Nollaig

Happy reading in 2018!

I didn't do the read-a-thon properly, but I read a comic collection (6 issues), finished another book (Let The Dead Speak by Jane Casey) and read about a fifth of The Tin Man by Sarah Winman.

Very bright and sunny here today, as well as chilly (5 degrees C, about perfect!). Love this weather!

In the end I read 82/80 books (total reduced from 100). I'm setting my 2018 goal at 100 again. I'm going to include comics this year, so it should be easier to hit that target. And if not, I'll adjust the target as I did last year!

Happy reading! The Waterstones challenge is really interesting, and a great way to visit lots of new places

I have a bunch of comics to read, so I might use the read-a-thon for that And I have a book nearly finished, I'll save that for the weekend too and maybe focus on Bored of the Rings this evening. (Seriously, I love the LOTR films, but how did anyone ever find the amazing story underneath all the endless prose about walking?!)

I'm so sorry to hear this Hayley. I know how awful it is to lose a dog, and I know Obi was well loved and, I'm certain, happy to the end of his days. Big hugs

First day back to work for me too. Couldn't sleep last night, was tossing and turning until about 2:30. Happens when I've been relaxed for a while and then have to face back into work, I think it's like an undercurrent of mild anxiety. Still, I wasn't as wrecked as I expected getting up at 7, so that was nice.

I am reading the seventh (and most recent) entry in the Maeve Kerrigan series of crime thrillers by Jane Casey. I'll be sad when it's finished, as I'll have to wait for the next one. Then I've two left in the Kim Stone series by Angela Marsons (also currently 7 books) and then I'll be up to date with that series too! I'm also tentatively reading Lord of the Rings after re-watching the movies over Christmas. I've never made it through them before, but I'm doing okay this time so far!

Thanks so much everyone! I always love being at the start of a new reading year

I definitely do not get restless as I don't want to go back to work! Only today and tomorrow left off, boo-urns! I suppose I'll have to take the decorations down at some stage, not sure when!

Happy New Year, everyone! Today I will be attempting to finish the last of my coursework - due Wednesday, eek! I must also finish a cross-stitch that was meant to be a Christmas present. My arm has been really sore for almost a week now, not sure what I did to it. Some kind of muscle pain, I think, so that's been slowing me down in terms of getting anything done. The rest of the day then will likely be spent reading!

Video Games 2018 1. Ys - The Oath in Felghana 4/5 2. Person 4 Golden 4/5 3. Bloodborne 4. Final Fantasy 3 (SNES) Want to play: OxenFree Crash Bandicoot (remastered) I Am Setsuna Final Fantasy XV Until Dawn

2015 Reading Log 2016 Reading Log 2017 Reading Log *** Green is read Yellow is in progress Grey is upcoming soon Red is abandoned *** Rating System (from Goodreads) 1/5 - Didn't like it 2/5 - It was okay 3/5 - Liked it 4/5 - Loved it 5/5 - It was amazing *** January 1. The Road To Civil War - Various 3/5 2. Let The Dead Speak - Jane Casey 3/5 3. The Tin Man - Sarah Winman 3/5 4. Fellowship of the Ring - J. R. R. Tolkein 3/5 5. Dead Souls - Angela Marsons 4/5 6. Turtles All The Way Down - John Green 3/5 7. The Good People - Hannah Kent 4/5 8. The Nest - Kenneth Oppel 4/5 9. The Chalk Man - C. J. Tudor 4/5 February 10. Friend Request - Laura Marshall 2/5 11. The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas 5/5 12. A Horse Walks Into A Bar - David Grossman 1/5 13. The Bone Collector - Jeffery Deaver 3/5 14. The Visitors - Catherine Burns 3/5 March 15. The Woman in the Window - A. J. Finn 4/5 16. Blood Lines - Angela Marsons 3/5 17. Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer 4/5 (reread) No One Gets Out Alive - Adam Nevill April 18. The Good Samaritan - John Marrs 4/5 19. Thirteen - Steve Cavanagh 3/5 20. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton 3/5 21. The Folcroft Ghosts - Darcy Coates 2/5 22. The Liar's Girl - Catherine Ryan Howard 4/5 23. His Bloody Project - Graeme McRae Burnet 3/5 May - July 24. The Hunger - Alma Katsu 3/5 25. The Bear and the Nightingale - Katherine Arden 4/5 26. Broken Bones - Angela Marsons 3/5 27. Wolverine Hunting Season - 3/5 28. One Click - Andrea Mara 3/5 29. With Our Blessing - Jo Spain 4/5 30. Beneath The Surface - Jo Spain 2/5 31. Sleeping Beauties - Jo Spain 3/5 32. The Bedlam Stacks - Natasha Pulley 5/5 33. The Cabin at the End of the World - Paul Tremblay 2/5 34. Scythe - Neal Shusterman 4/5

Finished watching Season 2 of Stranger Things the other day, very good but wasn't quite as mind-blowing as reviews had led me to believe. Last night watched Jingle All The Way. Good fun film, but utterly ridiculous.

