etclifestyle
Back to reality.
30.8.16
A ‘Life Lately’-esque catch-up, featuring Everything But Budapest.
Hello from home! My squishy home with my best boy (Milo) and stacks of paperwork and hundreds of emails to sift through. I’m finally back from my little summer jaunt and Bank Holiday weekend and I feel really, truly, refreshed. Somehow I haven’t had a digital detox and *proper* summer holiday since my University days - if you count binge drinking and pretending dissertation doom wasn’t upon me as a holiday - and it really hit the spot to just breathe and forget the Internet exists, just for a little over a week.
Before I delve into my Budapest blog posts (so I might have lied about a detox…) and September 'content', why don’t I sit and chit-chat to you all about the best Bank Holiday weekend ever?
A perfect late summer evening date night
After landing home in England at 6am, napping until 1 and then whizzing off to London at 2pm to see Elodie for the first time in 8 months, you probably couldn’t even begin to try and wipe the smile from my face when my boyfriend surprised me with *the* most perfect date night upon our reunion. It's strange how much you can miss somebody after 6 days, isn't it? And my, did I miss him.Balcony date night ❤đŸ�ˇ this one is the best đŸ‘Ť #Balcony #Date #best #fairylights #cute #candle #redwine #hackney #London #cuddle #chillaf #night A photo posted by Michelle Chai | č”ĄčŠ ĺ…’。 (@winyeemichelle) on Aug 26, 2016 at 1:06pm PDT
We indulged a blissfully breezy late summer evening by feasting on Indian food, before cosying up on his balcony - lit up by candles and fairy lights - with a couple of bottles of red wine and Ace Ventura (hadn’t seen it in YEARS!) playing. Seriously, he’s the best. ♥
Celebrating Hannah’s birthday!
The main focus of August’s final Bank Holiday was of course celebrating the awesome Hannah’s birthday… albeit a little early! ;) I must wax lyrical about how much this girl gang means to me but I honestly had the greatest weekend and I owe it largely to them! We started off birthday proceedings with Saturday brunch at Palm Vaults - excellent interiors and flat whites - before a little meander around Broadway Market, a.k.a. ideal weekend afternoon plans. Hannah took us for a drink or two atop a rooftop bar and then we took a little Pokemon walk along the canal! I even got to meet Lauren at long long last and bond over all manner of NSFW stories!
And then came the ultimate in blogger fails - five bloggers attend a fellow blogger’s birthday and take next-to-zero photos. Hannah hosted us at her birthday barbecue and put on such a great spread that I’m still dreaming of that Japanese salad, her vegan burgers and veggie sausages. It was the sort of relaxed garden party where I felt under zero pressure to be ‘on’ and where chatter and laughter melted into an N64 gaming session and daylight melted into a crisp, cool summer evening. Oh and gin. So much gin.
Our winter travel plans
Like I mentioned in my pre-Budapest blog entry, my boyfriend are going away this winter! We’ve now booked flights from London to Bali and from Hong Kong back to London, which of course means… we’ll be city hopping around Asia! I’m reluctant to say we’re going traveling because we’re only away for 3 weeks and no hostels are in the mix but I am so damn excited. Eek! We’re going to be in Bali, Malaysia, Hong Kong and perhaps even Japan!More 5k running and finding the balance
And last but not least, I’ve been musing over The Balance again lately; that elusive teetering balance between life and work and all that comes in between. I suppose I’ve been feeling it more as of late whilst splitting my time between home and London and having taken a week off from work for a summer holiday, but this autumn, I plan to establish a better loose routine.
It’s time I better-divided my time (heh) between puppy Mama duties, my ever-growing portfolio of clients, an everyday fitness routine, my friends, my family, my boyfriend and just plain ol’ me time. I can’t even remember the last time I painted my nails. My sister and I are planning to start training again, properly this time, to run another 5k early next year which is making me all sorts of motivated to regulate my weekly routine.
Right then! I think that’s as much ‘talking about myself’ as I can muster for now. Be back tomorrow with a lil somethin’ somethin’ from Budapest!
