Weekly Musings

2017 - Week Thirty Seven
'Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected'
(The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho)

This week has been one of those that steadily plods along with plenty of activity to keep me occupied. I saw Moj on Monday, babysat Tuesday, and on Wednesday evening I met up with the Matter of Sound crew to celebrate our third anniversary. We went to The Deaf Institute to sample the new menu there, which includes lots of yummy veggie and vegan options. 

I gave their vegan hotdog a try which is made with seitan, a wheat gluten apparently (thanks Google). It had a slightly strange taste, but as meat subtitutes go was decent enough, and it was covered with mac and cheese, 'bacon', sweet potato cheese, jalapenos and Tijuan barbecue sauce so there were lots of other flavours to satisfy me. I also upgraded the accompanying fries to 'pimped' ones, which were topped with sweet potato cheese, red peppers, guacamole, jalapenos, cashew sour cream, siracha mayo and Tijuana barbecue sauce; needless to say I couldn't finish it all! I am digging how places are amping up their veggie and vegan menus at the moment, it makes my part time veggie habits much easier to stick to.

On Thursday I went for a walk at Chorlton water park during the day with Mum and Ferryn, who got rather muddy! On Friday evening Moj and I went to Levenshulme night market, which I had wanted to try for a while. It was full of trendy hipsters, had live music on and lots of really tasty food stalls. We shared a box of mixed samosas from Samosa Shack to start with, and then I had a Peruvian pulled pork roll from The Hungry Llama Street Food followed by a construct-your-own dessert from Yes Doughnuts. Mine was filled with custard, glazed, and topped with pretzels, oreos and walnuts - incredible! We popped into Heaton Moor on the way home for a drink at Tusk which had a funky design inside, though I have given up drinking for a few weeks so was I good and had a coffee.

Yesterday was a chilled, quiet one. I met Mum for a wander around Sainsburys and John Lewis in Cheadle and we stopped for our usual free hot drink and cake in the cafe (you get a voucher every few months with a My John Lewis card which doesn't cost to sign up for - go  go go!). We stuck with two classics, carrot and chocolate fudge cake, and afterwards she came back to the flat to dye my hair. FYI - the track for this week above is one I've found through Candid and I love the summery vibe it has, I'm clinging on to the sunshine for as long as I can get away with! I also got a poem up on Instagram, read it here.

Today a few of the girls toddled over to Abi's for coffee and a catchup, as we have not seen each other since Hana's wedding. I then drove into Manchester to meet Moj at Chapter One Books, a super cute coffee shop that has a beautiful interior complete with fountains, statues and fairy lights, and is open 24 hours a day! You can also buy second hand and new books from there so I was in my element lounging on one of the massive sofas oogling them all. We also finally had 'The Conversation', where we both said though we like spending time with each other and are happy continuing with how things are, neither of us really see it having a proper future, which was quite a relief to know we are both on the same page (pardon the bookstore pun). For now, I'm happy going on pleasant dates with a fit dude until the time comes that I want something more concrete.

We both felt a bit peckish after coffee so decided to stay in town for some food. Moj suggested Habesha, an Ethiopian place in the gay village. We shared two dishes: yetsom beyaynetu, a combination dish of various vegan curries and vegetables served on injera, a thin spongy pancake type Ethiopian bread with a slightly sour taste, and lega tibs which was a tomato based stewed dish with cubed lamb and vegetables. The injera is used to scoop up the dishes with your hands so no cutlery is needed, which was a fun experience. It was cool trying something completely different to anything I have eaten before, and the restaurant had a very casual vibe, almost like being sat in someone's house. For all its flaws, that's something I enjoy about the whole dating game, discovering new places to visit from people. I am back at mine now, stuffed and feeling strangely unburdened after our emo chat, ready to begin a new week!