Hello February ....

February has arrived and with it a little more energy, less working hours and hopefully more time catching up with family and friends. There are a few treats penciled into the calendar which is always nice to start the month with things to look forward to. These include a Winter Retreat, a birthday party, and a trip to a museum, alongside some coffee dates, curry nights and down time.

Winter Retreat – M and I are off for an overnight stay to the picturesque town of Rye in Sussex. We are staying in an old pub and hoping to relax, explore and just get some time away from the hustle of work life.

This weekend we have a friends birthday party, it will be a late one, it will get messy and I will be hustling M into the car at some obscene hour of the morning!

Next weekend we are catching up with M’s friends for a curry night and to celebrate another birthday, its ages since we have all got together as a group, at least 6 months so that will be a nice evening.

Later in the month I have tickets booked for my friend C and I to visit the V&A and the new Dior exhibition. I am really looking forward to this as the reviews have been fabulous and if it is staged anywhere as spectacularly as the McQueen exhibition we are in for a treat.
Heres to a fun filled February.... 

Farewell January ...

Well January, you were an extremely long month!.... New Year saw me step into a new role, which resulted in an challenging round of year of stocktakes for financial year end across 9 stores, 4 systems in amongst a huge change programme. Challenging was certainly a word that was banded about a lot!

Thankfully it is over and a 21 day stretch of 15-18hrs is now complete
Rail & Road saw me visit:
Newcastle, Bracknell, Brent Cross, Kingston, Tunbridge Wells, Canterbury and Colchester as well as Bond Street.
I learnt to travel light, survive on Haribo's and Hotel Breakfasts and in amongst the stress savour the small things.
These included catching up with my friend Caroline who was in town for her annual shopping treat with mum.
Catching some epic winter sunrises, & sunsets whilst on my travels.
Enjoying train travel with a podcast, book or netflix download.

Life at home was limited but M and I did manage a fun date night at the beginning of January which was the Snow White pantomime at the London Palladium. Having seen this I am now spoilt for life on local panto's starring Dawn French and Julian Clary it was a riot from start to finish and a fantastic laugh from start to finish.
January finished with a trip to the ballet to see Matthew Bournes production of Swan Lake at Sadlers Wells which is just amazing, breathtaking and sublime. Having seen this previously I am still blown away by just how masterful and heartbreaking this ballet is.
A stray Sunday home saw a little time for relaxing and a afternoon trip to the cinema to see Mary Poppins returns. A delight of a movie, keeping true to the original, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
With January complete and work hopefully calming down I am looking forward to February catching up with friends and enjoying a little more me time.