My Month in Numbers 2015: November

Hello. Tell me, how did November treat you?

I think here in the UK we're at the point where we can no longer kid ourselves that it's still 'mild for this time of year'. If you look down the street you might just be able to see the back of 'Mild's head as it sprints off into the distance ...

Because it's now officially 'Cold':

James and I huddling together for both a selfie and warmth along the promenade at Saltburn this month.

So let's dive in [not in to that flat, grey, and icy North Sea behind us ... that wouldn't be advisable!] but into how the last, increasingly chilly, 4 weeks totted-up. Here's my month ... in numbers ...

[As always ... you're welcome to join me, check out the full details here].

I had 3-4 inches lopped off my hair: 
It's pretty similar to how I had it in the summer which grew out but, perhaps counter-intuitively, it's is the ideal length for me to have at this time of year. One of the most annoying aspects of having long hair in winter is the way it constantly gets trapped inside coat collars and scarves and chopping it all off solves that problem in one sitting!

That said, I do like to keep it feeling long-ish or - as I told my stylist  - "I want it shorter, but I still want it to feel like I have hair". She called me a chicken. And from out of that debate ... came this:

You can tell I was happy with it. I took a selfie!

While this particular selfie wasn't taken with my phone ... it easily could've been because ...

I've now had a smartphone [and have therefore officially graduated to the 21st century] for 26 days! 
I've been saying for years, that I needed one and had been actively trying to choose one for months ... to no avail. In the end, like so much in life, fate stepped in and had my provider phone me on spec to see if they could offer me a better deal on my ancient, dying, phone. I ended up mentioning I was looking for a smart phone, he offered me one, I asked lots of newbie questions ... then said 'Yeah, I'll go for it'.

And so I'm now a signed-up-connected-on-the-go member of the 21st century ... which naturally means ... I'm now on Instagram! 

I've posted 13 photos to my 'withjuliekirk' Instagram account:

While of course, of course, you're more than welcome to follow me ... anyone who loves Instagram for it's perfectly styled interiors, or exotic locations, or fabulous outfits will come away utterly underwhelmed! 

So far I've shared photos of the Radio Times, a broken bottle of holy water, the area where students go to sleep in the library at work ... and a chorizo. 

Don't say you weren't warned!

Actually this next photo is something I would've Instagrammed if I hadn't been too busy shopping ...

Somebody was missing her 7 Dwarfs ...
So, there we are, me and 2 friends, browsing the always delightfully whimsical Gray Finch in Ripon [North Yorkshire, UK] when we looked down and spotted this:

Crikey Snow ... talk about making it hard for a guy. How's your Prince charming meant to wake you with a kiss when you've nodded off inside a shop display case?

If you're ever in the area do make sure to drop in, there's always something to grab the eye in there.

I bought this repro-vintage doll's head [left]making her 'Head No.5' of my head collection: 

Turns out that it's only after you say 'She'll go with my head collection' out loud, in a shop, that you realise you might need to explain to your friends just what you mean. Which reminds me ...

Janet ... that's my head collection!

And, before we leave Ripon ... despite this having nothing to do with numbers ... this notice, on a shop door, wins my prize for 'comforting sign of the month':

I managed to scatter 3 items of clothing to the four winds this month.
First there was a 2 day period where I literally could not hold on to my hat; first I left one behind in my Dad's car and, when he phoned to let me know me I confidently said he didn't need to bring it round for me as "I've got another one".

The very next day I left that 'other' one in the library at work and had to sprint back for it when I couldn't find it.

And then there was the time I dropped something smaller, something less seldom seen in public than any of my hats ... here's how I shared it on Facebook:

16 November 2015.
Earlier today, in a changing room: I take my jeans off, look down at the floor and see a pair of pants laying there. Think: 'Oh my goodness I've whipped my knickers off along with my jeans!'. Clutch bottom to check - am still wearing pants. I look at the pants ... they're mine ... the ones I wore yesterday. Which is when I realise they've evidently been inside my jeans all morning ... *picks up pants and stuffs them inside bag, is relieved no one saw any of that.* Thank god communal changing rooms are a thing of the past.

