What if the ordinary days are the best part of summer?

I'm in the office for the first time in a long time. In case you didn't know, I'm a marketing brand manager for a software company in London and mostly I work from home. Today I'm going into the office because we have a teenager with us, like he's shadowing, work shadowing, kind of an intern, and I'm managing him this week, giving him tasks, hoping he will learn something about marketing along the way. So I'm in the office today and I think it's going to be a good day because seeing as we have this intern here, we're going to go out for lunch and then I've got plans with my friends later this evening, so I'm happy to be in. I need a break from my home office, so let's go! Just finished work, it is 7pm and now I'm on my way to see my friends. We're going to this bar called The Little Neon Door, which the concept is kind of a bar that wants to emulate like the best type of house party ever. Now it is a Wednesday, I think. Is it a Wednesday? God, I'm so confused. This has been a very long day, but yeah, it's in the middle of the week either way, so I won't be drinking too much. I also have a huge headache because it was a little bit of a rough day at work. Obviously went for lunch and had pizza, which was lovely, but a lot of work. We have a really big project on at the moment to redo the entire website, which is something I did two years ago and it feels like I literally just did it and now we're doing it again, but that's the nature of marketing. Things move quickly and we're doing a full refresh with very limited budget, which if you work in marketing, you know, it's hard out here. But anyway, I'm going to put work behind me now and I'm going to go and have some friends with, have some friends. You can tell it's been a long day. Have some fun with my friends. It's also the World Cup semifinals tonight, so there are so many people out and about in England like jerseys, jerseys? T-shirts? I don't know. One behind me. Anyway, I'm kind of sad I'm going to miss the match because I have gotten really invested in football this World Cup because of Norway and making it so far, so I kind of feel like I want to support England and watch the match, but I want to see my friends more. It's Friday afternoon and we are on our way to the gym. My first time going to the gym in a while, but my shin splints are back, so I need to exercise and lift some weights. Back from the shop and I'm immediately going to go to the shop and get some bits because Alex is going out this evening, so I'm home alone and I want to have a nice little sweet treat this evening. I've been completely obsessed with Eton Mess ever since I had it at my friend's house the other week, so I'm just going to buy more strawberries and more cream. You just need to eat the strawberries while you can while it's summer, so that's what I'm going to do. Get some bits and then I might go for a walk later, so I don't know if I can be bothered to shower just yet, but it was a really nice little workout in the gym. My camera unfortunately died pretty much as soon as we got there, so I didn't get to film much, but we did leg day, which was the first time I did leg day in weeks. Honestly, maybe like two months, which is not great and it was very tough, so probably for the best that I didn't get to film much. It was really good. I need to do it because my knees and my shins, just like my whole body, is suffering. I've got tendinitis in my arm. I'm like, what is going on? I'm falling apart, so that's why I need to go to the gym and get fit again, because the only exercise I've been doing recently is my walks. I went to Pilates with a friend and I played tennis the other weekend, which is fun and nice, but I've got this chair, it's like not in the right place. Yeah, which has been really fun, but I need to do some actual proper exercise. I just don't enjoy it that much, but now let's go to the shop, let's get this air con on because it is hot, and let's get some strawberries. A bit of a sweaty mess having dinner, but we are having fajitas today, and I got these fun drinks in Waitrose. By the way, Alex is off to the side chomping away, so I just ignored that food sounds, but yeah, when I was in Canada, I got poppy for the first time, and I loved it, and then I realized that we have loads of brands like this in the UK as well. We've got Hip Hop, we've got Living Things, we've got a few other ones like Dash, and I loved the packaging of this. This was the one that drew me in the most, and I love rhubarb, so I thought I would just try it. Oh, that's a nice smell. It's not quite cold enough outside. Got nice cubes. Uh-oh. Is it not nice? It's not as sweet as I thought it would be. The poppy, to be fair, I'm not a big soda drinker, so I'm not really the right person to review these, but the poppy I had was really flavourful, sweet, but not overly sweet like a Fanta or anything like that, but this one has a bit more of that health taste, and also the health branding. It's branded as a biotic soda, whatever that means, and it says low sugar, high fibre. I have no idea how I could drink in a fibre. Good point. Maybe it's in the bubbles. It does have a nice aftertaste, but I think I'm not a big fan of the bubbles, but I don't like fizzy water, so I think that's probably the problem here. It tastes like salsa. Yeah, it tastes like fizzy water with a bit of flavouring, and I don't like flavoured water, so. Anyway, Alex is pretty much done with his fast wrap, so I'm going to make my wrap now. I just didn't want to spill tomatoes, so I sliced up enough, but they had a farmer's market branded box of tomatoes at the shop that I was so tempted to buy. It was a bit expensive, and I wasn't sure they would be delicious, but I just really, really need, what are they called? Heritage tomato