The month that was: January

How is it February already? January has flown by, although it was a pretty quiet month for me. I've not really done anything exciting, though I have bashed out a lot of words and confirmed the publication date for my third book, Lost... OK, that's exciting!

In 2015 I'm going to be doing a new feature on the blog, looking back at some of the things I got up to each month. So, without further ado, this is what I got up to in January.


What happened:
I mostly hibernated in our broken flat, if I'm honest! I say broken because last week our fridge freezer broke, yet another issue to add to the growing list of flat problems - don't ask - and our landlady has yet to sort a replacement/get it fixed. Annoyingly we had a freezer and fridge full of yummy food... that food is now in the bin. The sooner we can find a new flat to rent, the better; also, the sooner the rental market is regulated, the better!

I bashed out lots of words in January - 25,788 words, in fact - and organised the tour for Lost, the follow-up to KeptLost will be published on April 7th, 2015, and the tour kicks off the next day. I'm so excited to share Arielle's next adventure, and also a bit scared as Lost is the tricky middle book in the Arielle Lockley series; Found, the third book, will be out towards the end of the year.

We also headed to Yorkshire to visit my family last month. I didn't make par on crazy golf, though I did get a hole-in-one, and it was lovely to catch up with my family and see Olly's face when he got charged £2.85 for a pint and £8 for a bottle of wine! Toto, I have a feeling we're not in London any more!

What I ate:
Before the fridge freezer broke and we had to start buying one meal at a time, storing the food we'd usually keep in the fridge outside (thank goodness it's not got above 4°C), we did cook lots of tasty meals. I baked some amazing garlic dough balls (recipe taken from Jamie's Comfort Food book), and also made Pho from scratch. 

Eating out, I gave fish! a go at Borough Market, but sadly it was disappointing. The Japanese Canteen in Holborn was a much better choice, though I still prefer Wasabi's chicken katsu curry - Wasabi definitely has the best katsu curry! I also picked up the Wahaca cookbook for a fiver, so I can't wait to try out some dishes from that. 

There was definitely more yummy food than that in January - I'm going to have to take notes for next month's TMTW!

What I watched:
Pretty Little Liars made it on to Netflix in January, so I started catching up with all the episodes I'd missed; I'm now halfway through season 4. We're searching for new TV box-sets to watch, so watched a few episodes of Chuck, The WireFortitude and Wolf Hall - we'll definitely be watching Fortitude, at some point, and we'll dip in and out of Chuck.

Film-wise, I watched, and can recommend, Maleficent and Robot & Frank. I also watched The Matrix for the first time ever, which I agreed to do as long as Olly watched Mean Girls, which he'd never seen - Mean Girls wins, hands down!

What I read:
I read 13 books in January, including Around the World in Eight Days for the 2015 classics challenge, which I really liked. Other fiction favourites this month include Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, and A Winter Flame by Milly Johnson.

I've also been reading about local history - local to where I grew up in Yorkshire, that is - and I thoroughly enjoyed The Hollow Crown by Dan Jones. It astounds me that so many important battles and events in Tudor England happened in my home town and a stone's throw away from my (childhood) doorstep, yet not once we were taught this important local history in school! I'm rectifying this gap in my knowledge now.

How was your January? x

1 comment

  1. Agree about Mean Girls winning! I quite liked my January, which makes a change!x

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