But where did I go, what did I do?

Frankly, I’m sure you don’t give a damn! But I will tell you anyway.

I haven’t written a Monday post for ages because I’ve been in weird mood. I’m tired all the time at the moment and I’m pretty sure that is due to extreme boredom with my job. I have recently done some training at work which I hoped would make it much more interesting. It did not. It was nice to have a few weeks away from my normal routine I am back to normal now and it’s as boring as ever. I really need to pull my socks up and take charge of myself because I am a ridiculous person and I spend a lot of time trapped in a cage of procrastination and self-doubt. What a beacon of positivity I am! I promise I’m not actually as miserable as I’ve made myself sound there! But what have I actually been up to?

how cool is it that we managed to get numbers one after another?

I had a lovely weekend with Laura about a million weekends ago. We stayed very very late and then we attempted to do race for life in the hot midday sun on about 3 hours sleep. I nearly died - Laura kept making me run!

Like all normal people, I binge watched Orange is the New Black as soon as it came out. I got home at 5 on the Friday night and started watching it and by 5pm Saturday I had seen all 13 episodes. I did sleep properly and fit in a couple of loads of washing a bit of washing up too! I don’t want to say much in case someone spoilable comes across this. I have a lot of feelings about it and I may disclose them at some point! We’ll see how that goes. As a side note: I especially enjoyed all the closing songs on this season. – Mama Said by the Shirelles and Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill in particular had me sofa shimmying.

I’ve been reading Things I Don’t Want to Know by Deborah Levy which is brilliant and interesting and makes me think I should read George Orwell’s Why I Write which Levy’s book is a response to.

Recent (sad) things I’ve been enjoying…

In one of my Lucky Dip Club boxes I got this brilliant weekly planner pad and every weekend I plan the things I should do during the week. I admit that I rarely stick to it… but I really enjoy the process! Every time I try to do something organised and adult like this I feel like I take a baby step towards being a proper person:

I’ve become obsessed with Ruth Crilly of A Model Recommends. Her videos and blog rather than her personally, I’m not that creepy. I really could waste a lot of my life watching other people’s lives on YouTube; yesterday was watching a video that was someone walking their dog, doing some shopping and then cooking some dinner. How ridiculous am I? But I find it really comforting! I mostly like Ruth’s videos because she seems really lovely and has an amazing looking cat. I know, I know, I am fully weird.

I have become obsessed again with Call the Midwife. There is nothing I don’t love about it. The main reason I love is the whole thing is about women and women’s stories. There are 3 regular male characters and they are rarely on screen together, and if there are on screen they are normally talking about women. 

Good Afternoon

I was supposed to conclude October with a post on the 31^st with a little update and a celebration of the end of my 11 hour days at work… I didn't really manage that and then Paul fractured a bone in his foot and I became a tired house elf for a week while I did every household task that involved standing.

So here's a belated update on my life.

In mid-October I went to New Market with some old friends to meet another old friend who now lives in New Zealand.

Here is the selfie I made us take in a windy multi-story car park:

We've all been friends since primary school and we've not been all together since Issi's last visit to the uk when we were 18. But the strangest part of the day was how natural it felt to be together. It doesn't matter that we don't spend whole weeks together at school, or that we don't get to see each other as often as we should, we all still get on and tease each other for the same reasons we always did. 

I think this day marked the beginning of the intensification of my Christmas excitement which has already caused me to buy and eat these:

I spent the weekend dressed in what Primark so beautifully (and rightfully) labelled a "smock" with my very sexy woolly penguin leggings underneath. This is how I intend to dress until the end of the winter.

Each month brings a new Lucky Dip Club box and October's was diner themed and contained this golden doughnut necklace:

I wish I could say that this is the only jewellery I bought this month but that would be a massive lie...

Here are the books, blogs, tv shows, films and music I've read, watched and listened to over the last month:

Reading/Listening
1) I have become hooked on Serial and listened to all the episodes so far within 24 hours.
2) I listened to The Monogram Murders and Little Face both by Sophie Hannah, courtesy of my Dad's audible account
3) I've been reading Carol by Patricia Highsmith on the bus into work 
4) Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay
5) I also listened to Lady Susan by Jane Austen from the library's awesome and freee audiobook app. Lady Susan is brilliant. Hilariously funny and, to use my favourite granny phrase, Lady Susan is no better than she should be.
6) She & Him's version of Time after Time from their new album that isn't out till December 

Watching
1) I've give the Gilmore Girls a bit of a wee rest, mostly because it's getting to the angsty bit with all the heartbreak and boat-stealing.
2) My friend from New Zealand told me about a really depressing film called Once Were Warriors and a work friend (who happens to be from New Zealand) lent it to me. The film is brilliant but incredibly harrowing. I wept throughout.
3) Paul and I have begun watching 1 Harry Potter film per week ready to watch the last one with my family on Christmas Eve. This is making me extremely happy.

