'Best laid plans ' & all that has been a phrase that has rung particularly true lately - with visits home rearranged (twice in one month!) & attendance at a friend's housewarming bbq this afternoon cancelled on account of my waking up to a sore throat & blocked nose (sorry Emily!) Otherwise, things have been good lately & there've been some particularly good things going on, namely.
Lots of reading & writing
I went through a few months a couple of summers ago of reading literary biography obsessively - all of Barry Miles' oeuvre on the Beat poets, almost everything written about Virginia Woolf - & it's a habit that I had since fallen out of. That was until I happened to unearth Scott Donaldson's 'Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald' last week & promptly haul the Oxfam hardback to work & back every day, not making too many friends on the overground on the way there either. It has made me quite melancholy to read of the trauma that the two of them put themselves through, especially Fitzgerald with his chronic alcoholism, but is nonetheless a brilliant study. I have a copy of Olivia Laing's 'Last Trip to Echo Spring', another non-fiction book particularly about writers & drinking which covers both the aforementioned alongside Tennessee Williams & John Ashbery - perhaps I'll have a little space between the two whose stories evoke a similar misery.
As far as writing goes, I've been able to find the time to do some scribblings lately &, miraculously, even impose some kind of order on them so they're vaguely coherent. I've long been petitioning some of my favourite little magazines to allow me to feature in their pages & here's hoping I'll be back with some good news before long.
These new polka dot trousers are my life & I'm OK with that
Spending time with good people
As I've said before on this little blog, Andrew & I have been adapting to each other's different schedules ever since I started working in September & I feel as if we're finally falling into a good rhythm. Even if it's just a stroll down to our local market for a pretzel & a flip through the vintage rails one afternoon, it feels good to be making time for one another, especially as our two & a half year anniversary is fast approaching! (Achem, which I may or may not have forgotten about until, err, yesterday, sorry sweet) Last night we went to see 'Antony & Cleopatra' at The Globe (neither of us, English students both, had ever been before) which was so much fun if an ache-y experience, my insisting on the five pound tickets for the standing area, yow!
I've also finally hopefully arranged to go home for a weekend after a series of near-misses, mostly involving my smaller sister's involvement in away rounders matches (she does not get her sportiness from me, let me assure you) & my graciously swapping shifts & splitting my weekends of late. It's been a little while since I've made the journey & I'm looking forward to a long bath, lots of food & a stroll around the market town that never changes much.
Being inspired & taking pleasure in the smallest of things
While I've blogged my weekly eats once before, I think that my contributions to The Beet Generation' (previously 'Paisley & Peeptoes') are likely quite a way from being comprehensively representative of my increasing obsession with food. This has, in part, been encouraged by the free foodie supplements that I regularly collect from work but also from the burgeoning group of inspiring & inventive cooks, a fair few of them vegan as it happens, that I've discovered on Instagram, namely Ava of Guac & Roll whom I've mentioned before (& have to thank for the recipe I recently used for homemade onion bhajis, woah) &, more recently, Laura of Kitsunetsukikitchen (hope that's spelt right!) whose photography is enough to inspire devotion in any carnivore. These are the people that have made me more determined than ever to be constantly seeking out new recipes, to cook creatively & be thoughtful of what exactly it is that I'm putting into my body ,woohoo! Above is this morning's thrown together breakfast of natural yoghurt with honey, pumpkin seeds & organic (unsweetened too, praise be) apricots, most leftover ingredients from another batch of homemade granola. So yeah, thanks guys & keep it coming.
New adventures
It is the mention of home that makes me think of new adventures, particularly my potentially becoming a cyclist in London, outside of my usual forays into hiring Boris bikes when the sun finally rolls around in August time. She, for shame, hasn't had a proper introduction on here but I was actually gifted the most beautiful mint green Pashley bicycle by my Dad a year or so ago that has been languishing in my Home Counties bedroom ever since, never ridden.You see, aforementioned parent was (rightfully, probably) paranoid that she would be stolen in London &, trying to sell our house back home, my mother has been threatening to plant up her basket with pansies & have her as a centrepiece for the garden. I'm now faced with the decision of whether to bring her down or preserve her for posterity & buy myself a more battered model that will see me from Hackney to Hampstead twice a day in this fair weather (she types, looking out on rainclouds) & avoiding that hellish stretch of overground - exciting all the same, once I've invested in a good helmet, eeeek.
Time for another honey & lemon for me & then an hour or so of fresh air I think - lurgy be gone!
Do you cycle in London or know of anywhere to get a decent secondhand ride?
What good stuff is in your life at the moment?
Speak soon - O.
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