January

So here we are at the end of January and I'm on a day's annual leave from work.

Originally S was due to be off because of an inset day.

However the inset day has been moved further along in the week to Friday and G is off then anyway. 

I decided not to cancel my day off.

Firstly because I needed to use my leave by the end of March and secondly as we were having a little trip to London last weekend (more on that in another post) it would work out quite nicely having an extra day off afterwards.

I did think it would be lovely to have an extra day to myself, one with no commitments, to do as I pleased........

 but with feeling so rubbish last week I am playing catch up and so it's not quite the day I had envisaged.

Looking back to the start of the month I'm really glad we had arranged our day out to somewhere new, it was good having that to look forward after the festivities.

Then this weekend away at the end of the month was a huge treat.

I'm so pleased to have been able to read so much.

The first book was from my swap with Jo and it was the perfect gentle read for over Christmas and the New Year.

The second, a biography about Danny Kaye, was an interesting read about one of my cinematic heroes.

I'm not sure the author followed many different lines of research, it was more of a potted history rather than an in depth look into his life. 

Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm is a selection of short stories by Stella Gibbons.

I've had this for a couple of years and already read the majority of them so it was just a case of finishing the last handful and now this one will be off to the charity shop.

The final book is Birds of a Feather, a Maisie Dobbs mystery.

I was sent the first and second in this series by lovely blogger Kezzie after I had commented on a blog post she had written about them.

Jacqueline Winspear has now published 13 of these stories and I shall be adding them to my wishlist.

 They start off in the late 1920s and there has clearly been a lot of research concerning WW1 and social history of the time which makes them very entertaining and informative reads.

In the interest of sharing on the generosity of blogland if anyone is interested in reading these two books I would be happy to send them on.

Please leave a comment by end of Sunday 5th February and any names will go into a hat.

 If no interest them off to the charity shop they will also go.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would save all my charity shop buys and do one post a month about them. Well purchases have been few and far between in January. In total I have bought 3 things.
The most I have spent on one item is £3.00 and that was on this polka dot back pack. It was practically brand new and long time readers will know of my love for all things dotty, this was a must buy for me.

The second item was a plain, long sleeved, v necked navy t-shirt. Far too boring to bother trying to get a photo of, but a good basic item to have in the wardrobe. 
Final buy was £1.00 spent on a plain black jersey pinafore which originally came from New Look. Love the fact it also has pockets.
This is an exceptionally rubbish photo taken at the weekend. I wore it to London and it proved to be the most perfect thing to travel and walk around in as it was so loose and comfy.