly enjoying this so far. It raises all sorts of questions about ethics and playing God and it’s definitely making me think, which is unusual for a fiction book. I’m about halfway through so far.
WATCHED
Enola Holmes 2: We thoroughly enjoyed the first film when we watched it a while back, so when we learned that there was a sequel it went straight on our ‘must-watch’ list. I’m pleased to report that the second installment was just as good as we hoped it would be – it was entertaining and action-packed with a good message about feminism. Worth a watch (and the girls loved it too).
Christmas Lights Switch-On: The last time we went to see the Christmas Lights Switch-On in our town was probably about eight years ago when the girls were small. We’ve not bothered since – it’s usually too cold/wet, too crowded, too dark and too noisy. For some reason, this year all three girls decided that they wanted to go, so, blessed with dry weather for once, we walked into town and squished in amongst the considerable crowds to watch the live music, join in with the countdown, “ooh” at the spectacle of the giant tree suddenly illuminating along with all of the other lights along the high street and “aah!” at the (slightly underwhelming) fireworks display. It was something new (ish) for us to add to our festive traditions though and the girls all enjoyed it, which is really all that matters.
Fireworks at the Christmas Lights Switch-On event in our town (captured by Ella!)
Frameless: At the very end of the month I headed down to London to spend the afternoon with my Mum. We did a little bit of shopping, had lunch in the M&S cafe at Marble Arch (try the carrot cake – trust me, it’s delicious) and went to an exhibition called Frameless, which I have been very excited to see for quite some time now. Honestly, I’m not sure I even have the words to describe the experience.
Frameless is an interactive art exhibition, consisting of four rooms in an old converted cinema. Each room has a different focus: Beyond Reality; The World Around Us; Colour In Motion; and The Art Of Abstract. In each room are digital versions of famous paintings but they’re not just hanging on the wall – they ARE the wall, and the ceiling, and the floor. They’ve been brought to life so they move, there’s music, it’s a full-on sensory experience. It’s absolutely wonderful. Mesmerising. Awe-inspiring. Mind blowing. I don’t have enough adjectives to describe it. I would 100% recommend a visit if you can create the opportunity.
It did make me feel a little bit wobbly and disorientated at times but it was worth it anyway. Our favourite room was Colour In Motion, which had some examples of Impressionist art. You could actually walk/run through the digital ‘petals’ on the floor and they moved as if they were real. It was truly incredible. I can’t even begin to comprehend how it’s done – projectors and mirrors and lights and an insane amount of computer programming and heat sensors and tracking devices I imagine. It felt so true-to-life and I’m not entirely sure I even want to know how it works, I’m quite content soaking up the magic. I want to go back.
The ‘Colour in Motion’ room at Frameless in London
My beautiful Mum and I 🙂
HEARD
Alice Oseman: Way back at the start of November, which feels like forever ago, we took Ella and Mimi to an ‘In conversation with…’ event up in Manchester, run by Waterstones. Ella and I have been to a couple already this year and this time Mimi came too as she loves the author who was being interviewed.
Alice Oseman created a series of graphic novels called ‘Heartstopper’ and they’ve since been made into a successful TV series on Netflix (with two more series currently being filmed). I’ve watched it with the girls and it’s really good, covering all sorts of current issues including friendships and relationships, homophobia, bullying and more. It generated lots of conversations with Ella and Mimi that were really quite enlightening and made me feel very proud of them – both their open-minded & open-hearted values and who they’re becoming as they grow up.
The evening itself was a bit of a disaster – I hadn’t realised that Manchester City football club were playing at their home ground that night, the traffic was absolutely horrendous, the weather was awful and it ended up taking us over three hours to make what would usually have been a 1h 15min journey. We missed the start of the event, sneaking in at the back amidst hushed whispers… and then had a similar experience on the drive home again thanks to roadworks, getting muddled with satnav directions and being ridiculously hungry as none of us had eaten since lunchtime by the time it finished at 9pm!
It felt stressful at the time but it was worth it – the author was interesting, the interviewer was engaging and funny, the girls got a signed book each and listening to their excited chatter in the car more than made up for all that had gone wrong.
MADE
A fuss of Sophie: November is Sophie’s birthday month and this year was a bit of a milestone one – it’s not every day that you turn 21! We headed down to Southampton for the weekend before her birthday to spend some time with her and take her out for dinner at Zizzi’s. I secretly took balloons and confetti sprinkles into the restaurant ahead of our booked timeslot to surprise her, then after our meal they brought out her cake and everyone sang happy birthday to her.
I still can’t believe that the cute, little, blonde, curly-haired almost-three-year-old toddler I first met all those years ago is now 21 years old. It’s crazy. Her 18th birthday was just a few months before the start of the pandemic and it doesn’t seem like it was three whole years ago that we were celebrating at her party.
I feel very lucky to get to be her Stepmum and I love her as if she’s my own. She’s ace. Hopefully we helped make her birthday one to remember in all the right ways.
Sophie and the girls in Southampton
WORE
Crutches: Ok, technically I didn’t ‘wear’ them, but they were an accessory for the latter part of the month after I somehow sprained my achilles tendon and the ATF ligament in my foot whilst out for a walk. I wasn’t even doing anything strenuous! I limped around for about a week in pain before finally giving in and going to the physio.
Her ever-so-helpful guidance was to “not rush about so much” (which is pretty much impossible for me) so I borrowed Lola’s crutches from when she sprained her foot in Bude a couple of visits ago. It meant I could still get out and about and do all the things I needed to do whilst still being able to stay mostly off it weight-wise. It’s been a week of using them so far (navigating trains and tubes plus walking around London when I met up with Mum was very hard work) and I’m keen to get back on my feet as soon as I possibly can. I’ve been told it could take about 4 weeks to fully heal though so I’m going to have to make an effort to rest it more and try and be patient.
My new accessories
AND FINALLY…
Ella’s exams: Ella sat her PPE’s (Pre Public Examinations) in November. The best way to describe them is being like practice Mock exams. She has her real Mocks next March and then sits her actual GCSEs in May and June. I can’t quite believe we’re at this point already. She seemed to manage her exams ok and had a good balance of working hard on revision whilst giving herself some down-time too. She also put in her application to study A-Levels at college instead of staying on at her current school’s sixth form. I went to the college open evening and was very impressed with it – I definitely support her choice to go there.
Visiting Essex: I travelled to Essex for the day to see my Dad’s wife. It’s always lovely to catch up with her and I thoroughly enjoy wandering around the chocolate-box village she lives in – it’s full of pretty front doors, old buildings and beautiful gardens. She has taught her cat to give high fives in return for a treat (!) and there was a gorgeous sunset whilst I was there too.
Sunset on my day trip to Essex
Chapter eleven of 2022 is now closed and we’re on the final stretch of the year. Next month is one of the busiest in the calendar for us – both in terms of school and work as well as multiple birthdays and Christmas – and I’m looking forward to all the things we have planned.
I hope that you found plenty of little things to love throughout November and that December is full of festive joy.
Stay well x
