Happy Mondays #14

Christ, what a long week. But, for one of the first mornings this week, I've woken up in a good mood and I'm feeling pretty pumped and ready to be productive. I'm currently existing in that horrible revision stage: your exams are near enough for you to be working pretty hard, but not quite close enough to induce full-on cram panic where productivity seems to appear out of total necessity. So here's my middle ground - terrified, overwhelmingly excited for exams to be over, but still not really feeling too much urgency. Today, however, is a break from my desk...to go to a new desk at uni. But it's a desk where there are other people, inevitably extended lunch dates with friends, and a change of scene. I've never been so excited to go to uni. Despite l o n g days of revision boredom, almost total isolation and feeling like I'm starting to go crazy...there have been some highlights this week, which I'm really grateful for.

1. Saturday night 

A Saturday night with your best mates eating Thai food and drinking Southern Comfort until like you're teeth are so sugary and going to fall out, in a pub with the most enormous beer garden AND crazy golf, and then eating Simon's chips on a pit stop home in Peckham McDonald's, even though you said you didn't want any. Does that sound like the dream, or does that sound like the dream? It was. Totally. And when you've pounded so much water the night before that you're not even that hungover and so ready for all the activities that Sunday could throw at you, it's a miracle. I could do with another Saturday night right now.

2. Kite flying

The highlight of Sunday's aforementioned activities. Revision boredom/procrastination caused me to find myself on Amazon last week, excited about my new Amazon Prime membership, and impulse buying a kite in the shape of a parrot. Sunday came, with the perfect amount of wind, and we headed off to Peckham Rye Common to see how our parrot flew. And oh my, it was wonderful. This was my first kite flying experience and I am ready for many more. There's talk of a kite gang (much like a biker gang, but with fewer bikes and more kites) and I'm already dreaming of sunny summer days full of picnics and kites and blasting music through dodgy portable speakers.

3. Tacos

Another new weekend experience. The most illogical way to serve minced beef ever, but my god was it tasty. If Sunday nights aren't for staining your hands with paprika, smothering your face with salsa, and staring longingly at the cheese missing from your heaped taco, then what are they for? I'm a big fan of the taco experience. I like the crunch. Definitely one to be repeated.

4. Ditchling Beacon 

Thursday evening was sent spiralling up Ditchling Beacon, trying to work out if I was seriously risking my life trying to overtake a cyclist, all in the name of the Queen's 90th Birthday. The lighting of the beacon, naturally, on top of Ditchling Beacon as many other fires/beacons were simultaneously lit across the country was a really nice experience. It felt very community-spirited, with lots of different people all coming together, all in the name of good old Queenie. People totally got in the spirit of the evening, making the trek up the beacon...with champagne and plastic champagne glasses in hand (it was the most middle class event I've ever been to) and it didn't even rain. One of the highlights of the evening was meeting a really nice Labrador called Mick - what an excellent name. 

Happy Monday! x