The month that was: July 2017

What happened:
Welcome, welcome! Not only to another month, but to my new blog design. What do you think? I'm super happy with the fresh new design, and think it's looking very 2017. (I bought my template from Etsy, if you're interested in a new look.)

We had some more gorgeous weather, though then the true British summer happened and it's now pretty miserable and more like autumn. The lovely weather did coincide with our visit to ZSL London Zoo's Zoo Nights, which was good fun, and a walk to The All England Tennis Club, aka Wimbledon. The queue for those who didn't have tickets was crazy, as was the very lengthy set of rules to follow!

I headed to the Royal Opera House to see Turandot - my first opera - and whilst I'm not going to swap my love of musicals for opera, it was definitely an experience. (Though I do think Princess Turandot was an absolute monster!) They live-steamed a performance of Turandot a few days before we went to the opera, which you can still watch on YouTube if you're interested in learning exactly why she's a monster!

Finally, we headed to Yorkshire for the weekend to visit my family. We visited the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and went out for Sunday lunch. I'm going to blog about the Wildlife Park and Sculpture Park separately, but they are both excellent places to visit if you're ever in Yorkshire.

What I ate:
July was the month of epic roasts. First at Hawksmoor, and then at home when Olly cooked us an epic pork belly roast - his best yet! As for Hawksmoor, it was our first time there, and it was delicious. I have no doubt that we will be back.

     

What I saw:
We finished watching American Gods, and I didn't like it. Visually it's quite something, but the story? Nope, not for me - at least not in TV format, that is. (I've since bought the book to see how it compares.) On Netflix we watched the Amanda Knox documentary, which I think was too short to get a real sense of the intricacies of the case and was quite one-sided, and also watched GLOW.

Then we binge-watched 13 Reasons Why before our subscription was cancelled. It's pretty harrowing, but it's an important watch. Next up was Riviera (not amazing, but enjoyable enough) and, of course, the return of Game of Thrones. I also finished watching Switched at Birth.

Films watched: War Machine, The Circle, David Brent: Life on the Road, Mr Right, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, La La Land, The Impossible, Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Twelve. At the cinema we saw Baby Driver (good fun), Spider-man: Homecoming (saw it twice; enjoyed both times), War for the Planet of the Apes (a tad too long but thought-provoking) and The Big Sick (sweet, funny, but also a little bit sad).

What I read:
In July I read 22 books and abandoned reading two books. My favourite reads of the month were New York by Edward Rutherfurd, Holiday in the Hamptons by Sarah Morgan and The Power by Naomi Alderman. I also enjoyed The Summerhouse by the Sea by Jenny Oliver, The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green and Dark Water by Robert Bryndza.

How was your month?