That was the month that was: January

Fireworks over Sydney Harbour. Hangover on Balmoral Beach. Beach holiday. Fish and chips multiple times. Long distance car rides. Busy return to work; lots of deadlines then delayed. Kids on holidays all month. Catching up with old friends and making new ones. Horrendous heatwave. Swimming at Harold Holt Pool. Struggling to keep the plants alive. Not much interest in cooking (too hot). Broken down trains. Sourcing school books, clothes and stationery. Getting active on FaceBook. Dreams of a studio out the back, and plans to change the house around so kids can all have their own bedrooms. Celebrated Chinese New Year, and was moved to a tear or two by the Obama inauguration.

Television series of the month: Mad Men. I finished watching series one, which I got for Christmas. I must admit that I started off not warming to the characters much, but ended up finding it addictive, and the flawed people mesmerising. I suspect that at least a third of the characters will go on to have respiratory problems later in their (fictional) lives given the amount of chain smoking that is going on. The series deserves its reputation for gorgeous design and costuming. I'm really looking forward to seeing the second series, which is set two years later in 1962.

(Also an appropriate choice as one of the main characters - the blonde on the left - is played by an actor called January Jones.)