Happy Friday! #ThePositivityWave #4

Hi and welcome to the Positivity Wave #4! Once again I’m joining Meggy on her journey to appreciate the little things in life, be sure to check out Meggy’s list for this week on Chocolate’n’Waffles.

Two weeks ago, I had a week from hell, and I really tried to focus on the positive things, and I succeeded better than I’d thought, but truth be told, I just couldn’t be bothered to sum them up and make a blog post out of them. Last week was a little better, but I was still recuperating, and I had so many reviews to write, so I still couldn’t be bothered, but today, I’m back, baby 😄 Also, I really need to look at the positives today, because I took a tumble yesterday, trying to save my cat from the hell cat that terrorises all the neighbourhood cats, and I’m bruised and battered and I’ve left about a quarter of my skin on the tarmac in front of my house and I’m feeling very sorry for myself indeed! On the bright side: I don’t have to go to work today so I can lick my wounds in peace. And, although my hand is swollen, I can still type, so I will be able to do all the catching up with blogging I was planning to do today, so yay for that!

These are this week’s silver linings, and the little things that made me happy in the previous weeks:

💛 All the painting works are finished! Finally no more workmen in my house! There’s still the odd job to be done in and around the house but all the big stuff has been done now, and I couldn’t be happier!

💛 Contributing to the Indie Crime Crawl by posting some reviews I was rather pleased with, sharing others’ reviews (not as much as I’d have liked to on account of the week from hell), getting so much appreciation from an author who was previously unknown to me and making Karen Sullivan from Orenda Books cry. I also went shopping on the Red Dog Press website and on the Orenda Books one, nothing beats some retail therapy.

💛 Ending the week from hell on a high note with glorious bookpost from Red Dog Press. I bought Who’s That Girl during the Indie Crime Crawl and Red Dog added it to my Careless Whisper proof copy.

💛 Having a long weekend and spending a day with the in-laws, including the nieces and nephew. We went biking, had a picnic, walked through a maze (I swear to God, if I had been in that thing alone, I’d still be there, I have zero orientation skills), had a cappuccino and ended the day with a barbecue. It was just what the doctor prescribed and it did me a world of good.

💛 Getting some of the answers to my Orentober Q&A questions way sooner than expected and being mighty pleased with them.

💛 Eating veggies (lettuce, yellow courgettes, round courgettes, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, spinach) from my own vegetable patch and giving some to my parents and a few colleagues because we have so much and one cannot eat courgettes every day. This is my first ever vegetable patch, I have no idea what I’m doing but I’m doing it with a lot of enthusiasm and it makes me so happy that my veggies are thriving 😍

💛 Bidding my chickens a good morning. Yes I literally chirp: “hello girls, good morning!” Well no, actually I say cheerily: “dag meisjes, goeiemorgen!” in Dutch, I don’t think they understand English… although Bien-Cuit is allegedly a Sussex chicken, so she might 🤷‍♀️

💛 A new season of La Casa de Papel (a.k.a Money Heist) on Netflix!

💛 Getting a (what felt like a) heartfelt thank-you from my boss for adding yet another urgent translation to my workload.

💛 Norrie from Reading under the Blankie catching up with my blog posts, commenting on them and telling me she loved my Bad Bastards review and she thinks I’m funny. That made me smile.

💛 Surviving the hottest day ever and actually enjoying the rain over the weekend, even though I’m not usually a rain person.

💛 The air-conditioning coming back on in the office. I cannot work when it’s 30°C in the office, that much is clear. We were treated to some ice cream though, that was pretty cool (yup, pun totally intended)

💛 Loving The Undoing of Arlo Knott so much that I decided to finally buy Heather Child’s first book (Everything About You) and finding the hardback on Book Depository at a 56% discount!! It was cheaper than the smallest sized paperback! I do love a good bargain 😁

💛 Receiving the Reader pin and the Careless Whisper mug I bought from Red Dog Press in the Indie Crime Crawl and taking the mug to work, so I can feel a little more bookish there when I have my coffee.

💛 Getting an offer from Audible to renew my subscription at a discount and buying The Hound of the Baskervilles for only £0.78 (I did say I love a good bargain!) Not sure I’m loving it, though.

💛 Helping out a colleague.

How was your week, what made you happy? Tell me below, let’s make some positive waves, because misery might like company, but positivity LOVES company 💛😘