Sunday 20 July 2014

July 2014 - Birthday Week

I have obviously been failing to keep up with my blog posts recently, at least partially because I often don't feel like I have anything new or exciting to say. So I'm going to change the aim or purpose of my blog a little. Instead of primarily focusing on letting you all know what we have been up to, I am going to write about what has made me happy in the past week. This will have the dual purpose of keeping you all up to date, and remind me of all the good things happening in my life to make me smile when I'm feeling super homesick. So let us begin...

Monday 14th July - I spent the evening making the sponges for my birthday cake. I made this one from BBC Good Food.

Tuesday 15th July - My 27th birthday! Unfortunately I spent most of the day in the lab, but I was able to leave a little early to come home to all these lovely cards and pressies!





I am so spoilt! Thank you everyone, especially husband-face! We also went out for dinner, and I assembled and iced my cake.





Wednesday 16th July - The Rileys arrived! My Uncle Steve, Aunty Ann and my cousins Jo and Em came to stay! We had a nice lunch before I went back to work while they explored the Inner Harbor, then Nick made a burger bar for tea, and we looked at all the wedding photos!

Thursday 17th July - Worked for most of the day, but managed to escape early to meet my family in the Inner Harbor, then we went out for crabs in Fells Point at Riptide By The Bay, which I think was an experience for everyone! The food there was great, especially the appetisers, and awesome service too!

Friday 18th July - The Rileys left to continue on their journey to DC and the west coast :( That did not make me happy. But this was my awesome view for the evening when we went out to Barcocina in Fells Point for (what turned out to be birthday) drinks and food with our friends from the Hopkins Postdoc Association:




They even brought me cupcakes, which I failed to get a photo of before we dived in! After some awesome chips & salsa, and incredible tacos.

Saturday 19th July - A lovely relaxed day spent with my awesome husband, during which I got a lot of satisfaction from getting a lot of jobs done! And then took a hot walk up Federal Hill, to further remind myself what is good about Baltimore.




We rounded out the day with a game that N got for my birthday, Forbidden Desert, which is a sequel of Forbidden Island, a game we got a couple of years ago that we love! This new version is just as good, and different enough to be fun :)



Sunday 20th July - Another relaxing day chilling with N, including a trip to the Farmer's Market, resulting in a major haul of nectarines & apricots! And got lots more done too, feels good!

Note to self - must take more photos if I'm going to start blogging again!

Please leave a comment and tell me something that made you happy this week!

Gem x