on a piece of toast. I don't even know what that means. With some olive oil. I need that before summer's up. The sun is setting, so it's finally cold enough to take Chino for a walk. We had dog sitting again this week, which I'm loving. It is so good to have a dog this often, but also not have the responsibility of owning a dog, so we're feeling very lucky, and I am taking him on my usual walk around the river. It is so wild to see how quickly the nature and the scenery around me is changing. I feel like it was just that green lushness of early summer, and now everything is already golden, and I can smell ripe fruit. I can see berries and fruit on the trees, and it's mid-July. It's just, time is slipping by so fast. Summer is slipping away from me. I want to be able to soak it up. I wish I didn't have to spend like every single week working, because the weeks just go by so fast, and then you only have so many weekends to actually take take in summer, and soak up summer. So I am trying to get better at soaking up in the evenings after work, which is why I'm glad I have a very quiet Friday evening today. There is definitely a part of me that feels like I need to like do something every single weekend. I need to have all the plans, say yes to everything, but actually because everyday life is so busy, I need to also just have some quiet time where I can do things like this, where I'm not doing anything exciting on a Friday. I'm just taking the dog for a walk. I'm doing the dishes after dinner, and later I'll probably edit my blog, maybe read something, have my eaten mess, and that is also so important, because if not, it is just going to feel like summer is going by too fast, and as if life is always a rush, which I don't want to. That is honestly how it's felt a little bit recently. I felt like just busy, busy, busy all the time, and overwhelmed at work, and not able to feel that calm that I want to feel, because it's summer, and you should feel there should be time to rest, and sit outside, and bask in the sunshine, and read a book, and walk in nature, and just do nothing important, you know? But I am very grateful for these walks. They always help me slow down, and ground myself, and remember that life is so much bigger than just what is happening inside my house, in front of the computer screen, and all the random stress that I feel throughout the day. As soon as I come outside, I remember it's not so important. I am so small in the grand scheme of things, and this stress that I'm feeling is so small in the grand scheme of things. Valentino is really just having a ball down there. He's rolling himself around all the grass. That better not be any sort of dog poo, or bird poo, that you are rolling in, please. Worst case, he's going back to his mama tonight, so she can wash him. He is not the easiest to give a bath. He does not like it very much. This path that I'm currently walking is my favourite around where I live, because it is basically where they've let the grass grow really, really tall, and then they've cut one little road or path throughout the grass, and it feels really wild. Even though I'm right next to the road, I'm right next to like the very done-up human-made park landscape, if that makes sense. And obviously this is human-made, but it just looks so wild, which is what I love. It just looks like I'm walking around in the countryside, but I'm not. I'm in a city. I actually saw the other day that the National Park Trust, so the organisation that is in charge of all of the parks in my city, I saw that they were hiring for a marketing manager, and at first I thought, this is literally my dream job, because I do so much free marketing for these parks already, because I just love them so much, and they bring me so much joy, and I am... Oh, bug on my arm. Sorry. I just feel happiest when I'm outside in these parks, so I thought, I have to apply. This is the right job for me, but then I realised it was going to be a lot more about the various activities that they put on in like the popular parks around the city, and also was going to be lower pay than my current job, and also was going to be in the office every single day, which if I had to be in the office every single day, I wouldn't be able to go on my lunchtime walks in the parks, so I decided not to apply for it. But imagine if it had been a job just about taking photos and videos and talking about these parks, like I would be the perfect spokesperson. I did the dishes after dinner, then I did an everything shower, and now it's 11pm somehow. The day has just gone by. I was going to have a whole evening, but my evening is going to start now at 11pm. But I don't mind, I am a night owl, so I'm going to have my dessert no matter what time it is. I'm going to make an eating mess, like I mentioned before, and I did think, you might not know what that is, it is a very English thing, but it's basically broken meringue and whipped cream, this is not whipped yet, I will whip it, and then strawberries together in like a jumbled mess in a bowl. It's basically like a deconstructed pavlova, but only with strawberries and no other fruit, and I think the name came from the Eaton College, like that school that all the regattories went to, all the prime ministers went to Eaton College, or Eaton School, whatever it's called, and that's where the name comes from, but it's just a delicious dessert. I love the English, they come up with such fun little weird and wonderful desserts, and this is one of them. I love it, so I'm going to make it. Eating mess is ready, and it really does look messy, but I kind of love that about it, you don't have to be too perfect. And now I'm just going to make one more, because Alex just came through the door, so he wants one as well, and then I'm going to sit on the sofa and enjoy.