Monday 31 December 2012

Looking back and forward – the 2012/13 edition – part one

I did a 2011 year in review post last year, so I thought I’d do one this year too.

Where to start? Well, January I suppose…
January was full of 30th birthdays galore – including my own, which involved a wonderful few weeks filled with various dinners, a night at Circus, a Duck Tour of London, afternoon tea for breakfast, dinner at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s, a massive party, a family gathering and some fish n chips with the Luvvies. And some beeooootiful presents. I was truly spoilt.

We also managed to purchase a house! Hurrah!
 
Normally a quiet and gloomy month, this February was full of fun!

It kicked off with a Vintage Patisserie hen party for one of my dear “2-4-1 girlies”, Sarah, followed by my birthday present from the same group – fascinator making and then another 30th – all in one weekend, so I spent the rest of the month recovering until round four(possibly five?) of the hen tour with a TOWIE party in Brentwood!
March saw us take a group trip to Galway for Sarah's traditional Irish wedding, a special little boy was christened and another one of the girls, Caroline, turned thirty - we celebrated with a posh Chinese meal and a fairy tale fancy dress party!

We also managed to purchase another house, after the previous one fell through! Proper HURRAH!
 
April was another big birthday month! We got started with a Mad Hatter’s afternoon tea party at the Sanderson for Katy and then a big birthday weekend for Mr G.  We started with a birthday breakfast in our favourite brunch spot, a trip around the London Dungeons and then some stall-to-stall snacking in Borough Market. We then headed out to dinner at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental. A family meal and then some more posh Chinese with Mr G’s crew!

We also packed up our flat ready to make ourselves homeless. A sad, sad day!
We were however cheered to hear that one of my besties, Claire, became spectacularly engaged. YAY!!



In May we said our final goodbyes to our first home and made ourselves officially homeless. We moved in with my parents for one night, before jetting off to California (and Nevada, briefly) for a road trip of a lifetime through San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and ending in San Diego.
 
June was downright crazy, beginning with the Jubilee weekender, which included two weddings, a thirtieth birthday party and a garden party (hosted by moi) all within three days. Needless to say the fourth day of the long weekender Queenie gave us was spent on the sofa in my PJs!
An engagement party, some London sightseeing, and lunch and cocktail date with the god family (including a suspicious non-drinker, mwah ha ha ha) a thirtieth party at Lovebox and some kiddies’ birthday parties completed the month!



I spent the early hours of the first day of July drunkenly navigating my way home, well, to my parents' home, from Kim’s 30th birthday celebrations in Camden, and making myself comfortable, face down, on their driveway for a snooze. I then spent the rest of that day feigning sobriety as we MOVED IN TO OUR NEW HOME! Not an ideal start, but at least I was upright… mostly! 

A baby shower a bit later in July provided the perfect excuse to abstain from alcohol for a little while!
The Olympic Flame came to stay in our home city (oh yes, we’re a city now, a Jubilee city in fact) and we welcomed it with a festival, some fireworks, some skydivers and a rather odd light show.

Oh, and let’s not forget LONDON 20-FLIPPING-12. I was in heaven! GO TEAM GB!!!!! Words can not describe how amazing London 2012 was for me. Well I tried in a blog post, see what you think.  I also spent an amazing day at Wimbledon watching Andy Murray and Laura Robson do us proud!
 
The so-called height of summer, or August, saw us attend a Great Gatsby-esque wedding on a lake, a catch up afternoon tea party with the Tea Shop Luvvies, a wedding at the home of my friend (and talented wedding photographer) Jasmine and a rave in a field to celebrate the last thirtieth of our gang, Liz.
We also got burgled. But the less we say about that, the better. Hmph.
 
But in better news the Paralympics got underway – INSPIRATION!
September began with a wonderful wedding at Blenheim Palace and the arrival of a beautiful baby girl, Varenna.

I also climbed the O2, spent the evening at the Olympic Stadium watched Lady Gaga strut her stuff at Twickenham and took a mixology class at Harvey Nichols.



We ended the summer with a short break in Seville in October to top up our vitamin D levels before the long dark winter, said goodbye to some ooooooold friends and one very new one (Baby V) as they left for the other side of the world to start a new life, and ended the month with a Halloween housewarming in our new pad.
 
 
November saw Secrets Revealed at the Harry Potter Studio Tour, an afternoon tea date with the God Family (the last one before we gained a new member) and a trip to Dublin and Belfast (full write up to follow!) to visit Jo and see the Titanic exhibition. Then the preparations for Christmas in our new home began!



December was full of festive catch ups, a trip to the Churchill war rooms (review coming soon!) dinner dates and parties, including a James Bond themed affair at Hush, an opulent party at Claridge’s and meeting one of the most inspiring women from London 2012 – Martine Wright – at a beautiful carol service at St. Paul’s. A Fake Christmas Day and Boxing Day weekend got us fully in the festive mood for our first Christmas event, uniting both families in our new home. Possibly a new tradition in the making? After that it was back to the traditions of old, including the Annual Potage Cup, and then almost a week of Christmas celebrations, before tonight’s Roaring Twenties New Year’s Eve party.
 
We also received some amazing news: Baby E joined my God Family a fortnight early on 29th. I suspect he was desperate to be born in one of the greatest years we can remember: The Golden Jubilee and London 2012. Why wait for 2013 when you can list that on your birth certificate?

And so to Twenty Thirteen
2012 was another fun-packed year, full of memories that will stay with me for a lifetime but I’m looking forward to some chill time next year, although I doubt it’ll happen – more home improvements to work on, eight weddings (including two abroad), a family sailing trip (though I’ll be flying), more thirtieth birthdays and hopefully some more exciting travel opportunities. And then who knows…

And so, to say good bye to a year full of montages, what better way than to end with this year in review, from Google. Amazing!
See you next year!

Mwah
x
 

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