Apparently, it's October. I'm not entirely sure how we've got here, considering I was only sitting in the Spanish sunshine about five minutes ago, but I'm certainly not complaining.
Autumn is my favourite season, and I've been making that everyone else's problem for weeks. Pumpkins? Absolutely. Halloween decorations? Obviously. An unreasonable amount of excitement over the first sign of a fallen leaf? Guilty as charged.
Honestly, I've been ready for autumn since approximately July. The rest of the world is simply catching up.
Anyway, I thought it was about time for a good old-fashioned life update. Remember when we used to blog about absolutely nothing in particular and people actually read it? No carefully curated advice, no ten things you need to know before turning 35. Just a bit of rambling about what I've been up to.
Well, buckle up. It's not particularly glamorous.
A Seaside Escape and a Questionable Hotel
Earlier this month, Matt and I escaped to Bournemouth for a couple of nights to visit my sister, eat some good food and generally have a change of scenery.
I lived in Bournemouth back in 2019, so I was quite looking forward to going back. Unfortunately, Bournemouth and I appear to have grown in very different directions.
Let's just say the town centre after dark was an experience. Not one I'm particularly desperate to repeat, either.
And then there was our hotel.
We'd booked a Premier Plus room at the Premier Inn, which, in my experience, usually means a slightly nicer room and a few extra comforts. What we actually got was peeling furniture, a broken HDMI cable and a delightful view of the YMCA's ventilation system.
Did I mention the smell of onions?
The hotel's solution was to provide us with an air freshener and a desk fan. Five-star problem solving, truly.
Thankfully, the trip wasn't entirely sponsored by disappointment. We spent time with my sister, ate some lovely food and visited Corfe Castle, which was a much more successful outing.
Would I go back to Bournemouth? To see my sister, absolutely. For the hotel experience? I'd rather sleep in our tent.
Professionally Employed, Personally Overwhelmed
Back in the real world, work has been doing what work does best: taking up an unreasonable amount of my time.
I've also finished the taught element of my project management apprenticeship, which is genuinely quite exciting. There's still the end-point assessment to get through, but we're getting there.
At this point, I'm fairly certain my brain consists entirely of project plans, deadlines, random song lyrics and things I've forgotten to put on the shopping list.
Very useful combination.
Outside of work, I've been throwing myself back into blogging, which has actually been one of the nicest parts of the year.
I started this little corner of the internet back in 2017, when it was known as mollyyrees.com. It's since had a name change to mollybury.com, a lengthy hiatus and something of a comeback, but the reason I enjoy it hasn't really changed.
And while I've already had a good moan about how much blogging has changed, there's something wonderfully familiar about sitting down and writing whatever comes into my head.
Admittedly, I've also become the sort of person who spends an embarrassing amount of time rearranging photographs to make an Instagram grid look vaguely cohesive.
2017 me would be horrified. Or impressed. Probably both.
Autumn Activities and Other Questionable Decisions
October is, without question, one of my favourite months. The colours, the colder evenings, the excuse to spend an entire Sunday watching Gilmore Girls without anyone questioning my productivity.
Not that I require permission.
It's also our wedding anniversary month, which makes October even more special. Matt and I have somehow been married for an entire year, despite the fact that I'm convinced our wedding was approximately last Thursday.
We kept our first anniversary fairly low-key, which was exactly what we wanted. A home-cooked steak dinner, one of the bottles of champagne we'd saved from our wedding and a lovely evening spent together, completely unplugged from the outside world. Sometimes the simplest plans are the best.
Our second anniversary, however, is shaping up to be a slightly different affair, considering we'll be celebrating in the Dominican Republic. Apparently, we've decided to alternate between steak at home and cocktails in the Caribbean. I can absolutely get behind that tradition.
I've actually written a whole post about our first year of marriage, so rather than getting overly sentimental here, you can read if you fancy a little more wedding-related rambling.
We also headed to Merrist Wood's pumpkin patch with friends, because apparently my autumn obsession wasn't quite complete without wandering around a field full of pumpkins.
It was a lovely excuse to get together, embrace all things Halloween and take a frankly unnecessary number of photographs of vegetables. Although, in my defence, pumpkins are considerably more photogenic than most things.
Between the pumpkins, the company and the general autumn atmosphere, it was exactly the sort of October afternoon I'd been looking forward to. I'm nothing if not committed to the season.
Beyond that, life has largely consisted of reading, eating, working and enjoying the excuse to spend more evenings at home.
A very balanced existence, I'm sure you'll agree.
Anyway, That's October
And there we have it. A little life lately.
Nothing particularly groundbreaking, just a few trips, some milestones, a questionable hotel and the usual chaos of being a functioning adult.
I'm not going to end this with some profound statement about embracing life's little moments, because frankly, sometimes life is just life. You go to work, you eat your dinner, you watch television and occasionally you find yourself writing 700 words about a hotel room that smelled of onions.
And if that isn't what personal blogging was invented for, I don't know what is.
Molly
Post a Comment