July 2019 Updates

July’s been a funny month. In many ways, it feels less like the middle of the year and more like the start of a year.

I don’t know why I feel this way, perhaps it’s because after a long time I met up with old, old friends – people who I started my career with, and came out feeling surprisingly refreshed and rejuvenated.

Maybe it’s because I restarted an old hobby – swimming. I haven’t been doing much activity (except for walking my dog) for the past two years, so swimming has been great – it’s been kicking my ass, and feeling like so much fun at the same time.

Just two small things that happened this month – but it has meant such a change in my headspace.

I made quite a dent in my summer TBR this month. I finished reading The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu. This was a buddy read with Ash, and it was fun exchanging thoughts and egging each other on during the difficult parts. See her review of the book here. I made significant inroads into Milkman by Anna Burns and Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon.

I also completed reading and blogging (reading and blogging? will wonders never cease?) about The Wife Between Us, and blogged about Dissolution.

Both books were a joy to read and I highly recommend them.

I am currently reading Lethal White by Robert Galbraith, and it’s been pretty good going so far.

I haven’t been watching anything too exciting. I merely continued with Big Little Lies that I started last month (little disjointed, but still watchable). I quit Downton Abbey – seeing the entire series just seemed like too much of a commitment.

Instead, I watched a whole bunch of animal documentaries on Hotstar and Netflix. Piglet has suddenly stopped watching childish cartoons and transitioned to documentaries – mostly animals but also some nature.

So, it’s been a month of watching whale migrations, the Masai Mara massacre of wildebeest, the unusual life of the octopus (really, such fascinating creatures, I had no idea), life in Antartica, and many such more.

I feel like I was on a blogging roll this month. Not too many blog posts went live, but I got started writing multiple posts, and finally got around to editing my China pics and posting them (both on Instagram and here).

Here’s what I blogged about this month (apart from books):

I’ve also been working on compiling and editing footage of videos that I shot during our China trip. I’ve no idea if the video will be any good – too many jumpy clips, but it’s been fun editing them, and reliving all the fun we had. If it’s any good, I might put it on my YouTube or IGTV.

Overall July has been a nice month. Like I said earlier, it’s been the start of a new lifestyle for me. The weather turned from being extremely hot to lovely and chill, and with that my mood turned. I got more active, I got a lot more work done, all without being too stressed out.

It sounds like I’m being intentionally vague, but I’m not, really. I can’t quite put a finger to it, and say yes, this is what is making me feel better. I wish I could so that I’d knowingly continue doing whatever that’s working for me.

How did your July go?