HTMW Recaps: March 2018

I normally add a quote to the beginning of each post that sums up or enhances my writing. However, I’m going to use my monthly recaps as an opportunity to sum up the month – be it the mood, the weather, my feelings… Anything really. This month feels slightly overshadowed by the amount of pain I’ve been in after I injured my knee. Find out more below, but my quote this month sums up how I feel about this stupid, inconvenient injury, and how I’m really going to try to not let it stop me trekking in Nepal in April!

‘Physical pain, however great, ends in itself and falls away like dry husks from the mind…’ – Alice James.

In January 2017, I announced I was going to start monthly recaps on my blog. If you missed last month’s recap, you can find it here.

It’s hard to believe we are already a quarter of the way through 2018. Time feels strange at the moment – it is going past so quickly and yet things that I have coming up really soon seem so far away. March was a busy month, with something on every weekend. I made sure I had quiet nights during the week to compensate. I suffered a painful injury this month, but on the plus side I also enjoyed a trip to the Cotswolds, a great afternoon tea and visits to and from friends and family throughout the month.

The Highlights

• We finally moved house! After so long! It is lovely to finally be in our little flat in Tufnell Park. It’s cosy and so great to be living with P after so many months of talking about it! So far, everything has been great and we’re settling in well. The best thing I could have done with this move? Hire removal men! I did literally nothing… It was bliss!
• All the eating and drinking with L and C in town. L and C hopped over from Germany to spend the weekend with us in London, and it was wonderful to see them and catch up on all their news. We made a day of it, going for bottomless brunch in Holburn before heading out to drink the day away and ending up in Soho eating delicious Lebanese food. Seriously – it was so good.
• Watching an episode of QI getting filmed. An impromptu evening out with O. He had tickets, his brother couldn’t go and so I leapt on the bandwagon and went instead! It was really great watching this programme being filmed. Everyone was very funny, and I love Sandi Toksvig at the helm. I’d definitely recommend going to watch something being filmed if you’re ever in London and have spare time. O got his tickets FOR FREE from Applause Store – a great way to spend a cheap evening out!
• A day at the farm! G and I headed to the Cotswolds to celebrate her 30th birthday together. On her actual birthday, we ended up spending several hours at Adam’s Farm which was just lovely. Seriously, I haven’t felt so chilled in ages! Spending time with animals definitely helps combat stress of any kind. It was lambing/kidding season too, so we had the excitement of seeing two baby goats being born.
• General Cotswolds loveliness. It is such a beautiful area, with so many picturesque villages. Hop over to my Instagram feed for some pictures from our time there, including photos from the beautiful village of Lower Slaughter. And it was great to spend some quality time with G too! We certainly had lots of fun.
• A feature by Lonely Planet! I was thrilled to get a wee little feature on the Pathfinders Lonely Planet page this month, for the blog post I wrote with my viewpoint on how the working animals at Petra are treated. This is the second time I’ve been featured, and it’s always lovely to have my writing acknowledged like that.
• Enjoying a delicious afternoon tea with Mum. I love an afternoon tea, and this one was great, with extremely tasty sandwiches and a couple of glasses of champagne. We were so full we barely managed any cake, but made sure we took a doggy bag home to eat later. I got this as a present for Mum for her birthday – if you want to do something similar, I’d recommend Red Letter Days as they have loads of great offers for some really lovely places.
• My adorable baby cousins and spending time with family. R and E are beyond cute and it was so lovely when we spend time with them. They’re growing so fast – I definitely need to prioritise seeing them more often as they change ridiculously quickly! Plus, they’re extremely entertaining and always make me feel happy. It was great to see our grandparents as well, along with my other cousins and aunt. A lovely chilled out (despite the children!) day with family was just wonderful!

The Lowlights

• I had an allergic reaction to something in the Cotswolds. I think it was to some cream I was using on my face, but I came up all red, itchy and swollen and it didn’t disappear fully for days, even after I stopped using the cream. Either that, or I’ve just become allergic to the countryside… Personally, I hope it’s the former, since I’m definitely a country girl at heart!
• And then I strained my lateral collateral ligament… Yeah, I didn’t even know that we had one of those either. But apparently we do! It’s a ligament at the back of the knee, and let me tell you, it fucking hurts when you strain it. My recovery included a weekend basically housebound, a trip to A&E to ensure it was nothing more serious at the recommendation of an on-call doctor and a day or two working from home to rest it. The pain is much better, and I’m barely limping anymore, but it’s definitely still not completely better and my leg still gets very tired if I walk too far or for too long. Such an inconvenience, and a real pain if it hinders my mountain climbing in April…

Posts This Month

• Finding Peace in London. I like to try and escape the city at least once a month, for my mental health if nothing else. However, this is sometimes simply not possible, so in this post I write about my top three favourite places to go and hang out when I need a break from city life… They’re probably not where you’d expect, but they work for me!
• Why I Struggled in Israel and Palestine. I felt extremely nervous about posting this particular piece, mainly because the topics I’m addressing can be more than a little controversial. However, I’m also extremely proud of this piece of writing. It took me ages to perfect and I really hope I’ve struck the right note with my viewpoints, opinions and experiences. Take a read and please let me know what you think!

