July Is For Winners

Happy July, friends. I have to say, this is one of my favourite months of the year - mostly for selfish reasons. It's the halfway point of the year, it's usually leading into cooler weather (back home in Sydney anyway; here it's the start of warm European summer) and it's my birthday month. I love birthdays. Love, love, love.

Plus, if anyone happens to ask me wedding related questions, I can reply with a 'We're getting married in June!' rather than having to explain the month and year. Squee! 

I've been really busy this last week but it's been the good kind of busy - playing host to our lovely visitor and of course, playing tourist through London. We explored the British Museum, saw the Lion King in the West End (where I may or may not have cried during the 'Circle of Life' - gets me every time) and walked so much I literally had to stop in at the chemist and buy some bandaids for my poor blistered foot. This week I was also lucky enough to steal the lovely Lacey and her new hubby Dave away from their honeymoon for an evening. It was so great to meet her in person; they're both adorable and hopefully they didn't find me as boring or rambly as I feel like I am sometimes!

This morning saw me walking to the vet with a yowling Oscar in his cat carrier, since July also means that it's time for his yearly boosters. He's an indoor cat, but I don't like to take any chances with him picking something up - plus, the Australian quarantine regulations have lots of hoops that we'll need to jump through, so it's easier just doing it and having it over with. I love our vet's office here - it's tiny, the staff are so sweet and they always fawn over the cat like you would not believe. Between you and me, I think Oscar knows he has the ladies wrapped around his paw, because he struts his stuff in there and laps up the compliments (and treats.) He's in perfect health and everyone's in love with him, and now begins the long and arduous task of researching (and paying out of our ears) the best way to get Oscar home safely at the end of this year. I'm sure I'll be blogging about that as the time comes.

In other news, I'm ploughing through my summer reads - I had a parcel from Amazon arrive the other day (bad Aly, bad bad Aly) and I also found an Oxfam bookstore with a sale on, so I have around 20 novels to pick and choose from right now. But I'm being good, and trying not to start any new ones until I finish off the few half-read books I have lying around the house: This Charming Man, The Five Greatest Warriors, and The Queen's Fool. 

It's easier said than done. All I'm itching to do is crack open Breaking Dawn (I KNOW) and Dead in the Family. Must. Be. Strong. I'm loving Goodreads; I always mean to keep a list of books I've been reading but never got around to it.

What are you reading right now?