November 2016 Goals

November is upon us, which means I need to set some goals for this month.

• Read at least two books.

I really want to get back into reading. I am near the end of one and a third through another, so I need to get these finished because I hate not finishing books. My to-be-read list is forever growing and I took last month off so no excuses this month.

• Drink a litre of water every day.

This goal was a great success last month and it is something I want to continue. Maybe after this month I will up this amount.

• Revise Italian vocabulary for at least ten minutes every day.

Yesterday I was thinking about how little vocabulary I know in Italian. This is extremely worrying seeing as I will be going there this time next year! I really need to up my game with how much work and effort I am putting in, so that I feel a lot more confident by next summer.

• Watch two Spanish films this month.

I think my biggest issue in Spanish right now is listening. But, I am also massively into films right now (I watched four films last Sunday), so I thought why not combine the two? I would love to watch more international films anyway seeing as I am going travelling next year and it would be good to improve my Spanish.

These are my four goals for November. Sometimes I add a goal on if I think of another in the next week or so, but these are my goals for now. At the end of November I will review these goals to find out how well I did.

Books I’ve Read: October Review

For the first time this year, I am sorry to say I have not read one book this month. I am disappointed about this but I have been in a reading slump, and I also started my second year at university this month so I have been busy with that.

As I mentioned in my last book post here, I said that I was reading a YA novel: The Potion Diaries by Amy Alward. I am still reading this and I have slowly progressed so that I am in the last 100 pages now. However, I have still not finished it. I don’t know why because everything about this book is very quirky and unique: the plot, the characters, the fictional world, the language, the way it is written… everything. So, I have been really enjoying it. But not enough to finish it in a few days like I normally do with a book.

Perhaps I have been in a reading slump as well because I have not been watching so many BookTube videos recently. When I watch videos about what people have been reading, seeing their hauls and their TBR’s, this always massively motivates me. So, I need to get back into this.

On the other side, I have also not been reading so much because I have been watching a lot instead. I spent last weekend watching the first season of Stranger Things on Netflix. Furthermore, I watched a total of 4 films yesterday alone, as well as a few more earlier in October. I have been enjoying watching more but I need to balance my time better so I get some reading in there as well.

October 2016 Goals

This post is very similar to something I use to do very often, which was called ClearTheList. This was, basically, a monthly goal setting chart. I want to get back into this as I think setting short term realistic goals are a great way to be productive and achieve more. These goals can be as little as changing one thing about your diet like ‘eat one more piece of fruit every day’ or ‘go walking for 20 minutes every day.’ Whatever it is, as long as you are improving yourself or your lifestyle for the better then everything counts.

My goals in the past, however, have been quite academic based… specifically language based. Because I study Spanish and Italian at university, I like to set myself goals at the beginning of every month to try and improve a certain area of that subject. For example, ‘revise vocabulary every day for 30 minutes’ or ‘read 10 pages of Spanish every day.’ But then I stopped doing this over the summer and now because I am only just getting back into goal setting, I am going to keep mine a little vague and cover a few areas of my life (university, reading, and diet) and then see how this month goes. I will review the goals at the end of the month and, hopefully, I will have done well and then I will set more specific ones in more areas like exercise.

But without further or do, these are my goals for this month:

• Read two books this month.

I could set a specific amount of time to read each day but in the past this hasn’t worked and instead I like to just set a number of books to try and read by the end. I have been in a bit of a reading slump (mentioned here) recently so I don’t want to aim too high.

• Revise Spanish/Italian for 30 minutes every day.

I can alternate each day with a different language or however I choose, but I want to spend at least 30 minutes every day doing something extra outside of uni work to improve my skills.

• Eat healthier!

I have just moved back to uni and this week’s diet has not been good. But I start uni tomorrow and I am looking forward to getting into a routine and eating better. I am going to say I have achieved this goal each day if I have eaten more fruit and veg, had a healthy smoothie, and drank a lot more water… anything like this. I am going to try to begin to do all these things but slowly entwine them into my every day diet. Otherwise, I think I will go mad all at once, be great for a couple of days and then burn out and pig out on all the normal sugary foods.

I know these are not many goals nor are they very specific. But they are just different areas I want to try do better in and I do not want to be specific yet as I am only just getting back into goal setting.

Life Update: Setember

Summer is over, which means I am now back at university to start my second year. I moved in yesterday and now I have one week to sort a few things out before term starts on Monday 3^rd October. It has been good to see everyone so far, my housemates are a lot better (I’m hoping) than last year so I am optimistic for this year. Up until now, however, what have I been up to?

I worked till the end of August and then decided to leave it there, so that I knew I had a few weeks of no work and no uni work, just a nice break to myself to relax, recharge and get ready for uni. I had a long list of things I needed to buy and do before I came back, but I was also just taking a lot of ‘me time’.

