August Recap // Sunny Summer Days, Food Festivals and Celebrations

I said it on Monday but I’ve had a little break from blogging for the past 6 weeks so I’m finally catching up on everything! Next on the list is my August recap!

I’m currently sitting on the train on my way back from a lovely couple days in London spending time with my nannies and seeing some friends. Since moving out of London the one thing I miss is being able to just drop in on family and catch up with old friends after work. So I thought with having a whole week off I’d get some catch ups in!

So, August – it feels like a life time ago! I had to go back through insta stories to see what I got up to and tbh it wasn’t too much really. It’s been another busy month at work counting down to finishing and starting the new job.

At the beginning of the month I popped out with lunch with a work friend to Pho in Grand Central. I absolutely love their crispy pork rolls – try them if you haven’t already – so good! When we lived in London we had one at the end of our road in Balham and would sometimes just grab them on the way back from work in the city as a little ‘starter’. I can never turn them down when I’m in Pho. 



Earlier in the month it was also my auntie’s 50thso we made the drive down to Worthing to their house by the sea to celebrate with family. It was a great day for it and the sun was out which was lovely. They had a couple marquees up in the garden and we had a delicious BBQ and then mini strawberry pavlovas followed by chocolate cake – yum! It was a lovely day catching up with family.

Tim and I then drove up to my parents just outside Maidenhead and spent the evening with my parents. The next day we’d booked in our Thai 12 course feast at The Crazybear Hotel. See here for a recap on that deliciously tasty meal!



Chilled evenings in Bray with the fam
How insane is the decor at The Crazy Bear Hotel?!
With the lovely weather I also tried to work from home a few days. Sometimes there’s nothing better than staying in comfy clothes (pjs) and working. I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to work from home as often at my new job so I definitely tried to make the most of it while I could! I do love it when I can light a candle and get down to work or have the option to pop to the gym at any point and then just make up the hours. Definitely loved going for a swim in the afternoon when the gym pool was nice and empty.

I’ve mentioned it on my insta stories, but at the end of June I started trying FIIT and have loved it! It was recommended by a friend and she swears by it so thought I’d give it a go. You can go for the free version or pay a subscription fee and they send you a heart rate monitor to wear when you work out and it tracks you. As well as choosing from a bunch of classes you can also subscribe to different plans. I’ve now done a beginners overall fitness 4 week plan, a 6 week ‘super fiit’ beginners plan and I’m now doing a 6 week strength plan. I love how it gives you 4 classes to do each week based on your fitness level and mixes in cardio, strength and flexibility yoga classes. I can definitely feel my fitness levels have improved in the past 3 months and clothes are fitting a little easier. I now need to keep it up but I’m finally loving working out again which has been a long time coming. Anyone else tried FIIT?
During August we managed to get to the Engine Yard at Belviour Castle. It’s a lovely little space with some cute little independent shops. We went in to a gorgeous little chocolate shop as well as a coffee bean shop and had some delish hot chocs. 



When we go over to Tim’s parents, his dad always jumps at the chance to make us cocktails. This time he made us some tasty (but v. boozy!) daquiris. I definitely slept well that night!



I love a tasty cocktail and sometimes it’s quite nice to finish off the evening with a little something. For Tim’s birthday I got him some Hotel Chocolat Cream Liquor which is so good! Just the right balance of chocolatiness and booziness.

August had a few quite nice weekends weather wise. We had a few friends over one Saturday and we made up a large classic pimms and also a tropical pimms we’d seen in a Sainsbury’s magazine. Tbh I think I prefer the classic pimms but it was nice trying something different. (See here for recipe) We literally spent the day from 2pm until 9pm in the garden catching up and eating lots of food! Sometimes there’s nothing better than sitting with good friends, eating tasty food with a drink in hand to make you realise how lucky you are.



This summer we finally finished our garden! When we moved in it was very low maintanence but wasn’t the prettiest. So over the past couple years we’ve slowly added to it and finally laid down bark around all the plants. I love all the pops of colour throughout the year. We’ve got daffodils and tulips planted for early spring and then the clematis will flower and then all the summer flowers will come through (fushias, lavender and hydrangeas). It’s just so nice sitting out in the garden and having a proper chill. This year I’ve finally realised its ok not to be on the go all the time and to make sure we have some weekends relaxing doing not much to ourselves. We always feel so refreshed after those types of weekends!



Nice end to a chill weekend <3
At the end of the month we managed to get ourselves down to Lichfield food festival. It was our first time into Lichfield and it’s a lovely little city! The food festival was huge and spread around Lichfield. We got ourselves some tasty brownies, fudge, rum punch, Indian style tacos and then Tim got a milkshake while I got a mango rum cocktail. We also discovered this cute little bakery called Bore Street Bakery where we had some absolutely delicious tomato and cheese focaccia – we demolished a huge slice between us. We’d love if there was a place like that near us but probably better for our pockets that there isn’t 😋



The most amazing focaccia! Mmmmmm…
I took a little break from taking so many pics the past couple months but I’ll make sure to take more as I miss looking back through everything!

In August we also went to Foxton Locks for a picnic which was a lovely couple hrs out. I’ll be writing up a post on it this week so keep an eye out…



Finally, in August Tim passed his final ACA exams! Wooooo! So we went out and celebrated with a tasty Thai at Zen Metro in Birmingham and lots of prosecco! Anyone who’s done the ACA knows what it a relief it is to be done! I’m super proud of Tim and I know he is over the moon to finally be done 😃


Until next time,

Cathers xx




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