After my blogging break in June, it’s been taking a while for me to get back on track. A lot has happened since my last Retrospect post; way too much to summarise in one paragraph, so I’m just gonna keep things brief.

The past few weeks were filled with a whole load of ups and downs, which’s why I’ve not been updating this space as much. Things will get back to normal soon, I promise. Hot off the Press will be up again on Mondays, as it should and my weekly wrap-ups won’t be wrought with too many delays or skipped weeks. Amidst all that, I’m infinitely grateful audiobooks exist because without them, I would’ve hardly finished any books over the past three weeks. For those of you who are interested, here’s a quick run-down of what’s up with me.

The weather’s been crazy hot lately which led to a fair bit of lethargy on my part. Temperatures have been hitting 35ºC with little rainfall, making March the driest month in Singapore since 1869 at least. April continued with the heat, so I’ve spent a good deal of my time glued in front of a fan listening to audiobooks. On Friday I did venture into the kitchen to bake though and made challah for the family. By the time I managed to take a photos of it, only about a fifth of the loaf was left. I’ll try to be faster in capturing my next challah.

A whole bunch of books found their way unto my bookshelves. Just a few more books left among my pre-orders that I placed at the end of December. My plan for 2016 is to greatly reduce my expenditure on books. I own dozens upon dozens of books which I have yet to read, so I’m limiting myself to buying sequels and books which I expect to love. Beyond these, I’m turning back towards (digital) libraries, particularly for new releases I’m not entirely sure about.

You know those weeks when you sit down to reflect but the details seem fuzzy? Today’s one of those times. I know we celebrated my sister’s birthday this week with chocolate fondant which I baked. My driving lessons continued. I also baked giant chocolate chip cookies. Oh and I checked my letterbox countless times for the arrival of The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. It remained woefully absent.