Ten happy things – November 19

At the end of each month I like to reflect on what happened that month and what brought me joy. November has been a fabulous month with lots of highlights and many things to be thankful for, so here are my ‘ten happy things’!

A dream holiday in the Maldives

We spent an amazing six nights in the Maldives at the beginning of November at the One & Only Reethi Rah and it was simply magical. We were very lucky with the weather as we had sunshine most days.

The resort itself is really big, which we weren’t really expecting, and it was fun to cycle around on our bikes. As a birthday gift, I treated my husband to a sunset champagne cruise, which was amazing! We also did a private snorkelling trip to see turtles. It was definitely a holiday to treasure!

Joining The Wing

I’ve been freelance for four years now and most of the time I work from home. This can get a bit lonely though so I’d been thinking about joining a co-working space for a while. I can’t remember exactly how I discovered The Wing – I think it was maybe an Instagram advert – but I’m so glad I did because it’s just what I was looking for!

Not only is it affordable, beautifully decorated (with an AMAZING roof terrace) and centrally located, it’s all about women supporting and empowering women. What’s not to love?

Breakfast with Kaye

My lovely friend Kaye writes for the Telegraph and was invited to review the Apex Hotel in Temple Court. She kindly invited me along to join her for breakfast. The hotel itself looks lovely – great location, nicely decorated and the staff were very welcoming and friendly.

For breakfast I had the Eggs Royale, which was poached eggs with smoked salmon on English muffins and Kaye had smashed avocado with eggs on toast. The food was delicious! It was lovely to catch up with Kaye too as it had been 6 months since we’d last seen each other!

Presenting at the CharityComms Digital conference

A couple of months ago I authored ‘A wellbeing guide for Comms professionals’ with CharityComms and Lightful. This month I delivered a breakout session at the CharityComms Digital Conference, with Helen Breakwell who is one of the writers in the guide and a counsellor.

I haven’t presented for a while so it was good to put myself out there and to warm up for my keynote the next week!

Delivering my first keynote

I was invited by Universities UK to deliver the keynote at their annual conference for comms and marketing staff on wellbeing and mental health. I’ve presented before but never delivered the keynote and I was quite nervous! Thankfully it went really well and I enjoyed the experience.

Visiting friends in Ireland

Our friend Claire moved to Ballina in Ireland back in June and we decided to join her sister, Emma, (who lives in London) and visit her for a weekend. It was a really lovely, chilled weekend with good friends, good food and country walks with Claire’s gorgeous dogs!

Lunch with friends

Two of my friends – Nadia and Cath – are on maternity leave so we met up for lunch and a catch up. I suggested Bob’s Lobster in London Bridge as I’d been before with my friend Mitzie and the food is great. This time I opted for the lobster mac n cheese and it was sooooo decadent and perfect for the cold weather.

It was so nice to catch up with both Nadia and Cath! After lunch, Nadia and I then went for a walk (had to walk off some of that mac n cheese) and stopped for a drink at the lovely Seabird in the Hoxton hotel.

Drinks in a gin distillery

Every three months or so, the agency Deeson holds a drinks evening for friends and clients and I was invited along. I was allowed to bring a ‘plus one’ so I invited my friend Fee of Where’s the Rooftop (Fee also works in my sector though!). The drinks where held at the gorgeous Chapel Down Gin Works in King’s Cross, which I’d never been to before. It was a lovely evening!

Discovered Ube and Bilong

One Saturday afternoon after lunch, we were walking around and went down what’s affectionately known as ‘dessert alley’ in Soho. There are so many cool and quirky places to enjoy a treat and we decided we had to try Bilong from MaMasons Dirty Ice-cream.

Masons is a Filipino ice-cream bar and the ‘dirty ice-cream’ reference comes from the nickname used to describe ice-cream sold on the streets of Manilla. We opted for Bilong, which is basically a hot ice-cream sandwich, with Ube flavour – made from purple yam. It was absolutely DELICIOUS and I can’t wait to have another. My friend Isabel, who is from the Philippines, has said I need to try the queso flavour next.

Christmas is coming!

Christmas is definitely one of my favourite times of the year and London is just so beautiful during the festive season! Covent Garden always pulls out the stops and this year – as well as the giant Christmas tree in the piazza – they also have a whole display of Christmas trees, which are all decorated differently. So pretty!

So those are my ten happy things for November! How did your November go and what brought you joy?