Went
We rang in the New Year on the 25th floor of our hotel, the tallest building in Estonia’s beautiful capital, Tallinn whilst watching fireworks erupting across the whole city through increasingly heavy snow falling.
I forsook the Russian Shampankoye for a bottle of the real stuff. And the hotel helpfully made me a gluten free burger.
After Tallinn we moved on to Latvia’s capital, Riga where it was properly Baltic with strong winds, snowfall and double digit sub-zero temperatures. The pretty Christmas markets seemed to have taken over every market square.
The kids loved playing in the snow (mostly!).
For reasons little more than, why not? we escaped London and flew to Malaga. For the night. The mini Ds are great travellers in the sense they take their parents love of travel within their stride even when it involves flying to southern Spain for the night. But their behaviour is not always angelic, and this was a weekend of squabbles.
The highlight of Malaga for me was the Picasso museum, well worth a visit if you’re in the Spanish city.
Ate
I’m attempting to be healthier this year (although reading this back as I post, I’m thinking I need to try harder with this one in February!) as we have a couple of significant, milestone events in the summer. So perhaps less will appear in this section, or maybe a different kind of meal? Not sure…in the meantime these are my favourite meals of January:
The Kentucky Shroom burger – Gaz Oakley’s collab with The Vurger Co. Expensive (for a work-day lunch) but but SO worth it.
Dinner at Hoppers, the Sri Lankan restaurant in London’s Soho.
An epic birthday lunch featuring Coeliac safe fish and chips at The Mayfair Chippy.
And, of course, judging at the Free From Food Awards. Lucky me I got to judge this year in the gluten free pizza categories (I know, tough gig!).
You can read about my highlights from my judging session at the Free From Food Awards in this post.
Loved
This image of my daughter running towards boarding the plane in deep snow at Riga airport. Many adults could be concerned about several things in this photo; the propellers on the plane, the large amount of snow on the ground and/or even simply flying. But isn’t it wonderful to just love travelling for the thrill and adventure?
And a final loved – because who wouldn’t love a slide in their hotel?!
Yes, these monthly posts are back after an extended break in 2018. I hope that you enjoyed reading and I am hoping I can stick to writing them every month in 2019. Not every month will involve travel (since we’re locked in to school holidays now) but that’s an opportunity to explore places closer to home.
You can also find me posting regularly on both Instagram and Twitter.
