My Monday: always late!

Snacks and telly with Lori.

I don't usually go in for new years resolutions, but in 2012 I vowed to stop being late. I was no stranger to the flustered guilt and warm cheeks that accompany being tardy - to everything. I did well. I stopped letting friends down, scurrying into the back of lecture theatres and missing the first five minutes of Hollyoaks. In 2013, it seems my standards have slipped. So let's pretend it's still the start of the week: still Monday.

My Monday was spent under precisely four blankets at my friend Lori's house, with two flavours of Dorito's, a tub of hoummous and season one of GIRLS. I'd never seen it before and, while the character of Hannah still rubs me up the wrong way, I'll admit I like it.

I've been LISTENING to a lot of Allo Darlin' and have just finished READING P. Robert Smith's Up a Tree in the Park at Night with a Hedgehog (a bit of a mouthful but a great read). My WEEKEND comprised poached eggs, dancing in rubbish bars on Park Street and cuddling up to watch telly with Lori.

My Monday: the first of 2013

This Monday has been a quiet one. I stayed up too late on Saturday night, twirling and laughing and eventually walking home and crawling into bed, and my body is still catching up with the lag from that.

Lazy mornings journalling in bed

I can't quite believe that it has arrived: 2013. It sounds all a wrong in my mouth and it's the first year in thirteen that I haven't begun in the northeast. I began it instead with a handful of friends and a bottle of ginger beer, screaming out my elation in a microplex cinema.

And today, I began with coffee, a crêpe, and a spot of READING (Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Leviathan) and bringing my journal up to date before flinging myself out into the sunshine to buy out half of the greengrocer's shop and pick up a spinach tortilla from La Ruca, all while LISTENING to Blondie.

A Spanish tortilla and a blood orange.

This WEEKEND is all but gone, but the week ahead will be a good one: after all, I've got a fridge full of fresh fruit and I'll see my Dad towards the end of it.

My Monday: counting down to Christmas

Festive preparations are well underway!

I've never been one to sweep all my Christmas shopping out of the way before December is barely visible on the horizon. I wouldn't say I was last-minute but I'm not the most organised shopper and you'll invariably find me barricaded into a room on Christmas eve, frantically whisking gifts into tissue paper and wondering why bottles of ale never get easier to wrap. This year, however, circumstance has forced me to plan a little further ahead: I've arranged a "fakemas" day and it dances, tantalisingly close, at the end of this week. I return to the bonny Northeast on Thursday and am going to share gifts, cracker jokes and merriment with my family earlier than is traditional.

With this in mind, my Monday has been a frantic rush to finish off the last little bits of present buying. Bristol's generous array of independent shops has made this even more of a delight than usual. There's something much more reassuring about walking into a shop where the vendor knows their trade and product as though it were their own flesh and blood. Asking for recommendations and finding good-quality items to give to loved ones feels so much more meaningful than grabbing a 3 for 2 smellies set from Boots.

With Christmas (and fakemas) fast approaching, I've had to cut back on the few indulgences I like to allow myself and this means missing Patrick Wolf at St. George's tonight, so this evening I am LISTENING to Sundark and Riverlight and moping while I begin my packing. Oh, how I wish I was there! Maybe next time. Still, to cheer me up I have the prospect of a week in Durham and Newcastle- so close I can almost taste the stotties and proper tea - and a thick stack of back issues of Mollie Makes to READ, thanks to Marie at Paris in a Bottle.

This WEEKEND has been a good one: it was Making Things Club last night (more on that later!) and I dressed my tree and got my first batch of Christmas cards posted to friends and family - but I'm itching to get back to the Northeast now! The next couple of days at work won't feel quite real.

I have a feeling next Monday will be a lot more exciting!

My Monday: naps and scraps

Last night saw me don my gladrags for my work Christmas do, so today has been all about napping, orange juice and more napping. I feel like I never get the chance to dress up these days so I threw on my best dress,  LISTENED to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme tune on repeat and shimmied around my room before heading to Za Za Bazaar on the harbourside and then dancing on until the morning.

Half of the fun of going out is the getting ready!

The do itself and the resulting lag of fatigue have eaten away most of the WEEKEND, but I've still had this evening to soak in the bath, make a start on my birthday scrapbook and nurse fragrant mugs of hot elderflower cordial. Yesterday morning I ventured to the Cube to mooch around the Christmas market and picked up a couple of gifts for friends and now I'm itching to actually see a film there! What a lovely little cinema.

I've been re-watching The Young Ones over the past couple of days and spotting places I think I might know - including the street where the house was located (or at least, the outside of the house), which is only a few streets over from mine, so I might pay it a visit to see if it's changed! Tonight I'll be retiring early to bed and taking Pathologize This! - a mental health zine - with me to READ. I picked it up from Princesa Pirata Distro's stand at the Cube yesterday.

The weekend doesn't feel like it's been long enough this time round - but what I've had of it, I've enjoyed!

My Monday: low GI baking

A bottle of red makes for a surprisingly good rolling pin!

