January 2026, over and out

 We had two events planned for this weekend, and I was unsure about both of them.

The first was a quiz night organised by my Zumba teacher.  I signed up for it in November, when January seemed a long way away!  We had been assigned tables of six and whilst we are friends with one of the other couples, we didn't really know the other couple.  A couple of weeks ago the teacher told us that the hall she had hired for the evening had been flooded and she was struggling to find an alternative venue.  A little part of me was relieved 😉 However, she did find somewhere new and we set off on Friday.  We had such a fun evening!  The quiz was lighthearted and when George Michael was the answer to the second question I had a feeling that all was going to be ok after all.  I am a bit of a superfan of his! There was a brief moment when we were the top team but then we had a bad round.  We had to name the seven presenters of 'Countdown' and as none of us watched it we could only guess at a few likely names.  We got two right which was two more than I expected!  We didn't slip too far though as eventually we came third 😀

The second event was a barbecue that had been organised by one of the guys my husband plays badminton with.  Luckily although the food was barbecued outside, we ate inside.  Trust me when I say that it took ages to decide what to wear as it needed to be suitable for being outdoors or in! The men obviously all knew each other through badminton but I really only knew two of the women there which is why I was a little apprehensive.  I needn't have worried, they were all lovely and very friendly so it was a really nice get together.  We had wondered why on earth they had planned a barbecue for January but we then learnt that there is a 65th birthday being celebrated later in the week.  Luckily we found that out in time to rush out and buy a card.  

Isn't it wonderful when you have low expectations and then things are so much better than you had imagined they might be?  

So I think it is fair to say that January brought some highs and some very deep lows.  We are gradually becoming accustomed to life without our gorgeous Coco but it will be some time before I stop being sad to come home to an empty house or miss watching her silly antics dragging all the blankets out of the basket to make herself comfortable in the evenings. 

Here’s how the month looked, 1 Second Everyday