Weekly Musings

2018 - Week Twenty Three

'Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.'
(12 Rules for Life - An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson)

This week has been super quiet in comparison to the last few, but I'm not complaining. On Thursday I got a poem up on Instagram after having a week off last week, read it here. On Friday Aum had the day off school, and he had to do some Geocaching as part of a project. It was so much fun! For those that don't know, it is where an app on your phone is used to locate millions of hidden vessels known as geocaches on a map of whatever location you are in. They are placed in secret by fellow geocachers and contain a logbook to record the lucky finders, and often items for 'swaps' such as trinkets and hair bobbles etc. It is a craze that anyone can be involved in and is completely free, basically the world's largest treasure hunt! It was a top way of getting outdoors and having fun without spending any money.

We stopped for lunch at The Little Deli Co next to Stamford Park; Aum tried their croque Monsieur on my recommendation and loved it, whilst I went for the special: a 'grown up' fishfinger sandwich with fish goujons and homemade tartare sauce on wholemeal toasted bread. We went home afterwards and I spent the evening on the boat once I had finished; with the blessed return of Love Island this week I have managed to get Chris hooked already!

I adopted this weekend for early birthday celebrations, and yesterday some of the uni crew came out to help. We met at Hatch, a gorgeous little gem hidden on Oxford Road that is perfect when the sun shines. It is a hub of foodie pods and shops with a DJ and bar and pretty outdoor seating. After a couple there Chris headed home to babysit the doggies (being teetotal he had been warned of our impending messiness and decided to save himself!) and we went on to The Flour & Flagon, formerly The Pub and then had one in The Refuge inside The Principal Hotel which is serious #interiorgoals.

Feeling peckish we moseyed over to Grub, similar to Hatch but on a much larger scale, and I had a sundried tomato, cashew and spinach blend bagel by Schmear which was delicious. I'm not going to lie the night gets very blurry from that point! We had a few in The Shack, including multiple Jaegerbombs (thanks lads) and ended the night dancing in Bar 21. Shoutout to my boys for looking after me as I woke up with personal possessions fully in tact in my own bed this morning!

Christ I have been hungover today. I managed to hold it together long enough to force down some mac and cheese at my local pub and wave the boys off at lunchtime, before getting back into bed for a few hours! This evening was birthday celebrations part 2, a meal at Yara, a Lebanese and Syrian restaurant in Altrincham with Chris, my parents and Jasmine. As there were a few of us, we ordered loads of starters and mains and shared most of them (Mum and Dad are meat eaters so we couldn't share everything). The food is always so good at Yara, and it has the added bonus of being BYOB which makes the bill a bit cheaper, especially in a big group. I managed to take one for the team and have a glass of cider, the hair of the dog worked a treat.

We have just got back to the flat after pressie opening and homemade Victoria sponge birthday cake at Mum and Dads, in time for Love Island on ITV2 +1 - winner! A smashing weekend with some of my absolute favourite people. I am such a birthday whore, but for me it is not about the presents or a fancy meal, I just love everyone spending time together (being the centre of attention has absolutely nothing to do with it of course). Track for this week above is by a band I discovered via Candid called grandson, a bit of a banger if I do say so myself!