A couple of months into the diagnosis of PCOS and the associated label of insulin resistance and I am becoming more and more frustrated by the limits of the lifestyle rules I now have to stick to. I knew that if I didn't make myself some low GI treats soon, I'd slip back into the dangerous life of a carb adorer. So today has been all about keeping me happy: a slightly pricey trip to Scoopaway, a perusal of GI High-Energy Cookbook and a few hours in the kitchen later and... well, I think it all needs further work. But I have a rough idea of the ingredients it's safe to use and how - and their shortcomings.

Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the end product of my efforts today, I always enjoy baking and it was a fun way of spending my day off. I may have to invest in a rolling pin, though, as I had to improvise: luckily there just happened to be a full bottle of wine standing on the dining table. As I've been baking, I've been LISTENING to Dworkin's Bastards by ONSIND and singing along at the top of my voice.

I've worn myself out this WEEKEND, but for good reason: my mum and sister visited for a few days and I made it my mission to show them my favourite bits of Bristol - and discovered a few places I hadn't known existed myself! I've fallen into bed each night without even the energy to READ a few pages of my book, but I always awake with enough to watch an episode or three of Gossip Girl - I'm finally getting into it several years late and am on season 2 - so no spoilers, please!

Would you look at the time? It's almost start of a new week (one which brings payday and a Christmas do). Goodnight!

My Monday: lazy brunch and zines

Baked egg

Monday always has that indulgent Sunday feel to it for me, what with working Tuesday to Saturday, so this week I tried my first baked egg, made to a recipe found in issue 2 of The Simple Things. I used a generous hunk of pain parisien from Joe's Bakery in Bishopston and a cloud of black pepper. Pair this with fresh coffee and a glass of red grape and pomegranate juice and you have yourself a very luxurious brunch (let's not kid ourselves: I'm rarely out of bed in time for breakfast on my day off).

I spent the rest of the morning, a brief trip out to run an errand or two aside, lazing in a hot bath READING Virgin #2 and Drifting Clouds, two brilliant zines on virginity and consent, respectively. You can find Drifting Clouds here, either to order a copy of or, if you want, read online in PDF form. I'm also finally in the middle of reading Middlesex (A Novel) by Jeffrey Eugenides, after it being at the top of my mental "to-read" list for over a year!

Lately I've been LISTENING to a strange combination of Field Music - Plumb, ONSIND - Dworkin's Bastards and Maybeshewill - Not for Want of Trying. I saw Maybeshewill on Thursday and can't get enough.

This WEEKEND has been longer and more fun-filled than usual: I booked the Saturday off work and headed down to the first ever Fear of Fiction festival in Stokes Croft. Highlights included Three Trapped Tigers, Talons and Telaviv (something about the letter T, perhaps?).

Back to reality this week, or almost: I have Friday off! I've got that festive holiday feeling already. With plans to go ice skating and gulp down mulled wine after work tomorrow, it really does feel like Christmas is just around the corner!

My Monday: recuperation

As I work Tuesday to Saturday, my weekend is skewed a little. Occasionally I whinge about having to work Saturdays, but really I love having that little slice of the week, a Monday, to potter around getting ready for the week ahead and, often, have the flat to myself. I use Mondays to explore Bristol, read the papers if I've bothered to buy one, drink coffee and Get Things Done (it's the only day I can get to a bank or Post Office, and it's easier for getting bits and pieces from independent shops as it's business as usual for them).

This week has been a little different. I spent much of last week ill and am finally feeling just about well enough to resume real life tomorrow, so today has been spent under my duvet, READING zines (mainly What's the Time, Mrs Woolf? and OFF LIFE comic). Outside that, I'm currently racing towards the end of The Virgin Suicides, which arrived in the post at just the right time to lift me from my bedridden blues, and flicking through Mollie Makes for craft inspiration.

Keeping entertained in my nest: fresh fruit, lots of reading material, my TENS machine for pain relief and my phone to connect me to the outside world (bedrest is lonely business).

I've been LISTENING to the new Tall Ships release, Everything Touching on a continuous loop for days and days and days. I wasn't sure I wanted to ever stop but then a mix CD from Adam landed on my doormat and now I'm feasting my ears on that instead. Tall Ships are currently touring the UK so do go and check them out if they're playing near you! I'm still grappling with my iPod and my grumbling old laptop (they don't like eachother, or, rather, my laptop doesn't like anyone or anything) so while I'm on the move I'll probably be back to blasting ONSIND's Dissatisfactions into my ears; it sounds like home.

This WEEKEND has been a very quiet one, but sometimes that's nice. My best friend Heather arrived on Saturday night from North Wales to cuddle me, make me tea and help me feel more human. She left this morning and her presence has done its trick: I feel like myself again. Yesterday evening we popped down the road to Café Kino for the Making Things Club hallowe'en special, then watched Heathers (appropriate title) and went to sleep.

I'll be glad to get back to normality, and work, tomorrow. But for the rest of the evening, it's my day, Monday.