Barcelonaaa!

3 weeks ago, we went to Barcelona.

We being Ben and I, Katie, Jack, and Emma and Dwyane.

We had an airbnb apartment booked, and met at the airport from our assorted flights and headed to the place.

It was an amazing 4 bedroom apartment, the lift was broken and it was 4 flights of stairs up but it was amazing none the less.

We had a bit of a tapas and wine party the first night, I got pretty drunk and apparently made a bit of a dick of myself but, woke up with the hangover or all hangovers as punishment. 

Jack, Katie, Ben and I went out for dinner too, we went to an amazing little restaurant it was family owned and so traditional. We got 2 bottles of wine, and so much food all for 40 euros!

Our friends Mike and Nat were here for a few days too, so we did some sightseeing, lunching, boozing, beaching and warming our bones with the 28 degree heat! 

4 nights and 5 days saw us going to a rather fancy restaurant for the best paella I've ever had (also my first and if it wasn't so yum I wouldn't be scared to try more).
It saw us going back to the cheap restaurant twice! It saw us eat fresh seafood and Ben and I even went to a market and brought a live lobster, scallops, mussels, prawns and calamari and cooked up a feast!

We went to the beach twice, 3 swims in the beautiful Mediterranean water.

It was a busy holiday with 5-6 personalities and so much to see and do it was more like we needed a holiday after the holiday but it was great. 

Catching up with Emma and Dwayne we haven't seen in 2 years, and seeing Jack again was really nice. Makes us realise there is a lot at home for us when we are ready to go back there!

Holidays over for now though, I applied for my EEA2 permit the week we got back, so the Home Office has our passports until the decide if I can stay in the UK with Ben and we can continue our adventure for a bit longer!!

Fingers crossed!
x

Dinner, night 1

Day 2 wandering around the port

Old Marilyn doing her thing

My delicious Paella 

Fresh market

so much fruit!

and lollies!

finally the beach!

spot the boobies

Tapas for Africa

The festival of Barcelona starting up,

Beach day again!

Me Katie and Emma

Seafood dinner at home

Modelling our jelly's

United we stand...

Pretty excited about the festival

bit of a parade- was cool to see!

cute drumming Spanish boy!

Drinks, fireworks and jelly's for our last night.

heart in my beer

Steve Jobs's boat- designed by Apple- and pretty amazing!

Guests

Last, last week Katie arrived. 
Its been pretty cute having a little bit of family around again.

With my mum visiting, Jack visiting and now Katie moving here to live I haven't felt quite so far from home.

We've taken her out the last two Friday's, shown her a bit of London. Her arriving also meant the count down to our next holiday. 

We are off to Barcelona in 2 sleeps, and I cant wait!! We have an amazing apartment booked right in the city close and close to the beach. Its a bit of a Bright clan holiday with Ben, Katie, Jack, Emma and Dwayne and me.
Jack is coming to the end of his holiday, and Emma and Dwayne just starting theirs, it should be interesting! 5 days of sibling love :)

Once we get back from Barcelona its crunch time, its time to post my visa application so we can stay. Here's hoping they let me back into the UK to apply for it though, will have to look for the friendliest border officer when I land. 

London has been pretty good to us lately, the sun has been shining, and the weekends have been great, so we've been making the most of it before the snow and cold comes. 
We had Jared and Pip here last weekend so caught up with them on Saturday for lunch and a few drinks with Mike and his gf Christina.
Yesterday Ben and I rode around London on the Barclay's bikes- played half an hour of tennis and rode home. 
And last Sunday it was a boozy brunch with a beautiful friend, with wedding planning chat. 

I often swing between wanting home, and not wanting to leave. They say London takes a piece of your heart when you leave, and though my heart is at home in NZ, I can tell you I will be leaving some of mine here.

2 years since we moved us just around the corner, and though sometimes hard I wouldn't change a thing.

26

I've been 26 for a week and a half.. 

It was a really good bday to be honest, Ben and I went out to Flesh and Buns in Convent Garden. Dinner was delicious and drinks were fun. Earlier in the day I'd had a great boozy lunch with some of the girls from work and sat in the sun with Phoebe in the afternoon over a bottle of sav.

Ben got me a couple of beautiful Swarovski rings and made me the happiest girl ever.

As we had a joint bday party the weekend before, I thought I would spend my bday weekend having a sober quiet (guilt free) weekend. I watched movies, took naps, walked to Broadway Market in the sunshine and got yummy food with Jamee, and it was beautiful.

It's summer here and we have been busy, we've had some reason or another to be out and drinking every weekend for the last couple of months- which has been amazing but last weekend was bliss and I needed it. 

Mum came back from Croatia and only had 2 days before she was off, so we had a bit of a farewell/ bday dinner with our Tunbridge Wells fam. It was nice catching up, and I really feel like I have family here, and it's such a nice feeling. 

On Thursday this week I left work early, and took mum out to the airport. It was not as sad as I thought, having mum here has been amazing but she has been coming and going the whole time so I feel a little like she's just popped somewhere else. I wonder when it will hit that she's not coming back. 

I can feel that summer is starting to leave us, and I am not looking forward to the cold again, though last winter wasn't too bad I'm not sure we'll be so lucky this year. 

Enough of thinking about the cold for now.. This weekend we are off to Brugge, and them 2 weeks later we have Barcelona for 5 days. 

Bring in more holidays I say!

Xx