The End Of The Beginning Or Assessing January

Today it's the last day of January and I feel like it has come and gone swooshing by like cars do when you wait for the bus. It seems only yesterday that I was toasting to the new year after a fabulous concert at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and tomorrow it will be February and a whole set of expectations will be up on the walls of my mind. This month I straightened a few things that had been at the top of my list for a while. I blitzed the cupboards in the kitchen for example, and made some clarity of a situation that was otherwise as clear as a tin of black treacle. Now I can open the doors without bits and pieces falling into my face or onto freshly iced cupcakes, as was the case only a few weeks back. I went to have my hair trimmed and now it looks totally perfect, even though I have to wash it and style it with the GHD every single morning. But at least it suits me and everyone thinks my hair is just naturally like that. Tsk, as if! Work at the office proceeded nicely enough until I had to leave for Chicago, where I had a great time, saw some great sights and, of course, took some fabulous pictures. Upon my return, I was struck down with an acute phase of back pain, something that had not happened in a while. I suppose that the many hours of work at a desk and the long flight back, even though on a flat bed, did take their toll quite quickly. I have been off work all week, and I am currently taking seven tabs a day in order to get the pain under control. I hope this will be the case very soon, because it seems a great shame to be missing England when the high winds scatter the clouds far away and the sun is shining high late in the afternoon. Also, I haven't seen Merv for one month exactly and I am definitely suffering from horsey withdrawal symptoms. Ok, I cannot ride him right now, but visiting him in the fields is always uplifting, no matter the plans. Spending the whole week in bed (because I couldn't even make it to the bathroom unaided!) meant that my Inception to Knitting has taken place. I have knitted and purled all week, I have increased and decreased my stitches, I have cast on and off at will and I think I am now ready to start on a pattern. I think I will pick one of the dogs' coats featured in the new book I bought in Chicago. I absolutely have to get better soon because the arts and craft fair will take place in central Manchester this weekend and I absolutely must attend. I have yarn and needles to purchase and I would not disdain a walk around it anyway, even if I didn't have a shopping list (extremely unlikely, of course). I need to get back on track for my book proposal too; I would like to send it out by the end of February and with two weeks in NYC in the middle... I really do not have that much time left! Good-bye to January, quite possibly the most hated month in the whole calendar year. Not by me though... there is nothing I cherish more than a cup of cocoa with ice-cream when it is cold and dark outside at 4 pm. And January is just perfect for that.