I think this is something our generation has definitely created/ encouraged. There are so many spas everywhere, so many ‘getaway holidays’ to relax and just so much more information out there about how to eat healthier, how to take better care of your skin and how much you should exercise. All of this information is to help us lead a stronger, healthier and happier life. However, it can be very hard to implement these aspects of health into our everyday routines.

That’s why I decided to take a break where I could just chill out and make sure I was doing what I wanted to do to be happy. For me, things that I did more of included: working out, trying yoga, walking my dogs, reading, writing, being with my family, watching a lot of films etc.

Some people might just call this laziness. But at the end of the day, those types of people probably work 24/7 and feel exhausted or stressed. Maybe I am a bit lazy, but I was working full time all summer. So this time off is essentially the same as someone taking a two week holiday abroad, except I am staying at home.

What made this time even better was the weather. It was about 30 degrees every day so it felt like the middle of summer even now it is autumn. Because of this I was able to walk my dogs over fields a lot while wearing shorts and getting a tan. Life always feels better when you have a tan, no idea why but it’s the truth.

There was a slight surprise though through my time off. Jamie was meant to be working away in Oxford from the start of September until Christmas. Therfore, I knew I wouldn’t be seeing him nearly as much which meant even more time to me. However, on the second day of his job, he crushed his thumb with a large piece of metal and had to go to A & E. Now, he has to have a good few weeks off for it to recover, after two+ hours in surgery. This meant I ended up spending almost every day with him as he had nowhere to be. Silver lining I guess.

So, all in all, I had a very chilled out few weeks off before going back to uni to begin year two. Now, I am here. I haven’t settled in yet at all. I didn’t unpack anything yesterday except making up my bed, because I was chilling with my flat mates. I thought that was more important because I can unpack any day this week. But I also didn’t sleep very well last night. You know when your body and mind just knows you’re in a different place? The window is in a different place to my room at home, the lighting was different, everything just didn’t feel comfortable and I immediately missed home. Not the best start, but today, I will unpack everything and try to make it all as cosy as possible.

September romances to be read!

Having just finished an adventure, fantasy, thriller novel, I am in the mood for a light hearted, fluffy romance/ contemporary/ YA.

I remember that it was the lead up to Valentine’s Day that made me love this type of genre. That sounds awfully cliché or just weird, but really what happened was this: Amazon had an awful lot of romance books on sale at £0.99 leading up to Valentine’s Day. As a result, I went a little mad and bought lots for my kindle but also saved lots to my ‘to-read’ list on Goodreads.

As I have been mentioning in previous posts, I am still intrigued and determined to read more fantasy, and longer books, but sometimes it is nice to go back to comfort reading, to what you know you love and enjoy. For me, these are simple reads, pleasurable reads that I can get through in a day or two.

I am going to mention a few books that I plan on reading soon which will hopefully satisfy my want for a fluffy light hearted read. I have chosen these books because, mainly, I already own them on my kindle, and also because they have been on my ‘to read’ list for a while and it would be good to cross them off.

The Little Bookshop on the Seine (The Little Paris Collection #1) by Rebecca Raisin

I have only read one book by Rebecca Raisin before and that did not go so well which I reviewed here; I think the main issue was that I expected a novel and it was in fact a short story. This meant there was a lot less content than I had hoped for. However, I like the sound of a few other books by this author and so I am willing to give her another try.

Kitty’s Countryside Dream by Christie Barlow

I bought this book not long ago for my kindle, and I am looking forward to reading it. I have a slight suspicion it will be similar to the first book I ever reviewed on here (Love from Paris), which was a light hearted simple read, but then also with the twist that it was a mystery trying to solve a story from years ago. Seeing as I thoroughly enjoyed Love from Paris, I am excited for Kitty’s Countryside Dream.

Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson

I expect this will be full of warm summer vibes and a possible love interest. Other than that I really don’t know! It may well be similar to The Little Village Bakery, or The Cosy Teashop in the Castle where in both books, a determined woman leaves her past behind to take on the new venture of opening up a bakery/cafe. These plots sound similar to the blurb of Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe, so I will have to wait and see how original it may be.

Thursdays in the Park by Hilary Boyd

I am intrigued by this one as the plot sounds a little different to anything I have read before, especially as the main characters and the possible romance occurs between 60+ year olds. I think this already makes it original (at least compared to anything I have read before) and so I am looking forward to reading it.

Perhaps I am in the mood for these summery books after realising that we are now in September, and, therefore, in autumn now. It has been raining this week but has still been very, very humid. Horrible. I am looking forward to orange leaves and Halloween, and before we know it, it will be Christmas!