Monthly Musings: December 2022
Hello, sweet friends! I hope this post finds you well! Is the festive season in full swing around your parts? Fiancé & I have all our decorations up, we’ve started to dip our toes into the Christmas movie list, and we’ve even listened to Christmas FM once or twice. The joys of December! On the other hand, the lows of December feel very evident this evening – it’s bloody freezing! Literally, my laptop is telling me it’s 0°C, and, going by the absolute chill I feel despite the hot water bottle on my lap, I’m likely to believe it. Other than all that, December has been rather busy for us thus far! Dinner parties with friends, a mid-week wedding deep in the Wicklow countryside, and a spur of the minute part-time job for me. To top it all off, we’re flying to Florence tomorrow morning, so life has been very hectic indeed! A combination of all of the above excuses is what has me so delayed in bringing you today’s post: Monthly Musings, December 2022.
Shall we just dive right in? I promise to keep it brief – I’m rather chasing my tail this evening! Packing, dinner at my parents, bathing + hair washing, nail painting, and a million other little things are still to be done; pray for me! Our musings are below – enjoy!
monthly musings: december 2022
Covid-19 update: I’m not even sure what to tell you. As far as I’m aware, the case numbers are going back up, and in other countries we’ve heard word of mandatory mask wearing being reintroduced. By and large, it generally seems as though most people have forgotten about the pandemic – which I find totally bizarre. Regardless, I feel extremely grateful that we managed to get boosted before the busy Christmas period!
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Yes, you read the opening paragraph correctly: I gave in and got a part-time job. It’s just as a retail assistant, but it’s literally a 4-minute walk from our front door, Mon-Thurs, and only 5-hours a day. It’s fine. However! After two+ years of being self-unemployed, I gotta say, I just don’t think the working life is for me. I’ve only worked three days and I’m already counting down the days until I’m finished – ha! In case you’re wondering: 6.
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RE the aforementioned wedding: it was so lovely! Myself, the three other bridesmaids, and the bride had a super chilled out morning getting glammed up – hair, make-up, music, prosecco, croissants etc. – before the day officially started. It was fun getting a sneak-peek at all the goings on that happen on the morning of – now I know what to expect for next year! Fiancé and the rest of the guests arrived later for the big shebang and everything went swimmingly! Wild to think it, but the next wedding we attend will be our own – gah!!
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Related: there’s no way in hell we would’ve made it to and from the wedding if it wasn’t for our lovely parents and my best friend. The bestie was roped in to drive me & my bridesmaid garb down very early in the morning; our journey took far more tiny country roads than anticipated, we nearly killed several pheasants, and Google led us wrong on several occasions. All of that is to say: I laugh cried the whole way there and had a strange amount of fun for such a stressful journey. Fiancé’s parents dropped him down in the mid-afternoon for the ceremony, and my wonderful fearless mother collected us after the wedding and drove us safely home in the pitch-black darkness. We’re extremely grateful for you all!!
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Did you grab any great Black Friday deals? I nabbed a good deal on a new laptop for myself, which felt splurge-y, but also necessary. My trusty Acer laptop of just under 10-years served me well, but it was time for an upgrade. A quick search has just revealed to me that the average lifespan of an Acer laptop is 5-6 years, so all things considered, I did pretty well. Hopefully Acer Junior will last just as long!
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Have you watched anything good lately? We went down a bit of a true crime rabbit hole recently; first with Vatican Girl and then with The Keepers. Both of which are infuriating to watch; it’s crazy what the church gets away with! Aside from that, we rather enjoyed Wednesday on Netflix. I must say, the fact that we kept finding hilarious similarities between Wednesday and myself really added to our enjoyment! We also just last night started watching The Patient, which we’re already addicted to; it’s very intriguing!
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Book-wise, I’ve read some goodies lately. Michael Mann & Meg Gardiner’s Heat 2 took me a hot second to get into, but I ended up loving it! Yes, it’s slightly overwritten and kind of annoying the way the years jump around, but the story is so! good! From that I moved on to another Gardiner book, UNSUB. It was entirely up my alley: detective work, serial killer, twists galore – ding, ding, ding! While I wait for the follow-up UNSUB library books, I’ve started reading What July Knew, an upcoming novel by Emily Kock. I’ve only just started it, but I’m rather enjoying it so far; I shall report back when I’m finished. What are you reading? Any recommendations?
monthly musings: december 2022
Okay friends, I think I’ll have to leave it there. I hope you have the most wonderful month, filled with all the mulled wine/Christmas movies/festive cheeriness you can handle!
See you in the new year!
Vicki xo
PS, we scrubbed up pretty well for the wedding, wouldn’t you say?
