This first month of the year felt very busy and really quiet at the same time. It seems like it flew by but also as if it had lasted 2 whole months. It was a good one though, I feel like I was able to do many things and to follow a bit my resolutions and goals.
My favourite things about this month:
- Harry Potter – Return to Hogwarts and Harry Potter 7: right at the beginning of 2022, on the 1st of January actually, the Return to Hogwarts special retrospective came out, and it was certainly one of my favourite things of the month. Even though it was not all 100% brand-new and unseen-before content, I loved seeing all the cast being reunited, talking with each other and just reminiscing old times. Have you seen it?
At the end of the month, I also had a “movie night” with my boyfriend and a friend, where we watched both parts of HP7, eating Harry Potter-inspired snacks and drinking cocktails that had the colours of our Hogwarts houses… mine being Hufflepuff!
- Reading: this month I managed to read much more than I usually do, and I started reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, that I like very much. I don’t know if it’s because I really enjoy these books or because work has been a bit dull lately, but I just want to read all the time! It is a good thing though, because I also bought a dozen books lately, so I really have to get through them!
- Brunch places: in January I tried two vegan brunch places that I didn’t know before. They were both quite close to each other but had very different vibes. The first one, called The Judgy Vegan, is quite spacious and has sort of a Friends vibe. The food was really good, but maybe a bit more towards the “lunch” side of brunch. The other one, called Lucifer Lives, is metal/horror-inspired, but only in small touches here and there. The food really looked non-vegan and it was a bit more towards the “breakfast” side of brunch. Even though I am not vegan myself, I have friends who are and I am always happy to try new things, especially if they are more environmental-friendly!
My latest trips and adventures
- Orient Express at the Train Museum: ever since I was little, I have always really liked trains. There is something about them that is just soothing and exciting at the same time, especially if they have a bit of a vintage vibe that reminds me Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes. For this reason, when I saw that the Train World Museum in Brussels had an Orient-Express exhibition, it immediately went on my list of local adventures. I will talk about it in a future post, but it is quite safe to say that I loved it!
- Hike in the Ardennes: right after my booster shot and a terrible night because of it, I had the brilliant idea to go hiking with my friends in the Ardennes, an area located in the south-east of Belgium. Again, I will probably post about it on the blog, but let’s say it wasn’t the best idea at that time (it was really cold and much longer and harder than anticipated), even though I had a lot of fun and the difficulty of the hike made me forget the pain of the vaccine!
Hobbies and distractions:
- Sewing: so, I started the year thinking that I would take on one project a month to make with my sewing machine, and I am happy to say that I haven’t properly done one in January ahah! I wanted to saw this cute skirt in a nice a leathery fabric, but the model that I chose was just too difficult for a super-beginner like me: I did a tentative on a cheap piece of fabric and it was a disaster ahah! However, I was also very surprised at myself when I realised that I wasn’t feeling too bad or like a failure: this was simply a lesson learnt, and my next project will be easier for sure.
- West Side Story at the cinema: a few weeks ago, I went to the movies with a friend of mine and my boyfriend to watch the new West Side Story movie. I didn’t go that often to the cinema before the pandemic but since then it’s become even rarer, so it was a very welcome change. I had forgotten how great it is to watch something on a huge screen! The movie was great and it brought back some memories from when I saw the first one years ago. Needless to say, the songs were stuck in my head for the whole week after that evening! Have you seen it?
General thoughts:
Overall, January was a great month! I did many things with my friends, I ate at great places and I managed to work towards my goals pretty well: I worked out regularly, cooked a few nice meals, studied Russian almost every day, etc. I feel like I have found some sort of routine, so I’m excited to keep it going for February!
Looking forward to:
- In a few days, my mum is coming to visit me in Brussels, and I’m very excited to show her my new flat and the city. She had been here right before the pandemic but the weather was so awful that we couldn’t properly enjoy it. I’m hoping for sunnier, nicer days this time!
- Next trip: I have an amazing trip planned for the end of February, like one of my dream trips, all-time-bucket-list destinations. I don’t want to jinx it tso I won’t reveal where it is, but I really hope everything goes according to plan! 🤞
How was January for you? What are you looking forward to?
Published in January:
A weekend in Luxembourg
– A “Green” December
Sunny Days with Juliette 
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