So my annual leave is slowly drawing to an end. I have one more day left! It’s been nice. There has been very little activity save for baking and blogging. I’ve enjoyed having time to read, catch up with friends and family and just slow down. I recall having a conversation with a colleague about the need and importance of experiencing an internal stillness and peace. I am slowly getting there, but it has taken two weeks away from the hustle and bustle of work to achieve this. I know there is some part of me that is looking forward to getting back to it but I also am aware of the impact it will have on my physical and mental health. I am learning to find ways to mitigate this, so that I can be an employee that is fit for purpose and achieve the work-life balance that I am constantly striving for.

Today is World Book Day. I have never really taken much notice of this in the past, it always seems to be a day dominated by stressed out parents sharing on social media their worries/pride about what they are going send their children into school as! However, I remembered, I too can participate – by telling you about own world. My current read is ‘Legends and Lattes’. It is a book by Travis Baldree, given to me as Christmas gift from Ignacio. I am quite enjoying it. It comes under the genre of cozy fantasy which I think I am going to be a big fan of! I have even set up my reading enviroment to be as cozy as possible at times!

If you want to know how an orc sets up a coffee shop, in a world where coffee is a relative unknown entity, this is just the book for you. I’m loving it. The coffee is described as bean water by one of the characters, which I just found hilarious, hence the partial title of this post (sweet bread is of course my name for brioche). This book has the added bonus for me that there seems to be lots of baking in it! So in between reading, I have been watching videos on how to make cinnamon rolls and cardamon buns. I am also contemplating making some biscotti again. I think Ignacio knows me very well!

I do need to make reading a more natural feature in my life. It’s all about making time and space – being intentional. I have tried…

I’m not so good yet. I will often find and excuse to do something else. I must admit that I need to do better. I have joined a bookclub, thank you https://www.instagram.com/thebookalert, which has significantly increased the amount of books that I have accessed and am reading in the past year. I love our online bookclub discussions and it is wonderful to meet so many like-minded woman with a passion for reading and books. They are, I must admit on another level, another planet even, when it comes to books! I follow many of my bookclub compatriots on Instagram and I can’t keep up with the voracity with which they consume books. It is inspiring though. My Kindle, rather than my bookshelf, is now ‘bulging’ with downloaded books based on their reocommendations and discussions. I do need to get reading!

I would often tell myself that I could only read when I was calm and regulated and that for me is a rarity, with the way that I chose to exist at present. However, I find more often than not, when I make a choice to put other things aside and pick up a book, I do become calm and regulated. I enter into the world created by the author and lose myself in somebody else’s imagination. It’s wonderful. I am transported from my own internal chaos to something that is quite the opposite. It is good.

So what is my plan? When I tempted to binge watch something mindless on Netflix, I ought to read instead. When I am tempted to doom scroll on social media, I should put down my phone and pick my Kindle and read. If I get to be a passenger in a train or a car, instead checking my work emails, I should read. It can only be a good thing!

Let’s see how I get on for the rest of the year, I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, share with me what you are currently reading, how you make time for reading and your cozy reading habits – I’d love to know!