The Year of the Rat has ended and not a moment too soon. When it started, Covid-19 was a mere rumour shrouded in mist, and I was blithely ignoring the suggestion that the first reappearance of the Metal Rat since the year of my birth was unlikely to turn out well. (You can read last year’s post here.) A year older, a year wiser, a few million years more bewildered, we’re all heading now into the Year of the Ox. The Ox is bound to be good…

I’ve been meaning to write a post about stationery for a while now, but it’s all been disappointingly quiet on that front. Just using my Filofax, enjoying the diary pages from The Stamford Notebook Company, archiving journal pages at the month end, nothing thrilling to write a blog post about. My early intention to just use Graf von Faber Castell Cobalt ink for the writing and red ink (Diamine Wild Strawberry) as an accent colour lasted all of three weeks. Since the end of January I’ve been getting steadily more wild with my colour choices and this week it’s all looking a bit of a mess. I’ve learned that two colours is all I can cope when I’m looking at a page.

Yesterday was the first time this year that I’ve felt inclined to supplement my weekly spread, and that was inspired by my horoscope for the day. It suggested that I should set some goals and work on a vision board and generally take advantage of the good vibes provided by the Moon in my own star sign. Clearly this coincided with similar feelings inside me, because I wrote it out on a daily page from the Happiness Planner and I even acted on some of the suggestions. I put quite a bit of effort into working through the goal-setting sheets that were included with the Happiness Planner, but when I started looking for images for my vision board it all went off-piste. Sometimes I enjoy analysing the past, present and future and setting goals, other times I really don’t. It didn’t cause me any problems today, which just goes to prove that the stars must have been well-aligned. Do you like the elegant way I dealt with the fact that the inserts are from 2018? I made an effort on the daily page, but by the time I got to what I’m going to do this year, I just couldn’t be much bothered.

Next week I’m going back to the burgundy and honey colour theme I used earlier in February. I really liked that combination. Then when we head into March I’m going to choose another two colours that I feel happy with, something still quite muted, I think. I’m looking forward to pondering my choice from the ink colours I have.

Now, here’s something I don’t normally do: I’ve got a film suggestion. I recently watched “We’ll Take Manhattan” – a TV film from 2012 about David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton, centred on their 1962 photo shoot in New York for British Vogue which launched their careers. Karen Gillan portrays the Shrimp well and Aneurin Barnard makes a dishy and angsty Bailey. I thoroughly enjoyed the mix of 1960s anti-establishment posturing, fashion, and star-struck youth. If you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend giving it a go.