I’ve never kept a diary, I mean I’ve tried, but I always find myself writing it for the reader, who’d ideally be no one, weird right? So I thought I’d try again but this time as monthly blog.

I’m writing this as much for you as for myself, and with the way 2020 was, I’d like to look back at the end of the 2021 and see if it was the year we hoped for. Please join me as I share some highlights from January.

The year started with… a colonoscopy. Yikes, and I thought 2021 was meant to be better than 2020! In all seriousness though, it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be and frankly I’d rather have a camera crew up there than miss a diagnosis, plus you get to wear this cool gear!

I spoke about this in SMILE FOR THE CAMERA but the whole event required an early morning trip to a hospital in Greenock, some 20 miles away. The satnav took me through the back roads, and I’m glad it did because the scenery was beautiful and calming for my increasingly anxious mind.

I’m glad to say the results of my colonoscopy, and the recovered polyp proved to be nothing to worry about. I’ve said it before, but please don’t be scared, it’s not worth your health.

Winter’s birthday

The wee one turned 9 at the start of the month, just in time for schools to be closed and another lockdown to kick in, so it was a very different birthday but fun all the same. We went for a Stephen Universe theme, her favourite cartoon, doing things last minute as we often do. We got some red cups, cut out some stars and made a cookie cat cake. The banner showed up at lunch time on the day, phew!

The gifts were a little different too, she wanted smart bulbs and plugs to make her room more techy, they took time to set up but she was very happy. We bought her a TV for her room but mostly to play video games on. She was happy and that’s all that mattered.

My online store!

I have a particular dislike for disability themed clothing that’s tacky. I’m 100% for us all to own who we are but stuff like this… really annoys me.

So I made up some designs and set up a store. There’s t-shirts, hoodies and stickers priced deliberately low as I’m not doing this for money, just as a way to make some cool stuff I’d like to wear and use. If you’d like to have a browse, the site is here.

A walk on the loch

For the first time in over 10 years, the nearby Loch Semple had frozen over. Naturally we had to go check it out. It’s not like Canada where lakes freeze over in the winter, so we went and just look at this!

I dare say we wont be able to do this again any time soon. Definitely worth the trip and something memorable to do when cinemas, restaurants and all the entertainment we take for granted is absent. I’m sure we’ll remember this for years to come.

IG Live

The wee one and I decided to start a weekly live. I’ll be honest, we’re talking nonsense for most of it but it’s something fun to do together. We’re trying to get a bit more structure going forward, and I hope you can check it out. You can see an episode here.

Maggies Challenge

As the start of the year, Tracy signed up for the Maggies 50 challenge, which is to walk 50 miles across January to raise money and awareness of the cancer charity Maggies, and they did it! Tracy, Winter and Luna hit the pavements but decided to switch up the route after I pointed out the shape of an earlier route.

They raised £165 and felt, well… I’ll let Winter show you.

Rayman Legends

After completing Disney +, we decided to have a games night at the end of the month. We played Rayman Legends, which was a great choice as all three of us could play but the highlight was this one level. It was music themed and totally unexpected and, just check out this video:

It was funny, out of nowhere and we all enjoyed it. I think we’ve got our Fridays covered for the next few weeks!

And that was our month! Sure it wasn’t the most rock and roll way to start the year, but it was our way.

Let me know your highlights from January and check below for some media suggestion based on my listening and viewing habits in January.

Song for the Month: Spose – Nobody

Artist for the month: LOFI Fruits – Lo-Fi covers of popular songs

Film for the Month: BlacKkKlansman – Netflix

TV Show for the Month: Scot Squad – BBC iPlayer

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