The first week of 2023 was rather nice and relaxed. New Year’s day was especially bright with sunshine, if still a tad chilly. I wrapped up, wearingy new tunic that I made, and decided to start my year with a bracing walk to the beach.

Not as bracing as the hundreds of people who were waiting to do the New Year’s Day dip in the sea. I arrived just as many of them were coming out, frantically trying to get dry and change clothes on the cold, busy sands. I definitely think that’s a Scarborough tradition I’m never going to buy into.

I did run into my friend F though, out with her family. We quickly exchanged Happy New Years greetings and tales of the night before (not that I had much to tell, mine had been a very quiet affair), before I wandered off to sit outside one of the cafe’s to warm up with nice coffee. Conversely, little Miss wanted an ice cream!

The rest of the day was spent relaxed, building more lego. The following day, bank holiday Monday, it was back to the beach to meet up with my friend H and her son for a wander. The weather was pleasingly bright again and even a bit warmer than the day before. We walked along the beach, me constantly reminding little Miss not to paddle in the sea with her non-waterproof boots on. She’s all of a sudden grown out of her wellies, so I need to get some more of those fairly quickly.

Then we set off to get coffee and a tea cake, walked the length of the seafront and stopped to play on the 2p machines in one of the arcades. It was a lovely relaxed morning. We said our goodbyes at lunchtime and headed home, finally finishing the last bit of the lego fairground that afternoon.

Back to work on Tuesday, I had a few days of getting back into the work/school run routines. Then on Thursday the chap came over for dinner, bringing me some lovely Fairfax and Favour socks he’d boyfht for me. Given he was looking forward to opening little Misses’ last unopened box of Lego, the Nasa space centre and rocket he had bought her for Christmas, and helping her to build some of it after school, we opted to move fish and chip night from its usual Friday, to Thursday. We didn’t want to interrupt the building. It was a fun night, topped off with a game of Windy Knickers before he set off home and Little Miss went to bed.

During the Christmas holidays I had intended to dye my hair red. I’m not really a blonde kind of person, and even though I’ve kept it up for 2 years, it doesn’t feel like me. Ultimately, I always end up going back to reds. Anyway, I messed up mixing the dye in the holidays and had to buy a replacement. Eager to get rid of the wishy washy non-colour my hair had become, I dyed my hair on Friday night. I’m so happy with how it’s turned out and I feel just like me again.

The weekend was a relaxed one; lunch and shopping at one of the local farm shops on Saturday, followed by a relaxing night of reading with a glass of Bailey’s. I finished my first book of 2023, which is a bit of a cheat because I started it in 2022. This was a such a good book though. I’m aiming to read much more this year. More reading, less social media! I say it every year.

Sunday was spent doing some repairs to clothes, before breaking out my pyrography kit that my friends had bought for me for my birthday, back in October. I was really excited to try this out, but also a little bit worried that I might end up burning myself/a hole in the carpet/the dog! Thankfully, none of the above happened, and whilst there’s a lot of room for improvement I’m pretty pleased with my first attempt.

There you have it, the first week done!