The month that was: June 2017

What happened:
It was HOT! June was (mostly) glorious in London, albeit sometimes absolutely awful with the lack of breeze and high temperatures. But, the heatwave coincided with me finishing up my freelance work in Tunbridge Wells, which meant a week of tanning and relaxing at home. Wonderful!

Olly and I headed one sticky Friday evening to the SSE Arena at Wembley to the Hans Zimmer Live concert. The concert was excellent, and I still can't get my head around how anyone knows how to layer music in such a way to create epic sounds.

Trevor Horn was the special guest (see below), which was awesome, and I highly recommend catching Hans Zimmer, if you can! You'll be amazed at how many movie scores of his that you recognise. (Gladiator, Interstellar, The Lion King and Pirates of the Caribbean, to name just a few.)

The next evening we headed to ABQ London's Breaking Bad pop-up with friends, which was was super fun making cocktails in the RV (you get two hours in there for £30, which includes a welcome drink and two cocktails), albeit very sweaty in the heatwave wearing those yellow boiler suits! [Full review here.]

June also meant heading to Italy for my best friend's wedding, which also coincided with our anniversary celebrations. (Six years!) Staying in the town of Como, we also visited Brunate, Bellagio and Mennagio - Bellagio is definitely the prettiest, though we drove through Griante and I wish we'd stopped there instead of Mennagio. Such a lovely part of Italy to visit.

As for the wedding itself, it was absolutely beautiful. It happened in the medieval church of Chiesa di S.Alessandro, followed by a reception at the stunning mountain location of Villa Pietraluna. Blog posts to follow on my Italian adventures, as usual!

Finally, if you ever spot a weird lump or bump, please go and see your doctor. I found one on my breast, I was referred, and it turned out to be nothing, though they did find a cyst elsewhere that needed draining. Far better than spending months worrying about nothing, or letting something serious develop further.

What I ate:
I had a tasty buttermilk chicken burger with sweet potato fries from Bill's in Tunbridge Wells, and we headed to Red Dog Saloon in Hoxton for some BBQ food with friends. (I'm a fan of their The Works sandwich, Korean fries and pit beans.) But, the real treat this month was all the delicious food we ate in Italy.

There was obviously plenty of pasta, pizza and gelato involved during our stay. The best pasta I had was at Trattoria dei Bracconieri in Brunate (take the funicular from Como to get there). I had the ravioli filled with the creamiest potato and served with asparagus and cherry tomatoes, eaten on their little balcony which has a stunning view of Como and beyond. Back down in Como, La Vita e Bella had the best bruschetta in town - bellissimo! - and Gelateria Lariana the best gelato.

What I watched:
We finished binge watching the new season of House of Cards (excellent), and then started watching American Gods (bizarre). We also watched the new season of Orange is the New Black (not as good as previous seasons), and also watched the new season of Better Call Saul (very good). And, finally... Finally!! Pretty Little Liars FINALLY ended. They should have wrapped it up at season five, but I persevered. That accent though... if you've seen the final episode, you'll know what I mean!!

Films watched: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Couples Retreat, The Mummy (1999 version), Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Welcome to Me, Cafe Society, John Wick Chapter Two and Why Him?. At the cinema, we watched Wonder Woman (enjoyable) and The Mummy (passable).

What I read:
In June I read 19 books and abandoned reading two books. The books I enjoyed the most this month were The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson, The Queen of Wishful Thinking by Milly Johnson, Last Dance in Havana by Rosanna Ley, The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen, The Babylon Idol by Scott Mariani and Love Me Not by M. J. Arlidge.

I can't believe we're now halfway through 2017! How was your month? x