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Ten happy things – May 2023

Selection of fried pizza starters on a wooden table.

Each month I look back and write about ten things that made me happy and brought me joy. Seems that May was filled with yummy meals – including fried pizza! Here’s my ‘ten happy things’ for May.

Trustee away day

At the beginning of the month the charity that I’m a trustee of held a strategy away day for trustees and our senior staff. I was in charge of putting together the icebreaker, which was so much fun and I learnt so much about my fellow trustees and our SLT. Afterwards we all headed to a nearby Dishoom for dinner, which was absolutely delicious!

A silver tray filled with little silver bowls of vegetarian curries.

Virtual wine tasting

I was invited by R&R Teamwork to attend a virtual New York State wine tasting. It’s actually the second one I’ve attended. I was sent some samples of the wine so that I could taste them during the webinar. There was wine from three vineyards – Six Eighty Cellars, Mazza Wines and RGNY. The webinar was hosted by wine journalist and author Jamie Goode with the winemakers talking us through the wines and answering questions. It was really very interesting. My favourites were The Perfect Rosé by Mazza Wines and the 2021 Viognier by RGNY. Both lovely wines for summer.

Selection of small bottles of wine. Kirsty holds a bottle of rose wine in her hand.

Gifted a wonderful book

My lovely friend Catherine read Still Life by Sarah Winman and thought that I would enjoy it too so she posted it to me. I’m only about a third of the way through but I’m thoroughly enjoying it – especially as a big part of the book is set in Florence.

Kirsty holds a book that has a blue cover with a colourful parrot on the front.

Delicious pizza in Chiswick

Whenever we fancy a pizza we head to Napoli on the Road in Chiswick. Not only is their pizza delicious, they make really yummy fried pizza with different toppings as a starter. They also have tables outside and we were lucky that it was fairly warm when we went so we got to eat our pizza al fresco!

Kirsty smiles at the camera. In front of her is a Margherita pizza on a white and blue plate.

Team work lunch at Busaba

This month my colleague Katie left the charity I’ve been contracting at so we all had a farewell lunch at nearby Busaba, which is a Thai restaurant. There were about 12 or 13 of us, which was so nice as it’s not often that we all get together – although of course sad to say goodbye to Katie! I ordered the Sriracha Ho Fun noodles, which were absolutely yummy and just the right amount of spice.

A plate of flat noodles with vegetables in a spicy sauce

Worked with a dream client

Towards the end of the month I did some copywriting work with a charity I’ve been wanting to work with for years! It was a really interesting project to work on too. Really hoping I’ll have the opportunity to work with them again.

Breakfast at Fortnum’s with Emma

Before speaking at my first conference (see below), I met up with my friend Emma for breakfast at Fortnum & Mason at the Royal Exchange. It is such a fabulous setting! I’ve been inside the Royal Exchange so many times and wished I was having a meal or drink at Fortnum’s that it was brilliant to finally go.

Fortnum and Mason at the Royal Exchange

I ordered the Heritage tomatoes on toast with mushrooms on the side and Emma had Eggs Benedict. The food was delicious. I had a great time catching up with Emma and it was a wonderful way to start the day.

Spoke at two conferences

I was invited to speak about wellbeing and social media at Orlo’s UK Tour. The first one was in London and then there are another five around the UK. I managed to speak at two in May with four to go in June. I was quite nervous as it’s been a while since I spoke in person without the safety of being behind a screen! Everyone was really lovely and I had some great feedback afterwards. The last one is in Glasgow, which I’m really excited about as I’ll be staying the night and visiting family in Edinburgh.

Kirsty stands on a stage by a podium

Reached 100 days of Duolingo

In May I reached a milestone of learning Italian on Duolingo for 100 days in a row! I spend between 20 and 30 minutes every day practicing. My Italian has definitely improved but I still have a long way to go… We’re off to Italy in June so I’m looking forward to putting what I learned into practice.

Beautiful flowers from my husband

My husband came home one Friday night with a beautiful bunch of flowers for me. This doesn’t happen very often so it was a lovely surprise! Aren’t they stunning? And they lasted ages too.

Colourful flowers in pinks, reds and whites in a blue vase.

So that was my May! How did your May go? What made you happy and brought you joy? Let me know in the comments.

Kirsty Marrins

Reader, writer, runner, travel and food lover.

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