And in another November tale told on social media ... I tweeted the following [which does at least have one number in it!]

24.November 2015:

Picked up tape measure, unrolled it, + suddenly each hand had a tape measure in it! Thought I'd done a magic trick ‪#‎idpickedup2tapemeasures‬

I read 4.5 books.[You can find links to them all here on my Pinterest board]

• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
• The Mistletoe Bride by Kate Mosse 
• Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James
• How Much Land Does a Man Need by Leo Tolstoy
• and, so far, half of  Eternity's Sunrise: A Way of Keeping a Diary by Marion Milner.

By the way ... I read read the Tolstoy as part of the Lucky Dip Book Club which I told you about back in October.  And - if you were interested - yes, it is still going ... and yes, they do still want people to join in remotely ... it;s just ... things are taking a little longer than they planned to get a blog or Facebook page set up. [It's tricky for us bloggers who  please ourselves and answer to no one to remember how other official organisations have processes and protocols to follow]. I'll share some of the work I've made - in creative response to the books so far - at some point, as well as a list of the books we've been randomly picking out of the hat ... but I'm afraid I can't do the official bit!

While we're talking about random surprises ...

November brought me 2 happy mail parcels: 
Sandie was very kind to share with me a selection of her papery treasure including these French ledger pages:

And Kimberley  totally spoiled me by sending me one of the Golden Girls greeting cards she'd bought .... just because I'd said I loved them when I saw them on her blog! 

I was a lucky girl in November. 'Thank you for being a friend' ladies!!

And, finally, while we're talking about friends ...

I went on my 13th 'crafting-in-the-country get-away with 8 friends. 
This was the view outside:

The view inside was mainly of paper and food and people struggling with the heat in the converted barn as its 12" thick walls do tend to hold in the heat!  Other weekend statistics include:

• the 6 cars that were driven there, including 1 that - due to a mechanical problem - had to be hired at the last minute or else our crafting gear and, worse still, our food, would've had to stay behind at home! [We could have squeezed 5 people in one car ... but not with all our 'stuff'! along for the ride]
• The 5 areas of the UK we all set off from to converge in the dales! 
• The 3 of us who stopped off in Ripon on the way [where 1 of us bought a head ...]. 
• The 5 bedrooms we shared.
• And the zero phone reception or internet signal I could receive while I was there. My poor new phone was all dressed up with nowhere to go! 

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Well, that was my November. How about yours? 

Feel free to share:

• as much as a blog post 
• OR as little as a tweet @notesonpaper
• a photo on Instagram @withjuliekirk 
• or a comment below if there's anything statistically story-like you want to share.

Same goes for December ... you're welcome to use any of those methods to get your numbery tales out there! [Use the hashtag #MonthinNumbers and let me know!]

So, like the last few hours of November, I'm going to quietly step to the side and allow December to twirl its way into our lives wrapped in twinkling lights, handing us a hot cuppa and a car window scraper as it enters whispering "Here, you're going to need this" and leaving a paper trail of lists in its wake. 

In the blur and flurry of the season make sure to grab some of its magic as it passes you by. 

Julie x

My Month in Numbers 2015: September

Hello hello.

So, it's then end of another month. And it very nearly wasn't.

Well, of course, today was always going to be the end of another month, but I just only remembered the other day that I hadn't yet written this post.

[You see? All you people who tell me you'd join in but you always forget to count something during your month? Let my laxness be a comfort to you. I rarely count anything throughout the month ... I just find the numbers somewhere in the stories I want to tell.]

If you're new here - maybe you found me through my #300in30Days blog commenting project - yoo hoo! Hi, hello, how's it hanging? [Don't answer that.] If you'd like more info on the whole My Month in Numbers thingy check here - you're welcome to join in now, then, any time. Never.

So let's get started ... I'll lead by example ...

