Yes, really!

When me and my brother were little’uns, our parents would drive us all up to the North East for a few weeks in the summer holidays to see our grandparents. It was the ultimate highlight of the year for us kids. We couldn’t afford to go abroad every year like friends at school and my parents worked incredibly hard to pay the bills and give us kids everything we wanted.

We’d spend all our time with grandma, grandad and various aunties, uncles and cousins. We’d bake, eat boiled “chookie” eggs every morning, feed the ducks at the park, and my ultimate trip out as a kid – for Minchella ice cream in South Shields.

For some reason, those trips to the beach felt like they were trips to Australia – it always felt boiling hot! We’d revel in building sandcastles, run to and paddle in the sea, and finally get to munch on the mint choc chip ice cream of my dreams.

Those summers absolutely made my childhood and I loved nothing more than listening to my family have a great time together. My mum’s accent would get broader the longer we were up north, and me and my brother would mimic it. I’ve lost count of the times we’d fake the accent to pretend we were actually Geordie (nobody ever fell for it).

I have so many amazing memories of those family summers on the beach, eating as much ice cream as we could and enjoying each other’s company – knowing that in a few days we’d make the long journey back home until next summer. Grandma would give us one of her hankies sprayed with her perfume to take home as comfort.

I loved that time eating ice-cream so much, and I cherished the time I had with my northern family. I believe that ice-cream is the root of my insistence to try and live a slower life. And it all comes down to making memories.

I remember the beach always being busy, packed with families enjoying the few days of British sunshine together. I can still hear the waves rolling in, the chatter of my family catching up, and so much laughter.

I remember thinking about those ice-cream days as me and my husband watched our families dancing at our wedding, again as a group of my closest girlfriends snapped selfies in a row in Paris, and again watching families eat together on our honeymoon in Sri Lanka.

It’s those kinds of memories that have kept me wanting to create more – with friends, family, my husband, and even my little cats! I take them with me everywhere. And wherever I go, I always think about eating ice-cream at Minchella with the people I love.

Ice-cream taught me to love life. And I’ll never forget it.

Featured image by Courtney Cook on Unsplash