What’s Been Going on!

Whilst my usual kind of blog posts relate mostly to skincare and interiors, I think it is nice to include the odd personal post here and there as these are the ones that you all seem to like reading the most :).  Life has been a little bit hectic over the last few weeks so I thought I would bring you up to speed on what I have been getting up to and what’s going on :).

Two weeks ago Dan and I went back to Ireland and London to see our family and friends.  As you will probably know by now, we are expecting a baby in August, so this was the last trip home that we would get before then.  My nephew was also making his Holy Communion so it seemed like the perfect time to go back.

We also used the trip back home as an opportunity to source some baby items.  Everything is way more expensive to buy here in the UAE (in some cases the bigger baby items are almost double the price for exactly the same thing at home).  Dan works for Etihad Airways so luckily we get a very generous luggage allowance, so we thought it would make sense to make the most out of that and buy as much stuff as we could at home and bring it back to Abu Dhabi with us.  This meant that we spent a couple of weeks prior to going home researching and figuring out exactly what we wanted to get, where to get it and if we could check it in as luggage.  This felt like a huge task at the time as we needed to make a lot of big decisions before the time the trip came round.  In hindsight though, it forced us to be very organised and while it was quite stressful at the time, it meant that we came back and are suddenly feeling somewhat organised overnight lol.  However, there is still a LOT to do!  

On top of the baby shopping, like most of our visits back home, we spent lots of time catching up with family and friends which is always nice.  We had a Holy Communion, an engagement party, introductions to two new babies, strolls around the city and reunions with friends that we hadn’t seen since last Christmas.

I ended up flying to Ireland a few days before Dan, which meant that we weren’t together on our wedding anniversary.  Just so the event didn’t go completely unnoticed, we planned to do something nice when we both got to London.  Lunch at the Ivy has been on our bucket list for years and we have just never gotten round to doing it, so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity.  Their King’s Road branch has a terrace and orangery where you can eat outside amongst all of the greenery and flowers which was the real reason I wanted to go there.  Unfortunately we ended up sitting inside on the day as the weather was awful when we arrived, but it is still decorated beautifully indoors and our lunch was very tasty.  We popped outside afterwards to have a little peek anyway :).  Also, the entire front facade of the building is covered in flowers so that was good enough for us lol.

Since coming back to Abu Dhabi last week we have been busy unpacking the 100 kgs of luggage that we managed to bring back with us! lol.  Well I say ‘unpack’ but to be completely honest, everything that we got has just been piled into a cupboard for now and needs to be dealt with in the upcoming weeks.  We are having our apartment painted next week and after that we have some furniture to get for the spare room before we can start properly decorating it as a nursery and finding homes for everything that is currently just sitting in the cupboard.  

I posted on Instagram last week that everyone keeps telling me to enjoy the last few months of pregnancy and the peace (well as much I can) before the baby comes, so on top of trying to get the apartment and myself prepared, I really am trying to make the most of these last 8 weeks or so.

While the apartment is being painted we have booked a two night staycation at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai for next weekend (given that we are now restricted to the UAE only until baby arrives lol).  While it was lovely to go back home a few weeks ago, it never really feels like a ‘holiday’ as it is always so busy (especially this time) so we are really looking forward to a few days of relaxing while we can!

That’s pretty much everything that is going on with me at the minute :). I am also trying to pre-plan as many blog posts as possible over the next few weeks to try and keep up with my upload schedule, so if there are any particular blog posts you would like me to write in the upcoming weeks then definitely let me know :).

I hope everyone has a great weekend! x