January round up

January had been a really odd month and I won't be sad to see the back of it. It started out badly, my husband was admitted to hospital for an emergency operation on New Year's Eve and was kept in for four nights. He's still recovering, but hopefully the operation was successful. He was on hourly drops after the operation and needed to spend most of the day horizontal, so I needed to be around to hand out medicine and feed and water him.

Only certain people can pull off the compression socks look

As a result of that and return trips to the hospital I didn't get back to work until the second week in January. My boss was great and let me work from home whilst I needed to. Honestly, I couldn't have found anyone better to work for. I've got my head down since then and have managed to do everything I needed to this month and even a little bit of unexpected recruitment. At least it means I can stop worrying about letting work down, everything's back on track.

Things have been quiet outside work as Andrew's not been able to do too much. I've watched a lot of 'Once Upon a Time' and loved 'Making a Murderer'. We also had our first cinema trip of the year to see 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'. I'd managed to avoid the Star Wars films previously and so watched the first three releases over the weekend so that the latest film would make sense. I quite enjoyed the new film, it felt like a remake in certain respects but there was enough going on to maintain my interest and not too much of C3PO's mithering! 

As we've not needed two cars for the last few months I sold mine last weekend. I thought it would be really difficult to get rid of and was steeling myself for a trip to 'We Buy Any Car' my but a quick call to the local garage and it was gone within a couple of hours. I'm off to my parents tomorrow to pick up its replacement, a family hand me down. I'm trying to be sensible at the moment and pay off the mortgage as soon as we can, so I'm trying to ignore the pull of a flashy car!   

Apart from that, I'm not doing badly against the plans I set at the start of the month for the year:

Read sixteen books
When Andrew was in hospital I was getting there at about 8am for the doctor's rounds, and leaving at around 6pm or 7pm. As he was sleeping a lot, I got a lot of reading done in the seat next to his bed. As a result, I've finished my first book of the year, 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak. It's not at all the type of book I'd normally read, if anyone mentioned historical fiction I'd probably roll my eyes, but I really enjoyed it. It's narrated by Death, which was what initially hooked me and tells the story of Liesel, a girl living in Nazi Germany during the Second World War. I've not seen the film, so can't compare it, but it gave me something of an insight into life in Nazi Germany and rattled along at a decent enough speed that I didn't get bored. I gave it four stars on Goodreads.

Find one hundred geocaches
At the start of the year we were at 488 finds and we still are. Hopefully we'll be able to make a start once Andrew's back on his feet in February.

Maintain Vitality gold status
Unless a miracle happens and I manage to hit platinum, this won't change until the scheme renewal date in May, so nothing to do on this yet.

Try three gym classes
Nope, no progress on this one. I went to the gym and had a treadmill session last weekend but sprained my ankle. I sprained it badly about nine years ago, so it's prone to injury. I've been trying to rest it this week and wearing an ankle support at night so I'm hoping to get back to the gym this week.

Meet up with an old friend
No progress on this one either. I wanted to wait until I have something other than bad news to offer as part of a catch up! I'm keeping my head down until Andrew's discharged by his consultants.

Blog once a month
I've done storming work on this one, seven blog posts this month! I don't know whether it's because I've spent more time at home, had more time on my hands with Andrew being ill, or whether I've just been inspired, but it's working!

Watch a new film once a month
Another success! I've watched six films this month that I've not seen before, one of them was even a new release. It started with 'Out of Sight' an old George Clooney film, which started well and then went downhill. Then we watched 'Mockingjay Part 1', which I enjoyed, I'm just glad we'd seen the previous film relatively recently as there was no, "previously on Hunger Games" at the start of the film. Hopefully we can see the final part in the next few months whilst this one is still fresh in our minds. I'd never wanted to watch the Star Wars films, although I love Sci-Fi, the idea of lightsabers bored me to tears, I nod off during fight scenes in films. I gave them a go though and actually really enjoyed them (well, the second one not so much, but it was only two hours of my life!)

January's films

Take two holidays
We really need a break, but I don't want to go too far from home at the moment, just in case. We're currently looking at somewhere for a break in April, perhaps around the south coast. Hopefully I'll have more to report next month.

Take six day trips
Again, no progress on this one, but hopefully February will bring drier weather and we'll be able to get out to explore some of the local sights.


Not the best start to the year, but it's not been all bad. Let's see what else 2016 has to offer!