3.15am = the time I got out of bed to view the lunar eclipse on 28.09.15
Personally I couldn't find the moon. Don't judge me.

But, to be fair, I had woken up, without the aid of an alarm clock, relying solely on my desire to see the eclipse to wake me up in time. So, really ... I'd done my part.

James got up and tracked it down by leaning out of the workroom window from where he took this:

We didn't do anything as drastic as actually go outside to view it ... although I kind of wish we had. Never mind there's another one view-able from England in 2019. Not long to wait.

 I'll set my inner alarm clock now.

And, speaking of ingenious inner workings ... ahem ...

I met a 4 rotor Enigma machine this month:
James and I went to see a 2+hour talk called 'Codebreakers: The Story of Enigma' delivered by Dr Mark Baldwin at our local theatre - there's more info on the event, which tours the country, here.

Now then ... before you leap to Cumberbatch-conclusions, I haven't even seen the Imitation Game even though, as it turns out, the machine he brought with him did actually feature in the film! So now, when I do get around to watching it, I'll just forget about ogling Benedict Cumberbatch or Matthew Goode and simply apply myself to looking out for this machine ... I'm quite sure ...

We went because James is interested in war-related' stuff' and I like puzzles plus, we live somewhere that isn't exactly deluged by interesting events and so ... when you see one ... you go! 

When we arrived in the car park I did predict that I'd be the only ovulating female there. [Not that I ovulated while I was there. It wasn't that exciting.]

But, in a sea of men, the majority silver-haired, with a lesser number of ladies-of-a-certain-age in attendance, I did spot 2 other pre-menopausal females there. Which was disappointing. I wanted to feel special.

That aside, it was an interesting night out, if a little bamboozling at times. The next day, a weary James blamed his tiredness on 'all that learning we did last night'. So yes, it was quite full on, but, Dr.Baldwin had promised that we'd leave there that night knowing how an Enigma machine worked! And while his conclusions about our ability to to comprehend it may have been overly generous ... we definitely came away understanding more than we did on arrival.

And while we're talking about things that are hard to work out ...

I set myself a blog-commenting challenge to leave 300 in 30 days:

This was something I decided to do on a whim one day in the middle of the month, while I was mulling over ideas for how I could maintain and broaden my blogging network. And, as things tend to go with me, the idea's already spiralled into a full blown 'project'.

• I'm tracking each blog I comment on using a spreadsheet.
• I'm pinning every blog and recommendation to a Pinterest board.
• I'm tracking how many new vs existing blogs I comment on.
• I'm keeping a log of all the ideas thrown up by all my blog-visiting.
• I'm learning what I like to find in a blog post [which will feed back into my own].
• I'm learning what lots of quiet bloggers think of my blog [because they're speaking up to let me know!].

So, as you might imagine I'm gathering *lots* of statistics .. but I'll save them for after the experiment when I'm sure I'll have several reflective, and hopefully useful, posts to share.

And ... speaking of experiments ...

3 books = the titles picked out of a hat at the 1st meeting of the Lucky Dip Book Club. 

I'm planning to tell you more about this book club sometime soon - in a post of its own - so I won't say too much here. The salient points, some of which made their impact on this month's numbers, are:

• This was the 1st meeting.
• The gallery, where it's hosted, was closed for the night and there was no one there when I peered in through the windows! I knew I didn't have the wrong time, so I just sat in my car and watched to see if anyone else turned up! Eventually someone did and the organiser came to the back door to let them in, I got out of my car and asked if I was in the right place. I was. 
• It's brand new and not, yet, well publicised, and so there were only 5 people there. 
• Of those 5 people 4 of the attendees worked at the gallery. Then there was 1 of me. [Sitting around the table it felt a little like I was facing a panel at a job interview!]
• 3 book titles were picked out of the hat and we now have 1 month to read/take inspiration from the book/s and make something creative in response. [Anyone who remembers when Kirsty Neale and I hosted The Copy & Paste Project will know why I liked the sound of this club!]

