I’ve always loved the idea of documenting one’s life. In the past, I’ve tried to do a weekly vlog and even a weekly newsletter, but I find it really hard to keep up. Instead, I've decided to document each month, where a lot can happen, or, better put, a lot can be observed.
I’ve caught myself taking out my phone to capture moments I know will be drowned in a digital sea as the year goes by. Starting this month, I want to pay attention and document those fleeting moments when I take out my phone and capture something I will likely forget in the coming week or month.
I didn’t plan much for January because, ever since Miles has been in daycare and school, I've tended to catch back-to-school viruses, and I go down hard. After thirty-five years around the sun, I’ve come to learn that I don’t thrive on the winter months (very much the opposite, I’m still eating sweets even if Christmas is over and done) So this year, little clever me, planned smaller and simple tasks that could give me small wins: things that have been left for too long like mend some clothes, go to the dry cleaners, buy that shelf for the extra books and so on.
Despite 2025 being filled with wonderful trips and weddings, the second half of the year wasn’t easy for me. Two international month-long trips while being the primary carer of our child had left me feeling very tired, and it started to show toward the end of the year in the form of dissatisfaction and complaints. After the busyness of December, January felt like the time to go inward. I took a break from social media (Instagram is still happily unplugged) and I started listening to positive meditations before going to sleep.
A more realistic approach to resolutions is to plan for the big projects and goals from April onwards. In Japan, the blooming of cherry blossoms (sakura) in late March signifies the beginning of spring and brings a sense of renewal, an opportunity for people to set some new goals. That makes a lot of sense to me, to blossom as nature comes out of its long hibernation, us included. The first three months of the year are like the postpartum months of the new year, when we try to wrap our heads around the newness and its uncertainty ahead.
January Notes
We were still jet-lagged on the first days of the year. Miles has started to sing while building Legos, which is the cutest little thing I’ve seen. He loves to sing and dance. He has also managed to attach all his toys to each other with magnets, and as I write this, they are being pushed by the Shinkansen toy which also has a magnet.
My son started going to a new school, bringing a hint of nostalgia for his former school and friends, excitement for the new people and experiences and tiredness, lots of it, everything at equal parts.
On a different day, I saw this magical sunset on my walk across the countryside. As usual, I had only my phone to document it, which is alright. I sometimes torture myself for not carrying my camera at all times, but I find iphone photography, with its limitations, quite fun too. All pictures on this newsletter were taken with my iphone and are unedited.
In an effort to move closer to my son’s school and to the city's culture in general, we visited two apartments, and fell in love with one. (ugh, one shall never fall in love with someone else’s apartment).
I started working part-time from home again.
We took a weekend trip to Rome in the middle of the month. Our first trip by ourselves since we became parents. (We’ve had twenty-four-hour dates here and there, but never took a plane abroad!) We met Kevin’s brother and his wife, who were at the end of their honeymoon in Italy and, because it was off-season, had found an Airbnb with a view of the Vatican. I have been to Rome several times, but I had never seen the Sistine Chapel, so that was a first! I decided to pack light and leave my camera at home so I could just be present for forty-eight hours.
A selfie of the last day of sunshine and blue skies before a forecast of non-stop rain (which is still going on after three weeks, for a Spaniard, that’s A LOT!). I’ve also enjoyed the last few days of living in the countryside after almost four years since we returned from Berlin to Madrid. It reminded me of how stuck between two worlds I am, or rather, I feel. As a lover of nature and its different cultures around the world, and of the buzz cities have, with their quirks, trendy people, and innovations, forever stuck between ancient and modern cultures.
At the end of the month, we finally moved to the city. Oh yeah, that apartment we fell in love with? We got it!! And as we packed for our new life, we could hardly believe our luck (never mind the ten months of actively looking for an apartment!) It’s unfurnished, so it will take some months for it to start looking like a home, but for now, here we are, and here are a few snaps from our balcony and one from the street.
The last day of the month, I helped my dear friend move, and now we are only twenty minutes away from each other. We hugged goodbye, feeling giddy about living in the city and close to each other.
In the evening, I went on a walk with my little family and saw this gorgeous full moon. This rarely happens with a full moon, but it gave me a strong sense of optimism about what lies ahead.
Reading
I’m currently reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s* new novel Dream Count. (I want to keep track of documenting my reading, for some reason, I’m incapable of remembering what I read and when I read it!)
Linking you to
My uncle’s website has finally launched, and it is as creative as he is.
He’s a performance artist, a teacher, a model, a storyteller, a dancer and a visionary. His website is a collection of his projects, under his own technique called “Groove composition”, and “Ruum Lab” is where he compiles the visual stories of the artists he collaborates with. Please check it out and show some support on his Instagram
Watching
One Battle After Another. It was funny and disturbing, and Benicio del Toro’s performance stayed with me for a while.
Sinners. I loved it from minute one, seriously, that music scene at the mid point? And how great is the whole cast? I’m as obsessed as the next person with it and I have probably watched all the cinematography breakdowns on Youtube.
Pole to Pole, hosted by Will Smith.
“There are 7000 ways to describe this world”- a quote I loved from Pole to Pole
Last year, in my fever dreams, I spoke about how the Nat Geo documentary series “Photographer” had moved me and shaken something inside me.
Once again, their latest docu-series shook me; it moved things around inside me—just when I was starting to get comfortable, there was that whisper again. Nat Geo’s producers really know how to pull my strings. It awakened a need to drop everything and fight to preserve this planet and its people (but I can’t, I’m a mum of a little one who needs me!)
The series inspired me with its unique visuals, which could have made it a pretty normal documentary otherwise. The visuals were carefully thought out and very cinematic, with Will Smith blurring the lines between documentary and film. (Whatever you might think of him, he does a great job at keeping things light-hearted and a little silly.) They released the first episode on Youtube if you are curious about it.
A bonus: I watched Evelyn from The Internets bingo card fail, about her new year’s resolutions. She’s hilarious and always makes me laugh. “The quest to become an analogue girl”… I feel you!
I hope to continue these monthly memories throughout the year. Documenting is part of my goal, but I am quite bad at staying consistent. Let’s see how this goes.
Take care and thanks for reading!
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*I read the sad news about her son’s passing. My heart aches for her family; it’s every parent’s nightmare.
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