Little Catch-Up

Well hello me hearties, I seem to have deviated somewhat from usual weekly routine of sharing a little life-related update with you, and a quick scan back through recent posts tells me I haven't done so since the 2nd June! Shocking. I thought it had been a week, but a month!?

There have been one or two reasons for my neglecting to fill you in on recent goings on, number one of them being that until the end of last week, June was just too uneventful to photograph. I didn't go anywhere, and I haven't been buying anything as I'm attempting to conserve some pennies, so that didn't make for a very exciting set of snaps. Secondly, I've been extremely busy with the mundane - namely paperwork, appointments and sorting through junk. The joy.

However, last Wednesday the hubby and I did jump in the car for a bit of a road trip, which while still loosely related to paperwork, was a barrel of laughs. We went to the state capital for a couple of days and stayed in our favourite little hotel in front of the sea, so naturally I was happy from the off.

On that first evening, the football was on, and unsurprisingly, the other half was eager to watch it. Since it was Brazil vs Uruguay in the Confederation Cup, it was of no interest to me whatsoever. Shopping, on the other hand, was. So the plan was that he could sit and watch the game, beer in hand, while I whiled away the time visiting Mac and Zara at the nearby shopping mall. All was going well, until I set foot in the mall only to be told it was about to close due to yet more protests. These have been a bi-weekly occurrence over the past fortnight, and are mainly against the corruption within the Brazilian government. 

For anyone who is interested, some 13 billion reais (local currency, 3=£1) of public money miraculously 'disappeared' last year alone, and people want to know why. The health service and education are so poorly neglected over here, and yet the people who are responsible for running and improving the country are simply pocketing what they can and coasting along. It's pretty sickening really. I think what has really kicked things off is the fast approaching World Cup, which will be held in Brazil next year. The amount that has been spent on stadiums and the like has simply disgusted people, especially when you think about all the areas in which investment is desperately needed.

Anyway, enough about that. So I couldn't go shopping. Cue me stomping back to the hotel and sulking over some cheese and wine until the game was over. By the time it had finished, we were both pretty shattered, but we decided to get our gladrags on and head out for a bit of dinner. We settled on Mexican, and devoured a huge plate of nachos so quickly that I didn't even have the chance to take a photo. Washed down with a Bloody Mary for me (I was feeling a little bit fragile that day) and Mexican style beers which were mixed with freshly squeezed limes and rimmed with salt and pepper for the Mr, we turned in fairly early as we had to be up at 6am for an appointment.

On Thursday, we hauled ourselves out of bed and took full advantage of the breakfast buffet before heading to our appointment, and with that out of the way we were finally able to hit the shopping mall! Despite having promised myself I'd leave both Zara and Mac well alone (one out of two isn't bad...), I did end up popping into the former and bagging myself a couple of bargains in the sale. I say bargains, but they were still pretty expensive really. If you'd like to see what I got then keep an eye out, as I may well be doing a haul video very soon.

Once we were all shopped out, we headed for an iced coffee and then back to the hotel for a nap. I can't usually sleep during the day, but over the past week or so I have been out like a light the second my head hit the pillow. At least on this day, I did have the excuse of having been up really early.

When we woke up, the hubby kindly informed me that there was yet another football game to be watched. I'm making him sound really bad here, but he's quite good about his sports really. He doesn't obsess about his favourite team, or even bother to watch half of their games, but when Brazil are playing he does tend to get quite into it, and I'm happy to concede that....most of the time.

It was decided that we would head down to the beach, where there was a nice little bar showing the football. Fine by me - I took my new book (The Secret Sister by Elizabeth Lowell), ordered myself a Mojito and put my feet up to watch the sunset, trying my best to ignore the over-excited gaggle of men to my left. Little did I know that not a single goal would be scored, and that then it would go to extra time and then penalties (yawn), by which time the wind had got up and I was freezing.

Once the most boring football game ever was over, we went back to the hotel, showered, went out for a delicious Thai meal and rounded things off with a few tangerine and basil sake cocktails at a local Samba bar. Can't complain about that, it was a treat.

By the morning, we were running a bit low on cash so decided to hit the road and head home, and that's where the fun ended, making way for a rather dull weekend at home.

Since then it's been back to the paperwork mountain, but I do plan to have climbed out from underneath it by the end of tomorrow evening. It's also going to be my last ever day in my current job, which is both exciting and daunting, but mainly the first as it means I am all the closer to goinggg hommme!! Yay.

Speaking of which, a group of friends from back home have organised a big camping trip for us all down in Cornwall at the end of August, which I'm very excited about - I really can't wait to get everyone back together again. It doesn't happen very often, because we all live in different places now, but whenever we do manage it it's always amazing - I don't stop laughing when I'm with those ladies! This is going to be the first time we've done more of a 'couples' type trip, which does make me feel a little bit old, but it should be a good chance for everyone's other halves to get to know each other as there are still some of us who haven't met. 

Anyway, that's you all up to date on what I've been up to lately, and hopefully it won't be too long until I feel I have something else worth sharing on that front.

What have you been doing lately?

xx