It’s the first Sunday of February 2023. The weather is still cold, and it’s windy tonight. I just finished clearing my kitchen after a light dinner of salad. I told myself I should have heavy lunches and light dinners, thus, the salad. It was only simple: fresh lettuce, red onion, cherry tomatoes, freshly-squeezed lemon drizzled with olive oil, some pepper, and grana padano cheese. It was supposed to be parmesan, but I took the wrong packet in the grocery, hehe 🙂 The vegetables were all bought from the vegetables and fruits stand at the corner of my street.

We’re almost done in June. Last week, I celebrated my birthday with a few friends. Another year in France, and it wasn’t over yet. Last year, I was looking forward to spend my birthday with my family but of course, we know what 2020 meant to everyone.

I’m currently enjoying my monthly mental break, the time where I spent the day doing nothing and absolutely everything that I can think of, except work. It has been five months since I decided to start doing it. I have lots of vacation leaves that were not used since I did not have the chance to go home and visit my family during this pandemic period. And since I work-from-home full time, I need this kind of break to enjoy myself in different kinds of self-care. That also includes limiting myself from going online. Usually, I am found curled up in my sofa reading a book or coloring or sketching, or in the kitchen trying out a new recipe, or walking outside. It’s therapeutic.

I need to finish some presentation slides for this week’s session that I will be conducting in the office. But right now, all I want is to just lie down and relax. Today started with the sun greeting everyone with a smile, but after lunch, it started to get gloomy. I went to the local market this morning to buy some new flowers for my apartment, a small bottle of essential oil for my diffuser, some fruits and vegetables for this week, and cinnamon rolls in the bakery. Yummmmmm!

Gosh, it’s been a long time since I last made a blog here. Work kept me busy, and on weekends, I would rather be offline and reading books or watching movies or series on Netflix or Amazon. By the way, this is the second or third (?) weekend since the full lockdown (again) was announced. Honestly, I lost track of the dates. All I know was that it had been a year since I’ve gone full-on working from home, and we’re on lockdown here in the south of France with fewer restrictions compared to the previous lockdowns we’ve had. But let’s not talk about this for now, because it’s getting wearisome not knowing when this will end.

For the past weeks, there were books finished and movies watched. Have you seen Coming to America 2 on Amazon Prime? I’m easy to please, and I find it hilarious despite some expressing their discontent. I like it, and it made me laugh, especially in those key moments like the introduction of General Izzi (Wesley Snipes’ character) and Morgan Freeman. C’mon! Last week, I also saw the Zack Snyder cut of the Justice League, which I found amazing and much better than the theatrical version. Everything made sense in the movie!