World Travel

I'm finding it difficult to step away from social media given what's going on right now. Stuff coming out of Davos was...interesting. Things in Palestine remain horrific and USA seems to be going full on 1930s fascism. Trying to keep DW as a happy-ish place so most of the terrible stuff I keep on Twitter, Threads and IG. But need to acknowledge it's happening here and note that there are thing's you can do from a distance. rydra_wong made an excellent Minnesota linkspam post here and also posts good Palestinian and other links too.

HOME: still a bit behind with #orjenise100 but there is progress.

HEALTH my sleep patterns are FUBAR'd but otherwise good.

LIFE ADMIN: no outstanding tasks this week. Though I'm starting to look at European alternatives to Gmail and Dropbox.

DIGITAL DECLUTTER: have kept email at mail at 11,000 but not managed to reduce it; staying on top of transferring To Keep items from tablet to dropbox, my phone images storage is a mess.

GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: nope - too cold and/or wet and lacked motivation.

COOKING/EATING: batch cooked simple curry, ate down stores and had two small takeaways.

READING/LISTENING: not this week.

WATCHING: Still not caught up on Stranger Things and have only managed one episode of Heated Rivalry. Keeping up with returning shows.

CREATING/LEARNING: dealing with sewing in ends on Halloween blanket then need to block it and the granny square blanket. Started hexi cardi class on Saturday and then had mad afternoon/evening finishing one side and starting second side. Will try to do a few rounds each evening this coming week. Must sign up for bag class tomorrow which is now on 8 Feb.

CATS: all good.

VOLUNTEERING: still have one outstanding task.

SOCIALISING: nope - not even phone calls. Proper hermitting other than crochet club and class.

WORK: a bit meh last week.

Plan for this coming week - work from home Monday and Friday, two long office days Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Having said I'd try to be more consistent about the weekly check-ins I completely flaked on week 2!

HOME: progressing with the declutter and sorting out of 'stuff'. I'm #orjenise100-ing again but am about a week behind. However things are getting moved around, piled up, recycled, donated or dumped. My bedroom is looking slightly better and I aim to finish by the end of the month.

HEALTH: I spent far too much time closely following the news/being on social media at the end of week 2 and had to take some mental health time last week. There was a lot of sleeping involved and diving into rewatching comfort viewing when not napping.

LIFE ADMIN: I have ticked off a few thing - subscriptions reviewed and renewed/cancelled, the car got its MOT and they also valeted the inside and washed the outside! Money has been shuffled around, paid off a chunk of my 0% credit cards, set up some more savings. So yes - things have been ticked off that list!

DIGITAL DECLUTTER: email is still hovering around 11,000; have uploaded more things from tablet to dropbox, deleted a few apps and loads of images from my phone, then took a load more screen shots!

GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: nope - too cold and/or wet.

COOKING/EATING: batch cooked for week 2, snacked my way through last week. Having gone on the 'must hibernate or melt down' spiral last week and sleeping/napping a lot I only really needed one meal a day.

READING/LISTENING: now reading Lessons in Desire, book 2 of the Cambridge Fellows Mysteries by Charlie Cochrane. Edwardian murder mysteries. She's describes her books as "mysteries with a dash of slash". They're the kind of suitably lightweight thing I need right now. Also pick up Audible again and finished The Hanging Tree (Book 6 of Rivers of London), A Rare Book Of Cunning Device (Book 6.5 of Rivers of London) and am now on Lies Sleeping (Book 7 of Rivers of London). I've downloaded the free Storygraph app to track reading and am also going to try and remember to update Goodreads.

WATCHING: Still not caught up on Stranger Things and have only managed one episode of Heated Rivalry. One advantage of the end of Stranger Things is the sheer volume of delightful interview clips of Jamie Campbell Bower that appeared all over my IG and the algo is still delivering. I've enjoyed watching those and may have also done a sneaky rewatch of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones because there is no downside to JCB Jace Waylanding it over my screen. In terms of comfort viewing I inhaled Stargate SG1 Seasons 1-3 which were pretty much playing consistently last week as I napped my way through the days. My comfort viewing is always going to be the Stargate series, Buffy and Angel, Higlander and Hercules plus Krycek eps of X-files. My usual raft of TV shows are coming back and I'm happy that Sanctuary - A Witch's Tale and The Hunting Party got second seasons.

CREATING/LEARNING: two weeks of crochet club under my belt and I've finished the blanket I started in mid December. I now need to block the original granny square and Halloween blankets and stitch them together. Then I can start on the utterly mad boho blanket. I've signed up for a 3 week hexi-cardigan class (first session this coming Saturday and then 2 more later in Feb) and our teacher is also running a 1 day bag session on Sunday 1st Feb and an 5 week make a spring wreath session on Weds evenings starting 4 Feb. So its going to be a busy andcrafty start to the year.

CATS: all good.

VOLUNTEERING: first meeting went well - only 1 task to do from it.

SOCIALISING: nope. I was back at work week 2 and then a proper hermit last week.

WORK: enjoyed being back in the office from 5th onwards then was out last week.

Plan for this coming week - work from home Monday, Wednesday and Friday, two long office days Tuesday and Thursday.