Celebrate the NOW

At my graduation last Thursday, the Vice-Chancellor highlighted the importance of celebrating rites of passage. It's so easy to discount our achievements, to compare them to others and deem them meaningless or stupid. Yet if we do not celebrate them, life becomes one toil after another because the chapters and seasons of our lives go unmarked, unrecognised. I recently read this passage in one 1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Now perhaps you don't believe in God, perhaps you do. If you don't imagine something so overwhelming beautiful, brilliant, exciting that whenever you think of it you can't help but do a little celebratory jiggle inside. That's how I feel about God. Now if I'm supposed to do everything, even the mundane things like eating/drinking, to the glory of the thing that makes me want to celebrate, then surely everyday must call for some kind of celebration. I've been mulling this over for the past week and looking for opportunities to celebrate the moments, the people, the day to day activities of my life. On Saturday I decided to celebrate my friendship with Sophie. We've come a long way since we first met and have barraged through life's ups and downs with brutal honesty and a lot of silliness. She is fun and kind, full of dreams and copious amounts of information on completely useless subjects. That's what makes her awesome. So on Saturday we celebrated with Pimms and picnics in the sunshine, followed by a spot of Greek Tragedy at the National. IT WAS SO FUN and now I want to celebrate everything all the time. 

So my challenge: WHAT or WHO can you celebrate this week?

Life Lately - March

1/2 Slow, easy 6am wake-up calls thanks to extra daylight. My favourite.

3/4 Finishing essays in Friska, celebrating with dirty-chai and stomps around the city. Turns out we agree on a lot of things. 5/I spent a Sunday morning in a Clifton Park reading Zelda Fitzgerald - it was GLORIOUS. Bring on a summer of reading for pleasure. 6/ Saying that I'm really enjoying my dissertation research; it's all coming together!

7/8 Two lovely Berliners came to visit and we spent three days indulging our Bristol crush with copious cups of tea and long conversations about life and stuff. 

COFFEE DIARY: Ten Belles, Paris

Paris is quite renowned amongst my friendship group for having terrible coffee. There are coffee expectations, high coffee expectations when you find yourself in Paris. You want to sit down at a cafe and feel all artsy and sip a cup of Jo whilst writing in your Moleskine, but in reality you find yourself paying 3 euros for an over stewed, badly presented espresso in a cafe/bar full of tourists. After two wonderful trips to the city with multiple coffee disasters, I decided to do some research before heading off on the coffee prowl. The first one we went to, was the Broken Arm which is absolutely worth visiting, because it's cute and has a little boutique attached to it. But the real crowning-coffee glory of the trip was found by our pal Matt, who we met in our hostel. He took us to Ten Belles, a tiny little cafe just next to the canals. It's part of the Third Wave Coffee Movement, which basically means that the coffee is ethical and brewed using the latest filtering methods. We all decided to go for the €3 Filter Coffee and it was absolute perfection. The coffee was so smooth that you didn't really need to add milk! It tasted like pure indulgence and the cafe definitely somewhere you'd want to take your moleskine with you. Atmosphere and coffee quality combined this cafe is a real MUST for any coffee lovers! I also really, really wanted to take the mug home with me. 

On the Road

Berlin-Düsseldorf-Köln-Brussels-Paris-Perpignan-Paris-Strasbourg-Karlsruhe-Berlin

For those of you who follow my instagram you will have seen just how crazy the past 11 days have been. My original plan was to meet my family for a holiday in the South of France and I thought the cheapest option would be to grab an Interrail pass and catch numerous trains down south and then back up again. It didn't turn out as cheap as I hoped (blogrant to come) but I definitely enjoyed just sitting back and watching the world whizz by my window.

Life Lately

In the last week an a half, my life has really hit the ground running. It's been full on, full stress, full fun and full-on exciting. I move into my new apartment tomorrow and I'm looking forward to having some time just slobbing and recovering from all this madness. Here's some snaps!

