Weekly Musings

2018 - Week Twelve
'Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.'
(Horace Wadpole)

This is another one of those weird posts where I am writing this on Friday, but then going to add my weekend antics to it on Monday as I am going on holiday (yay!). Aum has been really poorly this week with a fever and flu bug that has been going around, and was even hospitalised for a couple of days, so I was housebound looking after him for most of the week. Although it meant I had to cancel a few social plans, it gave me plenty of opportunity to stick to my reading goals and catch up on some admin work that I had been putting off. Track of the week below is just off an Apple Music playlist that I've had on recently as I've been podcast-listening so much that discovering new tunes for myself has fallen by the wayside, but this one caught my attention.

I started a book by Daniel Goleman called Emotional Intelligence, which although it is over twenty years old now, is a really interesting psychology based read about learning to recognise your own emotional state, but not allowing it to affect your responses or reactions to things in order to maintain better relationships, motivation, mental health and many other aspects of life. It is one of those books that requires concentration, so isn't the best for pre-bedtime, but I am thoroughly enjoying it thus far.



Yesterday I had my nails done and packed for my weekend away to visit my friend Amanda in Paris, as I thought I would be dashing to the airport pretty much straight from work, but I actually got to finish at 1pm today. We are doing Versailles on Saturday and Disneyland on Sunday, so I have given myself the whole of Monday before my flight home to wander around the centre as it is one of my all time favourite places. 

UPDATE: Yep, I still bloody love Paris! I arrived late on Friday night and Amanda and I just chilled and had some wine at her apartment in Boulogne Billancourt, catching up on all we had been doing since we last saw each other in October. On Saturday I had the first lie in I have had in ages, and then we got ready for a trip to the Palace of Versailles. It is somewhere I have always wanted to visit but have never got around to, and after watching the BBC2 drama set there a couple of years ago it amplified my desire. 

The sun was shining and it truly is a beautiful estate, so lavish and decadent. We spent a good couple of hours there exploring the rooms (my fave was the hall of mirrors) before walking to a bar nearby called No Water for some food. They didn't start serving until 6pm, so we HAD to take advantage of their happy hour drinks until then, disaster! As soon as the time came we ordered a few of the tapas dishes - nachos with guacamole  and cheese, potatoes with aioli, baked camembert with bread, and cheese and ham croquettes. We couldn't finish it all between us, but our stomachs were suitably lined for our antics that evening!

After a quick glam up and speedy wine back at Amanda's, we got an Uber to Le Bar à Bulles, a super trendy rooftop bar that was down an alleyway next to the Moulin Rouge. We met some of her work colleagues for a couple of bottles of wine before heading on to Le Bus Palladium, a club that cost an eyewatering twenty euro to go in, albeit accompanied by a 'free' drink. The music was supposed to be of the rock persuasion but ended up being very varied, although it was fun to have a dance and let loose. We stayed until 3.30am (the clocks went forward so we lost an hour) and hurried home to snatch as much sleep as we could before Disney in the morning!

Yesterday we were up bright and early, and surprisingly I didn't feel too bad to say I was running off 4 hours sleep. We got the metro and then the train to Disneyland; I forgot what a magical place it is, I was absolutely buzzing when I saw the castle. The weather was glorious again (t-shirt weather!) and we met a few of Amanda's friends to hang with for the day. 

As it was a weekend the queues were inevitable, but we made it onto Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Rock and Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror, and would have done Indiana Jones if it didn't break down ten minutes from the front of the line after an hour of waiting. It has been a few years since I did a proper thrilling ride, and I was bricking it for Tower of Terror, but once an adrenaline junkie always an adrenaline junkie! We had some quick photo opps in the Toy Story area of the park, and a gander around the shops in Disney Village before travelling back to the apartment where I collapsed into bed at just gone eleven, I was absolutely shattered!