As you'll imagine, this little escapade made it into my entry for the day in my 'Learn Something New Everyday' journal [a life-documenting project hosted by shimelle.com]. It's the 5th year I've taken part and, while I almost didn't take it up again, I decided I'd miss those 30 insights I've jotted down each September in previous years.

 More on what I've learned about the book club [along with details on how you can join in too] soon  ... but for now let's continue the book theme elsewhere ...

4 = the number of unrelated books eBay believed complemented a recent purchase ...
The novel I bought - The Crossing by one of my favourite authors Andrew Miller is a story in two halves, focusing on the life of a couple up until a key turning point in their life ... then the remainder of the book is drift across an ocean and a mystery on the other side.  

It's a meditation on feelings, disconnection, freedom, life, loss, abandonment, discovery and sailing.

And nowhere in it ... nowhere at all ... and nothing about it ... nothing ... would lead me to think that a title that would 'go well' with it ...

... would be The Complete Guide to Sausage Making:

There was obviously a subtext in there somewhere that I simply didn't notice! If you've read it, or when you do, let me know about any hidden sausage parts I missed will you?

And, finally ... how about we round the month off with tea and cake? No better way ...

1882 = the cafe in Northallerton where I had lunch with my sister and parents. 
That's us, there, in the reflection in the tea pot 'Hi!!!':

It's nice when everyone's schedule means they're free for a trip out all together. Like when we were 7 and 9. 

We ate fish cakes. My sister was strangely offended that they were ball shaped and not cake-y and therefore not fish-cakes.  

The '3 meats' that set us off down a Shakespearean rabbit hole ... 

We passed a pub menu advertising a '3 meat carvery' and my sister pointed out how off-puttingly vague that was ... like which 3? Did you have to guess? Could you guess? Were they distinguishable?

Then suddenly the witches from Macbeth sprung to my mind ... "when shall we three meet/meats again?"...

... and, after we'd finished giggling we spent the rest of the afternoon thinking up dishes to add to the menu of the Shakespearean themed cafe we were going to set up!!

Anyone for the Hamlette [ham omelette?], Curryolanus and rice? To be or not two bean wrap? The Taming of the Stew? The Prince Hal[loumi] salad? Troilus Egg and Cressida sandwiches?

Anyone?

OK, OK ... enough of the puns ... I promised you cake ... here's some from another well established company ...

Betty's, est. 1919
It's a prerequisite when I'm anywhere that has a Betty's tearoom that I must go in and buy something from the bakery to take-away. This time I bought James a 'Fat Rascal' [a type of scone that is always entertaining to ask for over the counter] and what I got for myself came in this beautiful little box wrapped in a bow ...

Never has a lone, humble [but delicious] egg custard felt so special!

But not as special as the waitress felt, who brought us tea and coffee in yet another cafe we visited in Northallerton ...

As the waitress was leaning over our table delivering our drinks Mam, entirely innocently, expressed her admiration for the handmade containers in which the milk and hot water were presented by turning to her and saying: "Ooh, aren't they lovely jugs?"

And again. There was giggling.

Lots of it.

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So that was my month ... meeting new people and an old machine; no sausage meat but an inspiring Macbeth carvery; lots of books and even more blog-commenting and one rather special egg custard and red moon!

What about yours? Every month you're always more than welcome to:

• read, enjoy and go about your day! 
• read, enjoy and drop me a line or two in the comments about your month, or mine.
• read, enjoy and join in on your own blog [again you can find the info on My Month in Numbers here.]
• OR ....
• read, enjoy and drop me a line or two about your month, or mine on my Facebook page [where I know commenting is much easier] or via Twitter. 

See you later September ... you've done a valiant job of keeping it bay so far but ... I've had to wear gloves twice now on my morning walk ... so I think we're both going to have to stop kidding ourselves and give in to Autumn gracefully.

Hello October, you can come out of hiding now ... the gloves are on ... I'm ready for you ...

Julie x