As we are well into Autumn now, it’s time for me to share and update you on all I did this summer. The question you have all been waiting to ask me. Did I fail my summer bucket list? Many of you may already know this but a lot has happened to me this summer. Personal reasons, I have lost both of my Grandad’s and a few other things along the way too. Anyway, here is my round up of how my summer bucket list went.
For this I am going to try do my best to put these in date order of when I ticked them off to list. Starting with 4th July 2019, a Thursday evening. My dad and I went to my local street food market after I had finished work. Everyone raves about this market but really from them raving to me going. It actually disappointed me. There weren’t as many stalls as I expected, from memory, BBQ, brownies, American, churros, dim sum and pizza maybe.
Out of the choice we went for dim sum. I went for chicken dim sum and my dad went for the might meat dim sum. To keep on track of who’s food was who’s they gave us tokens and the colour matched the other in the pot cooking. It turned out the 10 minutes cooking time and the two rounds I ended with mighty meat and my dad the chicken. We switched some around but if I ate this again, I would go for might meat. Was a little spicy but ok when we mixed them about.
Churros was my choice for pudding. 3 churros with vegan toffee sauce. They were both amazing and actually the toffee sauce was better than the normal chocolate sauce I would go for. I had the challenge to eat these whilst my dad drove home, roof down and a brand-new car with churros may not have been the best choice. However, I need a good job of keeping the mess in the cone.
On the 6th of July 2019, I went with my sisters, mum and Grandma to see London’s West End musical Aladdin. The show is now finished and so unfortunately you won’t be able to go see it in London. But the show was amazing. As a child I loved Disney’s Aladdin and for west end shows I enjoy shows more where I know the story. If I don’t, I can’t manage to concentrate, get the story and enjoy. It’s a real nice girls’ day out and it would be a family show too. A little girl in front of us though around 6 years old was too young, fidgety and moving about on to her mum’s lap and off again the whole show.
Being a floristry student, I really wanted to go to the wholesalers. I did that on the 12th July 2019. Because I am selling flower arrangements and giving them as gifts, I always need flowers. It was nice to get an idea and purchase everything in one place, from bowls to bags and cellophane and of course real and silk flowers too. Made a fish bowl full for my Grandma from this lot and another of which I sold.
The 20th of July 2019 brought me to host my best friend’s 4-year-old daughter’s Crafternoon Tea birthday party. Me and 7 children sat around for 2 hours making unicorn dreamcatchers, bracelets and necklaces. Of course, the children also enjoyed a proper afternoon tea made by me with proper china cups and saucers full of hot chocolate. They all enjoyed it as much as I did, and I can’t wait to host more of these in the future.
Another for the floristry theme, the 26th of July 2019. My sister, mum and I went to my local lavender fields after work. If you love purple, bees and lavender you need to go next summer! I think I made £6 for an empty bag, scissors and a free range of rows and rows of lavender. Fill that bag for £6, you definitely get a lot for your money. Used mine for arrangements and I still have more at home still dried out that I need to make into essential oils. Just to mention though the bees are beautiful and obviously in their element with all the lavender. But they do get annoying so close to you buzzing away and sort of swarm towards you at times.
One of the best things I did this summer was Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place Festival in London. The 3rd of August 2019, I spent the day at Fearne’s festival with a friend. The festival is me, everything I love, enjoy and do. But at a festival with lots of other happy people. All self care, yoga, meditation, stalls, talks, live podcasts, freebies and book signings. I was also lucky enough to get my book signed by Fearne and have my photo taken with her too. Definitely one to go to next year.
A massive trend this summer was Goga and I was lucky enough to go on the 18th of August 2019. We took a girl’s weekend to Woodbridge, Suffolk. Stayed in a cute Airbnb, waking up refreshed for a morning’s yoga session, in a field with a herd of goats. Yes, sounds good doesn’t it? Well actually it was. I am scared of goats believe it or not and I really don’t know how I actually got in the field with them. Maybe the milking session before helped me calm down and put my bravery in place. Unfortunately, it rained, and goats don’t like rain. So, our session got caught short. Which actually is annoying because we were about to get into the good part when you do superman with a goat on your back. HAHA never mind I would definitely do this again, especially if I could guarantee sunshine.
On the 23rd of August 2019, I tried something new. That’s all I can really say on that one. There’s been a few setbacks or times when I just want to wait a little longer. But I have been several times and I plan to more in the near future. Stay tuned because I will at some point hopefully tell you my something new.
Next up was baking. I baked salted Carmel brownies on the 26th of August 2019. Baking is something I love to do, but rarely do because I end up eating a whole cake. Because I sort of live a healthy balanced diet I steer away from baking and stick to cooking a healthy dinner. These Betty Crocker brownies were amazing. They taste so good and the Carmel is still a little gooey when freshly baked to make these the best. Only brought the packet mix in Asda, so I am sure its around most places.
Most other things happened on holiday. I went to kos on the 11th of September 2019. So that automatically ticks off going abroad. Went for a week and lets just say it wasn’t the best holiday but it was a break none the less. A holiday to me is all about going abroad. It doesn’t feel like a holiday unless you go on a plane.
I wanted to get a tan and even though now it looks like I really didn’t get one, I got a tiny tan in Kos. Less than I normally do so but colour none the less. Odd why I didn’t get a better one but I do have bikini lines.
Walking alone the beach was another on my list and I achieved that. We had a small run of a beach, sand and sea. The sand was soft but a lot of pebbles and shells, there was a little hill as well to get down to the sea and the bottom of the sea was very slippy. They had sand bags to walk into the sea on to help people actually go in the sea. It was beautiful though and such a short distance away from Turkey.
My final to achieve was star gazing. Things didn’t overly go to plan on holiday and one night I was just walking out in the dark on hotel complex and saw a big bright star. We tell the children when people/pets die they become stars and in a way that night it really did feel like my grandad was with me. Making sure I was ok and safe.
There are a few I didn’t achieve and I have reasons for them. So here they are. First being make a time capsule. I didn’t make this because my mum and dad refused for me to dig up a hole in their garden and bury it. But then I thought it would be good to plant it around Brexit so all being well and good I will hopefully be planting one soon and I think I will bury it in Grandma Mon’s garden if she allows me to.
Volunteer at a florist being another. I just ran out of free Saturdays to be fair. Would have loved to volunteer and get more florist shop front experience but I have sold some of my floristry and I am doing the flowers for my Grandad’s wake.
Write a message in a bottle. Again I didn’t do this but my something new is actually a really kind thing to do and someone will be super grateful for my something new. So I am doing something kind and thoughtful through that which will make someones day even better than a message.
Strawberry picking, to be honest there wasn’t a lot of fruit picking around this year. Ok there were some but not much and no one seemed to be doing all these things this year compared to others.
Again another that just wasn’t advertised or much on in my area is the outdoor cinemas. I think there was a film I saw advertised at the lavender fields but it was even called off due to the rain. No body seemed to be going to them or evening setting up the events in my area so I had no choice to not do this.
Last one I missed was letting go of a Chinese Lantern. Is this even legal in the UK? I am not 100% sure on that but simply I just ran out of time to buy one. Maybe I will let two off in a couple of weeks for both my Grandads.
Of course the last thing on my list was to spend lots of time with my friends and family. And that I definitely did. Even when friends came over or I went to theirs. We just chilled and I played with their girls and we all had the best time together. Family of course a lot has gone on with family but I have tried to spend as much time with them all too.
Did you set a summer bucket list? If so what was your favourite you did this summer?
