Scorching Heat, Music Festivals And Feline Birthdays – July 2022 Overview

July 2022 is a month most of us won’t forget. The month that temperatures reached a record high of 40 degrees. I know I said I wanted sunshine, but the 10 days or so if heat was a bit too much. But I’m British and an indoorsy kind of person, so I’m always ready to moan about the weather not quite being right. To think that London was hotter than most other places around the world is quite mad. But that seems to be the world we’re living in now.

But despite not leaving the house and staying in the cooler indoors I had a lovely time during the month. Here’s what I got up to during July 2022.

Much awaited return to 2000 trees festival

As soon as we got back from 2000 trees in 2019 we booked our tickets for the following year. It’s an amazing festival and we knew we wanted to go again. But then the pandemic happened, and what was meant to be a year between festivals was actually three years. But the festival was well worth the wait and such an amazing weekend. It happened during the lead up to the super hot weather so it was warm (especially coupled with camping), but not as hot as we now know it got!

There weren’t loads of bands on my radar beforehand that I knew I wanted to see. But this was good as it made me and Luke listen to lots of new music and see bands neither of us had seen before. This included Royal Republic who were a personal highlight, Calva Louise, Sick Joy and so many more.

My first time at YALC in July 2022

Less than 10 hours after getting back from 2000 trees I was up and getting ready to the Kensington Olympia for YALC.

YALC is the young adult literary convention and it was my very first time going, but I made the absolute most of it. I wrote a whole post on it and how I saved loads of money on books if you want to take a read. But I listened to some talks including one by the legend Jacqueline Wilson, I got a few books signed, and I spent a lot of time speaking to publishers and buying books. It was a dreamy day and I have so many more books on my TBR pile now.

A month of entertainment

At the very start of the month I managed to tick off a bucket list performer from my list when I saw Elton John on his farewell tour in Watford. The show was phenomenal and I am so glad that I got to see him.

Then I had two movie trips during July 2022 starting with the newest Thor movie. I’ve heard a lot of people slating the movie but I enjoyed it. Yes it was a bit silly, but I liked the humour. Then I went to see the Elvis movie which was incredible. Austin who played Elvis, and Tom Hank who played Colonel Tom Parker both did amazing jobs and it’s made me admire Elvis even more as an artist.

I had wanted to see Where the Crawdads Sing but that’s going to have to be one for August.

I’ve also been watching quite a lot of TV shows. If you follow me on Instagram I do a weekly roundup of what I have been watching but some of my highlights from July includes Stranger Things 4 on Netflix, Everything I Know About Love on BBC, Umbrella Academy 3 on Netflix,  The Summer I Turned Pretty on Prime TV and The Boys on Prime TV.

An afternoon in London during July 2022

Near the end of the month me and my mum headed into London to have lunch and go to the theatre. It’s been over 2 years since we first booked to see & Juliet and we finally saw the show, and it was well worth the wait.

We headed to a really nice Lebanese/ Greek restaurant for lunch and ordered all the small plates. This is my absolute favourite type of food as I get to try loads of different bits. We had plenty of dips, breads, cheese and chicken which was so yummy. When we headed into the theatre we found out they had closed the top section and our seats had been upgraded. So not only did we get tickets on a great deal, but we got even better seats.

Even though five of the main characters were all played by understudies it was still amazing. All of the songs featured were written by Max Martin who produced the show and it was amazing how each well known pop song fit into the story perfectly.

Our boys have turned one

When we picked up our beautiful cats Thor and Loki last September our lives changed so quickly. But I can not believe that they are already a year old. Time has gone so quickly. They’re now technically fully grown cats and are complete and utter characters, changing and evolving all the time.

Loki is still affectionate, although he doesn’t snuggle up and sleep on us quite as much as he used to. And he’s still a bit mischievous and naughty, but he’s adorable so he gets away with it. Thor is still super independent and likes his own space, but he has started to get a lot more affectionate in the past month or so.

I’m excited to see how their personalities continue to develop over the years to come.

Everything else in July 2022

The month has been absolutely lovely seeing both friends and family. Me and some friends headed to the Bedford River Festival local to use which was completely free and full of music, food, fairground rides and so much more.

I tried out the TGI Friday’s bottomless brunch with a few friends which was excellent as expected, and such a good deal. We had a laugh and drank some yummy cocktails followed by a trip to a dessert lounge afterwards.

House related bits

Our project front garden has made a little bit of progress. I’m pleased to report the plants are still alive despite the very hot weather that we had. My dad spent a day really digging up the rest of the space. This means very soon we can order some top soil and then get it turfed. Once this is done it will completely change how the front garden looks.

We did have a little issue with the front garden when a lovely BT Openreach van backed into our front garden. It destroyed some box hedging and knocked over a metal post that was concreted in. So I’m now having to go through the process of claiming for them to pay for the damage.

Our garage project has made a little bit of progress as well. The whole space has been organised and cleared out and the window for Luke’s office has now gone in. We made an order for everything we need to build the flooring so after the summer is over this should be fitted ready to make a start on the ceiling and walls.

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