Another damp, dull and dreary month. Basically it was just a slightly shorter version of January. Its enough to drive you to drink, and in my case it actually did because I opened up a bottle of wine and drank the lot, though it did take me four days to get through it all because I am not much of a drinker. Its just that I had cooked up some sort of pasta dish (I think) and decided to open the bottle of Pinot Noir that has been standing on the side since last summer and thought I would have a glass with my dinner.

To be honest, I didn’t enjoy it at first, but by the time I was on the last quarter of the glass it started tasting OK. When I had a second glass the next night it went down a bit better, and on the third day it was OK. There is another bottle of red that came with a Christmas hamper so maybe I will try that in March.

I managed to keep up my eight-month winning streak on the Premium Bonds, but only by a whisker. I won a measly £25 but it is better than nothing and at least kept the streak going, which is more than I can say for my Wordle streak. I got to 192 days and forgot to do it one day so I’m now back at square one.

During the month I avoided driving the car. In fact I think I avoided even being a passenger in the car. I did get on the bike a bit, despite the weather, but not for any great distance; just up to East Surrey hospital and back for an appointment, to East Grinstead and back for a record fair, and Horley and back just to keep the battery charged up.

I did go a bit OTT at the record fair, coming home with a dozen records, all of which I enjoyed listening to.

In between that I continued to read the wrong books. My intention this year was to re-read some of my old favourite paper-based books but instead I read another 10 new e-books from the backlog I have on the Kindle.

I didn’t watch much TV again, the main thing being the show Mr & Mrs Smith on Amazon, which was entertaining enough – which I would expect from something with Donald Glover in it. Otherwise it was a couple of returning shows that I started watching; Death in Paradise and The Daily Show.

I appreciate that The Daily Show didn’t actually go away, its just that I stopped watching it when Trevor Noah left. By the time he left the show I was already getting a bit bored of it and kept being tempted to stop watching and the change was just the excuse to finally do that. What drew me back in was the return of Jon Stewart and I have to say that I’m really enjoying it so far. The segment he did about his dog dying was a bit hard to sit through though, because we are about to go through that ourselves with Noche.

I only watched one film on TV during February. It was a 2024 film called Lift. Another ridiculous premise, but OK if you don’t think about it too much. I find it hard to resist a heist movie.

Otherwise, nothing much of note. I’m hoping the year will start to pick up now. I think that during March I should book myself a little holiday in May but I’m struggling to decide where to go. At the moment it is a bit of a toss-up between Madrid and Cologne. Madrid would be so I can visit the Prado and the Escorial Palace. Cologne would be to see the cathedral and maybe pay a visit to Dusseldorf and that place with the hanging trains. Or maybe I should go back to Istanbul?