January Recap

It goes without saying that this January has felt like the longest month. I’ve been keeping my spirits up by simply enjoying the small things. I celebrated my most surreal birthday by blowing out candles with my family over FaceTime and was reminded how lucky I am by receiving lots of messages and love from friends. Apart from that, I’ve been a bit of a bore! For me this month has been all about working from home and hibernating!

Along the way I’ve been enjoying the following;

How to Get Away with Murder

My husband and I have been obsessed with this show. A criminal defence lawyer / law professor at a prestigious university has a group of students called ‘the Keating Five’ studying closely under her when they all become embroiled in a murder. The plot twists and turns, leaving you guessing the whole time. I love that there are season long storylines interspersed with episode specific cases. Additionally the characters are brilliant and now we’re on season four we’re really enjoying the development that they’ve gone through. 

Sex and the City / I Got to Thinking

With the news that SATC was returning to our screens as ‘And Just Like That’, sans Samantha Jones, I decided to go down memory lane and do a rewatch. It left me quite nostalgic, especially the last season which I remembered best. It reminded me of evenings with friends, pizza and a box of wine, cackling and quoting as we would watch. Unfortunately there were also quite a few ‘yikes’ moments, especially with Carrie who, for a sex columnist, often came off as the biggest prude. I’m not sure how the reboot will work but I’m hoping it’s as contemporary as SATC felt then. 

Another reason I decided to rewatch was after listening to the podcast I Got To Thinking. It’s an SATC podcast that answers each of Carrie’s questions on the show for the modern day, a concept I love and is managed fantastically by Juno Dawson and Dylan B. Jones. They have a really fresh, modern viewpoint and their dissection of each episode is highly entertaining. I’m hoping the creators of SATC are listening to this podcast and taking notes! 

Louis Theroux Grounded w/ Leah Remini

I adore Louis Theroux’s work and interviewing style and this podcast episode of his discussions with Leah Remini about Scientology was brilliant. I really enjoyed Remini’s documentary ‘Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath’ as it’s interesting to see things from her point of view as an ex-member, and this podcast delved a little more deeply into that. I really enjoy how assertive she is, it’s a perfect match to Theroux’s curiosity. It felt like listening in on a conversation between friends.

Nightstalker

This documentary wasn’t what I expected, and it’s American 80s flashiness feel made me wary it would be very dramatised and glamourised. Instead, it was incredibly informative, going into great detail on the cases and investigative methods used to catch Richard Ramirez. What I really appreciated was that instead of focussing on Ramirez, the documentary focussed on the survivors and victims, not just casualties of an animalistic monster but very loved humans. I have read about the case before but there was so much the documentary covered that I hadn’t known about, and so much footage that I hadn’t seen. I definitely recommend if you’re into true crime.

Duolingo / Studying German

This month I had a couple of exciting breakthroughs on Duolingo! I received the ‘legendary’ badge for finishing #1 in the Diamond league and I received my Wildfire badge for practising 250 days in a row. I love using Duolingo as a tool for me to track and familiarise myself with practicing each day. That being said, I’m still struggling with learning so I’m going to start researching different learning methods, such as watching TV shows in German or potentially taking classes.

Deliciously Ella – Quick & Easy / Every Day

I’ve been trying to eat more plant based meals during January. I don’t follow a vegan diet but I appreciate the ethos, love the food and any meal that’s heavy on veggies tends to be a winner for me! I already had Ella Woodward’s ‘Every Day’ cook book and for Christmas my mum-in-law gifted me ‘Quick & Easy’. Both are brilliant, full of delicious recipes that aren’t too fussy and taste so good! My favourite this month has been the ‘Warming Pesto Butter Beans’ recipe from Every Day. In fact, the pesto is so incredible I’ve been making it in bigger batches to eat with different meals.

What did you get up to this month?