The penultimate month of 2020 is over. I know things won’t immediately get better in 2021 but I know many of us are just sick of 2020 and there is at least some light at the end of the tunnel. At least many of us have got Christmas (or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa) to look forward to as well.

What I have read

I reached my increased target of 150 books for the year in November – with only one month to go I probably won’t set another target, I’ll just see how high I can go. I read a comment recently where someone said they never left books unfinished one year to the next, and I have 8 unfinished books currently. A couple I’m in the process of reading, a few I’ve not picked up recently and others have been abandoned quite a while, but not long enough for me to put them on the ‘unfinished’ shelf. I would like to finish as many of these as I can in December. I did finally manage to finish Jane Eyre – it only took me a year!

• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London – Garth Nix
• The Unmumsy Mum A-Z – An Inexpert Guide to Parenting – Sarah Taylor aka The Unmumsy Mum 
• Born in the 1940s – Tim Glynne-Jones
• Born in the 1950s – Jane Maple
• Property of the Rebel Librarian – Allison Varnes 
• Little Donkey (Frogmorton Farm #1.5) – Jodi Taylor
• The Something Girl (Frogmorton Farm #2) – Jodi Taylor
• Joy to the World (Frogmorton Farm #2.5) – Jodi Taylor
• Out of Practice (The Larkford Series #1) – Penny Parkes 
• Hard Time (The Time Police #2) – Jodi Taylor
• Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte 
• Beau Peep Book 7 – Roger Kettle and Andrew Christine
• The Munitions Girls – Rosie Archer
• The 1950s Home – Janet Shepherd
• Warriors and Witches and Damn Rebel Bitches – Mairi Kidd
• The Adventurers and the City of Secrets (The Adventurers #3) – Jemma Hatt

I’m still reading: nothing! For I think the first time ever there’s no books that I read in the last month but haven’t finished. I have some that are unfinished but I didn’t read a single page of any of them in November, so they don’t count!

What I have watched

• Hollyoaks, which has continued to be ludicrous.
• More Mythbusters, Only Connect and Taskmaster.
• I finished Monty Python’s Almost the Truth but haven’t got around to watching the films yet.
• Dream Home Makeover – a Netflix original. The houses did look nice after but were always full of random ornaments and books-as-ornaments, it didn’t seem like the people owned very much or would have room for anything around all the vases and bits of rope. (Also their idea of a challenging budget for making over a single room was something like $20,000!)
• I watched Body Fixers on Netflix and was struck by how much it reminded me of Tattoo Fixers, then realised it was a Channel 4 show too. Then I just had to start Tattoo Fixers, of course. Body Fixers was mostly about hair and makeup with a few very minor surgical procedures thrown in, though the title sounds more drastic!
• Having seen lots of adverts for series 4 we have started watching The Crown from the beginning and we are both really enjoying it – though it keeps making me do background reading to find out what bits are actually true.

What I have done

• I finally went back to work on the 2nd. It’s quite a different environment – we’re running quite a limited set of services and there are lots of safety things in place – but it’s good to have some routine/purpose and to catch up with my workmates.
• Watched some fireworks from our back windows on bonfire night, there were no organised displays but lots of people did their own and we could see a dozen of them at least. We also had a mini party in someone’s garden where we roasted marshmallows over a fire. 
• As always we’ve been on lots of walks, up hills and to parks, along beaches and to feed the ducks. 
• We all got tested for Covid19, Brodie first and then us a week or so later. Luckily all results were negative and came back within 12 hours or so, so we only needed to stay home one day each time.
• I repaired some of my most damaged books with book tape, I had a few where the spines were coming right away so hopefully the tape will stop them from getting any more damaged.
• Had lunch in town and visited the Mary Quant exhibition at the V&A
• Visited the local wildlife centre and saw a surprisingly speedy porcupine chasing off a peahen.
• Put up the Christmas tree with Brodie’s “help”.

What I have bought

I bought a couple of new Christmas decorations as I spotted some Noddy ones while putting together my Christmas gift guide for this year.

I also bought the Foxglove Story Book and the Water-Lily Story Book to add to my collection of Foyle’s Flower Story Books. I only need three more to complete the series! As a bonus the seller sent three Noddy toys which Brodie immediately adopted as his own.

What has your month looked like?