Best Bits: January 2016

And now we've come to the end of the first month of 2016 already. It's gone rather quickly, wouldn't you agree? A rather cold, wet and windy start to the year, I must say. My start to 2016 has been nice and relaxing.

The first weekend of the month was spent baking and still overindulging in food. I baked some shortbread men - gingerbread men but baked using a shortbread recipe rather than a gingerbread recipe. Rosie had bought me some things to bake with for my birthday back in early December just gone so I think she was still waiting for me to make her something. 

Is it bad that I've been behind on reading all of your lovely blog posts since October? Yes? I thought so... I'm sorry! Well, I'm pleased to announce that I caught up at the very beginning of the month. And I've not fallen behind since! Yet... I started off being about a week behind which was easy enough to catch up on. Then I became about two weeks behind. And then I went on holiday over Halloween which then made me a whole month behind! Ever since I arrived home in early November I've been slowly trying to catch up.

Reminiscing about the days where we were back at school with Chloe and Rosie. The stories I could tell you about what happened during my five years at high school - I don't think you'd believe me! There were some horrors in just my year group alone, let's not forget the rest of the school! It really is a wonder how my friends and I turned out so calm and normal. I think calm and normal is a suitable description considering the amount of police involvement and punch ups others in my school had. Some of the stories - both good and bad - we reminded each other of had us in fits of laughter! 

I went to see another pantomime. It was only an amateur performance which, of course, had its weak points but there was also parts that really made me chuckle. The performance was Snow White. For the length of the show and the time that it both started and finished, there were an awful lot of children involved in the performance. Once it had all finished, the cast were waiting in the reception  area to 'see you out', as such, which I thought was a lovely touch. It surprised me just how many names I recognised when reading the programme.

I had really good clear out at the end of the first full working week of the year (I'll try and stop with this whole 'start of the year' thing soon, I promise!) It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I had my last clear out so I have no idea how I managed to find so much more rubbish so soon. One thing I did find was a cringe-worthy folder that an old friend and I made just as we were finishing primary school. Unfortunately, due to the lack of space I currently have, it has now made its way into the bin.

Rosie and I had a little 'date night' where we both put in a joint effort in cooking a very healthy candle lit dinner followed by a good old gossip over music, prosecco and chocolate. 

Chloe and I have been talking about all of the TV shows and movies that we would like to watch so conjured up this 'to watch' list. We had been discussing it for a good month or so before we finally got around writing down all of what we wanted to see. We even began our weekly binge last Saturday with Blue Mountain State, Gavin and Stacey and Divergent.

A concluded version of my 60 Things To Do In 2015 was written up and published here at On The Horizon earlier this month. Although late, it was nice to reflect on what was and what wasn't completed. 

I made my own version of the Foxes Viennese Biscuits. You know the ones you get in a pack of ten for £1? I was particularly judgmental about the first batch. I thought they were very sugary and they needed more butter to give them a smoother texture. Everyone else seemed to disagree and thought they were lovely. The second batch was much more to my liking. I doubled the ingredients for this batch and used Nutella rather than chocolate buttercream icing like in the first batch. 

Lunch dates. My gosh, the amount of times I've been out for lunch this month is ridiculous!  It really is a wonder how my weight hasn't changed from what it was at the beginning of the month! I feel like I've been out for lunch twice every week this month! And then I've had a couple of Sunday lunches with my Gran as well! It's a good thing I love going to the gym...

I met my cousins baby this month! I have a fair bit of family living in Jersey so when I went over for work at the beginning of the month, I met one of my aunties, my cousin and her baby who was born in September 2015. Oh, she was such a gem! So well behaved! I haven't seen my cousin in years either so it was lovely to catch up. The last time I saw my auntie was at Easter last year so of course it was great to see her as well.

End of the month, weekending adventures with Chloe and Rosie. The three of us went for a very last minute drive on Friday night just gone. What I mean by last minute is, us deciding at 9pm that we wanted to go for a drive and me being outside their houses within 10 minutes, having made no effort to get out of my onesie. To be fair, Rosie was still in her as well - at least I didn't get pulled over, can you imagine the look we'd get for being out in our pyjamas?! Saturday was spent roaming the cliff paths in the rain before going for a hot chocolate in town and then going out for dinner followed by an evening at the cinema watching Ride Alone 2. I've insisted we have make this a regular thing, going on an end of the mont, weekend adventure.