1/2 My first full day in Berlin was filled with iced-coffee, beautiful sunshine and the incredible Berlin sights.

2/3 I've been drinking loose-leaf Berlin Frühlings-Romanz Tee (Berlin Spring Romance Tea) and looking whimsically out of windows, whilst balmy breezes brushed my face. 

5/ There's been a lot of coffee and a lot of translations written and proof-read.

6/ I've also been walking with my lovely host around Neukölln, discovering hidden gems like this little park. 

7/8 My boss Kerstin and I went on a road-trip to Hamburg to work on her office/house boat. It was awesome and after a full 36 hours of rust-scrubbing we drove home to beautiful sunsets, listening to jazz and nibbling dark chocolate filled with marzipan. 

9/10 I decided to treat myself to an evening at the cinema to see The Great Gatsby, but before I could get into the cinema I was approached by this Icelandic duo and asked if I could record a music video for them. It was very surreal, I didn't even find out the name of their band. I then grabbed a Fritz-Kola (my new favourite beverage) and snuggled into a cinema seat to watch my most anticipated film of the year. It didn't disappoint. Baz you are a legend!

I hope everyone is enjoying some Spring-like sunshine! I should be posting a lot more frequently as of tomorrow, thanks to some consistent internet. See you soon! 

Life-Lately

Recently I have ground to a halt. I meander through the days like an ethereal zombie, searching for gentle joy and soft hope. I'm rebuilding myself with words and sunshine, walks and books, theatre and friends, company and solitude. Here are some of the highlights.

1/ Dungarees from Shoreditch on a date to celebrate 2 years with my love.

2/ Beautiful walks and reminiscing with old theatrical pals @ South Hill Park.

3/ Gluten-free brownies and a bit of Capote. Sunday afternoon bliss.

4/ Appreciating daily peace.

5/ Inspirational reading on a patchwork quilt.

6/ Updating the wall of wonderfulness to reflect my new favourite and necessary things.

Life Lately

The last two and a half weeks have been utter bliss. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to my life-lately. Here's a photo diary, according to instagram.

1. Had one last cappuccino in Piu with Franzi before heading to the airport, arrived home in Bracknell to mince pies and a proper cup of tea, the next day I had coffee with my parents at Santa Fe (best coffee in the world) to chat about life and future. 

2. Hurried to London to meet Louis and watch Uncle Vanya (which was incredible), went back to Chorleywood for a lovely weekend with his fam, which included collecting festive foliage. Had my one and only Gingerbread latte of the season.

3. Got ill on Christmas eve so mooched by the Christmas tree and watched films, in the evening we put on all the candles and John Rutter's christmas album and Dad and I fell asleep, the next day was Christmas and Louis popped in with this hand-made gift.

4. Siblings day out with my not-so-baby bro, including Covent Garden, dinner in Zizzis and SINGING IN THE RAIN.

5. Got a megabus to Bristol (front of the double decker - COME ON!) watched Breakfast at Tiffany's, marvelled at the large Christmas tree and drank a LOT of tea.

6. Got dressed up for Dinner Party New Year's Eve, spent the early hours snuggled on a sofa watching Notting Hill, a couple of days later Louis visited me in Bracknell and we just hung out in Santa Fe (did I mention they have great coffee?)

7. Got a bit run-down so decided to stay a bit longer, bro serenaded me whilst eating lunch. Got a bit down with the weather so hopped on a train to London to meet some lovely pals then caught up with my cousin overnight, then met another pal for coffee in the morning.

8. Penultimate evening spent with my parents drinking Whiskey (grim) reading Isherwood and eating cake. Started reading Acts again.

9. On my last day in Bracknell, I continued reading the Berlin novels, met a bro for coffee, hung out with my rents, then woke up early to Heathrow, Oh Comely and a flat white, then suddenly arrived back at my front door in Düsseldorf.

And now England just feels like a dream.