"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!