The Creased Pages

I spent most of my week off working on a jigsaw puzzle. It was a ‘Cat Lover’s Puzzle’ with different breeds of cats depicted on it. It’s worth remembering that, it’s going to be my point of reference throughout this. It was more challenging than I had thought, particularly because of some hiccups I came across on the first day. I was trying to use a cardboard box as my Puzzle Assembly Surface (that’s its actual name) because it was the only free solid surface I had in my room and it seemed more practical than the floor. However, I soon found it was just slightly too short and too narrow which irritated me more than it probably should have done. I didn’t realise it was possible to rage-quit a jigsaw puzzle, but there we are. I started a-fresh the following day – yes, on the floor – and while I was plodding along, I found myself compiling a list in my head of the most frustrating things about doing a jigsaw puzzle. I had originally planned to tweet about it but I didn’t think it would...

So, everything’s a bit weird at the moment. Not that I need to tell you that, right? It’s been about six weeks since the UK went into lockdown. Personally, I’ve been working from home for about a month and I can’t lie, I quite like it. In the last four weeks I’ve been out no more than 5 times, just to the corner shop, which already feels like the new normal. I suppose it helps that I’m an indoorsy person anyway, but I’ve very quickly become accustomed to the convenience of not having to leave the house to go to work. Nobody who knows me will find that surprising.

I think I've mentioned before that I spend a fair amount of time on my own. Especially over the last two years, I've taken advantage of not having any ties, no one to have to work around, no one to keep happy. I can honestly say, it has been a massive relief. I'd forgotten how much easier it is to make plans without having another person to factor into them. Admittedly, at the beginning of 2018 I wasn't in the best of places, I was still holding onto some feelings that weren't good for me - guilt, anger, loneliness, regret. But as time went on, I completely embraced the full independence I'd rediscovered, and I have since referred to myself several times as a strong woman 'who don't need no man'!

January always feels like the most boring month of the year. The excitement of the festive period is over, the decorations are down, everyone is going back to work or school. Everything goes back to normal. I had the most relaxing time off. Christmas Day was spent at my brother's house with my family, including my 2-year-old niece and my 1-month old nephew. It was a lovely day, full of food, drink, cuddles and playing, although I'm quite sure I've seen enough variety of Peppa Pig toys to last me a lifetime! The days that followed were mostly spent in comfy clothes, and eating all manner of rubbish. I made a point of spending as much time as I could with my mum; I introduced her to the wonders of Netflix by bingeing a show called Frequency (which I highly recommend if you’re a fan of time travel and/or detective shows) and went on a couple of very long shopping trips at Asda with her. One of those trips was until about 1:30am. Yep.