A Year in Review: 2023

It’s time for my annual look back at the year gone by, at home and abroad! Here’s my Year in Review, 2023.

A Brummie Abroad in 2023

We kicked off the New Year with our very first visit to Dublin – and immediately fell in love with the fair city. January is a great time to visit, just after the festive madness and crowds have cleared. I sipped my first Guinness – including one with my face on at the Guinness Storehouse – and we used the Dublin Pass to visit a lot of the city’s highlights in one busy day.

I was privileged to work with Jet2 this year with my first ever sponsored trip abroad. Yes, I braved the ever-changing April weather to tell readers what it’s really like taking a spring-time break to Halkidiki. We hired a car and explored towns such as Arnaia, Porto Koufo and Afytos. And we had the opportunity to relax and eat our way around the beautiful Sani Resort. Oh, and I managed to lock myself in a toilet cubicle. Again. I may start carrying a screwdriver around with me for situations such as these.

In May, a became “A Brummie Aboard” on our first ever cruise. The Celebrity Silhouette was our floating home for the week as we explored the Norwegian Fjords, calling at Alesund, Olden and Haugesund Highlights. My guide to packing for a Norwegian Fjords Cruise became one of my most popular new posts of 2023. And after initially being an observer, I participated in my first ever silent disco…

September brought our much anticipated and thoroughly researched trip to Puglia. Where it proved that no matter how much you plan, sometimes things go wrong. Transport isn’t as straightforward as you thought. Tours bring forward their start times causing a panicked rush to return a hire car. And sometimes storms mean that your flight is cancelled. And your airline washes their hands of any responsibility for getting you home. Yes, Ryanair, I’m looking at you.

Despite the travel woes, we had a wonderful time. We stayed in a real-life Palazzo in Ostuni with our own huge terrace. We drank our body weight in Primitivo and visited one of the oldest cities in the world; stayed in an authentic trullo in Alberobello; and even had an unscheduled night in Rome thanks to that flight cancellation.

Our final trip of the year was to Seville to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. In true Brummie Home and Abroad style we picked the coldest and wettest three days in November to visit. Although we did have one glorious afternoon where we could shed our winter woollies and enjoy that famous Seville winter sunshine. My Seville blog posts are still to come in the New Year but there are plenty of pics on my Facebook and Instagram pages. And this time Ryanair got us to our destination AND back to the UK without any issues.

A Brummie in the UK in 2023

Geographically I’m more Warwickshire than Brummie, so we spent weekends exploring our local towns. We ate Japanese food at Raku 57 in Kenilworth. We ate brunch bagels at The Steamhouse Depot and shared tapas at Tartine in Leamington. And we visited our old friends at Dough & Brew in Warwick on multiple occasions. We also occasionally pop across to Staffordshire for the annual Lichfield Food Festival, a quick drink in the Angel, and most recently for a festive brunch at Pom’s. I also had one of the highly instagrammable hot chocolates from Silver Tree Bakery

We had the briefest of summers in the UK in 2023. The garden furniture was wrestled out of the garage and I looked forward to long summer evenings outside with a book and a glass of wine. Which I did. For about a week. Then the garden furniture was covered back over, and wrestled back into the garage.

We spent a weekend in the Peak District at the end of June, getting in a nice 10 mile walk from Hartington to Milldale and back. You can read the blog post to find out all about our mission to find fish and chips on a Friday night in Hartington. After a few years of enforced staycations we were a bit lax in taking UK breaks in 2023, something we’ll try and change in 2024. Our two trips down to London were fleeting but we spent a lovely morning exploring Battersea Power Station.

A Brummie in Birmingham in 2023

We spent less time in Brum this year. Maybe we were traumatised by the broken down bus that left us with a 4 mile walk home last December. And the buses that didn’t turn up at all. But we did manage to pay visits to some new places and old favourites.

I celebrated my new job at Tierra Tacos (not long before they closed) and brunched at Ju Ju’s Cafe. I discovered my new favourite Malbec Rose at Loki Wine. In more taco news, I queued for a ridiculous length of time to get food at Taco Fest. We ventured to Kings Heath for posh Brad Carter Kebabs at One Star Doner Bar, and pizza at Poli. I waved flags at the Pride Parade, and I’m determined to get a spot on the BBV float for 2024!

I returned to Loki, this time with Ma Lee in tow for a birthday treat. We spent an afternoon in Stirchley, soaking up the atmosphere of the famous Stirchley Beer Mile. Post Moseley Folk Festival we visited a cute little cafe tucked away in Fox Hollies – a surprising alternative to the greasy spoons and chain sandwich stores. Mr Fletche and I enjoyed an evening sampling the Oktoberfest menu at Bundobust.

A Cultural Brummie in 2023

We started off 2023 with a little Coventry culture and a trip to the immersive Frida Kahlo exhibition at The Reel Store UK. Dublin was full of cultural experiences, including a visit to Trinity College and the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum.

