Monthly Musings: May 2022
Sweet friends, hello! Welcome to our Monthly Musings: May 2022 post, aka: our regularly scheduled beginning-of-the-month dose of ramblings! How are you doing? Did you enjoy the bank holiday weekend? Ours was actually lovely! There was an epic brisket BBQ with friends, a daytime spritz & cheese board with another friend, and two days of blissful relaxation at home. Said relaxation time was filled with TV-watching, walks around the block, baking, and Boyfriend rediscovering his love of playing guitar hooked up to the amp. Oof! I almost forgot about the epic weeding session we partook in with my Dad! My tiny tiny muscles were sore for literal days afterwards, but it’s okay – he paid us in beer. We all have our price!
Shall we get down to business? Below are our musings for the month ahead. Recipes, travel guides, book talk and movie thoughts – the usual. Enjoy!
monthly musings: may 2022
Covid-19 update: the WHO are predicting there’ll be a huge surge in cases here within the next 4-6 weeks, with future surges occurring every three months. So we all have that to look forward to – the joy! We – Boyfriend, me, my mom, dad, and sister – have all managed to stay safe and healthy, but Boyfriend’s family recently joined the cohort of positive testers.
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In case you missed it: Passionate Baker turned 10 last week! To celebrate, I shared a post looking back at some of my very favourite recipes and travel guides. Can you believe that this little corner of the internet is a whole decade old? It’s mad! I’m so beyond thankful for this space, I don’t know what I’d do without it! Thank you for being here, friends 🙂
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I’m going to be a bridesmaid! Sophie, my friend who I was indulging in a daytime spritz with, asked me to be one of her bridesmaids – I couldn’t believe it! There we were, mid-cheeseboard eating, when she casually got up and produced a cute little cardboard box and offered it to me. Baffled – and, quite frankly, worried I forgot some gift-giving holiday – I sat there gawping until she said: “these are my ‘will-you-be-my-bridesmaid?’ cookies”. They were Thalia’s Rose Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies, and it was the sweetest gesture ever! Naturally, I said yes – how exciting! Only 216 days until the wedding!
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Speaking of weddings: we are wedding-bound at the end of this month! Boyfriend’s cousin is getting married in Mount Juliet in Kilkenny, so that should be nice. I have yet to buy a dress, but the thoughts of going shopping just make me want to lie down. In any case, I have hopes and dreams that we’ll make it to Butcher before we leave the city. To read my Kilkenny Travel Guide, click here!
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Okay, it’s official: we’re going to Canada in August! You may or may not remember, but Boyfriend and I have been attempting to visit the land of maple syrup for quite some time now. In February 2019, we booked flights to Montreal and were super excited to explore and eat all. the. things. However, our excitement was short-lived, because in April they cancelled our flights. Since then, there have been several trips planned and cancelled because of Covid, but finally, our lack-of-visiting-Canada is coming to an end! We have finally secured flights to and from Halifax – which I mentioned in March, but you guessed it: those flights were cancelled and we had to book a different date! – things are looking good! Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us, I don’t think we could handle another cancellation.
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Speaking of travel, I shared my second Luxembourg travel guide to the blog last month: Visiting Vianden! Vianden is home to the largest castle in all of Luxembourg, and it’s just so darn cute! If you missed my first post all about the tiny country: A Long Weekend in Luxembourg. I have a new Westport travel guide coming next week, so be sure to check back for that!
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Any good TV or movie suggestions? TV-wise, we just finished Slow Horses on Apple TV+ and loved it! We’re still not finished PLL, but we are finally on the last season and it’s dragggging. Movie-wise, we recently watched Dune, which I’m not sure I fully grasped, but enjoyed all the same. Other recent highlights include: No Time to Die, which I thought was really good fun, Still Water, which I was pleasantly surprised by, and A Man Called Ove, which is fantastic. Actually, have you heard of Letterboxd? It’s a very handy website where you log the films you’ve watched and rate/review them. We’re new to the platform, but it’s such a great way of keeping track of what you’ve seen! If you’re on there, let’s be friends – here’s our page!
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Do you have any good book recommendations? I recently devoured and loved Michael Connelly’s latest Ballard & Bosch book The Dark Hours, and am currently reading Jo Nesbo’s collection of short stories, The Jealousy Man. None of the short stories really have me hooked – do you have any suggestions? I’m kind of in the mood for something light and fun, anything Taylor Jenkins Reid is always a good choice – I loved Malibu Rising.
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An oldie but a goodie from this time five years ago: Flourless Brownies. I may or may not have forgotten to add the flour, but it all worked out for the best in the end!
And there we have it, our Monthly Musings: May 2022 post! Let’s do it all again in another couple of weeks, okay?
Until then,
Vicki xo
related posts:
2022: Jan // Feb // Mar // Apr
2021: Jan // Feb // Mar // Apr // May // Jun // July // Aug // Sept // Oct // Nov // Dec
2020: Jan // Feb // Mar // Apr // May // Jun // July // Aug // Sept // Oct // Nov // Dec
2019: Jan // Feb // Mar // Apr // May // Jun // July // Aug // Sept // Oct // Nov // Dec