My 2018 Reading Challenge Book of the Month – March.

NB: The list on my reading challenge post is constantly updated as I tick off books that I’ve read and add new books I want to read, so flick back to it from time to time to keep up to date with where I’m at!

Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia by Peter Pomerantsev.

Wow. What an exceptionally interesting and truly fascinating book, and one I am more than happy to highly recommend. Of the three books I’ve read so far in this challenge, this is head and shoulders above the other two. I’m perhaps a little biased – these days, I tend to prefer non-fiction over fiction and I love reading books about other countries and learning as much as I can. But truly, the writing is exceptional and the stories Pomerantsev tells had me engrossed from page one.

Pomerantsev lived in Moscow between 2001 and 2010 and provides the reader with fabulous insight into his time in Russia. Working as a TV producer and journalist gave him access to some remarkable stories, and you really get a powerful insight into how Putin and the government manipulate the truth about the goings-on in Russia and how they allow the world beyond to perceive them.

I was so absorbed by this book that I read it in every spare moment I had – including during my lunch hour on two occasions. I cannot recommend it highly enough, and am so pleased B suggested I add this book to my challenge list. Without hesitation, I give it 5/5, a whole rating higher than the GoodReads rating of 4/5.

Next up in April: The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, as recommended to me by E.

In March, I also read:

• Last Train to Istanbul by Ayse Kulin. As well as my current, on-going interest in Russia, I also have a lasting interest in learning as much as I can about the Second World War, particularly around the Holocaust. This novel, based on true events, is translated from Turkish into English and you can tell at times. This book provided an interesting insight into Turkey’s involvement in the Second World War and the story kept me hooked throughout. Definitely worth picking up if you’re anything like me and want to know more about European history from as many angles as possible!

Instagram Pictures of the Month

My photos this month were taken mainly in London and the Cotswolds, with some throwback images to Israel and Palestine getting put up to reference my blog post about the time I spent there in March 2017. I also did my first ever Instastory this month!

I choose these three images based on which got the most likes on Instagram and then tell the story behind the picture. Disclaimer: They are not necessarily my favourite photos!

Saturday Night in Chinatown, Soho, London. The bright lights, shining lanterns and bustling crowd caught my attention, even though I’d had more than a few drinks by this point. I took a couple of quick shots as we passed by on our way to get Lebanese food, and thought no more of it until the next day. Looking back at the photos on a mild hangover, I loved the interaction of the bright red lanterns contrasting with the dark night sky and the warm glow emanating from the buildings along the street. It turns out, my followers loved it too, and this photo garnered me the most likes of the month!

An Hour in Daunt Books, Marylebone High Street, London. This is one of my favourite spots in London. I particularly love that the books here are grouped by country and region, rather than alphabetically or by genre. The shop successfully combines three of my greatest loves: travel, reading and great architecture and ties them all into one neat package to be enjoyed every now and again when I pass this way. For anyone interested in visiting, you can make an afternoon of it, popping into some of the other lovely shops along the high street. If you go on a Sunday, make sure you have a roast at The Prince Albert, or grab something to eat at La Fromagerie if you fancy a lighter, more artisan meal.

My New Ends, Kentish Town, London. We got off a stop early and walked up the hill from Kentish Town to get home, so that I could show Mum a bit more of the area. It was dusk, blue hour, and they’d finally finished this piece of street art. I caught a quick snap of it as a red bus pulled up to disgorge passengers and pick up a few more. Traffic whirled past and my knee ached horribly. We strolled home and spent the evening catching up, drinking wine and eating potato waffles (don’t ask), before sampling the cakes we had brought home from afternoon tea. Welcome to Kentish Town, indeed.

Coming Up in April

I’m starting the month with a jaunt with J to visit Highclere Castle and then it’s my first big trip of the year – two weeks in Nepal with three friends. We are flying out on the 12th and will be staying in Kathmandu, Pokhara and hopefully doing some trekking. Fingers crossed my knee holds up!