Why I'll be glad to see the back of January

I'm not one to be all doom and gloom. Generally, I'm someone who sees life for what it is; full of ups and downs and everything in between. But I will be the first to say that this month, this seemingly-never-ending month, has been shit. Forget January blues, this month for me has been nothing but awful and I'll be so glad to see the back of it. Here's a few reasons I'll be glad to say goodbye to January and hello to February.

It's been full of illness

Although starting the year with mumps has quickly become a funny story (fainted in airport security and wasn't allowed on the plane etc etc), it was awful. Mumps is such a painful illness and makes eating, talking, and generally enjoying life impossible. Plus, I wasn't even that bothered from a vanity point of view (given that it wasn't me who actually had to look at my own face very much), but it looked awful too. Even though I had the MMR vaccine as a kid, I managed to fall into the 1% of non-effectiveness (the vaccine is 99% effective). Message to all anti-vaxxers: vaccinate yourselves and your children for fucks sake.

And as if that wasn't enough, my January has been nicely bookended by illness, as I've had a horrendous cold all week that's left me feeling like death. This is why I'll never understand people who prefer winter to summer; winter is just full of germs and sickness.

I'm starting February on a girls weekend in Manchester

You know what January's like; it's cold outside, no one has any money and so nights out basically fade to a distant memory. Keen to have something to look forward to, me and the girls have planned a weekend away for this weekend, so we'll be starting February how we mean to go on. A blog post is sure to follow...

I was meant to be starting February on a girls weekend in York

Like I said, this month has been nothing but unlucky. I thought that on the very last day of the month, there wasn't much else that could really happen but apparently I was wrong. You know the mass worldwide hysteria about the coronavirus? Well, the first two cases have been confirmed in the UK and guess where? The exact hotel in York that we were booked into for this weekend. Safe to say that that plan went out the window (obviously the hotel had no reluctance in refunding us and I should think so too).

February will be my first Valentine's day with Ollie

I've never been fussed about Valentine's Day before; neither a lover nor a loather. It's just been a day that's not applicable to me and it's gone by without me particularly noticing. But I'm actually excited for it this year because it's my first one with Ollie. So we've got a cute date night planned at a tapas place called Juni (seeing as we both love tapas).

I got my first speeding ticket

Again, another stroke of misery that managed to slip in in the last few days of this horrible month. I managed to get caught doing 38 in a 30 zone and thus got myself my first speeding ticket. Forget bad luck coming in 3's, mine's been tenfold this month.

It's finally going to be time to book some holidays

Like I said, no one has any money. I know companies are doing a nice thing by paying everyone early in December but that streeetch from the early December pay day to the years-later January one is painful. Particularly painful if, like me, you're a spendaholic who wants to book another holiday, a spa day, a nice meal out, an adventure day and do a big ASOS haul every 5 minutes. Luckily, the wait is now over; I've been paid. So it's all systems go on the spending front (well, I mean I still have a mortgage to pay so let's not go too crazy). Either way, it's definitely time to book a holiday or two (or three or four).

I've generally felt unhappy

Like I said, I'm a positive thinker and not someone to get down in the dumps all too often. But thanks to various challenges and stuff that's been going on, this month has been pretty miserable for me. I know there's no actual difference from January 31st to February 1st in terms of my mood and general contentment, but I feel like the illusion of a clean slate should hopefully be enough to get me feeling happier again.

I'll be going to Venice next month

A holiday a month keeps the doctor away! Keeping up with my streak (started last February and not broken yet), at the end of next month I'll be jetting off to Venice on a bargain little weekend break. The flights were only £25 so I've already got a good feeling about the trip and I've got my fingers crossed for good weather. It obviously won't be warm but I'm hoping it'll at least be sunny and dry - Venice under 3 feet of floods doesn't sound quite as appealing. Hopefully I'll be packing my sunglasses instead of my wellies!