Two Days In

Two days in to 2020 and things are going okay.  We had a quiet New Year's Eve. We don't go out these days, as we don't like to leave the dog, who absolutely hates fireworks. They start early here and seem to go on all night and well into the early hours. We spend all night cuddling her and she always sleeps on our bed.

LB is usually out with friends until after midnight. This year she was supposed to be staying at a friend's house, so I fell asleep by about 12.30am. It was only when we heard some noises in her bedroom the next morning, that we realised she'd come home instead. Normally, I'm waiting up for her and can't settle until I know she's home.

Anyway, New Year's Day was very relaxed.  We all headed out for a dog walk in Epping Forest and then went to a pub for lunch. LB and I didn't actually go on the dog walk, on account of having inappropriate footwear on to brave the mud in the forest.  We retired to the pub for a drink in front of a roaring fire instead.

After lunch, we stopped off to pick up some bags of manure from OH's favourite spot, and then headed home with the car boot full of it. We dropped the bags off at the allotment on the way back and OH tipped them out onto the plot.  The manure just needs spreading around, digging in and covering now and then we can forget about the plot until spring. That will be one more job ticked of the to do list.

Today, I was working again.  My last working day for 4 days or so. I'm back at work again on Tuesday next. It was a busy day, but we got a lot done and took a good amount of money, which is all you can ask. There are lots and lots of unwanted Christmas presents coming in. It's good that people are donating them to charity, but I can't help feel that it's a little ridiculous that people don't want perfectly nice things that could be put to use. Who knows the story behind each unwanted gift? I do try to hang onto any unwanted gifts for a while, in order not to seem ungrateful, but maybe that's less honest than actually sending them out into the universe to find a new home and benefit charity at the same time. It's each to their own I guess.

I'm looking forward to having some spare time over the next few days to get back to normal after Christmas, take down the decorations, pack away everything related to Christmas and look forward towards the year ahead. I only managed to unpack from our break at Christmas yesterday. With working so much after Christmas, I just didn't get the chance.  On doing so, I realised I'd left something I really liked at the cottage and felt very disappointed about it. I so hope that I might be able to get the item concerned back.

I haven't made any resolutions this year, save that I just want to keep on enjoying life and I want to try not to buy anything new (unless it's from a CS) for as much of 2020 as possible.

I've started off the year reading Gretchen Reuben's most recently published book Better Than Before, which I think I got for Christmas or my birthday last year. I'm enjoying it thus far and hoping it helps me to create and maintain better habits in some areas of my life this year. (Like blogging more regularly!!) We'll see about that one.