Remember to Remember: Summer 2014

I love this photo taken of an overgrown van in a garden in Latvia

This Summer seemed to pass by quickly. I had quite a full diary and there were fewer chances than I'd hoped to just sit in the yard-en and admire the plant pots and beautiful honeysuckle, which flowered for the first time this year, four years after it was first potted.

Diary scribbles: Summer 2014

• A trip to London with my mum: Miss Saigon and afternoon tea at Claridges
• Crafting
• Dinners and sharing holiday photos with friends
• Betting on black at a casino to celebrate a good friend's 30th birthday
• A three week adventure travelling around Bali and Gili Trawangan
• Mid week wine dates with friends
• A weekend of board games, cycling, spa fun, barbecues, crazy golf, boules and hot chocolates with friends at Centre Parcs, Sherwood Forest
• Watching the rain fall, cosy with a mug of hot chocolate
• A family spa visit to Ribby Hall for my mum's birthday
• A week visiting M's family and exploring Latvia: beaver watching, saunas, castles, beaches, elderflower beer, turning trees
• Treating myself to Clarins Beauty Flash
• Investing in our own copy of Settlers of Catan
• Long sunny walks
• Baking homemade peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies
• Impromptu pub dinners
• Stripping (wallpaper) and prepping to redecorate our second bedroom/office
• Little spending sprees, including my new favourite Autumn coat
• Total relaxation on an overnight stay at the Quay Hotel and Spa and a day exploring Conwy
• Graduation celebrations in honour of my little brother's PGCE
• Lunch dates and Frappuccinos
• Liverpool's Summer Art Market Craft market
• A day as tourists in our own city
• A beautiful Brighton wedding
• Garden centres, making the yarden look pretty and wishing I had a garden of my own
• Overeating at Liverpool's Food and Drink Festival
• Chasing giants around Liverpool for Giant Spectacular's Memories of August 1914
• Celebrating a leather anniversary and falling in love with my beautiful new leather satchel
• A long overdue hair cut and pamper
• Impromptu half price Indian head massages
• Becoming an ebay whizz

It's already October and I'm only just publishing this post! This is mainly because of the ongoing redecorating project in our office which has meant that the computer has been in bits, and stored in the bedroom, living room, even the bathroom over the past month! I'm finally sat at my desk in my home office, sliding the chair across the new flooring. Still staring at a bare plaster wall, though. As I said, it's ongoing!

"If we took a holiday": Summer 2014

I am a more than a little bit excited about this year's holiday plans. We've been saving pennies with the hope of travelling for a few weeks this Summer around Bali and the Gilis, exploring, eating and diving. Flights are now booked. It's time to get planning!

The plan:
Bali: We hope to spend some time on Bali's South coast, avoiding the main areas of Kuta, perhaps staying in Seminyak and/or Sanur, travelling to Ubud, heading North to trek Mount Batur and, after some time in the Gili islands, a few days diving from Nusa Lembongan.

Image source

Gili Islands: Until recently, I didn't know that these three islands off the coast of Lombok even existed. Now I dream about them daily. My best friend, who is just about to arrive back in the UK after what sounds like the most fantastic travel adventure, told me about her dive trips in the Gilis over Skype and her stories sold these paradise islands to me almost immediately. No cars; only bicycles and horse drawn carts. Add to that some sun kissed sandy beaches, lush vegetation, beautiful reefs, and perhaps the biggest draw: the almost certainty of meeting this fella, or at least one of his distant relatives.

Mr Turtle, waiting for our arrival. Image source

Gili Trawangan is the largest of the three islands and seems to have a reputation as being the party island of the three. Gili Meno and Gili Air are smaller and quieter. We've not decided yet whether to split our time between the islands, or base ourselves at a quieter spot in Gili T and take a boat across to Gili Meno and Gili Air for a day visit. All three islands look breathtaking and dive reviewers rave about their underwater environment. I'm very excited.

Image. Gili Air

I love a good spreadsheet and I'm starting to build up a list of possible experiences and 'must visits'. Have you visited Bali or the Gili islands? Any recommendations?

"Those Summer Nights" (and Days)!

It's been such a long time since I sat down and wrote a post. I've missed it. When I was away on holiday, I realised how much I get out of writing in this space, even if it's not as often as others and if there's only a (baby sized) handful of lovely people that regularly read it.

I'm just back from what has been the most amazing three week adventure in Southeast Asia. It's going to take some time to go through our 4000+ photographs. When we've got to grips with them, I plan to write at least a couple of posts about our travels: the places we visited, where we stayed, how we spent our time, what we ate... oh man, what we ate! That will be a treat if you're a foodie - I think at least a quarter of our photographs will be images of food! Here's an Instagram-er to get your tastebuds going!

Our lunch at Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok

Food aside, it was so great to take a break and to have some time together, exploring new places and getting excited about the beautiful, small details of the world. The pre-holiday month had some pretty sad moments and the time away really has helped. We're back, ready to take on whatever comes next!

Really, with the massive exception of having to put our gorgeous Jacques to rest, this Summer has been pretty super. I'd drafted a couple of 'what I've been up to' posts but never finished them so, in an admittedly lazy fashion, I'm going to use them here as my record of Summer 2013.

June

• My best friend got married in Buxton's Botanical Gardens. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and we cried a few a lot of happy tears, drank champagne, took a ride on the park train, and threw some shapes on the dance floor. 
• We bought tasty deli treats and had an indoor picnic feast and played Family Fortunes
• An annual African music festival, Africa Oyé, took place at our local park so we headed down for some food and music. Chicken rice and peas, and steel drum beats. Perfect!
• My mum and I had some girly time with facials, bubbly and cake at The Club & Spa, Chester.
• We had our first strawbs of the season
• We had a Thai food date night, in preparation for our Southeast Asia trip.
• M's parents came to stay for the night and I made creme caramels for the first time. Thankfully, they were a success!
• I went to my first hot yoga class at Happiness Yoga, which has recently opened in South Liverpool. I was so warm and sweaty by the end of the session, but I'll definitely be going again.
• I upgraded my phone (finally) and became addicted to Instagram

July's highlights included nightly Pimms and strawberries during Wimbledon, more wedding fun, a date day to Chester Zoo, a pottery painting class, dodging cows on a very long walk, fish and chip sunsets, and going to Indietracks and watching my very talented hubby play and his band play their first festival.

A cow

Pre-holiday, August was a busy month. I spent some quality time with my lovely little brother and we went indoor skydiving at Airkix. Lots of fun! M and I visited Tate Liverpool to see the Chagall exhibition and had our final date night of the first anniversary 'year of dates'. We basically scoffed loads of cheese, sipped wine and looked through the photos that we'd taken over the last 11 months of dates. I had my first every chiropractic session to try and beat these headaches (maybe not such a highlight given how sick I felt afterwards). Another best friend gets married in a couple of weeks and we celebrated her hen do in Manchester, and then my mum, brother and I travelled to London to celebrate my mum's birthday - more on this another time!   

Kes at Somerset House for Mum's birthday

Then there were the three blissful weeks living out of a backpack and eating too much dim sum. A great little Summer. The new semester has started at work and I really need to bring myself back to this space regularly and remind myself all is well. This here's my little slice of calm when things, inevitably, get crazy!