It dawned on me the other day that while I started this blog as a bit of a diary, I don’t really write much about what I’m getting up to. That’s mainly because, well, it’s because my life really isn’t very interesting truth be told, dresses and shoes are definitely FAR more interesting than my life most of the time. But I don’t want everyone to think all I do is shop, walk the dog and complain about the general public, so I thought it was about time I started trying to document a little more about what it’s like to be me. (Spoiler: shopping, walking the dog and complaining about the general public so feature heavily to be fair). I definitely don’t do enough of interest you to write weekly updates like some of my favourite, far more interesting bloggers, but I think I can handle a monthly round up, so here comes December’s….
As I’m sure you can’t have failed to notice, I alluded to the fact a few times that I’ve been a little melancholy since the end of the Summer, and that intensified as the dark nights drew in, but happily since November welcomed a bit of a gear change, things definitely feel as though they are on the up. I still find the dark nights and cold weather a little gloomy of course, but I’m coping pretty well with it, because….
I’ve had lots of snuggles with the dog….
The colder the weather gets, the more cuddly Bonnie becomes. I like to con myself into believing it’s because she loves me so much, but I’m largely certain she is just trying to steal my body warmth. Not just a pretty face, that one. Still, I certainly reap the rewards of the set up as nothing makes me feel more comforted than a warm, sleepy pup on my lap. Looking back through my pics this month it looks like I didn’t do a huge amount more than curl up in bed with the dog! I did though, honest, although you’ll have to just take my word for it because….
…I failed dramatically to do much documenting of anything….
I started the month off on a great foot, with a really lovely trip down to Islington in London on the 1st, immediately followed by a long weekend at a cottage with friends in Snowdonia, and I failed to capture hardly any photos of these two events whatsoever, other than this sad little collection of dull snaps. I had great intentions – I optimistically took that shot of my book and coffee on the trip down, followed by one of the cookies that I was extremely excited to be presented with as I checked in at our hotel, then it all kinda went downhill from there. It was a gorgeous day, and I had planned to head down to the Southbank to take some pictures of the city skyline as the sun came down. They were doing some construction work on the tube station though as I got off, and with my bearings thrown off I took a wrong exit. It wasn’t until I got to The Gherkin that I realised I’d been walking in completely the wrong direction, and with light fading fast I gave up my plans. I could the have taken some great shots of all the delicious food I ate in The West End later on, the lovely Christmas lights on Upper Street, or the fun, quirky comedy club we visited, but I didn’t, because I’m crap. I took absolutely zero pics in fact until that one of me blogging on the train on the way home. Nice documenting, Steph. It bookended the trip nicely I suppose…! I planned to make up for this the following day as we headed over to Wales, but it was dark when we arrived, and then after a mere handful of snaps the battery on my camera died and I quickly realised I hadn’t packed the charger. Then, as if purposefully trying to thwart any plans I had to capture the event, my phone also conked out on me and refused to turn on, ironically until the day we left, when I managed to capture a rubbish shot of the stunning scenery (which does it no justice at all, by the way) and some evidence of the disgusting amount of booze we’d managed to get through. Not a great start!
I ate and drank A LOT!!
I did my best to make up for my failure at the start of the month by capturing as much of December’s party madness as I could. As you can see, I largely failed again….! Pretty much all of them seem to depict some form of eating or drinking activity. In fairness, it was Christmas, but even so, this year all my parties seemed to fall on consecutive days, to the point where I actually began to look forward to the end of the year so I could catch up on some sleep! Much fun was had though, and despite not feeling all that positive about the festive season a few weeks ago, it’s probably turned out to be one of the most fun I’ve had in a couple of years. Things kicked off early in the month with works annual Christmas quiz, in which I’m baffled to tell you I actually finished in third place and bagged my team mate and I some Prosecco, which was a great way to kick off the party season! We actually would have come 2nd if we’d won the tie breaker round, in which we had to create the most Christmassy thing we could in a minute with nothing but newspaper and sticky tape. Yes, that is me in a santa beard and hat. I think you’ll agree we were robbed….! The very next day I had the first of my two teams Christmas dinners which involved a delicious meal at All Bar One (marred only slightly by a pudding that looked suspiciously like… well, you know….) and a night singing our hearts out on Karaoke. I wasn’t certain I could handle a third night on the trot, but I managed to rally enough to attend my second team’s dinner the next night and somehow found myself still dancing at 3am! Talk about a Christmas miracle!! I had just a couple of days to recover before the official office party which went down largely like the previous two! The week before Christmas I enjoyed a wonderful evening with two of my besties on a monthly Wine and Cheese night arranged by one of our local wine bars. We didn’t really know what to expect not having been before, but had a fantastic evening gorging on baked Vacherin Mont d’Or and sipping a delicious Riesling, which was actually a rather intimate affair in the back room that felt more like a dinner party with people you hadn’t met before! The next night I had a trip to Secret Cinema where we watched Elf under blankets while sipping mulled wine, and later bumped into Steve McFadden (Phil Mitchell in Eastenders) in a chinese restaurant! He was appearing in panto around the corner, and of course I failed at getting a photo – because I can’t manage to document the ordinary bits of my life, never mind the surprise encounters with slightly famous people. Next up, I headed over to Lichfield the day before Christmas Eve to have a dinner with some of my favourite friends and catch up with those adorable pug puppies I told you about here. In between all that partying there were also numerous trips to the German Market for fried potatoes in garlic sauce, which I’m already missing now it’s packed up for the year. Bonnie ate a lot too this month, as she has been hugely spoiled with treats. Her favourites definitely came out of her advent calendar (Yes. My dog gets an advent calendar. What of it??)
And that pretty much brings us up to Christmas, which I’ll fill you in on in a separate post next week. It’s been an extremely fun month despite the bad news we got a couple of weeks ago, though as much as I’ve enjoyed it I’m actually quite looking forward to a quiet January and some healthy food. That healthy food might actually be more of a necessity than a want actually, but the less said about that the better! I also promise to do a better job of documenting in January! Let’s call it a new years resolution!
Here’s hoping you’ve all had a wonderful December to, including your plans to see out the year whatever they may be!
Love,
Picking the Day 