5 Reasons To Smile This Week

 Hi,

Hope whoever is reading this is having a lovely week. The sun has popped up this week bringing with it warm days to hang the fresh washing, eat outside and generally feel better.

I thought as we have our 'road map' out of Lockdown slowly but surely making life feel more normal, that I would document five reasons to smile this week. I think it's all the little things that add up to big things and if you don't take the time to appreciate them, they can go unnoticed.

1.  Swimming - I love swimming more than literally anything else apart from my partner, family and friends and so to be able to get back in the water this week was amazing. Jack and I booked a 'pod' as we are in the same household and that equated to an 8th of the pool overall. For some reason I envisioned this being a small section with barely any room for front-crawling, but an 8th of the pool is really spacious and the hour slot we had was plenty of time to get some lengths in (or rather many half lengths). It felt so freeing to be back in the water for the first time in over a year. The sun was streaming in through the gigantic windows and it felt quite holiday-ish to be back. It is something that despite often being fully booked at the moment, I am going to try and get a space for every week - but hopefully more often than that! I really enjoyed being in the water with Jack also as weirdly we never had swam together before, so it was a great experience.

2. Reading - I'm currently reading 'Hamnet' by Maggie O' Farrell and WOW, I can see why it won her the Women's Prize for fiction in 2020! The character's are so immersive and fully-formed, the time period is endeared to without anomalies and the themes of romance, magic, familial bonds and courage are so beautifully explored. The story is fiction but is based on the real life son of Shakespeare, Hamnet, whom Hamlet the play is named after. It explores some real life and made-up characters mixed with true and imagined events all within a non-linear viewpoint narrative that explores the life of Shakespeare's fictitious wife "Agnes", her family and her children. We are told from the very beginning that tragedy will ensue but it still doesn't make me want to stop reading, it's so gripping! 

3. Eating out - This week was the first time Jack and I went for a meal we were able to eat outside the restaurant and it felt such a treat. After a browse of a local garden centre, we stopped for a bite to eat at a pub in the sunshine and it was utterly perfect. Fish and chips with soft drinks and sun are all recipes for a good day out and it felt so nice to hear other people also enjoying a little new found freedom again. 

4. TV shows - This week marked the start of Call The Midwife returning to our screens and as a person who has watched every episode from the very beginning, loves a period drama and adores the coziness that the show brings, I was so happy to tune in on Sunday evening. As someone who also loves easy watching reality TV for it's escapism,  I'm also very happy that Made In Chelsea is very much in the flow of it's current season too. Love it or hate it, it is very addictive! ;)

5. Blogging - It feels really lovely to feel inspired to write again, having written a short post for the first time in over ten months a few weeks ago. During full Lockdown days seemed to blur and there didn't seem much to feel inspired by writing-wise. After starting a brand new job and settling in to that, it feels nice now to get back to putting thoughts to keypad. 

I hope you have a lovely week ahead and as always, thank you for taking the time to read.

Write soon!

Molly x