Grey Skies and Happy Sighs...: June 2025, Shrewsbury Self Care.

Hello again my loves, happy Sunday. I hope your week has gone well? I am still behind with well, everything it seems... But with this post, I've caught up as far as the end of June 2025 on my Blog! So only seven months behind now, haha. (Picture me face-palming.)

So, the second week in June I only left the house once, (to go get my hair cut) and have nothing more to tell you, and not even any good photos to share. I left to go to Shrewsbury from the 16th-30th June, so theoretically, I should have had SO many photos from that trip to share, but as you can see, it's mostly selfies of me drinking. I promise I'm not THAT much of a lush!

As you know from my previous posts, 2025 was a difficult year for me. After the break up with Gareth in February I was in a deep depression and barely left the house. Going to Shrewsbury and staying with family and seeing so many friends was a lovely change, though it was a hectic couple of weeks, and I was exhausted afterwards! It didn't help that it was very hot (for UK standards) while I was over, which makes my joints swell up and adds to my overall pain, fatigue, and discomfort. So, I took advantage of the best kind of sunscreen, and spent a lot of time in dim pubs with friends, drinking some real ales. This absolutely counts as Self Care in my book! Being able to talk things over with people in person was also healing, of course, and I'm so grateful to all my wonderful friends for being there for me.

Another thing I did for myself while I was in Shrewsbury was get a new tattoo. Gareth and I had gotten matching tattoos on a whim a few years ago, (there is a reason my tattoo artists don't recommend this, it seems to be a curse for many people!) and it was a painful reminder every time I saw it. So, I had booked an appointment with Jess, who works in the same studio as Kahm, who had done my last two. I now have a skull and spider web which I absolutely love, and holds so much meaning for me.

It was also my "little" sister's 40th birthday while I was over, (I use the inverted commas because while she is four years younger than me, she is significantly taller, and has been since the 90's!) so that was another reason to celebrate. It was my brother's birthday on the same day, (they're not twins, but were born on the same day, seven years apart, with me in the middle!) but he was not able to join us, unfortunately. The rest of us had a nice family meal on the actual day, and then we had a lovely Garden Party at the weekend, taking advantage of the sunny weather!

It was a good couple of weeks away, and so good to see people. But as always, I was happy to get home to Ballyliffin, to my views, and to some peace and quiet. I think the past year broke me in such a way that I will forever be that much more of a hermit.