January reading.

My goal in January was to read a lot. I spontaneously decided to do a bible reading plan to read the whole bible in January, and I also have the 5 Throne of Glass books. I managed to finish the bible reading plan, and I’m on track to finish book 5 by the end of this month when I need to return it to the library. It has been really good to make myself read print again, and also the challenge to smash through the bible really quickly was a very interesting experience. Missing things due to the speed, but getting a birds eye view and having an emotional journey through the whole story arc. I used the you version app, the NLT translation for easier reading, and I did a lot of audio, on 1.25 speed. The OT especially became one story, most of it pretty depressing, but the high points had such contrast then. I wish it had been a chronological plan, that would be interesting to do.

The first week of the year was pretty quiet, just reading and doing lots of pilates. On Friday I headed to Ulladulla for the week. Picked up Elsie, visited G at her mums place, drove in a lot of rain, stopped at wet Bulli for chips and a hot chocolate for lunch, stopped at Berry and had a lovely browse - Berry was insanely busy. Finally arrived at our holiday house.

 Our first day there it was cloudy and damp, and beach places do not look good in the rain. My favourite shop there was called SLOW, they make clothes there in the shop out of lovely fabrics. 

We also went to nearby Milton, which was another insanely busy place, more of a charming country town than a harbour town, so it was a good use of a rainy day. We looked at the shops and especially enjoyed trying on expensive raincoats. I now have a budget tracking spreadsheet so I was able to resist spending $500 on a raincoat.

Gin and G joined us, and we cooked hello fresh meals through the week, which was a great way to have proper meals without having to stock up on fridge and pantry things. 

Sunday was sunny, we walked around and checked out Ulladulla again, mainly the local marine rescue markets, and E and G bought tickets for the circus. It was time for church to start and we were right there so we went to the Anglican Church and met some nice people.

Monday We had one fancy lunch out at a restaurant with a kitchen garden, called Milkhaus, on the other side of Milton, it was a converted old cheese factory. We had some interesting drinks, delicious lunch and dessert, and a nice explore of their lovely garden.

We swam at Mollymook in the afternoon. It was hot and sunny, I wore my rashy and my swimming cap because beach hair is bad on me. I felt like a dag wearing a swimming cap at the beach, but so convenient. Then I heard a couple of teen girls commenting on it and being like, how good is that, I hate how my hair gets, lets do that next time. Mark my words, I may have started a trend among the yooths.

The house was basic but fine. We had no internet. So no streaming, and I read a lot. Our viewing consisted entirely of the Bachelors each night, which was a lot of fun.

The rest of the week was just more swimming including in the harbour pool, snoozing, reading, fish and chips one day, op shopping, there were some great vintage shops there, and Elsie sitting on the balcony researching her next holiday. On the last day I found a devilled egg plate at a vintage shop!

Drove home the following Friday, I picked some hydrangeas and enjoyed them a lot for 2 weeks after.

Then I got sick again. I basically kept coughing from my throat infection at the start of Dec right through to a sinus infection in mid Jan, so I had a little extra time off work.

I cooked a brisket! With something like the recipe from the Recipe Tin Dinners cookbook Ros gave me for Christmas. It was delicious and the Instant Pot worked great.

I took the Friday after Aus Day off and we went up to the Smiths holiday place at Hawks Nest again, did some puzzle, had a swim with the cavoodles. Sweep got dumped a bit trying not to lose us in the waves, but eventually he managed to watch JK swim from a distance.

On Saturday I had a blind date with a man from Sydney, he caught the train up and we had lunch and walked around newcastle. I enjoyed talking to him, but I'm not particularly motivated to date someone 2 hours away, so I'm not sure what will happen. It was a really hot day, even at the beach.

I had also caught the train, but due to naughty teens on the tram, missed my connection by 30 seconds and it was an hour wait to the next one. But lucky I had my book! so I went to the coffee club next door and bought cold sweet things and had a good rest. I had to head out for the evening to a home group social, also outside by a backyard pool, so it was a long hot tiring day.

Then the rest of the year dropped into schedule. I had 5 day work weeks, cello lessons started, Jillian with Ros, Park walks with Cass, pilates every chance I can. Started to plan my overseas trip with Heather and Elsie, figuring out where to go when and the meeting up and splitting up timings. It's 11 Feb because of the busy weekends so yeah, life is happening again, and I feel a little nostalgia for lockdowns and simplicity. But everything is going OK, I'm feeling healthy and strong due to meds and pilates,