Febtember

Oh February! Short and sweet! Payday comes around so fast! In some ways, February is my favourite month.

For starters, I WON A THING. I know everyone always says this, but... I don't know if I've ever won a thing before! Definitely not a thing this fun. Expect to see my design on a t-shirt at Boulder Brighton soon! (Also, I am genuinely delighted to share the winning glory with Sofia, because they just couldn't choose between us because we're both TOO AWESOME.)

We went to Torquay. I like Torquay. It feels far enough away from everything that it reminds me of where I grew up, but crucially, isn't where I grew up, so it feels like a faintly exotic adventure.

We went to visit Alex’s parents there. Alex’s Dad reads my blog (Hi Tony!) and has somehow become convinced that I'm really good at drawing people. It's not true. I'm fairly good at drawing me and Alex because me and Alex both have ridiculous distinguishing features that make us easily identifiable no matter how crude the drawing. Actual normal people? Not so. Alex's dad tried to persuade me to draw him and I did a fairly poor job. On the bright side, the drawing does look like a human man. On the downside, it doesn't look like Alex's dad. Oh well.

I still can’t even really draw myself to look like myself, but I am STILL TRYING different styles and different ways, and one day I will achieve an accurate self portrait. But not yet.

After we got back from Torquay I'd booked myself an extra day off work to relax. Days off work are great sometimes. Even when they're mundane. But Wagamama ruined it by tricking me into eating chicken, gross gross gross gross

Now is really not a good time to be a butterfly. I feel a bit bad that I chucked him out in the cold but I didn’t want him to land on my face while I was sleeping.

Why do I procrastinate even the fun things?

Bouldering is still fun. But I worry that my rate of progress is a bit slow. Maybe I’m not trying hard enough? (I am really trying quite hard though, harder than I have tried at any other sport ever I think) Or maybe I'm just not very good?! This is something I may have to come to terms with.

So a friend of a friend saw my blog about our house cook book, and asked if she could have one in exchange for something knitted. SKILL SWAP! I love skill swaps. She knitted me this amazing pair of mittens and they're SO GOOD I have basically been wearing them all the time ever since. Can't draw hands very well, and frankly barely even tried here because I was too busy concentrating on the mittens.

We got loads of delicious vegan chinese takeaway for Chinese new year. It was great. (Vegans of Brighton: ‘Oriental’ on Lewes road is a mediocre Chinese takeaway for the most part, but they offer LOADS of weird crazy vegan ‘meats’, and their vegan crispy duck pancakes are quite something.)

We and Alex missed our train home from Shoreham by SECONDS and had to spend 40 minutes sitting in cold Shoreham station late at night. We were grumpy but Ticket to Ride saved the day.

I had a really good climb that saturday which eased my bad feels somewhat. Chalk! I was previously cynical but it genuinely helps, or at the very least tricks my brain into being braver.

Half marathon! Went to cheer on three separate friends who were running it, LJ, Hannah and Marina, all of whom I was lucky enough to see, and all of whom, I’m pleased to say, looked TOTALLY CHILL, just coasting along like pros. Unlike loads of other people who looked like the might actually drop down and die. It’s a faintly distressing experience watching people suffer that much (although not nearly as distressing as it is for them, I’m sure)

Alex is getting new glasses and I am SO EXCITED. (He’s ordered them on the internet and they will be here any day now. Eeeeee!)

Baked a great orange cake. Bought an orange to go in it, and it came wrapped in this pretty tissue paper which made me oddly nostalgic. This was how my mum used to be able to trick me into eating fruit, because it came in a pretty wrapper.

Anyway, March is here now and I am SO EXCITED FOR SPRING.