It's been 11 or 12 degrees here every day this week. Because why would Ireland be cold in Winter. I find it really frustrating, my jumpers and coat have gone back in the cupboard because it's not cold enough to wear them, I'm just wearing light tops with cardigans. So un-Christmassy.

One more day til Christmas holidays. Think we have just about everything ready, just have to get our turkey and some wine. We want to get a turkey from Aldi, but none of the Specially Selected ones from their catalogue seem to be in either of their stores here, which is annoying. Going to watch The Santa Clause this evening

Staff Christmas party this evening... still haven't decided 100% if I'm going to go, because mingling amongst a group of 40 semi-sober people I don't know well in a pub is my idea of hell, but it would be nice to see the few people I'm friends with. I bought some reindeer antlers in case I go, as there's a prize for best christmas outfit/accessory.

Alternating every 30 minutes or so between torrential rain and blue skies. I'm quite high up in my office so I can literally see the waves of black cloud rolling in from the north each time. Good warning system, gives me about 10 mins before the next torrent starts!

Congratulations Brian that's wonderful news! And such a lovely time to year for it to happen!

I just finished the fourth Kim Stone novel by Angela Marsons. Very good. Now reading Try Not To Breathe by Holly Seddon.

I'm up to 75, which was a reduced goal from 100, so I've upped my goal back to up 80. So 5 more books to read before the 31st! Shouldn't be an issue.

I should hopefully be able to do that one in January, first weekend after I'm back to work.

2017 has been a pretty great year for me, and it hasn't been often (if ever) I could say that. It started off on a very bleak note, as I came out the other side of losing my favourite house I've ever rented, having to take what I could get (a miserable, dirty student house shared with like 5 guys), and adapting to taking medication for the first time ever for my anxiety after I basically had a breakdown in November/December 2016, partially due to losing the house but also due to inability to go through with a job interview that I should have done and just the pressure on every level weighing down on top of the day to day anxiety. Christmas also wasn't great in 2016 as we all knew my dad would be leaving after Christmas, and the stress, anxiety, and financial difficulty that still plagues my mum to this day as she attempts to pay enough that the loan companies don't take her to court to repo her house, has been unpleasant to say the least. That said, she has been seeing a nice man recently, which has lifted her spirits endlessly and which I am delighted about. For me though, after those first couple of months, 2017 started looking up, and up, and up. I met my OH at the start of Feb and by May (partially coz he needed a tenant to help pay rent, he'd been paying 800 a month since his ex-wife left in 2016, and partially because I was living in a hole) I moved in with him. I can't really get my head around how much my life has changed since then. It just works so well and feels so natural that it's actually very easy to take for granted that, yes, of course we live together and are together etc. But sometimes it hits me how fortunate I am. I got a lovely house in a lovely quiet neighbourhood and a dog out of the deal too. On top of that, my job contract was supposed to end in September, so I did a course in Medical Admin so I'd have some kind of admin speciality behind me going hunting for an admin job (really all I'm qualified to do). As it turned out, my contract got extended a month, and then three months, and the job I bailed on last year is coming up again, and everyone wants me to go for it. No guarantee I'll get it as it's a university and they have strict guidelines on assessing candidates, but still. And on top of all THAT, I learned just how much I don't want to work in admin when I discovered a single-semester 6 module certificate course (Level 8, basically equating to half an undergrad), online in the other main college here in Cork. It was in Digital Media Development and Design, and was created as a special purpose award for seguing into a Masters in E-Learning. So I did the course (with modules like Animation and Sound, Creative Strategies, Digital Cultures, and E-Learning), loved every second of it, applied for the Masters, and got offered a place. So that will begin in Feb. I'll be doing it part-time (not least because it's too expensive to do in one go, but also because the single-semester course was way too intense while working full time). The masters is also all online, so flexible around work. And, if I get the job, the work will align nicely with the masters, because I'll be working in a training centre. AND even if it doesn't work out, I've now got a cert and will be working on a masters in digital media, instructional design and e-learning, which will hopefully open up job opportunities in an area I'd prefer. (Basically what I've been doing all along, but with a bit of academia to back it up.) So yeah, if I can just get that job here in UCC, which will probably come up in January, that will be the absolute icing on the cake. It's really weird coming to the end of a year that didn't suck. This is usually my time of melancholic contemplation during which I think about how crappy my year was but how I got through it anyway, Happiness is a nice change.

About 4 degrees here, which is common these days, and rainy. We don't get snow here, about 16 counties did but this far south you just don't really.