Happy New Year! We started 2017 by taking down the tree... and I'm *still* spotting stray pine needles around the house. I eased myself into January, before job hunting, job hunting, job hunting! Things are changing, but this means that, hopefully, in a few years, we might be able to swap renting a flat to owning our very own London shoebox. Unfortunately, for you, this means I have no idea when you'll get book six since I no longer have the luxury of having long chunks of free time.
When I *do* have a book that's in good shape, I won't be publishing it myself either: I'm going to be at the mercy of finding an agent/publishing contract. It's something I meant to do after publishing Kept and Geli Voyante's Hot or Not, but then I decided to continue the Arielle Lockley series and realised no one would want to take on the series mid-point. After completing that, now feels like the right time to get my future books into the hands of many readers as possible.
Our new nephew made his way into the world this month - welcome Alfred George - plus we celebrated our niece's first birthday. We've booked a trip to Yorkshire to visit my family, and flights to Italy for my best friend's wedding in Lake Como. (Como pictured below when we visited one chilly March; can't wait to see it in summer!) All exciting things, right?
What I ate:
I caught up with a friend at Pho - I eat there far too often, I know, but it's super cheap and super tasty (what I'm all about these days) - and enjoyed a pre-theatre dinner at Byron. The burgers were even sweeter as they'd sent me a BOGOF email. (Byron Burger Club FTW!) We also met friends for brunch at Blighty Coffee (typical breakfast fare), and I had a mid-week lunchtime burrito date with Olly at Chilango (nom).
New dishes recipe-wise, I made jerk chicken with rice and peas (awesome flavours to the chicken, wasn't so keen on the rice and peas), spiced chicken, spinach and sweet potato stew (nice enough), chicken jalfrezi (awesome) and jerk sweet potato and black bean curry (good for a veggie dish, though I'm still not convinced by jerk food). My food goal this year is, as always, to try out more new recipes - especially tasty and quick ones for weekday evening meals. Share if you have any!
What I watched:
TV-wise, I watched a BBC documentary on Walt Disney. I'm a massive Disney fan, so this was really interesting to find our a little more about the man behind the mouse. Boxset-wise, I blasted through Designated Survivor, a series on Netflix starring Kiefer Sutherland (was hard at first not to have the 24 beeps playing in my head!). It ended on a cliffhanger, and had some flaws, but I'll definitely watch the rest of it when it airs in March. I also watched The OA on Netflix, which was confusing and strange at first... then remained confusing. Definitely the oddest thing I've seen in a long time.
A film-based resolution I have this year is to try and tick off as many of the IMDB Top 50 movies as I can. (The list is actually 250 films long.) It's a good way to tick off some of those films that *everyone* raves about, though I have seen a fair few already. This month I ticked off Interstellar (33)(seen before), Whiplash (46) and La La Land (23). Other films watched: The Revenant, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Now You See Me 2, The Other Woman, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Martian, The Girl with All the Gifts, Avatar and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
At the cinema I saw Assassin's Creed in 4DX. It didn't look like my cup of tea - it wasn't - but I was curious to see a film in 4DX. There was motion, bubbles, fog and fragrance, to name a few of the sensations. It's sort of like being on a ride at a theme park, but less intense! Not something I'd do for every film, but fun every once in a while. I also saw La La Land, which I'm not convinced will become a classic. Saying that though, a few days later City of Stars was *still* in my head... maybe it will! Finally, I saw Jackie - Natalie Portman was brilliant in it.
What I read:
In January I read 18 books and abandoned reading four books. No 5* reads for me this month, but I enjoyed Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama, Blood Lines by Angela Marsons, A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton, Christmas at the Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.
How was your month? Did you make any resolutions or set any goals for this year? x
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