After delighting us with such a lovely sunny weather and warm temperatures, England decided to remind us what we went through during winter with a quite awful rainy day. As my hair has consequentially turned into a tangle of fluff, I decided not to humiliate myself over the internet by showing you any self portraits: I then opted for three oldies portraying the things I enjoy the most - being fluffy cats, flowers and reading -. Luckily enough, my day turned out to be absolutely lovely: I had several coffees in every single café rouge in Birmingham, walked down the canal, had a quick pint and quality dinner at a nice restaurant by the canal. After this little diversion, an entire month of hard work awaits me, and I envisage getting so stressed out that I might actually spontaneously book a plane to France just because I can.
After not finding the bag of my dreams, queuing for ages at the student centre, and ending up in the ghetto whilst I was looking for an interpreting agency - classy times -, my week got a lucky twist. Me and the boyfriend randomly decided to get a nice hotel in Birmingham and go on a shop hunt -as I could really use a break from it all-, which allowed me to find another, much prettier bag, a lovely summer coat, and sit in nice cafés by the canal having espressos and chocolate doughnuts -as well as finding out my average mark for German is a sound 84%-.
Such a lucky twist, as all good things, couldn’t last long: my schedule for the next two days includes:
- French exam at 9.30am tomorrow;
- Teaching at 6pm (to that, add that my lecture is being observed);
- Hardest exam of the year the day after.
….So here are 4 cute motivational/good-luck sloths for me!!
Today, May 6th, was such an awful day that should be abolished and removed from the calendar. In order to reestablish some balance to this unfair world, I am once more pleasing myself with pictures of cute baby sloths. After all, it could be worse: I could be revising for an exam on the culture and society of French colonies like the boyfriend, and believe me it looks as thrilling as a guppy fish at feeding time.
As I cannot cope with being in the land of Cov for longer than a week, tomorrow morning I am catching the first train to Birmingham and will spend a relaxing day sitting in a nice café having a good italian espresso, walk down the canal hand in hand with the boyfriend -and all these really gay things you do when you’re in love-, and perhaps getting myself a little reward from Harvey Nichols. I also do hope to take a few pictures, as I am bored of reblogging stuff or posting pictures I find on the internet: this is supposed to be my blog, and I should therefore publish my own material, pictures and thoughts. Amen.
Needless Alley, Birmingham
A needless picture of a needless alley for a needless day spent sorting out my Strasbourg University application because, despite paying over 3k a year I need to keep reminding my current university what they should be doing in the first place. Despite the huge time loss that could have been used to breathe and do all these essential processes to keep you alive, moving to Strasbourg seems now a lot more real and I am actually counting the days until I bid farewell to this unpleasant country -and to massive sales as well, unfortunately-. I can already see myself, sat in the balony of my city centre flat in my silk dressing gown lighting up a cigarette and listening to Edith Piaf whilst sipping a hot italian espresso and discussing politics with the boyfriend. Awesome.
J-4 second round of the French elections. I have been following the presidential elections very closely both out of mere curiosity and because, as a future French resident, I felt the need to become familiar with how the election of either Mr. Sarko and Hollande could affect me. All I will say -mostly because I do not feel Tumblr to be the ideal place to be discussing politics- is that Mme Le Pen has an enviable charisma and, regardless of what one may think of her policies, one must appreciate that she is a strong political figure; Sarkozy just makes me laugh whenever he’s speaking, and despite he does have a point on a variety of things, his ideas on dealing with the recession do not convince me; and Hollande is just full of shit -even as a foreigner, I find his immigration policies utter nonsense-.
PS: I wish to cut my hair. If you happen to stumble upon any pictures of medium haircuts or there is anything you would like to suggest, please do send them via PM, photo reply or whatever you fancy.
Today has the potential to be a wonderful day: the sun is shining, I got my first payslip of the year (just about time!), received the latest Andante Travels brochure with a wide range of marvellous European and worldwide tours that set my imagination free whilst I was having a smoke in the garden, and later I will be going for a lovely walk with the boyfriend and the Italian lot. Moreover, yesterday me and the boyfriend planned an itinerary for mum’s visit to Warwickshire over Easter, and came out with quite a decent plan:
Day 1: Coventry: Herbert Museum&Art Gallery, Cathedral - we will be climbing the 180 steps of the old Cathedral’s St. Micheal’s Tower - Pic nic at the War Memorial Park.
Day 2: Birmingham city centre (Picture 5), walk by the Canal, BMAG - i.e. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery - and possibly the Museum of the Jewellery quarter.
Day 3: Warwick and its wonderful castle (Picture 6), sitting on a bend of the river Avon. After that, grabbing some tea and stay over at one of the Charter House’s lovely medieval rooms (Picture 4) is an option I am deeply considering.
Day 5: Coventry: Lazy day, possibly accompanied by a walk down the Canal basin, quick tea by one of the pubs in the Medieval Spon Street and catch a play at the Herbert.
Day 6: Kenilworth castle & Elizabethan Garden (Picture 3), following ‘Clash of the Knights’ (Picture 2): a reenactment of medieval knights fighting for their honour in spectacular combat displays.
Day 7: London bruv! Mama Falanga’s first visit to London will include a walk in the city centre and visits to the main attractions with particular attention to the Tower of London.
Day 8: Coombe Country Park, with the lovely Coombe Abbey (Picture 1) sitting right in the middle. After a nice walk by pretty lakes and labyrinths, we will be having tea and cake at the Abbey - now a hotel - and find out more about its supposedly haunted history. I am really tempted by the medieval banquet with typical food and bards singing as you eat they offer, but I might save that for another occasion….
And that is all folks: I am honestly quite pleased with the programme so far, but if you feel like there is anything I shall be adding, feel free to PM me!
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things
Like a, shoebox of photographs
With sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer,
At least for most of the questions in my heart
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it’s so hard?
It’s not always easy and
Sometimes life can be deceiving
I’ll tell you one thing, it’s always better when we’re together.
Jack Johnson - Better Together
Ps: Any more lovely places I could visit in Birmingham next week-end? (Cafs, museums, anything’s good) Inbox for suggestions!
4.15pm, still haven’t done any work.
On the other hand, my house now looks like Buckingham Palace and I created the perfect atmosphere to get into ‘study mode’. My picture choice for today went on a random building I saw in Birmingham last Saturday, which pretty much sums up my motto - together with memento audere semper (Remember to always dare) - Now, let’s crack on with work.
@Victoria Square, Birmingham
Back from my lovely week-end in B’ham with the boyfriend. Technically I came back two days ago, but it took me a while to recover from the despair of being in Chaventry once again and write a new post. I was based in a delightful club room at the local Crowne Plaza, and enjoyed the wonders of free drinks and snacks at the Club customers’ lounge between one shopping session and the other - beautifully hit the sales at Selfridges and Aquascutum. I must say I underestimated Birmingham by a long way, and had to quickly change my mind as I was walking through its lovely canal surrounded by independent pubs and sipping hot chocolate in one of its pretty cafés. Oh god, I love cafés, in fact they do pretty much represent the main cause of me spending an average of £10 a day on mochas, espressos and hot chocolates. Long story short, I wish to go back to Birmingham at once.
Busy beyond belief, and that is why me and the boyfriend decided to take a week-end off to Birmingham lazying around, spending a ridiculous amount of money on incredibly trivial things and rolling on a big double bed at the local Crowne Plaza hotel. Bring on the weekend!
