January reads

I'm keeping a note of the books I read this year in the back of my new diary. January has been a mixed month, each book good in its own way. A lot of these were Christmas presents. Saturday was definitely the highlight, The Savage Garden disappointingly the lowest point I've visited in a while. I heard mixed reviews of the latter and although the plot had the potential to be gripping the prose lacked fluidity and it was impossible to get lost in.

This is what's been occupying my 30 minutes on the train each day:

Chloe by Freya North
Saturday by Ian McEwan
The Savage Garden by Mark Mills
Bridget Jones 1 and 2 by Helen Fielding
The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan
My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson
Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella

Taking me into February is Beloved by Toni Morrison - a book I studied for A Level and haven't revisited since.

On my list to get hold of is On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (do you see a theme emerging?! I've just discovered him and he's totally awesome) and Marshmallows for Breakfast by Dorothy Koomson. I've been blacklisted by the library for owing them too much though so will have to steal Ben's card until a cheque reaches them!

The greatest fun you can have with your other half

You'll never guess what it is...

Into the second month of the year

Janaury seems like the quickest month ever and at the same time the slowest. The beginning was spent with a quiet new year, seeing family and meeting Ben's maternal grandmother for the first time, all of which seems an age ago.

Since then Ive been super busy at work training seven new entrants who are all fresh from college, without much experience of the working world and with no idea what an annuity is. I'm their trainer for 8-10 weeks with my friend and colleauge Lauren. Today was tough as one of the newbies is seriously underperforming compared to the rest and I had to give feedback to my manager so he could consider if it's going to be worth spending time training him. Being a trainer takes much more time than a normal 35 hour week.

As a result January has flown by and I haven't started on many of my new resolutions, which are:

1. Lose winter/Christmas weight and maintain enough for the nurse to not look condescending at my next checkup
2. Whip finances into shape
3. Invest time and effort in a lot of relationships - increasingly this is turning out to be important at work as well in order to progress
4. Practise flute - I don't want this skill to rust any more than it already has
5. Complete my Certificate in Financial Planning 1 - boring but has to be done, another work thing
6. Finish my patchwork quilt - a project I've had going for many years since I was given a kit one Christmas. It's made steady but very slow progress and I'd like to have it hanging on the wall by the end of the year.

The Daily Motivator

http://greatday.com/ is a nice website, it has a daily motivational message without any added cheese.

Our new home

We've been living in Diss for 2 weeks now - not quite settled yet as we're still house sharing but that shouldn't be for much longer.

The second week of our honeymoon was spent exploring Diss town. It's so peaceful after living in the centre of Norwich and I love being truly away from work. Even the commute is nice - 20 minutes in which to read a book while travelling through pretty Norfolk countryside.

Yesterday we visited Fair Green which is an old field in Diss - the site of fairgrounds for over 800 years. It's written into the deeds of the land that a fair is allowed to be there at least twice a year. We've yet to step across the border to Suffolk but I hear it isn't far away...

I've been to Diss Christian Community Church (DC3) twice now, Ben joined me this week after working last week. We're both really looking forward to getting involved in this church - although the overall style of the church isn't what we'd normally look for the people are really friendly. Part of our relaxing part of our honeymoon was spent evaluating what we really need from a church so we could look more effectively. We're making a conscience effort to ignore any niggles! We decided that anything apart from fellowship can be easily met outside of church, so fellowship is what we're looking for and seem to have found very early on. So far we've enjoyed an evening with a couple involved in leadership/music and been invited to join the current Alpha group running until the house groups can accommodate us. Also this week we met someone there who works for Norfolk Constabulary in the department dealing with applications forPCSOs/police, which considering Ben's future career plans seems providential!

All in all I'm quickly forming a love for Diss and I'm looking forward to making this our home for the next few years.

In case anyone's missed it my new email is lauraejfoster at hotmail.co.uk

Last night of freedom

My 'last night of freedom' was an awesome night of salsa dancing and tapas, organised by the bestest bridesmaid ever. Lauren arranged the whole thing including fun masks to wear for the night!

One of the highlights was meeting up with Ben and the lads on his stag night, it was a little bit lonely going out without him!

Wedding pics