So here’s the first proper and on-time BEDIJ, and you get
two ‘Photos of the Day’. Lucky you.
Last night we went to see Iron & Wine and to say I didn’t
know what to expect would have be an understatement; although from what I’d
heard I wasn’t anticipating to leave feeling so…happy. Both, the band and the atmosphere was incredible, the venue
was perfect and I’m now totally sold on the benefits of sitting down during
gigs and being allowed to just concentrate on the music and not where my feet
are or doing everything I can to keep my hair (and everyone else’s) away from
my face. I also fell in love with a sax player – in the way that a woman in her
twenties does fall in love with a man in his forties who plays three
instruments and possesses the ability to dance.
What can I say, something about being on the Eurostar just inspires me.
I'd been thinking for a while what I was going to do with this when I no longer lived abroad and I had nothing to document; and then yesterday I had an idea.
Before you ask, this is not becoming a beauty blog - realistically I don't think someone who only wears £1.99 tinted moisturiser and sometimes doesn't re-do her hair for over 24 hours is at all qualified to write about beauty.
Or really even qualified to be called an adult.
So we're going to do themes.
I feel like I just announced a party was going to be fancy dress.
We're going to do a theme every month so it stays fresh and interesting but also I can post regularly. I've already got a list of about 10 so we're good for the next year pretty much but any suggestions are always welcome and I'll be asking for ideas every time we change.
Also this is going to start right now - so for June I'll be doing BEDIJ (Blog Everyday In June). I thought it would be a good way to document my last 28 (how did this happen) days in Brussels. I know I'm already behind but I went home for the weekend so we're going to recap those now and I'll start properly tomorrow.
I'm also going to try and do a 'Photo of the Day' but my life isn't that exciting so they might just be photos of general Brussels - but I might as well try.
This might be one of those bright ideas that completely crashes and burns - I apologise in advance.
BEDIJ a.k.a. I wish this had a better acronym
#1
Okay so due to the poor timing of my inspiration I didn't take any photos on Saturday so we can have a Video of the Day instead. The relevance of this is not only because in this video he basically sums up exactly how I feel about everything, but also because as part of my best friend's birthday present to me - she had the John and Hank Green sign a book for me. She's amazing and I'm very grateful that I got to see her on Saturday because we've both been all over the globe in the last 3 years and I definitely don't see her face as often as I would like. I am very lucky to have had her in my life for a whole 10 years.
#2
Today marked my last Eurostar journey to Brussels, and so the last time I'm going to enter St Pancras rather than leave it (at least for a while). I also have a new phone because my last one was so inconsistent that it could cope with being constantly dropped but with one drop of rain the screen stopped working. So I'm back to my old LG, also known as my 'I-don't-do-anything-but-I-run-out-of-battery-in-a-day' phone, or my 'If-you-get-more-than-one-text-at-a-time-I'll-turn-myself-off-from-stress' phone, or just my 'you-can't-use-my-keyboard-but-you're-not-sure-why' phone.
The journey was good and I've realised that there is something quite relaxing about travelling late on a Sunday because everyone is exhausted and just trying to get home.
N.B. I'm going to post these retrospectively so tomorrow will be #3
The bank holidays are over, and yes I know I've had four and I have the day off next Friday as well so I literally have no room to complain, but it's a bank holiday weekend this weekend in the UK and that's still going to be hard to hear about despite the fact I've had all this time off. Almost as hard as watching everyone finish university and being here with a month still to go.
We saw The Great Gatsby and it was...aesthetically it was great and it looked brilliant, seriously the costume department deserve an award. The acting and the set were great as well, as a film it was wonderful, and the soundtrack was awesome. How I feel about it in relation to the book I'm not sure; and for some reason this scene nearly had me in tears laughing:
Also even though I've read the book, seeing the film has really sparked a frustration in me about how elaborate and inefficient his methods to meet Daisy are - like I'm just gonna host loads of parties that no one ever gets invited to but I'm not going to invite you, instead I'm going to invite your cousin who doesn't know who I am, and I'm definitely not going to call you or write, even though I know exactly where you live.
Claire Gillespie, over-rationalising literary texts since 1992.
We saw Iron Man 3 too, and whilst it's no piece of artistic excellence, it was a lot of fun.
And here's my latest article for Student Noodles, although most of you will probably recognise this because I posted it here about 2 months ago: Travelling Woes
Finally I just need to put my two-cents in regarding this 'thigh gap' business.
My thighs are next to each other, it's not weird that they touch most of the time. It would be weird if my hands and ankles touched most of the time; and I'm really glad that isn't something that happens, but I'm not gonna make a Facebook group about it. Overall I'm just not sure how this became a thing or why anyone gives a shit.
A less angry and ranting post next time I promise (maybe).
It's that point, where we realise how quickly our time here has gone and how soon it will be over.
Well that sounded dramatic.
But it's definitely thepoint where we can't have a conversation without bringing up who's leaving next, or that we're leaving soon, or how we're going to get all our belongings home again (spoiler alert: it's going to take 2 trips and possibly a bag sent with anyone who visits me between now and then).
Last weekend we went to Amsterdam and until the early hours of this morning we were in Ghent and May has just been the best month so far and that I only have 4 weekends left in Belgium until I leave is the weirdest thing I've ever heard.
So I'd really like to spend the time I have left accidentally staying out all night because we lack the organisational capacity to check the time of the last train back to Brussels before about 11pm (the last train was at 11.30pm - we tried), and having lunch in castles and making full use of the best maps I've ever seen.
Although it's probably a good thing that I'm going soon because for something that's so important to my job and the general conduction of my social life; my laptop has an awful lot of bare wires showing and bits of plastic falling off it.
Also I joined Tumblr recently and I was hoping to find loads of good writing and gifs from good films but all I seem to have found is pictures of hot girls and really depressing quotes and I just feel like this isn't what I came here for.
The next one will be more detailed I promise but I wanted to get this done and I've only had 4 hours sleep so...well, I've only had 4 hours sleep.
À la prochaine!
It was my birthday! I celebrated turning 21 by going home and getting plenty of sleep and eating too much food. Also a massive thank you to everyone who celebrated with me on the Friday here in Brussels - the perfect start to a perfect weekend.
So now I give it about 6 months until I stop telling people I'm still 20.
I started writing here - so not only is that really cool and exciting for me but also I got named their very first blogger of the month, which is just amazing.
It's like good things are happening and I'm not really sure why or how to properly process them.
I dealt with a bee. By which I mean I opened a window and ran to the other side of the room to shout abuse at it.
So not so much I dealt with a bee, rather that I hid from a bee and vowed never to open my window again.
Then I went for a run and a bee flew into my eye - they say these things are dying out but I just can't agree; from what I can see they're fucking everywhere.
I started learning new things - sort of. I started watching the series below because sometimes it's nice to learn about something which isn't your degree subject, or your job, or constantly surrounding you via media coverage.
Also May is the month of bank holidays so I've already had a day off this week with another 2 to come next week and then another Monday off after that - Belgium, I'm not sure what you're doing, but I love you right now. So for next week we were trying to plan a trip somewhere, but it turns out planning things is hard and also eurolines was struggling to keep it together when I tried to check coach prices.
Quick update on this - we finally booked something, we're going to Amsterdam on Friday morning and despite my initial reluctance I am actually very excited.
