It's February already so it's time for the January round up

So here we are with the first month of the new year already out of the way, which both, somehow, whizzed by so quickly that I don't know where it went and yet also, as January always does when it's grey and miserable, dragged on for about 800 days.

I've been working hard all month, not only on my full-time job but also on sorting out the end-of-year music lists (which is also a full-time job in itself). I'm pleased with the progress - no, it's not completely finished, but it's getting there. You can check the list of links to the various playlists in this post, which I'm updating as I finish each section, and once I finally complete it, I'll post a link to the spreadsheet that lists the contents for each of them.

I also managed to get through the January playlist (all 818 songs) and am even on the way to sorting my first Top 3s for the year, although it's already tough. 

There is a new playlist for February, which is embedded here ➡️ and also listed in the playlist links on the right - expect lots more Japanese music this year as I've found loads of great bands and they will start filtering through, as they have into my recent listening stats. I have also started a new Receiptify playlist to capture what they think is my top 10 most listened-to songs every month.

Last.FM is providing me with many pretty charts, both weekly and monthly, which makes me very happy. Here's my listening for January in pictures:

Yes, I really listened to 4,230 songs last month 🎧
(that's an average of 136 a day)

This gives an idea of what I was listening to
(I may be slightly obsessed with Lee Junho from 2PM atm)

You can already see the Japanese music beginning to filter through

I'm also trying to keep better records this year to make the 2024 end-of-year lists easier and quicker to compile. If I can keep them up-to-date I won't have to trawl through months of songs trying to find my favourite B-sides, or track down missing EPs, etc. So far so good, but we'll see how it goes as the year goes on and the number of releases increases, especially if I'm short on time.

On a personal note, my project to leave the house more often has got off to an excellent start, with me going outside 6 times last month (which I think is about a quarter of the amount I went out overall last year). I even managed to get my car washed (which it really needed, but then it got caught in the storm straight afterwards so it needs doing again 🙄 - this is why I don't bother doing it too often). To be fair, it's still looking much better than it did - the dirt was so caked on where it's been sitting around over winter that someone who kindly tried to leave me a message in the dirt telling me to wash it was unable to do so 😂. I also had someone leave me a note saying they would buy it, as they obviously assumed it was an old non-starter. I promise to try to do better with cleaning this year too.

This month we have a few concerts to attend, so I will at least get 3 or 4 trips out - and I'll be going into work too (on the days of the concerts) - gotta show willing, I guess.

January also saw me celebrate my birthday (Merlin's beard, I'm getting old 😭) with a lovely meal with Quincy at Browns at Bluewater (it was scrummy), and I saw 3 concerts (all online) - the re-stream of TVXQ!, the aforementioned Lee Junho and Key (from SHINee) - rewatches will be happening for both shortly. 

I also, somehow, found time to listen to 4 excellent audiobooks:

• (Dying Squad #1) The Dying Squad by Adam Simcox
• (Washington Poe #1) The Puppet Show by MW Craven
• (Stranger Times #4) Relight My Fire by CK McDonnell 
• (The Chronicles of St, Mary's #11) Plan for the Worst by Jodi Taylor

As if that wasn't enough, I also watched/finished several dramas:

Provoke - this was a short and fairly predictable although nonetheless quite enjoyable revenge drama from China.

Ore no Kawaii wa Mousugu Shohikigen!? (My Cuteness is about to Expire!?) and Ousama ni Sasagu Kusuriyubi (Kissing the Ring Finger) - 2 fairly tame Japanese romantic comedies - cute and sweet rather than sexy but a bit creepy.

The Bequeathed - a short, tense K-drama about a woman inheriting a family burial plot, that was neither as gripping nor weird as I had expected from what I'd read about it.

I also finally finished My Demon, which I really enjoyed, mainly because the leads were both so beautiful and My Man is Cupid, which I ended up wondering why I had bothered to stick with it; there really was little redemption for it.

I also started 2 new K-dramas: 

LTNS (Long Time No Sex) is a short drama (6 episodes) about a mid-marriage crisis couple finding a new hobby in blackmailing people over their sex lives. The premise was better than the execution and I lost interest about halfway through the second episode so I'm not sure I'll bother going back to it. 

Knight Flower - a period drama about a widow who spends her days mourning her husband as a good wife should, and her nights acting as a saviour to the people, who gets involved with an attractive senior law officer. I really have to be in the mood for period dramas and this one didn't really pull me in enough to have me rushing back when new episodes dropped. I might pick it up again once it's complete but I'm not in a hurry to find out what happened so it might end up with all the other dramas from the last year or so that I couldn't quite get around to finishing - I really should take a look at the list and see if there are any I fancy picking up again.

There are a couple of interesting-sounding new K-dramas that are just starting, which I'm hoping to pick up in the next week or so, and also a couple of Chinese xianxia idol dramas, which will feed my need for 'pretty to look at but not need to think about too hard'.

Onwards into February . . . .