I’m sorry, but how on God’s green Earth are we in September already? How has the time come to dust off the boots and waterproofs and relegate the summer dresses and sandals to life in a bin bag in the loft for the next 7 months. Anywaaay, summer 2019 has been a bit of a wild ride. So much has happened. Some of the best experiences of my life, and some of the very worst.
It happened. After watching Sex and the City for as long as I can remember, Ben and I finally went to the big apple and sweet damn it did not disappoint. We flew out 27th June (my birthday hehe) and arrived in the city midday with 6 days in front of us. In that time we saw literally every ‘big’ attraction you can in the city. We wondered around Central Park, we went up the Rockefeller Centre, visited Time Square, went to Brooklyn Bridge, had pizza in Brooklyn, strolled around the financial district, visited the 9/11 memorial and museum.
More than anything however we visited McDonalds for their $1 big gulps and to spent a minute in the air con. It was over 30 degrees the entire trip, I had blisters the size of my thumb, heat-rash across the entirety of my legs, the most severe chub rub you’ve ever laid eyes on and walked nearly 90 miles in that time.
New York stole my heart and broke my body in less than a week, and is without a doubt my favourite place in the world.
The day after we came back from New York, with raging jet lag and broken bodies we had our final farewell to my lovely Granddad. He had been given the terminal diagnosis around Christmas last year, there was nothing else that could be done to treat his cancer and so the decision was made to stop all treatment. He fought so bravely until 29th May where he slipped away with my mum beside him, just 11 days short of his 80th birthday.
We celebrated his life 4th July in the glorious sunshine, he had the flag at half-mast in honour of his service in the army, the Salvation Army played the last post and we exchanged hilarious stories and tales about him all afternoon. It was the perfect and most heart breaking send off.
Ben and I finally started to decorate the house – yay! We started with the back bedroom which we wanted to be an office/dressing room as we are apparently those bougie type of millennials now. It took a couple of weekends of stripping hideous wallpaper, painting and building furniture but the little corner with the desk is now my happy place.
Ben and I went to visit my family out in Portugal, and oh my lord we needed a break. All we did was sit in the sun, walk along the beach in search of ice cream and have a couple of trips out and about. There is no where I love being more when it comes to recharging my batteries, plus y’know we only have to pay for our flights and spending money.