We saw some wonderful theatre shows in 2023. I continued to work with The Alexandra Theatre and the Birmingham Rep and had the opportunity to review some fantastic productions in 2023, including Girl From The North Country, The Way Old Friends Do, The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, Noises Off, Sinatra The Musical and finishing off 2023 with The Bodyguard.

We discovered the joy of a West End Matinee performance. In April we revisited an old favourite with ‘Wicked’ at the Apollo Victoria. This is such as awesome (and historic) cast, with Lucy St Louis and Alexia Khadime – my very first Elphaba 15 years ago. And in August we returned to London for a matinee of the reimagined ‘Oklahoma’. This is a VERY different version to the Rogers & Hammerstein movie. In July we headed to Cirencester to the Barn Theatre for their production of ‘Once’. It’s a great theatre, with a wonderful restaurant (Teatro) attached. And we were invited to attend an outdoor production of ‘The Great Gatsby’ in the grounds of Tamworth Castle.

We love a bit of live music, and we headed to Leamington Spa in February to watch an REM tribute band. Self Esteem was epic in March at the Institute. On one of the few hot weekends of the year we rocked along to Muse in Milton Keynes with Hayley & Paul. Many thanks to Hayley’s dad for giving us all a lift to and from the MK Bowl. Dads that double up as taxi drivers are ace. Even if mine tried to drop us off in Moseley for the True Order gig at the Hare & Hounds. Which is in Kings Heath. In August, we spent a thankfully dry evening at Birmingham Botanical Gardens watching the Sekine Quartet play the hits of Pink Floyd by candlelight. We made our annual jaunt to Moseley for the Folk Festival. If Pa Lee had played taxi, he’d have probably left us in King’s Heath.

In November we saw The Chemical Brothers with an incredible light show which left me seeing colours whenever I blinked for days after. And after missing out on tickets earlier in the year I finally got to see my beloved Suede in Wolverhampton for our last gig of the year. We finished off a year in music with a Twixmas Christmas by Candelight at Birmingham Cathedral – which was exactly how we finished 2022.

I read 43 books in 2023, and supported our local charity book shop when it was threatened with closure. Favourite book of the year? Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver closely followed by The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn. We made sure all our cinema visits were to Digbeth’s ace independent The Mockingbird. We even finished off 2023 with a little New Years Eve visit there to watch Wonka. And how’s that Duolingo streak going? Well, I’m now on a massive 1355 days in Italian. You’d think I’d be fluent by now.

A Brummie at Home in 2023

2023 was the year that Ma Lee finally got her cataracts sorted – after a few squinty weeks her eyesight is now as sharp as a hawk. Which means she finally gets to see the sheep and pheasants on the hillside right next to their caravan. They’ve continued loving caravan life in 2023, and are properly part of the Cleobury Mortimer community now. They only come back to Brum to do laundry and see family and friends.

My biggest personal shift in 2023 was changing jobs. Despite not actively looking for a new role, a job popped up on Linkedin which sounded perfect for me, and made me realise how unhappy I’d been in my role. At the end of February, I started at Balfour Beatty Vinci, working as a Training Coordinator on the HS2 project. Just five months later, an opportunity came up to become a Senior Training Coordinator, with a team of two reporting in to me. I love working as part of a team, something which had sadly become missing from my previous role, and it’s a great project to work on – if a little controversial at times and often subject to media speculation! I also feel like I’m personally targeted by our local Facebook group, who are VERY vociferous on the subject of HS2…

A Brummie Home and Abroad in 2024?

Christmas 2023 meant three lots of exciting theatre tickets. Ma and Pa Lee bought us Bonnie & Clyde tickets for the Wolverhampton Grand in March, and we reciprocated by buying them – and us – Come From Away tickets for the Birmingham Hippodrome in May. After dropping hints about multiple West End shows, Mr Fletche came up trumps with tickets to see Hadestown. Which means we have a little London getaway booked for Easter weekend! Now I just need to work out which part of my body to sell to try and get a ticket for Cabaret before Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s run as Sally Bowles ends in March…

We don’t have a ton of plans yet for 2024. Ma and Pa Lee both celebrate their 70th birthdays, so we casually invited ourselves along to their celebration cruise. Which means that after dabbling in our first cruise in 2023 we’re hitting the Med for a fortnight with P&O in June. Our September and November trips are still to be decided, but we have booked a Lisbon city break as an early birthday treat for Mr Fletche.

I’m sure that the 2024 diary will fill up soon with lots of exciting plans. And looking ahead, Japan might – just might – be back on the table for 2025 – watch this space!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look back over 2023. Are you making plans for 2024? Let me know in the comments! I wish you a healthy and happy New Year, whatever it may bring!

Emmalene, A Brummie Home and Abroad xx