June has been a month of two distinct halves. The first couple of weeks contained the final stretch of GCSE and A Level exams for Lola and Mimi respectively, plus uni assignment deadlines for Ella, so all three of them had their heads down doing their best to get through them. And now, finally, everyone is finished and free! The relief was immense – for all of us. It’s been… intense.
With exams out of the way, the second half of the month was mostly focused on having fun and celebrating school being done for the summer. It’s been busy and full and, with work added in on top, I’m ending the month on my knees with both mental and physical exhaustion. And it was 100% worth it for all the memories we’ve made.
Here’s a little bit of life, lately, from June…
BOOKS
First up was Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls. I’ve read several of his books now and always enjoy them. This one felt quite nostalgic, although I found it to be a little disjointed at times – I wasn’t ever sure whether the main character, Charlie, was reminiscing in his own mind or telling the story to his wife in the present, who only features in a few short chapters. That being said, I thought the descriptions of his life at home dealing with his parent’s separation and his Dad’s struggles with depression were excellent – I really felt something for him in those passages. Easy enough to read, though not even close to the mastery of ‘One Day’, which I will forever compare all of his other novels to.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt was a bit of a spontaneous, wildcard purchase. I’ve been wanting to watch the Netflix film that’s been made of it, but I have a rule that I have to read the book before I watch the screen adaptation (because the book is always, always, better). I found the blurb quite intriguing and within minutes of starting it, I couldn’t put it down. It’s beautifully written – careful, thoughtful and quietly heartwarming. I’m very conscious that I use that word a lot to describe the books I read but it really is the most honest word I have for it – it made me feel all sorts of things. I liked that some of the chapters were written from the octopus’ perspective (which sounds odd, I know, but trust me – it works) and I really cared for the characters. The themes of community, family, ageing and grief were gently threaded throughout each chapter and you couldn’t help but be drawn into the journey through them with all of the people involved. I can’t wait to see the film now, especially with Sally Field playing the main (human) character, Tova – I can’t imagine anyone being a more perfect fit for the role.
‘Sweet Sorrow’ by David Nicholls and ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ by Shelby Van Pelt
SHOWS / MUSIC / FILMS
For her main 18th birthday gift, we gave Mimi tickets to see Stranger Things: First Shadow at the theatre in London. She, Neil and I are all huge fans of the Netflix TV show and the stage performance forms a key part of the prequel storyline, so she’s been wanting to see it for ages. Neil took her (I was elsewhere with Lola – see below!) and they made a full day of it. They both reported that it’s “the best thing they have ever seen”, even better than any of the gigs they’ve each been to, which is really saying something. Apparently the whole experience was phenomenal – they didn’t stop talking about it for days.
Meanwhile, on the same day Neil & Mimi were in London, Lola and I headed to Birmingham Hippodrome to see Annie: The Musical – a little reward for getting through her exams. It’s her current musical obsession and she’s had the soundtrack on repeat for weeks in the lead up to it. It was a fantastic show and the children acting in it were insanely good – their voices were powerful, the characterisations were unbelievably accurate, and their confidence and stage presence was inspiring. La Voix, who we loved when we saw her on Strictly last year, was brilliant as Miss Hannigan. We both loved it and seeing Lola light up with joy throughout the performance will always be my most favourite part of anything we ever go and see together.
We loved seeing La Voix as Miss Hannigan in Annie: The Musical at Birmingham Hippodrome
We were some of the first people into the theatre to take our seats. Hearing her quiet “Woah!” as she saw the stage made me so happy
The biggest event of the month though, was heading down to London to see Harry Styles perform at Wembley Stadium. One Direction has been a part of my life ever since Sophie was small – she was (and still is) a huge fan. So the girls have inevitably, through her influence, also grown up loving their music as a band, and as individual artists. Ella, bless her, somehow managed to snag tickets for us all in the Ticketmaster war (minus Sophie, who is still travelling in SE Asia – she’s seen him perform live before so we knew she wouldn’t mind too much) and the excitement has been building ever since.
