This Week by Proxy: 29 June – 05 July

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Welcome to This Week by Proxy. Join me as I look back on the past week to see which books I’ve read, the reviews I’ve posted and the goals I’ve completed.

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| This Week by Proxy: 29 June – 05 July 2020 |

This week will be a little different to the ‘usual’ offering because, yes, I’m back! After two years away from book blogging – far too long a time if you ask me – I’ve decided to resurrect Books by Proxy and continue to share my love of books and reading with this amazing community.

It seems that time, as for many people, is my most precariously balanced commodity and life tends to run away from me before I even realise. During these uncertain times, where nobody has come away unaffected by Covid19, we are given just a little space to stop and think about what is really important to us and what really makes us happy – Reading and this blog have only ever made me happy.

Whilst unearthing Books by Proxy, it was an absolute joy to see so many familiar, friendly faces and avatars pop up on my screen, and to explore their wonderful, much-loved blogs once again. It was almost like I had never left – and I truly wish I had not left it so long.

So in the spirit of returning to my love of lists and weekly memes, the following post will be a short and sweet re-cap of where life has taken me over the past two years.

I hope you have all had a wonderful week and I cannot wait to catch up with everybody’s blogs!

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| 1. |

30

The big 3-0! In 2018 I reached that age where I should finally feel like an adult. Alas, the clouds didn’t part and wisdom certainly didn’t come beaming out of the heavens and mystically transform me into a ‘proper grown-up’. Consequently, I have revised that estimate to 40.

| 2. |

Study, Study, Study

Almost the entirety of 2019 was absorbed by copious amounts of coursework, revision and exams. Whilst working at my current job, I had been simultaneously undertaking my professional qualifications in Architecture. My evenings were spent working, my weekends were spent working and my holidays were spent, you guessed it, working. But it was all worthwhile because at the end of 2019 I…

| 3. |

Graduated from my Professional Degree in Architecture

Huzzah! After working as close to one as possible for the past five years, I can finally and legally call myself an Architect. With a capital A, of course. The graduation ceremony was a glorious, tipsy, glitzy affair at the RIBA headquarters in London and was my favourite graduation to date!

| 4. |

Bought my First Home

After two and half years living in our lovely apartment, my partner in crime and I bought our first home together, and it is a dream. A beautiful village in the countryside, a wonderful community spirit, pubs at the end of every road, and an historic house with a Victorian shop front – hello Charles Dickens! Just in time for a prolonged period of lockdown…

| 5. |

Reading and then More Reading

While in the past two years I haven’t read half as much as I had in previous years (I’m looking at you exams!), I’m finally getting back into the swing of things.  I bought a new Kindle, I’m giving myself the time and space to read and, although an inordinate number of my books remain at my mum and dad’s house, post-lockdown I fully intend to buy some much needed bookshelves.

And a library ladder… it can’t be a dream house without a library ladder…

Stay tuned for my post… My Top Ten Books of the Past Two Years| 6. |

Game, Game, Game

As some of you may know, one of my other passions is gaming and oh boy have I played a lot of games. Having just completed everything there is to do on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (and I mean everything), I am feeling some serious post-game blues and have resorted to filling my gaming time with rounds of Apex until I’m ready for my next big thing.

Stay tuned for my post… My Top Ten Games of the Past Two Years

| 7. |

Working From Home

Like so many others in lockdown I too have been working from home, and for me it has been a vast improvement in terms of a work-life balance. The lack of travel time, being able to see my other half in the morning (yes, he works very strange hours), and being out of the city centre have created a little hope in what is a protracted, stressful and worrying time.  

| 8. |

Making Things Grow

During lockdown, I have been working on making a little potted front and back garden, and I am genuinely surprised at how much joy it brings me – I guess I am turning into my mother after all!… Which is absolutely fine because Mamma Proxy has impeccable taste in literature.

| 9. |

Netflix and Chill

Nothing says lockdown like binge-watching an inordinate number of series until you wake up at four in the morning with the TV on standby as it’s starting to go light.

Stay tuned for my post… My Top Ten TV Series of the Past Two Years

| 10. |

Bunnies!

After moving into our home at the end of 2019, we rescued two bunnies that had been found, several months apart, wandering the streets of the north west. Sadly, I’m not sure they can make much of a contribution to my blog but they are very much loved all the same. Welcome to the Book-o-Blogosphere Bjorn and Torvi Ironside (Yes, from Vikings).

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What have you been reading this week? Have you accomplished any goals?

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