Dirty thirty birthday celebrations (a bit belated)

It's taken me awhile to get this post up because to be honest I found January to be a challenging month. I've now almost been 30 for a month! I had a pretty big roller coaster of emotions around leaving my 20s but having such amazing family and friends definitely helped :) I received so many lovely cards, gifts, and messages that I have to admit I was a bit tearful at times.

I was lucky enough to celebrate my birthday over most of the week with a day in London with dinner and drinks with our London Lithuanian friends :), drinks with my colleagues, dinner and drinks with Brighton friends, and a lazy Sunday with pancakes time on the beach. I've got plenty of pictures to remind me how wonderful it was!

Thanks to everyone for the lovely messages, cards, and gifts it definitely made entering my 30s infinitely easier :) Birthdays are good for reminding you how many great people you are surrounded with and how much you are loved <3 nbsp="" p="">

oh hey, I'm 30! (thanks for the card dear colleagues!)

a walk through Hyde park

venturing to our beloved Southbank

a lively and interesting dinner and drinks with dear friends! (Lina and Lukas)

(Paulius and Kaz ;) )

Dalia brought another of her beautiful cakes!

this picture is terrible quality but i LOVE the dance moves :) 

also loved the instant pics!

Our beautiful Brighton friends! really loved finally going to Pho

as ever, a beautifully decorated cake by Lina 

Tautvydas was also very excited by it :) 

<3 and="" bel="" ella="" td="">

Happy Ana could join in but wish we could have chatted a bit more

a beautiful sunset on our Sunday walk

Thanks and Aciu!! <3 becky="" p="">

Northern Italy

Last week we spent time in Milan, Monza, and the Italian alps visiting our friends Urte, Linas, and their two little girls.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't too cooperative so it rained most of the days but we managed to get outside a bit 

We went to an indoor water park which was a nice change to have some warmth! We loved being in a warm pool in the cold outside and Urte and Lina online tipped over out of the slides once :) 

Lina, Urte, and the girls made homemade tortellini.

We spent a day driving up to the alps for some beautiful views and some small hikes.

We got a bit of time walking around a wet Milan. We got a big red umbrella for €2.65 which helped us both stay dry and improved our mood. Also fell in love with a bookshop in the beautiful shopping halls which had a sofa made of books :) 

And had pizza at the new local pizzeria.

And spent some time playing as well :) 

Thanks for the great trip guys!!! 

A busy and mostly lovely day

Friday turned out to be a very eventful day in London :) We came to London on Thursday night and stayed with Siga through Saturday.

I was Lina's assistant while she filmed an event. There was an issue with one of the cameras which caused a lot of (unnecessary) stress but we got through it all quite well. It required a quick trip to East London and help from friends. I'm not sure I'm built for the filming business :) 

Wandering in Aldgate, East London

Behind the camera

Scooters Cafe on Lower March Street, Waterloo

After a nap back at Siga's house we met up with Erica at scooters cafe in Waterloo. It was a great quirky place with a metal staircase and a cat. It was great to catch up after so long! The interior is made up of vintage furniture and decorations and serves cocktails and beers as well as normal cafe hot drinks and cakes. 

Street art in the tunnels

We had a quick stop off at a landscape photography exhibition in the national theatre.

Landscape photography exhibition at the National theatre

Dessert at the Bonnington Cafe

Then dinner at Bonnington cafe I'm Vauxhall with Siga. I always like atmosphere and my main was really good as well. If you're looking for an interesting place for dinner in London you should definitely check it out. They have different chefs each night and you should bring your own drinks. You need to book so go to the website and get the chefs number. This is another interesting place that Erica and Katie showed us :) 

It was a busy day but it was really nice to catch up with friends, to see Lina in her work mode, and to find new interesting places in London. 

Devils dyke aka muddy hiking

We took advantage of the first sunny day in ages to visit a local Sussex overlook and hiking spot with our friends Bel and Ella. The day was beautiful! Although the hiking trails and fields we still very sodden with water and  mud. It was really great to get out if town, see the beautiful countryside, get some fresh air, catch up with friends, and warm up at a cozy pub with a fire :) 

beautiful views! 

People flock to the outdoors when we get a sunny day!!

Always the jumper!

Lina was so happy to be out in nature :) 

 

It may look like a small stream in the this picture but it felt much better having to walk across the log to continue on our path!

the British countryside 

my shoes were much muddier and wetter by the end :) 

January days

Welcoming January has been a bit difficult this time around as I'm struggling a little with the whole turning 30 thing. I love birthdays and usually even have a count down the previous 6 months, but this time has been the first time that I feel that time is moving too quickly. 

We welcomed in the new year with a couple of friends in a rainy Brighton :) and spent a stormy January 1st on the sofa relaxing and getting ready for regular life to start again. I've been thankful for getting back into the routine of work and am looking forward to catching up with friends. Last Friday a couple of our Lithuanian London friends came down and we had dinner and looked through pictures of their travels, it felt nice to have that comfortability and ease around people we've known for years. 

Also, the new year has brought with it new plans and as always changes that I would like to make. I haven't made any resolutions as I know myself enough to know that I'm terrible at keeping to big goals. Instead I've been thinking of other ways to keep moving forward and organize my thoughts. 

A few different blogs I've seen recently have the idea of choosing a word that you want to symbolize this year, something that you want to strive for and have a thread running through all of the areas of your life. I've been really gravitating towards this lately as I think it could be more helpful to me than lists and calendars. I've been thinking about this a lot and I keep getting drawn back to the word 'Connect'. I have lots of reasons for this which I will share in another post but I think this is the route I want to go. 

I also want to make a vision board. I attended a Creating 2013 workshop in December 2012 put on a by an amazing woman who I now call my friend. I really enjoyed being creative in my planning for the year and most enjoyed creating a vision board. It is something I had up on the wall at our old flat and something that I still hang on to. I want to make another for this year as well to have the time to be creative and reflect. 

Now, for the next few weeks I have many things to look forward to including celebrating my birthday with new friends and old, a visit from one of our closest friends and her crazy little girls, and then our first visit to Milan, Italy. Although I have some moments of feeling down about my birthday life is pretty good :) 

(a stormy Brighton)