New Blog Crushes
These are some blogs I've recently discovered
Ella Masters - Ella is an illustrator who sells prints and awesome bags and tshirts (like this) her blog is full of tips for creative people and lifestyle posts.
Miss West End Girl - Lynsay is a awesome Glaswegian blogger who wears awesome clothes and feeds my obsession with Scotland. 
Lemon Freckles - cute lifestyle blog written by Toni who has blue hair and lives in Sheffield 

Like sand through the hourglass, so are the Gilmores of our lives…

SO it's October, huh? Where did that come from? Time, you merciless bastard…..

Anyway... So the internet has gone crazy with Gilmore Girl lists and quizzes and trivia because as of 1^st October, the entirety of the Gilmore Girls is on US Netflix. This means that I, the owner of the entire series on DVD, have begun to binge watch as soon as the news came out. It has become my life. Luckily Paul, who claimed it hate GG when it was originally on, seems to be softening and actually enjoying it this time round! This means that I don't need to feel bad about commandeering the TV. Bake off? What Bake off? I really have been watching Gilmore Girls constantly. The other day Paul was out and I didn't want to start the next season without him, and I was trying to think of something else to watch when I suddenly remembered Netflix. This is home Gilmore-obsessed I have become.

I really really love Gilmore Girls. My last couple of weeks have been: Work – Gilmore Girls – Bed – Work – Pub- Gilmore Girls – Bed – Repeat.

However, there has been the odd moment when I've been torn away from the sofa...

These are the things I've been watching/reading/listening to when forced to be be separate from Gilmore Girls:

• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark audiobook from the library. Read by Miriam Margoyles. Brilliant.
• Fresh Meat on Netflix – This is especially weird when I remembered that my younger brother is closer to this than me.
• Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth – I've been reading this for a million years and I'm not massively enjoying it. I just can't care about the characters.
• Letters between Six Sisters edited by Charlotte Mosley

Other exciting news from my week:

I made this fox sleepmask from a kit in the September Lucky Dip Club Box:

 
But, by far the best thing that has happened to me this week is discovering how wonderful it is to get stuff delivered to collection points. Thanks to Amazon Prime trials (yea, I know Amazon is evil, but what can you do?) and the pick-up point that's less than 5 mins from my house, I can order books one day and collect them on my way home from work on the next. It's much better than having to try and collect them from the impossible to find the royal mail collection place or organise redelivery for a day I'll be in.

Here are the books I ordered:


I've already started Pretty Honest and Bad Feminist and they are both Awesome. The whole title for the third book is Girl Trouble: Panic and Progress in the History of Young Women. Which sounds really interesting. I hadn't heard anything about it but the title alone is awesome and it has tattoo-style cover art.

This week

 this rose is normally white.. 

So this is my attempt at a new and improved blogging me! This going to be a weekly post with a load of stuff I’ve been enjoying/wearing/wanting this week. Wearing is quite ambitious because I never wear clothes exciting enough to be recorded and put on the internet! Perhaps I can manage one interesting outfit a week.

This week I’ve been listening to:

T-Rex. Mostly T-Rex. I watched Billy Elliot for the first time in five or six years and I’d forgotten that most of the songs are T-Rex. This is the best scene from Billy Elliot. I have to insist that all of you dance around naked to I love to Boogie. There are very few things that are as joy-making as jiggling around your bathroom to T-Rex.

Watching:

I have just discovered Shameless. Yes, that massively well known TV show that’s be around for 10 years and recently ended for good. Luckily it’s all on 4od so I’m working my way through the ELEVEN series.  

Perving over:

Just having that as a subheading is pretty creepy... but it is necessary this week! So the Man of Steel cast were on Graham Norton last week, including, obviously, the star Henry Cavill. I have loved Henry Cavill for about 10 years, ever since he was in I Capture the Castle as Stephen. Beautiful Stephen. I can’t express how much I love I Capture the Castle because I will cry.  Look at the beauty:

Victoria Wood

Psssst...

Call the Midwife was on telly tonight which means it's on iPlayer again!