It’s always a bit of a mission to get us all down to London, but we managed it. Sadly, Ella ended up feeling unwell on the day of the concert, so she chose to stay at my Mum’s instead. We all really missed having her there with us even though it was the right choice for her in the end, especially as it was an exceptionally warm 36°C. It was the girls’ first time experiencing Wembley – seeing them taking it all in was pretty special. We walked to the stadium via Olympic Way; checked out the party at Box Park; reluctantly gave the photobooth a miss because the queue was ridiculously long and in full sun – we’d have been there for hours; and took some photos in front of the Together Together steps before heading inside to find food and take our seats.
I’d been a bit apprehensive of how high and steep I knew they’d be, and how far away from the stage we were, but actually we had an excellent view (even if Harry was the size of an ant on the stage!). The giant screens were brilliant, so we could still see all the close up action as well as experiencing the enormity of the stadium and the magnitude of the lights and the atmosphere at the same time.
I have to admit that I was a *tiny* bit disappointed in the set by Shania Twain – I knew about half of the songs but the atmosphere just didn’t seem to be there, until her final song anyway (which was, of course, ‘Man, I Feel Like A Woman’). Harry, however, was fantastic and put on an amazing show. I knew more of the songs than I’d thought I was going to, and I loved watching Mimi and Lola enjoying themselves, dancing and singing and screaming. The sun started to set during the second half of the show, the golden glow lighting up the stadium along with the laser lights, the phone torches and the fireworks. Quite a lot of time was dedicated to instrumentals from the band – I liked that they got to have their moment in the spotlight. My favourite songs were ‘Treat People With Kindness’; ‘As It Was’, ‘American Girls’, ‘Adore You’, and ‘Sign Of The Times’.
We were all VERY sticky and sweaty by the end of the night, and after tackling the tube back to my Mum’s to pick up Ella we still had a three hour car journey back home to endure as well, but we survived and made memories and I’m really glad we went.
Concert-ready. We weren’t going to let the heatwave get in the way of a good time!
Walking up Olympic Way towards the stadium
We were very high up but we had a fantastic view of the stage!
The grand finale!
Then, right at the end of the month there may have been a cheeky Sunday afternoon trip to the cinema to see Toy Story 5 (nostalgic, funny, didn’t feel like ‘one too many’ from the franchise), plus Ella has declared it a ‘rom-com summer’ and has made a list of all the ones she wants us to watch together, which is now stuck on the fridge. Some of them I’ve seen, some the girls have seen, and some of them none of us have seen. How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days was the first one!
LIFE LATELY
As previously mentioned, everyone’s exams are over. It’s a bit of a milestone moment: Lola is done with high school; Mimi has finished Sixth Form; and Ella has completed her first year at uni. We have a long summer ahead of us before everything starts up again in September, and I can’t wait.
Lola’s ‘Leaver’s Day’ shirt, signed by all of her friends. School’s out for summer!
Ella spent a few days visiting my Mum, and met up with some of her uni friends in London for the day too.
Luna decided to hitch a ride with Ella and snuck into her suitcase for a snooze!
Finally, there were two quite big events to end the month in style. Firstly, I spoke at a work conference, Questival, which was a huge deal for me. The last time I did any kind of public speaking was fifteen years ago! There were about 75 people in total, so not actually that many but it seemed like a lot. I was quite nervous but it went smoothly and I got positive feedback and some excellent questions from the audience. There were definitely things I could have done better, though overall I’m happy with how it went and have learned a lot from the experience. Magic happens when you step outside of your comfort zone.
Then, on the very last day of June, Lola had her high school prom! She and her two best friends got ready together at our house, we took photos in the garden, they rode to the venue in style in a silver Jaguar, and then danced the night away with the rest of their classmates. They had an absolutely brilliant time (there was even a photobooth). Once it ended, a handful of her friends came home with her for a midnight McDonalds dinner, and then they played board games until the early hours of the morning. I hope it’s a night they all remember forever.
Lola with her two best friends, A and J, all dressed up and ready to party at their Year 11 Prom
My beautiful baby girl, looking so grown up.
And now all of a sudden we are halfway through the year. Chapter six of 2026 is now closed. Next month is hopefully going to be a little bit slower, which I’m very much looking frward to.
I hope that you found plenty of little things to love throughout June and that July is filled with joy and memory-making moments.
With love,
Chloe x
