November Hello!

 

Hello. Long time no speak... again. Honestly, I wonder why I keep the blog sometimes but then I remember that I actually prefer writing bookish thoughts more than any of the social media stuff... Then I'm left pondering why I don't spend more time on here?! I blame my brain. I have a very short attention span these days so scrolling is easier than sitting still and thinking thoughts to translate into a blog post. 

Anyhoo! Hello! It's November! 

I cannot believe we're almost at the end of another year but since this is my favourite time of year I'm all excited about it.

I last updated on what's been going on in August (😱) so a quick run down of what's been going on since then:

👉I went to Florence (and attended RARE Florence whilst there.)

👉 The professor got promoted at work.

👉The little dude has started his second year of secondary school and got an award for academic excellence in his first year. 

👉I got a new hamster (named badgey) and he's pretty cool... (I still miss Bucky though. He was the bees-knees.)

👉I caught and recovered from Covid (for the second time.)

👉 My mum's health has been really poor and she's pending surgery but she'll hopefully be on the mend soon! Despite that, she was cleared to come visit for a couple of weeks which was lovely.

👉 It was my birthday! 38... that big 40 is creeping ever closer!

👉 I got a new laptop. It is super fast and super snazzy (not surprising considering my old laptop was over 8 years old) but like a new pair of boots, breaking in new technology takes time and I'm in the frustrating phase of having to reinstall things, save passwords, reset passwords, try and find where things are saved now... Bleh. It'll be good in a month or two once it's been suitably trained. 😂

👉 I managed to snag tickets to RARE's 10 year anniversary in Edinburgh next year (Sept).

👉 We completely redecorated the little dude's bedroom... It's went from "little kid room" to "teenage room" but the general chaos it's caused with furniture and boxes and stuff being all over the house whilst we decorated, sold/gave away old furniture, moved in new furniture etc... Ugh. Glad we don't have to do that again any time soon!!

👉 I've been stuck in a never ending cycle of blanching and freezing vegetables from the garden... Not to mention making chutney, pickling beetroot and other forms of preservation. I love how the husband's hobby has forced me to learn a whole new set of life-skills so the abundance of stuff he hauls from his garden doesn't go to waste! 😶 

I'm sure there's other stuff that I could add in here but I've rambled enough... Whilst the blogging mood has stuck me, I plan on working up some posts today so hopefully the blog won't be barren for much longer! Also, I've managed to transfer my blog list to the new computer in an easy to click through format so I'll hopefully be hopping around and catching up with folks!

(Instagram is fun and all but I miss my original blog-buddies!!)

I'm not going to list off what I've been reading since August but instead share my birthday book haul!

I got the Waterstones special edition of Kerri Maniscalco's Throne of the Fallen and it is beautiful! Printed edges, gorgeous embossed cover underneath the dust jacket... I've always been a cover whore but I've never really been a book collector but with how pretty some of these editions are I may be flipping...

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane

The Many Lives of Hadley Monroe by Bec McMaster

Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim

In other news, it's the time of year for the HoHoHo Readathon hosted by Kimberly and I am, of course, going to take part! I think the HoHoHoRAT is my favourite of all of them every year!

 Who else is joining in?

❤

Hope you're all well!