it's friday i'm in love #2

This week has been, in equal parts, wonderful and ghastly. I did actually mean to update, since I had some rather fun encounters with friends, involving wine, formal halls and cookies, but I didn't because of some rather horrific encounters with Tarquin. Right now, he's being an utter bastard, and if I didn't need him to go rather well, I'd be throwing him out of the window right about now. Oh well. Still, it has led to some rather lovely sympathy from the family and the boyfriend, so at the very least I feel rather well-loved.

Firstly, last Saturday, there was meant to be a birthday bonfire on Grantchester Meadows for my friend Josh's birthday. This follows in a long tradition, but the horrific amount of rain meant that we had to relocate to the Selwyn JCR. Boo. Still, can't argue with copious amounts of gin, absinthe cookies and drunken table football. Although it was distinctly stupid that a room full of Cambridge students apparently didn't realise that if you use a grill inside, you will set off the fire alarm. Clever. Very. Also, banoffee pie is a damn delicious drunk food. Gin and cava, however, are not delicious when mixed together.

 My boyfriend gave a rather interesting talk this week at his college, about an obscure Greek text called the Batrachomyomachia (otherwise known as The Battle of the Frogs and Mice). It's our only extant example of Homeric parody, which was a separate genre in the ancient world, and is funny, surreal and ridiculous in equal parts. It was a great talk (he was excellent at bringing out the funny side of the poem, which include lots of jokes about the superiority of vegetarianism), and more importantly, we got Darwin College own vintage wine to drink during the talk. Honestly, more seminars should be like this.

I restarted my Graze boxes this week and was incredibly incredibly happy with the result. Berry flapjacks? Oatcakes and onion marmalade? Goji berries, cherries and apricots? Lemon meringue pie - meringue pieces, yogurt coated peanuts, and lemon sultanas? All rather delicious and happy-making. What you can't see in the photo is my face, grinning obnoxiously.

[Photo taken by Devon Smith. I'm the girl in the middle, looking ridiculous. Next to me is my blonde long-haired ridiculous boyfriend. Don't we match so perfectly?]

Pembroke formal hall was amazing. Lovely food, great company, delicious Pembroke own port, and the night ended with running down Silver Street with out gowns trailing behind us singing Batman.

 This was meant to be a week of tight budgeting, in order to make room for the fun that's awaiting me next weekened (undoubtedly the photos will be here in a week or so), but on Monday, it turned out it was the birthday of the Cambridge University Press bookshop, and as a result they were giving everyone a 20% discount...on top of the 20% discount we already get. It turns out that you can't refuse a deal that good, but when the only book you need is £58 originally...well, there's a £34 hole in my budget. I regret nothing. Also, Blackwells have a buy-one-get-one-free deal on Oxford World's Classics at the moment, and since there were a few books I wanted, I ended up buying them. Again, I really regret nothing.

 
My brother and I had coffee to celebrate him passing his driving theory test, and the barista put a smiley face in it. It made me smile exactly like that.  

[*]

This has been an EMA week. She's a fantastic musician who composes grunge, shoegaze, generally glorious music which resonates through your head and gets under your skin. I'd particularly recommend Anteroom, Coda and Milkman, but the whole album is absolutely amazing.

A very, very well-deserved Hendricks' gin and lemonade to celebrate/commiserate that the week is over.