… little Miss finished her first year of school. Seriously, how did that go by so fast? Almost a year ago I was taking a tiny little girl, little more than a toddler, to her first day of schooling. Fast forward almost a year of illnesses, home reading, children’s parties and the excitement of new experiences and boom, her first year is done! I’m really understanding how the moments that make a lifetime pass by in the blink of an eye.

The last week of school was a bit manic with end of year shenanigans, and really it’s been manic ever since, which is why I haven’t gotten around to writing a blog post until now.

Last Saturday, me and the chap were off to Leeds to celebrate the 40th birthday of one of our friends. With the trains on strike, the intention was that I’d get the bus to York, from where the chap would drive a few of us out to Leeds for the get together. After standing half an hour in the rain though, it was pretty evident that the bus wasn’t coming, and I’d resigned myself to not being able to go. Thankfully, the chap was a hero, he hopped in his car and drove over to to get me, before we picked up our other friend and headed across.

We started off in a local pub having some pre-drinks, then went to a Greek/Turkish restaurant which was delicious. I do love Turkish food. There were about 20 of us, some I’d met before, some I hadn’t. The vibe was joyful though, despite the weather. (I don’t even want to talk about the weather here right now).

We left during the early evening to make the long trek home, but we’d had a lovely time.

Sunday was a lazy day. Monday, I’d booked the day off work to do something with little Miss, and given the weather (that I don’t want to talk about but keep referencing) I decided an indoor activity was best, so we went off to the Sealife Centre.

I think the last time we visted was about a year ago, and that was fun. Little Miss has a current obsession with Sharks, so she was more than happy to go see some real life ones too.

My personal favourites are always the jelly fish, I find them relaxing in a lava lamp kind of way. Surprisingly, the Sealife centre wasn’t that busy, given it was the first day of the summer holidays. I’m definitely not complaining though because I hate super busy attractions.

The rest of the week was consumed with a manic workload, and my 4 day work week seemed like a 10 day work week. By the time Saturday rolled around again, I was absolutely ready for it. This time around, we’d got a beautiful afternoon tea booked at the Feversham Arms hotel in Helmsley.

We had a beautiful table in the corner of the restaurant, next to an open door leading to the terrace and pool. The afternoon tea itself was an indulgent array of cake, sandwiches and scones. We weren’t able to finish it all, so some of it was boxed up to bring home with us. Once we’d finished our leisurely afternoon tea, we went to sit on the terrace, amongst all of the people enjoying luxury spa experiences to enjoy a pot of coffee in the glorious sunshine.

It was really the elixir that we all needed, and we finished off the day with a wander around Helmsley before heading home.

Today has been a mixed, and relaxing day of taking little Miss and Thelma to the local park for a walk, a trip to the garden centre where I bought loads of new garden plants reduced to 30p and 50p, followed by some gardening (planting those reduced plants) and enjoying a bit of downtime before another manic work week ahead.