JANUARY DIARY

Hello 2020 and to everyone who reads my humble little blog.

It's a new year and a new decade, so a little background information.

I started this blog back in late 2008 and it was a place to log all the cultural things I had done. Mostly as my memory was bad and I wanted to leave my thoughts on these things. I was also working on a A-Z project of my favourite songs from favourite artists. I got to C and never returned, lol!

It has evolved over the years...

Every month I do two entries, one is my reviews of books I have read, music and podcasts I have listened too, and movies and television etc I have watched. The other has been my Round Up or Diary of that month, things of note I have done, usually all things cultural, celebrations, eating out with family or friends or sometime just me. Over the years I have added things of a personal note, some work milestones, dating, and over the past few years my health, specifically mental health and my cancer journey. From this month I am renaming Round Up to Diary, because that is what it is.

Sometimes I do specialised entries, a long form review of a concert or show, a piece about an artist I like or something significant. At the beginning of the year I reflect on the year past with a few entries. My review lists of the past year. My reflections on the past year. And my hopes for the year ahead. Really it all comes down to time. I will admit my two regular monthly entries are more often than not simply second drafts bashed out quickly with a second look over for obvious mistakes. The more specific ones are looked over much more highly and slowly.

So the blog is for me, but if people get something out of it and enjoy it - and a lot of you seem to, that is fabulous too. Please enjoy!!

And so let's begin January 2020.

After a lovely laid back New Years Eve with my friend Alice, I had a lovely laid back start to the New Year with a lovely laid back sleep in. That first week of the year I was still on holidays, it was hot. I stayed in with the air con cranked up, sleeping, napping, reading, and catching up on television.

I went back to work after that feeling relaxed and fresh for a new year, a new decade.

It terms of being out and about, January was a quiet month. Mostly due to the weather, but also I was busy decluttering and saving money for my March holidays.

I caught up with Bobbie who I had not seen in a long while and we ate and toasted our single lives at The Mattara Hotel.

I caught up with a group of friends and we saw Fleabag on the screen at The Playhouse. This was my second viewing and it was even better, especially with a full house and close audience, laughing - or not - together. It made the experience more intense. She - Phoebe Waller-Bridge - is simply a genius, her observations of life, her humour, and her physicality. Especially her physicality, I lover everything about this lady! Afterwards we tried the new Chinese on Darby, Mr Rice, which has an amazing menu of Modern Chinese meals. Sooo very good.

Linda and I saw the wonderful French Film, The Truth, as part of the Six Summer Flicks. The Truth is about an ageing French Film Star (played by the magnificent Catherine Deneuve) who has released her memoir. Her daughter (the divine Juliet Binoche) flies in from the States with her husband (the always delightful Ethan Hawke) and daughter. Old niggles and issues rise from below the surface and drama ensues. It was superb, dramatic, funny, classy. The house it was mostly filmed it was something else too.

I ended up the month catching up with Mary for dinner on hot Friday night at Warners at the Bay. Good pub meal, and excellent company.

I did the usual markets this month.

I read and watched a lot, my reviews are here.

And I commenced my big declutter and deep clean of Club Cathy. For the past 2 years or so while I have been unwell, my cleaning approach has been a little lax. The place is of course clean and tidy, but it really needed a good go over. So I have been going over every nook and cranny and looking at all my stuff and getting rid of unnecessary items. I have been trying to recycle as best I can, but re-purposing some items, giving things away, and selling some things on facebook marketplace. As I go through my stuff, I am finding things I forgot I had and am now using. Rearranging spaces to make my life easier, find things easier etc etc. It is actually very cathartic. Also having the energy to get into spaces and scrub them clean means I am physically so much better which is also wonderful. I listen to my vinyl or podcasts while doing this, and time just goes. Not a bad way to spend time when you are trying to save money!

I am hoping to get it all done bar the garage and study before my trip. I will tackle those on my return! The garage isn't that bad, and the study is relatively tidy just holds a lot, so will take more time!

As usual here are some pics including one of me at work:

OCTOBER ROUND UP

I was still sick at the beginning of October, my throat and voice and cough consistent, this led to x-rays and CT scans and lung specialists at the end of the month. Things looked grim for a bit, I was pretty scared...again...but it appears not to be anything too major which is wonderful. I still need to go back and things sussed out next year. I guess the thing about having had cancer is it is the first thing you go to...which is awful, but it is also the first thing the doctors go to, which means it gets ruled out (thankfully thus far) really quickly!

So due to this, the month was fairly quiet, a lot of sleep, or rather a lot of weird sleeping, due to not great sleep during the night.

I did manage to whisk my best friend away from her dramas to Maitland Art Gallery for a late lunch and then get lost in their art. Maitland Art Gallery cafe is always amazing and the gallery second to none in the Hunter.

I also saw Blak Douglas in conversation with Ursula Yovich at Newcastle Art Gallery. He painted her for his amazing Kilgour winning portrait. She then gave us an amazing mini concert, singing some sublime tunes. A really divine afternoon.

I headed to Scottys cinemas at Raymond Terrace to see the filmed theatre production of Fleabag and it was everything. This is the second run of the theatre show that started the whole Phoebe Waller-Bridge phenomenon. It started as a theatre show, then was series 1 on television. I picked it up a few years back a little bit before things got nuts. Then she redid the theatre show and did series 2, in the middle of all that, Killing Eve. 

Anyway, the theatre show was just her talking to the audience, it was very full on. It covered a lot of the topics in S1 of the television show. It pushed boundaries and was more dramatic than the television show. Mostly as a lot of the humour on the show bounces off the other characters which are not in the theatre show...as such. Occasionally she talks to voices from off stage. What I took the most was what a great physical comedian/actress she is. Her facial expressions and body contortions, which you see a little on the television, but so much more in this.

My nephew turned 17, which feels shocking wasn't I babysitting him the other week! We had a lovely family BBQ to celebrate. He is such a great young man, kind and generous, funny and smart. A real credit to my sister and brother-in-law. 

The Final French Friday of the year was Return of the Hero, starring Jean Dujardin and Melanie Laurent. It was a great period drama/comedy/romance. As usual there was a great french market to partake of prior.

I also had a great and exciting thing happen, I arrived home one Friday afternoon to an anonymous present, for my vinyl area. It is perfect and used and loved. I still have no idea who this lovely giver was...

There is the usual markets.

And reviews.

And photography