March in Review

(I didn't take any photos this month - so here is one my mum sent me of our dog, Bracken - isn't she cute?)

March in Review

Hey people, how is 2016 treating you all so far? Are your shelves filled with good books? Your days full of sunshine? Is your tummy bursting with chocolate eggs?  I sincerely hope so!

As for me, I sort of achieved these things. I recently treated myself to a book buying extravaganza on my kindle. The sun is slowly burning away the smog, and the mini-egg survival parcel my mum sent out last week has been fully demolished. Life. Is. Good :)

So today I thought I would share with you some life-updates. Mostly a few personal achievements and a couple of crazy happenings. Otherwise, it’s been just another not-so-normal month in China. 

Achievements this March:

*I can now bench-press 22kg! Ok, so I can can only do 5 reps, but I’m pretty sure I’m the strongest woman in my gym :)

*A whole afternoon was spent mastering the art of baking lemon-drizzle cake. After all, I  have to do something to balance out all my gym time.

*Also I finally found the courage to send out some queries on my manuscript. Never have I agonised so much over an email, and I sent out 5! 

I then spent the last few days constantly refreshing my inbox before I finally remembered… It’s easter weekend in England. Everyone is on holiday. Duh! 

Reading:

I’m actually between a few books right now (yes, I’m one of those strange people who have about five books on the go at once) but I managed to finish two.

*Sphinx Queen by Esther Frisker - A fictional take on the younger years of the famous Egyptian Queen Nefeteri. This was the second and final book featuring Nefeteri’s adventures, and while I ultimately enjoyed it, sadly I really didn't like the ending.

*The Dreamsnatcher by Abi Elphinstone - Loved this book! A review will soon be following—and this one also counts toward my British Book Challenge :) 

On the blog, and potential future posts:

Thanks to a failing VPN connection it was hard to post things this month. However at the beginning of March I was lucky enough to be part of Maria. V. Snyders Blog Tour. She answered many of my questions regarding the inspirations behind her writing—if you haven't already you can check out that post HERE.

There are also two book reviews. Demon Road by Derek Landy & Knights of the Borrowed Dark by Dave Rudden. If you are interested you can click on the links to see my thoughts.

Otherwise I came to the conclusion I don't really post enough on this blog. At least not in a very social way… and I have to wonder when I became so anti-social. With that in mind, I’m planning some new posts to share with you my travels, my writing frustrations & motivations, and probably my thought on various topics. Hope you don’t mind!

Chinese Randomness:

So as some of you may have seen on twitter, I had shrimp cross my path. Yep, that’s right, a shrimp.

I was walking home from work, just another normal evening, when the sight of this small creature stopped me dead. It walked across the alley in front of me and my boyfriend, taking its time, doing it’s shrimpy-little-thing, as if it was perfectly for normal for it to be wandering the streets of China. 

I can only guess it escaped from one of the many seafood restaurants dotted about my neighbourhood. I hope it found a happy end…

Otherwise, teaching English is always fun. The kids expressive themselves the best way they can and its often very entertaining. One thing that made me smile this month was one little boy asking me about my grandfather. After I explained my grandfather had died many years ago the little boy patted my hand and said, “Your grandpa is game over? My fish is game over too.” My heart melted. 

And that just about raps up my month. So how is life treating the rest of you?