How is your country/ state treating Corona CoVID panic? In Dubai, UAE the public places are being regularly disinfected. The schools have been shut down for 4 weeks and many office goers been offered the choice to work from home. It has been weird seeing the car park full of cars during the day time.
But for me, it has been quite the normal week, as I work from home as a freelancer. I just stopped going to the gym and better sanitation and hygiene for me. And that’s about it.
Last week, I finally finished reading Poet X, The by Elizabeth Acevedo and I am currently reading From Twinkle, with love from Sandhya Menon. Not a bad week I suppose.
What I watched this week
As I was saying earlier, I have been binge-ing on The Office for a few days now. And I been rewatching the BBC’s Sherlock Homes, for no good reason at all. And I am loving them both, unsurprisingly.
On my blog
In case you missed these posts on my blog last week, here is a quick recap.
I have finally gotten to do a little blog hop during the week and here are a few that I thought were worth your attention.
If you have not heard enough from us being disappointed about book blogging as someone who lives outside the US and the UK, you should read this article from the Bibliothequeblog.
It has been a busy week here. And the weather is still pleasant and I am desperately trying to make the best of it. I am trying to catch up with the blogging and reading schedule. Well, it seems like I am saying that every so and often here. Sigh.
Let me be a little cliche and say “I have no idea how we are already one month into 2020. Where did January 2020 go?” Well, here is an update on how that happened.
We had guests over for more than a week, and that should explain my absence during the past week. Well, having guests gave us an opportunity to see the tourist-y places in Dubai once again.
Also, winter being the peak tourist season in general, Dubai usually has lots of sale and discounts during those months, and a lot of fireworks and celebrations as well. Being the fireworks enthusiast that I am, I watched them so many times from different places in Dubai. AND I loved them.
Last but not the least, I got featured in a leading National daily here and I naturally spoke about books and authors. In case you missed that piece of news, here is it. Let me know what you think!
What I read this month:
January 2020 was an average reading month for me. I read four books despite the number of distractions I had during the month.
One Day in December by Josie Silver
Tattooist of Auschwitz, The by Heather Morris
Travelling Cat Chronicles, The by Hiro Arikawa, Philip Gabriel (Translator)
How to Build a Heart by Maria Padian
What I watched this month:
Thanks to the other distractions I spent way less time watching TV and movies than I would have otherwise.
I watched the Toy Story 4 last month and that is it. I loved it!But watch out for this space, because I will be back soon.
On my blog
I made a comeback this month in terms of blogging after a long time. So here are the posts from last month, in case you missed it.
I can’t believe it is already another Sunday. The week had been fairly productive and I am back to some sorta routine finally.
Yesterday we did a self guided tour around Dubai. I loved visiting some of the tiny little flea markets that I never knew existed before. Also I got to try Japanese Mochi ice cream. On the whole, a great day out!
Dubai is finally settling at its winter and I am enjoying the rare 15 degree Celsius (60 F) weather. Of course it means I get to use my jackets and scarves and I am loving it. We had some rain as well, thanks to the cloud seeding efforts.
One more month of this and then the heat would start to increase not so slowly. Okay, let me not start dreading it already.
What I read this week
I finished reading the Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris which had been on my TBR list for far too long than I would like to admit. But I finally picked it up because a couple of my friends wanted to read it as well.
We will be having a discussion by the end of the month and hopefully you will get to read my review here soon.
I am reading currently the Travelling cat chronicles by Hiro Arikawa that is set in Japan and I am loving it. More about it once I finish reading it.
On my blog
A recap of the posts from the last week for you, in case you missed it.
One week into the New year and I am still pumped up with motivation and buzz. I have been making goal tracking spreadsheets not just for me but for friends as well.
In case you missed the memo, I am a total spreadsheets addict who tracks everything from blog traffic to daily to do lists. Hit me up if you have any spreadsheet queries.
On other news, my interview got featured in the UAE national daily Khaleej Times this Friday. Of course I spoke about books, in case you had the slightest of doubts about it.
What I read this week
I finished reading One day in December this week. I read for the 2020 A to Z reading challenge and ticking off the January mini challenge hosted by Ginger Mom and Company.
What I watched this week
I watched Toy Story 4 (finally) and I loved it, as expected.
I have not watched TV or Netflix in a while, so that may be a good thing I guess.
On my blog
In case you had missed, here is a quick recap of what I posted on my blog this week.
I finally got around to blog hop a bit and found these brilliant articles from these brilliant bloggers.
Xandra’s post on Starry Sky Books about her love/hate relationship with blogging resonated well with me. I went through almost a similar journey around last two years.B
Happy Sunday y’all! It has been a while since I had a Sunday update post but look at me, taking extra effort because the whole new year and new me jazz! So let’s get to the update part of the year 2019, shall we?
Since the last update post, I had to visit my hometown for a funeral of a close family member which was sudden and shocking. Their immediate family is still recovering and getting back on their feet.
But the whole thing put off from doing anything productive or being social for a while. Hence the disappearance for the past few weeks.
What did 2019 bring me?
In many ways 2019 was unexpected and kept throwing rocks at me. I survived but I am glad it is a whole new year.
I traveled across the borders quite a lot! I visited Macau, Oman, Malaysia and of course India all in a single year.
I read 53 books on 45 for my Goodreads Reading Challenge. Even completed the 2019 A To Z Reading challenge successfully. So I guess that’s one thing that I can tick off without regret – I read more and I read what I planned for.
On my blog
On the blog front, I did spectacularly well for about the first six months.
So how would you describe your 2019? And has it taught you something to take forward for 2020? Well me? I learnt nothing from the big bang of 2019, as per my usual. I am still gonna do my go big or go home style! Let’s talk.
