Forgive me; February has been dissertation central- in the past few weeks I've had to give a presentation of my project and then hand in a draft version of it, so I suppose you could say life has been pretty stressful.
But the last month hasn't been all work and no play. One of my housemates, Lauren, turned 21 a few weeks ago so we paid a visit to one of our favourite cocktail places in Birmingham, The Jekyll & Hyde. It's a lovely little place with portraits of dogs heads on human bodies and some of the best cocktails I've ever had. For her birthday she had hired out the gin parlour upstairs which was suitably fancy and we had a 'madhatters tea party', complete with a cocktail to drink out of a miniature porcelain bath.
I also paid a visit to the capital at the start of the month with my sister and her best friend in order to find bridesmaids dresses for her upcoming wedding. I really do love London; it just feels so alive and there's so much to do. I fully intend on moving there at some point, if not purely for the food. I managed to visit both Byron burger (probably one of the best burgers I've eaten) and Pizza East (again, probably one of the best pizzas I've had) in the same 24 hours. In fact, the same 12 hours. Some people eat to live, I live to eat. But it wasn't all about food, we were successful in our dress hunt and I'm so happy with the result. We found the perfect dresses in a little boutique called Two Birds and I genuinely want to wear my dress all day every day. Thank god my sister isn't one of those brides who makes her bridesmaids wear vile dresses just so she looks better.
Of course, February is also the month of romance due to Valentine's day. Alas, my night on the 14th was spent at work pouring pints of snakebite and jagerbombs for the locals of Selly Oak- possibly one of the least romantic places you would wish to be on a day celebrating love. But one of the locals did buy me a pity rose so at least there's that...
Now for some February favourites:
Music: I'm sad to report I've not made any musical discoveries this month. However I have fallen even deeper into my Haim love affair, if that's actually possible, with the release of their new music video for 'If I could change your mind'. Seriously these girls can do no wrong in my eyes; the full choreographed dance routine, hair whipping and their outfits. Perfect.
Books: Another resolution badly kept- I haven't finished another book yet..and I bought a new one despite having about six already on the go. I know, bad Hannah. I am enjoying my new book though, Norweigan Wood by Haruki Marukami, which I bought while trying to kill time in Waterstones. I had no intention of buying anything, in fact I went in there because I thought it'd be somewhere that I could resist making a purchase. How naive of me. There's something about that Waterstones which just makes me happy. If you're ever in Birmingham you must have a quick look inside (the one on New Street), it's a gorgeous old building with a huge staircase - a quick google has just told me it used to be an old bank. Anyway, this is off topic. I like my book so far and maybe by the end of March I'll have finished it.
Birmingham: It's no secret that I don't exactly love the city I study in. I love my university campus, it's very green and has some beautiful old redbrick buildings, not to mention Old Joe (the clock tower). I've just never found the city centre to be my cup of tea. Though saying that, I don't actually like tea so maybe I should say it IS my cup of tea. Anyway, I do want to take back some good memories of the city when I graduate so I'm going to add a Birmingham favourite for every monthly blog update. This month it's Boston Tea Party, a breakfast/lunch cafe a little off New Street. There are a few dotted around the country but they're all a bit different and don't have a 'chain' feel to them. My friend Sarah introduced me to the Birmingham branch last week and I fear it may become a dangerous addicition; she had eggy bread with bacon, avocado & roasted tomatoes and although my croque monsieur was perfectly nice, I had major food envy. Something tells me I'll be back there very soon. Possibly also motivated by the fact that the guy who served us was certainly what you would call easy on the eyes..
I think I've probably rambled on for long enough now. March will be a month of deadline after deadline so of course I will be doing my best to find some new music, restaurants and cocktail bars to ease the pain.
How was your February?
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