I love it when the month starts on a Monday. It’s even better when it’s also a new year! We met friends for a walk at the coast then spent the rest of the day sorting ourselves out for the week ahead and clinging on to the last hours of the holiday.

I went back to work on Tuesday. It took a while to warm up to it but was I back in the swing of things by lunchtime. This week I’ve been preparing a couple of discovery workshops for a new website merger project and reviewed the content and UI of a multi-stage form for an energy company. For my three days in the office I did one bus, one bike and one running commute.

My first freelance day of the year was cut short with a nasty headache.

I’m taking part in a distance challenge through work and it’s brining out my competitive nature. The goal is to see who can reach the highest combined distance for walking and running over the course of January. There are 14 of us taking part and collectively we’ve covered 384.6km in the first week. My contribution is 30.7km. My activities have included a hike in the North York Moors and a running commute.

Having a friend visiting meant I went for my first trip to my local during dry January. The guys had me covered though with a tasty alcohol free pale ale on tap.

I enjoyed my first book of the year, Emily St John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility which I read during every quiet minute I could snatch this week.

Sea of Tranquility book on a bedcover next to a tub of Treeslets.

We finally finished the fourth and final season of Sex Education. I enjoyed the closure of storylines involving the characters we know and love, but felt the new school and scenes in the US were forced. We also got up to date with University Challenge.

I wrote this while multitasking, watching the FA Cup match between Arsenal and Liverpool, and preparing our meal plan for the week ahead.