Monthly Musings: September 2024
our monthly dose of ramblings!
Friends, hello! Greetings from Hanoi! I hope this post finds you happy, healthy, and caffeinating! I am stopping by your emails this fine Sunday to share the briefest post, Monthly Musings: September 2024. I’m loathe to miss out on sharing our monthly dose of ramblings - you didn’t really think I’d forget to post before jetting off to Vietnam, did you?! I have scheduled this post to hit your inboxes on Sunday morning Irish-time / Sunday evening Vietnam-time. If everything has gone according to plan, Husband and I should have touched down in the Vietnamese capital about twelve hours ago. We’re probably jet-lagged to high heavens and have likely already been hit with a mosquito bite or two, but hey ho - we’re in Vietnam!
Shall I get on with my speedy monthly recap? Find it below!
Monthly Musings: September 2024
I had the most delightful birthday ever! Well - I was actually working on my birthday and it was perhaps the busiest Monday we’ve had in literal months, but it was still nice! We started the celebrations a couple of days early with dinner at a friend’s house, followed it up with a sweet afternoon pint just Husband and me, and rounded it off by having dinner with my family on Monday after work. It was all so perfect! My loved ones all totally spoiled me, and I even got my own delightfully large and custard filled doughnut in work! Here’s to another 31 years around the sun!
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My friendiversary trip to Glasgow was so lovely! We based ourselves in the West End and basically spent our whole 48-hours in town wandering around eating and drinking margaritas - it was perfect! Side note: how nice in Glasgow? Maybe we were just staying in a really nice part, but I always had the impression that the place was maybe a bit stab-city? I was very pleasantly surprised! Stay tuned for a Glasgow travel guide coming soon!
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In case you missed it, my 30 within 30 series hit the blog last month! There were three posts in the series - Part I, Part II, and Part III - and I can’t explain the relief I feel at having published them! I’m just so happy and proud that I hit my goal of 30 countries within 30 years, and these blog posts document every single step on that journey. It was nice getting to recap some of my earlier travels and share them here on the blog - especially the trips that happened pre-my-travel-guide-writing, you know? I’m still in shock that I made it happen! Eeeep :)
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Related: now that my 30 within 30 travel goal is complete, what should my next one be? A new country every year? One country from every letter of the alphabet? My initial gut instinct is simply to keep my age and country count matched - but I’m open to suggestions! Let me know you’re thoughts in the comment box below!
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It would appear last month was a good one for new posts, because I also managed to share A Long Weekend in Oslo, my first ever Norwegian travel guide! If you read my June MM post you’ll already know, but we absolutely adored Oslo. Both Husband and I were totally blown away by the city! My guide covers everywhere we ate, drank, tourist-ed etc. in Oslo, and I hope you love it!
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Time for a Summer Bucket List check in! Greys growing wild and free? Check! Summer haircut? Check! Celebrate friendiversary in Glasgow? Check! More photos of people? Check! Plan Asia trip? Check!! The only list-items I’ve been lacking on are beach day - although we could technically do this in Vietnam? -, more ice-cream, and more hustling after work. Feeling good about the amount I got ticked off! How are you doing with your own?
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No recipes from around the web this month - however! Husband gifted me Diana Henry’s gorgeous From The Oven To The Table cookbook for my birthday and omg it is so beautiful! I’ve already made the Chicken with Capers, Lemon & Thyme and it was delicious that we’ve decided to make it for dinner the next time we have people over! So. Good.
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Have you watched anything great lately? TV-wise, we’re really enjoying Bad Monkey on Apple+, and we just started Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, which I’m very intrigued by. Movie-wise, we slipped into a mini rewatch-a-thon last month: Final Destinations 1-3, which are all still fantastically cheesy, Call Me By Your Name, as amazing as ever, and The Holdovers, a firm new favourite! New-to-us watches include Challengers, which we both loved and I can easily see us rewatching soooon, The Strangers: Chapter I, which sucked, and After Hours, which was fab! As always, here’s the link to our Letterboxd.
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Sadly I only read one book last month, Jodi Picoult’s Songs of the Humpback Whale. I read the book many years ago, so technically it was a reread, but I actually had no recollection of the story - I really enjoyed it! I like the way her books are written from a few different perspectives, so it really makes you feel ingrained in the storyline! What are you reading these days?
Okay, that’s all I have for you today friends! Let’s catch up again next month, yeah? I’m sure I’ll have so much to talk about upon our return!
Have a great September!
My love to you,
Vicki xo
**Husband would like me to note that he didn't have time to proofread this post before our trip. He, as my editor, apologies for any typos!**
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